This policy explains how CastAway handles information for the CastAway app and the website at castaway-app.com. CastAway is built around sending bottle messages, receiving replies, and following the journeys those bottles take.
Information We Collect
We collect information needed to operate CastAway, keep accounts secure, support safety features, and improve reliability. This may include:
- Account information used to create and manage your CastAway account.
- Sign in with Apple and other authentication identifiers needed to recognize your account securely.
- Your display name.
- Your home city and country, if you add them to your profile.
- Bottle messages, replies, and related delivery or inbox status.
- Journey and passport history, such as where a bottle has launched, landed, or been recorded in the app.
- Reports, blocks, and safety-related actions you submit or receive.
- Notification preferences and device tokens used to deliver app notifications.
- Approximate or current launch location when you enable location-based bottle launches or similar location features.
- Backend logs, such as request metadata, error details, and security events used for debugging, reliability, fraud prevention, and security.
How We Use Information
We use information to run the app, authenticate accounts, deliver bottles and replies, show journey and passport history, send requested notifications, provide support, investigate bugs, and protect CastAway and its users.
We also use moderation and safety processing to review reports, support blocking tools, reduce abuse, and help keep conversations appropriate. This processing may involve reviewing bottle messages, replies, account identifiers, reports, blocks, and related app activity when needed for safety or enforcement.
Drift Keepers
CastAway may use Drift Keepers as non-human fallback participants. Drift Keepers can help keep the experience active when a human participant is not available. Their activity may involve bottle messages, replies, journey events, and moderation or safety checks connected to those interactions.
Location
If you enable location features, CastAway may use your approximate or current location to launch bottles, place journey events, or support app features tied to where a bottle begins. You can manage location permissions in your device settings.
Notifications
If you allow notifications, CastAway stores device tokens and related notification settings so it can send app notifications, such as bottle or reply updates. You can change notification permissions in your device settings.
Sharing
CastAway does not add tracking, analytics, cookies, or third-party scripts to this website. Within the app, some information is shared as part of the product experience, such as bottle messages, replies, display names, and journey details shown to other participants.
CastAway does not use your information for third-party advertising or cross-app tracking.
We may share information when needed to provide infrastructure, comply with law, respond to safety issues, prevent abuse, debug the service, or protect the rights and security of CastAway and its users.
Retention
We keep information for as long as needed to provide CastAway, maintain safety and security, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and operate backups or logs. Some safety, moderation, debugging, and security records may be retained after account changes when reasonably needed for those purposes.
Account Deletion
You can initiate account deletion from inside the CastAway app. You may also contact support at support@castaway-app.com if you need help with deletion. We may need information to verify support requests. Deletion may remove or de-identify account information where appropriate, subject to records we need to keep for safety, security, legal, backup, or operational reasons.
Children
CastAway is not intended for children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information to CastAway, contact us so we can review the issue.
Changes
We may update this policy as CastAway changes. The updated date at the top of this page will show when this policy was last revised.
Contact
For privacy or support questions, contact support@castaway-app.com.
This page is a plain-language privacy notice for the current MVP. It is not a substitute for legal advice.