Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 27, 2026
Privacy at a glance
Ansever is a private social network for the people you actually know, and security comes first in everything we build. In short:
- Nothing you post is public. People who aren't your friends see only your name and profile picture.
- We don't read your private messages. No owner, admin or staff member can open your conversations. The only exception is a single message that someone reports to us (see "Private messages and reports").
- Your data is encrypted. Everything travels over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Our database and file storage are encrypted, and private messages have an extra layer of encryption under their own separate key.
- We never see your password. We store only a one-way scrambled version (Argon2id), which can't be turned back into your password.
- No ads, no tracking, no selling. We don't show ads, don't sell or rent your data, don't use third-party analytics or tracking cookies, and don't feed your posts to an algorithm. Your feed is your friends' posts, newest first.
- Your data is stored in the European Union. Whichever country you live in, your data is kept on servers in the EU and protected by EU data protection law (GDPR).
- Photos lose their hidden details. We remove location (GPS) and other hidden data from photos and videos before anyone sees them.
- You stay in control. You choose who sees each part of your profile, can download a copy of all your data, and can delete your account at any time.
Who we are and how to reach us
Ansever is currently a venture of Sebastian Zielinski. The company responsible for your personal data, the "controller" under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is:
AppsBow LLC
7345 W Sand Lake Rd, Ste 210, Office 1368
Orlando, FL 32819, USA
AppsBow LLC decides how your data is used and is responsible for protecting it. Your data is still stored and processed only in the European Union, as described below.
When Ansever becomes its own company, that company will take over this responsibility. We will tell every member by email and in Ansever before the change takes effect. How your data is protected will not change: the same rules, the same storage in the EU and the same rights.
- Questions about your privacy or your data: policy_privacy@ansever.com.
- Authorities (courts, police, regulators): authorities@ansever.com.
This policy applies to everyone who uses Ansever, wherever they live.
What we collect and why
We collect only what Ansever needs to work and to stay safe. We never buy data about you from anyone else.
| What | Examples | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Email address, password (scrambled), first and last name, date of birth, language, theme, time zone | To create your account, log you in, check you are 16 or older, and show Ansever in your language. Your time zone makes birthday notices arrive in the morning. |
| Profile (optional) | Profile and cover picture, city and country, relationship status, schools, universities, workplaces | To show your profile to your friends, as you choose. |
| What you share | Posts, photos, videos, polls, stories, comments, reactions, tags, messages, group chats | To show them to the people you shared them with. |
| Your connections | Friends, friend requests, blocks, pauses, close friends list, comment limits | To decide who sees what. Blocks, pauses, close friends and comment limits are private to you. |
| Invitations | The email address of a friend you invite | To send that one invitation. Afterwards we keep only a coded fingerprint (a hash) of the address, never the address itself. |
| Two-step login | Your authenticator key and recovery codes | To protect your account. The key is stored encrypted. |
| Devices and security | Browser and device type, a shortened IP address, when you were last active, login attempts | To show you where you are logged in, let you log out other devices, and stop break-ins and spam. |
| Reports and moderation | What was reported, why, and what we decided | To handle reports and appeals, as the EU Digital Services Act requires. |
Shortened IP addresses. With your sessions we keep only the first part of your IP address (for example 203.0.113.0 instead of 203.0.113.42), enough to tell roughly where a login came from, not which device. Full IP addresses appear only briefly, in technical server logs and in short-lived counters that stop repeated login attempts and spam.
Legal basis. We use your data to provide the service you signed up for (performance of a contract); to keep Ansever safe and stop abuse (our legitimate interests); and to meet legal duties, such as answering valid requests from authorities (legal obligation). Optional settings, such as letting people find you by your email address, are your choice and you can change them at any time.
Who sees what
Nothing on Ansever is public: you need an account to see anything, and most things only your friends see.
| What | Who can see it |
|---|---|
| Your first and last name, profile picture | Anyone with an Ansever account (for example in search, or on a friend request). Everyone can be found by name; this is how friends find each other. |
| Your cover picture, city, date of birth, relationship status, schools, workplaces | Your friends, or only you: you choose for each item. A city typed into search only narrows the results; it is never shown to people who aren't your friends. |
| Your posts, photos, videos and stories | Your friends. A story can be shared with your close friends only. |
| Who viewed your story | You, as the author of the story. |
| How many friends you have | You and your friends. |
| Your friends list | Your friends, or only you: you choose in Settings. |
| Being found by your email address | Only if you switch it on in Settings; it is off unless you do. |
| Your close friends list | Only you. People on it can tell, because the stories you share with them are marked as close friends stories. Nobody is told when they are added or removed. |
| Group chats | Every member sees the others' names, profile pictures and messages, including members who aren't their friends. Only the organizer's friends can be added, and you can leave at any time; what reached you before then stays with you. |
| Tags | When a friend tags you in a post or comment, your name is shown to everyone who can see that post or comment. Only friends can tag you, you are notified, and you can turn these notifications off. |
| Blocks, pauses and comment limits | Only you. A friend you pause is never told and can't tell. |
Private messages and reports
Your private messages are only for the people in the conversation. They are stored encrypted under their own key, kept apart from the rest of our systems, and decrypted only to show them to the people in the conversation.
Our admin panel has no way to browse or open conversations. The single exception is a message that someone reports to us: an admin can then see that one message, never the rest of the conversation, and every time it is viewed is logged. If the message appears to break the law, we may pass it to the police.
To be clear about what we offer: Ansever does not use end-to-end encryption, the kind where only the two phones can ever read a message. Without it we can deliver your history to any device you log in on, include your messages in your data download, and act on a reported message. We may revisit this in the future.
Other reports. Anyone can report a post, comment, story, profile or message. Reports, our decisions and appeals are recorded so we can handle them fairly and show regulators how we work. Content removed by moderation, and banned accounts, are kept hidden for 6 months so that the person can appeal, and then deleted for good. Anything under an open report or a police case is kept until that case is closed, even if the account is deleted meanwhile.
Account recovery. If you lose both your password and your two-step login, an admin can help you recover your account after a 7-day wait. We email your address straight away, so you can stop it if it wasn't you, and every recovery is logged.
How we protect your data
Security is the first thing we consider in every decision, and we hold ourselves to current best practice. The main measures:
- Encryption in transit. Every connection to Ansever uses HTTPS. Our own servers also talk to the database over an encrypted, certificate-checked connection.
- Encryption at rest. The database and file storage are encrypted. Private messages and two-step login keys are encrypted again under separate keys, kept in a secure secret store and never in our code.
- Passwords. Stored only as an Argon2id hash, a one-way scramble built to resist guessing.
- Two-step login. Available to everyone, with an authenticator app and one-time recovery codes. Resetting a password also needs your second step when it is on.
- Protection against break-ins and spam. Repeated wrong passwords lock that device out for a while; sign-up, login and password reset are protected by a puzzle that runs on our own server (no outside service sees you); searches, friend requests and invitations have limits.
- Checks on every request. Our servers check friendships, blocks and ownership every time, so nobody can see more by changing the app or the address bar.
- No outside requests on your behalf. We don't fetch links you post (no link previews), don't load fonts or scripts from other companies, and don't embed trackers.
- Admins. Admins log in separately, always with two-step login, at a private address. Everything they do is written to an audit log that nobody, the owner included, can change or delete. Admins can't act on their own account or a friend's.
- Downloads of your data. A link works for at most 7 days and closes 15 minutes after its first download.
- Backups. Taken daily, encrypted before they leave our server, and stored in a separate, locked store where they can't be changed or deleted for 35 days, then removed automatically. They are used only to recover from a disaster, never to restore one person's data.
- Careful development. Every outside software package is checked by a person before we use it, and every change is reviewed, with extra care for logins, permissions, uploads and admin features.
Where your data is stored and who handles it
Your data is stored in the European Union, whichever country you live in: everyone's data is kept on servers in the EU. We use one outside company to run Ansever, under a data processing agreement that lets it use your data only to provide its service to us.
| Service | What it does for us | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Scaleway SAS (France) | Our server and database | Warsaw, Poland |
| Scaleway SAS (France) | Storage of photos, videos and data downloads; our encrypted backups | Paris, France |
| Scaleway SAS (France) | Sending our emails (sign-up confirmation, password reset, notices) | France |
No other company receives your personal data. Our HTTPS certificate comes from Let's Encrypt, which receives nothing about you. City names come from GeoNames (geonames.org), used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence; we keep our own copy, so your searches are never sent to them.
If you live outside the EU. Your data is still stored and processed in the EU. [Legal basis for users outside the EU, to be confirmed by a lawyer, starting with Brazil.]
We share data with authorities only when the law requires it, for example a valid court order, or when a reported message appears to break the law.
How long we keep your data
We keep your data while your account exists, and delete it on the schedule below.
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Stories | Visible to friends for 24 hours, then only in your private story archive, until you delete them |
| A sign-up that was never confirmed | Deleted after 7 days |
| An unanswered invitation | Deleted when accepted, or after 30 days |
| A data download | At most 7 days, and 15 minutes after its first download |
| Login sessions | End after 30 days without use, or when you log out |
| A deleted account | Hidden at once; deleted for good after 30 days, unless you log in and choose to keep it |
| A deactivated account | Nothing is deleted; it comes back when you log in, or by itself after 30 days |
| Content removed by moderation, banned accounts | Kept hidden for 6 months (the appeal period), then deleted |
| Content under an open report or police case | Until the case is closed |
| Backups | 35 days, then removed automatically |
| Technical server logs | A short time; they are overwritten automatically |
| Admin audit log | [Retention period to decide] |
When you delete your account, your comments on other people's posts and your side of past conversations stay, so other people's threads still make sense, but they show as "Deleted user", with no name, picture or link to you. Deleted data may remain in our encrypted backups for up to 35 days until they age out; we never restore a single person's data from them.
Your rights and controls
Under the GDPR you have the right to see, correct, download and delete your data, and to object to how we use it. Most of this you can do yourself in Settings, straight away:
- See and download your data. "Download your data" prepares a ZIP file with everything you've shared, as JSON plus your photos and videos. You can ask once a month, and once more when you delete your account.
- Correct it. Edit your profile and settings at any time. Your date of birth can only be changed by asking us, so that the age check means something; the change is logged.
- Choose who sees what. Set each profile item to friends or only you, keep your friends list to yourself, and turn finding you by email on or off.
- Delete your account. It disappears at once and is deleted for good after 30 days. Changed your mind? Log in within those 30 days.
- Take a break. Deactivate your account instead: it's hidden, nothing is deleted, and it comes back when you log in, or by itself after 30 days.
- Ask us. For anything else, including objecting to how we use your data or asking us to limit it, write to policy_privacy@ansever.com. We answer within one month.
- Complain. You can complain to a data protection authority, in the EU country where you live or work, or where we are based: [authority name for the company's country].
Cookies, age and changes
Cookies. We use only the cookies Ansever needs to work: one that keeps you logged in, security cookies that protect forms, and your language and theme. There are no advertising, tracking or analytics cookies, which is why we don't show a cookie banner. Your browser also remembers a few small choices on your device, such as dismissing the "put Ansever on your home screen" message.
Age. You must be at least 16 to use Ansever. We check your date of birth at sign-up. If we learn that someone younger has an account, we delete it.
Changes to this policy. If we change how we use your data, we update this page and its date, and for important changes we tell you by email or in Ansever before they apply.
See also: Terms of Service