Privacy Policy
Understand what you share, how it is used, and the controls you have.
Who is responsible
Hotseat, based in Missouri, United States, operates Hot Seat and is responsible for the personal information described here. This policy covers the connected Hot Seat service and its companion web pages. You can contact us at izaeiah80@gmail.com.
Account information
We process the name, username, email or Apple sign-in information, date of birth, and country or region you provide to create and secure your account and apply eligibility rules. Your exact date of birth, private eligibility classification, email, and residence country are not included in public profiles. Adults who enable demographic sharing may share an age range and chosen demographic details. We also store your chosen profile details, photos, linked account URLs, interests, appearance settings, privacy settings, and subscription or promotional entitlement records. A linked account URL does not authorize Hot Seat to read that account's private activity. Your private saved collections and muted words or phrases are stored with your account settings; they are not public profile information.
Content and activity
We process questions, answer choices, votes, comments, reactions, follows, messages, shared images and voice recordings, and the reports or feedback you submit. Your visibility settings and the audience of a conversation determine who can see content. People who can view your content may copy or share it outside Hot Seat. An anonymous question hides the author's identity from ordinary viewers, but is still linked to the account for operation and safety. Questions and answers can reveal sensitive views or personal details; avoid posting information you do not want your intended audience to know.
Why we use information
We use information to authenticate accounts, deliver content and messages, calculate poll results, personalize feeds using selected interests and activity, provide optional opinion and compatibility summaries, manage purchases and referrals, investigate reports, prevent fraud and abuse, and comply with applicable law. Compatibility uses answers that are available for that comparison. Optional demographic sharing starts off and is disabled for teens. We do not use your voice to create a speaker identity or biometric voiceprint. This version does not sell personal information or use an advertising tracking SDK. Home recommendations use chosen topics, follows, and the existence of your own recent answers, saves, likes and comments. The recommendation score does not use the opinion you selected, private-message content, demographic details, or whether you pay for Plus.
Private friend challenges
We store the selected public questions, the two participants, their explicit comparison and result-sharing choices, and dedicated answers for a friend challenge. Each person can see only their own answers until both finish and comparison is permitted. Existing private poll answers are not reused or made public. The other person’s selections are then available only within the consented private comparison. External result sharing requires both separate permissions and includes aggregate agreement, not names or individual choices. We check current eligibility, connections, blocks, messaging choices and question access again. Invites expire after seven days; challenge records are scheduled for removal thirty days after expiry, and account deletion removes associated active challenge records. Removing access cannot remove copies someone already saved elsewhere.
Optional usage measurement
Help improve Hot Seat starts off in Settings → Privacy and is unavailable for teen accounts. Adults who enable it allow first-party measurement of app opens, confirmed participation, feature use, sharing, notification destinations opened, and Plus previews and purchase-flow outcomes. Measurements use fixed event names and limited surface, feature, plan, outcome, recommendation-version and comparison-group categories, not question text, answer choices, contacts, recipient identifiers, content identifiers, IP addresses or advertising identifiers. Eligible consenting adults may be assigned to a stable group to compare feed versions; assignment and actual exposure are recorded separately. Temporary account-linked activity, consent, comparison assignment and cohort records are kept for up to sixty days. Newer usage-measurement events and their random duplicate-detection identifiers are kept together for up to sixty days; only legacy app-open and sharing duplicate-event receipts are kept for up to seven days. Recent active-app timestamps can suppress optional reminders, and recorded response to optional reminders can reduce their frequency. Turning this choice off removes linked measurement records; account deletion also removes them. Nonidentifying aggregate counts may remain. Native share completion means the operating system reported completion, not proof of delivery or installation. A preview, trial, or purchase-button tap is not recorded as verified paid revenue. This measurement does not use an advertising SDK or track you across other companies’ apps or websites. Essential account, safety, billing and delivery records remain separate.
Voice recordings
Microphone access is requested only when you choose to record. Unsent recordings are stored in protected app storage on your device so an interrupted draft can be recovered; you can discard a draft. Sending uploads the recording to private storage. Our server sends the audio to OpenAI for transcription and applies safety moderation to the resulting text before it can be delivered. The private transcript is for safety processing, not a public transcription feature. Authorized moderators may review held content or report evidence, including relevant recordings or transcripts. Recipients can play an approved message in an accepted conversation. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted. Recordings are not automatically translated.
Post translation
When supported on your device, Hot Seat detects the language of a post on the device and offers translation into your device's preferred language. Translation is optional and uses Apple's on-device Translation framework. Apple may ask to download language models. Hot Seat does not send post text to its server or to a paid translation provider to perform this translation. Translations are temporarily cached in app memory and labeled as machine translations. You can always switch back to the original. Apple controls language availability and model downloads; unsupported or ambiguous text may not offer translation.
Service providers and access
Supabase provides account authentication, database, and private file storage. OpenAI processes submitted text and images for safety moderation and voice audio for transcription as described above. Apple provides sign-in, purchases, system permissions, on-device translation, and push delivery when enabled. Our hosting and security providers process network information such as IP addresses, request times, and error or security logs. Providers receive information needed for their function under their applicable service arrangements. Authorized staff may access information to provide support, review safety issues, or meet legal duties. We may disclose information when legally required, to protect people and the service, or as part of a business transfer subject to applicable protections. The public companion website is hosted through OpenAI Sites and Cloudflare. Its support email links open your email app; the website does not require you to create an account or submit a support form.
International use
Hot Seat is based in the United States and uses a United States Supabase region. Information may be processed in the United States and in other countries where our providers operate, whose laws may differ from those where you live. International availability is subject to local eligibility and other legal requirements. Where data protection law requires a legal basis, core account and delivery functions support the service you request; security and abuse prevention support legitimate interests subject to your rights; legally required processing supports legal obligations; optional consent-based processing requires valid consent and can be withdrawn. Additional safeguards or authorization may be required for children, sensitive information, and international transfers. You can request information about the arrangements applicable to your account through our privacy request channel.
Children and teen accounts
Hot Seat is not for children under 13. Higher local limits apply, including a minimum of 16 in Australia. We ask for date of birth and residence country to apply these rules. Accounts under 18 have private profiles, private answer and like histories, and no demographic sharing. Adults and teens cannot directly message each other; teen-to-teen messaging requires mutual follows and respects blocking and messaging preferences. These safeguards do not constitute independent age verification. If you believe an account is under the applicable minimum age, report the profile or use Contact support → Child safety. A parent or guardian may request assistance concerning a child's information; we may need proportionate verification before disclosing or changing it.
Retention and deletion
Account and content information is retained while needed to provide the service. You can delete your account in Settings. Deletion removes the account and associated active service records and initiates removal of private attachments. Limited safety evidence, moderation audit records, purchase records, and fraud-prevention records may remain where necessary for safety, legal obligations, disputes, or enforcement. Referral identity fingerprints can remain to prevent repeated reward claims; these are not public profiles. Provider backups, security logs, and legally retained records are not necessarily erased immediately. Copies saved by other users are outside our control. We do not promise that deactivation, removing a conversation from your inbox, or deleting the app erases server data. Contact us for a privacy request or more information about retention for your account. When you edit a text message, prior versions are kept in private safety records for up to 90 days. Copies of prior versions preserved with a report are kept for up to 180 days. These previous versions are not shown to chat recipients. Account deletion removes these edit-version records; the separate limited safety-record exceptions above still apply.
Your choices and rights
Use Settings to change privacy and notification choices, block or mute accounts, deactivate, or delete your account. iOS Settings controls microphone and notification permission. You can edit profile information in the app and ask to correct private account information through Contact support. Depending on the law that applies, you may have rights to access, receive a portable copy, correct, delete, restrict or object to processing, withdraw consent, and complain to a data protection authority. Submit these through Contact support → Privacy request. We may verify your identity and consider lawful exceptions and other people's rights. We will not penalize you for exercising rights available under applicable law. In Settings → Your recommendations, you can reset learned preferences while keeping chosen topics, follows, hides and mutes. Reading history, recommendation feedback and preference evidence are stored on this device, kept separately for each account, bounded to recent records for up to ninety days. A reset cutoff is retained so older interactions do not immediately rebuild learned preferences. Optional Plus-promotion shown and dismissed dates are also kept on this device for frequency limits. These local records are not sent as content-level usage events.
Contact and updates
For privacy requests or questions, use Settings → Contact support → Privacy request. For urgent content concerns, report the relevant profile, post, or message so moderators receive context. You can also email izaeiah80@gmail.com, including if you cannot access your account. Do not send passwords, verification codes, payment card details, or unnecessary sensitive information. We will update this policy when our practices change and provide additional notice or obtain consent where required. The updated date identifies this version.