Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Salam Sign-Up is a global community platform for kindness and connection. This Privacy Policy describes how we handle the information you share when you use the platform at startsalam.com. By using Salam Sign-Up, you agree to the practices described here.

2. Information we collect

We only collect what we need to run the platform and keep it safe.

• Account information: your email address (for sign-in), and a hashed password if you sign up with email/password. If you sign in with Google, we receive only your basic profile (name, email, avatar).
• Profile information: the username, full name, bio, avatar, and optional phone number you choose to add.
• Content you create: posts, comments, likes, follows, saved items, hashtags, drafts, and uploaded images or videos.
• Private messages: direct messages exchanged between you and other users.
• Safety data: reports you submit, blocks you create, and any moderation actions taken on your content.
• Technical data: IP address, browser/device type, and timestamps in our server logs — used to keep the service stable and prevent abuse.

3. How we use information

• To operate your account and display your profile and posts to the audience you choose.
• To deliver private messages, notifications, and follower requests.
• To detect spam, abuse, and content that violates our Community Guidelines.
• To respond to reports and to support requests you send us.
• To improve the platform through aggregated, non-identifying usage statistics.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We do not use your data to build advertising profiles, and we do not run third-party ad networks.

4. User accounts and authentication

Authentication is handled by our backend provider (Supabase Auth, via Lovable Cloud). Passwords are hashed using industry-standard one-way algorithms — they are never stored in readable form, and not even Salam Sign-Up administrators can see them. If you sign in with Google, we never receive your Google password.

5. Posts, comments, messages, and uploaded media

Public posts and comments are visible to other Salam Sign-Up users and may appear on public pages (such as individual post pages or hashtag pages) that can be indexed by search engines. If your profile is set to private, your posts are visible only to approved followers.

Private messages are intended for you and the person you're talking with, subject to the safety checks and restricted staff access described below. They are not shared with advertisers.

How we protect your messages: messages and chat attachments travel over encrypted HTTPS connections and are stored in protected systems. Chat photos and files are kept in private storage and opened through short-lived links. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted.

Uploaded images and videos are stored in our secure storage. Videos are stored in a private bucket and served through short-lived signed URLs, so they are not openly downloadable from the public internet.

6. Cookies and analytics

We use a small number of essential cookies and local-storage entries to keep you signed in and remember your session. We do not use third-party advertising cookies, cross-site tracking pixels, or sell analytics data. We collect basic aggregate usage statistics (such as daily signups or posts) to understand how the platform is performing.

7. Data sharing and third-party services

We only share data with trusted service providers who help us operate the platform, under strict confidentiality:

• Supabase (via Lovable Cloud): database, authentication, and file storage.
• Cloudflare: hosting, content delivery, and protection against attacks.
• Sightengine: automated safety scanning of uploaded images, including chat photos.
• Google Gemini (via Lovable AI Gateway): automated safety classification of posts, comments, private-message text, and chat captions before they are sent.
• Lovable: the platform host that operates the underlying infrastructure.

These providers process data only on our behalf to deliver the service. They do not use your content for their own advertising or training purposes.

8. Data retention

We keep your account data for as long as your account is active. When you delete a post, Story, or chat message, it is removed from view immediately. Any attached photo, video, file, or voice message is then deleted from storage, usually within minutes. If removal fails, we retry automatically every hour and files that keep failing are listed for our team to follow up, so it can occasionally take longer; until a file is removed, people who already had access to it, such as the other person in a chat, could technically still open it. Links to files expire within one hour of being created and, in our tests, stopped working as soon as the file was removed. We cannot recall copies that someone has already downloaded, saved, or screenshotted. When you delete your account, your profile, posts, comments, likes, and private messages are removed from the platform, and your uploaded files are deleted the same way. For disaster recovery, our hosting provider makes a daily backup of the database (not of stored files) and keeps each backup for about 14 days, so deleted records can remain in those backups for up to about two weeks before they expire. Aggregated, anonymized statistics may be retained indefinitely.

9. User rights and account deletion

You can:

• Edit your profile, privacy setting, and contact details at any time from Settings.
• Delete any of your posts or comments individually.
• Block other users to prevent any interaction with them.
• Delete your entire account from Settings → Privacy. This is permanent.
• Request a copy of your data, or ask us to delete specific information, by emailing privacy@startsalam.com.

Depending on where you live, you may also have additional rights under local laws such as the GDPR (EU/UK) or CCPA (California), including the right to access, correct, or object to processing of your data. Contact us at the address above to exercise these rights.

10. Children's privacy

Salam Sign-Up is not intended for users under 13 years old (or the minimum age of digital consent in your country, if higher). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we learn that a child has created an account, we will delete it and the associated data.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the platform evolves. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the bottom of this page and, where appropriate, notify you inside the app. Continued use of Salam Sign-Up after changes are posted means you accept the updated policy.

12. Contact

Questions, privacy requests, or data-deletion requests:

• Email: privacy@startsalam.com
• General support: support@startsalam.com

For security-related disclosures, please see our Security page.

13. Company information

Founder & CEO: Gholam Jelani

How we protect your private chats

Your privacy matters to StartSalam. Your messages and attachments are encrypted while being sent and while stored. Administrators and moderators cannot freely browse your conversations; their access is restricted to reported or safety-flagged messages and limited context needed for review, and each view is logged.

Private chats are not end-to-end encrypted. This means StartSalam’s systems can process their contents for the safety checks described below, and authorized technical staff and hosting providers could access stored data when necessary to operate the service.

Before sending, chat text and captions are checked by an automated Google Gemini safety service, and chat photos are checked by Sightengine. Voice messages, videos, and files are not automatically analyzed or sent for review; they are limited by file type and size. If you receive a message that worries you, you can report it. Staff can open reported or safety-flagged messages. For a reported message only, they may also view up to two messages before and after it when they record why that context is needed. Surrounding attachments are not shown.