The short version
Friend Roulette does not collect, transmit, or store your personal data on our servers. The contacts you choose, the notes you write, and the connections you log all live only on your device.
The one exception is anonymous crash and error reports, which we use solely to find and fix bugs. These reports never include your contacts, notes, or any personal content — see Crash reports below for details.
What stays on your device
When you use Friend Roulette, the following information is stored locally in your phone’s app sandbox:
- The contacts you’ve chosen to include in your roulette (name, phone number)
- The frequency you’ve assigned to each contact
- The interactions you’ve logged (date, type, notes you’ve written)
This data is never sent off your device. If you delete the app, this information is permanently deleted with it.
Permissions we request
Friend Roulette only asks for permissions it uses locally on your device:
- Contacts. We read your contacts so you can pick people to include in your roulette. Friend Roulette never uploads, shares, or transmits your contacts. You may grant access to all contacts or only specific ones — both work fully.
- Notifications. We schedule a daily local reminder so you can be nudged to reach out. The notification is generated and delivered entirely on your device. We do not use push notifications and do not have any server-side notification infrastructure.
- Microphone & speech recognition. When you choose to dictate a note, your voice is transcribed on-device. The audio is not recorded, stored, or sent off your device.
- Background app refresh. Friend Roulette uses the system background-refresh capability to update your daily roulette pick so notifications can name the friend you’re being reminded about. No network requests are made — this is a fully on-device operation.
Crash reports
To find and fix bugs, Friend Roulette sends anonymous crash and error reports to Sentry, an industry-standard diagnostics service. These reports are limited to technical information about the crash itself — the type of error, the line of code that failed, your device model, and the app version.
We have configured Sentry to strip any potentially personal fields (such as contact names, phone numbers, and note text) before reports are sent. We do not send your IP address as identifying data, and we do not link reports to a user account (we do not have user accounts).
If you would prefer not to send crash reports, you can disable network access for Friend Roulette in your device settings; the app remains fully functional without it.
What we don’t do
- We do not have user accounts.
- We do not collect product analytics or usage data (no Google Analytics, Firebase, Amplitude, Mixpanel, etc.).
- We do not advertise.
- We do not sell, share, or rent any information.
Children
Friend Roulette is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect any data from anyone, including children.
Changes
If this policy ever changes — for example, if a future version of Friend Roulette adds optional cloud sync — we’ll update this page and bump the “Last updated” date. Material changes that affect data collection will be highlighted in the app on first launch after the change.
Contact
Questions, concerns, or requests? Email aalpert421@gmail.com.
— Adam Alpert