Privacy Policy - Flatline

Your privacy is critically important to us. We have chosen to design our application so that the contents of your Flatline are encrypted and private. At Flatline, privacy is the foundational architecture of our service rather than a secondary feature. We have a few fundamental principles:

We are thoughtful about the personal information we ask you to provide and the personal information that we collect about you through the operation of our services.
We store personal information for only as long as we have a reason to keep it.
We aim to make it as simple as possible for you to control what information in your Flatline is shared publicly (or kept private), and permanently deleted.
We help protect you from overreaching government demands for your personal information.
We aim for full transparency on how we gather, use, and share your personal information.
Your user information is used to decrypt the contents of your Flatline, we cannot see those contents and sharing a Canvas utilizes that persons credentials to decrypt the canvas
You can delete your data at any point
You can always see who has access to what content
You can always see which apps have been granted permissions
You may choose to remove access and permissions at any time
We will never monetize you, we choose to take a hard stance against monetizing users

Privacy Philosophy and User Empowerment

We have designed our platform to ensure that you remain the sole arbiter of your data through distinct pillars of control:

Granular Permissions: Our deep permission system ensures that only the specific individuals you designate can ever access your content. You maintain the ability to grant or revoke these permissions at any time, providing precise control over your digital footprint.

Visual Transparency: We utilize persistent visual indicators throughout the application to distinguish clearly between private entries and shared environments. These indicators are designed to ensure you always know the current privacy status of your information at a glance.

Informed Sharing: To prevent accidental data exposure, the application provides explicit warnings and acknowledgments before any content is transitioned to a shared state. This ensures that every collaborative action you take is intentional and informed by an understanding of shared property rights.

Collaborative Consent & Multi-Party Approval: We believe that privacy in a shared environment is a collective responsibility. Our system requires that all active contributors to a Canvas are notified of and approve any further expansion of access or sharing. Constant consent warnings are integrated into the workflow to ensure no data is shared beyond the intended group without the explicit knowledge of all parties involved.

These functional layers work in tandem with our encryption. Because your data is encrypted using your own credentials, the contents of your Flatline remain inaccessible to our employees and any unauthorized third parties. We do not monetize your information, nor do we participate in the sale of user data, ensuring that your privacy is never treated as a commodity.

Who We Are and What This Covers

We’re Flatline Media Inc. (“Flatline”), the team behind the Flatline application and its related websites (each, an “App” or a “Site”, respectively). Through the Flatline App and Site, we offer you a journaling and life documentation platform to record your memories, and, if you wish, share them with others as well. Below we explain how we collect, use, and share information about you, along with the choices that you have with respect to that information.

Throughout this Privacy Policy we’ll refer to Flatline’s Sites, Apps, and other services collectively as “Services.” This Privacy Policy applies to all Flatline Services.

Below is our Privacy Policy, which incorporates and clarifies these principles.

Information We Collect

We only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so — for example, to provide our Services, to communicate with you, or to make our Services better.

We collect this information from three sources: if and when you provide information to us, automatically through operating our Services. Let’s go over the information that we collect.

Information You Provide Us

It’s probably no surprise that we collect information that you provide to us directly. Here are some examples:

Your Entries, Canvases, and Events: The most important thing we collect from you are your journal entries. Your journal entries are private. This means that when you use Flatline to create a canvas, none of the entries in that journal are made publicly viewable on the Internet. Entries are not accessible to other Flatline users. It is impossible for our employees to access your journal data.
Account Information: If you register and open an “Account” with us in order to use services, you provide us basic account information including your email address and a password. Most of that information is optional and you don’t have to tell us more about yourself if you don’t want to.
Transactional Information: When you purchase Services, we may collect information to complete and record the transaction. For example, if you buy something from us we’ll collect information, like your name and credit card information, to process those payments. We also keep a record of the purchases you’ve made.
Communications with Us: You may also provide us with information when you provide us feedback or communicate with us about a support question. When you communicate with us via form, email, phone, or otherwise, we store a copy of our communications (including any call recordings as permitted by applicable law). You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but this may limit the features of the Services you are able to use.

Information We Collect Automatically

We also collect some information automatically:

Log information: Like most online service providers, we collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, including the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information. We collect log information when you use our Services — for example, when you log into your account or publish an entry.
Device and Usage Information: We collect your device type, your wireless carrier, your individual device ID, and how you use our Services. In addition, in the event our App(s) crash on your mobile device, we will receive information about your mobile device model software version and device carrier, which allows us to identify and fix bugs and otherwise improve the performance of our App(s).
Information from Cookies & Other Technologies: Like many online services, we use cookies to collect information. A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and emails. Flatline uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help us identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for our Services, as well as track and understand email campaign effectiveness. For example, we use Google Analytics to help analyze how users use the Site. We do not combine the information generated through the use of Google Analytics with your personal information. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the Site is governed by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.

Information We Collect from Other Sources

We may also get information about you from other sources. For example:

Third Party Account Information: When you connect an account from another service we typically get some basic information about your account with them. For example, when you connect Flatline to your Apple or Google account in order to log in, we may access certain user data such as your name, user ID, email, etc. to provide our Services.
Third Party Data: When you connect an account from another service we will receive data from that service provider. For example we will receive data from fitness trackers you choose to connect and add to a canvas. In this case the data is only stored in your canvas and this canvas remains private. The data is not stored outside this canvas and we cannot access this data once it is transfered.

How We Use the Information We Collect

We use your personal information to:

Provide you with Services and customer support;
Market Services to you and send you news and information that we believe interests you;
Respond to your requests, resolve disputes, and/or troubleshoot problems;
Improve the Services and personalize your experience;
Communicate with you about the Services;
Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Services;
Detect, investigate, and help prevent security incidents and other malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and help protect rights and property of ours and others; and
Comply with our legal and financial obligations.

We will communicate with you primarily in the form of emails, push alerts, and notifications. You can manage the frequency and/or opt out of receiving these communications by changing your settings on the App, and/or clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of each marketing email. Please note that even if you unsubscribe or opt-out of our emails, we may still send you Services related communications (e.g., emails related to your account or the App).

How We Share Information

We share information about you in limited circumstances, and with appropriate safeguards to protect your privacy. These are spelled out below:

Third Party Vendors: We may share information about you with third party vendors, consultants, and advisors who help us provide our Services or who otherwise perform services for us. This includes vendors that help us provide our Services to you (like payment providers that process your credit and debit card information, cloud storage services, and customer chat and email support services that help us communicate with you), those that assist us with our marketing efforts (like sending emails to our marketing list), those that help us understand and enhance our Services (like analytics providers), those that make tools to help us run our operations (like programs that help us with task management, scheduling, word processing, email and other communications, and collaboration among our teams), and other third-party tools that help us manage operations. We require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them;
Third-Party Data Policy: We maintain a strict prohibition against the sale of user information. We do not sell, rent, lease, or trade your personal data, contact information, or usage history to third-party vendors, data brokers, or advertisers. Your information remains confidential and is utilized solely for the purpose of maintaining and providing our services to you. The contents of your flatline will always be private and encrypted.
Your Content is Yours: You own everything you create. We will never share or monetize your user-generated content. We Never Sell Your Data. We do not sell your personal information or data to third-party vendors. Your privacy is not a commodity, and we do not participate in data brokerage or third-party advertising exchanges.
Subsidiaries: We may disclose information about you to a current or future parent company, any subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under a common control (collectively, “Affiliates”), in which case we will require our Affiliates to honour this Privacy Policy;
Business Transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that we go out of business or enter bankruptcy, user information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information may continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy;
Legal, Regulatory, & Other Obligations: We may disclose information about you if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to (a) resolve disputes, investigate problems, or enforce our Terms of Service; (b) comply with relevant laws, or warrants, subpoenas, court orders, and ****other enforceable legal process; or (c) protect the property or rights belonging to Flatline, you, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we may disclose the least amount of information as possible to address the emergency without delay; and
With Your Consent: We may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction.

Privacy in Practice

Privacy at Flatline is realized through the integration of zero-knowledge encryption and a robust, tiered permission architecture. Because your data is encrypted using your own credentials, the contents of your Flatline remain inaccessible to anyone, including our employees, other than the author and those explicitly granted access. This section outlines how our granular permission system and collaborative protocols ensure that sharing is always intentional, transparent, and governed by mutual consent. Through persistent visual indicators and constant consent warnings, we provide you with absolute clarity regarding who can view, edit, or manage your information at any given moment.

Permission Tier Descriptions

Our system utilizes six distinct tiers to define access and authority within the Application. These permissions apply to both individual Members, Friends, and Circles.

1. None – Private (Default)

This is the standard state for all new content.
The privacy toggle is active, indicating the Canvas is restricted solely to the author.

2. Bubbles – Flatline Activity for friends

Can See Event Bubbles on Flatline – used to show activity to close friends

3. Event Details

Access is limited to the Event Details Modal only which gives Access to basic event and canvas details only. This is intimate sharing for close friends so they have a sense of what you are up to without giving them full access
Users at this level cannot view the full Canvas or its broader contents.

4. View Canvas

Users may view the contents of the Canvas you share with them
They are strictly prohibited from editing the Canvas or modifying Canvas details.
They cannot share the content with others or access Canvas settings.
This is used to share meaningfully without giving editing permissions

5. Edit Canvas

Users have the authority to edit the Canvas and view its settings.
They may initiate requests to add new members or remove existing members.
They are prohibited from independently changing Canvas settings.
This is the main way to collaborate on events with friends and family

6. Admin

Admins possess full management rights over Canvas membership.
They are responsible for approving or denying requests to add or remove members.
This is used for when a group regularly creates together and for moderation of canvases
In environments with multiple Admins, a model of collective governance is enforced where all Admins must provide approval for administrative changes.

Information You Share

User Responsibility and Discretion: Any information or content you choose to share with other users is your sole responsibility. We do not monitor, vet, or guarantee the intent of the individuals with whom you choose to collaborate. You are advised to be intentional and cautious when granting access to your data, as we cannot control or provide oversight regarding how third parties utilize information once it has been shared by you.
Joint Property Rights in Shared Canvases: When you invite “Shared Editors” (permission level 5 and above) to a Canvas, that Canvas and all information contained within it transition from individual property to shared property. By initiating a shared environment, you acknowledge and agree that the Canvas becomes the joint property of all authorized parties.
Data Persistence and Account Deletion (permission level 5 and above): To maintain the integrity of collaborative work, shared property is not subject to automatic deletion when an individual user deletes their account. If you choose to terminate your account, any Canvases that have been established as shared property will remain accessible to the remaining editors. Your contribution to that shared environment will persist to ensure the continued functionality for other owners.
Limitation of Liability for User Disputes: We are a neutral platform provider and do not mediate, arbitrate, or accept responsibility for disputes arising between users. We are not liable for any disagreements, intellectual property claims, or conflicts resulting from your decision to share information with other parties. All such disputes must be resolved directly between the involved users.

Before you share a Canvas, please acknowledge the following:

User Responsibility: You are solely responsible for the information you share. We cannot control how other users utilize, copy, or distribute your content once access is granted.
No Mediation: We do not intervene in or accept liability for disputes between users. Please ensure you trust the intent of any individual you invite to collaborate.
Joint Ownership (permission level 5 and above): By adding editors, this Canvas becomes the shared property of all authorized parties. You grant all invited editors equal rights to the content contained herein.
Data Persistence (permission level 5 and above): If you choose to delete your account in the future, this Canvas will not be deleted. It will remain accessible to the other shared owners to ensure continuity of their work.

Collaborative Ownership Thresholds (permission level 5 and above)

We utilize a time-based and engagement-based approach to determine when a Canvas officially transitions from individual to joint property.

The 24-Hour Rule: Any Canvas that has been shared with one or more editors for a continuous period exceeding 24 hours is formally classified as Shared Property.
- Unless:
- Unopened Canvases: If a Canvas was shared but has never been opened by the invited party, it remains under the primary author’s sole ownership and may be revoked or deleted without triggering joint property protocols.
Active Engagement: Once a recipient opens and edits Canvas, the collaborative bond is established, regardless of whether the 24-hour window has elapsed.

Dissolution of Circles and Friendships

To maintain data integrity while respecting the conclusion of collaborative relationships, the platform implements a “Forking” protocol for users with Edit-level permissions (permission level 5 and above).

Preservation of Work: If a member is removed from a Circle or a friend is deleted, the system automatically creates a permanent copy of the shared Canvas (or all relevant Canvases) for that individual.
Scope of Action: This automatic duplication applies exclusively to those holding Edit-level permissions at the time of the separation.
Independence of Data: Following the removal, the generated copy becomes the sole property of the deleted member, while the original Canvas remains with the remaining editors.
Credential Integrity: Because sharing utilizes each person’s specific credentials to decrypt the content, this duplication ensures that the departing party retains the ability to decrypt and access their historical contributions.

Mechanism for Redaction in Shared Canvases

To ensure privacy is maintained during collaborative transitions, Flatline implements a dual protocol of Structural Redaction and Data Forking. This ensures that when a user is removed from a specific Canvas or deletes their account, their identity is scrubbed while the collaborative history remains functional for other members.

Identity Redaction: All personal identifiers, such as name and email address, are permanently removed from the metadata of shared entries.
Contribution Persistence: The actual content contributed to a shared Canvas remains as “shared property” to ensure the continued functionality for other owners.
Anonymized Attribution: In the original Canvas, the contributor’s name is replaced with a generic identifier (“Former Member”), ensuring the redaction effectively anonymizes the user without breaking the narrative flow of the canvas.

Action	Permission Level	Content Outcome	Identity Outcome
Removal from Canvas	Level 1-4 (Private/View)	Access revoked; no copy retained	Identity removed from access logs.
Removal from Canvas	Level 5-6 (Edit/Admin)	System creates a “Forked” copy for the user.	Redacted/Anonymized in the original Canvas.
Account Deletion	All Levels	Private data is permanently deleted after 7 days.	All PII is purged from the Flatline database.
Account Deletion	Level 5-6 (Shared)	Content persists in shared Canvases for others.	Identity is fully anonymized for remaining owners.

Conflict Resolution Reminder

As stated in our Limitation of Liability, we provide the technical mechanism for data continuity but do not mediate disputes arising from the subsequent use of these duplicated Canvases. Users are encouraged to be intentional with whom they grant Edit-level access.

Anonymous Information

We reserve the right to disclose anonymous information or other information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you publicly without restriction.

How Long We Keep Information

We generally discard information about you when it’s no longer needed for the purposes for which we collect and use it — described in the section above on “How We Use the Information We Collect” — and we’re not legally required to keep it.

For example, we keep web server logs for a few months. We retain the logs for this period of time in order to, among other things, analyze traffic, and investigate issues if something goes wrong.

As another example, when you close your account we wait for a 7-day recovery window and then permanently delete all of your journal entries, their attachments, and your account data.

Security

While no online service is 100% secure, we work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so. We monitor our Services for potential vulnerabilities and attacks.

To enhance the security of your account, all entries are encrypted. We cannot see the contents of your Flatline cannot accessed by anyone, including us, other than the logged in author of the entry and users with which it is shared.

Your Choices

You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:

Limit/Update the Information You Provide: You can review, change, and/or delete certain of your personal information by logging into the Site or the App and accessing your account.
Delete the App: You can stop all collection of information by the App(s) by uninstalling the App(s). You may use the standard uninstall processes as may be available as part of your mobile device or via the mobile application marketplace or network. You may choose to also delete your account and data before uninstalling the application to completely remove your data.
Opt out of marketing communications: You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us. Just follow the instructions in those communications or let us know. If you opt out of promotional communications, we may still send you other communications, like those about your account and legal notices.
Set your browser to reject cookies: You can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using our Sites, with the drawback that certain features may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Your Rights

If you are located in certain parts of the world, including some US states and countries that fall under the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (aka the “GDPR”), you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, like the right to request access to or deletion of your data.

Canadian Law (PIPEDA)

If you are a resident of Canada, you have specific rights regarding your personal information under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and, where applicable, provincial legislation such as the Quebec Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector. These rights include:

Right of Access: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to receive information about how it has been used and to whom it has been disclosed.
Right of Correction: You may challenge the accuracy and completeness of your personal information and request that it be amended as appropriate.
Withdrawal of Consent: You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice.
Meaningful Consent: We will ensure that the purposes for which we collect your data are clear and that your consent is informed and meaningful.

To exercise these rights, please contact our Privacy Officer at [email protected]. If you are not satisfied with our response to your inquiry, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or your local provincial privacy commissioner.

European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are located in a country that falls under the scope of the GDPR, data protection laws give you certain rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:

Request access to your personal data;
Request correction or deletion of your personal data;
Object to our use and processing of your personal data;
Request that we limit our use and processing of your personal data; and
Request portability of your personal data.

You also have the right to make a complaint to a government supervisory authority.

A note here for those in the European Union about our legal grounds for processing information about you under EU data protection laws, which is that our use of your information is based on the grounds that:

The use is necessary in order to fulfill our commitments to you under the applicable terms of service or other agreements with you or is necessary to administer your account — for example, in order to enable access to our service on your device or to charge you for a paid plan; or
The use is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation; or
The use is necessary in order to protect your vital interests or those of another person; or
We have a legitimate interest in using your information — for example, to provide and update our Services; to improve our Services so that we can offer you an even better user experience; to safeguard our Services; to communicate with you; to understand our user retention and attrition; to monitor and prevent any problems with our Services; and to personalize your experience; or
You have given us your consent — for example before we place certain cookies on your device and access and analyze them later on.

If you are located in the EEA, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland and you have a concern about our processing of personal data that we are not able to resolve, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority where you reside. Contact details for your Data Protection Authority can be found using the links below:

For individuals in the EEA: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en

For individuals in the UK: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

For individuals in Switzerland: https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home/the-fdpic/contact.html

US Privacy Laws

Laws in some US states require us to provide residents with additional information about the categories of personal information we collect and share, where we get that personal information, and how and why we use it.

In the last 12 months, we collected the following categories of personal information, depending on the Services used:

Identifiers (like your name, contact information, and device and online identifiers);
Commercial information (your billing information and purchase history, for example);
Characteristics protected by law (for example, you might provide your gender as part of a research survey for us);
Internet or other electronic network activity information (such as your usage of our Services);
Geolocation data (such as your location based on your IP address); and
Audio, electronic, visual or similar information (such as your photos, if you upload them);

You can find more information about what we collect and sources of that information in the Information We Collect section above.

We collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in the “How We Use the Information We Collect” section. And we share this information with the categories of third parties described in the “How We Share Information” section. We retain this information for the length of time described in our “How Long We Keep Information” section.

In some US states you have additional rights, subject to any exemptions provided by your state’s respective law, including the right to:

Request a copy of the specific pieces of information we collect about you and, if you’re in California, to know the categories of personal information we collect, the categories of business or commercial purpose for collecting and using it, the categories of sources from which the information came, and the categories of third parties we share it with;
Request deletion of personal information we collect or maintain;
Request correction of personal information we collect or maintain;
Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information;
Receive a copy of your information in a readily portable format; and
Not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your rights under the CCPA.

We do not “sell” or “share” your personal data as those terms are defined under the privacy laws of the relevant US states. We also do not have any knowledge of any “sales” or “sharing” of the personal data of minors under 16 years of age. We do not collect or process your sensitive personal information except where it is strictly necessary to provide you with our service, where the processing is not for the purpose of inferring characteristics about you, or for other purposes that do not require an option to limit under California law.

Contacting Us About These Rights

You can usually access, correct, or delete your personal data using your account settings and tools that we offer, but if you aren’t able to or you’d like to contact us about one of the other rights, scroll down to “How to Reach Us” to, well, find out how to reach us.

When you contact us about one of your rights under this section, we’ll need to verify that you are the right person before we disclose or delete anything. For example, if you are a user, we will need you to contact us from the email address associated with your account. You can also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf by giving us written authorization. We may still require you to verify your identity with us.

Appeals Process for Rights Requests Denials

In some circumstances we may deny your request to exercise one of these rights. For example, if we cannot verify that you are the account owner we may deny your request to access the personal information associated with your account. As another example, if we are legally required to maintain a copy of your personal information we may deny your request to delete your personal information.

In the event that we deny your request, we will communicate this fact to you in writing. You may appeal our decision by responding in writing to our denial email and stating that you would like to appeal. All appeals will be reviewed by an internal expert who was not involved in your original request. In the event that your appeal is also denied this information will be communicated to you in writing.

If your appeal is denied, in some US states you may refer the denied appeal to the state attorney general if you believe the denial is in conflict with your legal rights. The process for how to do this will be communicated to you in writing at the same time we send you our decision about your appeal.

Other Things You Should Know

Third Party Software and Services

This Privacy Policy addresses only our use and disclosure of information we collect from and/or about you on our Services. If you’d like to use third party software and services, any information you disclose to that third party is not covered by this Privacy Policy.

Our Sites may contain content or links to other websites that are not owned or controlled by us. We have no control over the privacy policies or content displayed on websites run by third parties.

Child Usage Restrictions

Our Services are not directed to children, and children are not eligible to use our Services. Protecting the privacy of children is very important to us. We do not collect or maintain personal information from people we actually know are under 13 years of age, and no part of our Services is designed to attract people under 13 years of age. If we later learn that a user is under 13 years of age, we will take steps to remove that user’s personal information from our databases and to prevent the user from utilizing the Services.

Transferring Information

Because our Services are offered worldwide, the information about you that we process when you use the Services in the EU may be used, stored, and/or accessed by individuals operating outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who work for us, other members of our group of companies, or third-party data processors. This is required for the purposes listed in the “How We Use the Information We Collect” section above.

When providing information about you to entities outside the EEA, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that the recipient protects your personal information adequately in accordance with this Privacy Policy as required by applicable law. These measures include entering into European Commission approved standard contractual arrangements with entities based in countries outside the EEA.

You can ask us for more information about the steps we take to protect your personal information when transferring it from the EU.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Flatline may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. Flatline encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. We will post any revised version of the Privacy Policy on this page, and, in some cases, we may provide additional notice (like adding a statement to our homepage or sending you a notification through email or the app). Your further use of the Services after a change to our Privacy Policy will be subject to the updated policy.

How to Reach Us

If you have any questions or concerns or complaints about our Privacy Policy or our information collection or processing practices, or if you want to report any security violations to us, please contact us at [email protected].

This Privacy Policy was last revised: January 15, 2026