Privacy Policy

Your account. When you sign in with Google we receive your name, email address and profile photo. You choose a username and can add a short bio.

What you write. Updates you add yourself: title, details, a number and unit if you add one, and the date.

What you connect. Only for the apps you choose to connect (details in the next sections):

• Google Calendar: events from your primary calendar.
• Google Photos: only the photos you select in Google's own photo picker.
• Spotify: your recently played and top tracks.
• GitHub: your repositories, releases and merged pull requests, including private repositories if you grant access.
• Letterboxd, Goodreads, Hacker News, Chess.com and blog or newsletter feeds: public information at the username or link you enter.
• The Life Update Mac app, if you install it: short summaries of work sessions it creates on your computer. Raw screen content never leaves your Mac.

Usage information. Standard server logs (IP address, browser, pages requested, errors) and, on our public pages, Google Analytics, which uses cookies to measure visits.

This section describes exactly what Life Update does with data it receives from Google APIs.

Google sign-in (scopes: openid, email, profile). We use your name, email address and profile photo to create and identify your account, and show your name and photo on your profile.

Google Calendar (scope: calendar.readonly, read-only). When you connect Google Calendar we read events from your primary calendar for roughly the last 90 days, and then recent events on each sync. We never create, change or delete calendar events. We use the event title, start and end time, location, whether it's all-day, and attendee names to suggest “moments” such as trips, interviews, concerts and dinners. Recurring meetings, declined invites, focus-time blocks and short placeholders are skipped. We store only the resulting suggestion (a short title, a line of details like “with Ana, Sam · Lisbon”, and the date), not the full event. Suggestions are private and wait in your review list; nothing appears on your public page unless you add it.

Google Photos (scope: photospicker.mediaitems.readonly). Life Update cannot browse your library. You choose photos in Google's own picker, and we only receive those. For each one we keep a small copy (at most 640 pixels) and its date, grouped into one moment per day, so it can appear on your timeline. Picker sessions are deleted right after import.

Limited Use. Life Update's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In particular:

• We use Google user data only to provide and improve the features you see in Life Update, the timeline, review list, recaps and your public page.
• We do not sell Google user data, and we do not use or transfer it for advertising, including retargeting or interest-based ads.
• We do not use or transfer it to determine creditworthiness or for lending.
• We do not allow humans to read it, unless you ask us to (for example for support), it's needed for security or abuse investigations, or it's required by law.
• We do not use Google user data to develop, improve or train generalized or non-personalized AI or machine learning models.

You can remove Life Update's access at any time with “Disconnect” in the app (which deletes our stored access token and revokes it at Google), or from your Google Account permissions page.

• To run your account, show your timeline and review list, and keep connected apps in sync.
• To show your public page and the week, month and year pages you share. Only things you've added are shown there, plus recaps you've chosen to show.
• To write AI recaps and post drafts when you ask for them (see below).
• To keep the service secure, prevent abuse, and fix problems.
• To email you about your account or important changes. We don't send marketing email without your consent.

AI features. When you tap “Write my recap” (or draft a post), we send the titles and details of the moments on your timeline for that period, plus your first name, to OpenAI to write a few sentences. Only moments you've already added to your timeline are sent. OpenAI processes this on our behalf and, under its API terms, does not use it to train its models. Recaps are private until you choose to show one on your page.

Your public page at life-update.com/your-username shows your name, photo, bio, and the moments you've added to your timeline. Anyone with the link can see it, and search engines may index it. Connected apps, your review list, hidden moments and recaps you haven't shown are never public.

You can edit or delete anything on your timeline at any time, and it disappears from your public page right away (search engines and link previews may take a little longer to catch up).

We don't sell personal data. We share it only with service providers that help us run Life Update, under contracts that limit their use to providing that service:

• Vercel: hosting and serving the app.
• Our database provider: storing account and timeline data.
• OpenAI: writing recaps and post drafts when you ask for them.
• Google Analytics: measuring visits to our pages.

We may also disclose data if required by law, to protect the rights and safety of our users or the public, or as part of a merger or acquisition, in which case this policy continues to apply to your data.

• Your account and timeline: until you delete them.
• Access tokens for connected apps: until you disconnect the app or delete your account, at which point they're deleted immediately.
• Suggestions you hide stay hidden so they don't come back on the next sync; they're deleted with your account.
• Server logs: kept for a limited time for security and debugging, then deleted.

Delete your whole account from the dashboard: open Sources, then Delete account. This permanently deletes your profile, timeline, suggestions, recaps, stored photos and connected-app tokens, and revokes our access at Google and GitHub. It can't be undone.

Delete one thing by opening it on your timeline and choosing Delete, or stop one app with Disconnect.

You can also email [email protected] and we'll delete your account within 30 days. Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis.

All traffic to Life Update is encrypted with HTTPS. Access tokens and your data are kept in our database, accessible only to the application and the people who operate it. Links to connect an app are signed so they can't be forged, and blog links you enter are checked so they can't be used to reach private networks. No system is perfectly secure, but if we learn of a breach that affects you, we'll tell you.

Depending on where you live (for example in the EU, UK or California) you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, to object to or restrict how we process it, and to withdraw consent. Most of this you can do yourself in the app; for anything else email [email protected] and we'll respond within 30 days.

We process your data to provide the service you signed up for (performance of a contract), with your consent for connected apps and AI features, and for our legitimate interest in keeping Life Update secure. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

Life Update isn't meant for children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect their data. If you think a child has signed up, email us and we'll delete the account.

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. For significant changes, especially to how we use Google user data, we'll tell you in the app or by email before they take effect.