A SLOW CORRESPONDENCE
Khat:
Privacy.
Khat is a small post office for letters between strangers. We collect the absolute minimum to make that work, and we do not share any of it with advertisers or analytics companies. This page tells you exactly what that means.
01Who runs Khat
Khat is built and operated by the team behind NoodleSoup.xyz. If anything in this policy needs explaining, write to hi@noodlesoup.xyz.
02What we collect
Your email address
We use your email solely to sign you in (a one-time link sent to your inbox). It is stored in Firebase Authentication, our identity provider. We do not send marketing email. We do not sell, trade, or rent your email to anyone.
Your location, while you use the app
When you write a letter, your device's coordinates are sent to our servers and stored alongside the letter — that is the spot the letter was "posted from." When you open a letter someone else wrote, your coordinates are used to compute the distance the letter travelled to find you.
Coordinates are never shown to other users in raw form. The only thing another reader can see is a rounded distance number (e.g. "travelled from 420 m away"). Letters that have not been kept by anyone are eligible to surface to readers nearby, based on approximate proximity.
Location permission is optional. If you decline, you can still write and read letters; the app simply won't show distances. You can revoke the permission at any time in your phone's Settings.
The letters you write
Every letter you post is text content stored in our database (Firestore). Other users may read it, keep it, or leave it for someone else to find. Letters do not carry your name or email — they are attributed only to "a stranger". We do, however, keep an internal record of which letters belong to which account so that you can list, delete, or release your own letters from your profile.
A small amount of usage state
We store counts (letters posted, letters kept) and a few low-level flags (e.g. whether you have notifications enabled). This data exists so the app can tell you about your own activity. It is not aggregated, profiled, or shared.
Your notification token, if you opt in
If you allow notifications, we store your device's push token (a random identifier issued by Apple or Google) so we can tell you when a letter arrives. The token is rotated automatically by your operating system; we keep only the latest. You can turn notifications off in the app or in your phone's Settings.
Reports and blocks
If you report a letter, we record the report along with the letter's ID so a human can review it. Reported letters are removed immediately while they are reviewed. If you block another author, we store that pairing so their letters never reach you again. Blocked users are not notified.
03What we don't collect
- No names, no phone numbers, no profile photos, no demographics.
- No friends, contacts, or social graph.
- No browsing history, ad identifiers, or cross-app tracking.
- No third-party analytics SDKs or advertising SDKs of any kind.
- No crash reporting (we do not run Sentry, Bugsnag, or similar).
- No microphone, camera, photo library, or contact list access.
Khat does not contain any third-party tracking or advertising code. The only services your app talks to are Apple, Google, and our own backend (Firebase).
04Where it lives
All data is stored in Google Firebase (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Functions, Firebase Cloud Messaging). Firebase is operated by Google LLC. Their privacy and security commitments are documented at firebase.google.com/support/privacy.
Apple's APNs and Google's FCM handle the delivery of push notifications when you opt in. Apple App Attest and Google Play Integrity are used to verify that requests to our backend are coming from a genuine instance of Khat (not a bot or a tampered build); these services do not see the contents of your letters or your account.
05How long we keep things
- Letters you posted stay until you delete them. A letter currently kept by another user cannot be deleted by you (it's theirs now); it can only be deleted after they release it.
- Letters you kept stay with you indefinitely. You can release any of them back into the world at any time.
- Your account is kept until you ask us to delete it. The app has a "Request account deletion" option in Settings. Once requested, your account, your live (un-kept) letters, and your usage state are removed within 30 days. Letters that were already kept by other users remain readable to those keepers without your identity attached.
- Reports are retained for safety-review purposes for a reasonable period (typically up to 12 months) and then deleted.
- Server logs are kept by Firebase per their standard retention (about 30 days for most signals) and then deleted automatically.
06Your rights
You can, at any time:
- See every letter you have written, in the app's "Posted" view.
- See every letter you have kept, in the app's "Keepsakes" view.
- Delete any of your live (un-kept) letters.
- Release any letter you've kept back into the world.
- Turn off notifications from the in-app Settings.
- Revoke location access in your phone's system Settings (the app will fall back gracefully and stop computing distances).
- Request full account deletion from the in-app Settings. This is irreversible.
If you live in a place that grants additional rights (e.g. EU/UK GDPR, California CCPA), you may also request a copy of all data we hold about you, ask us to correct any errors, or ask us to delete everything. Email hi@noodlesoup.xyz and we'll respond within 30 days.
07Security
All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit (HTTPS / TLS). Data at rest is encrypted by Firebase. Access to the production database is restricted to a small number of authorised operators, and authentication is enforced for every read and write. We use App Check (Apple App Attest, Google Play Integrity) to make sure requests are coming from genuine, unmodified copies of Khat.
That said: no online service can promise perfect security. If we ever learn of a breach that affects you, we will tell you in plain language and tell you what to do.
08Children
Khat is not directed at children under 17. If you believe a minor has signed up, write to hi@noodlesoup.xyz and we will remove the account.
09Changes to this policy
If we ever change this policy in a way that affects you materially — for example, collecting a new kind of data — we will notify you in the app before the change takes effect. Minor edits (typos, clarifications, links) we'll publish quietly with an updated effective date at the top of this page.
10Contact
Questions, requests, or anything you'd like us to know: hi@noodlesoup.xyz.
Khat is operated by NoodleSoup.xyz. Postal correspondence on request — write first, we'll send an address.