Privacy Policy — Cloister

Effective date: October 25, 2026 · Last updated: October 31, 2026

Washington, Nevada and Connecticut residents: please also read our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.

1. Who we are

Cloister is provided by Zeyneddin Hasan Erdönmez, doing business as NewEvolve ("we", "us"). In this policy, "Cloister" means the Cloister app for iPhone and Android and the support channels we run for it.

This policy doesn't cover the newevolve.com.tr website. That site counts visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies; the details are on the home page.

Contact: growevolve.business@gmail.com · Osmangazi Mah., Dr. Cemil Özbal Cad., Çamlıca Evleri A Blok, No: 31 A, 27560 Gaziantep, Türkiye.

2. Who Cloister is for

Cloister is for people who are 18 or older and located in the United States. Creating an account requires a statement that you are 18 or older. We record that statement; we don't verify it independently (section 4.1). Where the law requires age confirmation, the app may also ask your phone (through Apple or Google Play) to confirm your age range before it opens (section 4.1). If we learn that someone under 18 is using Cloister, we close the account (section 14).

3. What other people on Cloister can see

A few things to keep in mind:

• Entries are not on the open web. They don't appear in search engines. But anyone who can read an entry can copy it or take a screenshot. Deleting an entry removes it from Cloister; it cannot remove copies someone else made.
• Blocking is complete, but it has one limit. When you block an account, that account can no longer see your profile or entries, follow you, or message you, and you stop seeing theirs. Any follows between you are removed. If you unblock the account, it can see your profile and entries again and, if you receive messages, message you again; the removed follows don't come back. A block applies to that one account: if the same person opens a new account, the block does not carry over. Please report ban evasion (section 7).

4. Information we collect

4.1 When you create an account

You sign in with Sign in with Apple on iPhone or with Google on Android. If you use Apple, we receive from Apple:

• a user identifier that is unique to Cloister;
• an email address. This is either your real address or a private relay address from Apple's "Hide My Email".

We don't ask Apple for your name.

If you use Google, we receive from Google:

• an identifier that is unique to your Google Account;
• your Google Account email address.

Google's sign-in service may also pass your name and the web address of your profile picture to our authentication provider, together with the rest of the sign-in details. Our system discards them when it saves your account, so we don't keep, use or show them.

We also collect:

• Age. When your account is created, the app tells us that you are 18 or older. We never ask for your birth date. We keep only that result ("18+") and a short note that it came from your own statement in the app. We don't verify the statement ourselves.
  Where the law requires age confirmation, the app may ask your phone for your age range before it opens: on iPhone through Apple's Declared Age Range feature, on Android through Google Play's age signals. The age range itself is used only on your device to decide whether the app opens. It is not stored and is not sent to us or to anyone else. If the age range is under 18, or Google Play says it still has to verify your age, the app doesn't open.
• Your username. You choose it.
• The IP address you signed up from. We record it only when two independent parts of our network infrastructure report the same single address. Otherwise we don't record it at all. We keep it for safety and legal purposes only.

This identity information is stored separately from your profile. The app cannot read it. Only the people who run Cloister can, using our administration tools, and only to keep Cloister safe and meet legal obligations (sections 7 and 8), or to write to you by email about your account or a request you made (sections 7, 11 and 12).

4.2 What you create

• Entries: what you write; the calendar date from your phone (Cloister allows one entry per day); when you wrote it and when you last edited it; your style choices (paper, font, ink).
• Earlier versions of edited entries. When you edit an entry, we keep the previous version privately for 90 days (longer while a report about your account is open or a legal hold applies). Nobody else sees it. We use it only to review reports, for example if someone posts something abusive and then edits it away.
• Messages: what you send and receive, when, and whether the recipient has opened it.
• Your connections and settings: who you follow, who you block, and whether you receive messages.
• Reports you submit: what you reported, the reason you chose, and any note you add.

4.3 Technical information

• Sign-in sessions. Our authentication provider records, for each session in which you are signed in: the IP address; the device and app information your phone sends automatically (the "user agent"); when the session started and was last refreshed. This keeps your account secure and lets us investigate abuse.
• Server logs. Our hosting provider keeps short-lived logs of requests to our servers. They include the IP address, the time and the part of the service requested. They are deleted within 7 days.
• Rate-limit records. To stop spam and abuse, we record that your account took certain actions (posting, editing, messaging, following, reporting) and when. We delete these records after 48 hours.
• App updates. Earlier versions of the iPhone app asked the servers of Expo (section 8) each time they started whether a newer version of the app was available. That request included your IP address, your phone's operating system and its version, your language setting, the app version and the update it was running, and a random identifier that the update system created for that installation of the app. The identifier wasn't linked to your Cloister account. If the app had crashed while starting, the next request also included a short technical error message. Current versions of Cloister don't contact Expo's servers.
• On your phone. Cloister stores your sign-in token and your writing-style choices in your phone's secure storage (the Keychain on iPhone; storage encrypted with the Android Keystore on Android), and remembers which safety reminders you have dismissed in each conversation. Earlier versions of the iPhone app also kept the update system's installation identifier and the app updates it had downloaded. On iPhone, items in the Keychain can stay on your phone even after you delete the app; signing out removes the sign-in token. On Android, Cloister turns off automatic cloud backup for the app, so this information isn't copied to a Google backup. Cloister does not keep a copy of your entries or messages on your phone beyond what is on screen.
• Android permissions. On Android, Cloister asks for three permissions: internet access, network state (to tell whether you are online) and billing (to offer subscriptions through Google Play). It doesn't ask for your location, contacts, photos, camera, microphone or fingerprint.
• Google Play billing diagnostics. On Android, the app uses Google Play's billing library to offer subscriptions. That library sends Google its own technical record of the app's purchase calls, for example whether a call succeeded or failed and whether the app could connect to Google Play. Google receives this record under its own terms and privacy policy; we don't receive it.

4.4 Free month and subscriptions

Your first 30 days on Cloister are free. After that, reading and writing on Cloister needs a subscription, which you buy through Apple's App Store on iPhone or through Google Play on Android. Apple or Google processes all payments; we never receive your card or bank details.

On iPhone, when you subscribe or restore a purchase, and when a subscription renews, expires, is refunded or changes, we receive a record from Apple. Apple signs it, so we can check that it is genuine. It includes:

• which plan you have (monthly or yearly);
• purchase, renewal and expiration dates, and the date of any refund;
• Apple's transaction identifiers for the purchase;
• whether the purchase was made in Apple's test environment (TestFlight) or for real;
• your account token: when you subscribe, the app gives Apple the random identifier our system assigned to your Cloister account, and Apple includes it in the signed record so we can match the purchase to your account. It doesn't contain your name, your email address or anything you write.

On Android, when you subscribe or restore a purchase, the app sends us a purchase token from Google Play and our servers ask Google about that purchase. While a subscription is active, our servers may ask Google about it again. We receive and keep:

• which plan you have (monthly or yearly) and its expiration date;
• when we last checked it with Google;
• Google's order identifier for the purchase;
• whether the purchase was a test purchase or a real one;
• your account identifier: when you subscribe, the app gives Google the random identifier our system assigned to your Cloister account, and Google returns it when we ask about the purchase, so we can match the purchase to your account. It doesn't contain your name, your email address or anything you write;
• the purchase token itself, which we keep so that we can check the subscription with Google. We delete the token when the subscription record is no longer linked to an account.

We use these records only to know whether your account has access, and to keep a subscription linked to one Cloister account.

Your agreement to automatic renewal. When you tap Subscribe, we record the plan you chose, the exact renewal terms and price the app showed you, and the time. We keep this record for at least 3 years, as California law requires, and at least 1 year after the subscription ends.

Your free month. We work out when your free month ends from the date your account was created, using our servers' clock. So that deleting an account and opening a new one doesn't restart the free month, when an account that used Sign in with Apple or Google is deleted we keep, for 30 days, a scrambled fingerprint of its sign-in identifier together with the date its free month started. The fingerprint is made with a secret key and can't be turned back into your Apple or Google identifier. It isn't linked to a username, to entries or to anything else.

4.5 When you contact us

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write. We use it only to answer you and to keep a record of the conversation. We keep support emails for 90 days after our last reply. If an email is part of a report, a copyright notice or a legal request, we keep it with that moderation record for 3 years.

4.6 What we don't collect

• Your location.
• Your contacts, photos, camera or microphone.
• Your phone number, birth date or government ID.
• Your age range from Apple's Declared Age Range feature or Google Play's age signals. It stays on your device (section 4.1).
• Your advertising identifier.

We haven't added any advertising, analytics or tracking software to Cloister. On Android, Google Play's own billing library sends Google a technical record of purchase calls (section 4.3). We don't track you across other apps or websites, and we don't buy information about you from anyone.

5. How we use information

We use information to:

• run Cloister: show entries, deliver messages, and keep follows, blocks and settings working;
• keep Cloister safe: check content before it appears (section 7), review reports, enforce our Terms and Community Guidelines, try to keep banned people from coming back, and stop spam, fraud and abuse;
• meet legal obligations: report child sexual exploitation, respond to valid legal process, and preserve records when the law requires it;
• manage your free month and subscription: decide whether your account has access, match purchases to your account, and keep the record that you agreed to automatic renewal;
• communicate with you: answer support requests, tell you inside the app about important changes, and write to you by email about your account or a request you made.

We don't use your writing for advertising or to build marketing profiles. We don't use it to train artificial-intelligence models. We don't make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects. The only automatic step is the temporary messaging pause described in section 7, which a person then reviews.

6. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted

Messages are protected in transit (TLS) and encrypted at rest by our hosting provider (AES-256). But they are stored in a form that we are technically able to read.

The people in the conversation can read them. A person looks at messages only in these cases:

1. Someone in the conversation reports a message or the conversation. We review the reported message and a copy of up to 20 messages in that conversation, ending with the reported message. We save that copy when the report is made.
2. We are investigating a possible child-safety issue, a credible threat, or another serious violation involving an account in the conversation.
3. The law requires it, for example a search warrant (section 8).

The app may show you a gentle reminder when you type contact details into a message. That check runs on your phone; it does not send your message anywhere.

Before a message is delivered, our own servers automatically check it against a short list of words and phrases that are never allowed on Cloister (section 7). This is done by software, not by a person, and the message isn't sent to any other company for it.

We don't read messages for any other reason.

If you turn off "Receive messages", nobody can send you new messages, including people you have messaged before. Your existing conversations stay readable.

7. Safety and moderation

• Checking before posting. Before an entry or a message is saved, our servers check it against a list of words and phrases that are never allowed on Cloister, for example slurs, sexual content involving minors, and telling someone to hurt themselves. If something matches, it isn't posted, and the app asks you to put it another way. This check runs on our own servers; your writing isn't sent to any other company for it. People review content when it is reported. The app also checks entries for phone numbers, email addresses and street addresses in common formats; if it finds one, the entry is not posted and the app asks you to remove those details first. The check can miss unusual spellings, so please keep details that identify you out of your entries.
• Reports. When you report an entry, a profile or a message, we save a copy of what you reported at that moment. The copy includes the content, who wrote it, the usernames involved, the time, and some context: for a message, up to 20 messages in the conversation, ending with the reported one; for a profile, up to the 10 most recent entries; for an edited entry, its earlier versions. This copy stays even if the content or the account is later deleted. That way a report can still be reviewed. How long we keep it is in section 9.
• We never tell people who reported them.
• Enforcement. We may remove content, restrict messaging, suspend an account or close it. Every action we take is recorded with who took it, when, what it was and why.
• Automatic messaging pause. When something is reported as involving a minor, the account that wrote it (or the account that was reported) can't send messages until a person has reviewed the report. Writing and reading entries isn't affected. The pause is recorded like any other action.
• Suspended accounts. A suspended account cannot post, message or follow, and its content is hidden. Its owner can still block, report and delete the account.
• Usernames of deleted accounts are reserved for 90 days, so nobody can immediately take over a name and impersonate its former owner. We don't record who the name belonged to.
• Writing about self-harm. We will never suspend you for writing about your own struggles. When you report something as suicide or self-harm, the app shows you crisis resources such as the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

8. When we share information

We share information only in these ways:

• With other people on Cloister, as described in section 3.
• With service providers that process data for us, only to run Cloister:
  • Supabase (database, sign-in and hosting in the United States), including the infrastructure providers Supabase uses;
  • Apple (Sign in with Apple and App Store subscriptions on iPhone). When you subscribe, the app gives Apple your account token (section 4.4). Apple's own privacy policy applies to what Apple collects.
  • Google (Google sign-in and Google Play subscriptions on Android; Gmail, our support mailbox). When you subscribe on Android, the app gives Google your account identifier and our servers ask Google about the purchase (section 4.4). Google Play's billing library also sends Google a technical record of the app's purchase calls (section 4.3). Google's own privacy policy applies to what Google collects.
  • Expo (650 Industries, Inc.) — earlier versions of the iPhone app used Expo to deliver app updates and sent it the technical information described in section 4.3, not your account, entries or messages. Current versions don't contact Expo.
  Each provider handles information under its own terms and privacy policy. We give each one only what it needs to do its job.
• With the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). When we learn of apparent child sexual exploitation, federal law requires us to report it to NCMEC's CyberTipline. The report can include the content involved, the account's username and identity information, and IP addresses. NCMEC may share reports with law enforcement.
• With law enforcement and courts, only as the law allows: basic account information (for example email address, sign-up date and IP addresses) in response to a valid subpoena; other non-content records in response to a court order; the content of entries or messages only with a search warrant. The one exception is a report to NCMEC, which federal law requires.
  
  When a government agency asks us to preserve records while it obtains legal process, we save a copy of that account's records at that moment (profile, identity information, entries and their earlier versions, messages, follows, blocks, consents, sign-in session records, reports and moderation records) and place the account on legal hold (section 9). We tell you about a request for your information before we disclose it, unless the law forbids us or the case involves child safety.
• To protect people and Cloister: to enforce our Terms, and to protect the rights, property and safety of our users, the public and us.
• If Cloister changes hands: as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, under this policy's protections.

We do not sell personal information. We do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not show targeted ads.

9. How long we keep information

Some of these deletions happen immediately. Others are done by a scheduled clean-up that runs every day, so data may remain for up to a day after its period ends.

10. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app: Settings → Delete account. You choose how:

• Delete in 30 days. Your profile, username and entries are hidden from everyone right away, and you are signed out. If you sign in again with the same Apple or Google account within 30 days, the app offers to restore your account as it was. After 30 days your account is deleted permanently, as described below. The app shows the exact date when you choose this; we don't send a separate message when the deletion is done.
• Delete now. Your account is deleted right away, and the app confirms it.

If you can't open the app, you can ask us to delete your account without it: see Delete your Cloister account.

When your account is deleted, these are deleted:

• your profile and username;
• your entries and their earlier versions;
• your follows and blocks;
• your settings;
• your sign-in account and sessions;
• all messages you sent and received. This means your conversations also disappear for the other person.

What remains, and why:

• Reports and the copies saved with them. Reports you made stay, but they are no longer linked to your account. A copy saved with a report still shows the usernames involved at that moment, including yours. Both are kept as described in section 9.
• Identity information, if needed for safety or the law. If a report about your account is still open, we keep your identity information for up to 90 days. If a legal hold applies, we keep it for at least 1 year.
• Records of moderation actions (3 years).
• A copy saved for a legal hold, if one applies (section 8).
• Your former username. It is reserved for 90 days, without any link to you.
• Server logs and backups, until they expire (section 9).
• If you subscribed: Apple's or Google's subscription records and the record that you agreed to automatic renewal, no longer linked to your account, for the periods in section 9.
• A fingerprint of your Apple or Google sign-in identifier and the date your free month started, for 30 days (section 4.4).

Deleting your account does not cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription. Cancel it in your Apple Account settings (iPhone) or in Google Play (Android), ideally before you delete your account.

11. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access and copy. Confirm whether we process your information, and get a copy of it, including your entries and messages, in a portable format.
• Correct. You can edit today's entry while your account has access (section 4.4). For anything else, contact us.
• Delete. In the app at any time, or by contacting us (section 10).
• Withdraw consent. For the processing of sensitive information you write (section 12). Because that information is what you write, withdrawing consent means deleting your account. You can also delete any single entry at any time.
• Appeal a decision we make about your request.

We don't sell your information, use it for targeted advertising, or use it for profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. So there is nothing to opt out of in those areas.

How to make a request:

• Email growevolve.business@gmail.com.
• We will take reasonable steps to confirm the request comes from you, for example by writing to the email address linked to your Cloister account and asking you to reply.
• We respond within 45 days. If we need more time, we may extend this once by up to 45 days and will tell you why.
• Requests are free (at least once in any 12-month period).
• Where state law allows, an authorized agent may make a request for you.

If we decline your request, reply to our answer with the subject "Appeal". We will respond in writing within 45 days. If we deny the appeal, our answer will explain how to contact your state's attorney general.

You can always ask us for a copy of your data (email us), and delete your account in the app (Settings → Delete account).

We will not treat you differently for exercising these rights.

12. Sensitive information in what you write

People use Cloister to write honestly. Your entries and messages may therefore reveal sensitive information about you or others, for example:

• your physical or mental health, diagnoses or treatment;
• your sex life or sexual orientation;
• your religious beliefs;
• having been the victim of a crime.

We process this information only to provide Cloister and to keep it safe. We don't use it for advertising, and we don't sell it. When you create your account, we ask for your separate consent to process sensitive information in what you write. It is its own checkbox, separate from accepting our Terms. If your account was created before we asked, the app asks you once before you continue. You can withdraw this consent at any time by deleting your account in the app (Settings → Delete account). You can also withdraw it by emailing us; we will then delete your account for you, because Cloister can't store or show what you write without processing it. Information we must keep under section 9 is the only exception.

Washington, Nevada and Connecticut residents: please also read our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.

13. How we protect information

• All data travels over encrypted connections. Our hosting provider encrypts stored data.
• The app can reach our data only through narrowly defined functions; it cannot read our database tables directly.
• Only the people who run Cloister can reach identity information. Our moderation tool asks for a reason each time it shows it, and logs each viewing.
• Material we must preserve for legal reasons is kept in a restricted location with limited access.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires.

14. Children

Cloister is not for anyone under 18. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 13.

• If we learn that a user is under 18, we close the account.
• If a user is under 13, we also delete their personal information, except what the law requires us to keep, for example for a report to NCMEC.

If you believe a user is under 18, report their profile in the app ("Involves a minor (child safety)") or email growevolve.business@gmail.com.

15. Where we process information

Our database and servers are in the United States. We run Cloister from Türkiye: when we review reports, answer email or handle legal requests, we access information from there, and we keep material we must preserve for legal reasons (section 8) and our own maintenance copies (section 9) there. Cloister is intended only for people in the United States.

16. Do Not Track and third-party tracking

Cloister does not track you over time or across other apps and websites. No third party collects information about your activity across other services through Cloister. Because we don't track, a browser "Do Not Track" signal does not change anything about how Cloister works.

17. Changes to this policy

If we make a material change, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect and update the "Last updated" date above. If a change means we will collect or use information in a new way that requires your consent, we will ask for it first. Where the law requires, we will also notify the app stores before a significant change takes effect.

18. Contact us

Zeyneddin Hasan Erdönmez, doing business as NewEvolve · Osmangazi Mah., Dr. Cemil Özbal Cad., Çamlıca Evleri A Blok, No: 31 A, 27560 Gaziantep, Türkiye · growevolve.business@gmail.com

Safety and law-enforcement contact: growevolve.business@gmail.com.