Starmate Privacy Policy

1. Summary

• You need an account to use Starmate. The app is for people aged 18 and over only.
• Your birth chart is calculated on your phone. Your birth details and chart are stored with your account in Google’s Firebase service, on servers in the United States.
• The AI astrologer runs on OpenAI (ChatGPT). Before your first question we show what will be sent and ask for your consent. You can withdraw it in Profile. The text and outcome of each question are kept for 30 days to measure quality and speed and can be viewed by the app’s owner; the astrologer’s answers are not viewed.
• Joining Match is optional. If you join, part of your profile is shown to other members.
• Ads are shown only when you tap “watch an ad”, and they are non-personalised. We do not track you across other companies’ apps and websites, and the app does not ask for App Tracking Transparency (ATT) permission.
• We do not sell your personal data.
• You can delete your account in the app: Profile → Delete account.

2. Account information

You create an account with Sign in with Apple, Sign in with Google, or email and password. We process your account ID (user ID), your email address (which may be an Apple “Hide My Email” address), the name shared by Apple or Google, your Google profile photo link if you sign in with Google, your sign-in method and email verification status. The name you enter in the app is used on your profile. Your password is stored in protected form by Firebase Authentication; we cannot see it. We do not ask for a phone number.

3. Birth details and chart

You enter your birth date, your birth time if you know it, and your birth place. Birth place search uses Apple Maps (MapKit), so the text you type is sent to Apple. We store only the name, coordinates and time zone of the place you choose.

Your chart is calculated on your phone. Your birth details, calculated chart and app settings (house system, language, reminders, time zone, appearance) are stored with your account in Firebase, so they are not lost when you change devices. Your birth date is also used to enforce the 18+ age limit.

Your birth place coordinates are not your current location. Starmate does not ask for location permission and does not collect your device location.

4. AI astrologer (OpenAI)

The astrologer uses a language model from OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Your question does not go from the app straight to OpenAI: it first reaches the Starmate server (Firebase Cloud Functions), which checks your daily allowance and forwards the question to OpenAI. Only requests from the genuine Starmate app are accepted (Firebase App Check).

Before your first question, the app lists what will be sent and asks for your consent. If you do not consent, the astrologer stays off and nothing is sent; your chart and Match work without it. You can withdraw consent at any time in Profile. With your consent, each question is sent together with:

• your question and the earlier messages in the same conversation;
• your chart: the planet positions, signs, houses and aspects calculated from your birth date, time and place (your approximate time of birth can be derived from them);
• if you filled them in, the bio, interests and dating intention on your profile.

Your name, email address and birth place coordinates are not sent. If you ask by voice, your speech is turned into text on your phone using Apple’s on-device speech recognition; no audio is sent, only the text of your question. OpenAI processes the data it receives under OpenAI’s API terms, in other countries including the United States. By default OpenAI does not use data received through its API to train its models; we send requests without asking OpenAI to store them, and OpenAI may keep abuse-monitoring logs for a limited time under its terms.

Your astrologer conversations (text only) are stored with your account and deleted 30 days after the last message; you can delete them earlier yourself. A question count is kept to apply your daily question allowance.

For each question the app also keeps a question record: the text of the question, when you asked it, how long the answer took, the outcome (answered, or an error), the app version, the app language and your subscription level. This record is linked to your account. As the data controller, the app’s owner Erkan Öztürk may view these records only to measure the astrologer’s quality and speed, fix errors and keep the service secure; he does not view the astrologer’s answers. Question records are deleted automatically 30 days after the question.

Answers and readings are for entertainment. They are not medical, psychological, legal or financial advice. If your question contains words such as self-harm, the app shows a card with emergency help numbers.

5. Match and Chats

Joining Match is optional. When you join you add up to 6 photos, your gender, who you want to see (women, men or everyone), the age range you want to see, and a short sentence.

Other members in Match see your photos, name, age, Big Three (Sun, Moon and rising sign) and your sentence. If you filled in Profile → About, your bio, interests, intention and city are also part of your profile. If you choose to share your chart, your rising sign and planet positions are visible too, and your birth time can be estimated from them. For the app to work, this profile information is kept in a profile record that other signed-in members can access; your birthday is also in this record so your age can be calculated.

Who you want to see and your age range are visible only to you and are used to select suitable people for you. Together with your own gender, this preference can reveal information about your sex life or sexual orientation and may count as special-category (sensitive) personal data. It is processed only if you join Match, and only as far as you specify it.

Compatibility scores are calculated by comparing two charts. Your daily suggestions, the interest you show and receive, mutual interest (matches) and blocks are stored. You can pause your visibility in Match at any time.

Mutual interest opens a chat. In chats you can send text and voice messages of up to 60 seconds. Messages, voice message files (Firebase Storage), and read and typing status are stored and visible to both people in the chat. Transcribing a received voice message happens on your phone. Text messages are checked on your phone for content such as profanity or contact details before they are sent.

Some profile information you entered in earlier versions of the app, when it was called Buddy (for example sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, approximate location, job, education and lifestyle fields), may still be stored with your account. Version 3.0 does not collect them again. They are deleted when you delete your account, and you can ask us by email to delete them sooner.

6. Safety, reports and moderation

You can block or report a member from the “…” menu in Match or Chats. A report stores the reason you choose, any details you add, and your and the reported member’s account IDs, and it is reviewed by the developer. Accounts that break the rules may be suspended or closed. Moderation and suspension records are kept after account deletion to prevent abuse and to respond to legal claims.

7. Subscriptions and rewarded ads

Plus and Premium subscriptions are sold through Apple’s In-App Purchase. Apple processes the payment; we never see your card details. RevenueCat manages subscription status: it receives your account ID (as the app user ID), purchase history, subscription status and device/OS information. Our server stores the purchase and renewal records sent by RevenueCat to determine which features your subscription unlocks.

Free users can choose to watch a rewarded ad to unlock one part of the full reading for 24 hours. The ad is served by Google AdMob, loaded only when you tap, and requested as a non-personalised ad. To verify the reward, your account ID and the ID of the unlocked section are sent to AdMob, and Google’s server confirms the reward to our server. Google AdMob processes information such as device identifiers, approximate location derived from your IP address, ad interactions and diagnostics under its own policies to serve and measure ads and prevent fraud. Starmate does not read your advertising identifier (IDFA).

8. Analytics, crash reports and notifications

To improve the app, Firebase Analytics collects usage data such as screen views and subscription screen events. This data is linked to your account ID; it is not anonymous. If the app crashes, Firebase Crashlytics sends a report containing the crash log, device model, OS version and your account ID. We do not use this data for ad targeting.

Firebase Remote Config is used to fetch app settings, Firebase Installations to create an installation ID, and Firebase App Check to verify that requests come from the genuine app. If you allow notifications, your Firebase Cloud Messaging token is saved to your account. Daily sky, Match morning and Moon phase reminders are scheduled locally on your phone.

9. Who we share data with

Provider privacy policies: Google · RevenueCat · Apple

• Google (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Analytics, Crashlytics, Cloud Messaging, Remote Config, App Check, Installations; Sign in with Google): infrastructure, storage, analytics and security. The database (Cloud Firestore) and server functions (Cloud Functions) run in the United States; other services’ processing locations depend on Google’s service terms.
• Google AdMob: optional rewarded ads and reward verification.
• RevenueCat (United States): subscription management.
• Apple: Sign in with Apple, App Store payments and birth place search with Apple Maps.
• Other Starmate members: only in Match and Chats, the information described above.
• Authorities: only in response to a lawful request and to the extent required by law.

10. International transfers

When you use Starmate, your data is transferred outside Türkiye, mainly to the United States, to the servers of Google, RevenueCat and Apple. These transfers rely on appropriate safeguards such as standard contracts under Article 9 of the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK) and, for users in the EU/EEA, Chapter V of the GDPR. You can ask us for information about these safeguards.

11. Legal bases

Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

• Account, chart, Match, Chats and subscriptions: performance of a contract (KVKK Art. 5/2-c; GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)).
• Sending data to OpenAI for the AI astrologer: your explicit consent (KVKK Art. 5/1; GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)).
• Your Match preference for who you want to see, and special-category data left from earlier versions: your explicit consent (KVKK Art. 6; GDPR Art. 9(2)(a)).
• Security, abuse prevention, moderation, reward verification, analytics and crash reports: legitimate interests (KVKK Art. 5/2-f; GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).
• Keeping astrologer question records and their viewing by the app’s owner (to measure the astrologer’s quality and speed, fix errors and keep the service secure): legitimate interests (KVKK Art. 5/2-f; GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).
• Billing records and responses to official requests: legal obligation (KVKK Art. 5/2-ç; GDPR Art. 6(1)(c)).

12. Retention

• Account, profile, photos, birth details, chart, settings, Match data, matches and chat messages: while your account is open; deleted when you delete your account (except as listed below).
• Astrologer conversations: deleted automatically 30 days after the last message.
• Astrologer question records (question text, time, response time, outcome, app version, language and subscription level): deleted automatically 30 days after the question; if you delete your account, they are deleted at the end of this period at the latest.
• Daily Match lists: kept briefly and deleted automatically when they expire. After you delete your account, your account ID may remain as a technical entry in other members’ daily lists until they expire; your profile is not shown.
• Sections unlocked with an ad: 24 hours.
• Voice message files in your chats (and images sent in earlier versions): deleted automatically, together with the chats you are part of, when you delete your account.
• Subscription (billing) and ad reward records: kept after account deletion for accounting and abuse prevention, with a one-way hashed ID instead of your account ID.
• Moderation, suspension and admin action records, and reports made about you: kept after account deletion for safety and legal claims. Reports you made are deleted with your account.
• Analytics and crash data: according to Firebase’s retention settings.
• Backups: deleted data drops out of rotating backups within about 30 days.

13. Account deletion

Use Profile → Delete account to delete your account and data. Deleting your account does not cancel an App Store subscription; cancel it separately in your App Store settings. Details and email requests: Account and data deletion.

14. Your rights

You have the right to access your data and receive a copy, to ask for it to be corrected, erased or restricted, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, to data portability, and to withdraw consent. For users in Türkiye, the rights under KVKK Art. 11 are also described in the KVKK notice.

For any request, including a copy of your data, write to erozturk0381@gmail.com from the email address on your Starmate account. We reply free of charge within 30 days at the latest. You also have the right to complain to the Turkish Personal Data Protection Board or to the data protection authority in your EU/EEA country.

15. Age limit

Starmate is for people aged 18 and over only; age is checked against the birth date you declare at sign-up. If we learn that someone under 18 has created an account, we delete the account and its data.

16. Security

Data is encrypted in transit (TLS). Access to the database and files is limited by Firebase security rules; only you can read your private details (birth time and place, chart, email, Match preferences, astrologer conversations). The one exception is the astrologer question records described in section 4: the app’s owner can see the text and details of the questions you ask to measure quality and speed, fix errors and keep the service secure; he does not see the astrologer’s answers. No system is completely secure; if a security incident occurs, we make the notifications required by law.

17. Changes

We may update this policy. We announce material changes in the app or on this page; the current version and effective date are always shown here.

18. Contact

Erkan Öztürk (erkanozturk.com) · erozturk0381@gmail.com