GriotMate Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 July 2026 · Developer: Marc Beale (Groupmate Technologies CIC)

GriotMate is a communication app designed for people in low-network regions to send messages, voice notes, photos, and video to family and friends. This policy explains what data GriotMate collects, why, and what we do with it.

What data GriotMate collects

GriotMate collects the minimum data needed to deliver messages between you and your contacts. Specifically:

Phone number. Used as your unique GriotMate identifier. Required to route messages and calls to you.
Your contacts' phone numbers (only the ones you choose to add to GriotMate). Required to send them messages.
Profile photo (optional). If you choose to add one, it is shown to your contacts so they can recognise you.
Display name (the name your contacts see).
Message content — text messages, voice notes, photos, videos, and files you send to your contacts. Held on our servers only until delivery is complete and both phones hold their own copy, and in no case longer than the limits in “How data is stored and protected” below.
Device push token (Google FCM). Required so we can wake your phone when someone sends you a message or call.
Approximate network quality information (signal level, which carrier, latency to our servers). Used to choose the right way to deliver each message — for example, automatically switching from video to voice when your network is weak.
Optional: SMS fallback. If your data connection fails, GriotMate can send your message as an SMS via your phone's SIM card. This ONLY happens when you tap "Send as SMS" on the explicit confirmation page — never automatically. GriotMate never reads incoming SMS messages that are not part of GriotMate's own delivery system.

What data GriotMate does NOT collect

GriotMate does not access your phone's photo library beyond photos you explicitly choose to send.
GriotMate does not access your full contacts list. Only the contacts you deliberately add to GriotMate are known to the app.
GriotMate itself does not track your location, and it never asks your phone for a precise position. The optional WeatherMate feature uses your approximate location to show local weather. Your position is rounded to roughly 11 kilometres — about the width of a town — before it leaves your phone, so it is never precise enough to show where you are. That rounded position is sent to the services that provide the forecast (Open-Meteo and Visual Crossing) and to OpenStreetMap, which turns it into a place name. It is not stored by GriotMate and is not used to track you.
GriotMate does not show advertising and does not share data with advertisers.
GriotMate does not sell your data to anyone.

How data is stored and protected

GriotMate uses Cloudflare's infrastructure (D1 database, R2 storage, Workers) for message routing and storage. Data is encrypted in transit over HTTPS. Messages are automatically deleted from our servers once they are more than 30 days old and both your phone and your contact's phone have confirmed they hold their own copy. If one of those phones never comes back online, the message is deleted from our servers in any case after 180 days. Beyond that, the only copies are the ones on your own and your contact's phones, which stay there until you delete them.

All message content you send — text, photos, videos, voice notes and files — is end-to-end encrypted, including when GriotMate falls back to sending over SMS. GriotMate will not send your message content unencrypted: if it cannot encrypt a message for the recipient, it holds the message rather than sending it in the clear. Where end-to-end encryption is active, the message content cannot be read by us or by anyone intercepting the connection.

Money transfer features (Empower / remittance)

If you use GriotMate's money-transfer features (Empower, remittance comparison), the app may share the corridor, amount, and provider you selected with the chosen remittance partner (e.g. Wise, Remitly, WorldRemit) so they can quote or complete the transfer. GriotMate itself does not handle your money — your chosen provider does, under their own privacy policy. You always confirm each transfer explicitly before it is sent.

Deleting your GriotMate account and your data

You may request deletion of your GriotMate account and all data GriotMate holds about you at any time. GriotMate is operated by Marc Beale (Groupmate Technologies CIC); deletion requests are handled personally.

How to request deletion

Send an email to mbeale@groupmatetechnologies.com.
Use the subject line GriotMate account deletion.
In the body, include the phone number you registered GriotMate with, so we can verify ownership and locate your account.
You will receive an email confirmation within 7 days. Your account and the data listed below will be deleted within 30 days of the confirmation.

What is deleted

Your GriotMate account record — phone number, display name, profile photo.
Your GriotMate contacts list (the contacts you added inside the app).
Any messages, voice notes, photos, videos, or files held on our servers awaiting delivery.
Your device push token (Firebase Cloud Messaging).
Stored network-quality measurements associated with your account.

What is retained, and for how long

Anonymised diagnostic logs — no phone number, no personal data. Retained for up to 90 days for service-health monitoring and abuse detection, then permanently deleted.
Encrypted database backups — our backups roll over on a 14-day cycle, so deleted data may persist in encrypted backup form for up to 14 days after the live record is deleted. Backups are not used for any purpose other than disaster recovery.
Legal hold records — if GriotMate has been served with a valid law-enforcement preservation order relating to your account, we are required to retain those specific records until released.

What GriotMate cannot delete

Messages your contacts have already received are stored on their devices, not on our servers. We cannot remove copies from other people's phones — you would need to ask the recipient.
SMS messages sent via your phone carrier (when you used the "Send as SMS" fallback) are stored by your mobile network operator, not by GriotMate. We cannot delete those; your carrier sets its own retention policy.

Other data rights

You may also request a copy of all data GriotMate holds about you. Email mbeale@groupmatetechnologies.com with the subject GriotMate data export and the phone number you registered with. We will respond within 30 days.

Children

GriotMate is intended for users aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a child, please contact us at the email below.

Changes to this policy

We will post any material changes to this policy on this page and update the "Last updated" date at the top. Substantial changes will also be communicated within the app.

Complaints

If you have any concern about how Groupmate Technologies CIC has handled your personal data, you have the right to complain to us. Please contact us at mbeale@groupmatetechnologies.com. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and respond without undue delay. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at any time (ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113).

Contact

For privacy questions or data requests, contact:

Marc Beale (Groupmate Technologies CIC)
mbeale@groupmatetechnologies.com