MyBlock Privacy Policy
Provisional version. This text is under legal review and may change before the app launches.
Notice under Articles 13 and 14 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 ("GDPR").
1. Data controller
Giovanni Laterza, contact: [email protected].
2. What data we process
- Profile: nickname, avatar colour, language, city, age confirmation (at least 18), the version of the Terms accepted and the date.
- Account: a technical identifier (the anonymous account of the “quick start”) and, if you choose to save your account, your email address (confirmed with a link). With the quick start you can look around and play Live Lobbies; to write in private and group chats, Communities, the profile board and Events you need an account saved with a confirmed email.
- Content: answers, comments, lobby chat messages, discussion-table messages, private and group chat messages (with reactions, edits, deletions) and voice messages (audio files).
- Game activity: lobbies and matches you take part in, play groups, requests and invitations, friendships, contacts, blocks, Sampietrini earned and spent.
- Purchases: the Sampietrini packs you buy, with date, amount, store used and transaction identifier. Payment is handled by Apple or Google: we do not receive your card details.
- Presence: a periodic activity signal (to know whether you are online or in a match) and, if you turn it on, your "online" status visible to friends.
- Moderation: reports you send or receive (with reason and note), a copy of the latest messages of the reported person written in places they share with the reporter, warnings, mutes, suspensions, bans and decisions.
- Technical data: security and operation logs (such as IP address and device information) handled by the infrastructure provider. We do not ask for your real name or your precise location. Microphone access is only requested to record voice messages and camera access only to take photos to send.
- Photos and images: photos sent in chats, the photos and text of your board posts, your uploaded banner, bio and profile customisations (emblem, colours, title), unlocked achievements, owned items and shop purchases (with Sampietrini). Photos are resized and stripped of metadata (EXIF, GPS location) on your device before upload and stored in private storage: only chat members can see them, or non-blocked users for board and banner, through links that expire.
- Automatic check: where available, an analysis on your device (an Apple system feature) tries to prevent sending obvious nudity; the image is not sent to us for this check and it is not available on every device.
- Approximate location: only if you allow it, to show you nearby Communities. It is rounded on your phone to about 2 km before it is sent; we only store your last approximate zone for search and, for Local Communities you create, the Community's zone. It is never shown to other users (only a distance band is). If you don't allow it, Live Lobbies and Discovery still work.
- Communities: Communities you create or join, role, posts, polls and votes, answers, comments, reactions, uploaded covers.
- Ephemeral photos: the file is kept in private storage only until the recipient opens it (then deleted) or for 7 days if never opened; we keep no thumbnails.
- Community chats: text messages, photos and voice messages (audio files) you send in a Community chat, replies and comments on posts (also with photos), reactions. They are kept in private storage and visible to people who can see the Community, through links that expire.
- Voice messages and photos in Live Lobbies: voice messages (6 seconds at most) and photos you send as an answer to a question, as a comment (photos only), in the end-of-match chat or in the Live Chat. They are kept in private storage, visible only to the match's participants, and deleted 7 days after the match ends (or sooner, if the match no longer appears in any participant's history); afterwards the history shows "voice message expired" / "photo expired".
- General chat: the General chat is one public chat, the same for everyone who uses the app, with no location. Everyone can read it; to write or react you need a saved account. Whatever you write there (text, up to 30-second voice messages, replies, reactions) is visible to all users, together with your nickname and avatar, and the list of who reacted to a message with which emoji is visible to the other participants (this also applies to the other chats where reactions are available, to the people who can see those messages). Photos are not allowed. The automatic anti-spam checks and the reports described in this notice apply; a message reported by several different people is hidden for everyone until a moderator decides.
- Automatic photo check: every photo you upload in public spaces (Live Lobbies, Communities and covers, Events, profile: board and banner) is analysed automatically by an external service (OpenAI) for safety, before other people can see it. The photo is sent to the service only for the check; we do not use it for other purposes. If a photo does not pass the check it is not published and we keep a copy, with the automatic report for moderators, for the period stated below. We also keep a technical log of the check (scores per category, outcome, timings) without the images. Photos in private chats, group chats and ephemeral photos are NOT analysed automatically and are never sent to OpenAI: a person looks at them only if someone reports them (with a copy of the evidence). Voice messages are not analysed automatically.
3. Why we process it and on what legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Creating your account and running lobbies, matches, chats, friendships, voice messages, Sampietrini | performance of a contract (Art. 6.1.b) |
| Handling Sampietrini purchases and keeping the records required by tax law | performance of a contract (Art. 6.1.b) and legal obligation (Art. 6.1.c) |
| Security, preventing abuse, spam and bots, moderation, handling reports and decisions | legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.f) in protecting users and the service |
| Checking the minimum age and keeping the acceptance of the Terms | legal obligation / legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.c and 6.1.f) |
| Using the microphone for voice messages | your consent through the device permission (Art. 6.1.a) |
| Using the camera to take photos | your consent through the device permission (Art. 6.1.a) |
| Automatic photo check by an external provider, to prevent prohibited content (sexual, violent, self-harm) | legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.f) in protecting users and the service |
| Replying to requests from authorities | legal obligation (Art. 6.1.c) |
Limited automated decisions. The photo check of public spaces is automatic: if a photo does not pass the check it is not sent (you can contest it in the app with "Do you think this is a mistake?" and a moderator reviews it). After 6 blocked photos in 30 days, sending photos (not text or voice messages) is automatically suspended for 7 days. For everything else, if an account is reported by 3 different people within 24 hours it is only flagged "in review" for moderators, with no restriction at all. Warnings, mutes, suspensions and bans are always decided by a person (a moderator). You can ask for a review by writing to [email protected]. Bans, account suspensions and mutes are always decided by a person.
4. Who we share it with
- Other users: they see what you share in lobbies and chats (nickname, avatar, messages, answers). We never show your email or real name.
- Providers (processors): Supabase (database, authentication, voice-message storage, realtime), with servers in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany) and a data processing agreement; Resend to send sign-in and confirmation emails, sent from servers in the European Union (Ireland); Cloudflare for the myblockapp.com website and for forwarding the emails you send us; OpenAI for the automatic analysis of public-space photos only, for safety. OpenAI is based in the United States: photos sent for the check may be processed outside the EU, with the safeguards in OpenAI's data processing agreement (Standard Contractual Clauses). Under OpenAI's terms, data received through the API is not used to train models and is kept only for a limited time, for safety purposes. We do not sell your data.
- Apple and Google, which handle payment for purchases as independent controllers, under their own privacy policies.
- Authorities, where required by law.
- Transfers outside the EU: some providers (Supabase, Resend, Cloudflare, OpenAI) are companies based in the United States. When data leaves the European Union, the transfer relies on the safeguards provided by the GDPR, such as the Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission.
5. How long we keep it
- Profile and content: until you delete your account (then deleted, except as below).
- Lobby chat: kept while the lobby is active and according to the app's rules; your private and group chats stay as long as they exist.
- Closed reports (archived or handled) and the related message copies: 180 days; open ones until a decision is made.
- Purchase records: for as long as tax and accounting rules require (up to 10 years).
- Read warnings: 30 days. Presence data and technical logs: for as long as strictly necessary.
- If you delete your account your data is deleted; reports already filed may remain up to the 180 days above, with the nickname only, to protect other users.
- Photos: kept until you delete the message or post (or the account); when deleted, the files are removed. When a photo, post or banner is reported, we keep a copy with the report for the period stated above (180 days after it is closed).
- Photos under review: before being published every photo sits in temporary private storage and is deleted right after (in any case within about 15 minutes); for public-space photos the automatic check happens at this step, for private, group and ephemeral photos no analysis is done. Public-space photos that are not approved are never published. The technical log of the check (without images) is kept for 30 days.
- Events: the event, its chat and files are visible for 24 hours after the end (or cancellation), then for another 24 hours read-only (participants and chat only), then deleted (only report copies remain). Matches: answers, comments and messages stay while the match is among the last 15 of at least one participant, and for 7 days at most, then are deleted. You can delete your own photos and voice messages at any time.
- Live Lobby voice messages and photos: deleted 7 days after the match ends, or sooner if the match leaves the history (last 15 matches) of every participant. Report copies stay for the period stated above.
- General chat: messages (text and voice messages) and their reactions are deleted automatically 48 hours after they are sent (the voice files are removed by an hourly cleanup). The only exception is the copy of a message that has been reported, kept as evidence for the period stated for reports above.
- Communities: content stays while the Community exists or until it is deleted; if you delete your account, your Communities pass to the oldest moderator or are closed. Reports about Community content keep a copy for the period stated above.
- Community chats: messages (with photos and voice messages) stay in the history until they are deleted by their author, the owner or a moderator, or until you delete your account (then they are removed). Reports keep a copy of the content (photos and voice messages included) for the period stated above.
6. Your rights
You can ask for access, rectification, erasure, restriction and portability, and object to processing, by writing to [email protected]. You can delete your account yourself from Settings → "Delete account". You have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority (in Italy: www.garanteprivacy.it).
7. Minimum age
MyBlock is for people who are at least 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect data from minors; if we learn of it we close the account and delete the data.
8. Rules of conduct and moderation
To keep the app safe we apply automatic text filters (no filter in private chats between friends; elsewhere the most serious offensive words are replaced with asterisks, and links are not allowed except between friends), we may review reports and issue warnings, mutes, suspensions or bans as described in the Terms of Use.
9. Changes
If this policy changes in a significant way we will ask you to read and accept it again.