Privacy

Circle is a closed community for verified university students. This page describes what the service collects and why. It covers both this site (circle.ac) and the app (app.circle.ac).

What this site collects

Page views. We count which pages on circle.ac are opened, which site sent you, the country the request came from and the kind of device and browser it used. That is measured by Vercel Web Analytics — Vercel hosts this site, so it already handles every request to it.

It sets no cookie and keeps no identifier that outlives the day: a repeat visit is recognised by a value derived from the request itself and thrown away every 24 hours. So the figures are visits rather than people, and nothing here can follow you to another site. There is no advertising pixel and no third-party embed — the script and the data it sends are served from circle.ac itself, and fonts come from this domain rather than a font CDN, so loading this page does not tell anyone else that you did.

What the app collects

• Your personal email address and your name, which is your account. If you sign up with Google, we take both from your Google account. If you sign up with your email instead, you type them in, we mail a six-digit code to prove the address is yours, and we keep the password you choose only as a one-way hash — nobody, including us, can read it back.
• Your university email address, once you verify it with a six-digit code we mail there. A verified address is what makes you a member of a circle — it is the membership itself, not a profile decoration.
• What you post — posts, comments, events, listings, messages, and the groups you join.
• Your timetables — the classes you add, picked from your campus’s course catalog or typed in yourself.
• Course reviews you write — a rating and your comments on a course you took, and the professor, if you name one.
• Reports and blocks. If you report something, we keep what you reported, the reason, any note you add, and that it was you. Circle’s team sees all of that; the person reported is never told who reported them. If you block someone, we keep that you did, and only you can see it.

Who can see it

Posts, events and listings are visible only to people holding a verified email for the same circle. Private groups are narrower still: their posts never leave the group, and a record you are not entitled to see answers as though it does not exist rather than confirming that it does.

Following someone is one-directional and private. There are no follower counts, and the person you follow is never told.

Your timetables are visible only to you. Nobody else can open them. Course reviews are shown to everyone on your campus without your name or photo. Circle still records which account wrote each one: that is how you can edit or delete your own, and how one person is kept to one review of a course and professor.

Posts from Instagram and X

A post can link to a public post on Instagram or X, and the app shows that post in place. It is loaded from Instagram or X only when it is about to come onto your screen — a page with no such post, or with one you never scroll near, requests nothing from either.

When it does load, that company’s own code runs in your browser to show the post, and it receives what any visit to its site would: your IP address, details of your browser, and that you came from app.circle.ac — not which post or which circle. Separately, when a post containing such a link is written, Circle’s server asks Instagram or X once for the public post’s text. That request carries the link and nothing about you or about the person who posted it.

What the app loads from Google

The web app at app.circle.ac makes three kinds of request to Google. Each tells Google what any visit to a Google page would: your IP address, details of your browser, and that you came from app.circle.ac — not which page, which circle, or anything you wrote.

• Fonts. The app’s typefaces are loaded from Google Fonts on every page. The Android and iPhone apps carry their own and do not.
• Google sign-in. The sign-in and sign-up pages load Google’s sign-in button. While you are signed out, the app also opens a connection to Google’s sign-in server ahead of time, so the button appears quickly.
• Profile photos. Someone who signed up with Google and has not uploaded a photo is shown with their Google profile picture, which your browser — or the Android or iPhone app — loads from Google.

Circle’s Android app

If you use the Android app, it talks to the same service and everything above applies. It also does the following, and nothing more.

• Google sign-in goes through Google Play services on your phone, which tells Google that you are signing in to Circle.
• On your phone it keeps your session, encrypted with a key held by the phone’s own secure hardware; your account details as last seen; a copy of your primary timetable, for the home-screen widget and class reminders; and which messages and replies it has already told you about. None of it is backed up to Google, and signing out or deleting your account clears it.
• Notifications come from the app checking the service itself every so often. Nothing about your account is sent to Google’s push service.
• Scanning a code inside the app is done by Google Play services, so Google receives information about how its scanner is used and performs. Your phone’s own camera app opens Circle codes too, without this.
• Problem reports. If the app closes unexpectedly, it keeps a report on your phone — the app’s version, your phone’s model and Android version, and where in the app it failed — and offers to send it the next time it opens. Nothing is sent unless you send it, and you see all of it first.

Circle’s iPhone app

If you use the iPhone app, it talks to the same service and everything above applies. It also does the following, and nothing more.

• Sign in with Apple tells Apple that you are signing in to Circle. If you choose to hide your email, Circle receives an address at Apple’s private relay instead of yours.
• On your phone it keeps your session in the phone’s keychain, where only Circle can read it; a copy of your primary timetable, for the widgets, the next class on your Lock Screen, class reminders and “Next class” in Siri; and, so your phone’s search can find them, the names of your classes and of the groups you are in. None of it leaves your phone or is restored onto a different one, and signing out or deleting your account clears it.
• Class reminders and the next class on your Lock Screen come from that copy, on your phone, and are off until you turn them on. Nothing is sent anywhere to remind you.
• Notifications for messages, replies and join requests are off until you turn them on. When they are on, your phone’s push address is stored with your account, removed when you sign out and erased with your account. Apple’s push service carries only a placeholder such as “New message” — never a name or anything anyone wrote; the app fetches the details from Circle on your phone.
• Apple Calendar. Adding an event or your classes to your calendar is add-only: Circle never reads your calendar.
• Crash reports. If you share analytics with app developers in your iPhone’s settings, Apple sends us reports of where the app failed. The app itself contains no crash-reporting or analytics code.

What we do not do

• We do not sell personal data.
• We do not show advertising.
• We do not let anyone read your circle who does not hold a verified address at your university. That is the guarantee — not a promise about who we will never build a feature for.
• We do not publish a per-school breakdown of who is waiting or who has joined. Which campuses have traction is not something an outsider can enumerate.

Deleting your account

Deleting your account removes your account, your posts, comments, messages and memberships, for good. A group you host passes to its longest-standing admin or member, or closes if nobody else is in it. Delete it yourself from Settings in the app, or email privacy@circle.ac from the address you sign in with and we will delete it for you.

Contact

Questions about any of the above: privacy@circle.ac.