Who we are
We run this site. If you have a question about your information, write to us.
Tell Me How You Met (“we”, “us”) is run by Ironborn Ventures LLC, 1147 Brook Forest Ave, Shorewood, IL 60404. This policy explains what we collect when you read, write or react to love stories here, and what we do with it.
Questions or requests about your information: hello@tellmehowyoumet.love.
What we collect
Your email, your date of birth (kept private), and the things you choose to share: stories, photos, paper couples, reactions, comments and saves.
You can read every story without an account. We only collect more when you join in:
- Your email address, to sign you in (we email you a link and a 6-digit code; there are no passwords). If you choose Continue with Google, Google tells us your email address and the name on your Google account. We never see your Google password.
- Your date of birth, to make sure everyone telling a story is 18 or older. It is never shown to anyone.
- Your stories: the headline, the story itself, the names you use, where you met (we only ever keep and show the city, never an exact spot), how you met, your anniversary if you add it (private unless you choose to show it), and the two promises you tick before sending (that it’s true, and that your partner knows).
- Photos. Before we save a photo, we strip the hidden details cameras add, like GPS location and the camera model, and resize it.
- Your paper couple, if you build one instead of (or as well as) a photo.
- Story interviewer answers. If you use the story interviewer, your answers are saved as you go so you can come back later. Only you can see them.
- Reactions, comments, saves and reports. Which stickers you put on a story, the comments you leave, the stories you save, and anything you report.
- Removal requests. If you ask us to remove a story or a picture, we keep what you wrote and your email so we can act on it and reply. We email you a link to confirm the request is yours, and note when you tapped it. If you were signed in, we note your account too. Unconfirmed requests about a story expire, and we delete them a week later.
- Drafts on your device. While you write, your draft is saved in your browser on that device, so a lost signal doesn’t lose your story. Once you sign in, it’s saved to your account too.
- Basic technical details. Like every website, the services that host us receive your IP address, browser type and the pages you ask for, to deliver them and keep the site secure.
- Visit counts. We count visits, and which stories are read to the end or shared, with Plausible, a privacy-friendly analytics tool we run on our own server. It uses no cookies and keeps nothing that identifies you: your IP address is never stored (it’s only used, scrambled and reset daily, to count unique visitors and guess your country). It never sees your name, your email or anything you write.
If you tell us you’re under 18, we don’t create an account. We keep a note that it happened, with no details about you. If you were already signed in, the account and everything in it is deleted.
What everyone can see
Stories are public. Your email, birthday and private details are not.
There’s no private mode. Once a story is published, anyone online can read it, including search engines. That means its headline, the story, the names you used, the city, the photo or paper couple, how many of each sticker it has, and published comments.
Never public:
- your email address and date of birth
- your anniversary date, unless you tick “Show it on our story”
- your story interviewer answers and drafts you haven’t sent
- who put which sticker on a story, what you saved, and what you reported
Why we use it
To run the site, keep it safe and kind, and follow the law. Never to sell.
- To run the site for you: signing you in, saving and showing your story, your reactions, comments and saves.
- To keep it safe: checking stories, comments and photos before they go live, enforcing the 18+ rule, handling reports and removal requests, and stopping abuse.
- To follow the law: for example, answering takedown requests and keeping the records the law asks for.
- To tell you about your story: emails about your story, like when it’s live or about to be featured.
- To send you our emails: signing up includes our emails, like the daily featured love story. Every one of them has an unsubscribe link.
- To see what people enjoy: counting visits, reads and shares (with no personal data, see above), so we know which stories people love.
If you’re in the European Economic Area or the UK, the legal reasons we rely on are: to provide the service you asked for, our legitimate interest in keeping the site safe and in telling members about it, and meeting legal obligations.
Content checks and the story interviewer
Every story, comment and photo gets an automated check before it goes live. A person looks at anything flagged.
Before anything goes live, it gets automated content checks by a third-party service provider, for things like hateful or explicit content and personal details such as phone numbers or addresses. The checks only judge; they never change your words. Anything flagged waits for a person on our team to review it.
If you use the story interviewer, the same provider helps arrange your own answers into a draft. The draft only uses what you told it, and you read and edit it before anything is sent.
Who helps us run the site
A few trusted services handle data for us. We don’t sell your information.
These companies process information for us, only to provide their service:
- Supabase: our database, sign-in and photo storage (servers in the United States).
- Vercel: hosts the website.
- Resend: sends our emails, including sign-in emails.
- A third-party service provider for automated content checks and the story interviewer (see above).
- Google: only if you choose Continue with Google.
Our visit counts (Plausible) run on a server we control, not on a third party’s analytics service.
We don’t sell your personal information, and we don’t share it for advertising. We may share information if the law requires it, to protect someone’s safety, or if the site changes owners (and this policy would still apply). If we ever add ads or sponsors, we’ll update this policy before we do.
How long we keep it
As long as your account is open, then we delete it. A few safety records last longer.
- Your account stays until you ask us to delete it. Deleting it deletes your stories, comments, reactions, saves and interview answers too.
- A removed story leaves the site right away. We keep a copy only as long as we might need it for a dispute or a legal request, then delete it.
- Removal requests and our decisions (what was removed, when, and why) are kept, even after an account is gone, so we can show we acted.
- Backups of our database are kept for up to 7 days, so anything deleted is gone from them soon after.
- Server logs (the technical records our hosts keep of visits to the site) are kept for up to 30 days.
If we ever have to report content that harms a child, the law requires us to keep related records for at least one year.
Your choices and rights
You can see, fix, download or delete your information. Remove a story yourself any time from your Me page.
- Remove a story yourself from your Me page. It comes off the site right away.
- See, correct, download or delete your information, or delete your whole account: email hello@tellmehowyoumet.love from the address you sign in with. We reply as soon as we can, and always within the time the law gives us.
- In the EEA or UK, you can also object to or limit how we use your information, and complain to your local data protection authority.
- In California and other U.S. states with privacy laws, you have the right to know what we collect, to delete it, and to correct it. We don’t sell or share personal information for advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of.
We won’t treat you any differently for using these rights.
Children
You must be 18 or older to have an account.
Accounts are for people 18 and older. We ask for your date of birth before you send a story. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we delete it and everything in it. We don’t knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you think a child has given us information, email hello@tellmehowyoumet.love and we’ll delete it.
Stories about couples who met as teenagers are welcome, but never anything sexual about anyone who was under 18 at the time.
Keeping it safe
We protect your information carefully, but no website is perfect.
There are no passwords to steal. Every connection is encrypted, and our database only lets each person reach their own private information. If something ever goes wrong, we’ll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes in a way that matters, we’ll tell you first.
We’ll post any changes here with a new effective date. If a change matters, we’ll tell you by email or on the site before it takes effect.
Questions: hello@tellmehowyoumet.love, or by post to Ironborn Ventures LLC, 1147 Brook Forest Ave, Shorewood, IL 60404.