Privacy policy for the Cohlta app

Effective 10 September 2026. Cohlta is operated by Contrivance Inc., a New York corporation. This policy covers the Cohlta mobile app and this website. Contact: [email protected].

What we collect

• Account. An email address and password, or a sign-in identifier from Apple or Google if you use those. A display name and, optionally, a profile photo and username.
• Videos and photos you post. The clip itself, and the location where it was made, which is what pins it to the map. You choose whether to attach a location when you post.
• Location. With your permission, your device's location, used to show the map around you, pin your posts, and find nearby clips. You can turn this off in your device settings; the map then falls back to a city you pick.
• Messages and calls. Direct messages are stored so they can be delivered and shown to you. Voice calls are end-to-end encrypted; we can't listen to them and don't record them.
• Ask. The questions you ask, and any photo you attach to a question, so the assistant can answer and so we can improve it.
• Contacts. Only if you choose to share a contact in a message, and only that contact.
• Reports and appeals. What you report, why, and the text of any appeal you make.
• Device and push. A push-notification token so we can notify you, and basic device and app-version information so we can fix crashes.

How we use it

• To run the service: show the map, deliver messages, answer questions, send the notifications you've turned on.
• To generate titles, descriptions and summaries for your clips using our own AI models. These run on infrastructure we operate; your videos are not sent to third-party AI providers.
• To build Ask's answers. When you post a clip publicly, Ask may use what's in it (the picture, the sound, the on-screen text) to answer other people's questions about that place, and will link back to your clip.
• To keep the service safe: checking uploads, comments, profile photos, names and bios against our community guidelines, acting on reports, enforcing blocks, and reviewing appeals. These checks run on our own systems and their decisions are reviewed by a person.

What we share

We don't sell your data. Public posts are visible to other users by design. We use a small number of service providers to run the app (cloud storage for video, push-notification delivery through Apple and Google, and a crash-reporting service), each bound to use data only to provide that service. We'll disclose data if the law requires it.

What we keep, and for how long

Your account and content stay until you delete them. Deleting a video removes it from the map, feeds and Ask. Deleting your account removes your profile, videos and messages within 30 days, except where we must keep a record for legal reasons. Crash and diagnostic logs are kept for 90 days.

Content removed for breaking our rules is handled differently. The video file itself is kept for up to 90 days so that an appeal can be reviewed. The labels and decisions our systems produced about it, not the video, are kept indefinitely to improve detection and to keep a record of what was decided and why. Content that must be reported to the authorities is handled under their requirements rather than this rule. Reports, appeals and moderation decisions are kept as a record of the decision.

Your choices

• Delete your account from Settings in the app, or by emailing us.
• Turn location off in your device settings at any time.
• Turn notifications off in your device settings.
• See decisions about your own content, and appeal them, from Settings, then Content Status in the app.
• Ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct it, at [email protected].

Children

Cohlta is not for anyone under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe a child has an account, email us and we'll remove it.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect.