Privacy Policy
Last updated: 15 October 2026 · Version 1.9
HelpMe is an app for asking for and offering help and organizing activities together with real people: sports and walks, volunteering, hobbies, outings and culture. Help and the app are free. In the future, it will offer optional paid features (the “HelpMe Pro” plan), available only through Google Play. This policy explains in plain language what data we process, why, and what rights you have under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the “GDPR”).
1. Data controller
Stefano Salustri, natural person — data controller.
Privacy contact and requests to exercise your rights: support@helpmeapp.pro.
2. Data we collect
- Account data: first and last name (never shown to other users: we need them to know who is behind an account in cases of serious abuse and to answer requests from public authorities), public alias, email, date of birth (only to check that you state that you are at least 18), and password (stored only in encrypted form: we cannot see it). First name, last name and date of birth are also stored in our authentication system (Supabase) together with the account. When you register, we also store the version of the Terms and of this policy that you accepted and when you accepted them.
- Phone number: to publish, reply, chat, join a group activity or report content, you must verify a phone number by SMS; it is not needed to browse listings. Our authentication system (Supabase) stores the number while your account exists, and each number can be linked to only one account. It is never visible to other users. To prevent suspended or banned people from signing up again, we also retain a fingerprint of every phone number and email used with the account, meaning a code derived from that data. No other app user, including moderation staff, can read the fingerprints (you can find yours in your data export); since October 2026, phone-number fingerprints have been calculated with a secret key, and those calculated earlier without a key are converted or deleted by 1 January 2027. Section 6 explains how long they are kept after account deletion.
- Location: only while you use the app, and only with your permission, we read the phone's location to show nearby requests; we use it to calculate distances and do not store it in your profile. Without permission, the app shows the Rome area and you can still select a point manually. When you publish a listing, we store the point you select on the map: other users see it randomly shifted by up to about 300 metres; the exact point is visible only to people you accept (your helper or accepted participants in a group activity) and moderation staff. The app uses OpenStreetMap for area names and address searches and Google Maps to draw the map (see section 5). The phone's location is never read while the app is closed.
- Content: listings you publish (title, description, category, area label and expiry), replies and requests to join an activity, chat messages, and reviews (stars and comments). Photos cannot currently be attached in the app. Other users can see the title, description and area label: do not include your address, phone numbers, or health information about yourself or anyone else: if you do, you make them visible to anyone using the app (for the wellbeing case, see section 4).
- Profile: alias, optional biography and city, app language, notification preferences, preferred search radius, the “Sort by relevance” switch and, if it is on, the average used for ordering by relevance (section 4), ratings received and number of collaborations. Other users can see your alias, ratings and number of collaborations.
- Account plan: whether you use the free version or the “HelpMe Pro” plan, including any expiry date. When Pro becomes available, purchases will be made only through Google Play: we will never receive payment details such as card or bank account information, only confirmation of the purchase.
- Technical data: the phone's push notification token; a random installation identifier sent to Expo at each launch to check for updates; reports you submit and reports about you; people you block; any suspensions; email and phone fingerprints; technical and security logs, such as moderation decisions about your listings; and the IP address and device or app type (user agent) of your sign-in sessions, which our authentication system (Supabase) records to keep you signed in and for security, and which are deleted with the account.
- Error diagnostics: if the app encounters an error or crashes, we receive a technical report containing where the error occurred, the app version, phone model and Android version, your internal account ID, and a technical list of recent app operations, such as web addresses called without their parameters. In addition, in app versions up to 2026.09.1, at each launch the app sends a technical session signal (start, duration and whether the session ended with an error) with the same internal ID, even when there are no errors; from version 2026.10.1 this signal is switched off. For app errors, filters remove free text, coordinates, email addresses and phone numbers; for Android system crashes, the technical crash and device data are sent. We do not include your name, email, location, searched addresses or IP address in these reports. This helps us detect malfunctions without waiting for a report from you.
- Support and suggestions: if you use the “Suggestions and problems” screen, we store the selected type, your message, your internal account ID, app version, platform and operating-system version and, when available, the phone model. This submission does not collect location, screenshots or logs. Staff also receive an email whose text is automatically redacted: email addresses, phone numbers and links are replaced before it is sent.
Required data. To create an account, you need an email, password, alias, first name, last name and date of birth; to publish, reply, chat, join activities and report content, you also need a verified phone number. Without this data, we cannot provide the service. The phone's location, biography, city and notifications are optional.
3. Why we process data (legal bases)
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Operating the service: accounts, listings, replies, chats, notifications, map and area names, service emails and app updates | Performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR) |
| Community safety: phone verification, automated and staff moderation, reports and copies of reported content, suspensions and bans, fingerprints to prevent re-registration by suspended or banned people and to recognise people who sign up again while reports are open, and security logs | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR): protecting HelpMe users against fraud, harassment and abuse and enforcing the rules |
| Restricting the service to adults (date of birth) | Performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR) |
| Knowing who is behind an account in cases of serious abuse (first and last name) | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR): protecting people and being able to cooperate with public authorities |
| Wellbeing: sending listings whose author seems to be in distress to a staff member, without sanctions, and showing the author help numbers (section 4) | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) in protecting HelpMe users; for the health-related data, data you make public yourself in the listing (Article 9(2)(e) GDPR) |
| Ordering the feed by relevance, using an average computed from the listings you publish or reply to (section 4) | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) in showing you the most useful requests first; you can switch it off at any time in the app settings |
| Legal obligations, such as requests from public authorities | Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR) |
| Detecting and correcting app malfunctions (error diagnostics) | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) |
| Answering support requests and receiving suggestions to improve HelpMe | Performance of the service (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR) for support; legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) in improving the service and its reliability for suggestions |
We do not carry out marketing, sell your data or use profiled advertising.
4. Automated moderation and account suspension (AI transparency)
Every listing, and every change to its title or description, is checked before it becomes visible. The check has three layers: (1) a filter on our server blocks phone numbers, email addresses and links in the title and description; no data leaves our server at this layer; (2) OpenAI's moderation service receives only the title and description without those contact details (if you write health information in them, it receives that too) and checks that the text does not fall into risk categories such as hate, harassment, sexual content, violence, self-harm and illicit activities; (3) a small OpenAI model compares the title and description with the Community Guidelines, classifies the severity and assigns up to five topic keywords. The final decision — publish, send to staff or reject — is the most cautious outcome from layers 2 and 3, except in the wellbeing case described below; if either check does not respond, the listing is sent to staff. When a listing is rejected, the system classifies the violation as minor (for example, a sale or paid job offer) or serious (for example, drugs, weapons, fraud, sexual or dangerous content). During the check, we also compute from the title and description, on our own servers (Supabase, section 5) and without sending the text to anyone else for this step, a numeric representation of the text, which is used only to order listings by relevance and is deleted with the listing.
Wellbeing (health-related data). If the automated moderation (layers 2 and 3) understands from the title or description of a listing that the author may want to harm themselves or is in serious distress, the listing is not rejected and does not count towards account suspension. It does not become visible to others: it goes to a staff member, at the top of the queue, with a note to review it gently. The app shows you a message with the numbers of Telefono Amico Italia and 112. The only exception is a text that also contains sexual content involving minors or violent illicit activities: in that case the normal rules apply. This information concerns health, so it is a special category of data (Article 9 GDPR). We derive it only from the text you write in the listing: we do not ask you for it and we do not look for it anywhere else. We store a “wellbeing” code on the listing, which other users cannot see: staff use it, and the app uses it to show you the message with the help numbers. Staff also receive a notification with a fixed phrase, without the listing text or your alias. The code is removed when staff publish the listing; if the listing is not published, the code stays with the listing, at the latest until the account is deleted. The technical log of the AI decision, with the same code and the risk categories found, is kept for 12 months (section 6). The code also appears in the JSON file of your data copy (section 7), both among the listing data and in the log of the AI decision, with the risk categories found. We do not use this information for anything else. Staff do not contact emergency services on your behalf. HelpMe is not an emergency service and staff do not respond in real time: if you are in danger, call 112 right away. Legal basis: you write the title and description and submit them to publish them on the board, which anyone who signs up to HelpMe can read; for this reason we treat any health information they contain as data you have made public yourself (Article 9(2)(e) GDPR), only to the extent and for as long as this check requires. Otherwise the processing is based on our legitimate interest in protecting HelpMe users and in not punishing people who are struggling (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). This check decides nothing on its own and leads to no sanctions: a person always reviews the listing.
Ordering by relevance (active from 18 October 2026). From the numeric representations of the listings you have published or replied to (applications, help and group participation) in the last 6 months, only if approved and not hidden, we compute on our own servers (Supabase) a numeric average of them. It is not new text and nobody reads it: it is a sequence of numbers that the database only compares with those of other listings. We do not use it to infer special-category data, such as health data, and listings that went through the wellbeing check (see above) are never included in the average, even after staff have published them. We do not use your biography, alias, name or any other profile data, and for this computation we send nothing to OpenAI or anyone else. The average is used only to order the feed: half of the order depends on how close a listing is to the topics of your listings and half on how close it is to you; your own listings and those you have already replied to are not boosted by topic. It decides nothing else about you and nobody else can see it. It is updated when you publish or reply and every night, when listings older than 6 months drop out. You can switch it off in Profile → Account → “Sort by relevance”: the average is deleted immediately and the feed is ordered only by distance and date. It is deleted with your account; in your data export it appears only as present (yes/no), together with the switch; the numbers alone mean nothing, but if you want them we will send them to you: write to support@helpmeapp.pro. These are the main parameters we use to suggest listings to you and the way to change them, described as required by Article 27 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Digital Services Act. It is a simple form of profiling (Article 4(4) GDPR), used only to order the feed.
Since October 2026 the same filter for phone numbers, email addresses and links also applies to the biography and review comments, which are not saved if they contain one, and to the alias: if it contains a contact at registration, it is replaced with a neutral alias (“Utente” followed by four characters).
Assessment limit. Each publication, and each change to the title or description, counts as one assessment: you can have no more than 3 in 24 hours (5 with HelpMe Pro). Beyond that limit, the publication or change is refused and, for a listing that is already published, the already approved version remains visible.
Automated account suspension. If automated moderation rejects one of your listings as serious, or if automated moderation rejects three of your listings for minor violations within 90 days (even if you later corrected them), the account is automatically suspended for 30 days without prior human review. Rejections made manually by staff do not count. This is a decision based solely on automated processing (Article 22 GDPR). We use it because it is necessary to apply immediately the service rules you accepted (Article 22(2)(a) GDPR). Every automated suspension enters a queue that staff review and can revoke. You have the right to obtain human intervention, express your view and contest the decision: email support@helpmeapp.pro and a person will answer.
Reports. In the app, you can report a listing, a person (a listing author, people who reply, group activity participants, the other person in a one-to-one chat), an individual message, including in group chats, and reviews you receive. Reporting requires a verified phone number. Every report reaches moderation staff. If three different people report the same open listing, it leaves the feed and enters the staff queue, where staff decide whether to restore it. Listings with an ongoing or completed collaboration remain visible and staff receive an alert.
Chats. Messages are read only by participants: moderation staff have no access to conversations. When someone reports a message, the part of the conversation saved for that report (see below) can be accessed only by authorised staff, to handle the report.
Copies of reported content. When someone submits a report, we save a copy of the reported content that only staff can see: for a listing, its title, description and area label; for a review, its stars and comment; for a person, their alias; for a message, the reported message with up to 50 previous and up to 10 following messages (those already written when the report is made) of the same conversation, with the internal ID of whoever wrote them, including those from the person reporting and from other participants (also in group chats); automatic app messages are not copied. The copy is kept for 6 months and then deleted automatically (except in the cases described in section 6: a complaint, legal proceedings or an investigation by the authorities), even if the people who wrote that content delete their accounts in the meantime. Even if the person who submitted the report deletes their account, the report and its copy remain for 6 months (the report: 6 months after it is closed), no longer linked to their account. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in protecting the community from harassment and abuse (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
5. Recipients and international transfers
We do not disclose your data to third parties for commercial purposes. We use technical providers that process data on our behalf:
| Provider | What it does and receives | Where | Transfer safeguard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, authentication (email, encrypted password and phone number), storage and server functions | European Union (Ireland) | DPA included in Supabase's Terms |
| Twilio | Sends the SMS verification code and receives the phone number | USA | Data Protection Addendum: EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework; Binding Corporate Rules approved by EU authorities |
| OpenAI Ireland Ltd. | Automated moderation (section 4): receives only the title and description after a filter on our server has blocked phone numbers, email addresses and links; it does not receive names, coordinates or the area label. If you write health information in the title or description, it receives that too (section 4, “Wellbeing”). The moderation service checks that the text does not fall into risk categories; a small model compares the text with the Community Guidelines, classifies the severity and assigns up to five keywords. The final decision is the most cautious outcome from the two checks and, if either one does not respond, the listing is sent to staff. OpenAI may retain the title and description for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring; it then deletes them and does not use them to train its models. | Ireland (EU), with transfers to the USA | Signed OpenAI Data Processing Addendum, with EU Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers to the USA (Module 2, controller to processor, and Module 3 for transfers to subprocessors) |
| Expo and Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) | Push notifications: receive the phone token, the notification text (a fixed phrase such as “You have a new message”, never message contents or aliases) and the internal IDs needed to open the right screen. Expo also handles app updates and receives a random installation ID, app version and IP address at each launch. | USA | Expo does not publish a DPA; its Privacy Policy states that it participates in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and uses Standard Contractual Clauses. For Google Firebase: Data Processing and Security Terms, Standard Contractual Clauses and the Data Privacy Framework |
| Resend | Service emails (address confirmation, password recovery and listing rejection notices): receives the email address and email contents; rejection notices also include the alias. For “Suggestions and problems”, it forwards the type, date, internal IDs, technical data and no more than 1,000 characters of the message after email addresses, phone numbers and links have been automatically replaced; it does not receive the complete raw text through this alert. | Service operated by a US company; sending configured from Ireland | Resend DPA: EU Standard Contractual Clauses, Module 2, and the Data Privacy Framework |
| Sentry | Error diagnostics (section 2): receives the technical report, the internal account ID and, only from app versions up to 2026.09.1, the technical session signal; the app never includes the name, email, location, searched addresses or phone number, and the project blocks storage of IP addresses | European Union (Germany) | Sentry DPA: EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, with Standard Contractual Clauses as a fallback safeguard |
| Aruba S.p.A. | Support mailbox support@helpmeapp.pro, with the emails you send us (for example requests about your rights or for account deletion) and the redacted “Suggestions and problems” emails (section 6); hosting of this website, which receives the IP address and technical browser data of visitors | Italy (EU) | No transfer outside the European Union |
When a provider processes data outside the European Union, the transfer is protected by the safeguard shown in the table (Article 46 GDPR). You can request a copy at support@helpmeapp.pro.
Two external services receive data directly from your phone and process it as independent controllers under their own policies:
| Service | What it does and receives | Where |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap Foundation (Nominatim) | When you choose a listing location, it finds the area name and searches addresses. It receives coordinates rounded to about 100 metres, the text submitted when you press “Search”, and the phone's IP address. It acts as an independent controller under its Privacy Policy. | United Kingdom, covered by the EU adequacy decision |
| Google (Maps SDK for Android) | Draws the map in the Map screen and location picker. It may receive the displayed area, IP address, technical map usage data and, if you have given the app location permission, the phone's location, which it uses to show the blue dot marking where you are on the map. See the Google Privacy Policy. | USA; safeguards stated in Google's terms and DPA |
6. Retention
- While your account remains active.
- If you delete your account, your profile, listings, messages, photos, reviews, “Suggestions and problems” submissions, email and phone number are permanently deleted, except in the cases listed below. One-to-one chats are deleted in full when either person deletes their account: they also disappear for the other person, including that person's messages, which no longer appear in their data export either. If you delete your account, the group chats of activities you organised also disappear for all participants; in group chats organised by others, only your messages are deleted. Technical backup copies disappear within 30 days.
- Copies of reported content (section 4): 6 months from the report, after which they are deleted automatically, even if the people who wrote that content have deleted their accounts, except those needed for a complaint to, or an investigation by, the authorities, or for legal proceedings: these are kept as long as necessary, and staff check at least once a year whether they are still needed. If one of your messages ended up in one of these copies, its copy may therefore remain for up to 6 months (or longer, in the cases just mentioned) after you delete your account.
- Reports (those you submit and those about you): they remain in the staff log, with the reason, any text written by the person reporting and the staff decision (for a report about you as a person, also your internal account ID), until 6 months after they are closed, and are then deleted automatically, except those needed for a complaint to, or an investigation by, the authorities, or for legal proceedings; if you delete your account they remain for the same period, no longer linked to your profile: at most the internal ID of the old account remains, which no longer corresponds to any account.
- Email and phone fingerprints: after deletion, we retain the fingerprints of all emails and phone numbers used with the account in two cases, to prevent re-registration by suspended or banned people and to recognise people who sign up again while a report is open:
- if a suspension or ban is active when the account is deleted: they remain for the suspension period (up to 30 days) or, for a permanent ban, while the ban remains in force; a permanent ban has no predetermined expiry;
- if, when the account is deleted, there is at least one report about you that has not yet been assessed: we keep them for 6 months, only to recognise you. You can register again, but if you do so within those 6 months the new account is flagged to staff, who assess the reports that are still open. If staff uphold none of them, the fingerprints are deleted immediately; otherwise they remain until the end of the 6 months. If you think you were recognised by mistake (for example with a phone number that was reassigned to you), email support@helpmeapp.pro.
- Technical and security logs, such as moderation decisions with the internal account ID: 12 months; they are then deleted automatically by the clean-up that runs on the first day of each month (so they remain for at most 13 months), including the technical log of account deletions. The only exception is a deletion request that has not yet been carried out for an account that still exists: it stays in the log until the deletion is completed, because it is needed to complete it.
- Technical error reports: no more than 30 days.
- Support requests and suggestions sent from the app: the complete text remains in the protected table for no more than 24 months and is then deleted automatically. The redacted email sent to staff is also retained in the support mailbox for no more than 24 months.
7. Your rights
You may at any time:
- access your data and download a copy (in the app: Profile → “Policy & GDPR” → “Export my data”). The copy contains your account data and everything you entered or generated in the app, including the suggestions you sent and the moderation decisions on your listings. It does not contain reports made about you or the copies kept for staff (to protect the people who report) or the technical logs of sign-ins and notifications: you can request them at support@helpmeapp.pro;
- correct it (email and phone can be changed in the app; email us about your first name, last name or date of birth);
- delete it by deleting the account (in the app, or see the account deletion page);
- request restriction of processing or data portability;
- object to processing based on legitimate interests;
- obtain human intervention on an automated decision, express your view and contest it (section 4);
- lodge a complaint with the Italian Data Protection Authority (garanteprivacy.it).
To exercise your rights, email support@helpmeapp.pro. We reply within 30 days.
8. Minimum age
HelpMe is restricted to people aged 18 and over. During registration, we ask for the date of birth and our server rejects anyone who states they are under 18. The server also rejects registrations without a date of birth. This is a self-declaration: we do not check identity documents.
9. Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we update the date and version above. If we add a new processing activity or materially change an existing one, we also notify you by email at the account address at least 15 days in advance. Changes that better describe processing already in place, or that are needed to comply with the law, apply from the date shown above; if they are important, we point them out in the app or by email. The latest version is always available on this page.
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