In plain words
Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 22, 2026
Your Friend Ian is a separate product operated by Big Moments Company. We use the information you share to help you discover local activities, plan outings, save plans, and receive reminders. This policy explains how the app, this website and www.yourfriendian.com handle information, including the security check on our sign-in page and the analytics we use on the web.
Information we collect
When you use Ian, we may collect your email address, the name you want Ian to use, your country and ZIP or postal code, your chosen interests, optional age range or gender preferences, plans you create or save, calendar entries, reminder settings, and links to local sources you choose to follow or save. We also process the information you include in a request for an outing, in answers you choose to give to Ian’s optional daily question, or when you contact us.
Our servers may receive technical information such as IP addresses and browser or device information to operate the service, troubleshoot errors, and prevent abuse. We use a secure session cookie to keep you signed in. You sign in using a time-limited email link instead of a password.
Cloudflare Turnstile and login security
Ian uses Cloudflare Turnstile on the email sign-in page and the website's contact form to distinguish people from automated requests and reduce spam, fraud, and unauthorized activity. This is a security service, not an advertising or marketing check.
When either page loads, your browser connects to Cloudflare. Cloudflare may process security signals including your IP address, browser and device details such as your user-agent, TLS connection characteristics, and the website origin and Turnstile site key. Our server sends a short-lived verification token to Cloudflare and may include your IP address to validate the check. We do not send your email address, sign-in form contents or contact message to Cloudflare as part of that verification.
Cloudflare uses these signals to identify and block bots and, as described in its own notice, to improve its bot-detection service. It may use security-related cookies or similar technologies. If verification fails, Ian may be unable to send your sign-in link or your contact message. Read the Cloudflare Turnstile Privacy Addendum for details about Cloudflare's processing.
Messages from the contact form
When you use the contact form at www.yourfriendian.com/contact, we email your name (if you give one), your email address and your message to our team inbox through our email provider, Resend, so we can reply. The website doesn't keep its own copy; from there your message is handled like any email you send us. To limit spam, we count messages from each IP address and email address using one-way hashed values, not the addresses themselves.
How we use information
We use your details to create and maintain your account, tailor outings to your location and preferences, show real local options, save plans and calendar items, deliver reminders and sign-in links, respond to support requests, improve reliability, and protect the service from misuse.
Outing generation may share the relevant location, preferences, and planning request with AI and location-search providers. Depending on the feature and its availability, external mapping, weather, search, and event providers may process location or event queries to return nearby places and activities. Please avoid including unnecessary sensitive information in an outing request.
Service providers and sharing
We use service providers to host the app and database, deliver emails (including Resend), generate outing suggestions and Ian’s replies (including Anthropic), provide mapping, weather and local discovery results, secure sign-in (Cloudflare), and measure how our websites are used (Google Analytics). We share information needed for those services to operate. We may also disclose information when legally required or to protect the service and its users. We do not sell your outing or account details.
Links to external events, venues, social accounts and other websites take you to independent services with their own privacy practices. Saving a link or asking Ian to follow a source does not grant us access to your private social media account. Each source request needs your separate confirmation. We store the source link, request time, consent version and confirmation or cancellation time. Cancelling stops your request; it does not cancel other members’ requests for the same source. Ian can assess submitted public links and recognize supported calendars and structured event listings. Approved sources may be checked automatically every 108 hours, with relevant event facts stored as drafts for a separate sharing review. Other sources require a supported reader or team access review. Ian does not connect your social accounts, automatically join groups, or collect private conversations or member lists. Source checks send a request identifying Ian to the source website; we retain assessment results and operational check history, not copies of entire pages.
Your request does not prove membership in the original group or authorize redistribution of private content. Ian needs separate, verified permission to share an event with Ian members, even if an Ian service account has been allowed into the group.
Account operations and team access
To run your account and help when something goes wrong, we keep account creation and recent activity times, profile-completion status, plan build and selection records, saved calendar items, voluntary check-in status, source requests and feedback, reminder delivery results, and verified subscription access. We use these records to provide the features you request, enforce allowances, investigate failures and understand whether the service works. A done check-in is your own report, not proof of attendance or location tracking.
Only authorized team members can open our restricted admin portal. Its reports show account contact details and general area for support, usage counts, subscription status, and reliability and cost summaries. Daily-question answers, calendar notes, exact coordinates, message bodies and payment-card details are not displayed in this portal. We log admin report access, the admin account, the action and any account looked up; we do not log search text. These access logs are normally removed after 365 days by scheduled cleanup. Account references are removed if the account is deleted.
Website analytics and affiliate tracking
On yourfriendian.com and www.yourfriendian.com we use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages help people and which ones lose them. It records the pages you view, the site that sent you, campaign tags in a link, your browser and device type, screen size, language, an approximate location that Google derives from your IP address, and random identifiers stored in cookies. Google Analytics does not store your IP address.
We remove query strings (other than campaign tags) and anything after a # from the page addresses we send, so sign-in links and removal links never reach Google. We do not send your name, email address, outing requests, saved plans, calendar notes or the location you enter. Google signals and ad personalization are switched off, and we do not use analytics for advertising. Google processes this data under its own terms; see how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
Analytics is not used inside the Your Friend Ian iOS or Android apps. In the EU, EEA, UK, Switzerland and Quebec we ask before it loads. Elsewhere it runs unless you turn it off below or your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal. Your choice applies to both websites in this browser and lasts 180 days. You can also use Google's Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
Impact affiliate tracking
On both websites, Impact can transform eligible outbound links into affiliate links and record impressions. We may earn a commission when you use those links. The Impact tag follows the website analytics choice above and stays off in the iOS and Android apps and on admin pages. Turn analytics off below to stop the tag; the page reloads to apply that choice.
Optional account-linked website actions
With your explicit analytics choice under the current notice, we also record a small set of website actions in Ian’s own database: the app section opened, ideas viewed, event-details links opened, upgrade prompts shown or dismissed, upgrade clicks and limits shown. These events include your internal account ID, an action name, time, and limited fields such as plan ID, idea index or membership tier. They help us find confusing steps and improve the product. We do not attach daily answers, search text, calendar notes or message contents, and do not send these account-linked records to Google.
These optional events are off in the iOS and Android apps and are off on the web until you choose Allow analytics or That’s fine under this notice. An older Google-only consent does not enable them. Global Privacy Control also stops them. Turn analytics off above to stop future optional events; the app still works. The existing plan, calendar, billing and security records needed to operate your account remain separate. Interaction-event records are normally removed after 90 days by scheduled cleanup and are deleted with your account. For access or deletion of earlier records, contact us using the address below.
Our website and mailing list
If you join the launch list on www.yourfriendian.com, we keep your email address, the date and time you signed up, the version of the consent you gave and a random removal token, so we can send the updates you asked for and remove you when you ask. Joining does not create an app account. If you contact us, we use your message to reply. The website loads fonts from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address and browser details to deliver them.
Optional Facebook Messenger conversations
If you message the Your Friend Ian Facebook Page, Meta and Twilio process the message and your Messenger identifiers to deliver it and our automated reply. Ian uses the message to choose a helpful response and an app link. This version does not generate outing plans inside Messenger or link your Facebook identity to your Ian account.
Our app stores a hashed sender identifier, message identifier, processing timestamps and whether you stopped replies. It does not store Messenger message bodies or download attachments. Processing receipts are deleted after 30 days. We retain the hashed reply preference while this messaging service operates, including a STOP preference, unless you request deletion. Meta and Twilio have their own retention practices. No Messenger messages are sent to an AI model in this version.
Send STOP to pause automated replies, START to resume, or HELP for support. These choices do not change SMS or email settings. Contact questions@bigmomentscompany.com for privacy or deletion requests.
Optional text messages
For SMS delivery we also store the message content, provider message identifier, delivery state and error codes. Message content is cleared after 30 days; delivery/deduplication records are retained while the account exists. A hashed phone-number suppression record is retained to honor STOP, including after account deletion, until that number resumes the program. We do not store inbound SMS message bodies.
See the text program, consent flow and samples and text message terms.
Your Friend Ian is operated by Pop the Q LLC (registered messaging Brand: POP THE Q), trading as Big Moments Company. If you choose personalized local outing suggestions and saved-plan text reminders, we store your mobile number, the exact consent wording and version, the time you agreed, and any withdrawal of consent. These texts are optional and are not a condition of purchase or using Ian.
Twilio processes your number, message content and delivery information to provide the text service. Mobile information and SMS consent will not be sold or shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Service providers may process this information only as needed to operate the messaging service.
You can stop texts in Settings under Text messages. Reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help. We retain consent and withdrawal records as needed to honor your choices and document consent. Contact questions@bigmomentscompany.com for help or deletion requests.
Delete your account and data
You can delete your Your Friend Ian account in your browser or from Settings → Account and data in the app. Verify your sign-in and type DELETE to confirm. You do not need to reinstall the app. If you cannot sign in, email questions@bigmomentscompany.com to request deletion; we verify ownership first.
Completed deletion removes your account, profile/location/preferences, saved outings, calendar and reminders, bookmarks and source requests, text-message contact/history, and sign-in sessions from active app storage. It closes pending Ian web checkouts, cancels Ian web subscriptions and requests removal of the dedicated Stripe customer before deleting local data. If web billing cannot be closed safely, the account remains available for a retry or support request. Apple and Google subscriptions must be cancelled in the store where they were purchased.
Shared public event listings and unlinked cost totals remain. Limited transaction, security and operational audit records may be retained for legal obligations, fraud prevention or disputes. Payment and messaging providers may retain required records under their own policies. Separate website waitlist and unlinked Messenger records are not automatically matched to an app account; contact us to request their deletion too.
Retention, safeguards, and international processing
We keep information for as long as reasonably needed to operate Ian, maintain your account and plans, meet legal requirements, and address security incidents. We use appropriate technical and organizational protections, but no online service can guarantee complete security. Our service providers may process information in the United States or other countries where they operate.
Questions or privacy requests
Contact Big Moments Company at questions@bigmomentscompany.com for questions, privacy requests, or concerns about Ian. We may update this policy when our practices or providers change.