Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Pulse is operated by Deyan Dinolov. Questions about privacy can be sent to support@pulserythm.com.

2. Information we process

We process account information such as email, username, display name, profile photo and bio; public content you create, including Shorts, Stories, videos, photos, text posts, captions, comments and replies; direct messages between participants; interaction data such as follows, likes, saves, reposts, views, reports and blocks; and technical information needed for security, crash diagnostics, notifications and service performance.

3. Why we use it

We use this information to provide Pulse, publish and display content, personalise the Shorts and post feeds, send requested notifications, manage virtual-item balances where enabled, protect accounts and account-recovery flows, prevent abuse, investigate reports, improve performance and comply with legal obligations.

4. Pulse Coins, subscriptions and payments

The Store and subscription checkout are currently disabled in the Android rollout. The following describes records from purchases where previously or separately available, not an offer to buy items in the current rollout.

Pulse may offer optional virtual Pulse Coins and Plus, Pro or Premium subscriptions through Google Play. Google Play processes the payment; Pulse does not receive or store your card number or other payment-method details. Purchase verification processes product and plan identifiers, the purchase token, order identifier where available and your Pulse account identifier. Subscription records include verification time, expiry, renewal status, scheduled lower-plan changes and Premium cosmetic reward claims. Durable subscription records use token hashes rather than raw subscription tokens; verification services receive tokens to query Google Play. Limited records help prevent duplicate grants, process renewal, cancellation and refund events, provide support and prevent fraud.

During the current closed-testing rollout, the updated subscription checkout accepts verified Google Play test purchases only. Test periods may be accelerated. A closed-testing invitation alone does not make billing a test: testers must use Google's designated test purchase flow. Real subscription checkout is not enabled by this policy.

5. Service providers and video processing

Pulse uses Supabase for authentication, database, storage, realtime features and upload coordination; Resend for authentication email delivery; Cloudflare R2 to store and deliver published video and Story files; OneSignal and Firebase Cloud Messaging for notifications; Firebase Crashlytics for crash reports; Firebase Analytics for Android usage analytics where enabled; Google Play Billing for Android in-app purchases when available; and Google Analytics 4 to understand website traffic and improve the public Pulse website.

In the Android app, editing and video preparation take place on your device. Continue renders a video for review. Saving to Short drafts keeps it locally; choosing Post to Shorts or Post to Story begins uploading the prepared media and cover files to Cloudflare R2 for playback and delivery. This flow does not send video to Amazon S3 or Amazon MediaConvert for processing. The native Studio editor is an Android feature; Pulse Web does not provide the same editing flow.

6. Sharing, visibility and blocking

Public content and profile information may be visible to other Pulse users according to your privacy settings. Direct messages are visible to their participants. When either person blocks the other, Pulse hides their profiles, content, discovery suggestions, direct-message thread and notifications from one another. We use providers to operate, secure and improve Pulse and may disclose data where required by law. We do not sell account data for money. Where advertising is enabled, SDK data disclosures and your advertising choices also apply; some advertising disclosures may be treated as a sale or sharing under applicable US state laws.

7. Account security

Pulse uses email confirmation, password-based sign-in, secure password-reset links, password confirmation for account deletion and rate limits to help protect accounts and prevent abuse. No online service can guarantee absolute security; keep your password private and contact us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.

8. Retention and deletion

We retain data while your account is active and for the limited time needed for security, fraud prevention, disputes or legal obligations. Stories normally remain visible for 24 hours; this visibility period is not a guarantee that every server record or local copy is deleted at that exact moment. You can permanently delete your account from Profile → Settings → Account actions → Delete account, or use our external account deletion page to sign in and complete deletion on the website. A completed deletion removes active account data and associated media from Pulse systems; limited records may remain only where required for security or law.

Editing may create private local copies of imported media, recordings, rendered videos, covers and upload files on your device. Saved Short drafts, recoverable edits and unfinished uploads can retain the files needed to continue or retry. A confirmed publication triggers cleanup of the associated working files. Abandoned working files that are not referenced by an active edit, saved draft, valid recovery checkpoint or unfinished publication become eligible for cleanup after 24 hours when the app starts. Cleanup may be deferred when a file's ownership or references cannot be safely established; it is not a timer that deletes all files exactly 24 hours after creation.

You can delete saved Short drafts from the Android drafts list. Clearing Android app storage removes local drafts and edits; clearing the cache does not necessarily remove them. Pulse's working-file cleanup does not delete the original media you selected from your gallery. Local backup and device-transfer behaviour may also depend on your Android settings.

9. Your choices

You can update your profile, control profile visibility and follower-list visibility, manage notifications, report or block people and content, and delete your account in the app or on our account deletion page. Contact us if you need help exercising applicable privacy rights.

10. Age eligibility and date of birth

Pulse is intended for people aged 13 and above, subject to any higher minimum age or additional requirements applicable in their country. Age-aware versions ask for a date of birth during registration; existing Android accounts are asked once before continuing in the updated app. This is a self-declaration, not documentary proof of age or parental consent. Older installed versions do not gain this check automatically.

The date is stored separately from public profiles and is used to determine eligibility and an age band for advertising safeguards. It is not displayed on the profile or deliberately sent to AdMob as a birthday or account identifier. The app receives an age band, not the saved date. A recorded date cannot be freely edited; contact support@pulserythm.com to request correction. A declaration below 13 blocks continuation in the updated Android app but does not automatically delete the account or purchases. The private declaration is retained while the account exists and removed with account deletion, subject to applicable legal retention requirements.

11. Advertising and privacy choices

Advertisements are currently disabled in the Android rollout. The app retains the AdMob and UMP libraries for a possible future rollout. Its app-level controls gate consent requests, explicit ad initialization and new ad requests behind the advertising setting. Turning the setting off does not remove the SDK from an installed build or erase any data previously processed. The details below apply to versions and periods in which advertising is enabled.

The updated Android app integrates Google AdMob (Google Mobile Ads SDK) for labelled native ads in the Posts feed and native video ads between Shorts, plus Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP) for advertising privacy choices. The current integration uses Google's test ad units only; real ad serving and advertising revenue have not been enabled. An older app build without these SDKs does not acquire them by visiting this website. Native video availability is not guaranteed, and an unavailable or unsuitable video response is skipped.

When the advertising SDK is permitted to initialise or request ads, it can process IP addresses (which may indicate approximate location), device or advertising identifiers where allowed, app and ad interactions, and diagnostic information for ad delivery, measurement and fraud prevention. Test ads are not a promise of zero data processing. Applicable age restrictions, device controls, regional rules and privacy choices affect processing. We do not deliberately send private messages, uploaded media, email addresses or the full date of birth to AdMob as advertising targeting data. Google explains its processing in Google's Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

Age-aware versions do not request ads for an unknown or below-minimum age. Users declared under 18 receive restricted, non-personalised advertising treatment; an adult declaration does not itself grant advertising consent. For eligible adult users, UMP collects or applies applicable regional privacy choices before ad requests. European consent and applicable US state opt-out requirements are different; a European form alone is not a worldwide compliance guarantee. Where UMP requires a privacy entry point, use Profile → Settings → Safety & legal → Ads & privacy (when advertising is enabled) to review or withdraw choices. Refusing consent does not prevent ordinary use of Pulse; ad availability and permitted processing may change. You may also manage the advertising ID in Android settings.

12. Translation, profile cards and usage analytics

Recent Android versions offer optional content translation using Google ML Kit. After you request a translation, the app identifies the text language and translates to a supported system language of your phone. Necessary language models are downloaded over Wi-Fi when needed and retained on the device. The selected content is processed on-device for translation rather than sent to a remote translation service. Translation can be inaccurate and does not change the original post, comment or message.

QR profile cards contain the profile details displayed on the card and a public profile link. Creating a card does not by itself publish the exported image. If you save or share it, your chosen destination or receiving service handles that copy; anyone with the QR link may try to open the profile, subject to its access controls.

Android usage analytics can be managed under Profile → Settings → Account & privacy → Usage analytics. In current versions it is enabled by default for eligible signed-in users. The app sends predefined screen names for usage measurement and does not deliberately include message or post contents, email addresses or Pulse profile identifiers in those events. This control is separate from crash reporting and advertising choices. Website Google Analytics is a separate integration.

13. Changes

We may update this policy as Pulse evolves. We will post the revised date on this page. Feature and SDK availability depend on the installed app version and rollout status.