Last updated 22 October 2026
What Collections holds, where it is kept, and how to delete it.
Collections is made and operated by BN Applications, Inc. (“we”, “us”). To reach us about anything on this page, write to support@bnapplicationsco.com.
We don't sell your information and we don't share it with advertisers. The app carries no advertising and no third-party tracking. The only third-party service it uses is Google Firebase, which stores the data below on our behalf and, on iPhone, counts how the app is used.
News, in the iPhone app from version 1.1, is news about AI, from news outlets' public feeds and from Wikipedia's Current events portal. Reading it needs no account, and we collect nothing more for it: the app doesn't record which stories you read or open. From version 1.2 a story's picture loads from its outlet's own servers, which see that request as they would any picture on the web. Opening a story's article loads the outlet's own page in a browser view inside the app, and from then on that outlet's privacy policy applies, as it would in Safari. Stories you save, and the collections you sort them into, stay on your phone; we never receive them. Everything below is about chats with people, which version 1.1 calls what 1.0 called collections, and which need an account.
Signing up requires a phone number, verified by SMS, and an Apple or Google account linked to it. We keep the number, because it is how friends find you, and the identifier Apple or Google gives us for the account, because that identifier is what opens the account from a new phone. We don't receive your email address unless you choose to share it.
The people in a collection can see each other's phone numbers, so they can tell who they are with. Only people in that collection can see it.
Names come from your own address book, on your phone. The app matches numbers locally and shows the name you saved, or the number if you haven't saved one.
A display name and, if you set one, a profile picture. These are visible to anyone signed in to Collections.
Photos, links, songs, notes and replies, along with who posted them and when. These are visible to the people in that collection. Photos are stored as files; everything else as text.
If you allow it, Collections shows which of your contacts already use the app. How it works:
Contacts access is optional and the app works without it. You can withdraw it at any time in your phone's settings.
If you invite somebody who doesn't use Collections, we store a hash of their number, which collection you invited them to, and that the invitation came from you, so their phone can find it when they install the app. Invitations are deleted 30 days after they are made, claimed or not.
If you report something, we keep what you reported, the reason you gave, any note you added, and that it came from you. See the terms for what we do with it.
If you allow notifications, the app stores one registration token per device on your account so we can deliver them. A notification says that something was added or that somebody replied, and which collection it was in. The token is removed when you sign out and when you delete your account.
If the app crashes, a report goes to Firebase Crashlytics with the stack trace, your device model and OS version. It carries no account id and nothing you have posted.
The iPhone app sends usage counts to Google Analytics for Firebase: which screens are opened, and what kind of thing was done, such as a photo posted, an invitation sent, or a sign-in code that didn't work. Google adds details about your device, such as its model, OS version, screen size and language; an approximate location, down to the city, worked out from your IP address; and a random id for this install of the app, so we can count people without knowing who they are.
These counts never include your account, your name, your phone number, anything you post, or who you share with. We don't use them for advertising, and the app tells Google not to use them for ads personalization.
Google processes this data for us under its data processing terms. We also let Google include it, aggregated and with identifying details removed, in the benchmarks and modelled estimates it produces for Analytics customers.
You can turn this off in the app with Share usage analytics: in Settings, the gear at the top of each tab, or in version 1.0 under your avatar. The Android app doesn't collect usage counts.
Kept on your device and, as a bare account id, on your account, so a block stops notifications and follows you to a new phone.
On Google Firebase (Google LLC), which provides our database, file storage, sign-in and usage analytics. Google processes this data on our instructions. Google's practices are described in the Firebase privacy documentation.
In the app on iPhone: Settings, the gear at the top of each tab, then Delete account under Account. In version 1.0, and on Android, it's at the top of the home screen — your avatar on iPhone, the word Collections on Android — then Delete your account. You don't need to email anyone.
It removes you from every collection you were in and deletes your profile, the hash that let contacts find you, any invitations you sent and any still waiting for you, and the account itself.
Things you posted into someone else's collection stay there, and stop being attributed to you.
Without the app — if you've removed it, or can't sign in — email support@bnapplicationsco.com with the subject “Delete my Collections account” and the phone number the account uses. We may ask you to confirm that you hold that number before we delete anything, and we'll reply once it's done. It removes the same things as deleting in the app.
Content stays until it is deleted — by you, by someone else in the collection, or by the collection being emptied. A collection nobody is left in is deleted, along with everything in it. Reports are kept while they are being acted on and for a period afterwards. Invitations are deleted after 30 days.
Usage counts from the iPhone app are kept by Google Analytics: the detailed record of each event for 2 months, and what is tied to an install's random id for 14 months after the app was last used on it. Totals and reports built from them may be kept longer, but no longer tell anyone which install they came from.
Depending on where you live you may have rights to access, correct, export or erase your information, or to object to how it is handled. Deletion is built into the app. For anything else, get in touch.
Collections isn't for people under 13. If you believe a child has an account, contact us.
We may update this policy. The date at the top shows when it last changed.
BN Applications, Inc. — support@bnapplicationsco.com. More on the support page.