Privacy policy

Last updated 14 September 2026. Applies to the Third Wheel app and thethirdwheel.co, made by Tiny Sagas, Melbourne, Australia ("we").

Third Wheel is an app for partners. It locks the apps you choose on your own phone until a time you set, and shares that lock with the other people in your heart. We built it to hold as little about you as we can. This page says exactly what that is.

What we collect

• The name you type in. Whatever you want your partner to see. It doesn't have to be your real name.
• An identity for your phone. By default this is a random, anonymous ID so your phone and your partner's can find each other. No email, phone number or password is needed to use the app.
• Sign in with Google, only if you choose it. You can attach a Google account to that ID so your heart survives a reinstall or a new phone. Google confirms to our sign-in service (Firebase) which account you used; the only thing we write into our own records is that you signed in with Google. We don't store your Google email address or name, and your partner never sees which account it is.
• Your heart. Who is in it, when locks start and end, who asked to unlock, who broke a lock and how (a code, the emergency unlock, or switching the lock off), and the calendar of kept and broken nights. This is the product; it's shared with the other people in your heart and nobody else.
• Unlock and invite codes, scrambled. When your partner asks to get out, the six-digit code is never stored as it is; we keep only a scrambled (hashed) version, so nobody, including us, can read it. Invite codes are random and tied to one heart; they stay usable until the heart is full or the code is deliberately revoked, not just for a single join.
• A notification address for your phone (a push token), so your partner's phone can tell yours when a lock starts or someone wants out.
• Your device type, operating system version and app version. So we can tell what a crash or a bug report happened on. This never includes your name or contents from other apps.
• Your email address, only if you give it to us on the website waitlist or when you write to support.
• Purchase records come from Google Play or the App Store; we receive a receipt to confirm the purchase, not your card details.

What we don't collect

• The list of apps you chose to lock never leaves your phone. Your partner can't see it and neither can we.
• We don't read your messages, calls, photos, location or contacts, and we don't record what you do in other apps. The app needs Android's "usage access" permission to know which app is on screen so it can show the lock; that check happens on your phone and is not sent anywhere.
• No advertising, no analytics trackers, no selling or sharing of your data with anyone.

Where it's kept and who can see it

Heart data is stored with Google Firebase (Google Cloud), in the United States, protected by rules that only let the members of a heart read or change it. Push notifications go through Google (Android) and Apple (iPhone). We use Cloudflare for the website and email. These providers process data on our behalf and don't get to use it for their own purposes.

If you're outside the United States, this means your data is transferred to and stored on servers there. We rely on our providers' own standard safeguards for that transfer. In plain terms, we hold what we hold because it's what makes the app work (running the heart you're a member of) or because we have a legitimate reason to (keeping the service working and safe) — never for advertising.

If you ask Apple or Google for a refund, we may share a short summary of how the purchased heart was used — nights kept, how long the account has existed, and whether it's bought a heart before — with Apple or Google so they can decide the refund. This never includes app names, messages or anything from other hearts, and only happens when a refund is actually being decided.

How long we keep it

As long as you're in a heart. Your name, identity, sign-in link and notification address go the moment you delete your data. The heart's calendar stays for the people still in it. Waitlist emails are deleted after we send the launch email. Empty hearts and used invite codes are not cleared out on a schedule yet; we delete them when you ask.

Delete your data

In the app, go to Settings, then Delete my data. That removes your identity, your name, your sign-in link and your notification address straight away, and your phone leaves the heart. No longer have the app? Follow the steps at thethirdwheel.co/delete or email [email protected] with the subject "Delete my data"; we'll do it within 30 days and confirm.

At the same time, your name is replaced by "Someone" everywhere it still appeared on your partner's records — the heart's member list (if it hadn't already updated), the calendar's "who let it back in", and any unlock request you made. The record of the night itself stays (whether it was kept or broken, and when), just without your name on it, so your partner's calendar and streak don't lose history because you left.

Your choices

• Leave a heart from the app's settings at any time.
• Sign out of Google in Settings; your heart stays on this phone, it just won't follow you to a new one.
• Turn off notifications in your phone's settings; the app keeps working, you just won't be told when your partner wants out.

Children

Third Wheel is for adults and is not directed at anyone under 18. We don't knowingly collect data from children.

Changes

If we change this policy we'll update the date at the top and, for anything that matters, tell you in the app.

Contact

Tiny Sagas, Melbourne, Australia. [email protected]. If you're in Australia and unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.