Privacy Policy
7-Minute Neighbor sends strangers to meet in person for a few minutes. That only works if each person knows exactly what the other, and we, can see. This page says what we collect, where it lives, who else sees it, and for how long.
1. Who we are, and who to contact
7-Minute Neighbor is an iOS app made by BLACK LAYERS CORP. (blacklayers.ca), a Canadian company. It lets a person ask a verified neighbour within a short walk for a few minutes of help, in a public place. Our designated Privacy Officer is Abdul Hafeez. For any question, request or complaint about your personal information, write to info@blacklayers.ca with "7-Minute Neighbor privacy" in the subject line. We answer within 30 days.
2. What we collect, and why
You give us: • Your mobile phone number, to sign you in with a one-time code. It is never shown to another user. • A first name, which is the only thing the other person sees before you meet. • Your acceptance of the Terms and the Safety Rules: which version, when, and the network address it came from. This is our record of your consent. • Optionally, a trusted contact's first name and mobile number. See section 7. • Optionally, a profile photo, and a short note on how to spot you. See section 5. • Messages you send in the in-app chat during an ask. The app collects, with your permission: • Your approximate location while you browse, so the app can show which zone you are in and which helpers are within a short walk. It is reduced to a coarse area about a kilometre across before it is stored, and the exact coordinate is discarded. • Your camera, only when you choose to verify your identity. See section 4. • A push notification token, if you allow notifications, so we can tell you about an ask when the app is closed. The service creates: • A record of every ask: who asked, who helped, the category, meeting point, duration, price, every state change and its time, and check-ins. • Once payments are enabled, a record of every payment, fee and payout. • A safety incident record if a safety mechanism is used (for example a duress word) or a report is made. We do not collect your contacts, photos, browsing history, or precise location in the background. We do not use advertising identifiers and we do not run advertising or product analytics SDKs in the app.
3. Where your information lives
Our database and the code that runs the service are hosted by Google Cloud in Montréal, Québec (region northamerica-northeast1). Our financial and audit records are kept in Canada for seven years, as Canadian tax and consumer law require. Some things cannot be kept in Canada, and we say so rather than pretend: • Sign-in (Firebase Authentication, a Google service) processes your phone number in the United States. • Identity verification and, once enabled, payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. in the United States. • Push notifications pass through Apple's servers. Information processed outside Canada is subject to the laws of that country, including lawful access by its authorities. We share only what each provider needs for its function.
4. Identity verification
Both the person asking and the person helping verify their identity once, before their first ask, with a government photo ID and a live selfie. The check is performed by Stripe Identity inside the app. The photos of your ID and your selfie go to Stripe. We never receive, see or store them. What we keep is: the outcome (verified or not), the date, the issuing country and type of the document, whether you are 18 or older, and a scrambled, keyed fingerprint of the document number. That fingerprint cannot be turned back into the number; it exists so one document cannot be used to open two accounts, and so a person we have removed cannot return with a new phone number. A biometric comparison (your face against your ID photo) is part of Stripe's check. Verification is voluntary, but you cannot ask for or offer help without it. If you decline, you can still delete your account.
5. Profile photo and "how to spot me"
You may add a profile photo. It is optional; the app works without one. If you add one, it is shown only to the other person in an ask you are both part of: on the offer they see before accepting, on the match screen while you find each other, and in their own record of that ask afterwards. It is never public, never searchable, and never shown to anyone outside that ask. Before a photo is accepted, software running on our servers in Montréal checks that it shows exactly one human face, large enough to recognise, so the photo can do its one job: helping two people find each other in a public place. This is face detection, not face recognition. It does not identify you, does not compare the photo with any other image including your ID, and does not create or store a face template. Nothing from the check is kept except the photo you chose. The photo is stored in Canada. You can replace or remove it at any time from your profile, and it is deleted when you delete your account, including from past asks. The "how to spot me" note (a red jacket, a blue umbrella) is optional, is shown only to the other person in an ask, and is filtered the same way as chat: numbers, links and handles are refused.
6. Location
While you browse, we use your approximate location to place you in a launch zone and to draw other on-call helpers as approximate dots. Other people never see your position; they see a dot placed at random inside a wide area, and the placement is different for every viewer so it cannot be averaged into a real location. Precise location sharing during an active ask is not yet part of the service. When it is introduced it will be off by default, switched on by you per ask, shared only with the other party to that ask, and deleted when the ask ends.
7. Trusted contact
You may name a trusted contact. We store their first name and mobile number in a part of your record that no user, including you, can read from the app; the app shows only their first name and the last two digits. Nothing is sent to your trusted contact until two things are true: the feature that would share with them exists, and they have replied to a one-time text confirming they agree to be named. Until then the record is simply stored. You can change or remove it at any time from your profile.
8. Chat
Messages between the two people in an ask stay inside the app and are visible to both of them. Before a message is delivered, an automated filter checks it for phone numbers, email addresses, links, social handles and attempts to move the conversation to another app. Messages that fail are not delivered, and a short record of the attempt (who, when, why, and the first characters) is kept in a part of the ask that neither party can read. This exists so that if a safety incident is later reported, our team can see what was attempted. Our team reads chat only when an incident or report requires it.
9. Who else sees your information
The other person in an ask sees your first name, whether you are verified, the meeting point, the ask, and the messages you send them. Nothing else. Our service providers, each of which processes only what its function needs: • Google Cloud / Firebase — hosting, database, sign-in, push notifications. • Stripe, Inc. — identity verification; payments and helper payouts once enabled. • Apple — delivery of push notifications. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it with advertisers. We disclose information to authorities only under a valid Canadian production order or warrant, or where there is an imminent risk to someone's life or safety.
10. How long we keep it
• Your profile: until you delete your account. • Approximate browsing location: replaced continuously; never kept as a trail. • Profile photo and spot-me note: until you replace or remove them, or delete your account. • Chat messages: for the life of the ask record. • Ask, payment and payout records: seven years, because tax and consumer law require it. • Safety incident records: seven years. • Identity verification outcome and document fingerprint: for as long as the account exists, and the fingerprint alone afterwards (see section 11). • Consent records (which terms you accepted, when): seven years. • Records of any privacy breach, including ones assessed as not reportable: 24 months at minimum.
11. Deleting your account
You can delete your account from your profile in the app, immediately, without contacting anyone. Deletion removes your name, phone number, trusted contact, notification settings and sign-in right away, and replaces your first name on past asks with "Deleted user". Records of completed asks, payments and safety incidents are kept for seven years under an anonymous identifier, because the law requires it; nothing in them names you. The document fingerprint from verification is kept so the same ID cannot open a new account. We also ask Stripe to redact the images it holds. We also delete your profile photo. Two exceptions, both stated in the app before you confirm: deletion is refused while you have an ask in progress, and it is paused while you are party to an open safety incident record, so that a record cannot be destroyed by deleting the account attached to it.
12. Your rights
Under Canada's PIPEDA and Québec's Law 25 you may: • Ask what personal information we hold about you and receive a copy in a structured, commonly used format. • Ask us to correct it. • Withdraw consent, and delete your account. • Complain to us, and to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec. Write to info@blacklayers.ca. We respond within 30 days.
13. Age
7-Minute Neighbor is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account, to ask, or to help. Identity verification checks the date of birth on your ID. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18 we close it and delete the personal information. If you believe a minor is using the service, tell us at the address above.
14. Security
Every change to an ask, a payment or a verification is made by our servers, never by a phone; the app can only request. Access to our database is denied by default and granted narrowly. Every read and write is logged, and the log is kept where it cannot be altered. Secrets are stored in a managed vault in Canada. We keep a record of every security incident.
15. Language
This policy is currently available in English. A French version is being prepared for users in Québec and will be offered on terms no less favourable. Until then, a French-speaking user may request assistance in French at the address above.
16. Changes
When this policy changes we update the version and effective date at the top, and the app will ask you to accept the new version before you continue. Material changes are also announced inside the app.
17. Contact
Privacy Officer: Abdul Hafeez Email: info@blacklayers.ca Website: blacklayers.ca BLACK LAYERS CORP. · Alberta, Canada
© 2026 BLACK LAYERS CORP.