Privacy Policy

Last updated: 10 July 2026 · Version 0.1 (draft)

Who we are

Homies is a community platform helping new immigrants (olim) settle into Israel. During the current demo phase it is operated privately by Ilan Danziger. Contact for anything in this policy: ilan@danziger.dev.

What we collect, and why

• Your Google identity (name, email, profile photo) — to sign you in. We never see or store a password.
• Your profile(country of origin, languages, age range, family situation, city, arrival date, occupation, a short bio) — used only to personalize your acclimation journey, suggest people and helpers, and show your profile to other members. Providing it is voluntary; without it the app simply can't personalize.
• What you write (community questions, replies, help requests) — shown to other members as you choose (including anonymously, where offered).
• Basic technical logs (sign-in times, errors) — to keep the service secure and working.

We do not sell or share your data with advertisers, and we do not use it for any purpose other than running Homies.

Who can see what

• Homies is currently invite-only. Your profile is visible to other signed-in members so they can find and connect with you. You can turn this off any time in your profile ("Show me to other members").
• Questions asked anonymously never display your name to members. Administrators can see the real author — this keeps the community accountable and lets us respond to abuse or legal requests.
• Administrators (the operators) can see member data for support and moderation.

AI processing

We use Google's Gemini model (via Google Cloud Vertex AI, processed in the EU) to personalize your checklist, phrase match suggestions, and check new community questions for duplicates. The AI only receives the profile fields needed for the task, only recommends and organizes content — it never makes decisions against you — and its output is always constrained to content we curate.

Where your data lives

Application data is stored with Neon (PostgreSQL) in London, United Kingdom, and the app runs on Google Cloud in Belgium (europe-west1). Both jurisdictions provide data protection recognized under Israel's Transfer of Data Abroad Regulations.

Your rights

• Access & portability— download everything we hold about you from your profile page ("Download my data").
• Correction — edit your profile at any time.
• Deletion— delete your account from your profile page. Your profile, journey, matches and help requests are erased immediately; community posts you wrote remain with your identity removed ("Former member"), so other members' answers keep making sense.

Retention & security

We keep your data only while you have an account. Security measures include encrypted connections everywhere, Google-managed sign-in, access limited to an explicit allowlist, input validation on every operation, and rate limiting. Serious security incidents affecting your data will be reported to the Israeli Privacy Protection Authority and to you, as required by law.

Changes

We'll update this page (and its date above) when anything changes. Material changes will be announced in the app.