Privacy

In short

FediHood is a nearby chat on the fediverse, served here by the instance fedihood.social. It asks for little: a recovery email to reset your password, and only the city you choose, never a precise location. This page describes the data this instance handles and how it is protected.

What we collect

We only keep what is needed to run the service. There is no advertising and no behavioural profiling.

Account

• A handle you pick and a password, stored only as a salted hash, never in clear text.
• An optional display name, short bio and avatar, if you choose to add them.
• A recovery email, used solely to reset your password.

Location

You choose a city, not a point on a map. Only the city name, region and country are stored, plus the city-centre coordinates used to match nearby people. No device location is ever read.

Content and activity

• Posts, replies, topics and reactions you create.
• Images you upload, with location and camera metadata (EXIF, including GPS) stripped before storage.
• Follows, bookmarks and lists you set up.

Direct messages

Direct messages are end-to-end encrypted. The server only ever stores ciphertext and your public key material, and cannot read your conversations. See the encryption section below.

Technical data

• Your IP address, used transiently for rate limiting and abuse prevention, not tied to your posts.
• Your session token, which lives in your browser, not in a cookie, and is stored only as a hash on the server.

Safety and moderation

Reports you file or that concern you, and the actions moderators take, are recorded so the instance can be kept usable and abuse can be handled.

How we use it

• Operate your account and show you nearby and followed content.
• Deliver your public posts to the fediverse servers you interact with.
• Keep the service safe: rate limiting, moderation and abuse prevention.

We never sell your data, run ads, or profile you for advertising.

What is shared

Federation

FediHood speaks ActivityPub. Your public posts and public profile are sent to the other fediverse servers you reach, along with the city label you post under. Once content is federated it lives on those servers and is outside this instance's control. Your exact location is never part of what is sent.

Third-party services

Running the service involves a few external providers:

• OpenStreetMap (Nominatim and Overpass): when you search for a place, your query is sent to OpenStreetMap to turn it into a city.
• Media storage: uploaded images are kept on the instance's own disk or an S3-compatible bucket chosen by the operator.
• Map tiles are served from a source the operator configures.

No analytics, no advertising networks and no third-party trackers are used.

Legal requests

The instance operator will only disclose data when legally compelled to, and will share no more than required.

End-to-end encryption

• Direct messages use the Signal protocol (X3DH and the Double Ratchet).
• Your keys are generated in your browser. Your private key never leaves your device and is never sent to the server.
• The server only relays ciphertext and publishes your public prekey bundle so others can start a conversation, including across instances.
• Because the server cannot read your messages, it cannot recover them for you. Logging out clears the keys held in your browser; encrypted key backup is planned.

Retention

Content stays until you delete it or your account. Copies of remote profiles are cached and refreshed periodically. Technical logs are kept briefly for abuse prevention. Deleting your account removes your data from this instance and sends deletion requests to the federated servers that hold copies, on a best-effort basis.

Your rights

You stay in control of your data:

• Access and export your data through the app's API.
• Correct your profile at any time from the settings.
• Delete individual posts, or your whole account, at any time.

Cookies and local storage

FediHood uses no tracking cookies. Your session token and your encryption keys are kept in your browser's local storage and IndexedDB, and are wiped when you log out.

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated as the service evolves. The date above reflects the latest revision; significant changes will be surfaced in the app.

Contact

For any question about your data on fedihood.social, write to hello@fedihood.social.

Open source

FediHood is open source. Anyone can inspect how it handles data rather than take these promises on trust.