Last updated: August 3, 2026
Bright Side ("we," "us," "the app") is a positive-news and social community app. We care about your privacy and keep the data we collect to what the app actually needs to work. This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.
Account information. When you sign up we store a username and display name. If you provide an email for support, we use it only to reply to you.
Profile information. Your public profile may include a display name, profile photo, short bio, link, country flag, and the avatar you create. This information is visible to other members.
Content you post. Photos, videos, captions, comments, reactions, statuses, and stories you choose to share. Public posts are visible to other members.
Messages. Text you send in private messages and group chats. Messaging is limited to mutual friends and is moderated. We do not sell or use your messages for advertising.
Activity data. Likes, reactions, follows, friend connections, comments, and video view counts, so the app can show feeds and counts.
Notification tokens. If you enable notifications, we store a push token so we can send you alerts (for example, when your post goes live).
On-device data. Mood logs, saved stories, and similar wellness data are stored locally on your device and are not uploaded unless you explicitly share them. Health and fitness data is covered in its own section below.
Location. If you enable location, we use your approximate location once to fetch local weather for features like the daylight nudge. Your coordinates are sent only to retrieve weather, and are not stored or used to identify you.
Bright Side has a fitness side — step counts, workouts, and friendly leaderboards. With your permission, the app reads health data from Apple Health on iPhone and Health Connect on Android. You are asked before any of it is read, and you can say no and still use everything else in the app.
What we read. Only the types the fitness features actually use: steps and flights climbed; walking, running, and cycling distance; active energy burned; workouts, and workout routes where you have recorded them; heart rate and resting heart rate; body mass; sleep analysis; and running and cycling power.
What we write. If you complete a workout inside Bright Side, we can save that workout back to Apple Health or Health Connect so your own records stay complete. Nothing else is written.
What leaves your phone — and what does not. The health data we read from Apple Health and Health Connect stays on your device. What we send to our servers is the totals the leaderboards need: a step count, a distance, a workout count for the period you are competing in. We do not upload your heart rate, your sleep, your weight, your workout routes, or any individual Apple Health or Health Connect record. Body Scan, described below, is the one feature that sends something else, and only when you start it yourself.
What we do with it. Show you your own numbers, and rank you on the boards you choose to join. That is all.
What we never do. We do not sell health data. We do not use it for advertising or share it with advertisers. We do not share it with data brokers. We do not use it to make decisions about you beyond showing you your own activity.
Turning it off. You can revoke access at any time and the fitness features simply stop reading: on iPhone, Settings → Privacy & Security → Health → Bright Side; on Android, Health Connect → App permissions → Bright Side. Revoking does not delete totals already on a leaderboard — to remove those, delete your account, which removes your entries.
Children. The fitness features are not directed at children, and health data is not read from accounts registered to users under 13.
Body Scan is an optional Bright Side Pro feature that estimates your body composition from a photo. It never runs on its own — you choose to start a scan, and you can use Pro without ever using it. It is limited to one scan every 120 days.
What you provide. A full-body photo, taken with the camera or chosen from your photo library, along with your height, weight, age, and gender. These are needed for the estimate to mean anything.
Where the photo goes. Your photo is sent to WorkoutX (workoutxapp.com), a third-party body-composition analysis service, which analyses it and returns the results to us. The photo passes through our server and is not stored there — we forward it and discard it. We do not post it, show it to anyone, or use it for anything other than producing your scan. WorkoutX handles the photo under its own privacy terms.
What is kept. Not the photo — the results. That includes body fat percentage, muscle score, BMI, lean mass, body type, posture and symmetry ratings, and body measurements such as chest, waist, hips, shoulders, arms, and thighs. We keep up to your last 12 scans so the app can show you your progress over time, both on your device and on our servers.
What we never do with it. Your scan and its measurements are yours. They are not public, never appear on a leaderboard or in a feed, are not sold or shared with advertisers or data brokers, and are not used to make any decision about you.
Removing it. Deleting your account removes your scan history from our systems. Clearing the app's data, or deleting the app, removes the copy held on your device.
Not medical advice. Body Scan is a fitness estimate from a photograph, not a medical measurement or a diagnosis. Do not use it to make health decisions — talk to a doctor for that.
To provide the feeds, profiles, messaging, and other features of the app; to moderate content for safety; to send notifications you've opted into; to process optional purchases (Bright Side Pro, tips) through Apple; and to respond to support requests. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not run third-party advertising in the app.
To keep Bright Side safe for a 13+ audience, photos, videos, captions, and messages are reviewed automatically using AI (Anthropic's Claude), and may be reviewed by a human moderator. Content that violates our rules can be removed, and accounts may be restricted. You can report or block other users at any time, and blocked users cannot contact you or see your content.
Public: your profile, your posts (photos, videos, captions), comments, reactions, and follower/following counts. Private: your direct messages and group chats (visible only to participants, and to moderation systems for safety).
We use a small number of trusted providers to run the app: Supabase (secure database hosting), Cloudflare (Images & Stream — hosting and delivery of the photos and videos you upload), Anthropic (Claude) (automated content moderation and optional caption translation), Expo (push notifications), WorkoutX (the exercise library, and body-composition analysis for the optional Body Scan feature — see the Body Scan section above), and Apple (in-app purchases). These providers process data only to perform their service for us.
Bright Side is intended for users 13 years of age and older. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us information, contact us and we will remove it.
You can delete your account at any time from Me → ≡ Settings → Delete Account. Deleting your account removes your profile and associated content from our active systems. You may also remove individual posts at any time.
Edit or remove your profile photo, bio, and link in the app; turn notifications on or off in Settings; grant or revoke health access through Apple Health or Health Connect; report or block other users; and delete individual posts or your entire account.
We use reputable infrastructure providers and reasonable safeguards to protect your information. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work to protect your data.
We may update this policy as the app evolves. We'll post the new version here and update the "Last updated" date above.
Questions about your privacy? Email us at getbrightside.app@gmail.com.