Privacy policy

Who we are

Next Area is an independent app for returned missionaries and young adults. It is not made, approved, or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Intellectual Reserve, Inc. You must be 18 or older to use it.

What we collect

Account: your email (or Apple or Google sign-in), first name and last initial, whether you’re a man or a woman, your age group, whether you served a mission (and Elder or Sister if you did), and an optional photo.

Mission: your mission, dates, areas and languages. This reveals your religious affiliation, which some state laws treat as sensitive. We ask for your clear consent first.

Your next area: your city (never your exact location), what you’re doing now, interests and when you’re free.

Private answers: whether your mission ended the way you expected, and what you want to keep or leave behind. Only you and the crew-matching system use these. No person sees them.

Things you create: goals and check-offs, weekly resets, your reading plan (the book, your pace, your reminder time and the days you’ve read), quiz answers, partner check-ins, messages, posts and spiritual thoughts.

ID verification: done by Stripe Identity. We store only the result (“verified” and “18 or older”), never your ID photo, ID number or date of birth.

Payments: Apple, Google and Stripe handle payments. We receive whether you have Plus and until when, and which nights out you booked and what you paid, never your card details.

Socials (only if you turn them on): that you turned them on, and the people you privately pick after a social. A pick is shown to the other person only if they picked you too, or, if they have Plus, that you picked them.

“Moving soon” (if you use it): the city and month you’re moving, to show you nights out there.

Usage: which screens are used and app errors, through PostHog and Sentry, with personal details removed. No advertising trackers.

How we use it

To run the app: form crews, plan events, show your Mission Card, send the notifications you choose, and keep everyone safe.

AI features (Claude by Anthropic) help write quiz and discussion questions, suggest activities and answer practical questions. Messages are checked by an AI safety classifier. Your data is not used to train AI models.

Safety: reports are reviewed by people on the Next Area team. If something you write suggests you may be in crisis, the app shows you resources right away. It is never shared with your crew.

What others can see

Your crew and people from your mission see your first name, last initial, photo, mission, city and interests.

Your goals, goal logs, reading plan, quiz scores, weekly resets and private answers are visible only to you. Your crew sees only how many people took the quiz, never scores.

Partner check-in notes are visible only to you and your partner.

Event addresses are shown only to people going, only on the day of the event.

Family who give you a Homecoming Year never see anything about your activity.

We never sell your data

We don’t sell or rent personal information, we don’t show ads, and we don’t share data with advertisers or data brokers.

Your choices

Change any answer in Settings. Turn notifications off or set quiet hours.

Download your data from Settings › Privacy.

Delete your account in Settings › Privacy. You leave your crew right away, and your personal data is erased within 30 days. We keep anonymous totals and the safety records needed to protect the community.

Service providers

Supabase (database and sign-in), Anthropic (AI), Stripe (gift payments and ID verification), RevenueCat with Apple and Google (subscriptions), Expo (push notifications), Resend and Twilio (email and texts), Sentry (error reports), PostHog (product analytics), Vercel (website). Each only gets what it needs to do its job.

Contact

Questions or requests: privacy@nextarea.org.