Privacy Policy

1. The short version

• Other members see your city, not where you live. More precise location stays off until you turn it on.
• We don’t sell your data, share it with advertisers, or use ad or analytics trackers.
• We don’t monitor private chats. Moderators see a chat only if someone in it reports it.
• You can download your data and delete your account yourself, at any time, in Settings.

2. About Nest

Nest is an adults-only community for furries to make friends and date, with nearby members, a map, a mini me, photos, events, groups, a nestling to care for, and chat after a mutual like. Nest is run from Arizona, in the United States.

3. Information we collect

• Account: your email address, the name on your account, how you sign in (Google, X, or email and password), and when you accepted the Terms. Passwords are stored only as a salted one-way hash; nobody at Nest can read them.
• Sign-in and security: whether 2-step sign-in is on, which of your sessions passed it, and for each signed-in session the IP address and browser description your device sends. Email codes (for confirming your email, 2-step sign-in and security changes) are stored only as a fingerprint, expire, and lock after 5 wrong tries. To stop password guessing, we count sign-in attempts per IP address and per email, stored as one-way hashes.
• Your nest: display name, age, species, pronouns, bio, prompts, interests, looking-for and relationship style, mini me and sonas, banner, photos (with optional artist credits, sona tags and NSFW marks), your spicy nest if you turn it on, social links you add, your real name if you add it, and your privacy switches.
• Location: the location level you choose (see section 5). We keep your exact point so distances work, but only ever show other members the public point your setting allows.
• Activity: when you were last active, likes (on nests and photos), passes, matches, blocks, groups, events you host or join, community events you take part in, and reports you file.
• Chat: messages, photos, videos and stickers you send, sticker packs you make or import, reactions, replies and edits, and, only if you leave them on, “seen” receipts and a short-lived typing flag.
• Care: your nestling’s stats, coins, streaks, items, how you’ve arranged its pen and cage, and which of your mini mes it is.
• Support: messages you exchange with Nest Support, and your application if you apply to help moderate.
• Push notifications (only if you turn them on): a push address for each device, issued by your browser’s push service (or, in the Android app, by Firebase Cloud Messaging), and the browser or device name so you can tell devices apart.
• Settings: theme, NSFW filter, notification choices, message previews, quiet hours and time zone, receipts and typing, and distance units.
• Device information: phone or computer type, operating system, browser, language, time zone, screen size and your city-level area, which the Nest team uses to keep Nest safe and working across devices. We never collect your phone number, contacts, texts, camera roll or GPS history.
• Subscriptions (only if you support Nest): the Google Play purchase token, product, plan and whether it’s still active, plus a receipt record (receipt number, amount, date and any note you add). Never your card number.

Sensitive information. Some things you can add, like your relationship style, orientation, identity, pronouns or spicy nest, may reveal sensitive information about you, and precise location is sensitive too. All of it is optional. We use it only to provide the features you choose, and you can change or remove it at any time.

Diagnostics log. When you send feedback or a report, Nest includes a short diagnostics log unless you untick it: your app and browser version, notification and push status, your settings, screen and text size, language, time zone, recent pages, and recent app errors or failed requests. Before it leaves your device and again on our servers it is cleaned of email addresses, tokens and passwords, coordinates and message text. Only the Nest team can read it, and it is deleted after 90 days.

Showroom, the map, landings and community events. In the Showroom, other members in your room see your mini me, display name, where it stands and the short bubbles you say (bubbles are deleted after a day). Anything you put on show — a photo from your nest or one you upload just for the Showroom — and your mini me, if you choose to leave it roaming, is visible to members until you take it down or it expires. If a picture is reported, it stays stored but is blurred for everyone until a moderator has reviewed it. If you turn on “mini me on the map” (off by default), members see your mini me and its name wandering near your city-level public point, never your exact location; they can say hi, which only notifies you if you allow it. A Patron landing shows your mini me at the city you pick for 24 hours and tells members it landed. Community events record your progress; if you finish one, your display name appears in its list of finishers. You can opt out of community events in Care → Events.

4. How we use information

• To provide Nest: create your account, show your nest, find members nearby, deliver messages and notifications, and run Care, events and groups. This is necessary to provide the service you signed up for.
• To keep Nest safe and secure: review reports, enforce our Terms, secure accounts, and prevent spam, fraud and abuse. We have a legitimate interest in keeping members safe, and the law sometimes requires it.
• To contact you: sign-in codes, email confirmation, password resets, and replies from Nest Support. We don’t send marketing email.
• To handle subscriptions: verify purchases with Google Play and turn perks on and off.
• Optional features: precise or live location, push notifications, your spicy nest and Show NSFW are only used when you turn them on, and you can turn them off at any time.
• To follow the law: meet our legal obligations and respond to valid legal requests (section 12).

We don’t use your information for targeted advertising, sell it, or let anyone use it to train their products. Content you make public on Nest (like your mini me, banner, public photos and display name) may appear in Nest’s own promotion of the app, as described in section 5 of the Terms; private messages, spicy or NSFW content, real names and exact locations never do, and you can opt out at any time.

5. Your location

By default, other members only see your city. Your public point is snapped to the nearest town (or a coarse grid square in the countryside) and nudged a little, and distances are rounded to 5-mile steps. Nobody can triangulate you by moving around, and the server limits how often anyone can move their own pin. You can choose a neighborhood-level spot, drop your own pin, or share live location with matches only. Each stays off until you turn it on. You can also hide your distance completely.

The map is drawn with images (“tiles”) from our map tile provider(s), using map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Your browser loads those tiles directly from the provider, which sees your IP address and which part of the map you’re viewing, but not who you are on Nest.

6. What other members see

Other members never see your email or the name on your account. They see your nest, your public location level and, unless you switch them off, your age, distance and a rough last-active label (like “Active today”). Your real name stays hidden until you add it and turn it on, and then only matches see it. Pronouns show only if you turn them on. Links you add to your nest are public. Spicy nest details and photos marked NSFW stay hidden unless the viewer turns on Show NSFW. When you and someone share interests, both of you see which ones.

Incognito hides you from Nearby, Home and the map for everyone except people you’ve liked. Pausing your nest hides it from everyone except your matches. Blocking someone hides you from each other and closes your chat.

7. Messages and media

Chat opens only after a mutual like. Chat photos and videos are stored once and served through private links that expire and only work for the two people in the chat. Profile photos and banners are also served through expiring links, so they can’t be hot-linked forever. Unsending a message deletes its text and media from our database for both of you. Messages that haven’t sent yet wait on your own device until they go through. “Seen” and typing are two-way: turn them off and you stop sending and seeing them.

We don’t monitor private chats. If you report a chat, a copy of its last 40 messages (the text, and whether a message had a photo or video) is attached to the report so moderators can review it.

8. Your password and breach checks

When you pick a new password, we check it against known data breaches using Have I Been Pwned’s range search. Only the first 5 characters of a one-way hash of your password ever leave our server. Your password, your email and anything that identifies you never do.

9. Demo profiles

While Nest is new, some areas show demo profiles so the map isn’t empty. They’re always labeled “Demo · not real”, can’t be liked or messaged, and never send likes or messages. Once 5 real members are in an area, its demo profiles fade away one at a time over the following days. Nothing you do near a demo profile is shared with anyone.

10. Moderation and staff access

Trust & Safety at Nest is handled by the Nest team and the moderators it appoints. Moderators can review reports and reported chats, ban and unban accounts, manage events and notices, and answer Nest Support messages. Only the Nest team can see members’ account email addresses and device information, change billing and app-wide settings, and appoint moderators. Moderators who sign in with a password must use 2-step sign-in. Every moderator action (bans, report decisions, role changes, removed events) is recorded in an audit log that the Nest team reviews.

11. Who helps us run Nest

We share information with these service providers, only as needed for their job:

• Hosting and database: Vercel hosts the app and Neon hosts our database. Together they store and run Nest.
• Email: Resend sends our emails (confirmation codes, 2-step codes and password resets). It receives your email address and the message.
• Sign-in: if you sign in with Google or X, they share basic account details with Nest, such as your name, email address and account ID.
• Payments: Google Play processes subscriptions.
• Notifications: your browser’s push service (for example Google, Apple, Mozilla or Microsoft) delivers notifications on the web, and Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging delivers them to the Android app. Web notifications are encrypted before they leave Nest; Android notifications carry only a short title and text, and you can hide names and message text from your lock screen.
• Stickers: if you import a Telegram sticker set, our server fetches that public set from Telegram’s servers. Telegram sees the set’s name and our server’s address, not who you are on Nest.
• Maps: our map tile provider(s) serve map images (section 5).
• Fonts: our pages load fonts from Google Fonts. Your browser contacts Google Fonts directly, so it receives your IP address and browser details.
• Password checks: Have I Been Pwned answers the anonymous password check (section 8).

We also share information with other members as described in section 6, when the law requires it (section 12), and, if Nest is ever part of a merger, acquisition or sale, with the new owner, who must keep protecting it under this policy. We don’t sell your personal information or share it for targeted advertising.

12. Law enforcement and legal requests

We disclose member information to law enforcement or other authorities only when we believe in good faith that the law requires it, such as a valid subpoena, court order or search warrant, and only what the request legally requires. We may also share information without a legal order if we believe in good faith that it’s needed to prevent an imminent risk of death or serious physical harm. Unless the law forbids it or it would put someone at risk, we’ll tell affected members about a request before we disclose their information. We report apparent child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), as US law requires.

13. Cookies and browser storage

We use a session cookie and a sign-in token saved in your browser so you stay signed in, and your browser’s storage for things like message drafts, messages waiting to send, your mini me draft, and whether you’ve finished the tour. We don’t use advertising or analytics cookies or trackers, and we don’t track you across other sites.

14. How long we keep information

15. Your choices and rights

You can do these yourself, at any time:

• Edit your nest, change your location level, hide your age, distance or last-active, or go incognito.
• Pause your nest to leave Nearby, Home and the map (your matches can still see it).
• Block anyone. Mute single chats, set quiet hours, hide lock-screen previews, or turn push off per device.
• Turn “seen” receipts and typing off in Settings → Chat.
• Turn on 2-step sign-in, change your password, or sign out other devices in Settings → Account security.
• Download a copy of your data in Settings → Your data.
• Delete your account in Settings → Delete account. That removes your nest, photos, sonas, chats, the messages and media you sent, your settings, devices and nestling. It can’t unsend what someone already saw.

Depending on where you live (for example California and other US states, the EU, the UK or Canada), you may have the right to access, correct, delete or get a portable copy of your information, to object to or restrict some uses, to withdraw consent, and not to be treated differently for using these rights. We honor these requests wherever you live.

Most of these you can do with the tools above. For anything else, contact Nest Support through Settings → Help & feedback. We’ll confirm the request comes from you (for example, by answering from your signed-in account or your account email) and respond within 30 days. Where the law allows, you can use an authorized agent; we may ask for proof that they act for you. If we decline your request, you can ask us to reconsider, and in the EU or UK you can also complain to your data protection authority.

16. International users

Nest is run from the United States. If you use Nest from another country, your information is transferred to, stored and processed in the United States and in other countries where our service providers operate. Data protection laws there may differ from the laws where you live. Where the law requires, we rely on the transfer safeguards our service providers offer, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

17. Children’s privacy

Nest is only for adults 18 and older. We don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we close it and delete its information. If you believe a minor is using Nest, report their profile or contact Nest Support.

18. Security

Traffic is encrypted in transit, passwords are hashed, sign-in attempts are rate-limited, email codes lock after 5 wrong tries, every request to the server checks who you are and limits how often it can be made, images you upload are checked and size-limited, new passwords are checked against known breaches, photos and chat media are served through expiring links, moderators who sign in with a password must use 2-step sign-in, and staff actions are logged. No system is perfect. If a breach affects your information, we’ll tell you as the law requires.

19. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Nest changes. When we do, we update the “Last updated” date. If a change matters, we’ll tell you in the app before it takes effect.

20. Contact

Questions or requests about your privacy? Contact Nest Support through Settings → Help & feedback in the app. To report a member, use the flag on their profile or in your chat with them.

To delete your account and data, use Settings → Your data in the app, or see how to delete your account.

Creating an account means you also agree to our Terms of Service.