Safety on Together

Before you choose a name

Looking around does not show your name or exact location to other people. If you allow community chat, you get an anonymous name automatically and can choose a temporary one. Choosing a name on Live now is separate from signing up, and asks you to confirm you are 18 or over. Signing up also asks you to confirm you are an adult and verify your email. These are self-declarations, not identity or age checks.

You can keep your place private, leave Live now or turn community chat off. Read what each choice stores before joining in.

What protects you on the live map today

• You appear at a city of 100,000 people or more, or your whole country. Your IP address is never stored or shown.
• Your name appears only if you choose it after a warning. This device remembers that choice for return visits while Live now location sharing is on. Leave turns automatic return off; leave and forget also clears the saved name and place. Names cannot contain numbers, links or @.
• Waves from visitors are wordless and anonymous. Only signed-in members can become pen pals, and only when both wave.
• Your public dot disappears within a minute of leaving, with no presence history, timestamps or join order. Your return choice stays only on this device.
• There are limits on how often anyone can change their name or wave, and I can pause the live map at once if I need to.
• Appearing with a name is for adults only. This is by your own confirmation; there is no age check.

Facts cannot be used to find you

When two places are compared, distances are rounded to the nearest 100 km, no direction is given, and times of sunrise and sunset are rounded to the quarter hour. Everything uses the centre of a large city or a country. Nothing about which two places were compared is stored.

Pen pals in the beta

Adults can join with an email address they confirm before their account opens. Pen pals can also talk in a small chat dock. Visitors who allow the community chat cookie can use public rooms under an automatic anonymous name or one temporary name that does not belong to a member. People sharing a city, country or continent can open a local room. Anyone may deliberately join an active public conversation or open a country-to-country bridge; a bridge does not label anyone by where they live. What is in place:

• a wave has to be returned before two people can write; passing is silent, and a wave is never repeated after a pass;
• block and report on every letter and pen pal; blocking works both ways and ends the connection at once;
• a moderation queue that I review, with every action I take written to an audit log;
• letters are plain text, encrypted where they are stored, and cannot contain links, email addresses, phone numbers or handles;
• chat messages are screened before delivery; ordinary swearing is allowed, while threats, exploitation, targeted hate and personal contact details are held for review;
• every incoming chat message can be reported, and messages from a blocked member are hidden;
• every picture is re-made on the server, which removes hidden location data; face photos are only seen by pen pals;
• limits on waves, letters and reports each day;
• downloading and deleting everything, at any time, from your account.

I am still arranging an independent UK legal review of privacy and online safety duties before a wider launch.

Rules for conversations

Speak to people as people, including when you disagree. Ordinary swearing and discussion of difficult subjects are allowed. These rules apply to names, pictures, letters and public chats.

• Do not threaten, harass, bully or target someone because of who they are.
• Do not share sexual exploitation, sexual content involving children, or instructions to harm someone.
• Do not post another person's private information, try to identify someone from their broad place, or pursue them after they have blocked or passed you.
• Do not impersonate someone, send spam, or use Together to recruit people for dating, political persuasion or abuse.
• Do not use letters or public chats to exchange links, handles, phone numbers or email addresses.

I may remove content, end a pen-pal connection, pause an account or pause Live now while I investigate. A report is a request for review, not proof that somebody broke a rule.

How reports and appeals work

Use Report on a chat message, letter, picture or pen pal. You can also write to [email protected] about anything else, including a safety problem or a decision you think I got wrong. Put “Together appeal” in the subject for an appeal and tell me which decision you want reviewed. You do not need to contact the other person.

I aim to acknowledge safety reports and appeals sent by email within two days and complete a first review of every report within seven days. Serious risks come first. In-app reports do not ask for a reply address, so I cannot acknowledge those individually. If an emailed review takes longer, I will say so.

I review reports myself. I look at the reported material and its context, then dismiss the report or take a proportionate action. I record the decision in a restricted audit log. I do not show who reported someone to the person reported. For an appeal, I reconsider the evidence and explain my decision by email where I can safely contact you. I may need to withhold another person's private information.

For immediate danger, contact your local emergency services. Together is not monitored as an emergency service.

Not a crisis service

Together cannot help in an emergency. If you or someone else is in danger, contact your local emergency services.

Report a problem

Visitors and members can report chat messages. Members can also report any letter, picture or pen pal. If anything else on Together worries you, email me. Reports come to me directly.