Privacy Policy

Last updated October 28, 2026

The short version: Chord keeps what you tell it so it can help you keep up with your people. It never sells your data, never shows you ads, and you can read or delete everything by text at any time.

What Chord collects

Your phone number and the messages you exchange with Chord.
What you tell Chord about yourself: for example your name, city, time zone, interests, favorite places and usual availability.
What you tell Chord about your people: names, phone numbers you share, notes, groups ("Circles"), how often you'd like to see them, and plans you make.
Messages Chord sends on your behalf, with their delivery status.
If you connect Google Calendar: the times you're busy, the titles of upcoming events on your primary calendar, and the events Chord adds when you confirm a plan.
If someone you know texts Chord: their phone number, their message, and whether they've opted out.

How Chord uses it

Only to run the service you asked for: to remember your people, suggest plans that fit your schedule, draft messages for your approval, relay replies, and put confirmed plans on your calendar. Chord never texts anyone other than you without your explicit yes in the conversation.

Google user data

Chord requests two Google Calendar permissions: viewing your availability, and adding or editing events. It reads your calendar only to avoid suggesting times when you're busy, and writes to it only to add plans you've confirmed. Calendar data is not used for advertising, is not sold, and is not used to train AI models.

Chord's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Your Google access token is stored encrypted. Text "disconnect my calendar" to revoke Chord's access and delete the token, or remove access anytime at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Who processes your data

Chord uses a small set of service providers, only to operate the service:

Anthropic (Claude), to understand your messages and write replies.
Linq and Sendblue, to send and receive text messages.
Neon, which hosts Chord's database.
Vercel, which hosts Chord's servers.
Google, only if you connect your calendar.

We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers.

Your choices

Text "what do you know about me" or "export my data" to see what Chord stores.
Text "forget [name]" to delete everything about one person.
Text "delete everything" and confirm to erase your data and disconnect your calendar.
Reply STOP to stop all texts from Chord. Reply START to resume.

Retention and security

Chord keeps your data until you delete it or stop using the service. Data is encrypted in transit, and calendar tokens are encrypted at rest. No system is perfectly secure, but we limit access to what's needed to run Chord.

Children

Chord is not intended for anyone under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, we'll update the date above and tell active users by text when the change is significant. Questions: tflink@stanford.edu.