Legal · Privacy
Dad Lyfe is a live check-in board for dads — post where you are and for how long, so the dads you've connected with can see if there's a chance to meet up. Nothing is ever posted publicly, and nobody sees a check-in unless you both agreed to connect first. This page explains what information the app collects, why, and the choices you have over it.
Dad Lyfe exists to replace the group text that takes forty messages and still ends with nobody leaving the house. Coordinating a meetup means answering three questions quickly: where are you, how long are you there, and can I get to you? Sharing your location is what lets the app answer all three at once instead of you typing them out to five people. So location isn't an incidental thing we collect on the side — it's the feature.
What keeps that from being a privacy problem is that you choose the audience before you share anything, and the app treats your location differently depending on who that audience is:
The sections below spell out exactly how each of these works.
The short version
Your exact location is shown only to the dads you chose to share a check-in with — so they can actually find you. There's no public or broadcast option; everyone else only ever sees an unnamed blob on the activity map.
No ads, and your data is never sold or rented to third parties.
You choose who sees each check-in: everyone you've connected with, or just a few specific dads.
Every check-in feeds an anonymous heat map showing where dads are active — with no name, details, or contact information attached.
No contacts-list access, ever. Connecting with another dad always requires exchanging an invite code.
Dad Lyfe collects only what's needed to run the check-in board and keep it useful:
Your email address, used to sign you in. We don't require a password — you sign in with a one-time code sent to your email.
The first name you enter, a general home area you type in yourself (a neighborhood or zip — never a street address), and your kids' age ranges. We never ask for kids' names, photos, or birthdates.
When you check in from your current location, Dad Lyfe reads your device's GPS position and stores it precisely, so the dads you shared with can find you at the playground rather than wander a quarter-mile radius looking. Every check-in is limited to an audience you pick — everyone you've connected with, or just a few specific dads — and nobody outside that audience can read it. That restriction is enforced by the database on every single row, not just by the app's screens.
There is no public, broadcast, or "post to everyone" option. The only thing anyone outside your chosen audience can ever see is the anonymous heat map described below.
You name these spots yourself, in your own words ("Bruce's Pool," "the bus stop"). We don't look up or attach a street address to them, and the name you type is the only description of the place that's stored or shown. If you'd rather not name it, the app suggests a broad area name (like "Near Portland") you can leave as-is.
If you instead search for and check into a specific named place (a park, a brewery, a playground), the map shows that place's real, already-public location — a business's address isn't private information, and obscuring it would just make it harder for other dads to find you there.
Because every check-in is private, the activity map is the one thing that shows dads are out and about in an area even before you've connected with anyone. Every active check-in feeds it, and it is deliberately stripped down: coordinates are snapped to a grid roughly a third of a mile across and grouped together, and no name, note, place name, tag, time, or contact information of any kind is included. What another dad sees is a shaded area meaning "there is activity around here" — never who, never what, and never any way to reach you. Connecting still requires both of you to exchange an invite code.
The short answer: only the dads you picked, and nobody else. Spelled out, because this is the thing worth being certain about:
This isn't enforced by the app's screens, which could be worked around — it's enforced by the database itself, on every single row, every time anything is read. A request for a check-in you weren't included in comes back empty.
The place name (the one you type yourself, or the one you picked from search), an optional note about what you're up to, a tag (like "Playground" or "Brewery"), when you'll be there and for how long, your device's timezone (so notification times display correctly), and the audience you pick for that check-in.
If you ask the gang a question, we store the question, the options you wrote, and when it closes. Polls go to the same audience as a check-in — your connections, or specific dads you pick. Votes are anonymous. Your own vote is recorded so you can change or withdraw it, but nobody else — including the dad who asked — is ever shown who voted for what. Only the totals are. This is enforced in the database rather than hidden in the app: the identity behind another dad's vote is never sent to anyone's phone. If you suggest an option for someone else's poll, the dad who asked sees your name alongside it, because knowing who is already headed somewhere is the point of the suggestion. Nobody else sees it, and he can dismiss it without telling you.
Your invite code and the connections that result from exchanging codes with other dads; your RSVP status ("Interested," "En route," "Here") on check-ins you respond to; and any GIF reactions you send, which link to content hosted by GIPHY rather than storing the file itself.
If you enable notifications, we store a device token used only to deliver alerts about check-ins, plans, polls and connection requests. On iPhone that token is handled by Apple, on Android by Google (Firebase); in both cases it is routed through Expo. The token identifies a device, not you, and is never used for anything else.
We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not build marketing profiles from it.
A few outside services help run specific features. Each only receives the minimum it needs to do its job:
| Service | What it's for | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Account sign-in and database hosting | All account and app data described above |
| Resend | Sending the sign-in code email | Your email address and the code — nothing else, and it is not kept |
| OpenStreetMap | Finding places when you search or pick a tag | Your search text and an approximate location — no account details |
| Open-Meteo | The forecast shown for a spot when you check in | The coordinates of that spot and the time — no account details, no identifier |
| OSRM | Drive time when you mark yourself "on my way" | Your start and destination coordinates — no account details, no identifier |
| GIPHY | GIF reactions | Your search text when you look for a GIF to send |
| Apple | Delivering push notifications on iPhone | Your device's notification token |
| Google (Firebase) | Delivering push notifications on Android | Your device's notification token |
| Expo | Routing notifications to Apple or Google, and delivering app updates | Your device's notification token |
| Apple Maps | Drawing the map on iPhone | The area of the map being displayed |
| Google Maps | Drawing the map on Android | The area of the map being displayed |
| Cloudflare | Hosting dadlyfeapp.com | Standard web request information, including your IP address, when you visit the website — not from the app |
| Google Fonts | Typefaces on dadlyfeapp.com | Your IP address when the website loads, as with any font host — not from the app |
Check-ins are temporary by design: each one expires automatically once its posted duration is up and no longer appears on the board. Roughly an hour after that, its exact coordinates are permanently erased by an automated job — the check-in's name stays in your own history, but the position is gone and cannot be recovered by us or anyone else. At any given moment the only precise locations in our database belong to check-ins that are currently happening — with one exception worth stating plainly. A check-in posted for a future day holds its coordinates from the moment you post it until an hour after it finishes, which for a plan made ten days ahead means ten days. That is how other dads can find the place when the day comes, but it does mean a planned check-in is the one thing we hold a position for longer than a few hours. You can delete it at any time, which erases the coordinates immediately. Profile information, connections, and favorites are kept until you delete them or close your account.
Wherever you live, you can ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or delete all of it. The quickest route is the app itself: Profile → Delete account removes everything immediately and permanently — see how account deletion works. For anything else, email privacy@dadlyfeapp.com and we'll respond within 30 days.
If you are in California, the EU or the UK you have specific statutory rights — access, correction, deletion, portability, and objecting to certain processing. We apply the same standard to everyone, so the routes above are how you exercise them. We do not sell personal information, and we have no “do not sell” process to offer because there is nothing to opt out of.
Dad Lyfe is intended for adults. It is not directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. The only information the app holds about your kids is the rough age range you choose to enter — never their name, photo, or birthdate.
If this policy changes we'll update the date at the top of this page. For anything that materially affects what we collect, how long we keep it, or who receives it, we'll also tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect, so a change can't pass you by. Continuing to use Dad Lyfe after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or want your account and data deleted?