Privacy notice

Who runs Gap Check?

Gap Check is run by Louis Macintosh, trading as Gap Check. In data protection law, that makes Louis the "controller". This means he decides how your information is used and is responsible for keeping it safe.

You can contact us at hello@gapcheck.app.

Who is Gap Check for?

Gap Check is for people aged 16 and over. We check your date of birth when you sign up. If you are under 16, you can't make an account.

Crew chat is for over-18s only. If you are 16 or 17, you can add friends but you can't chat. You can only connect with people in the same age group as you.

What information do we collect?

We only collect what we need to run the app. Here is all of it.

Your account

• Your email address and password. Your password is stored scrambled (hashed) by our login provider. We can't see it.
• Your date of birth.
• Your username.

Your profile and plan

• Your first name.
• Your area and the kind of work you're after, if you choose to add them.
• Your goals, weekly targets, tone preference and interests.
• Your travel fund goal and how much you've saved.
• Your avatar, or a profile photo if you choose to add one.

Your nightly check-ins

• Your mood and what you did that day.
• How many job applications you sent.
• How many hours you spent on your phone.
• Your "one thing" for tomorrow.
• Your private journal, if you choose to write in it.

Opportunities

• The opportunities you save or shortlist, and any closing dates you add to them.

Applying to uni

• If you use Applying to uni: when you're starting, the steps you've ticked off and when, the subject you're thinking of, the unis and courses you're considering, their open days and where you are with each, and the name of whoever is writing your reference if you add it.

Job applications

• If you use the job tracker: the jobs you add (the company, the role, where you found it, its closing date), where each application is up to, any interview dates and any notes you write.

Gap Check Plus

• If you buy Plus, we store your Stripe customer number, which plan you're on, whether you've had the free week, when your membership renews or ends, and whether you've cancelled.
• Stripe collects your name, email address and card details to take the payment. We never see your full card number.
• If you buy a gift, we store the gift code and when it was bought and redeemed. If you redeem a gift code, we store that it was redeemed by your account.
• Deadline alerts: if you add a closing date to an opportunity on your shortlist, we use it to send you a notification before it closes.

The weekly parent update

• If you choose to send a weekly update to a parent or carer, we store their email address, their first name if you add it, and whether they've agreed to get the emails.
• We email them once to ask if they'd like the updates. Nothing else is sent unless they say yes.
• The update only says how many evenings you checked in that week, your streak, how many of your daily goals you did and how many applications you sent. It never includes your journal, your mood, your messages or anything you've written.
• You can turn the updates off at any time in Settings, which deletes their email address. Your parent or carer can also stop them from a link in every email. If they do, we keep their email address only so that we never send them another one.

Notifications

• If you turn on notifications, we store a code for your phone or browser that lets us send it a notification, plus your reminder time and time zone. We use it for your evening reminder and to tell you when someone sends you a friend request or accepts yours. Turn notifications off and it's deleted.

Feedback

• Anything you write when you send us feedback, plus the page you were on, your screen size and the type of device you're using. This helps us fix problems.

Crew

• Your Crew card: your first name, username, avatar or photo, streak, and the date of your last check-in. Only friends you have accepted can see it.
• Find people: if you have a username, other Gap Check users in your own age group (16–17 or 18+) can see your profile: first name, username, avatar icon, current streak, how many check-ins you've done, your badges, the interests you picked from Gap Check's list and the month you joined. This lets people who like the same things find and add each other. They can't see your email, date of birth, photo, journal, goals, mood or what's in your check-ins. You can switch this off any time in Me → Settings, or in Crew. If you're 16 or 17, you start hidden, and only appear if you switch it on yourself.
• Friend requests you send and receive.
• People you block.
• Chat messages you send and receive.
• Reports you make, and reports other people make about you.

Keeping your account safe

• When you log in with your username, we keep a record of the username and the time. This helps us stop people trying to guess passwords.
• When you sign up, log in or ask for a login email, Cloudflare Turnstile may check that you're a real person and not a bot. It looks at things like your browser and IP address, and doesn't use tracking cookies.

Fixing problems

• If something goes wrong in the app, it sends us the error message, the page you were on and the type of browser and device you're using, so we can fix it. It never includes anything you've written.

How you found us

• If you came to Gap Check through a link from one of our partners or adverts, we note which link it was, count the visit (without saving anything about you) and save the link's name with your account if you sign up. This tells us which adverts work.

Is my journal private?

Yes. Your journal is never shown to your friends.

If something you write in your journal suggests you might be struggling, the app will show you some support helplines on screen. That check happens on your own phone or computer. Nothing is sent to anyone, and nothing is flagged to us.

Who can see my information?

• Your friends can only see your Crew card and the messages you send them.
• Other people your age can see your profile (name, username, icon, streak, number of check-ins, badges and interests) unless you switch off Find people. Under-18s are hidden unless they switch it on. Friends can always see it, plus your photo.
• Louis can access the database to run the service, fix problems and deal with safety reports. He won't read your journal unless he needs to look into a serious safety report, or the law says he has to.

Who else helps us run Gap Check?

We use a small number of other companies to make Gap Check work. Here is who they are and what they do.

• Supabase runs our database and logins. Its servers are in Ireland, in the EU (region eu-west-1).
• Cloudflare hosts the website, runs the job that sends evening reminders, checks sign-ups and logins aren't bots (Turnstile), and counts visits to the website without cookies (Web Analytics). It may log IP addresses for security.
• Anthropic runs the AI behind your AI coach (a Gap Check Plus feature), but only when you tap one of its buttons. For your weekly read we send your first name, goals, weekly targets, travel fund, your area, the work you're after, what's next after your gap year, your interests, your age (not your date of birth), the jobs in your application tracker, your shortlist, the numbers from your last four weeks of check-ins (mood, what you did, phone time and your one thing) and your last weekly read. When you use help applying, we also send the job details and advert you type in, anything you add about yourself, and your practice interview answers. We never send your journal, email address, date of birth or chats. Anthropic is based in the US. It doesn't use this to train its AI and only keeps it for a short time for safety checks.
• Stripe takes payments for Gap Check Plus and gifts. We send it your email address and an internal account number so it can link your payment to your account. Stripe is based in Ireland for UK and EU customers, and may also process data in the US under the UK's approved safeguards.
• Brevo sends our emails: sign-up, login links, password resets and the weekly parent update if you turn it on. It also sends Louis an email when someone makes a safety report or the app hits an error. Brevo is based in the EU.
• Google Fonts and jsDelivr load the fonts and code the app uses. They receive your IP address when they do this.
• Unsplash serves the photos in the app. It receives your IP address when it does this.

We don't show ads. We don't sell your data. We don't use tracking or analytics cookies. We count visits to the website with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which doesn't use cookies or follow you around the web.

Does Gap Check use cookies?

No tracking or analytics cookies. The app saves a few things in your browser's local storage on your device: your login session, your settings (like light or dark mode), and an unfinished check-in until you save it, so you don't lose it if you close the app, and the name of the partner link you came from, if any. Logging out or deleting your account clears the unfinished check-in from that device.

Why are we allowed to use your information?

The law says we need a good reason, called a "lawful basis", to use your information. Ours are:

• To provide the service you signed up for. This is called "contract". We need your information to run your account, plan, check-ins and Crew.
• To take payments for Plus and keep records of them. This is "contract", and also "legal obligation", because the law says we have to keep financial records.
• To send the weekly parent update. This is "consent". Your parent or carer only gets it if they agree, and either of you can stop it at any time.
• To keep people safe. This is called "legitimate interests". It covers reports, blocking, limits that stop spam, bot checks, and protecting logins from password guessing.
• To fix problems and see which adverts work. This is also "legitimate interests". Error reports never include anything you've written, and visit counts don't identify you.

How long do we keep it?

We keep your information while you have an account.

You can delete your account at any time from Me > Settings > Account > Delete my account. This deletes your data straight away.

There is one exception. Safety reports, and any messages that were reported, may be kept for up to 12 months after an account is deleted. This is so we can still deal with abuse.

We may keep feedback you send to help improve the app. It is deleted when you delete your account.

Error reports are deleted after 90 days. Visit counts for partner links are just totals per day, with nothing about you.

If you've paid for Plus or bought a gift, the law says we have to keep records of payments (the amount, date and what it was for) for 6 years, even after you delete your account. Stripe keeps its own payment records too.

What are my rights?

You have the right to:

• Get a copy of your data. Go to Me > Settings > Account > Download my data.
• Correct it if something is wrong.
• Delete it. See "How long do we keep it?" above.
• Object to how we use it.
• Complain to the ICO, the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

To use any of these rights, email hello@gapcheck.app. We'll reply within one month. We'd love the chance to sort things out before you go to the ICO, but you can contact them at any time.

I'm under 18. Is there anything else I should know?

Will this notice change?

Sometimes. When it does, we'll post the new version on this page and change the date at the top. If something important changes, we'll tell you in the app.

How do I contact you?

Email hello@gapcheck.app.