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Privacy Policy

Effective date: 16 October 2026

1handshake ("1handshake", "we", "us") is a members-only networking club for people in tech, available at 1handshake.com and app.1handshake.com (the "Service"). This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

The Service is run by Nikita Alimpiev, an individual based in Tbilisi, Georgia, who is the data controller. Contact: hello@1handshake.com.

The Service is open source. You can read exactly how it handles data at github.com/nikalimp/1handshake.

1. What we collect

When you sign in with Google

  • Your Google account email address, name, Google account identifier and, if Google provides it, your profile picture link.
  • We ask Google only for basic profile information (the "openid", "email" and "profile" scopes). We never see your Google password and get no access to your Gmail, Drive, contacts or anything else.

Your visit card (what you enter or approve)

  • Name, what you do (role), the text about yourself, your photo, your handle (@username), city, spheres you work in and links to your social profiles or website.
  • "I need / I can": short lines about what you are looking for and what you can help with.

Your birthday, if you add it. Only you can see it.

Your activity in the club

  • Handshakes: the joint selfie taken when a member invites you or confirms meeting you, and the time of the handshake.
  • Connections, intro requests, the 🔥 you give to back intros, posts on walls and the 🔥 on them, people you skip, and reports you file.

Voice and text intros

  • When you record yourself, the audio is sent to our AI provider to turn it into text. We do not store the recording; only the text you keep becomes part of your card.

Location

  • When you open the sign-up or profile pages, our hosting provider tells us your approximate location from your IP address (city level). We use it only to suggest your city and do not store it.
  • If you tap "use my location", your browser shares your precise location once, with your permission. We use it only to find the nearest city and do not store the coordinates. Only the city you save is kept.

Notifications

  • If you turn on browser notifications, we store the technical subscription your browser gives us (an address at your browser's push service and encryption keys) so we can send them.

Technical data

  • Sign-in cookies that keep you logged in, and a few settings saved in your browser (for example, light or dark theme). We do not use advertising or analytics trackers, and we do not sell data.
  • Our providers keep short-lived server logs (such as IP address and time of a request) for security and to keep the Service running.

2. Why we use it

  • To provide the Service (performing our agreement with you): creating your account and card, showing people one handshake away, intro requests, the feed, the graph, walls and notifications.
  • AI features: drafting your card from your intro, transcribing voice, suggesting spheres, "I need / I can" lines and matches between members. You always see and can edit the result before it is saved.
  • Safety and moderation (our legitimate interest in keeping the club real): handling reports about fake handshakes and abuse, and preventing spam and scraping.
  • With your consent: precise location and browser notifications. You can withdraw consent at any time in your browser settings or in your profile.

3. Who can see what

  • Public, to everyone and to search engines and AI assistants: your visit card at 1handshake.com/@handle and its llms.txt version — name, role, text about you, photo, city, spheres and links. On the public card, "I need / I can" is blurred and only the number of lines is shown.
  • Members of the club: your "I need / I can", your wall, and handshakes and intros involving you in feeds of people who are connected to you.
  • Your connections and their connections: whether you appear to people one handshake away depends on your "open to hiring" setting; whether your connections are visible through you depends on "open to network". You can switch both off in your profile.
  • Only you: your email address and your birthday.

4. Service providers

We use these providers to run the Service. They process data on our behalf, only as needed:

  • Supabase — database, sign-in and file storage, hosted in the EU (Frankfurt, Germany).
  • Vercel — hosting of the website and app; server code runs in Frankfurt, Germany, and pages are delivered through a global network.
  • Google — "Sign in with Google", and the Gemini API, our AI provider for transcription, card drafting and matching. We currently use Google's free tier of the Gemini API; under Google's terms for that tier, Google may use the content sent to it to improve its products. We send only what the feature needs (for example, your intro text or recording, or the "I need / I can" lines and roles of people in your network when finding matches) and never your email address or birthday.
  • Browser push services (for example, Google, Apple or Mozilla, depending on your browser) — deliver notifications. The notification text is encrypted end-to-end between our server and your browser.

If we change or add providers, we will update this policy. Some providers are based in the United States; where data leaves the EU/EEA, transfers rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or an equivalent safeguard.

5. How long we keep data

  • Your account data is kept while your account exists.
  • When you delete your account, we erase your name, role, text, photo, handle, city, birthday, links, spheres, "I need / I can", wall posts, fires, push subscriptions and the selfies you uploaded, and we delete your sign-in. What remains is an anonymous 👻 node in the graph with your connection links but no personal data, so that other members' chains of intros don't break.
  • Reports and moderation decisions are kept as long as needed to keep the club safe.
  • Database backups may keep deleted data for a short time (up to 30 days) before it is overwritten.

6. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can:

  • Access and export your data — "download my data" in your profile gives you one JSON file.
  • Correct your data — edit your card at any time.
  • Delete your account — "delete account" in your profile.
  • Object to or ask us to restrict processing, and withdraw consent for location or notifications.
  • Complain to a data protection authority, for example in your country of residence.

For anything else, write to hello@1handshake.com. We reply within 30 days.

7. Children

1handshake is only for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone younger. If you think a minor has joined, tell us and we will delete the account.

8. Security

Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Photos and selfies are stored privately and shown only through short-lived links. Access rules in the database decide who can read what. Photos are re-encoded on your device before upload, which removes location and camera metadata. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your data, we will tell you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.

9. Changes

We may update this policy as the Service grows. We will change the date at the top and, for important changes, tell members in the app before they take effect.

10. Contact

Nikita Alimpiev, 1handshake — hello@1handshake.com