Privacy policy

Last updated 12 September 2026. Applies to the Third Wheel app and thethirdwheel.co, made by Tiny Sagas, Melbourne, Australia ("we").

Third Wheel is a couples app that locks the apps you choose on your phone until a time you set, and shares that lock with your partner. We built it to hold as little about you as we can. This page says exactly what that is.

What we collect

• The name you type in. Whatever you want your partner to see. It doesn't have to be your real name.
• An anonymous identity for your phone. A random ID so your phone and your partner's can find each other. No email, phone number or password is needed to use the app.
• Your heart. Who is in it, when locks start and end, who asked to unlock, who broke a lock and how, and the calendar of kept and broken nights. This is the product; it's shared with the other people in your heart and nobody else.
• A notification address for your phone (a push token), so your partner's phone can tell yours when a lock starts or someone wants out.
• Your email address, only if you give it to us on the website waitlist or when you write to support.
• Purchase records come from Google Play or the App Store; we receive a receipt to confirm the purchase, not your card details.

What we don't collect

• The list of apps you chose to lock never leaves your phone. Your partner can't see it and neither can we.
• We don't read your messages, calls, photos, location or contacts, and we don't track what you do in other apps. The app needs Android's "usage access" permission to know which app is on screen so it can show the lock; that check happens on your phone and is not sent anywhere.
• No advertising, no analytics trackers, no selling or sharing of your data with anyone.

Where it's kept and who can see it

Heart data is stored with Google Firebase (Google Cloud), in the United States, protected by rules that only let the members of a heart read or change it. Push notifications go through Google (Android) and Apple (iPhone). We use Cloudflare for the website and email. These providers process data on our behalf and don't get to use it for their own purposes.

How long we keep it

As long as your heart exists. When you leave a heart or delete it, its data is removed. Empty hearts and unused invite codes are cleaned up automatically. Waitlist emails are deleted after we send the launch email.

Your choices

• Leave a heart from the app's settings at any time.
• Ask us to delete everything by emailing support@thethirdwheel.co. We'll do it within 30 days and confirm.
• Turn off notifications in your phone's settings; the app keeps working, you just won't be told when your partner wants out.

Children

Third Wheel is for adults and is not directed at anyone under 18. We don't knowingly collect data from children.

Changes

If we change this policy we'll update the date at the top and, for anything that matters, tell you in the app.

Contact

Tiny Sagas, Melbourne, Australia. hello@thethirdwheel.co. If you're in Australia and unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.