Privacy policy
Sober First Aid LLC. Last updated October 21, 2026.
Sober First Aid is an app people open on a hard night. What you tell it is about as personal as information gets, and this page says, in plain words, what we ask you for, what we never collect, who can see what, and how to make it go away. It is written from how the app is actually built. If anything here is unclear, write to support@soberfirstaid.com.
Who we are
Sober First Aid LLC makes the Sober First Aid app for Android and iPhone, and runs this website. We are based in the United States. For anything about your data, the address is support@soberfirstaid.com.
What we ask you for
To sign in: an email address and a password, or a Google account. Your email address is used to sign you in and to reset your password. It is held by our sign-in provider and is not stored in our own database, and it is never shown to other members.
A username. This is what other members see. Whether it is your real name or not is up to you. It can be looked up by anyone who knows it, so if you would rather not be identified, choose one that doesn’t identify you. You can change it at any time.
Your recovery. Your sober date, and a sentence about why you are doing this.
Your journal, if you keep one. What you write in the app’s journal, the question it answered if there was one, and, for an entry written during the craving flow, which of hungry, angry, lonely or tired you picked.
Optionally: a profile photo; voice recordings you make in the app, or audio files someone sent you that you choose to keep in it; and what you post on the community feed: text, photos, replies, and reactions. If you report a post or block someone, we keep a record of that.
That is everything you type in.
What the app keeps track of
Cravings outlasted. Each time you get through the rescue flow, the app adds one to your count. You never enter it; the app keeps it for you, and it is shown to nobody else.
How the app is used. The app records which screens are opened and how often it is used, along with the kind of phone, its operating system version, the version of the app, and the country it is used from. It uses Google Analytics for Firebase to do this. It tells us which parts of the app people use and which they don’t, so we can make it better. It is tied to a random identifier for your installation, not to your name, your email address, or an advertising identifier, and it is never used for advertising or sold.
Notifications
If you turn them on, the app can tell you when someone replies to one of your posts, and tells moderators when something is reported. To do that, the app stores your phone’s notification address (a token from Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging, or Apple’s push service on iPhone) with your account. It is used for nothing else. A notification only ever says that something happened, like “Someone replied to your post.” It never shows what anyone wrote or who wrote it, because a lock screen is public. You can switch them off on your Profile, or in your phone’s settings. The address is deleted when you sign out on that phone and when you delete your account.
This website
soberfirstaid.com uses Google Analytics to count visits: which pages are opened, how far down they are read, whether someone follows the link to Google Play, and the kind of device and browser, the general area (city or region) and the site that sent the visit. Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser to tell one visit from the next. It is not tied to your name, your email address, or your account in the app, and it is never used for advertising: Google signals and ad personalization are switched off. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, the site doesn’t load Google Analytics at all. You can also block it with Google’s opt-out add-on or your browser’s privacy settings; the site works the same either way.
What we never collect
- No advertising. There are no ads, and the app does not use advertising identifiers.
- No location. The app never asks where you are. Photos you post are re-encoded on your phone before they are uploaded, which strips out the location and camera details a camera writes into a photo.
- What you write on “play the tape forward” never leaves your phone. It is held only while you are in the rescue flow and is not saved anywhere.
Who can see what
| What | Who can see it |
|---|---|
| Your username and profile photo | Other signed-in members, wherever you post or reply. |
| Your posts, photos, replies, and reactions | Other signed-in members. Anyone signed in can also see who reacted to what. |
| Your recordings | Only you. Not moderators, and not us through the app. |
| Your journal | Only you. Not moderators, and not us through the app. |
| Your sober date, your why, your cravings count, your block list | Only you. They are never shown to other members. |
| Your email address | Nobody. It is used only to sign you in. |
| Reports you file | Only moderators. The person you report is never told who reported them. |
Where it is stored, and who processes it
Everything is stored with Google Firebase, in the United States: Firebase Authentication for sign-in, Cloud Firestore for your profile, your journal and the community feed, Cloud Storage for photos and recordings, Firebase Cloud Messaging to deliver notifications, and Google Analytics for Firebase for the usage data described above; visits to this website go to the same Google Analytics account. Google processes this data on our behalf under its Firebase privacy terms. Photos posted to the community feed are also checked by Google Cloud Vision’s SafeSearch for explicit or violent content, under Google Cloud’s data processing terms; a photo it flags comes off the post and is seen only by a moderator, who decides whether the post stays up without it or is removed. If you sign in with Google, Google Sign-In tells us your email address and account identifier and nothing else. If you sign in with Apple, Apple tells us your email address — or a relay address, if you choose Hide My Email — and an account identifier, and nothing else.
Payments are handled by Google Play on Android and by the App Store on iPhone, and our subscription processor, RevenueCat, tells us whether your subscription is active so the app can let you in. We never see your card or bank details; the store holds those.
We don’t sell your data, share it with advertisers, or give it to anyone else, except where the law requires it.
How long we keep it
Until you delete it. You can remove a post, a reply, a recording, or your photo on its own in the app, and you can delete your whole account at any time. When you delete your account, everything in the table above goes with it, with these exceptions:
- Moderation records. Reports, and content a moderator removed, are kept with the record of why. This is so nobody can erase a moderation record by closing their account. Only moderators can see them.
- Copies other people already have. If someone saved a photo you posted, that copy is beyond our reach.
- Replies other people left under your posts. The post is deleted; their words are theirs.
Deleting your account
In the app: Profile → Delete your account. Or by email, if you can’t sign in. The deletion page explains both, step by step, and lists exactly what is deleted.
Health information
A sober date and a sentence about why you are doing this say a lot about a person. We treat everything you give the app as sensitive health-related information, whether or not the law in your state calls it that. It is used for one purpose: to run the app for you. It is never sold, never used for advertising, and never shown to anyone the table above doesn’t list.
We are not a medical provider, and the app is not medical advice, treatment, or emergency care. If you are in crisis, 988 and 911 reach people who can help, at any hour, whether or not you have an account.
Children
Sober First Aid is for adults, 18 and over. Before you can create an account, the app asks for your date of birth, and it won’t create one for anyone younger. Your date of birth never leaves your phone; your account records only that the check was passed. If you believe someone under 18 has an account anyway, tell us and we will remove it.
Your choices and rights
You can see and change everything the app holds about you from inside it, and delete any of it. If you want it deleted and can’t do it in the app, email support@soberfirstaid.com from the address on your account. Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act; the same address is how you exercise them, and we don’t treat you differently for asking.
Security
Data travels encrypted and is stored on Google’s infrastructure, which encrypts it at rest. Access to what the app stores is controlled by rules that are tested before every change, and recordings are readable only by the account that made them. No system is perfect; if we learn of a breach that affects you, we will tell you.
Changes
When the app changes what it does with your data, this page changes with it, and the date at the top moves. If a change matters, we’ll say so in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Sober First Aid LLC, support@soberfirstaid.com.