Privacy Policy
Last updated: August 2026
This policy explains what information GroupUs collects, how it's used, and the choices you have. GroupUs is an SMS-based group texting service — most of what we collect exists to make that service work.
Information we collect
- Phone numbers of group owners and members, used to operate group texting and billing. Phone numbers are encrypted at rest — see "How we protect your information" below.
- Group details you provide, such as group names and join codes.
- Message delivery metadata — which group a message passed through and how large it was (for usage/billing purposes). We do not store the text content of your messages.
- Billing information, handled directly by our payment processor (Stripe) — we do not store full card numbers ourselves.
- Basic website usage data (e.g. pages visited) if you visit joingroupus.com, via privacy-friendly analytics that doesn't use tracking cookies.
How we use this information
- To operate group texting: relaying messages, managing membership, and processing commands like JOIN or LEAVE.
- To bill group owners for paid plans.
- To provide customer support when you contact us.
- To meet legal and carrier obligations around SMS messaging.
What we don't do
We do not sell your phone number or message content to third parties. We do not use your phone number or opt-in data for marketing purposes outside of the GroupUs service itself. We do not store the text of messages sent through GroupUs — only the information needed to deliver them and calculate usage.
How we protect your information
Phone numbers are encrypted at rest using industry-standard encryption (AES-256). A database backup or unauthorized database access alone would not reveal phone numbers in readable form. The application decrypts a phone number only at the moment it's needed — for example, to deliver a text message or verify who's allowed to manage a group.
When you leave a group by texting LEAVE, your phone number is removed from that group immediately, not just marked inactive.
Service providers
We rely on a small number of providers to operate GroupUs: Twilio (SMS delivery), Stripe (billing), Supabase (data storage), and Cloudflare (hosting and infrastructure). Each only receives the information needed to perform its function.
Your choices
- Reply LEAVE to any group's number at any time to stop receiving messages from that group.
- Contact us to request that your information be deleted, subject to what we're required to retain for billing or legal records.
Children's privacy
GroupUs is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the date at the top of this page.
Contact us
Questions about this policy can be sent to privacy@joingroupus.com.