Privacy — Cerchia
Last updated 17 October 2026
The principle
Cerchia keeps your circles of friends and family once, for every Nidello app: who they are, their birthdays, their cities. It is free, with no ads, no account and no tracking. Your circles live in your own iCloud. What a shared circle sees of you, you choose circle by circle. We never receive any of it, except what you choose to send us in a report.
What the app keeps
Cerchia records what you put into it:
- your circles: lists known only to you, and shared circles
- your address book of people: first name, last name, phone, email, birthday, the city you noted, and a link to their contact card
- your own profile: first name, photo, birthday, city and, if you allow it, your location
- the people you blocked, and the suggestions you turned down
Where it lives
On your device and in your own private iCloud database (CloudKit, run by Apple), which we cannot open. A shared circle lives in the iCloud of the person who created it; Apple shares it only with the people invited. Its members see your first name and photo, and only what you choose to show to that circle: your birthday, your city, your exact location, your numbers from other Nidello apps, your email or phone. Your address book, your notes and the people you blocked never leave your private iCloud.
What it asks permission for
Every one of these is optional. Refuse any of them and the rest of the app keeps working.
- Contacts
- Asked only when you tap “Fill in with my contact card”, to read your own card: first name, birthday, phone or email, and photo. To add someone, Apple’s contact picker gives Cerchia only the person you pick, one at a time, without this permission. Your contacts are never sent anywhere.
- Location
- Optional. While you use the app, to find your city; with “Follow my city”, also when Cerchia is closed, after a move of about 500 m. Only the centre of your city is kept, and your exact location only for the circles where you chose to show it.
- Photos
- Apple’s photo picker gives Cerchia only the photo you pick for your profile, reduced to 256 pixels.
- Notifications
- Birthday reminders, made on the device. Silent iCloud notifications keep shared circles up to date.
- iCloud
- To keep your circles and your address book between your devices, and to share a circle, through your own iCloud account.
What leaves the device
The app has no analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising and no third-party kit of any kind. What it does send, it sends only to the services below, and only for what you asked it to do:
- iCloud (CloudKit), Apple
- Your circles, your address book and your profile, in your own iCloud; a shared circle, between its members.
- Maps (MapKit), Apple
- To turn your location, or a city’s name you type, into a city.
- Weather (WeatherKit), Apple
- The current weather at the centre of a friend’s city, asked by your device. Nothing says who it is for.
- Mail, when you report
- A report opens an email to us, ready for you to send or not.
Only a report you send yourself reaches us. We have no server in any of these paths.
Other Nidello apps
Bivio, Cartina, Indosso and Fondale read your circles from Cerchia on your device, through a shared folder of the apps, to share a trip or a dive with a circle. They can suggest people for your address book; nothing is imported until you choose it.
Reporting, blocking and help
If someone in a circle shows a name or photo that is out of place, open their card and tap Report: an email to us is prepared, with the circle and the name shown. A comment in a Nidello app is reported the same way. A person answers, within 24 hours on working days, and can ask the circle’s creator to remove the person. Block hides their photo, location, city, birthday and comments from you, in every Nidello app; they are not told, and you can unblock in Settings. Comments with insults or hateful words are not sent. For anything else, write to [email protected] or see the support page.
Your data is yours
Delete a person, a circle or your photo in the app and it is removed from your devices and your iCloud. Leaving a shared circle removes what you showed it; the creator deleting it removes it for everyone. We cannot recover any of it for you, because we never had it.
Children
Cerchia is not directed at children and collects nothing for us about anyone.
Changes to this page
If the app ever starts doing something this page does not describe, this page changes first. The date at the top says when it last did.
Your rights
Quebec’s Law 25, Canada’s PIPEDA and similar laws elsewhere give you the right to access, correct and delete the personal information a business holds about you. Your circles are in your own iCloud, where you can read, change and delete everything yourself. We hold only the reports you send us by email; ask and we delete them. Any question: [email protected].
Contact
Nidello — Canada — [email protected]