Our commitment to safety
Getting to know other families starts with trust. Our Circle combines privacy controls, content moderation, and ways to raise concerns so you can make informed choices about sharing and connecting.
How we protect your family.
You choose who you connect with.
Our Circle is designed to make meeting new families feel comfortable, not overwhelming. There are no unsolicited messages or pressure to respond to someone you don't know.
When you find a family you'd like to get to know, you can Wave. A connection opens when they Wave back. Both families choose the connection before a conversation begins.
What you share shouldn't become someone else's screenshot.
Our Circle blocks screenshots and screen recordings inside the mobile app, adding another layer of protection for your family's photos, conversations, and personal moments.
Designed to stop harmful content before it gets to you.
Our Circle uses automated safety systems to screen content for scams, harassment, inappropriate material, and other risks. When something needs a closer look, it can be reviewed by a person.
Only nearby families can see your city.
Your city and state are visible only to families within 50 miles of you. Everywhere else on Our Circle, families see your state and nothing more. We never use precise location, and we never use GPS tracking.
Your family isn't the product.
We never sell or rent your personal information. Information you choose to share about your family isn't shared with advertisers.
Built for parents and caregivers, not kids or anonymous strangers.
Our Circle is an adults-only community. Members can also choose to verify their identity using a government-issued ID and live selfie. Verified members receive a badge so other families know they've taken that extra step.
Real people, not obviously fake profiles.
Our safety systems check profile photos for signs that they may be stock images, cartoons, or AI-generated rather than photos of real people.
When you block someone, we take it seriously.
Blocking isn't limited to messages. A blocked member is separated from you across key areas of Our Circle, including discovery, feeds, events, groups, and messaging.
A little extra trust goes a long way.
Members can choose to verify their identity through Veriff using a government-issued photo ID and live selfie. Verified members receive a badge on their profile, giving other families an added layer of confidence about who they are connecting with.
Veriff is a globally trusted leader in identity verification. Our Circle never saves or stores the documents used in the process. Your ID and your selfie stay with Veriff, protected by bank-grade encryption on their servers, and we receive only the result.
It is completely optional, but it is one more way to show other families that you are serious about making a genuine connection.
VerifiedReported profiles don't stay active while we investigate.
When a potential safety concern is reported, the profile is removed from the community pending human review. We prioritize protecting families while we investigate, rather than leaving a potentially harmful account active during the review process.
Organizations stay in their own space.
Joining a clinic or organization group does not open up your Our Circle account. Only a Verified Organization can create one: a hospital, clinic, school, or nonprofit working with us under a separate agreement. They manage it in Gather by Our Circle, a separate app built for organizations.
An organization can see four things about you.
Your name
Your profile photo
Your email address
Your city and state
Along with whatever you choose to share inside their group. That is the whole of it.
Your full family profile, including your children’s support needs, your private messages with other families, your connections, and everything else you do in Our Circle stay with you. Before you join a group you see exactly what the organization can see, joining is your choice, and leaving removes their view of your profile.
What happens in your Circle stays separate from what you choose to share with an organization.
This isn’t everything we do.
These are some of the protections we thought were worth putting in front of you right away. They are not the whole list, and we keep adding to it.
We built Our Circle around the safety of families raising children with support needs, and we are committed to protecting that trust as we grow.
If you have a question about safety or privacy, or you are not sure how something works, please ask. We would love to talk it through with you. Email us at help@ourcircle.org.
Want to know more?
Our privacy policy and terms explain how information is handled, the community standards, and the responsibilities of using Our Circle.
- Identity verification confirms a member's identity. It is not a criminal background check.
- Meeting another family? We encourage families to get to know each other first and choose a public place for their first get-together.