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Deleting your iou account

Effective 25 September 2026.

This page describes how to delete an iou account and what deletion does. It is public so that you can read it without installing the app, or after you have removed it.

The short path

In the app:

Profile ▸ Danger zone ▸ Delete account

Profile is the rightmost tab. Danger zone is the last card on that screen.

What happens, step by step

1. You are told what deletion does

The first screen explains it, including the part most people do not expect — that the transactions you were part of survive. That is explained below.

2. If you are the sole owner of a Network, the request is refused

A Network with no owner has no way back to being administered, so iou will not let you leave one behind. The screen names every Network this applies to, and each of them has two exits:

  • transfer ownership to another member, in that Network's settings; or
  • delete the Network, also in its settings.

Once none of your Networks depends solely on you, the request goes ahead. This is the same rule that already applies when an owner tries simply to leave a Network.

3. You confirm it is you

iou sends an 8-digit code to your account's email address and you enter it. There is no password in iou, so this code is the only proof of identity available — and without it, an unlocked phone left on a table could close your account.

4. You slide to confirm

The final step is a slider rather than a button, deliberately. It is the same gesture iou uses for the one other irreversible action in the app.

5. Thirty days, during which nothing is lost

Your request starts a 30-day grace period.

  • Your account works completely normally. You can send and receive points, be invited to Networks, and appear to other members exactly as before.
  • Nobody else is told. Your Networks see nothing different.
  • A banner in the app shows the date your account will be deleted, and one tap cancels the request.
  • If you sign out and sign back in during the window, iou shows you a screen saying the account is scheduled for deletion and asks whether you want to keep it or let it go. It will not quietly cancel the deletion on your behalf, and it will not quietly continue with it either.

6. After 30 days it is done automatically

An automatic process runs and does not wait for you to come back.

What deletion actually does

Removed completely:

  • your sign-in identity — the email address can no longer sign in to iou;
  • your profile picture, deleted from storage;
  • every device registered for push notifications;
  • your friendships, and any friend requests that were pending;
  • the list of people you had blocked;
  • your in-app inbox.

Anonymised in place:

  • your username becomes a meaningless generated string;
  • your display name becomes "Deleted User";
  • your language and all your preferences are reset to defaults;
  • your memberships are set to "left" — as though you had left every Network at the same moment.

Kept — and this is the part worth reading:

  • the transactions you were part of.

Why the transactions stay

A transaction has two ends.

If you sent 50 points to somebody, that transaction is half of their balance and half of their history, just as much as it is yours. Deleting it because you closed your account would silently change their balance and remove a record they rely on, with no explanation and no way for them to get it back.

So iou does not delete it. Your name comes off it instead. The row stays, the amount stays, the note stays, and the end that used to be you becomes an anonymous member. Your email address, username, picture and display name are no longer attached to it anywhere in iou.

Two things are worth knowing. Notes stay exactly as they were written, so a note that has a name typed into it still has that name. And Supabase, which runs iou's sign-in, keeps its own logs of sign-ins, with your email address and IP address, until their retention period runs out. The Privacy Policy lists everything that outlives an account.

This is a deliberate design decision, and it is the honest version of "delete my account" for an app whose whole content is shared between people.

Getting your data out first

Before you delete, you may want a copy of your data.

Profile ▸ About & Legal ▸ Download my data builds a complete JSON file of everything iou holds about you — your profile, your Networks, every transaction and request you were part of, your invites, friends, blocks, notification devices and in-app inbox — and hands it to the iOS share sheet, so you can save it to Files, email it to yourself, or put it anywhere else. It is built on your device at the moment you ask — there is no link and nothing that expires.

Do this before the 30 days run out. Once the account is anonymised there is nothing left to export.

If you cannot use the app

If you no longer have the app installed, cannot install it, or cannot get into your account at all, write to [email protected] from the email address the account uses.

Say that you want the account deleted. We will confirm the request from that address and then do the same thing the in-app flow does — including the same 30-day window, and the same rule about Networks you solely own, which we will tell you about if it applies.

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