Text messages from Parea

There is one, and you ask for it

Parea sends exactly one kind of text message: a six-digit code, to a phone number you have just typed in yourself, so that we can confirm the number is yours. Nothing else is ever sent by text — no marketing, no reminders, no notifications.

Confirming a number is optional. It exists so that people who already have your number can find you here, and nothing else in Parea requires it.

Where you are asked, and what it says

In the Parea app, or at parea.photos, on the Find Friends screen — reached from the button in the corner of Find. You type your own number into a field and press a button. Directly beneath that button, these words:

By tapping “Send me a code” you agree to receive one text message from Parea containing a verification code. One message per request, not a subscription. Message and data rates may apply. See our Terms and Privacy.

You have to have an account and be signed in to reach that screen, which is why this page exists: the screen itself cannot be shown to somebody who is not signed in, and the words on it should be readable by anybody.

What arrives

123456 is your Parea code. It works once and expires in ten minutes. If you did not ask for it, somebody mistyped their number. Nothing to do.

The digits change; nothing else does. There is no link in it and no phone number in it.

How often, and what it costs

One message per request. You receive a text only in the seconds after you ask for one, and never otherwise — there is no recurring programme and no list.

Parea does not charge you. Your own mobile network may: message and data rates may apply.

Stopping, and getting help

There is nothing to unsubscribe from, because nothing recurs. If you no longer want your number held here at all, remove it — in the app under Settings, or at /account on the web. Both the scrambled form of the number and the record that it was confirmed are deleted, and you will not be texted again.

Replying STOP to a message also stops any further texts to that number, handled by the network before it reaches us.

For help, write to safety@parea.photos and a person will answer.

Your number itself

It is not stored as digits. What is kept is a scrambled form of it — a keyed hash, which cannot be turned back into the number without a key held outside the database — and the last two digits, so your own profile can tell you which number you gave. It is never shown to anybody else and never appears on your profile.

Neither your number nor the record that you asked for a code is shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes, and neither is ever sold or rented. The one place a number goes is the company that delivers the text, in order to deliver it. The privacy page sets all of this out, and the terms are the agreement it sits under.