Privacy Policy

01Who is responsible

PrideConnect is the data controller for the personal data described here. You can reach us, including our data protection contact, at privacy@prideconnect.app or support@prideconnect.app.

02Data we store

• Account data: name, email address, password (stored only as a secure hash), sign-in method and account settings.
• Profile data you choose to add: display name, pronouns, birthdate (to confirm you're 18+ and show your age if you allow it), bio, photos, identities, orientation, intentions, interests and languages.
• Approximate location: a rounded position and city, used for the radar, nearby feed and hangouts.
• Content and activity: posts, comments, messages, hangouts, likes, matches, blocks and reports.
• Verification selfies, which are only seen by our moderation team.
• Subscription data: plan and status. Payments are handled by our payment provider; we never see your full card number.
• Technical data: device type, app version, push notification tokens, IP address and security logs.

03Sensitive information

Details such as your sexual orientation, gender identity or health are special category data under the GDPR. We only process them because you choose to add them to your profile, based on your explicit consent. You can edit, hide or remove them at any time, and you control who sees them in Settings → Privacy.

04How we protect your location

We never store your exact position. When your device shares its location, we round it on our server to an area of roughly a kilometre before saving it, and other members only ever see distance buckets such as "~2 km" — never a pin or an exact number.

You can turn off distance, use Ghost mode, or set your area manually instead of sharing device location. Hangout addresses are only shown to approved members.

05Why we use your data

• To provide the service you asked for: your profile, discovery, messages, feed and hangouts (performance of our contract with you).
• To keep the community safe: moderation, fraud and abuse prevention, age checks and verification (legitimate interests and legal obligations).
• To send notifications and emails you've enabled (contract and consent — you can change them in Settings → Notifications).
• To process Plus payments and keep financial records (contract and legal obligations).
• To understand and improve the product using aggregated, de-identified statistics (legitimate interests).

06Who we share it with

We don't sell your personal data, and advertisers never receive your profile, orientation, messages or location.

We use carefully selected processors that act on our instructions: cloud hosting and storage, email delivery, push notifications and payments. Where data leaves the European Economic Area, we rely on adequacy decisions or Standard Contractual Clauses.

We may disclose data when the law requires it, or to protect someone's life or safety.

07Cookies and analytics

We use essential cookies to keep you signed in, remember your language and protect your account. These are needed for the service to work.

With your permission, we also use Google Analytics to count visits and understand which pages work well. It only loads after you choose "Allow analytics". We turn off Google's advertising features and remove member, message and hangout identifiers from page addresses before anything is sent, so Google never receives your profile, messages or location.

Visitors and free members may see ads served by Google AdSense on our website — never PrideConnect Plus members, never in the app for iOS and Android, and never in chats or settings. Google uses cookies and device identifiers to show and measure ads and to prevent fraud. We ask Google for non-personalised ads, so the ads you see aren't based on your interests or your activity on PrideConnect. Learn how Google uses this data at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

You can change your choice at any time with "Cookie preferences" at the bottom of our website. Google Analytics data is kept for 14 months.

08What other members see

Other members see your profile according to your privacy settings. If you're a Plus member using the Exclusive Circle, free members see a blurred placeholder — the hidden details are never sent to their device. Blocking someone hides you from each other everywhere.

09How long we keep data

• Your account data while your account is open.
• When you delete your account, your profile is hidden immediately and permanently deleted within 30 days.
• Verification selfies are deleted within 30 days after the decision.
• Reports and moderation records are kept for up to 2 years, or longer where needed to prevent banned users from returning or for legal claims.
• Billing records are kept for as long as tax law requires (typically up to 10 years).
• Security logs are kept for up to 90 days.

10Your rights

You can access, correct, export or delete your data, object to or restrict certain processing, and withdraw consent at any time without affecting earlier processing.

Export: Settings → Your data → Export creates a downloadable copy of your data. Delete: Settings → Your data → Delete account.

For anything else, email privacy@prideconnect.app. You also have the right to complain to your data protection authority — in Portugal, the CNPD.

11Security

We use encryption in transit, hashed passwords, signed and short-lived links for photos, strict access controls for our team and regular reviews. No system is perfect: if we become aware of a breach that affects you, we'll tell you and the authorities as required by law.

12Minors

PrideConnect is only for adults. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18 and close accounts that appear to belong to minors.

13Changes

We'll update this policy when our practices change and let you know about important changes in the app or by email.