Privacy policy

1. Who we are

This policy explains how Souldaters ("Souldaters", "we", "us") handles personal data when you use souldaters.com and the Souldaters web app at souldaters.com/app (together, the "Service"). Souldaters is the controller of your personal data. Contact: palmies@pm.me.

2. What data we collect

Account data

Email address, username, password (stored only as a secure hash, never in plain text), date of birth (to confirm you are 18+ and show your age), and whether your email is verified.

Profile data you choose to add

Photos (up to 6), bio, prompt answers, tribes, interests, gender and optional gender label, pronouns, orientation, who you're looking for, intent (dating/friends), relationship goal, and lifestyle details such as diet, makeup, exercise, smoking, drinking, cannabis, kids, religion or outlook, education, occupation, languages, pets and height. Some of these (for example orientation, religion or health-related habits) may be considered special-category data; you share them voluntarily to find compatible people and can remove them at any time.

Location

The city and country you enter and, if you allow it, approximate GPS coordinates from your device. We use location only to calculate distances and show people near you. Other members never see your exact coordinates — only an approximate distance and the city you entered.

Activity and communications

Likes and passes, matches, messages you send and receive inside matches, tribe posts and replies, tribes you create, blocks and reports, notification preferences and the time you were last active.

Technical data

A session cookie and a login token (see Cookies below), and your IP address, which we use briefly for security such as rate limiting sign-ups and login attempts. Our hosting provider may keep standard server logs for security and troubleshooting.

3. Why we use it (and our legal bases)

• To provide the Service — creating your account, showing your profile to members, calculating compatibility, matching, messaging and tribes (performance of our contract with you).
• To keep people safe — verifying emails, enforcing the 18+ rule, filtering scam phrases, rate limiting, reviewing reports and removing abusive accounts (our legitimate interests and, where applicable, legal obligations).
• To send emails you expect — verification, password resets, and notifications about matches, messages and likes, which you can switch off or unsubscribe from at any time (contract and legitimate interests).
• Special-category data you choose to share — processed on the basis of your explicit consent, given by adding it to your profile. You can withdraw consent by editing or deleting it.

We do not sell personal data, share it with advertisers, or use it for third-party advertising.

4. Who can see your information

• Logged-in members can see your profile (except your email, date of birth — only your age is shown — and exact location). Profiles are not indexed by search engines.
• Matches can see the messages you send them.
• Tribe posts are shown on the tribe's page, which is public; posts show your username only.
• Public tribe teaser (opt-in): if you switch on "Show me on public tribe pages", your username, age, city and main photo may appear on public tribe and city pages. It's off by default and you can turn it off anytime.
• Our moderator can access accounts, content and messages that are reported, to investigate and act on reports.

5. Service providers

We use a small number of providers who process data on our behalf under contract:

• Web hosting — stores the database and uploaded photos.
• SparkPost (email delivery, United States) — receives your email address and the content of emails we send you. Transfers to the US are protected by appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses.
• Google Fonts and cdnjs (Cloudflare) — deliver fonts and icons to your browser, which means your IP address is visible to them when the page loads.

6. Cookies and local storage

We use only what's necessary to keep you logged in:

• a session cookie (expires when you close the browser);
• a login cookie (sd_token, http-only) and a matching token in your browser's local storage, so you stay signed in to the app.

We don't use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and we don't use third-party analytics that track you across sites.

7. How long we keep data

• Account and profile data: for as long as your account exists.
• When you delete your account: your profile, photos, likes, messages, tribe memberships, tribe posts, notifications, blocks and login sessions are deleted immediately. Pending emails to you are cancelled.
• Limited records: reports made by or about an account may be kept for as long as needed to protect members and handle abuse. Match records are closed and no longer shown to anyone.
• Security data such as rate-limit entries is deleted automatically after a few days.
• Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the EU/UK GDPR), you have the right to access your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to certain processing, receive a copy in a portable format, and withdraw consent at any time. Most of this you can do directly in the app: edit your profile, change settings, pause your profile, or delete your account. For anything else, email palmies@pm.me from your account email address. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

9. Age limit

Souldaters is only for people aged 18 and over. We delete accounts we believe belong to anyone younger.

10. Security

Passwords are hashed, connections are encrypted (HTTPS), login tokens are random and http-only, and access to personal data is limited to what's needed to run and moderate the Service. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a unique password.

11. Changes to this policy

If we make meaningful changes we'll update the date above and, where appropriate, let you know in the app or by email.

Related: Terms of use · Safety · Delete your account · Contact