Privacy policy
Your data, your call
The short version. braid uses what you share to run a dating app for queer, ENM and polyamorous people. We never sell your data and we don’t show ads. Your gender, sexuality, relationship style and what you’re into are sensitive, so we only use them with your explicit consent, only to show your profile and suggest people, and never put them in logs. Your exact location never leaves our servers. You can see, change or delete your data at any time, and deleting your account in the app removes it.
1. Who we are
braid is provided by TODO: Company name Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number TODO: company number), at TODO: business address. We are the “controller” of your personal data, which means we decide how it’s used and we’re responsible for it. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), registration number TODO: ICO registration number.
Questions about your data, or want to use your rights? Email privacy@braiddating.com.
2. What we collect
What you give us
- Account: your email address (for sign-in codes) and date of birth (to check you’re 18 or over). Your date of birth is never shown to others; only your age is.
- Profile: display name, pronouns, gender, sexuality, relationship style, what you’re into, hobbies, what you’re looking for, and your bio.
- Photos you upload.
- Location: your device location when you allow it, and the area name you choose (for example “Hackney”).
- Discovery settings: the distance, ages and other filters you choose.
- Activity: who you like or pass on, your matches, messages, group chats, and Pod links with partners.
- Safety: people you block, reports you make (and any details you add), and, if you apply to be a community moderator, your application.
- Choices: which versions of our terms and this policy you accepted and when, your consent for sensitive information, and your email preferences.
What we create or receive
- Photo checks: automated results for each photo (for example whether it may contain nudity, and estimated age ranges of faces) and any human review decision.
- Usage: when you were last active and which days you used braid, so we can show “recently active” and count how many people use braid. We don’t track what you do on other apps or websites.
- Reports about you made by other members, and any moderation action taken on your account.
- Subscription status: if you buy braid Plus, the plan and when it renews or ends. Apple or Google handle the payment; we never see your card details.
- Technical: limited server logs (for example errors and request times) to keep braid running. We keep sensitive profile information out of these logs.
3. How we use it, and our legal reasons
UK data protection law requires a legal reason (a “lawful basis”) for each use of your data.
| What we do | Why we’re allowed to |
|---|---|
| Create and run your account, sign you in, show your profile, suggest people, run matches, chat, groups and Pods | To provide the service you signed up for (contract) |
| Use your gender, sexuality, relationship style and what you’re into to show your profile and suggest people | Your explicit consent (see section 4) |
| Check you’re 18 or over | Contract, and our legal duties to keep children off adult services |
| Check photos, handle reports, blocks, warnings and suspensions, and keep records of moderation decisions | Our legitimate interest in keeping members safe, and our legal duties as an online service |
| Process braid Plus subscriptions | Contract |
| Count how many people use braid and which features they use, in total, to improve it | Our legitimate interest in running and improving braid |
| Send sign-in codes and messages about your account | Contract |
| Send news emails | Your consent (off unless you turn it on) |
| Respond to lawful requests from the police or regulators, and report illegal content where the law requires | Legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we’ve weighed them against your rights, and you can object (see section 10).
4. Sensitive information
Your gender identity, sexuality, relationship style and what you’re into can reveal your sex life or sexual orientation. The law calls this “special category” data and gives it extra protection. When you sign up, we ask for your explicit consent to use it for one purpose: showing your profile and suggesting people. We don’t use it for advertising, we don’t sell it, and we keep it out of our logs.
You choose what to put on your profile, and you can change or remove it in Edit profile at any time. You can withdraw your consent by deleting your account in the app (Profile, then Delete account), or by emailing privacy@braiddating.com.
5. Who can see what
- Other members can see your profile (name, age, photos that have passed our checks, the details you add) when you appear in Discover, and see you in their matches and chats. They see an approximate distance and your area name, never your exact location.
- Hide from Discover: you can turn your visibility off at any time in Edit profile.
- Pods: if you link with a partner, each of you chooses whether you appear on the other’s profile.
- braid Plus members can see who has liked them.
- Blocking: when you block or report someone, you stop seeing each other everywhere in braid.
- Moderators (braid staff, and community moderators we have approved) can see photos waiting for review and the reports they handle, including recent messages between the people involved. Community moderators agree to a code of conduct, including keeping what they see confidential, and never see reports that involve them.
6. Safety and moderation
Every photo is checked automatically before anyone else can see it, using Amazon Rekognition. Clearly explicit or violent images are rejected automatically. Photos the checks aren’t sure about go to a person to review. If a face in a photo looks under 18, we blur it, and if the main face looks under 18, a person reviews the photo. These checks estimate; they aren’t perfect, and they don’t identify who anyone is.
When you report someone, we review it, usually within 24 hours. Moderators may warn, hide, or suspend accounts that break our community standards. If you think a decision about you, or an automated photo decision, is wrong, email support@braiddating.com and a person will look again.
7. Who we share data with
We never sell your data. We share it only with:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS), which hosts braid: our database, photo storage, sign-in (Amazon Cognito), photo checks (Amazon Rekognition) and email (Amazon SES). AWS acts only on our instructions.
- Apple and Google, if you buy braid Plus through their app stores, and our subscription service provider, which tells us whether your subscription is active.
- The police, courts or regulators, when the law requires it or to protect someone from serious harm.
- A buyer or successor, if braid is ever sold or merged, under this policy.
8. Where your data is kept
We store your data in the UK, in AWS’s London region. Some service providers (for example Apple, Google or our subscription provider) may process limited data outside the UK. When that happens we rely on UK adequacy decisions or approved safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.
9. How long we keep it
- Your account: until you delete it. When you delete your account in the app, we remove your profile, photos, likes, matches, settings and sign-in straight away.
- Messages you sent stay visible to the other person as a closed conversation, so they can still report anything harmful, for up to 12 months after you delete your account. Then they’re deleted.
- Reports and moderation records are kept for up to 2 years after the last action, so we can handle repeat behaviour and appeals, unless the law requires longer.
- Photos that fail our checks are deleted within 7 days. Uploads that never finish are deleted within a day.
- Daily usage markers expire within 40 days. Totals (for example how many people used braid on a day) contain no personal data.
10. Your rights
You have the right to:
- access your data and get a copy;
- correct it (most of it you can edit in the app);
- delete it (Profile, then Delete account);
- restrict or object to how we use it, including anything based on legitimate interests;
- move it to another service (we’ll give you a copy in a common format);
- withdraw consent at any time, without affecting what we did before;
- ask a person to review an automated decision.
Email privacy@braiddating.com from the address on your account. We’ll reply within one month. It’s free. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, though we’d appreciate the chance to put it right first.
11. Emails from us
We email you sign-in codes and important messages about your account. News emails (new features, community events) are off unless you turn them on in Profile, then Email preferences. Every news email has an unsubscribe link.
12. Security
Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest, using encryption keys we control. Photos are private and only viewable through short-lived links. Access to member data is limited to staff and approved moderators who need it, and every moderation action is recorded. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we’ll tell you and the ICO as the law requires.
13. Adults only
braid is only for people aged 18 and over. We check your date of birth when you sign up and close accounts we believe belong to someone under 18.
14. Cookies and tracking
This website doesn’t use cookies, analytics or trackers, and loads nothing from other companies. The app doesn’t contain advertising or third-party tracking tools.
15. Changes to this policy
If we change how we use your data, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. If a change matters, we’ll tell you in the app and, where the law requires, ask for your agreement again.