Privacy Policy

Account data

Name and email address, collected when you create an account. Your email is used to authenticate you via one-time code (OTP).

Profile data

Date of birth (birthday) is required: we collect it to verify you are at least 18 years old, which is a condition of using Locale. We process it on the basis of contractual necessity — we cannot provide the service to under-18s. Profession and country are optional and help us form compatible dinner groups and enable group stats reveals after events.

Preference data

Preferred city, spoken languages, dietary restrictions (e.g. vegetarian, vegan, halal), food allergies, allergy notes, and budget tier. This data is used to match you with suitable events and to inform hosts of dietary needs.

Billing data

Stripe customer ID and subscription status. We do not store full payment card details — these are held by Stripe. We retain records of subscription activation dates and billing history for accounting purposes.

Technical / session data

IP address and user-agent string, stored as part of your session record when you sign in. This data is used for security purposes (detecting unauthorised access) and expires when your session ends.

Participation data

Records of events you have joined or cancelled, participation status, and any strikes recorded against your account.

Referral data

If you share a referral link or sign up through one, we store the social graph of who referred whom. Specifically: your unique referral code, the user ID of the person who referred you (if any), and per-referral records including status, relevant Stripe object identifiers, and timestamps. This data is used to operate the referral reward program and to detect fraud. Referral relationships are never shared with third parties for marketing purposes.

Blind Date data

If you choose to apply for a Blind Date event, we collect: your gender, your partner gender preference, an age range, whether you are open to a partner slightly outside that range, a stated intent, a short free-text answer describing your ideal evening, and your interests and hobbies (chosen from a list, or added as free text). Because partner gender preference can reveal sexual orientation, we treat this data as a special category under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection and, where applicable, GDPR Article 9. We collect it only on the basis of your explicit, opt-in consent, given before any of these fields are shown or saved. This data is stored separately from your regular preferences, is used solely for hand-matching Blind Date participants, and is visible only to Locale staff performing that matching — never to the person you may be matched with, before or after the event. You can withdraw consent at any time in Account settings; withdrawal permanently deletes your answers (a minimal audit record of the consent itself is retained) and pauses future Blind Date applications until you apply again. We also verify your identity before you can join a Blind Date event — see Stripe Identity below.

Stripe, Inc. — payment processing

Stripe processes subscription payments and stores your payment method. Stripe acts as a data controller for payment data under their own privacy policy. See stripe.com/privacy.

Stripe Identity — identity verification

If you apply to join a Blind Date event, Stripe verifies your identity using a government-issued document and a selfie match, via its Stripe Identity product. Your document image and biometric selfie data are processed and retained by Stripe, not by Locale — we store only the verification status (verified, pending, or failed) and a reference to the Stripe session. Stripe acts as a data processor for this check under their own privacy policy. See stripe.com/privacy.

SMTP provider — transactional email

We use an SMTP service to deliver sign-in codes and billing notifications. Your email address is transmitted to this provider only for the purpose of email delivery.

Database host — data storage

Your personal data is stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted on a cloud infrastructure provider. Data is encrypted at rest and in transit.

Meta Platforms, Inc. — advertising measurement

When you give your consent, we send conversion events to Meta using the Meta Conversions API. This allows us to measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. The following data is shared with Meta:

• Your email address, irreversibly hashed with SHA-256 before transmission (we never send it in plain text).
• A hashed user identifier (SHA-256 of your internal Locale user ID).
• Browser identifiers: the _fbc and _fbp cookies set by the Meta Pixel, where present.
• Conversion events: account creation and subscription purchase.

Purpose:Advertising optimisation — to help Meta's algorithm identify users similar to Locale subscribers.

Retention:Hashed identifiers are transmitted in real time and not stored by Locale beyond your account lifetime. Meta's own retention policy applies to data held on their servers; see Meta's Privacy Policy.

Opt-out: You can withdraw your tracking consent at any time on this page. For the server-side conversion events (account creation, subscription), data sharing is based on our legitimate interest in measuring our advertising return. To request exclusion, email [email protected].

GDPR (EU / EEA residents)

Under the General Data Protection Regulation you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Deleteyour personal data ("right to be forgotten").
• Portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

CCPA (California residents)

Locale does not sell personal information as defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act. You have the right to know what personal data we collect, to request deletion of your data, and to non-discrimination for exercising your rights. Contact [email protected] to submit a request.