Privacy Policy

Who we are

Swooopz is a dating service for adults. It is operated by Dosunmu Adetokunbo, trading as Swooopz, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. In this policy “we” means Swooopz and “you” means you, whether you use the app or the website.

What we collect

What you give us

When you create an account and build your profile you give us your name, email address and password (we keep only a hashed form of the password, never the password itself), your age, your gender and the gender you want to meet, your profile text, interests and job, your photos, your city, the currency you want prices shown in, your home market (country) and your language.

What we get from Google sign-in

If you sign in with Google, Google sends us your Google account id, email address, name and profile picture. We never see your Google password.

What the app collects from your device

• Approximate location (city level), only if you allow it, so we can show you people nearby. The app reads your approximate position while you are using it; it does not track you in the background.
• A push token, so notifications can reach your device. You can turn notifications off at any time.
• The app version you are running and basic diagnostic information.
• Your IP address, which appears in our access logs whenever you use the app or the website.

What happens as you use Swooopz

• Likes, passes (profiles you skip) and matches.
• Messages, photos and voice notes you send in chat.
• Members you block, and reports you make or that are made about you.
• Purchases, subscriptions and your credit balance.
• A record of each time you use the AI assistant: which part, when, whether it worked, whether you opened the answer, how long it took and how much text it handled. Never what it read or wrote (see The AI assistant). Our service logs also note each request, with nothing that says who asked.

Verification

If you verify with a selfie, the app asks for your agreement first, then shows you a pose to copy and you take a selfie with your phone’s camera. A member of our team checks the pose and compares the selfie with your profile photos. No automatic face recognition is used. The selfie goes straight to private storage that only staff authorised to review verifications can open, and it is never shown on your profile.

If you verify with an ID instead, you send us a photo of an ID document and a selfie. They are never shown on your profile. As soon as your request is accepted for review, both images are moved to the same private storage.

Once your verification is decided (approved, not approved, or we ask you to try again) the images are deleted. We keep a record of the request without the images: its reference, whether you used a selfie (the pose we asked for, and whether the app’s own camera or your phone’s camera app took it) or an ID (and the type of ID), when you sent it, the outcome, when it was decided and by whom, and any note from the reviewer. We also keep a note of each pose we show you, when we showed it and when you agreed to take the selfie, for as long as we keep the record of your requests. If you delete your account before the decision, the images are deleted at once and the request is closed without a decision.

Why we use it

• To run the service: show your profile to other members, suggest matches, deliver your messages and keep the app and website working.
• To keep members safe: check age and identity, review reports, and detect and stop abuse, scams and fake accounts.
• To take payments and keep a record of them.
• To send notifications about likes, matches and messages, to tell you the outcome of your verification, and to tell you when an AI assistant answer you asked for in the app is ready. You can turn them off.
• To write AI suggestions when you ask for them: reply ideas in a chat, an opener for a new match, and answers from Swooopz Coach (see The AI assistant).
• To comply with the law, for example tax and fraud rules, or a lawful request from an authority.

Our legal bases

• Contract: most of what we do is needed to provide the service you signed up for, including the AI suggestions you ask for.
• Consent: for your approximate location, push notifications and, if you choose to verify, the selfie or ID images you send us for it. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests: keeping the service safe and preventing abuse and fraud, and helping members talk to each other: when your match asks the AI assistant for reply ideas or an opener, it reads your latest messages in that chat or what your profile shows them. We rely on these interests only where they are not outweighed by your rights, and you can keep your messages out of your matches’ reply ideas (see The AI assistant).
• Legal obligation: where the law requires us to keep or share information.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of companies to run Swooopz. Each one receives only what it needs.

• Google. Firebase Cloud Messaging receives your push token and the notifications we send you, so they reach your device. Google sign-in handles your sign-in if you choose it. Google Play Billing processes purchases made through the Play Store, so Google knows what you bought and takes the payment.
• Paystack processes card payments in Nigeria. You enter your card details on Paystack’s own page; they never reach our servers.
• Amwal Pay processes card payments in Oman in the same way.
• Google AdMob shows ads to free members in the app. It may use your device’s advertising id to pick and measure ads. If you watch a rewarded ad, it also receives your Swooopz member number so Google can confirm the reward to us. It never receives your messages or your profile.
• Our hosting provider operates the servers Swooopz runs on and where your data is stored. The AI assistant runs on the same servers.

We may also share information when the law requires it, to answer a lawful request from a court or authority, or to protect members from harm.

We do not sell personal data. We never share your messages with advertisers, and no outside AI company receives your messages or your profile.

What other members see

Other members see your profile: your name, your age, your photos, profile text, interests, job and city, and whether you are verified. Unless you turn off Show distance, they also see roughly how far away you are, never where you are (see Place data). They can see that you are online if you allow it, and read receipts if both of you have them. When you like someone, they see who it was only if they have the “see who likes you” feature; otherwise your like stays anonymous until you match.

If a match asks the AI assistant for reply ideas, it reads your latest messages in your chat with them to write suggestions that only they see; for an opener, it reads what your profile shows them. You can keep your messages out of their reply ideas (see The AI assistant); if you do, they may be told that you have.

How long we keep it

• Your account data: for as long as your account exists.
• When you delete your account: your profile, photos and sessions, the record of your AI assistant use, and any AI suggestion you reported with its support request, are removed at once. Any AI assistant answer still being written or waiting for you is dropped from our server’s memory at once, and an answer another member is waiting for that was written from your messages or profile is withdrawn. The lines our service logs hold for AI assistant requests stay, but they contain no text and nothing that says who asked or which chat it was. Your email address and name are cleared so the account can no longer be signed into. Your other support requests stay: your name is removed from the messages you sent in them, but what you and our team wrote in them stays as it was. Records of likes, matches and blocks stay so the other member’s history still works, but they no longer show anything that identifies you except a deleted-member label. If you asked to be verified, the record of each request stays without the ID document or selfie: its reference, whether it was a selfie (the pose, and whether the app’s own camera or your phone’s camera app took it) or an ID (and the type of ID), its dates, the outcome, who decided it and any note from the reviewer. So does the note of each pose we showed you and when you agreed to take the selfie. A request still waiting for a decision is closed without one: it is recorded as not approved, with no reviewer and a note that the account was deleted.
• Conversations you were in: the other member keeps their copy for the life of their account. Your name is replaced with a deleted-member label and the text of messages you sent is replaced with a “message removed” marker.
• Purchase records: 7 years, for tax and fraud rules.
• The AI assistant: nothing it reads or writes is stored. Because an answer can take a few minutes, what it reads is held in our server’s memory only while it works on your request, and a finished answer waits there until the app or page that asked for it has collected it, for at most an hour. None of it is written to a database, file or log, and a restart of our servers clears it. The record of each use is kept until you delete your account. The line our service logs hold for each request contains no text and nothing that says who asked. We never store your coach chats: on the website a chat lasts only while the page is open, and in the app it stays on your phone until you sign out. A suggestion you report is kept with your support request, and deleted with your account.
• Verification images: held in private storage until your verification is decided, then deleted. If you verify with a selfie, it is held there from when you send it; if you verify with an ID, the ID photo and the selfie are held there from when your request is accepted for review. If you delete your account first, they are deleted at once and the request is closed without a decision. The record of the request stays, without the images, and so does the note of each pose we showed you.
• Access logs: 90 days.
• Backups: roll off within 35 days, so deleted data can remain in a backup for up to 35 days before it is gone.

Your choices and rights

• See and correct your data. Your profile and settings can be viewed and edited in the app and on the website.
• Delete your account. In the app go to Settings → Danger zone → Delete account. On the website go to Settings → Danger Zone → Delete My Account. Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone, and it does not refund purchases. If you cannot sign in, email us from the address registered to your account; our account deletion page explains the steps.
• Get a copy of your data. Email us and we will send you an export.
• Withdraw consent. Turn location off in your phone’s settings or in the app; turn notifications off in the app’s settings or your phone’s settings. Swooopz keeps working. Without your location, distances between you and other members are worked out from the city on your profile instead and shown as approximate; to stop other members seeing a distance to you at all, turn off Show distance (see Place data). To withdraw your agreement to a verification check before it is decided, email support@swooopz.com: we close the request and delete its images. A badge you already have stays until you ask us to remove it.
• Keep your messages out of AI reply ideas. Turn off “Let my matches get AI reply ideas on my messages” in Settings → Privacy, on the website or in the app. You never have to use the assistant yourself.
• Complain. You can complain to the data-protection authority where you live. We would rather hear from you first so we can put things right.

For anything you cannot do yourself, email us at support@swooopz.com, use Support in the app (Settings → Safety & support → Support) or on the website (Support in the menu), or write to us by post at the address below. To protect your account we may ask you to confirm the request from the email address registered to it.

Children

Swooopz is for adults only. You must be 18 or older to use the app or the website. We ask you to confirm you are 18 or over when you set up your profile and refuse any age under 18, we may ask for ID and a selfie to verify it, and we remove any account we find belongs to someone under 18. If you think a member is under 18, report them from the menu on their profile card in Discover or in your chat with them, or email us. Our child safety standards explain how we handle those reports.

Security

• Passwords are stored only as a hash. We cannot read your password.
• If you verify with a selfie, the selfie goes straight to private storage. If you verify with an ID, the ID photo and the selfie are moved there as soon as your request is accepted for review. Only staff authorised to review verifications can open them there, and every time one is opened is recorded. They are deleted once your verification is decided, or at once if you delete your account.
• Card details are entered on the payment processor’s own page and never touch our servers.

No service can promise perfect security. Where the law requires it, we will tell you and the relevant authority about a breach that affects your data.

Where your data is held and international transfers

Swooopz runs on servers operated by our hosting provider. Some of your data is processed outside the country you live in: Paystack is in Nigeria, Amwal Pay is in Oman, and Google (sign-in, notifications, Play Billing and AdMob) operates worldwide. We use these companies only for the purposes described above, and card details never pass through our servers. The AI assistant runs on our own servers, so nothing you or other members write, and nothing it writes, is sent to another company or country to use it. When an answer is ready, the notification that tells you goes through Google’s Firebase like our other notifications: it says only which part is ready, never what you asked, the answer, or who it is about.

Advertising

Free members see ads in the app, served by Google AdMob. To pick and measure ads, AdMob may use your device’s advertising id. If you watch a rewarded ad to earn credits, AdMob also receives your Swooopz member number so Google can confirm to us that the ad was completed and we can add the credits. It does not receive your messages, your profile or your matches. Members on a paid plan do not see ads.

You can limit ad personalisation or reset your advertising id in your phone’s Google or Ads settings.

The website shows no ads and sets no third-party cookies.

Place data

When a member has not shared their location, distances between them and other members are worked out from the centre of the city on their profile, and shown as approximate. The same distances put nearer people first in Discover and decide who falls within a distance limit someone sets. We look the city up in a list of places kept on our own servers, so nothing about you is sent to anyone to do this.

You can hide your distance at any time with Show distance in Settings on the website, or Show my distance in the app’s settings. Other members then see no distance to you, though you can still appear when they limit a search by distance.

The list of places is an extract we made from the GeoNames cities data, cut down to the names, regions, countries, coordinates and populations needed to recognise a city. Contains data from GeoNames (geonames.org), licensed under CC BY 4.0.

The AI assistant

Swooopz has an AI assistant that writes suggestions when you ask for them: reply ideas in a chat, an opener for a new match, and answers from Swooopz Coach. It is a language model that runs on our own servers. No outside AI company is involved, and nothing you or other members write is sent to one. We told members about the assistant when we switched it on.

What it reads

• Reply ideas: when you tap Reply ideas in a chat with a match, the latest text messages in that chat, yours and your match’s. If your match has kept their messages out (below), only yours. It does not read photos or voice notes, and it reads nothing until you tap.
• An opener: when you tap Suggest an opener in a new match’s chat, what both your profiles show each other: first name, age, city, job or studies, profile text, interests and relationship goal. Never your email address, full name, exact location, religion or photos.
• Swooopz Coach: what you type to the coach, with the earlier messages of that coach chat so it can follow the conversation.

To answer in your language, an opener and the coach use the language you chose in the app or, on the website, your browser’s preferred language. Reply ideas follow the language of the chat. A suggestion is shown only to the person who asked for it.

When an answer is ready

Answers can take a few minutes when our server is busy. In the app you can leave while you wait: the answer waits in the app, and if notifications are on we send you one when it is ready. The notification goes through Google’s Firebase like our other notifications. It says only which part is ready, never what you asked, the answer, or who it is about, and you can turn it off with System updates in Settings, Notifications. If the chat closes before you open an answer (an unmatch, a block or a deleted account), or your match keeps their messages out of reply ideas, the answer is withdrawn and does not count. On the website, keep the page open: leaving it cancels the question.

What is kept

Nothing it reads or writes is stored: no copy of the messages, the profiles, your questions or its answers is written to a database, file or log. Because answers can take a few minutes, what it reads is held in our server’s memory only while it works on your request, and a finished answer waits there until the app or page that asked for it has collected it, for at most an hour. Then it is gone, and a restart of our servers clears it sooner. We keep a record of each use (which part, when, whether it worked, whether you opened the answer, how long it took and how much text it handled) so we can count your daily allowance and keep the service running, and we delete it with your account. Our service logs also hold one line for each request: which part, the outcome, how long it took and how much text it handled. It contains no text and nothing that says who asked or which chat it was. We never store your coach chats: on the website a chat lasts only while the page is open, and in the app it stays on your phone until you sign out or delete your account. If you report a suggestion, the text you report and your reason go to our support team and are kept with your support request, and deleted with your account.

Your messages in your matches’ reply ideas

When a match asks for reply ideas, the assistant reads your latest messages in your chat with them. To keep them out, turn off “Let my matches get AI reply ideas on my messages” in Settings → Privacy, on the website or in the app. It is on unless you turn it off. A match who asks for reply ideas may then be told that you keep your messages out, and any ideas they get are written from their own messages only.

Why we may do this

Writing the suggestions you ask for is part of the service you signed up for (contract). Reading your match’s messages and profile to write them is in our legitimate interests, and theirs: helping members talk to each other. We keep it small: only when someone taps, only that chat or those profile fields, nothing stored, and a switch for anyone who would rather be left out.

Suggestions can be wrong

AI suggestions are written automatically and can be wrong, out of place or simply not you. Read them before you use them: nothing is sent until you send it, and what you send is yours. Never follow a suggestion to share contact details or send money. You can report any suggestion in the app or on the website.

Every plan includes some suggestions each day; paid plans include more. This assistant is the only AI Swooopz uses: who you see in Discover, verification checks and moderation are not decided by AI.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we update the date at the top. If a change matters to you, for example a new purpose or a new company we share data with, we will let you know when it takes effect, if not before.

Contact

Questions, requests or complaints about privacy: email support@swooopz.com, use Support in the app (Settings → Safety & support → Support) or on the website (Support in the menu), or write by post.

By post: Dosunmu Adetokunbo, trading as Swooopz, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

See also our Terms of Service.