MateOnWhat This Policy Covers
This privacy policy explains how MateOn handles your personal data when you use the app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. MateOn is operated by POLPROG, the data controller. We run our own backend, so your data is processed on infrastructure we control rather than handed to a third-party platform.
MateOn is a social app: to match you with people nearby for shared activities, we do collect and process personal data, including your approximate location and the profile you choose to share. We only collect what the service needs.
Data Controller
MateOn is operated by POLPROG, acting as the data controller. You can reach us about privacy at [email protected]. We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, as we are not required to under Article 37 GDPR; privacy requests are handled at the contact address above.
TO BE COMPLETED: full legal name, registered address, and Tax ID (NIP) of POLPROG.
Data We Collect
- Account: A provider identifier and email from Sign in with Apple, Google, or Facebook. We never see or store your provider password.
- Profile: Nickname, optional bio, profile photo, city and country, and languages you choose to show.
- Location: Your precise location (your device's GPS coordinates), which we collect and store to find people near you and to show distance. We only ever share a coarse approximation with other users, such as your approximate city and a rounded distance, and never expose your exact coordinates to them.
- Activity data: The activities you set up (such as chess or running), your preferences and skill level, your swipes, and the matches that result.
- Messages: The chat messages and activity invites you exchange with people you match with. Message text is encrypted at rest on our servers; we can decrypt and review a conversation when it is reported, so we can act on safety reports.
- Device: A push notification token so we can notify you about matches, messages, and reminders.
- Safety: Reports and blocks you submit, and limited audit records of sensitive actions such as account deletion.
We do not sell your data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.
How We Use Your Data
- Create and secure your account and keep you signed in
- Show you relevant people nearby for the activities you choose
- Let you and your matches chat and arrange activities
- Send push notifications you have opted into
- Keep the community safe by acting on reports and blocks
- Diagnose problems and prevent abuse of the service
Our legal bases under the GDPR are performance of our agreement with you (providing the app), your consent (for example, precise location prompts and notifications), and our legitimate interest in keeping the service safe and working.
Sign in with Apple, Google, and Facebook
You sign in through Apple, Google, or Facebook. We receive a stable identifier and, where you allow it, your email address and name to set up your profile. With Apple you may use a private relay email, which we treat as a valid account email.
When you sign in with Apple, our server obtains a token that lets us revoke that authorization on your behalf. If you delete your MateOn account, we use it to revoke the Sign in with Apple link so the connection to Apple is fully removed.
Location Data
MateOn is built around meeting people nearby, so location matters. If you allow it, MateOn uses your device location to find people and activities near you. Your exact location is hidden by default: other users only ever see an approximate distance or city, depending on your privacy settings, and never your precise coordinates. You control this in the app:
- Turn discovery on or off
- Hide your approximate distance from others
- Hide your city
- Limit yourself to online or in-person activities
You can use MateOn for online activities only, without sharing location, and you can turn the location permission off at any time in your device settings. We process precise location based on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. Turning location off limits matching, since MateOn cannot suggest nearby people without a rough idea of where you are.
What Other People Can See
The point of MateOn is to connect you with others, so some of your data is shown to people you might match with. Other users can see your nickname, profile photo, bio, languages, the activities you are open to, and, depending on your privacy settings, your city and approximate distance. They cannot see your email, your exact location, or your sign-in provider account.
Push Notifications
If you allow notifications, we register a device token with Apple Push Notification service (APNs) or Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) so we can alert you about new matches, messages, activity invites, and reminders. You can choose which categories you receive in the app, and you can turn notifications off entirely in your device settings.
Third-Party Services
MateOn relies on a small set of providers strictly to deliver the service:
- Apple, Google, and Facebook for sign-in
- Apple Push Notification service and Firebase Cloud Messaging for notifications
- Cloudflare for security and content delivery in front of our website and API
We do not integrate advertising networks or third-party analytics or tracking SDKs.
International Data Transfers
We host MateOn on infrastructure in the European Union. However, some of the third parties that make the app work are based outside the European Economic Area, mainly in the United States:
- Apple (Sign in with Apple and Apple Push Notification service)
- Google (Google Sign-In and Firebase Cloud Messaging)
- Cloudflare (security and content delivery in front of our website and API)
Where data is transferred outside the EEA, the transfer is covered by an appropriate safeguard under the GDPR, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or an adequacy decision, together with the provider's own certifications. These providers receive only what is needed for their function, for example a sign-in identifier or a push token, and never the content of your messages.
Cookies and Tracking
The MateOn app does not use cookies. The MateOn website (mateon.app) does not use tracking or advertising cookies and does not run analytics. We store a small amount of data in your browser local storage only to remember your chosen theme and language. The app and the website contain no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs.
Retention and Deletion
You can delete your account at any time from within the app, under account settings. When you do:
- Your account is marked deleted and you disappear from discovery immediately
- We anonymize personal data, including your email, profile photo, bio, city, and exact location, and remove your device tokens
- If you signed in with Apple, we revoke the Sign in with Apple authorization on Apple's side
We keep limited anonymized records only where needed for integrity and safety, for example to honor a block, and for as long as the law requires.
Your Privacy Rights
Subject to applicable law, including the GDPR, UK GDPR and applicable data protection law, you can request access to your data, correct it, delete it, receive a copy, or object to certain processing. You can exercise most of these directly in the app by editing your profile or deleting your account. For anything else, contact us using the details below. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
US state privacy rights (California / CCPA & CPRA)
If you are a US resident, MateOn provides you with the rights to know and access the personal information we hold about you, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of any sale or sharing of personal information. We extend these rights to all US residents, not only those in California.
MateOn does not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined by the CCPA and CPRA. We use no advertising or analytics SDKs, so there is nothing to opt out of, but you can still exercise the opt-out right at any time.
Your precise geolocation is treated as Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) under the CPRA. We use it only to provide the matching service, which is a permitted business purpose, and we do not use or disclose it to infer characteristics about you or for any purpose that would require a separate right to limit its use.
You can exercise these rights the same way as under the GDPR section above: most are available directly in the app by editing your profile or deleting your account, and for anything else you can contact us using the details below. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.
Security
You sign in through Apple or Google, so we never see or store a password for your account. The Apple authorization token we keep in order to honor account deletion, and the text of your chat messages, are encrypted at rest (AES-GCM), so a leaked database backup would not expose your conversations. This is not end-to-end encryption: because MateOn is about meeting strangers, we keep the ability to decrypt and review a conversation when it is reported, so we can act on harassment, abuse, or illegal content, and that access is limited to reported threads. Connections are protected with TLS, your profile photo and data are stored on infrastructure we control in the European Union, and access to the back office is restricted and audited. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to limit what we collect and to safeguard what we hold.
Children's Privacy
MateOn is intended for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to use it, because the app helps arrange meetings with other people, sometimes in person. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. We will post the new version at this URL with a revised date, and where changes are significant we will let you know in the app.
Contact
Questions about your privacy or this policy? Contact us at [email protected].