Privacy Policy

Mateable.com ("Mateable," "we," "us," or "our") respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have when you use Mateable.

1. Information We Collect

• Account information: email address, password (stored as a one-way hash, never in plain text), age/eligibility confirmation.
• Profile information: display name, birthdate, gender, orientation, bio, interests, city/state, and photos you upload. A few fields -- race/ethnicity and kink role/dynamic -- are entirely optional and self-disclosed; we only collect them if you choose to fill them in, and you can clear them at any time from Profile settings.
• Location: if you enter a city, we convert it to approximate coordinates so we can show distance and support "near me" sorting. We don't collect precise GPS location from your device.
• Activity data: likes/passes, matches, messages sent to matches, comments you post or receive, and basic usage timestamps.
• Profile views: we record when another member views your profile, so we can show you who's checked you out (a premium feature). We do not record anonymous or logged-out views.
• Payment information (if you make a purchase): card payments, where available, are handled entirely by our payment processor, Stripe -- we never see or store your full card number. Purchases made with MateableCoin (MTBC) are processed through our MTBC wallet bridge and linked to the wallet address associated with your account email; we don't have access to any wallet you use outside of that.
• Technical data: IP address and standard server logs, used for security (fraud/abuse prevention, rate limiting) and account recovery.

2. Uploaded Photos

Every photo you upload is automatically re-processed on our servers before being stored: this strips location (GPS) and other embedded metadata from the file for your privacy, and verifies it's a genuine image before it's accepted. New photos are reviewed before appearing publicly on your profile.

3. How Profile Information Is Used for Matching

To help you find compatible matches, we analyze the text of your bio and interests using an automated process that runs entirely on our own servers -- this data is never sent to a third-party AI provider. This produces a compatibility signal used only to help rank who you see in your discovery feed; it never determines who you're allowed to see, only the order.

4. Who Can See What

• Your profile (name, age, bio, interests, photos) is visible to other members per your visibility settings.
• Your comment wall is visible to anyone with an account, unless you turn commenting off.
• Public profile links: if you claim a Mateable URL (mateable.com/yourhandle), that page -- your photos, bio, prompts, and comment wall -- is visible to anyone with the link, including people without a Mateable account, and it can be indexed by search engines. This is opt-in: it only exists once you set a handle, and turning off your profile's public visibility (in Profile settings) takes the page down for everyone, logged in or not.
• Private messages are visible only to you and the specific match you're messaging -- never publicly, never to other members.
• If you block someone, all visibility and contact between you and that person stops immediately in both directions for anyone logged in. We can't prevent a blocked person from viewing a public profile link (above) while logged out, since that page requires no account to view -- the same limitation any site with public profile pages has.

5. Children's Privacy

Mateable is strictly for adults. You must be 18 or older to register, and you confirm this at signup. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe an underage person has created an account, please contact us so we can investigate and remove it.

6. Data Retention & Deletion

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. You can permanently delete your own account at any time from Profile > Danger Zone -- this removes your photos, verification selfie, and personal info immediately. Existing conversations stay visible to whoever you matched with, with your name shown as "Deleted User," so a conversation history isn't erased out from under the other person. Some information may be retained briefly where required for fraud prevention or legal compliance.

7. Cookies

Mateable itself doesn't use cookies to keep you logged in -- that's handled by your browser's local storage instead. We do use one strictly-necessary cookie, set by our load balancer, to keep your connection routed to the same server for a consistent experience (for example, so a page doesn't reload mid-action). This cookie contains no personal information and isn't used for tracking or advertising. Because it's required for the site to function correctly, it's set automatically and doesn't require separate consent under applicable law -- but we're telling you about it here for full transparency. We don't currently use any analytics, advertising, or third-party tracking cookies.

8. Security

Passwords are hashed (never stored in plain text), account access is rate-limited against automated attacks, and photo uploads are validated and re-processed before storage. No online service can guarantee perfect security, but we take these protections seriously and continue to improve them.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by an updated "Last updated" date above.

10. Contact Us

Questions about this policy? Reach us at privacy@mateable.com.