App Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 12, 2026 · Effective: June 27, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains what personal data SideQ collects, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have. It applies to the SideQ mobile app and the sideqofficial.com website. SideQ is an 18+ service. (For the pre-launch waitlist website specifically, see also our website privacy policy.)

1. Who we are

SideQ is operated by SIDEQ LLC, a limited liability company registered in the State of Florida, United States ("SideQ," "we," "us," "our"). SIDEQ LLC is the controller responsible for your personal data.

• Contact / privacy requests: privacy@sideqofficial.com
• Mailing address: 7901 4th St N, St. Petersburg, FL 33702, USA

2. Scope

This policy explains what personal data SideQ collects, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have. It applies to the SideQ mobile app and sideqofficial.com website. SideQ is an 18+ service; see Section 12.

3. The data we collect

Information you give us

• Account & identity: email address, phone number, first and last name, date of birth (used to confirm you are 18+; see Section 12), and username. Your date of birth is self-reported at signup; your phone number is stored as part of your account record and is not currently verified by SMS.
• Profile photo: the avatar image you upload. Avatars are screened by an automated image-moderation system before publishing (see Section 7).
• Content you create: the prompts you write when matching, messages you post in venue and hotspot chats, messages you send in Meet Someone New chats, and the names and cover images you choose for circles you create. Meet Someone New chat messages are delivered live between you and your match and are not stored by SideQ (see Section 6).
• Friends and circles: the friend requests you send and receive, your friends list, the circles you create or join, the circle invitations you send and receive, and who is in each of your circles.
• Safety reports: information you submit when you report another user or a photo (a category, and an optional free-text comment).
• Student verification (optional). If you choose to verify student status, you provide a school email address (separate from your account email) and confirm that you are currently enrolled. We send a one-time code to that school email to confirm you can receive mail there. We store the school email, your enrollment confirmation, and the date your verification is valid until, so we can show you venues intended for verified students. This is entirely optional; you can use SideQ without it.

Information collected automatically when you use the app

• Precise location. With your device permission, SideQ uses precise GPS location while the app is open to show you the map, place you in the matching queue, and gate hotspot features. While you have chosen to be "Live" (see Section 5), which is optional and off by default, it is also used to detect which venue you are physically inside and to count you toward that venue's activity level, including while SideQ is in the background. If you choose to share your location with your circles (see Section 5), which is also optional and off by default, SideQ collects your precise location, including while the app is in the background, for the length of that sharing session and shows it to the members of the circles you selected. Location is central to how SideQ works; see Section 5.
• Notification data: if you allow notifications, a push notification token for your device, which we use to send you notifications, such as friend and circle activity and location-sharing alerts.
• Technical & usage data: IP address, device and app information, authentication session tokens, and basic interaction events needed to operate and secure the service (for example, rate-limiting and abuse prevention).
• Product analytics. We record which screens you open and which features you use — for example that you opened a venue card, went Live, joined matching, or completed a match — so we can see which parts of SideQ work and which do not. These records are linked to your account identifier. They do not include the content of your messages, the text of your prompts, or your GPS coordinates; where a venue is involved we record only that venue's identifier. You can turn this off at any time in Profile → Privacy & Safety → Share usage data.

Information from others

• Reports and safety signals submitted about you by other users, and moderation records.
• Activity of other users that involves you, such as friend requests and circle invitations they send you, and records that a friend has opened directions to you while you share your location (see Section 5).

4. How we use your data and our legal bases

The table below shows what we collect, why we use it, the legal basis we rely on where EU/UK data protection law (GDPR/UK GDPR) applies, how long we keep it, and which service providers receive it. We also respond to legal requests and comply with law (including removal of non-consensual intimate imagery) to meet our legal obligations. You can withdraw any consent at any time as described in the table; withdrawing consent does not affect processing that already took place.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising.

5. Location data

Because SideQ connects you with people nearby, sends you to real venues, and lets you share where you are with friends you choose, precise location is required for the core service. We use location in the ways described below. SideQ uses your location while the app is in the background only while you are Live or while you are sharing your location with your circles; otherwise, it uses your location only while the app is open.

• Venue presence ("Live" and "Ghost") — optional, off by default. Sharing your presence at a venue with other users is your choice. Each time you open SideQ you decide whether to go Live or stay in Ghost, and Ghost is the default until you choose otherwise. While you are Live, SideQ works out which venue, if any, you are physically inside, including while the app is in the background. This calculation happens on your device; what we send to our server is which venue you are in and whether you are currently inside it, not your raw GPS coordinates. This lets other users see how busy that venue is, and it lets you use that venue's chat. While you are in Ghost, none of this is shared: you are not recorded as present at any venue, you do not count toward any venue's activity, and you cannot post in venue chat, though you can still browse the map. Being Live does not put you on the map as a pin and does not show your exact location to other users: for venue presence, other users only ever see an aggregate count of how many SideQ users are currently at a venue, never who they are. Your exact location is shown only if you separately choose to share it with your circles, as described below. Live ends automatically when you switch back to Ghost, when you close the app, or after 8 hours, whichever comes first.
• Location sharing with your circles — optional, off by default. You can choose to share your exact location with one or more of your circles (groups of your friends on SideQ). No circle is selected for you: sharing starts only when you choose the circles yourself, and you can share only while you are Live. While you share, the members of those circles can see your exact location on their map, how recently it was updated, and how far away you are, and they can open directions to you (see "Finding a friend" below). To keep your location current, the app sends your location to our server about once a minute, and more often while a friend has directions open to you, including while SideQ is in the background. A sharing session lasts 8 hours. You can extend it, up to 24 hours in total, and you can stop it at any time, which removes your location from the map of everyone you were sharing with. Switching to Ghost, or removing SideQ's location permission in your device settings, also stops sharing. If you close SideQ on iPhone, sharing pauses: the members of your circles continue to see your last shared location, marked as paused, until the session ends or you stop it. On Android, sharing continues after you close the app, with an ongoing notification on your device, until the session ends or you stop it. We keep only your most recent shared location, not a history, and we delete it when your sharing session ends.
• Finding a friend. If a friend is sharing their location with a circle you are in, you can open directions to them. While you do, your app uses your location on your device to show the direction and distance to your friend; your own location is not sent to your friend for this. Your friend's app shares their location more often while your directions are open, your friend can see in the app that you are on your way, and on iPhone your friend may receive a notification. We keep a short record of who opened directions to whom, which is deleted about one hour after the directions are closed. Directions and distances are approximate and can be inaccurate, particularly indoors.
• Map display. Your location is used to show your position on the map relative to nearby venues and hotspots.
• Matching and hotspot eligibility. When you start matching, SideQ takes a momentary location reading to check whether you are inside a SideQ hotspot (calculated on your device) and sends your coordinates to our server to place you in the matching queue near other people. Your coordinates are stored only while you are in the matching queue and are deleted when you leave the queue or are matched. We do not keep an ongoing history of your location.

Precise geolocation is sensitive personal information under several U.S. state privacy laws and under EU law. We collect it only with your opt-in consent, which you give by allowing location access when your device asks, and, for location sharing, by choosing the circles you share with each time you start a sharing session. We keep a record of when you gave it. You can withdraw that consent at any time in your device's operating-system settings; this is also how you limit our use of this sensitive data. SideQ uses your location only for the purposes described above. We do not use it to infer sensitive characteristics about you, we do not use it for advertising, and we never sell it. Separately, you control whether your presence is shared with other users at all using the Live / Ghost control on the map, which is off by default each time you open the app, and whether your exact location is shared at all by choosing, or not choosing, circles to share it with. If you withdraw location access, core features (the map, matching, venue presence, location sharing) will not function.

6. Automated matching and Meet Someone New chats

SideQ decides who to connect you with in Meet Someone New using an automated matching process based on proximity, who is currently available and inside an eligible area, and the basic matching inputs you provide. A match opens a chat between you and the other person; whether you continue the conversation or meet in person is up to you. Matching is not used to make decisions about your legal rights or your access to the service. If the privacy law of your state gives you the right to opt out of profiling used in automated decisions, or to learn how such a decision was made and question its result, you can exercise that right by contacting privacy@sideqofficial.com. If you have questions about how matching works, contact us at the same address.

Messages in a Meet Someone New chat are delivered live between you and your match. Before a message is sent, our server checks its text against our content rules; links are not allowed. We do not store these messages.

7. Photos and automated moderation

When you upload a profile photo, it is sent from the app to our backend server and, before it is published, transmitted to OpenAI and screened by OpenAI's automated content-moderation service to detect content that violates our rules. If the photo is flagged, it is rejected and never published; only photos that pass are stored and shown to other users. Your photo is sent to OpenAI solely for this automated check. This screening is content classification only, it checks whether an image contains prohibited content. SideQ does not use facial recognition, build face templates or "faceprints," or collect biometric identifiers, and does not use your photo to identify you.

Per OpenAI's published API terms, inputs sent to the OpenAI API (including these images) are not used to train OpenAI's models by default, and are retained for up to approximately 30 days for abuse monitoring before deletion, unless OpenAI is legally required to retain them. OpenAI processes this data in the United States, see Section 8.

Published profile photos are stored by Supabase and served from a public URL, which means a person who has the direct link can view the image. This is standard for profile pictures, but be aware that an avatar is not access-restricted once published. You can remove your own profile photo at any time from your profile, which deletes it from display.

Large language models and AI training. SideQ does not collect, use, or sell personal data for the purpose of training large language models or other artificial intelligence systems, and does not permit its service providers to do so. We use one automated AI service: uploaded profile photos are sent to OpenAI's API and screened for prohibited content before publication, as described above. Under OpenAI's published API terms, data submitted through the API is not used to train OpenAI's models by default and is retained for up to approximately thirty days for abuse monitoring before deletion, unless OpenAI is legally required to keep it longer.

8. Who we share data with

We share personal data only with service providers ("sub-processors") that process it on our behalf under data processing agreements, and where required by law. Our current sub-processors are:

• Supabase: authentication, database, and file storage (including stored profile photos), and the live connections used for chats and location sharing. Hosted in Frankfurt, Germany (eu-central-1). Privacy policy: supabase.com/privacy
• Railway: application/backend-server hosting (United States, US West region). Our backend handles avatar uploads, matchmaking, and account operations (account deletion and data export). Privacy policy: railway.com/legal/privacy
• OpenAI: automated screening of uploaded profile photos for prohibited content (United States). Receives the photo at upload time; see Section 7. Privacy policy: openai.com/policies/privacy-policy
• Mapbox — map display (United States). Mapbox renders the map and, by default, its mapping SDK also collects map-usage/telemetry data (including approximate device location) to provide and improve its mapping services. You can opt out of Mapbox telemetry using the attribution ("ⓘ") control on the map. Privacy policy: mapbox.com/legal/privacy
• Brevo (Sendinblue SAS): sends account-verification, student-verification, and other transactional emails; receives the email address the message is sent to (your account email, and, if you verify student status, your school email). Brevo is a French company that hosts in the EU. Privacy policy: brevo.com/legal/privacypolicy
• PostHog: product analytics; receives the usage events described in Section 3, linked to your account identifier (United States). Privacy policy: posthog.com/privacy
• Apple: delivers push notifications to iPhones through the Apple Push Notification service; receives your device's push notification token and the content of the notification (United States). Privacy policy: apple.com/legal/privacy

Other SideQ users. Some information is visible to other users because of how SideQ works. Your username and profile photo appear in search results, friend lists, circles, chats, and matches. The members of a circle can see its name, cover, and members. Your exact location is visible only to the members of the circles you choose to share it with, and only while you share it (see Section 5).

We may also disclose data to law enforcement or other parties where required by law, to comply with the TAKE IT DOWN Act or other legal obligations, or to protect the safety of users or the public.

International data transfers. SideQ is operated by our team, including from Croatia, where our founder develops and maintains the service and accesses live systems and user data. Some of your data is stored on servers in the European Union (Supabase in Germany and Brevo in France) and some is processed by providers in the United States (Railway, OpenAI, Mapbox, PostHog, and Apple), as described above. Because some of our providers operate in the United States, your data is processed there when you use the app, including when you delete your account or download your data. For transfers to our U.S. providers, we rely on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, under which Railway, Mapbox, and PostHog are certified, and, for OpenAI, on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. We have a data processing agreement in place with each provider.

Analytics and advertising: SideQ uses PostHog for first-party product analytics, as described in Section 3, to understand how the app is used and to improve it. We do not use advertising SDKs, we do not share analytics data with advertising networks or data brokers, and we do not track you across other companies' apps or websites. SideQ does not currently use a third-party crash-reporting SDK. You can turn analytics off at any time in Profile → Privacy & Safety → Share usage data; when it is off, no usage events are sent.

9. How long we keep your data

We keep personal data only as long as needed for the purposes above. Our retention schedule is:

• Venue chat messages: ~24 hours, then automatically deleted.
• Hotspot chat messages: ~24 hours, then automatically deleted.
• Meet Someone New chat messages: not stored.
• Matching queue entries (including the coordinates used to place you in the queue): deleted when you leave the queue or are matched.
• Match records: retained; your identifiers are removed (the record is de-identified) when you delete your account.
• Venue-presence records: ~30 days, then automatically deleted.
• Shared location (your most recent shared location and your sharing session): deleted when the session ends, whether you stop it, it expires, or you delete your account. We do not keep a history of your shared locations.
• Directions records (who opened directions to whom): deleted about one hour after the directions are closed.
• Location-sharing notification records: ~7 days, then automatically deleted.
• Friends, friend requests, circles, and circle memberships: until they are removed (for example, when you or the other person remove a friend, a request is declined, you leave a circle, or its owner deletes it), or until account deletion. If the owner of a circle deletes their account, the circle is deleted for all of its members.
• Push notification tokens: until the token stops working or you delete your account.
• Moderation actions and safety reports: kept only as long as necessary to keep users safe, enforce our Terms, and meet legal obligations, and reviewed periodically; your identifiers are removed when you delete your account, but the safety record is retained in de-identified form.
• Unverified signups (email never confirmed): deleted after ~24 hours.
• Account & profile data: for the life of your account; removed on deletion (subject to legal-retention exceptions).
• Student-verification records (school email, enrollment confirmation): for the life of your account (verification is time-limited); removed on deletion.

After account deletion, data is removed as described in Section 10, except where we must retain certain records longer to comply with law, resolve disputes, or enforce our Terms.

10. Your rights and choices

Everyone: You can review and update profile information in the app, and you can delete your account at any time from Profile → Account → Delete Account, which permanently removes your account and personal data (subject to limited legal-retention exceptions). Deleting your account also removes your friends list, friend requests, circle memberships, and any location-sharing data, and deletes any circles you own for all of their members. Some records are retained in de-identified form with your identifiers removed rather than fully deleted — in particular safety and moderation reports (kept to enforce our Terms and meet legal obligations) and match records. You can download a copy of your data from Profile → Account → Download your data, which provides your personal data as a plain-text summary you can save or share. Both features are built into the app. You can stop sharing your location, remove a friend, or leave a circle at any time in the app. You can also turn off product analytics at any time from Profile → Privacy & Safety → Share usage data; turning it off stops all usage events immediately and unlinks this device from your analytics profile. To request a complete copy of all data we hold in a structured, machine-readable format, contact us at privacy@sideqofficial.com. If you verified student status, deleting your account also removes your school email and student-verification records.

All users, wherever you live. Because we operate under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we extend its core rights to all of our users regardless of location. You have the right to access, correct, delete, and port your data; to restrict or object to certain processing; and to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. If you are in the EU/EEA/UK, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

If you are in California or another US state with a comprehensive privacy law (for example, California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Utah, Oregon, and a growing number of others), you may have rights to access, delete, correct, and obtain a portable copy of your personal information; to know what inferences we have drawn from it; to opt out of the "sale" of personal information, "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising, and targeted advertising; to opt out of profiling used in automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects; to limit the use of sensitive personal information (such as precise geolocation); and to not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. SideQ does not sell personal information, does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and does not use it for targeted advertising.

How to exercise your rights. Use the in-app tools described above, or email privacy@sideqofficial.com. We will respond within 45 days of receiving your request. If we need more time, we may extend that period once by a further 45 days, and we will tell you why before the first 45 days end.

Verification. To protect your data, we verify requests by confirming that they come from the email address on your account, or by handling them inside the app while you are signed in. If we cannot verify a request, we will tell you and may ask for more information.

Authorized agents. You may use an authorized agent to make a request for you. We will ask the agent for written proof that you have authorized them, and we may confirm the request with you directly.

Appeals. If we decline to act on your request, we will tell you why and how to appeal. To appeal, reply to our decision or email privacy@sideqofficial.com with the word "Appeal" in the subject line. We will respond in writing within 60 days. If we deny your appeal, we will give you a way to contact your state attorney general to submit a complaint.

Universal opt-out signals. Because SideQ does not sell personal data, does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and does not use it for targeted advertising, there is nothing for an opt-out preference signal such as Global Privacy Control to switch off. We honor such signals where applicable law requires.

Security incidents. If we learn of a breach of security affecting your personal data, we will investigate, take steps to contain it, and notify you and any regulators as required by applicable law, including Florida Statutes section 501.171, without unreasonable delay.

11. Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your data:

• In transit: all traffic between the app and our services is encrypted over HTTPS/TLS.
• On your device: your session credentials are stored using your device's hardware-backed secure storage, the Android Keystore (AES-256-GCM) on Android and the iOS Keychain (device-only, so they do not sync to iCloud or transfer to other devices).
• In our database: access is controlled with row-level security, and the app reaches sensitive operations through controlled server-side functions rather than writing to tables directly.
• Error handling: error messages shown to you are sanitized; detailed diagnostic text is kept server-side only, so internal details and other users' data are not exposed in the app.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

12. Children

SideQ is intended only for adults 18 years of age or older. We ask for your date of birth at signup and do not allow an account to be created for anyone under 18; if the date of birth entered shows that the person is under 18, the app does not permit a second attempt. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18, and we do not use any user's data for targeted advertising or sell it. If we learn that someone under 18 has created an account, we will remove it and delete the associated data. If you believe a minor is using SideQ, contact safety@sideqofficial.com.

13. Reporting non-consensual intimate images (NCII)

If an intimate image of you (including an AI-generated or "deepfake" image) has been shared on SideQ without your consent, you can ask us to remove it. You do not need a SideQ account to make this request.

How to report:

• In the app: tap the photo, choose Report photo, and select "Intimate image shared without consent."
• Without an account, or for any NCII request: email safety@sideqofficial.com.

To help us act quickly, and consistent with the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act, a valid request should include: (1) your physical or electronic signature (you may be an authorized representative of the person depicted); (2) enough information to identify and locate the image on SideQ (for example, where it appears or a link to it); (3) a good-faith statement that you have a reasonable belief the image is non-consensual and was published without the depicted person's consent; and (4) your name and contact information (such as an email address). If your request is missing any of these items, we will tell you what is needed.

When we receive your request we will give you a reference number, and we will tell you what action we took. We will remove validly reported non-consensual intimate imagery within 48 hours of a valid request and make reasonable efforts to remove known copies.

14. Cookies and tracking technologies

The SideQ mobile app does not use cookies or advertising identifiers, and does not use tracking technologies that follow you across other companies' apps or websites. It does use first-party product analytics (PostHog) to record in-app feature usage — see Sections 3 and 8, and the opt-out in Section 10. Apart from that, the only things stored on your device are what is needed to keep you signed in (a session token in your device's secure storage; see Section 11) and your analytics preference. If any non-essential cookies are later added to the sideqofficial.com website, such as analytics, advertising, or embedded media, we will add a consent banner and update this section.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. If we make material changes, we will notify you in the app or by other appropriate means and update the "Last updated" date above.

16. Contact

Questions or requests: privacy@sideqofficial.com. EU/EEA/UK users may also contact their local supervisory authority.