Privacy Policy

Varsity Dating · Last updated 2026-10-11

1. Who we are

Varsity Dating is the responsible party for your personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). You can contact our Information Officer at varsitydating@gmail.com.

2. What we collect

• Account: email address, login method, and the date you agreed to our Terms.
• Date of birth, to make sure you are 18 or older.
• Profile: name, pronouns, gender, who you want to meet, university, campus, field and year of study, photos, bio, prompts, interests, intentions, lifestyle and languages.
• Student verification: your university or college email address (if you verify with a code), or a photo of your student card or enrolment document, and the result, the date you were verified and when it runs out (verification lasts one year).
• Blind Date: your face-free photos, blind bio and matches.
• Activity: who you like or pass, your matches, and the messages you send.
• Safety: reports you make or that others make about you, and any moderation decisions.
• Subscriptions: which plan you have and when it ends. Payments are handled by Google Play or Apple; we never see your card details.
• Swipe usage: how many free swipes and ads you used today.
• Campus activity: events you mark as "going" and your answers to the daily question. Other users only ever see totals, never who went or voted.
• Study Buddy (subscribers): your modules, study style, free times and study requests and chats. Only other Study Buddy users at your university see your study profile, and you can hide it at any time.
• Match attendance: if you tap "I'll be there" for a sports match, other students who are also attending that match can see your dating card. You can remove yourself at any time.
• Advertising: if you do not subscribe, Google AdMob shows ads in the app and may collect your device's advertising ID, approximate location (from your IP address) and how you interact with ads. On iPhone we ask permission first.

3. Special personal information

Your gender and the people you want to meet may reveal information about your sex life or sexual orientation, which POPIA treats as special personal information. We only process it with your consent, which you give when you create your account, and only to show you to people you might match with and to show them to you. You can withdraw consent at any time by deleting your account.

4. Why we use your information

• To create and run your account and show your profile to other users (to provide the service you asked for).
• To check that you are 18+ and a student.
• To keep the community safe: reviewing photos and reports, and suspending people who break the rules (our legitimate interest and legal obligations).
• To send you news and offers, only if you opted in. You can switch this off in Settings at any time.

5. Who can see what

• Other users see your public dating card: name, age, photos, bio, prompts, university and other profile details. They never see your email or date of birth.
• Your Blind Date partner sees only your Blind Date photos and bio, unless you both choose to reveal.
• Your verification document is visible only to you and our review team, and is never shown publicly.
• Our moderators can read a conversation when it has been reported, to investigate.

6. Service providers and cross-border transfers

We use Google Firebase (Google LLC and its affiliates) to host the app, store data and handle logins. Google acts as our operator under a written agreement. Your information may be stored or processed outside South Africa, in countries whose laws or Google's binding agreements provide protection substantially similar to POPIA. We do not sell your personal information.

Free users see ads from Google AdMob, which acts as an independent responsible party for the advertising data it collects (see policies.google.com/technologies/ads). We never share your profile, photos, messages or verification documents with advertisers. You can limit ad tracking in your phone's settings, or subscribe to remove ads.

Subscriptions are processed by Google Play or Apple under their own privacy policies. We use RevenueCat, Inc. (USA) as our operator to check purchases and keep track of your subscription. RevenueCat receives your account ID (not your name or email) and your purchase records from the store.

7. How long we keep it

• Verification documents are deleted as soon as they have been reviewed. We keep only the result.
• Your profile, photos, likes, matches and the messages you sent are deleted when you delete your account.
• Reports you made or that were made about you, and related moderation records, are kept for 24 months after the report is closed, to protect other users, and then deleted.
• Messages that other people sent you remain part of their account.

8. Security

We use access controls so that each person can only read and change the information they are allowed to, encrypted connections, and a small, trained review team. If we believe your information has been accessed without authorisation, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.

9. Your rights

You have the right to:

• ask what personal information we hold about you and get a copy;
• correct your information (most of it you can edit yourself in Settings > Edit profile);
• delete your account and information (Settings > Delete account);
• object to processing, and withdraw consent;
• opt out of direct marketing at any time;
• complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): https://inforegulator.org.za.

To use these rights, contact varsitydating@gmail.com. We may need to confirm your identity first.

10. Children

Varsity Dating is only for people aged 18 and over. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we will close it and delete their information.

11. Changes

We will tell you in the app about important changes to this policy before they apply.