Draft notice: this page is under legal review and may change. Questions: hello@swipemeets.com. Last updated 19 October 2026.
Privacy notice
This notice explains what personal data SwipeMeets collects through this website, why, how long we keep it, and what your rights are. Plain English on purpose.
1. Who we are
SwipeMeets is operated from the United Kingdom and is the data controller for the personal data described here. Full operator details (the company name, company number, registered address and ICO registration number) will be published on this page.
Privacy questions: hello@swipemeets.com with "Privacy" in the subject line.
2. What this notice covers
SwipeMeets is pre-launch. This website offers a waiting list and a venue enquiry form. This notice covers those two things and the website itself. When the SwipeMeets app and events launch, we will publish a fuller notice covering profiles, verification, matching, messaging and ticketing, and ask you to read it before you create an account.
3. The waiting list: what we collect and why
| What | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| First name | To address you properly | Legitimate interests (running the waiting list) |
| Email address | To confirm your sign-up and tell you about events; to send you a secure link to update or delete your details | Consent (contact tick box) and legitimate interests (account management) |
| Mobile number | To tell you about events by WhatsApp, text or call | Consent (contact tick box, as required by PECR) |
| Age (a number, not your date of birth) and confirmation you are 18 or over | SwipeMeets is adults-only, and events are grouped by age | Legitimate interests; legal obligation (adults-only service) |
| Nearest city or town (and the UK region it is in) | To plan where events run and only tell you about events near you | Legitimate interests |
| How you describe yourself (woman, man, non-binary, self-described, or prefer not to say) | Every event is small and balanced, so we need a rough idea of who is coming | Legitimate interests. "Prefer not to say" is always available. Stored encrypted (see section 5). |
| Sexual orientation (optional: "prefer not to say" is an answer) | So we invite you to events with people you would want to meet | Explicit consent (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(a)), given by a separate, unticked box next to the question. Without that consent we record "prefer not to say". |
| Consent records (what you ticked, the wording version, when, a hashed IP address) | To prove what you agreed to and let you withdraw it | Legal obligation (accountability) |
| Technical details: hashed (one-way scrambled) IP address, browser type, time | To stop spam and abuse of the form | Legitimate interests (security). We do not store your raw IP address. |
We do not collect your date of birth, home address, photos or payment details at this stage.
4. Venue enquiries
Venue name, city, your name, email, optional phone number and message: to reply to your enquiry and discuss hosting. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (responding to a business enquiry) and steps taken at your request before entering a contract.
5. How we protect sensitive answers
Your sexual orientation and how you describe yourself are stored in a separate, encrypted part of our database. The encryption key is kept outside the website folder and never in the database. These answers are never shown to other guests, never included in the alerts our team receives when someone joins, and are only viewed by our team when balancing an event. You can withdraw your orientation consent at any time using the "update or delete my details" link in any of our emails or at swipemeets.com/manage; your answer is then replaced with "prefer not to say".
6. Website
- Essential storage: one item in your browser's local storage that remembers your cookie choice. No tracking.
- Analytics (only if you accept): if you click "Accept" on the cookie bar we may load an analytics tool. At the moment none is configured. See the cookie notice. Lawful basis: consent.
- Server logs: our hosting provider records standard access logs (IP address, time, page requested) for security and troubleshooting, kept for a short period.
7. Who we share data with
We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. We use a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf under contract:
- Web hosting (UK data centre): stores the website and the waiting-list database.
- Our own mailbox and messaging accounts (email, WhatsApp and text) to contact you. Any messaging provider we use will be named here before we start using it.
- Internal alerting: when you join, a short notification (your first-name initial, area, age range and a masked phone number, never your orientation or email) is sent to our team through a messaging service so we can respond quickly.
Where a provider is outside the UK, we rely on the UK's adequacy regulations or the International Data Transfer Agreement.
8. How long we keep it
- Waiting-list details: 12 months after we last hear from you, then deleted. Sooner if you delete your details or ask us to.
- Venue enquiries: 12 months after the last contact, unless we start working together.
- Consent records: kept for as long as your details, plus the period needed to show what you agreed to.
- Anti-spam records (hashed IPs): deleted within 1 hour (rate limiting) or 90 days (logs).
9. Your rights
Under UK GDPR you can ask us to: access the data we hold about you; correct it; delete it; restrict or object to how we use it; and receive a copy in a portable format. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. The fastest route is the secure link at swipemeets.com/manage, which lets you update or delete everything yourself. Or email hello@swipemeets.com; we will reply within one month and may ask you to confirm your identity first.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or by phone on 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to resolve things first.
10. Security
The site is served over HTTPS. The database is stored outside the public web folder with access restricted to our team; sensitive answers are encrypted; secure links expire; IP addresses are hashed. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps and will tell you and the ICO if a breach affects you in a way the law requires.
11. Children
SwipeMeets is for adults aged 18 and over. The form will not accept an age under 18. If you think we hold data about someone under 18, email us and we will delete it.
12. Changes
We will update this notice as the service develops and show the date of the latest version at the top. For significant changes we will email waiting-list members.