Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

We don't ask for your exact location. Fated uses the city you choose, and shows other members only an approximate distance. When you upload photos, they're resized on your device, which removes hidden details such as GPS tags, and our server checks each one and strips out any that remain.

2. How we use it

• To create your account, build your profile and match you with people who fit what you're looking for.
• To learn from your feedback so your next matches are better. This learning is about you only, and it stays private.
• To verify members, review reports, stop scams and enforce our Terms of Service.
• To send you messages you'd expect: invitations from the waitlist, a note when a new thread starts or your Fated is ready (and, if you turn them on, notifications on your phone or computer), password resets, and important account or safety notices. We don't send marketing without asking you.
• To understand what's working and fix problems.
• When the law requires it.

3. What other members see

You share yourself gradually. A match starts out seeing your first name, your city and your profile answers. Your photo starts hidden and sharpens as you talk. Your job and your age appear only if you both agree: one of you asks in the chat, and the other can say yes or not now.

Other members never see your email address, date of birth, exact location, your answers to "How did it go?", or anything from your verification. They can see whether you're Verified.

4. Selfies and IDs

• Your verification selfie, and your ID photo if you choose to add one, are seen only by a trained person on the Fated team, who compares them with your profile photos. For an ID, they also confirm you're 18 or over and that your first name matches.
• We delete the selfie and ID image as soon as the check is decided. We keep only the result (passed or not, and why) and the pose you were asked to copy.
• We don't use facial recognition, and we don't create face scans, face geometry or any other biometric template from your photos.
• Until the check is decided, the image is kept in private storage that only the Fated team's review screen can open, through a link that stops working after an hour.

5. Safety checks

To protect members from scams, Fated automatically looks for warning signs in chats, such as requests for money, gift cards or crypto. When it finds them, it may send the recent messages in that chat to our team to review. When you report someone, the recent messages in your chat with them go to our team too. Only the Fated team sees these, and only to keep people safe.

6. Sensitive information

Some things you share on a dating service are sensitive under privacy laws: your heritage or ethnic background, who you're interested in (which can reveal your sexual orientation), and your photos. You choose whether and what to share. We use this information only to run Fated for you, such as matching and showing your profile. We never sell it, and never use it for advertising. You can remove it from your profile, or delete your account, at any time.

7. Who we share it with

• Your matches, as described in What other members see.
• Companies that run Fated for us, under contracts that stop them using your information for anything else:
  • Cloudflare, which delivers our website and app and protects them from attacks;
  • Microsoft Azure, which runs our servers, database and photo storage, in the United States;
  • our email delivery provider, to send invitations and account emails;
  • your browser's push service (Apple, Google, Microsoft or Mozilla), only if you turn on notifications, to deliver them. A notification carries a first name at most, never your messages;
  • Google Fonts, which provides the typefaces on our pages, so Google receives your browser's IP address when a page loads.
• When the law requires it, or when we believe it's necessary to protect someone from serious harm.
• If Fated is sold or merged, with the new owner, who must keep this policy's promises or tell you before changing them.

We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it for targeted advertising.

8. How long we keep it

• Your account: for as long as you have it.
• When you delete your account: we remove your profile, photos, journeys and everything you wrote in your chats from Fated straight away, and free your email address. Copies in our backups are overwritten within 7 days.
• Selfies and IDs: deleted as soon as the check is decided.
• Notification addresses: until you turn notifications off, log out on that device, or delete your account.
• Reports and safety decisions: kept for as long as needed to finish reviews and keep the community safe. For example, we may keep a record that an account was removed for harming others.
• Waitlist: until Fated opens near you and we've invited you, or until you ask us to remove you.
• Contact us messages and feedback: for as long as we need them to help you, and no more than 2 years.

9. How we protect it

Information travels to and from Fated encrypted (HTTPS), and our database and photo storage are encrypted when stored. Your photos are never at a public web address: the app shows them through private links that expire. Passwords are stored only as scrambled hashes, never as the passwords themselves. Only the Fated team can reach member data, each with their own log-in, and every decision they make is recorded. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information, and we'll tell you promptly if a breach affects you.

10. Your choices and rights

• See and change your profile, photos and preferences in the app at any time.
• Delete your account in Settings, under Account. This also frees your email address.
• Ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, to delete it, or to stop using it for something you didn't expect, through the Contact us form. We'll reply within 45 days, and we won't treat you differently for asking.
• Leave the waitlist or stop emails at any time by contacting us.

Depending on where you live (for example California, Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, Texas, Virginia or Washington), state law may give you these rights formally. If we can't do what you ask, we'll tell you why, and you can appeal by replying to us. If you're still unhappy, you can contact your state's attorney general.

11. Your browser and cookies

Fated uses one secure cookie to keep you signed in; the page's own code can't read it. Your browser's own storage remembers settings, such as light or dark mode. If you turn on notifications, your browser keeps a small Fated script that shows them; it doesn't store your information or track you. We don't use advertising cookies or third-party trackers.

12. Adults only

Fated is only for adults 18 and over. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone younger. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account or is on the waitlist, we delete their information.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app or by email before the change takes effect, and we'll update the date at the top.

14. Contact us