Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to Zambian Dates. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your information when you use our dating application.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide

We collect information that you provide directly to us, including:

• Profile information (name, age, location, photos, bio)
• Account credentials (email address, phone number, or social login identifiers)
• Preferences and interests
• Messages and communications with other users
• Support requests and other communications with our team

2.2 Automatically Collected Information

We may automatically collect certain information when you use our service:

• Device information (device type, operating system)
• Usage data (features used, time spent on app)
• Your selected home city and country, kept separately from any current discovery location
• Precise GPS coordinates, permission status, device-reported accuracy, update time, current resolved city and country, and a limited movement history only when you choose to enable GPS
• Log data (IP address, access times), including an IP-derived country used to suggest a country during sign-up and as an informational diagnostic signal
• An app-scoped Android device identifier, converted to a keyed cryptographic hash before storage, to detect ban evasion and protect the service from abuse

2.3 Safety, Moderation, and Diagnostics Data

To keep the platform safe and reliable, we may process:

• Reports, blocks, and moderation actions
• Verification submissions and related review notes
• Administrative safety notices sent to users in-app
• API error response logs for debugging and abuse prevention

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve our services
• Create and manage your account
• Match you with potential partners based on your preferences
• Improve nearby discovery, apply your chosen distance preference, and adaptively expand the search radius when there are too few nearby results
• When both members have usable GPS locations, calculate distance on our servers and show it as a whole-kilometre upper bound, such as “Within 8 km”; we do not send either member's coordinates to the other member
• Continue discovery using your selected home city or country when GPS is unavailable, disabled, or denied; a numeric distance is not shown unless both members have usable GPS locations
• Measure GPS opt-in, location availability and freshness, selected discovery radius, expansion, and aggregate effects on discovery and matches so we can improve the feature
• Facilitate communication between users
• Send service, safety, and administrative notices
• Send you notifications and updates
• Ensure safety and prevent fraud
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and improve system reliability
• Comply with legal obligations

4. Information Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information only in the following circumstances:

• With other users as part of the matching and communication features
• With service providers who assist us in operating our service. If you agree to GPS place lookup, we send your precise latitude and longitude toLocationIQ.comsolely to resolve your current city and country. SeeLocationIQ's privacy policy.
• When required by law or to protect rights, safety, and platform integrity
• In connection with a business transfer (merger, acquisition, etc.)

We never show your raw GPS coordinates to other members. A limited group of authorized administrators may reveal stored coordinates for support, safety, legal, and data-quality reviews; each reveal requires a recorded purpose and is audited. Administrators may also view home and current location details, GPS status, accuracy, freshness, source, recent meaningful movement history, and aggregate location metrics. This information is informational and is not used for automatic punishment.

5. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure.

6. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access your personal information
• Correct inaccurate information
• Delete your account and personal information
• Object to processing of your information
• Request data portability
• Withdraw consent where applicable

GPS is optional. We do not request GPS during sign-up. We may ask when you first use Browse or Discover, or when you tap Calculate distance. You can enable, refresh, or turn off GPS in Location Settings, and you can change your home city through Edit Profile. Your home city is stored separately and is never automatically overwritten by your current GPS location. If you decline GPS, revoke device permission, or turn it off, all core features remain available and discovery uses your selected home city or country instead.

A saved GPS location may continue to be used when it is no longer fresh, and the app may identify it as saved or potentially out of date. You can request a fresh location at any time. Location updates from multiple devices are processed when received, subject to accuracy, ordering, movement, and rate limits intended to protect data quality and prevent flooding.

How to Delete Your Account

You can delete your account directly in the app:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Advanced under the Account section.
3. Tap Delete account.
4. On the delete screen, optionally tap Send feedback.
5. Enter your date of birth, select a reason, and provide your message.
6. Tap Confirm delete account to schedule deletion.

While deletion is scheduled, your account is hidden. You can cancel the scheduled deletion from the Account section before the displayed deadline. If it is not cancelled, an automated deletion process completes the request after the scheduled period.

If you cannot access the app, contact support and include your account email or phone number so we can help process your request.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services, enforce our terms, and comply with legal obligations. Retention periods vary by data type. API error response logs used for debugging are retained for up to 24 hours. When you delete your account, we delete or anonymize personal data unless we must retain specific records for legal, security, fraud prevention, or dispute-resolution purposes.

GPS history is limited by configurable age and per-account record caps. Reverse-geocoding cache entries contain no user ID or raw coordinate columns and expire within 48 hours. We record only meaningful location changes and apply update-rate and movement thresholds to reduce unnecessary history. Raw location analytics are retained for a limited configurable period and may be converted into aggregate metrics. GPS state and identifiable location history are removed when account deletion completes, except where limited retention is required for legal, security, fraud-prevention, or dispute-resolution reasons.

8. Children's Privacy

Our service is intended for users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 18, please contact us immediately.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. You are advised to review this policy periodically.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our data practices, please contact us through the app or via the contact information provided in the app.