Ardents
Privacy Policy
Effective July 1, 2026
Who we are: Ardents is operated by Ardents Dating LLC ("Ardents," "we," "us"). Ardents is a dating app built for couples, ethically non-monogamous (ENM), and polyamorous people — and the singles who want to meet them. You can reach us at support@ardentsdating.com or via ardentsdating.com.
This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices and rights you have.
A note before you read on: Ardents is a dating service. The nature of the product means that some of the most sensitive categories of personal data — your sexual orientation, your relationship structure, who you're seeking — are the core of what you put on your profile and choose to share with other users. We treat that data with corresponding care, and we never sell it.
1. Data We Collect
1.1 Account data
- Email address and password (passwords are handled by our authentication provider, Supabase Auth, and are never stored in plain text).
- Password reset and other account emails are delivered through our email provider, Resend.
1.2 Profile data (provided by you)
- Display name
- Birthdate (used to verify you are 18 or older and to display your age)
- Biological sex
- Sexual orientation
- Relationship status and relationship structure (e.g., couple, open, polyamorous)
- Seeking preferences (who you want to meet)
- Bio and written prompt answers
- Photos
- Lifestyle tags ("Your Vibe")
- Optional music and astrology fields
Special categories. Sexual orientation and relationship structure are sensitive personal data. They are inherent to a dating service like Ardents: you provide them voluntarily so they can be shown to other users on your profile, at your direction. We do not use them for any purpose other than operating the service (showing your profile, matching, and the discovery filters you and other users set).
1.3 Location data
With your permission, we collect your device's precise location. We store it in our database (using PostGIS, a geographic database extension) and use it to:
- Show you profiles near you and order your discovery deck by distance;
- Show your approximate distance (not your exact location) to other users;
- Send you optional push notifications when a new Ardent joins near you.
We do not show other users your exact coordinates — only a distance. You can revoke location permission at any time in your device settings; core discovery features depend on it and may not work without it.
1.4 Identity verification video (sensitive, biometric-adjacent)
To verify you're a real person, we ask you to record a short (~5 second) selfie video performing a randomized pose. This video:
- Is uploaded to a private storage bucket — it is never shown to other users and is never part of your profile;
- Is currently reviewed by an automated approval process; in the future we plan to use automated face-liveness checking to confirm the video shows a live person. If we adopt face-liveness processing that constitutes biometric processing under applicable law, we will update this policy and obtain any required consent before doing so;
- We treat it as sensitive, biometric-adjacent data regardless of legal classification.
Retention: verification videos are retained only as long as needed to support the verification decision and safety review, and are deleted when your account is deleted. See Section 6.
1.5 Messages and in-app communication
- Text messages, photo replies, message reactions, typing indicators, and read receipts between you and your matches.
- Messages are screened by an automated AI moderation system (OpenAI's Moderation API) to detect content that violates our guidelines (e.g., harassment, sexual content involving minors, threats). Messages flagged by moderation may be quarantined and not delivered.
- For subscribers, we offer optional AI "icebreaker" suggestions. To generate them, we send limited profile fields (bio, prompt answers, and Vibe tags) of the conversation participants to OpenAI. We do not send your messages, photos, or location for this feature.
1.6 Transmissions (ephemeral stories)
"Transmissions" are 24-hour photo/video stories (48 hours for Ardent Prime subscribers) visible only to your mutual matches ("Combustions"). Transmissions are hard-deleted from our storage at expiry — not archived. We record view receipts ("Seen by") so you can see which matches viewed your Transmission.
1.7 Device and notification data
- A device push token (via Expo's push notification service) so we can deliver push notifications you've enabled.
1.8 Safety and community data
- Blocks you create (so blocked users stay hidden from you and you from them).
- Reports you submit about other users, including the category and details you provide. Reports are stored so we can act on them and identify repeat behavior.
- A timestamp recording your acceptance of our Community Guidelines.
1.9 Purchase data
- Subscription and purchase status (e.g., whether you have Ardent Prime, expiry dates, consumable balances). Payment is processed by Apple — we never see or store your card number. Subscription state is managed via RevenueCat.
1.10 Offboarding data
- If you deactivate or delete your account, you may optionally answer a short offboarding survey. Responses are stored in aggregate-friendly form for product analytics.
1.11 Email preferences
- An email opt-in flag captured at onboarding (you can opt out) governing whether we send you product update emails.
We do not collect data from third-party ad networks, and we do not use third-party advertising SDKs.
2. Why We Use Your Data (Purposes)
| Purpose | Examples |
|---|---|
| Operate the service | Accounts, profiles, discovery, matching ("Combustions"), messaging, Transmissions |
| Show you relevant people | Distance-based discovery, your filters and seeking preferences, Vibe matching |
| Safety and integrity | Identity verification, AI message moderation, blocking, reports, enforcement |
| Notifications | Push notifications for matches, messages, Sparks (likes), new Ardents nearby; transactional email |
| Payments and subscriptions | Managing Ardent Prime, consumable packs, promotional access |
| Product improvement | Offboarding survey analytics, understanding feature usage |
| Legal compliance | Responding to lawful requests, enforcing our Terms |
3. Legal Bases (for users in the EEA/UK)
- Contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): providing the core service you signed up for — your account, profile, discovery, matching, messaging, subscriptions.
- Consent (Art. 6(1)(a), and Art. 9(2)(a) for special categories): precise location; sexual orientation and relationship-structure fields on your profile; the verification video; marketing email opt-in; push notifications. You can withdraw consent at any time (Section 9).
- Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)): safety screening of messages, fraud and abuse prevention, defending legal claims, basic product analytics. We balance these interests against your rights.
- Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)): where we must retain or disclose data under applicable law.
4. Who We Share Data With
4.1 Other users — at your direction
Your profile (name, age, photos, bio, orientation, relationship structure, seeking preferences, Vibe tags, prompts, distance) is visible to other authenticated users in discovery, per your settings and theirs. Messages, photo replies, and Transmissions are visible to their intended recipients.
4.2 Sub-processors (service providers)
We share data with vendors who process it on our behalf, under contract, only as needed to run Ardents:
| Sub-processor | What they do | Data involved |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase (on AWS, US-East-2) | Hosting, database, file storage, authentication | All service data: account, profile, photos, messages, location, verification videos |
| Resend | Transactional email (password resets, account emails) | Email address, email content |
| OpenAI | Automated message moderation; AI icebreaker suggestions (Prime) | Message text (moderation); limited profile fields — bio, prompts, Vibe tags (icebreakers) |
| Expo | Push notification delivery | Device push tokens, notification content |
| RevenueCat | Subscription and purchase management | Purchase/subscription status, app user ID |
| Apple | Payment processing (App Store / In-App Purchase) | Payment data (held by Apple, not us) |
| Cloudflare (planned) | Possible future video delivery (Cloudflare Stream) | Video content, if adopted — we will update this list before use |
4.3 Other disclosures
- Legal: if required by law, subpoena, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of users, the public, or Ardents.
- Business transfers: if Ardents Dating LLC is involved in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, your data may transfer with the business, subject to this policy.
4.4 What we never do
- We never sell your personal data.
- We never share your data with third-party advertising networks.
5. Your Data Stays in the United States
Our infrastructure is hosted in the United States (AWS US-East-2 via Supabase). If you use Ardents from outside the US, your data is transferred to and processed in the US. For users in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate safeguards for these transfers, including Standard Contractual Clauses with our sub-processors where applicable.
6. How Long We Keep Data (Retention)
- Active accounts: we keep your data while your account exists, so the service works.
- Transmissions: hard-deleted from storage automatically at expiry (24h, or 48h for Prime). View receipts associated with a Transmission do not outlive their purpose.
- Verification videos: kept in a private bucket only as long as needed for verification and safety review; deleted as part of account deletion.
- Deactivated accounts: if you deactivate (pause) rather than delete, your data is retained but your profile is hidden from discovery until you return.
- Deleted accounts: in-app deletion removes your authentication record, profile, photos, matches, and messages in a cascade. Some data may persist briefly in encrypted backups before aging out, and we may retain limited records where required for legal compliance, fraud prevention, or safety (e.g., reports about conduct, block records needed so a blocked user stays blocked).
- Offboarding survey responses: retained for analytics in a form not used to maintain a profile of you after deletion.
- Reports: retained as needed for safety and enforcement, including after the reported or reporting account is deleted.
7. Your Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you;
- Correct inaccurate data (most profile data you can edit directly in the app);
- Delete your data (full in-app account deletion is available in Settings — see Section 6);
- Portability — receive a copy of data you provided in a machine-readable format;
- Object to or restrict certain processing;
- Withdraw consent at any time, without affecting prior processing.
To exercise any right you can't complete in-app, email support@ardentsdating.com. We will verify your identity before acting on a request and respond within the timeframe required by applicable law.
8. California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)
If you are a California resident:
- Categories collected (see Section 1 for detail): identifiers (name, email); characteristics of protected classifications (sex, sexual orientation); geolocation (precise); audio/visual data (photos, verification video, Transmissions); internet activity within the app; inferences (e.g., Vibe match scoring); commercial information (purchases); sensitive personal information (precise geolocation, sexual orientation data, account credentials).
- We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. Accordingly, we do not offer an opt-out for sale/sharing, because there is nothing to opt out of.
- Sensitive personal information is used only for the purposes permitted by the CPRA for providing the service you requested (e.g., showing your profile as you configured it, distance-based discovery), so a "Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information" link is not required.
- Your rights: to know/access, delete, correct, and data portability — exercised in-app or via support@ardentsdating.com. You may use an authorized agent.
- Non-discrimination: we will not deny you the service, charge different prices, or degrade quality because you exercised a privacy right.
9. Your Choices and Opt-Outs
- Push notifications: disable in iOS Settings, or per-category in app settings where offered.
- Marketing email: you choose at onboarding; opt out at any time via the unsubscribe link in any product-update email or by emailing support@ardentsdating.com. Transactional emails (password resets, security notices) are sent regardless because the account requires them.
- Location: revoke in device settings (distance-based discovery will stop working).
- Profile visibility: deactivate your account to be hidden from discovery without deleting your data.
10. Users in the EEA/UK (GDPR)
In addition to the rights in Section 7, EEA/UK users have the right to lodge a complaint with their supervisory authority. Our legal bases are described in Section 3 and international transfer safeguards in Section 5.
11. Children
Ardents is strictly for adults 18 and older. You must provide your birthdate at signup, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If we learn an account belongs to a minor, we will delete it. If you believe a minor is using Ardents, contact support@ardentsdating.com.
12. Security
We take security seriously and use measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the data, including:
- Row-Level Security (RLS) policies on our database, so each user can only read and write the data they're authorized to;
- Private storage buckets for sensitive media (verification videos), inaccessible to other users;
- Signed, expiring URLs for media access;
- Authenticated access requirements throughout the service;
- Automated content moderation to reduce abusive content reaching users.
No system is perfectly secure. If we become aware of a breach affecting your personal data, we will notify you and regulators as required by applicable law.
13. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy as the service evolves (for example, when planned features like face-liveness verification or Cloudflare Stream video delivery launch). We will post the updated policy at ardentsdating.com and update the Effective Date. For material changes, we will give you notice in the app or by email before the changes take effect.