Privacy Policy

50/50 is a dating app where both people put in half. This policy explains, in plain English, exactly what we collect, why we collect it, how we protect it, and the control you have over it. We've tried to describe only what the app actually does — not a generic template.

Who we are

50/50 is an independent product operated by the team behind 5050dating.org. If you have any question about this policy or your data, email us at [email protected].

The short version

• We collect only what the app needs to work: your sign-in identity, your profile, your photos, one verification selfie, your messages, and a device token for notifications.
• We do not run ads, and we do not use third-party ad networks, analytics SDKs, or tracking tools. We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with data brokers.
• Your verification selfie is compared by a human being to your profile photos, by eye, for verification only. We never generate or store a faceprint or any biometric template.
• You can delete your account — and the data tied to it — from inside the app at any time.

What we collect and why

Sign-in identity

You sign in with Sign in with Apple or Google. From that, we receive and store a stable account identifier and, when provided, your email address and name. If you use Sign in with Apple, your email may be an Apple private-relay address, or may not be shared at all — that's fine, and the app still works. We use this identity only to create and secure your account and to sign you in.

Birthdate

We collect your birthdate once, during onboarding, to enforce the 18+ requirement. Your birthdate is set a single time and cannot be changed afterward.

Profile

We collect the profile you build, which may include:

• Your first name.
• Your gender and who you're interested in.
• Your written prompt answers.
• An optional height.
• Your campus.
• A coarse location — your city and rounded coordinates only. We do not collect or store precise GPS location in this version of the app, and we do not display distance.
• Your matching preferences (such as who you're interested in and an age range).

Note on sensitive data: because "interested in" can reveal sexual orientation, we treat it as sensitive information. We collect it for one reason — to match you with people — and for nothing else.

Photos

You upload profile photos (between two and six). These are stored privately and are shown to other users as part of your profile inside the app.

Verification selfie

To keep the pool real and reduce fake profiles and catfishing, we ask for one live selfie taken with your front camera during onboarding. Before you take it, we show you a consent screen explaining what it's for, who sees it, how long we keep it, and that the comparison is done by a human only. How we use it:

• An administrator visually compares your selfie to your profile photos, by eye, to confirm you're a real person who matches your photos.
• We never generate, derive, or store a faceprint, face-geometry template, or any other biometric identifier from your selfie. The comparison is manual and human only. This is a deliberate design and legal choice: your selfie is treated as a photograph, not as biometric data.
• The selfie is stored as a private, encrypted object. No other user can ever see it.
• We delete it when you delete your account, and we automatically purge it about 30 days after your verification is approved. If your verification is rejected, it is purged after the retry window closes.

Messages

When you match and chat, we store your messages so the conversation works across your devices. Message contents are encrypted at rest (using libsodium). We can access message contents only in two situations: to deliver the conversation to you and your match, and — for an administrator working a specific abuse report — as part of reviewing that report, which writes an internal audit record. We do not browse conversations.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, we store a device push token so we can send you app notifications (for example, that your verification was approved, or that you have a new message). This token is removed when it stops working or when you delete your account.

Reports and safety records

If you report another user, we keep the report — including any message excerpt you choose to attach — so we can act on it and maintain a safety record. This is described further under "Data we keep for safety" below.

What we do NOT do

• No advertising. We show no ads and run no paid-ad tracking. Growth is word of mouth, not paid acquisition.
• No third-party analytics or crash-reporting SDKs in this version of the app.
• No selling or sharing of your personal data with data brokers or advertisers.
• No faceprints or biometric templates, ever, by any part of the app.
• No precise/GPS location collection in this version — coarse city-level only.

Cookies and web tracking

The 50/50 mobile app does not use advertising or tracking cookies. Our marketing website (5050dating.org) is a simple static site; if you join the waitlist, it stores the email address you submit so we can contact you about early access. That's the only thing the website collects.

How we protect your data

• Your device never talks to our database. The app only talks to our API over an encrypted (TLS) connection, and our API is the only thing that can reach the database. There is no public, internet-reachable database.
• Photos and selfies are private. They're stored as private objects and are served only through short-lived, signed links generated per request — never a permanent public URL. Verification selfies have no user-facing view path at all; only administrators can see them, and only for review.
• Messages are encrypted at rest with a server-held key that never reaches your device.
• Sensitive tokens are never stored in the clear. Sign-in refresh tokens and one-time codes are stored only as hashes.
• All traffic uses TLS. Nothing sensitive travels unencrypted.

Who can see what

• Other users see your profile: your photos, first name, prompts, gender, and (if set) height and coarse city.
• Your matches can read the messages you exchange with them.
• Administrators can see your verification selfie next to your profile photos for verification, and can access a reported conversation when working an abuse report. Both of these are limited, purpose-specific paths — not open browsing.
• Service providers host the infrastructure that runs the app (our cloud database host and our private file storage). They process data on our behalf to operate the service; they are not given your data for their own purposes.

How long we keep your data

• Account and profile data: kept while your account exists.
• Photos: kept while your account exists.
• Verification selfie: automatically purged about 30 days after approval, and deleted when you delete your account.
• Messages: kept for the life of a match.
• Push tokens and sign-in tokens: pruned when they expire or stop working.

Data we keep for safety

To keep the community safe, a small amount of data intentionally outlives account deletion:

• Abuse reports (and any attached message excerpt) are retained as a safety and audit record. If you delete your account, your reports are anonymized rather than deleted.
• Ban records. If an account is banned, we keep a one-way hashed record of its sign-in identifiers so a banned person can't simply delete and re-register to evade the ban. We store only the hash, never the raw identifier.
• When you delete your account, a revealed conversation you were part of ends visibly for the other person, and its encrypted messages may be retained as evidence tied to that closed match.

Your choices and rights

• Delete your account. In the app, go to Settings → Delete account. This removes your photos, verification selfie, profile, preferences, and pending-match messages, and anonymizes your account, subject to the safety retention described above.
• Edit your profile at any time from inside the app.
• Access or ask about your data. Email [email protected] and we'll help.
• Permissions. Camera, notifications, and location are requested with a clear prompt, and you can change them in your device settings at any time. Location is optional.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights over your personal data (such as access, correction, or deletion). To exercise any of them, contact us at the email above.

Children

50/50 is for adults only. It is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we remove it.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle your data, we'll update this page and revise the "Last updated" date above. Material changes will be communicated in the app.

Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns: [email protected]. See also our support page.