Privacy & Data Safety
OtterFriend Privacy Policy
Last revised: September 13, 2026 • Effective immediately
Our Privacy Principles
OtterFriend is designed for intentional first dates at verified partner venues. We never sell your personal data, we never track your continuous background GPS location, and our Here Mode operates solely on manual, timed geofenced check-ins with full visibility control.
1. Information We Collect
When creating an OtterFriend account, you provide basic profile data including your email, name, age/birthday, selected photos, and icebreaker responses. We do not require phone numbers at initial signup. If you use Google OAuth, we receive only your public profile and verified email address.
2. Location and "Here Mode" Geofencing
OtterFriend never runs background location polling or constant breadcrumb tracking. Location permissions are used strictly on-demand:
- To confirm your proximity when manually checking in to a verified partner venue via "Here Mode".
- To calculate distance to curated date proposals when browsing the map.
- Check-ins expire automatically (15 minutes or 2 hours) and are immediately removed from partner venue displays.
3. Partner Venues and Staff
Partner venues (wine bars, pottery studios, cafes, jazz clubs) receive only anonymized visit counts and Otter Ticket validation scans. Partner venues never receive your phone number, real name, email, or profile history.
4. Data Retention & Account Deletion
You may request complete account and data deletion at any time in Profile > Settings > Privacy & safety, or on the web at otterfriend.app/request, or by contacting [email protected]. In Profile > Settings > Privacy & safety you can also delete some or all of your data without deleting your account. Once initiated, all date proposals, messages, and photos are permanently purged within 30 days.
5. Child Safety
OtterFriend is an adults-only service with zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation. Our published standards, prevention measures, reporting channels, and child safety point of contact are at otterfriend.app/safety.