Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

SwipeVibe ("SwipeVibe", "we", "us", "our") is a mobile application developed and operated by Bela Apps, an independent app label. When this Privacy Policy mentions "SwipeVibe", it refers to the SwipeVibe mobile application (available on iOS and Android upon launch) and this website.

SwipeVibe is a voting and opinion-sharing application. Users swipe left or right on daily questions, see how the global community voted, earn XP and personality labels, and can create their own questions. The full implemented feature set includes: swipe voting, a 9-phase cinematic result reveal, personality label system (Crowd Reader, Contrarian, Balanced Mind, Rare Mind, Lone Voice, Trend Spotter), XP and level progression, daily streaks, a global leaderboard (Hot, Rising, Creators tabs), 25+ achievements, explore/browse screen, question creation tool (4 types: Hot Take, Would You Rather, Moral Dilemma, Risk vs Safe), user profile and settings, share-your-take feature, and SwipeVibe PRO subscription tier.

Contact: [email protected]

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information you provide directly

• Account registration: Email address, display name, and optional profile picture. You may sign in with Google (Google Sign-In), in which case we receive your Google profile name and email address.
• Questions you create: The text content of any questions you submit through the in-app creation tool, associated with your account identifier.
• Support communications: If you contact us by email, we retain those messages to resolve your inquiry.
• Waitlist sign-up: Email address submitted on the website waitlist form, stored solely to send you a launch notification.

2.2 Information collected automatically when you use the app

• Vote data: Your YES/NO votes on each question, stored to calculate aggregate result percentages, assign your Personality Label, track XP and streaks, and provide your vote history. Your individual votes are stored privately in your account — they are never individually attributed to you in public result displays.
• XP, streak, and achievement data: Your current XP, level, streak count, and which achievements you've unlocked — to power the gamification layer.
• Personality Label: Your dynamically assigned label (e.g., Crowd Reader, Contrarian) derived from aggregate analysis of your voting patterns. This updates as you vote and is visible on your profile if you choose to share it.
• Usage data: Screens visited, features used, tap events, session duration, and app version — collected to understand how the app is used and to improve it. Aggregated and anonymized where possible.
• Device information: Device type, operating system version, screen resolution, and app version — to diagnose technical issues and ensure compatibility.
• IP address: Used for country-level vote segmentation (e.g., "your country voted X%") and fraud/abuse prevention. IP addresses are not stored beyond 30 days.
• Crash reports: Automated crash data collected when the app crashes — includes technical stack trace and device state. Contains no vote history or personal information.
• Leaderboard data: Your XP rank and display name are used to populate the global leaderboard. You can choose a pseudonym as your display name.
• Share activity: When you use the Share Your Take feature, we note that you shared (to count shares for creator attribution) but we do not control or access the destination platform.

2.3 What we do NOT collect

• Precise GPS location or real-time location data.
• Access to contacts, microphone, or camera (unless you explicitly choose to upload a profile photo).
• Cross-app tracking or tracking across websites you visit.
• Sensitive personal data: race, religion, health or medical data, financial information beyond subscription status.
• Biometric data of any kind.
• Content of private messages (SwipeVibe does not have a private messaging feature).

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• To create and manage your SwipeVibe account.
• To record your votes and calculate the aggregate percentage splits displayed to all users after voting.
• To assign and update your Personality Label based on your cumulative voting patterns.
• To track and display your XP, level, daily streak, and achievement progress.
• To power the global leaderboard (your display name and XP rank).
• To enable you to create and publish questions for other users to vote on.
• To provide country-level and demographic vote breakdowns (SwipeVibe PRO feature).
• To send you one launch notification email if you joined the waitlist (no other marketing emails without your explicit opt-in).
• To detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, cheating, and violations of our Terms of Service.
• To improve the app — identifying bugs, performance issues, and usability problems.
• To comply with applicable legal obligations.

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party.

• Service providers: We use trusted third-party providers for cloud hosting (Firebase / Google Cloud), crash reporting (Firebase Crashlytics), analytics (Firebase Analytics), and subscription management (RevenueCat). These providers access data only as needed to perform their services to us, under strict data processing agreements.
• Aggregated / anonymized data: We may share aggregated, anonymized vote statistics (e.g., "78% of users globally voted Yes on this question") with partners, researchers, or the public. This data cannot be traced to any individual.
• Leaderboard (public within the app): Your display name and XP rank are visible to other users on the in-app leaderboard. You control your display name and can use a pseudonym.
• Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by applicable law, court order, or valid government authority request, or to protect the safety of any person or to prevent fraud.
• Business transfers: If SwipeVibe or Bela Apps is acquired, merged, or undergoes a similar transaction, your data may be transferred. We will notify you by email and/or in-app notice before your data becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

5. Data Retention

• Deletion recovery period: A deletion request restricts the account immediately and schedules permanent deletion 30 days later. Signing in during that period allows cancellation only.
• Account and activity data: Profile data, individual votes, follows, bookmarks, notifications, achievements, and other personal activity are permanently removed when the recovery period ends.
• Questions you created: Public and private questions created by you are permanently deleted. Dependent question records are removed with them.
• Aggregate statistics: Anonymous platform-wide totals may remain when they cannot identify you or reconstruct deleted content.
• Financial and deletion records: Pseudonymous purchase, payout, tax, fraud-prevention, accounting, and deletion-completion evidence may be retained for seven years. These records do not retain your profile identity or question text.
• Backups: Backups are automatically overwritten and may take up to 30 days to expire after permanent deletion.
• IP addresses: Deleted within 30 days of collection.
• Crash reports: Retained for 90 days.
• Waitlist emails: Retained until the app launches and the notification is sent, then deleted unless you create an account.

6. Your Rights & Choices

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate personal data.
• Deletion: Schedule deletion in the app at Settings → Delete Account or use our verified web deletion page. Creator earnings and unresolved payouts must be withdrawn or resolved first. Store subscriptions must be cancelled separately.
• Data portability: Request an export of your data (vote history, profile, XP records) in a machine-readable format.
• Opt-out of marketing: Use the unsubscribe link in any email we send, or email us. We currently only send transactional and launch emails.
• Restrict processing: In certain circumstances, request that we restrict the processing of your personal data.
• Object to processing: Object to processing based on our legitimate interests where it affects you.

To exercise any right, email [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days (or sooner as required by applicable law).

If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA), UK, or California, you have additional statutory rights under GDPR, UK GDPR, or CCPA respectively. We honour these rights for all users regardless of location.

7. Children's Privacy

SwipeVibe is intended for users aged 13 and older (or the minimum age required in your jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have done so, we will promptly delete it.

If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at [email protected] immediately.

8. Security

We take data security seriously and implement appropriate technical and organisational measures, including:

• TLS/HTTPS encryption for all data transmitted between the app and our servers.
• AES-256 encryption for sensitive data stored at rest.
• Firebase Security Rules to enforce server-side access control — users can only read/write their own data.
• Strict access controls — only authorised personnel can access user data, and only when necessary.
• Regular review of security configurations and dependency updates.
• Crash reporting with no PII in crash payloads.

No security system is impenetrable. In the event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you within 72 hours as required by applicable law, and will take all reasonable steps to mitigate harm.

9. Third-Party Services

SwipeVibe uses the following third-party services, each governed by their own privacy policies:

• Google Sign-In: Optional authentication provider. Google Privacy Policy ↗
• Firebase (Google): Backend database (Firestore), authentication, crash reporting (Crashlytics), and analytics. Firebase Privacy ↗
• RevenueCat: Subscription and in-app purchase management for SwipeVibe PRO. RevenueCat Privacy ↗
• Apple App Store / Google Play: Distribution platforms. Subject to Apple's and Google's respective privacy policies when you download the app.

10. Cookies & Tracking Technologies

The SwipeVibe mobile app does not use browser cookies. The app uses Firebase SDKs which may use device identifiers (e.g., Firebase Installation ID) to associate sessions with your account — this is functionally equivalent to a session cookie and is governed by Firebase's privacy policy.

The SwipeVibe website (swipevibeapp.com) may use minimal cookies for session management and basic analytics. No advertising cookies or cross-site tracking cookies are used.

11. International Data Transfers

SwipeVibe is a global service. Data may be stored and processed in countries other than your own (including the United States, where Google Cloud/Firebase servers are located). Where required by applicable law, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for international transfers, including Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for transfers from the EEA.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the app evolves. When we make material changes, we will:

• Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
• Notify registered users by email.
• Display a prominent in-app notice for at least 14 days before material changes take effect.

Continued use of SwipeVibe after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

13. Contact Us

For any privacy questions, requests, or concerns:

• Privacy: [email protected]
• General: [email protected]

We are committed to resolving privacy concerns fairly and promptly.