Connected is a relationship-forward social and dating service operated by Colours Global, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Connected”, “we”, “us”). This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices and rights you have. This Policy is a notice of how we handle your information. When you create an account, you confirm that you have read it.
1. Information We Collect
We collect and process personal data based on different legal grounds depending on the nature of the data and the context, including the performance of our contract with you, our legitimate business interests, and your explicit consent.
| Category | Examples | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Email address, password (stored only in encrypted, salted hash format) | Create and secure your account |
| Profile | Display name, date of birth (we show your age, not your birth date), gender, pronouns, sexual orientation, the genders you are interested in, religion and political views if you consent and give them, photos, bio, interests, verification status, vouches | Show your profile to potential matches and apply age limits |
| Verification | A selfie in a pose we ask for (and, only if a safety check calls for it, a photo of your ID); the result and date; your verified date of birth; a coded (hashed) form of your ID number and of your name and date of birth | Confirm you are a real adult and the person in your photos; stop fraud and banned members returning. Selfies and ID photos are deleted once reviewed |
| Location | Home city/region you choose; optional precise GPS location only if you enable “Nearby” (within approx. 1 km across while Nearby is on, and approx. 11 km across when it is off). | Show nearby people and events; it is always your choice and can be turned off |
| Content | Messages, matches, event RSVPs, reports you submit | Operate the core service |
| Usage & device | App interactions, device type, a push-notification token, and crash or error reports (which are linked to your account when you are signed in) | Reliability, safety, and notifications |
| Payment | Subscription status. Card details are handled by Stripe; we never receive or store your full card number. For subscriptions bought in the apps: the App Store or Google Play purchase identifier, product and renewal date | Process optional subscriptions |
| Attendance | When you confirm your attendance at an event or activity booked through Connected. | To inform the venues who organize events or activities of your attendance. |
2. How We Use Your Information
- To provide trusted introductions, discovery, events, messaging, and matches.
- To verify that members are real adults and the people shown in their photos (and, where a safety check calls for it, their ID), and to maintain trust scores and vouches.
- To keep the community safe: detect abuse, review reports, and enforce our Community Guidelines.
- To process subscriptions and event tickets, including subscriptions bought through the App Store or Google Play, which we confirm with Apple or Google.
- To send service and (with your permission) push notifications.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.
All conversational data remains private and will not be disclosed or repurposed for external third-party purposes, unless required by law or to protect the safety of our users.
We do not share your personal information or user data across sister platforms such as other apps owned by Colours Global.
3. AI
Connected does not use generative AI for messaging or communication. Nothing you write is sent to a language model, and nothing you read in the app was written by one.
We may use an automated image classifier to check uploaded photos against our Community Guidelines before they are published, and identity verification may use automated biometrics (see section 12). These are safety checks, not content generators, and they are described in greater detail below.
4. Service Providers We Share Data With
We share the minimum necessary data with vetted providers who process it on our behalf:
| Provider | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, authentication, photo storage, realtime messaging |
| Vercel | Hosts the Connected website and web app, and keeps standard request logs (for example, your IP address and the pages requested). |
| Stripe | Subscription and ticket payments on the web; automated ID verification only if we switch it on and you consent (see section 12) |
| Didit | Automated photo and ID verification, only if we switch it on and you consent (see section 12) |
| Apple (App Store) and Google (Google Play) | Subscriptions bought in the iOS and Android apps; the age range your app store account shares, used only to stop under-18 sign-ups |
| Resend | Sending account and safety emails (for example, confirming your email address, and fraud-ban safety notices) |
| Google (Workspace email) | Receives and stores the emails you send to our support, safety and privacy addresses, and our replies. |
| Google (Cloud Vision) | Checks an uploaded photo against our Community Guidelines before it is published. The photo is sent with its location data already removed. |
| Google (Fonts, website only) | If a name or message contains a character none of our bundled typefaces can draw (many non-Latin scripts, or an emoji), the website version of Connected asks Google for a font that can. The request reveals your IP address to Google. The iOS and Android apps do not do this. |
| OneSignal | Push notifications |
| Eventbrite, Ticketmaster, OpenTable | Event discovery and reservations |
| OpenStreetMap / Nominatim | Converting a place name to a map location |
| LiveKit | In-app video calls between matches |
We may also disclose information if required by law or to protect the safety of our users.
5. Your Rights and Choices
- Delete your account. You can permanently delete your account and associated data at any time from Profile → Delete my account, except as provided in Section 6 below. Your account is removed from Connected immediately and cannot be restored. As explained in Section 6, we keep a private copy for a limited period for safety and legal reasons, and we may delay deletion where the law requires us to preserve records.
- Access & correction. You can view and edit your profile in the app, or contact us for a copy of your data.
- Location. The “Nearby” precise location is off by default. You can switch it on and off in the app (Nearby → Find Me) as well as in your device settings. We store your position as within an area of approx. 1 km across while Nearby is on, and an area of approx. 11 km across when it is off.
- Notifications. You can turn push notifications off at any time.
- International Rights. Depending on where you live (e.g. the EEA/UK under GDPR, or California under the CCPA), you may have additional rights to access, port, restrict, or object to processing. Contact us at privacy@coloursglobal.com to exercise them.
6. Data Retention
We keep your information for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, your profile, matches, messages and related data are removed from Connected at once. We keep a private copy, which no member can see, for the following periods and then delete it: 90 days if your account was in good standing; 2 years if you were banned or there were open or upheld reports about you; and for as long as a legal hold applies (for example, a law-enforcement preservation request or suspected criminal activity). We keep a record of the consents you gave for 5 years, and records of fraud-ban safety notices for 2 years. If you were banned, we keep a coded (hashed) form of your email address and, if your ID was checked, of your ID number and your name and date of birth, indefinitely, so that you cannot create a new account. Verification selfies and ID photos are deleted once the review is complete. Certain data may also be retained by our third party processors (listed above) according to their own retention policies.
Nonconsensual intimate images. If you ask us to remove an intimate image that was posted without your consent, we keep your name, email address, electronic signature, what you tell us, and what we did to handle your request and tell you the outcome, to show we met our legal duties under the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act (TIDA). When we remove an image we keep one private copy, which no member can see, and a coded fingerprint (a hash) of it, as evidence and to ensure that the image is not re-uploaded. Two years after we remove the image or close the request, we delete the private copy and remove your personal details from the request record, unless a legal hold applies. We keep the fingerprint, which cannot be turned back into the image, so that the same file is still refused if it is uploaded again.
7. Security
Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS). Access to the database is restricted by row-level security, and payment card data is handled entirely by Stripe. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and to respond promptly to any incident.
8. Children
Connected is only for people aged 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. In the iOS and Android apps we may also check the age range your app store account shares with us, and we do not let anyone it shows as under 18 create an account. If you believe a minor is using Connected, please contact us and we will remove the account.
9. International Transfers
Our providers may process data in countries other than your own, including the U.S. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for such transfers, such as standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission and the UK Government.
10. Automated Processes
We use automated systems to help keep our platform safe and to improve your experience. Here is how we use automated processing on our platform:
- Automated Photo Classification: To maintain a safe community and enforce our Terms of Service, we use automated image classification tools to scan profile photo uploads. If our system detects graphic content, nudity, or other violations of our Community Guidelines, it will automatically refuse the upload without human review.
- Trust Scores: We calculate a visible “Trust Score” for user profiles based on automated metrics, including your identity verification, vouches from ID-verified members, how long you have been a member, and reports about you that have been upheld. This score is intended to help other users evaluate your profile authenticity. This score alone will not be used as the basis for automatically restricting your access to our services or banning your account.
We process profile photographs, verification selfies and, where a safety check calls for it, government-issued identification documents based on our legitimate interests (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)) to maintain platform security, prevent fraudulent account creation, detect bad actors, ensure compliance with our age restrictions, and comply with our legal obligations related to age verification, consumer protection, and online safety laws.
We also ask for your explicit consent before each check: before you take a verification selfie, and before you upload an ID if we ask for one. You may request the deletion of your verification data by contacting us, subject to our standard data retention and platform security policies.
Under data protection laws like the GDPR, you may have rights regarding decisions made by algorithms that significantly affect you. You can ask a person to review your trust score or any decision about your account. To exercise this right, please contact our support team at: support@coloursglobal.com
11. Cookies
We only use cookies and similar browser storage that are strictly necessary to make the app function properly: to keep you logged in as you navigate between screens and maintain your active session securely while you use the service. We do not use analytics cookies, commercial or marketing trackers, or third-party ad networks. Because we only use these tools for essential features, we do not use commercial, tracking, or third-party advertising cookies.
If you block or delete these cookies through your device or browser settings, you may not be able to sign in or use your account. Check your device or browser help menu for specific instructions.
12. Biometric Data Privacy Notice and Consent
As used in this Policy, “biometric data” means data generated by the measurements of your physical characteristics, such as scans of facial geometry, and includes “biometric identifiers” and “biometric information” as defined under applicable state and federal laws (including the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, Texas CUBI, and Washington My Health My Data Act).
When setting up your account, we will collect photos, including a selfie, to verify your identity. This verification may be done either by a Connected staff member, or by the use of biometric data by one of our third-party service providers, Didit Identity, Inc. or Stripe, Inc., to verify your identity, prevent fraud, and secure our platform. These providers analyze the facial geometry extracted from these photos to confirm that you are a real, live person and that you are the person in your profile photos or, where we ask for an ID check, on your government-issued ID.
Connected does not directly collect, access, or store biometric data; all processing is managed by the provider. We do not sell, lease, trade, or otherwise profit from your biometric data. Your data is disclosed only to the provider for the sole purpose of identity verification and fraud prevention services.
We instruct the provider to delete the verification images and the biometric identifiers generated during the check as soon as the decision is recorded, unless a legal hold applies. We do not retain any copies of your facial geometry or biometric identifiers.
Providing your biometric data is voluntary. If you do not wish to consent to biometric identity verification, you may opt out. If you decline consent, we will provide an alternative, non-biometric method to verify your identity: a person comparing a selfie with your profile photos, or reviewing your ID, though this alternative process may take longer to complete.
By ticking the separate biometric consent box before an automated check, you provide your express consent for us and the provider to collect, capture, process, store, and use your biometric data for the purposes described above.
App lock. If you turn on the optional app lock, your phone checks your face or fingerprint (Face ID, Touch ID or your device’s fingerprint reader). That check happens on your phone; Connected receives only whether it succeeded, and never any biometric data.
13. Data Regarding Sexual Orientation and Match Preferences
Certain information you may choose to provide to us (your gender identity, pronouns, sexual orientation, the genders you are interested in, your ethnicity, your religion, your political views, whether you smoke, drink alcohol, use cannabis or other substances, and your dietary preferences) is sensitive, and your preferences and the choices you make in the app can reveal your sexual orientation. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union and the U.K. and equivalent frameworks, this is classified as “Special Category Data.” We process this data exclusively to operate our service and to provide you compatible user profiles.
We ask for your explicit consent on its own screen during profile set-up, separately from the Terms, and you can choose Yes or No. If you choose No, you can still use Connected for events, experiences and friends, but you will not be shown dating profiles or be able to match. Your sexual orientation and the genders you are interested in are used for matching, and are shown on your profile only if you choose to show them. You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time in Privacy choices, which deletes this information from your profile at once and stops new dating matches, or by deleting your account. You choose what to add: you can leave any item blank and still be shown matches. Your gender identity, pronouns, ethnicity, religion, political views, substance use and dietary preferences are shown on your profile if you add them. We do not ask for your medical conditions or other health information. For additional information on Special Category Data, see our Terms of Service.
14. Supplemental Privacy Notice for California Residents
This section applies solely to California residents and supplements this Privacy Policy to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (collectively, “CCPA/CPRA”).
We collect the following statutory categories of personal information:
| Category | Specific Examples | Business Purpose | Retention Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | Name, email address, account identifier, and a push-notification token if you enable notifications. | Account creation, security, debugging, and service delivery. | Duration of active account status plus statutory limitation periods. |
| Commercial Information | In-app subscription tiers and purchase history. | Processing payments and managing optional subscriptions via Stripe, the App Store or Google Play. | Retained as required by tax and financial audit regulations, and, for proof that you agreed to automatic renewal, 3 years after you agreed or 1 year after the subscription ends, whichever is later, as automatic-renewal laws require, including after you delete your account. |
| Geolocation Data | Precise or imprecise physical location data to show you nearby matches (within approx. 1 km area while Nearby is on, and approx. 11 km across when it is off). | To show you nearby matches (only if “Nearby” is enabled). | Kept for the life of your account. Turning Nearby off replaces the 1 km area with the coarser 11 km area. |
| Internet / Electronic Network Activity | Your app usage metrics, swipe history, and interactions within the platform. | Improving app functionality, internal analytics, and platform safety. | Aggregated or deleted upon account closure. |
| Inferences / Sensory Data | Gender, pronouns, sexual orientation (stated or inferred), the genders you are interested in, religion, political views, dating preferences, profile photos, and bios displayed on your profile. | Operating the matchmaking service and profile discovery features. | Duration of active account status. |
We retain each category of personal information only for as long as your account remains active or as required to fulfill platform safety, fraud prevention, and core business purposes.
Use of Sensitive Personal Information: We collect sensitive personal information (including precise geolocation; sexual orientation, as you state it or as inferred from your preferences; religious beliefs and political views; account log-in credentials; verification selfies and government identification documents; and gender identity and pronouns, where you consent). We only use and disclose this sensitive personal information for purposes explicitly permitted under California law (such as performing services reasonably expected by an average consumer). Because we do not use this data for any other purposes, we are not required to provide a “Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information” link.
We are committed to user privacy. We do not sell your personal information for money, nor do we “share” your personal information with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted marketing purposes. Because we do not engage in these practices, we do not provide a “Do Not Sell or Share” link on our platform.
California residents have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of their personal data, as well as the right to obtain data in a portable format. We will not discriminate against you (by denying services, changing prices, or providing a lower level of application quality) if you choose to exercise your privacy rights.
You may designate an authorized agent to submit a privacy request on your behalf. To protect your security, we require proof that you have given the agent signed, written permission to act for you, and you must verify your own identity directly with us before we process the request. California residents may submit a request by contacting us at privacy@coloursglobal.com.
15. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time. We will revise the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, notify you in the app or via your registered email address before the changes take effect.
16. Contact Us
To ask questions or exercise your rights under this Privacy Policy, please contact us:
Email: privacy@coloursglobal.com
Mail: Colours Global, Inc., 1421 Buchanan St., N.W., Washington, DC 20011