We Never Know Exactly Where You Are

A dating app has to know roughly where you are, or it can't show you anyone nearby. It does not have to know your front door.

On HOTPOLY, your location is obscured before it's ever stored. Your exact coordinates are randomized slightly on the way in, and what other members see is an approximate distance. I never have your precise location in my database, which means it can't be leaked, subpoenaed, or sold, because it isn't there.

That's one decision. Here are the rest, because privacy on HOTPOLY isn't a settings page, it's how the thing is built.

We don't sell your data. There is no advertising business here. The only money HOTPOLY makes is the Premium subscription, and that's by design.

There are no tracking cookies and no third-party trackers in the app. The website sets exactly two strictly-necessary cookies, and they exist to keep you signed in. That's it.

You control whether you can be found. The Discoverable toggle under Profile → Account hides you from everyone's feed without deleting anything. Taking a break, or just not in the mood this month? Flip it off, and flip it back on when you're ready.

Your data is yours. You can download it whenever you want, and you can delete your account at any time.

ID Verification doesn't mean surveillance. Age verification keeps only the result and the date. The optional ID check never sends your ID to us at all. I wrote about that separately.

Chats aren't a free-for-all either. Profile text and messages go through automated screening for things the Acceptable Use Policy prohibits. Your matches can't send photos unless you allow them to in the chat window, and the photos are moderated. You can be spicy off platform. I don't want to store your nudes on my servers.

I don't have investors asking me to extract more value from your data. I just have to keep the servers running.