Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 29, 2026
Effective date: March 21, 2026

Vela ("we," "us," or "our") operates the Vela mobile application and the website at veladate.app. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have over your data.

We built Vela for people who deserve privacy more than most. We take that seriously.

1. Information we collect

Information you provide

• Account information: email address, phone number, display name (not your legal name), age
• Profile information: city, photos, biography, relationship intent, gender identity, sexual orientation, pronouns
• Health conditions: self-reported STD or chronic condition status (e.g., HSV-1, HSV-2, HPV, HIV+, Hepatitis B/C). This data is encrypted on your device before it reaches our servers. See Section 3 for full details.
• Photos: profile photos and optional private album photos you upload
• Face verification selfie (biometric data): 3 selfie frames taken during sign-up to verify you are a real person (liveness detection) — required to create a Vela account. See Section 5 — Biometric data for the full retention schedule, processor disclosure (Anthropic), and your rights.
• Messages: text messages and photos you send in chat
• Location data: the city you pick during signup and its approximate latitude/longitude (derived from the city center, not your device's GPS — the app never requests device geolocation). Coordinates are rounded to ~1 km precision and used only for distance-based matching.
• Payment information: processed by our payment provider. We do not store your credit card number.
• Consent records: timestamps of your consent to this policy, health data handling, and terms of service

Information collected automatically

• Device information: device model, operating system version, app version
• Usage data: anonymized interaction data (screens viewed, features used) collected via our analytics provider. No health condition data is ever included in analytics events.
• Crash reports: error logs collected via our error monitoring service to help us fix bugs. No health condition data is ever included in crash reports.
• Push notification tokens: a device identifier used to deliver push notifications. Notification content does not include message text or health data.

Information we do NOT collect

• We do not collect or process your plaintext health conditions on our servers
• We do not use advertising SDKs or tracking pixels
• We do not collect browsing history, contacts, or data from other apps
• We do not use cookies in the mobile app

2. How we use your information

Purpose	Data used	Legal basis
Create and manage your account	Email, phone number, display name, age	Contract performance
Verify your phone number via SMS (anti-bot)	Phone number	Legitimate interest (preventing fraudulent accounts)
Show your profile to potential matches	Photos, bio, city, age, gender, relationship intent	Contract performance
Match you with compatible people	Location, preferences, intent (NOT health conditions)	Contract performance
Enable messaging between matches	Messages, photos	Contract performance
Verify you are a real person	Face verification selfie	Legitimate interest (safety)
Moderate content for safety	Messages, photos (AI-scanned for policy violations)	Legitimate interest (safety)
Improve the app	Anonymized usage data, crash reports	Legitimate interest
Send push notifications	Device push token (no message content or health data)	Consent
Communicate with you	Email (account notifications, support)	Contract performance

3. Health condition data and zero-knowledge encryption

How encryption works

When you enter your health conditions during onboarding or profile editing:

1. Your conditions are encrypted on your device using industry-standard authenticated encryption (xsalsa20-poly1305, via the tweetnacl library)
2. A unique encryption key is generated for your device and stored in your phone's secure hardware keychain (iOS Keychain or Android Keystore). This key never leaves your device.
3. Only the encrypted ciphertext is sent to and stored on our servers
4. When you open the app, your device decrypts the data locally so you can view your own conditions

What this means for your privacy

• We cannot read your health conditions -- our servers store only encrypted data
• Our staff cannot access your health conditions -- even with full database access
• Health conditions are never used for matching -- matching is based on location, age, intent, and preferences only
• Health conditions are never sent to analytics or crash reporting services — we have audited our analytics and error monitoring providers to confirm zero health data leakage
• We never sell, share, or disclose your health condition data to third parties -- not to advertisers, data brokers, insurance companies, or anyone else

Sharing your health status

You may choose to share your health conditions with a match by granting them access through the app. When you do:

• Your conditions are decrypted locally on your device
• You are shown a confirmation dialog listing the conditions that will be shared
• Only after you explicitly confirm is the information stored as encrypted ciphertext in a dedicated access grant, with the decryption key delivered separately
• The shared information is visible only to you and that specific match
• You can revoke access at any time, which immediately removes the grant
• This is entirely voluntary. You are never required to share your health status with anyone.
• Important distinction: When you voluntarily share your health status with a match, the shared information is encrypted with a per-grant key using the same xsalsa20-poly1305 algorithm. The ciphertext is stored separately from the decryption key for defense in depth. While this provides strong encryption, it differs from the zero-knowledge model used for your stored conditions, as both the ciphertext and key reside on our infrastructure.

Key management

• Your encryption key is stored in your device's hardware-backed secure storage
• If you log out or delete your account, your encryption key is permanently erased from your device
• If you switch devices, you will need to re-enter your conditions (they are re-encrypted with a new key on the new device)
• There is no key recovery mechanism -- this is by design, to ensure maximum privacy

4. Sensitive personal information

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), Washington My Health My Data Act (MHMDA), and other privacy laws, certain categories of data are considered "sensitive personal information" (SPI). Vela collects the following SPI:

SPI category	How we handle it
Health information	Encrypted client-side; server stores only ciphertext; never used for advertising, analytics, or sharing with third parties
Sexual orientation	Used only for matching preferences within the app; never shared with third parties
Biometric data (face verification)	Used for liveness detection at sign-up to prevent bots. Required to create an account. See Section 5 — Biometric data for the full disclosure including processor (Anthropic), retention schedule, and rights.

You have the right to limit the use and disclosure of your sensitive personal information. To exercise this right, contact us at [email protected].

5. Biometric data (face verification)

What this system does — and does not do

Vela requires face verification during account creation to prevent bots and fake profiles. This system performs liveness detection: it confirms a real, live human is present at the device — not a photo, video, or deepfake. It does not identify you, match you against any database, or generate any facial profile, faceprint, biometric template, or representation capable of identifying an individual. Your face photos are analyzed and then permanently deleted — see the retention schedule below for the specific windows. No facial profile, faceprint, biometric template, or other identifier is ever created or retained. The only outputs of this system are pass/fail liveness signals that cannot identify you.

To perform this check, Vela collects 3 face photos through your device's camera and transmits them to Anthropic (Claude Haiku) for AI-assisted liveness processing on Vela's behalf.

Legal classification

Depending on your jurisdiction, face photos may be classified as biometric data under applicable privacy laws. Under California law, face imagery is biometric information regardless of use (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.140(b)). Under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act as interpreted by courts, biometric identifiers must be capable of identifying an individual. Under Québec Law 25, biometric characteristics used to verify identity trigger specific regulatory obligations. Vela complies with the requirements of all applicable jurisdictions. To the extent your face photos constitute biometric data under any applicable law, all protections in this section apply in full.

Retention schedule (BIPA § 15(a))

• Successful verification (Vela-side): face photos are permanently deleted from Vela's storage immediately after verification passes. A separate automated process permanently deletes any face photos not otherwise deleted within 60 minutes of collection. (See "Anthropic processing" below for processor-side retention.)
• Unsuccessful verification: face photos are retained for a maximum of 7 days for manual review by authorized Vela staff. A daily automated process purges any photos held for manual review older than 7 days, and the associated review is set to rejected so the user may re-submit.
• Anthropic processing: photos transmitted to Anthropic for liveness processing are retained by Anthropic for up to 30 days for safety monitoring purposes (or longer only if flagged for Usage Policy compliance, per Anthropic's published terms), then permanently deleted. Anthropic does not use photos for AI training.
• Backstop: under no circumstances are biometric photos retained by Vela for more than 3 years from the date of collection.

Who has access

Face verification is conducted by Vela's internal system using AI technology provided by Anthropic (Claude Haiku). Anthropic confirms a live human is present and returns a pass/fail result — no identification occurs at the Anthropic processing stage. Anthropic does not share your photos with any other party. In the event of an unsuccessful verification, only authorized Vela staff conducting the manual review have access to your photos for that sole purpose. Your photos are never transmitted to any facial recognition database, biometric identification service, data broker, or advertising platform.

No sale or profit from biometric data

Vela does not sell, lease, trade, or otherwise profit from biometric data.

California residents — Sensitive Personal Information

Biometric data is Sensitive Personal Information under the California Privacy Rights Act. This collection is necessary to provide the Vela service and is limited to that purpose. California residents have the right to limit use of their Sensitive Personal Information by contacting [email protected].

British Columbia residents

Biometric data is protected by security safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity under BC's Personal Information Protection Act. Collection is subject to the consent obtained during account creation. This Biometric Data Retention Schedule is publicly available and will be updated to reflect any material change in our biometric data practices.

5a. Profile and chat photos

• Profile photos are stored in our database and shown to other users based on your privacy settings. All uploads are compressed to reduce file size.
• Private album photos are only visible to users you explicitly grant access to. You can revoke access at any time.
• Chat photos are stored for message history and are visible only to conversation participants.

6. AI features

We use AI for content moderation. Photos and messages may be scanned by AI to detect policy violations (harassment, illegal content, etc.). Moderation is automated and no human reviews your content unless a violation is flagged. Health condition data is never sent to AI moderation systems.

7. Third-party services

We use the following third-party services to operate Vela. None of these services receive your health condition data.

Service	Purpose	Data shared	Health data shared?
Cloud infrastructure provider	Database, authentication, file storage	Account data, profile data, encrypted health conditions (ciphertext only), photos, messages	No (encrypted ciphertext only)
Anthropic (Claude Haiku)	Face verification (liveness detection) and content moderation	Face photos for liveness detection; photos and text submitted for moderation review. Anthropic retains inputs for up to 30 days for safety monitoring per their published terms, then permanently deletes them. Anthropic does not use inputs for AI training.	No
AI image generation service	AI avatar generation	Profile photos (for style transfer). Photos are sent to the processing service and generated results are downloaded to our servers immediately. Photos may be temporarily cached by the processing service for up to 60 seconds before automatic deletion.	No
Analytics provider	Product analytics	Anonymized usage events (no health data, no PII beyond hashed user ID)	No
Error monitoring service	Error tracking and crash reporting	Crash reports, device info, hashed user ID (no email or other PII)	No
SMS delivery provider	Phone number verification	Phone number (one-time verification code during signup)	No
Email delivery provider	Transactional email delivery	Email address (invitations, account notifications)	No
Geolocation service	City/location autocomplete	Search query text, IP address	No
Push notification services	Push notification delivery	Device push token	No
Payment processor	Subscription billing	Email address, payment method details (processed directly by the payment provider — we never see or store your card number)	No

8. Data storage and security

• Your data is stored on secure cloud infrastructure hosted in the United States
• All data is encrypted in transit (TLS/SSL) and at rest (AES-256)
• Health condition data has an additional layer of client-side encryption (xsalsa20-poly1305) -- even if server-side encryption is compromised, health data remains protected
• Database access is protected by Row Level Security (RLS) policies -- users can only access their own data and data explicitly shared with them
• Chat messages are stored on our servers and are not end-to-end encrypted. While messages are protected by Row-Level Security (only conversation participants can access them) and TLS encryption in transit, they are stored in readable form on our infrastructure.
• Authentication uses one-time passwords (OTP) sent to your email -- we do not store passwords
• File storage enforces ownership policies -- users can only upload to and access their own storage folders
• File uploads are limited by size (10MB) and type (images only) to prevent abuse
• We conduct regular security audits of our database policies, access controls, and edge functions
• Android users are protected by screenshot blocking (FLAG_SECURE) to prevent unauthorized screen capture within the app

9. Data retention and deletion

Retention periods

Data type	Retention period
Profile data (name, bio, preferences)	Duration of account; permanently deleted immediately upon account deletion
Health conditions (encrypted)	Duration of account; encryption key cleared on logout/deletion
Profile photos	Duration of account; permanently deleted immediately upon account deletion
Face verification photos	Not retained long-term. Temporarily uploaded to secure storage for verification; permanently deleted from Vela immediately upon successful verification (or within 7 days if manual review is required). Our AI processor (Anthropic) retains a copy for up to 30 days for safety monitoring before permanent deletion (see "Biometric retention schedule" above)
Chat messages	Duration of account; permanently deleted immediately upon account deletion
Analytics data	Anonymized; retained per our analytics provider's retention policy
Crash reports	90 days
Moderation logs	Retained during your account lifetime for safety and compliance; deleted when your account is deleted

Account deletion

You can delete your account at any time from the Settings screen in the app. Here is what happens:

1. Immediately: your profile, personally identifiable information (name, email, bio), photos, messages, matches, likes, and all other associated data are permanently and irreversibly deleted from our systems.
2. Encryption key erased: your encryption key is erased from your device, rendering any residual encrypted data permanently unreadable.
3. Storage cleanup: all files you uploaded (profile photos, chat photos, face verification photos) are permanently deleted from storage.
4. Authentication removed: your authentication record is deleted from our identity provider.

Reports filed against your account by other users may be retained for community safety purposes even after your account is deleted.

Account deletion is immediate and permanent. There is no recovery window. Once you confirm deletion, your data cannot be restored.

10. Your rights

All users

• Access: you can view all your data in the app (profile, messages, photos)
• Correction: you can edit your profile information at any time
• Deletion: you can delete your account from Settings
• Data export: you can request a copy of all your data by emailing [email protected]. We will provide your data in a machine-readable format within 30 days.
• Withdraw consent: you can withdraw consent for data collection by deleting your account

CCPA/CPRA (California residents)

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act:

• Right to know: you can request what personal information we have collected, the categories of sources, the business purpose for collection, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it
• Right to delete: you can request deletion of your personal information
• Right to correct: you can request correction of inaccurate personal information
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing: we do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We never have and never will.
• Right to limit use of sensitive personal information: you can request that we limit the use of your SPI (health data, sexual orientation, biometric data) to what is necessary to provide the service
• Right to non-discrimination: we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights

To exercise your CCPA/CPRA rights, email [email protected] or use the in-app Settings. We will respond within 45 days. You may designate an authorized agent to make requests on your behalf.

In the preceding 12 months, we have not sold any personal information and have not shared personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Washington My Health My Data Act (Washington residents)

Washington residents are covered by our standalone Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy, published in compliance with RCW 19.373.030(1)(b). The summary below is supplemental; the standalone document is the controlling disclosure for consumer health data.

If you are a Washington state resident, you have additional rights regarding your health data under the My Health My Data Act:

• Right to confirm and access: you can confirm whether we collect, share, or sell your consumer health data, and access that data
• Right to withdraw consent: you can withdraw your consent to the collection and sharing of your health data at any time
• Right to delete: you can request deletion of your consumer health data
• No sale of health data: we do not sell consumer health data and will never do so

Your health conditions are encrypted on your device. We store only encrypted ciphertext. When you delete your account or withdraw consent, the encryption key is destroyed, rendering any stored ciphertext permanently unreadable.

PIPEDA (Canadian residents)

If you are a Canadian resident, you have rights under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act:

• Right to access: you can request access to your personal information held by Vela
• Right to correction: you can request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal information
• Right to withdraw consent: you can withdraw consent for the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information, subject to legal or contractual restrictions
• Right to complaint: you can file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

We collect, use, and disclose your personal information only for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances, and only with your consent. Your health condition data receives the highest level of protection through client-side encryption.

To exercise your rights under PIPEDA, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

BC PIPA (British Columbia residents)

If you are a British Columbia resident, you have rights under the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), including the right to access, correct, and request deletion of your personal information. Contact us at [email protected] to exercise these rights.

GDPR (European Economic Area residents)

If you are located in the EEA, you have additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation:

• Right to access, rectify, or erase your personal data
• Right to restrict or object to processing
• Right to data portability
• Right to withdraw consent at any time
• Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

Our legal bases for processing are: consent (you choose to create an account and share data), contract performance (operating the dating service you signed up for), and legitimate interest (safety, content moderation, and service improvement).

11. Data breach notification

In the event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will:

• Notify affected users as promptly as possible, and in any event within the timeframes required by applicable law
• Notify relevant regulatory authorities as required (FTC, state attorneys general, Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or other applicable authorities)
• Describe what data was affected and what steps we are taking to address the breach
• Provide guidance on steps you can take to protect yourself

12. Cookies

The Vela mobile app does not use cookies. Our website (veladate.app) may use minimal cookies for analytics purposes. You can disable cookies in your browser settings.

13. Children's privacy

14. International data transfers

Vela's infrastructure is hosted in the United States. If you access Vela from outside the United States, your data will be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using Vela, you consent to this transfer. We ensure that your data is protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy regardless of where it is processed.

15. Do not sell or share my personal information

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We have never done so and have no plans to do so. Vela's revenue model is based exclusively on subscription fees, not advertising or data monetization.

If you are a California resident and wish to exercise your right to opt out, or if you have questions about our data practices, contact us at [email protected].

16. Law enforcement and legal requests

We are committed to protecting your privacy, including from government overreach. Our approach to law enforcement requests:

• Valid legal process required: We require a valid subpoena, court order, or warrant before disclosing any user data to law enforcement or government agencies. We do not voluntarily disclose user data.
• User notification: We will notify affected users of law enforcement requests unless we are legally prohibited from doing so (e.g., by a court-issued gag order).
• Health data cannot be produced: Your health conditions are encrypted with a key stored only on your device. We cannot decrypt this data and therefore cannot produce it in plaintext, even under compulsion by court order or warrant.
• Sensitive nature of account existence: We recognize that account existence on a health-focused dating platform may itself be considered sensitive information. We will advocate to limit disclosure scope and challenge overly broad requests.

17. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will post the updated Privacy Policy on this page and update the "Last updated" date. For significant changes, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you through the app or by email.

Your continued use of Vela after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. If you do not agree to the updated policy, you should stop using the Service and delete your account.

18. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, your data, or your rights, contact us:

• Privacy inquiries: [email protected]
• General support: [email protected]
• Legal inquiries: [email protected]
• Security concerns: [email protected]
• Website: veladate.app