Privacy

A. Account and profile information

Name or display name, email, date of birth or age confirmation, password or authentication credentials, photos, bio, interests, preferences, profile prompts, video prompts, Vibe Check answers, and other profile content you choose to add. If you set a Spotify anthem, we collect and display the track (and related metadata) you choose on your profile; Spotify’s terms and privacy policy apply to their service. We do not collect phone numbers for Flare accounts. If you complete profile selfie verification, we collect a short-lived photo of your face to help confirm your profile appears to show a real person. This is not government ID verification. We delete the verification selfie after the check (or within a short window needed for fraud or abuse review), and we may keep only the verification outcome (for example, that your account is verified). When you upload a profile photo, the Flare app compresses it and removes embedded metadata such as camera location (EXIF/GPS) before upload, and our servers re-encode it to strip any remaining metadata. Profile photos are stored with our hosting provider and shown to other Flare members as part of your profile.

B. Communications (including paid DMs)

Direct messages (including paid DMs), voice notes, in-app chat, support requests, and reports about users or content. Message and voice-note content may be processed for delivery, safety, fraud prevention, and moderation. When read receipts are enabled, we may record message delivery or read status and show it to people in that conversation.

Chat Rooms: messages you post in public or private Rooms, Room membership and invites, host and moderator actions (mutes, kicks), safety flags (“dings”) and soft bans, coin gifts sent in Rooms, and reports and blocks. Room messages are shown to the other people in that Room. We automatically scan Room messages to filter slurs, phone numbers, and links, and we keep moderation logs and message records for safety, enforcement, fraud prevention, and legal compliance. Coin gifts in Rooms are recorded as spends from the sender’s wallet; no one is credited. Private Rooms are not end-to-end encrypted. Starting a direct message requires selfie verification, which runs on your device; we store the verification status your app reports and use it to decide whether you can start DMs. It is a best-effort check, not a guarantee of identity.

Near Me Rooms (ZIP code): if you use Near Me, you enter your 5-digit ZIP code. This is approximate location. We store it on our servers and use it only to place you in the public Room for your area, which is based on the first three digits (for example, “Near Me · 750 area”). Your full ZIP code is never shown to other members, but anyone in that Room can see that you joined that area’s Room. We don’t use your ZIP for ads (Flare has no ads), don’t sell it, and don’t use GPS for Near Me. You can change your ZIP once every 24 hours. We don’t save a ZIP until you tap Save in Near Me. You can remove it anytime with “Remove my ZIP,” and it is deleted with your account (or contact us at ShumpertSafetyConsulting@gmail.com).

C. Live streaming and social activity

Stream metadata, Live video/audio as broadcast, Live chat, gift and tip records, viewer and host identifiers, timestamps, and related activity logs. We may record Live streams (video and audio) — not only while you are watching, but as saved recordings — for safety, moderation, policy enforcement, dispute handling, and posterity (so we can keep a lasting record of what was streamed when needed). Recordings are not deleted the moment a stream ends; we keep them as long as reasonably needed for those purposes and as described in Retention. If you use Incognito, we still process account activity as needed to operate the feature and for safety, but we limit showing certain browse activity to other users as the feature is designed. If you join or host a Live game (such as Spark Off, a gift race, or Team Spark), we process battle metadata (participants, start/end time, scores), related gift events, soft-ban or safety actions, and moderation signals for delivery, fairness, fraud prevention, dispute handling, and safety.

Live channels: who you follow, your in-app notifications, and your alert settings (we look up your account email only when sending an email alert you turned on); Live chat messages you send, with your display name and badges; moderation actions in a channel (deleted messages, timeouts); poll votes; channel-point balances and redemptions; channel subscriptions and the coin transactions that pay for them; custom emote images; clips you post (video and audio from the stream, a title, and that you made it); replays a streamer publishes; and reports you file. Others see your display name, badges, and chat messages in a stream’s chat, and your display name on clips you post. They don’t see your user ID or email. Streamers and their moderators don’t receive your contact details. Poll votes are shown only as totals, and follower and subscriber lists aren’t shown to other members. Clips and published replays are visible to signed-in Flare members. A stream’s chat keeps about its most recent 150 messages, and notifications keep your latest 100. Clips are kept until the creator, the streamer, or Flare deletes them, and deleted clips are removed from storage. Turning off a replay makes it private again; the underlying safety recording follows Live recording retention. When you delete your account, we delete your follows, notifications, alert settings, channel points, the clips you posted, your channel’s replays and clips of your channel, and your channel emotes, and we de-identify your chat messages. Subscription and coin records follow payment-record retention. Email alerts are sent through our email service provider, and each email explains how to turn them off.

Matchmaker Quiz: if you take the optional quiz, we store the answers you pick (multiple choice only; you can skip any question), the personality type we derive from them, your optional private dealbreakers, and your sharing settings. We use them to show you and other members a compatibility estimate and a few things you have in common. Other members see only that estimate and general shared-ground reasons, plus your type if you turn on “Show my type on my profile.” They see your actual answers only if you turn on “Matches can see your quiz answers,” and your dealbreakers are never shown to anyone. The estimate is for fun and is not a guarantee of compatibility. You can retake the quiz, clear your answers at any time (this permanently deletes them), or delete your account, which also deletes them.

Find a meetup spot: to suggest public venues, our servers send only a city or area name to OpenStreetMap services, without your name, account ID, or location. We don’t use GPS for this feature and don’t store your search. If you suggest a spot to a match, the venue is shared with them through Meetup Live as described in section E.

D. Payments and wallet

Purchase amounts, coin balances, Super Likes balances, gift history, VIP subscription status (weekly, monthly, or annual), payout or earnings status where applicable, and transaction metadata. Payment card numbers are processed by Google Play Billing (for Android in-app digital goods such as coins, Super Likes, and VIP) and/or Stripe (for web purchases). We do not store full payment card numbers on Flare servers.

Streamer payouts. If you cash out Live earnings, payouts are handled by Stripe through Stripe Connect. To create your payout account, Stripe collects and verifies your identity and banking information on its own pages, such as your legal name, date of birth, address, taxpayer ID or Social Security number, government ID, and bank account. Stripe uses this information under the Stripe Connected Account Agreement and the Stripe Privacy Policy. Flare does not collect or store your full Social Security number, ID documents, or full bank account number. Flare keeps your Stripe account ID, your account's verification and payout status, your email address, your earnings balance, your payout requests and our decisions on them, and records of holds, refunds, chargebacks, and fraud review that affect your earnings. Stripe may share limited details with us, such as the information it still needs from you or the last digits of your bank account, so we can help with payout issues. We use this information to pay you, prevent fraud and abuse, handle disputes, meet tax-reporting and other legal obligations, and alert our team by internal email, sent through our email service provider, when you request a payout. To update your identity or bank details, use your Stripe Express dashboard.

E. Location (Meetup Live)

If you enable Meetup Live, nearby, or meetup-safety / GPS locator features, we may collect approximate or precise location only after you Agree in Flare and grant device permission. Meetup Live requires an agreed public meetup place; the live map pin shown to your match is limited to roughly 0.3 miles of that place (coarsened), while farther away they see status and distance to the place rather than your live street location. If you Disagree or turn the feature off, we do not use GPS for that feature. Location is optional and can be revoked in your device settings and in Flare. Meetup-safety exists to create an optional safety evidence pack—check-in location, who you met (names/usernames and account identifiers), device IP address, timestamps, and related meetup conversation when that retention is disclosed to people in the meetup—that Flare holds and can provide to law enforcement or other authorities if something goes wrong, or when required by law. If you need a copy, you must ask Flare for it (we verify your account). It is not casual surveillance and we do not sell your location data. This is not government ID or biometric verification. Flare does not collect phone numbers for Flare accounts; the pack uses device IP and account data, not a mobile phone number, unless you later choose an optional emergency contact. You can end a session and disable location; we retain meetup-safety records as described in Retention (generally a limited period unless needed for a report, legal hold, safety investigation, or lawful authority request).

Meetup video calls (recorded): Meetup video calls are optional 1:1 calls. Before each call, both of you see a notice and must tap “I agree.” Recording starts only after you both agree, and a red REC badge shows for the whole call. We record the call’s video and audio for safety, and we log when and how each person consented. Calls run through our real-time video provider (LiveKit), and recordings are stored privately with our cloud storage provider. Recordings are not shared with your match, and neither of you can download them in the app. Only authorized Flare safety and legal staff can access them, to investigate reports, enforce our Terms, protect someone’s safety, or respond to lawful requests. We don’t use recordings for face recognition, voice identification, advertising, or AI training. We keep recordings for up to 90 days after the call, or longer while they’re needed for an active report, investigation, or legal hold. Because a recording includes the other person too, deleting your account doesn’t delete it before then. You can ask us for access to a recording you’re in (we verify your account); we may limit or redact what we provide to protect the other person’s privacy, someone’s safety, or an investigation.

F. Device and technical information

Device type, operating system, app version, device and advertising identifiers (where applicable), IP address, language, time zone, crash logs, diagnostics, and usage analytics. We intentionally collect crash logs, diagnostics, and usage analytics to operate and improve Flare and diagnose failures.

G. Cookies and similar (web)

On the website we use cookies and similar technologies for login, security, preferences, and analytics. You can control cookies through your browser settings; some features may not work if cookies are disabled.

H. Third parties

Sign-in providers (such as Google or Apple), app stores (including Google Play), payment processors (Google Play Billing, Stripe), and—if you connect Spotify for an anthem—Spotify may share limited account or track metadata with us as needed to operate the Services. We use service providers such as LiveKit (real-time video) and cloud storage providers to run Live and Meetup video calls; they process data for us under contract.