Privacy Policy

What this policy covers

Soula is a dating app. To introduce you to people worth meeting, we need to know some things about you. This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what you can ask us to do with it.

It applies to the Soula apps on iOS and Android, to soulalove.com, and to the support conversations you have with our team. Cookies and similar website technologies are covered in our Cookie Policy. The agreement between you and us is set out in our Terms of Service.

If something here is unclear, write to privacy@soulalove.com. A person will answer.

Who we are

Soula is operated by [Soula Technologies Ltd.], a company registered in England and Wales with company number [company number] and a registered office at [registered address]. Under UK and EU data protection law, we are the controller of the personal data described below.

How to reach us:

Privacy questions and data requests: privacy@soulalove.com
General help: support@soulalove.com
Safety concerns and reports: safety@soulalove.com
Legal notices: legal@soulalove.com
Billing and subscriptions: billing@soulalove.com

Who can use Soula

Soula is strictly for adults aged 18 or over. We check age at signup from the date of birth you give us. If we find an account belongs to someone under 18, we remove it immediately and delete the data. If you believe a minor is using Soula, tell us at safety@soulalove.com and we will treat it as urgent.

We do not knowingly collect data from children, and we do not build profiles of anyone who is not a registered adult user.

What we collect

Your email address or phone number, and a password. Passwords are hashed. We never store them in plain text and we cannot read them.
Or, if you prefer, a social sign-in through Google, Apple or Facebook. We import your name and profile photo only, and only after you have seen a preview and confirmed it. Nothing is posted back to those accounts.

Your profile

First name, which is public.
Last name, which is optional and only ever shown as an initial. We never display it in full.
Date of birth, which stays private. Other users see your calculated age, not your birthday.
Gender identity, sexual orientation, pronouns and relationship status.
City and country.
What you are looking for, your thoughts on children and family plans, your interests, and your answers to prompts.
Optional extended details: height, body type, ethnicity, religion, politics, caste, education, job, languages, star sign, MBTI, and lifestyle habits such as drinking, smoking, cannabis, exercise and diet.

Every optional field has its own visibility toggle. If you fill something in and switch it off, other users do not see it.

Photos, video and voice

Between two and nine photos.
Up to three videos, 30 seconds each.
Voice answers on prompts, up to one minute.
Voice notes in chat, up to five minutes.
Moments, which capture your front and back camera at the same time so what you are seeing and your reaction arrive together.

What you do in the app

Messages, reactions, likes, connection requests and the optional 150-character note attached to them.
Out & About posts, including the optional date, time and venue you add.
Reports you send us about other people, and reports other people send about you.
Filters and preferences, including deal breakers and include or exclude lists for countries and cities.

Likes on Soula are passive. We record them so we can show you who liked you, but we do not notify the other person.

Device and usage data

Device model, operating system version, app version, language, IP address, crash logs, which features you use, session times and push notification tokens. This is how we keep the app stable and work out what to fix.

Verification

When you verify your profile, we ask for a live selfie in a pose we prompt on screen. Automated facial matching compares it against your profile photos. The selfie is used for that check and nothing else. It is deleted once the check completes, or once a human review finishes. If an automated check fails, a person reviews it, usually within 24 hours.

What stays private, no matter what

Some information is never shown to other users, even to people you have connected with:

Category	Examples	Visible to other users
Account	Email, phone number, password	No
Identity	Date of birth, full last name	No, age and last initial only
Preferences	Deal breakers, dating filters, include and exclude lists	No
Location	Exact device coordinates	No, approximate distance only
Verification	Verification selfies	No
Payments	Card and billing details	No, and we never receive them
Anything toggled off	Any optional profile field you have hidden	No

Sensitive information, handled carefully

Some of what makes a dating profile useful is legally sensitive: sexual orientation, religion, political views, ethnicity, and lifestyle details that touch on health. We treat these as special category data.

They are always optional. Soula works without them.
We collect them only with your explicit consent, given when you add them.
Each one has its own visibility toggle.
We never use them for advertising, and we never sell or share them for anyone else’s advertising.
You can remove them at any time in the app, and the change takes effect immediately.

Location

We use two kinds of location:

Approximate location from your device, only if you grant the operating system permission. You can revoke it at any time in your phone settings, and Soula will keep working.
The city and country you type in yourself, with autocomplete provided by the Google Places API.

Location powers distance display, the Nearby feed, and your country and city preferences. Your exact coordinates are never shown to anyone. You can turn distance display off entirely.

How we use your information

To create and run your account, and to keep you signed in.
To build your Daily 5, your Nearby feed, Out & About and Moments, and to work out who to introduce you to.
To deliver connections, messages, voice notes, reactions and notifications, including the 72-hour first-message timer and conversation archiving after 7 days on Free, 14 days on Pro, and never on Premium.
To verify profiles and reduce impersonation.
To detect, investigate and act on fraud, spam, scams, harassment and other breaches of our Community Guidelines.
To provide support when you contact us.
To measure how features perform, fix crashes and improve the product.
To manage subscriptions, purchases and refunds.
To comply with legal obligations, including tax records and lawful requests.

Our legal bases, for UK and EU users

Performance of our contract with you for accounts, matching, messaging, connections and subscriptions. Without this we cannot provide Soula.
Your explicit consent for special category data, precise location, connected apps and optional marketing. You can withdraw consent at any time.
Our legitimate interests for safety, fraud prevention, abuse investigation, security and product improvement. We balance these against your rights, and we keep the data involved to a minimum.
Legal obligation for record keeping, tax, and responding to valid legal process.

AI and automated decisions

We use automated systems in a few specific places:

Photo verification matching, as described above.
Optional AI suggestions for prompt answers, conversation icebreakers and photo quality tips. These are suggestions. You choose whether to use them.
Automated content moderation, which flags or restricts content and accounts that appear to break our rules.

Automated moderation can lead to a restriction on your account. If that happens, you can ask a human to review it, and we will tell you how in the notice we send. We do not use automated decision-making for anything with legal consequences beyond your access to Soula.

Payments

Soula never receives or stores your card number. In-app purchases are processed by Apple or Google under their own terms, and your subscription state is managed through RevenueCat. We see what we need to run your entitlement: which product you bought, when it renews, whether it is active, and the receipt identifiers the stores give us. Billing questions go to billing@soulalove.com, and refunds are covered in our Refund Policy and Subscription Terms.

Connected apps

You can connect Spotify, Apple Music, Letterboxd or Goodreads to show what you are listening to, watching or reading. Data flows one way only, into Soula. Those services receive nothing from us, we do not post on your behalf, and we never use this data for advertising. Disconnecting removes the data from your profile.

We share personal data with service providers who process it on our instructions, under contract, and only for the purposes below:

Google Firebase for authentication, database, media storage, push notifications through Cloud Messaging, Analytics and Crashlytics.
Apple Push Notification service for notifications on iOS.
Google Places API for city and country autocomplete.
Google, Apple and Facebook where you choose social sign-in.
Apple App Store and Google Play billing, and RevenueCat for purchases and subscription state.
Content moderation and trust-and-safety tooling to detect abuse, scams and illegal content.
AI model providers used for verification matching, moderation and optional suggestions.
Email and customer support tooling so we can reply to you.

We also share information:

With other users, but only what your profile settings allow.
With law enforcement or regulators where the law requires it, or where there is a credible risk to someone’s life or safety.
With professional advisers, and with a buyer or successor if the business is sold or reorganised. You would be told before your data moved to a new controller.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

International transfers

We are based in the UK and use providers in the United States and elsewhere. Where personal data leaves the UK or the European Economic Area, we rely on adequacy decisions where they exist, and otherwise on the UK or EU Standard Contractual Clauses together with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, plus additional technical measures such as encryption. You can ask us for details of the safeguards that apply to a specific transfer.

How long we keep information

While your account is active, we keep your profile, media and messages so the app works.
When you delete your account, a 30-day grace period starts. During that window you can sign back in and recover the account. After it ends, we permanently delete your personal data, and residual copies are removed from backups within a further 90 days.
Messages you have already sent remain in the other participant’s own copy of the conversation. We cannot reach into someone else’s chat history and remove what you said to them.
We keep limited records for longer where the law requires it or where deleting them would put people at risk: safety reports, moderation decisions, ban records so banned users stay off Soula, and transaction records for tax purposes.
Verification selfies are deleted as soon as the check or review is finished.

To delete your account, use the in-app option or follow the steps on our Data Deletion page.

Your rights

UK and EU

You have the right to access your data, correct it, have it erased, restrict or object to how we use it, receive a portable copy, and withdraw consent you have given. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that already happened.

Email privacy@soulalove.com and we will respond within one month. If a request is complex we may extend that by two further months and will tell you why. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we will not charge you for a reasonable request.

If you are unhappy with our answer, you can complain to a supervisory authority. In the UK that is the Information Commissioner’s Office. In the EU it is the authority where you live or work.

California

If you live in California, you can ask us to tell you what we have collected about you and where it came from, to delete it, or to correct it. You can also ask us to limit our use of sensitive personal information. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of, but you are entitled to ask. You can use an authorised agent, with proof of authorisation, and we will never treat you differently for exercising these rights.

Other US states

If you live in Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon or another state with a comparable law, you have similar rights: confirm and access, correct, delete, receive a portable copy, and opt out of targeted advertising, sale and certain profiling. We do not carry out any of those three activities. Some states let you appeal a refused request, and if yours does we will explain how in our response.

Canada, Australia and elsewhere

Wherever you are, you can ask for access to your data and correction of it, and complain to your national regulator, including the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. We handle every request the same way, regardless of where you live.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
Access is limited to staff who need it, on a least-privilege basis, and staff access is logged.
Chat has screenshot and screen-recording protection.
We test, monitor and patch our systems, and we review our providers.
If a breach affects your personal data and the law requires notification, we notify the relevant regulator within 72 hours of becoming aware, and we tell affected users when there is a risk to them.

No system is perfect. Use a strong, unique password, and tell us at support@soulalove.com if you think someone else has your account.

Changes to this policy

We update this policy when the product or the law changes. For material changes we give notice in the app or by email at least 30 days before they take effect, unless a change has to happen sooner for legal or safety reasons. The date at the top always reflects the current version.

Contact us

Questions, requests and complaints about privacy: privacy@soulalove.com. Anything else: Contact or support@soulalove.com. If you have a safety concern about another user, please use safety@soulalove.com so it reaches the right team quickly.