1. Who is responsible
This Policy explains how NewlyHere handles personal data when you use the platform, create a profile, publish a service listing, reveal contact details or contact us. The operator of NewlyHere is responsible for deciding how and why this data is processed. Privacy questions and rights requests can be sent to support.newlyhere@proton.me.
This Policy covers our platform. When you contact another user through an external messenger, website or other service, that service's own privacy rules apply.
2. Information you provide
Account details. We process your email address, a protected password hash, account status, language preferences and authentication records to create and manage your account. We do not display your login email or password as part of your public profile.
Profile information. You can provide your name, photos, biography, date of birth, gender, country of origin, current country and city, languages, and whether you are looking for friendship, a relationship or coliving. Your date of birth can be used to display your age. Contact information you choose to share may include a phone number, messenger account or social profile.
Service listings. We process the description, category, location, price, photos and contact information you provide for a service. Published information is available to people browsing the platform.
Reports and correspondence. When you report content or contact support, we process your message, relevant account or listing references and information needed to investigate and respond. Moderation records may include the review, decision and reasons for it.
Only provide information needed for your profile, listing or request. Do not upload identity documents, health records or other sensitive information to public fields, or publish another person's information without a lawful basis. Optional profile fields can be left empty.
3. Information from your use of the platform
We process technical information needed to provide and protect the service, such as network and request information, browser or device information, session records and errors. Hosting and other infrastructure services may also keep technical logs.
For signed-in users, we record interactions such as viewing a profile or service listing and revealing contact details. These records can include the viewer's account identifier, the profile or listing viewed, the time and the country and city from the viewer's profile. They are account-linked records, not just anonymous counters. We use them for activity statistics, abuse prevention and operation of these features.
The platform also stores preferences in your browser, as explained in section 7. We do not need access to your external conversations to let you reveal someone's contact details, and we do not receive their contents merely because you contacted someone through the platform.
4. Why we use data
Where the GDPR or similar rules require a legal basis, we use the basis appropriate to each purpose:
- Providing the service: account creation, authentication, profile and listing publication, discovery, and contact sharing use data needed to perform our agreement with you or take steps you request before entering it.
- Keeping the service safe: investigating reports, preventing fraud, enforcing platform rules and protecting accounts rely on our legitimate interests in operating a safe service, or on a legal obligation where one applies.
- Operating and improving the service: technical diagnostics and basic activity statistics rely on our legitimate interests in understanding usage and maintaining a reliable platform, subject to your rights and the safeguards required by law.
- Handling requests and disputes: we use information to respond to you, meet legal obligations and establish, exercise or defend legal claims, as appropriate to the request.
- Consent-based processing: usage analytics with Google Analytics (section 7) runs only with your consent, and any other use that requires consent will be explained and asked for before it begins. You may withdraw consent without affecting earlier lawful processing.
Our legitimate interests do not override your rights and freedoms. The existence of an optional field does not mean that all uses of its contents are covered by consent. Account details required to provide the service cannot be omitted if you want to use the relevant account features.
5. What other people can see
A public profile or published service listing can be accessed by visitors without an account and may be indexed by search engines. Public information can include the name, photos, age, biography, location, languages and other details you choose to publish. Your full date of birth and private account credentials are not public profile fields.
Contact details supplied for sharing can be revealed by signed-in users. You do not approve each reveal separately. A person who receives them may save them or contact you outside NewlyHere, where we cannot control their actions.
You can edit your information and change your profile's public visibility in your account. Hiding a profile removes its public availability on the platform, but does not erase information already copied by others or cached by search engines. Deleting an account is a separate action.
6. Who else receives data
Access is limited to people and organisations that need it for the relevant purpose:
- Service providers supporting hosting, data storage, email delivery, security and other technical operations, under appropriate instructions and contractual safeguards.
- Google, as the provider of Google Analytics, only if you accept analytics cookies (section 7).
- People handling support and moderation, where access is needed to respond to a request, investigate a report or protect the platform.
- Authorities or other recipients, where disclosure is required by law or necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or address a serious safety or security issue.
We do not sell personal data. We do not give other users access to private account details simply because they view a profile or listing. Public information and deliberately shared contacts are handled as explained in section 5.
7. Cookies and browser storage
We use cookies and similar browser storage for authentication, language selection and preferences. The language cookie is set for up to one year. Authentication cookies and session information support signing in and keeping access secure; their lifetime depends on the session and security settings.
Local browser storage remembers choices such as your theme, applied search filters, display preferences and dismissed profile tips. Some preferences remain after signing out and stay until you reset them, clear browser storage or your browser removes them. Session-related information may also be stored to coordinate sign-in and expiry behaviour.
Analytics. If you choose "Accept" in the cookie banner, we use Google Analytics 4, provided by Google Ireland Limited, to collect statistics about visits and how the platform is used, such as pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser. Google Analytics then sets the _ga and _ga_<ID> cookies, which expire after 13 months. Before you accept, or if you choose "Reject", nothing is sent to Google and no analytics cookie is set. Google Analytics 4 does not store IP addresses. Google may process this data in the United States; Google LLC is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.
We keep your cookie choice in local browser storage for 12 months and then ask again. You can change it at any time with "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page. Withdrawing consent deletes the analytics cookies and does not affect processing that took place before.
You can also manage cookies and storage through your browser settings and reset search filters in the platform. Blocking or clearing essential cookies may sign you out or prevent account features from working.
8. How long we keep data
We keep account and profile data while your account is active and as needed to provide the features you use. You can edit profile information, remove content or request account deletion. Public content is removed from the platform when it is deleted, subject to the time needed to process the change and refresh caches.
Some information may need to remain after removal or account closure. We assess retention by its purpose: resolving an open report or dispute, meeting a legal retention duty, protecting against abuse or completing deletion from backup systems. Access to retained information should be limited to those purposes. We do not keep information indefinitely simply because it might be useful later.
Technical logs, interaction records, reports and backups have different operational and legal needs. Contact support.newlyhere@proton.me for information about retention relevant to your data. Copies made by other users and independent search-engine caches are outside our deletion process.
9. International processing and security
Service providers may process data outside your country. Where a transfer is subject to GDPR or similar restrictions, it must use a permitted mechanism, such as an applicable adequacy decision or appropriate contractual safeguards. You can contact support.newlyhere@proton.me for information about the safeguards relevant to your data and how to obtain a copy where applicable.
We use technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal data, including protected password storage and access controls. No online service can guarantee complete security. Keep your credentials private and tell us if you believe your account or information has been compromised.
10. Your choices and rights
You can update your profile, manage its public visibility and request account deletion in your account settings. You can also contact support.newlyhere@proton.me, including if you cannot access your account. Deleting an account and clearing local browser storage are separate actions.
Depending on the law that applies, you may have rights to:
- Access your personal data and receive information about its use.
- Correct inaccurate data or request deletion.
- Restrict processing or object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Receive eligible data in a portable format.
- Withdraw consent for processing based on consent.
- Complain to the relevant data protection authority, including in your place of residence, work or the alleged infringement where the GDPR applies.
These rights may have legal exceptions. We may ask for proportionate information to verify your identity before disclosing or changing personal data. Please describe the request and the account concerned without sending unnecessary identity documents.
Where the GDPR applies, we respond without undue delay and normally within one month. If a legally permitted extension is needed because of complexity or the number of requests, we will explain it within that first month; the extension may be up to two further months.
11. People under 18
NewlyHere is intended for adults aged 18 and over. If you believe someone under 18 has created an account or provided personal data, contact support.newlyhere@proton.me so we can investigate and take appropriate action, including removal where necessary.
12. Changes and contact
We may update this Policy as the platform or our data practices change. The last-updated date appears at the top. We will provide notice of material changes and obtain consent for new processing where the law requires it.
For questions about this Policy, your information or your rights, contact support.newlyhere@proton.me.