Seeds & Squads (“we”, “us”) helps people meet nearby and form a small local squad of friends. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use and protect it, who we share it with (including overseas), and the choices and rights you have. We handle personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
We collect only what we need to match you and run meetups safely:
We do not collect your address, your contacts, precise GPS history, or any advertising identifiers, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.
This is the most sensitive data in the app, because the app brings strangers together near where people live. When you drop a pin, we immediately snap it to a ~1 km grid cell and discard the precise coordinates on our server. We never store your exact location, your address, or “nearest venue”. The map other users see shows only a jittered squad centre and public venue locations — never any individual member's location or cell.
Your photo is stored in private object storage and is screened by an automated moderation service (AWS Rekognition) to detect explicit or violent content. Only approved photos are shown, via short-lived private links, never public URLs.
To verify your age; to match you into a squad; to schedule weekly and joint meetups and curated events; to show squad-mates and nearby squads at the appropriate visibility level; to operate group and 1:1 messaging that unlocks only after you attend the same meetup; and to keep the community safe. We do not sell your personal information or use it for third-party advertising.
Access is default-deny and enforced on our servers. Your own squad sees your full profile. Adjacent squads see your first name (and photo one hop out). Beyond that, nothing. Someone you attend a meetup with unlocks a fuller profile and the ability to message you. Blocking someone hides you from each other everywhere.
We use the following service providers to run the app. Some store or process data outside Australia, so by using Seeds & Squads you consent to that overseas disclosure:
| Provider | Purpose | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Railway | Application hosting + database | Singapore (and the United States, the provider's home country) |
| Cloudflare | Photo storage (R2), network/security | United States and global edge network |
| Amazon Web Services | Automated photo moderation (Rekognition) | Asia-Pacific / United States |
| Expo | Mobile app delivery + push notifications | United States |
We keep all user data in a single region and share only what each provider needs. We do not otherwise disclose your personal information except where required by law or to protect someone's safety.
Sign-in codes and session tokens are stored only as hashes. Access to personal data is authorised on every request. Transport is encrypted (HTTPS). No system is perfectly secure, but we design to “fail safe” — when in doubt, we restrict rather than expose.
We keep your information while your account is active. When you delete your account we erase your personal information (see below). We may retain limited records where the law requires.
Seeds & Squads is for adults 18 and over. We age-gate before any matching or connection and block under-18s. We never knowingly collect information from children, and never offer a “younger” matching preference.
We may update this policy. We will change the effective date above and, for material changes, notify you in the app.
Questions or privacy complaints: [email protected]. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.