Privacy Policy · BFF Compass

1. Information We Collect

We collect the information you give us, the information created when you use BFF Compass, and a limited amount of technical information from your device.

Things you provide. Your name, school email address, university, year of study, profile photo, bio, interests, and the compatibility questions you answer during onboarding. Your school email is used to verify that you are a real student at that campus.
Things you create on the service. Direct messages and buddy-group messages, event RSVPs, study groups you create or join, event listing requests you submit, and the badges you earn.
Well-being check-ins. Your mood check-ins and "You Good?" responses. We treat this as sensitive information: it is used to show you your own trends and to surface support resources. It is never sold, never used for advertising, and never shown to other students.
Radar and presence. When you open Radar we process the fact that you are actively scanning, your campus, and your approximate location so we can surface students who are open to meeting right now. Radar signals are short-lived and you can leave a scan at any time.
Safety orientation. Whether you have completed the required safety orientation videos, so we can gate features that involve meeting other people in person.
Device and log information. Device type, operating system, browser, app version, IP address, push-notification tokens, and diagnostic logs such as crashes and errors.
Information from others. If another student invites you to a buddy group, reports your account, or if a campus organiser lists an event you attend, we receive information about you from them.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information above to run the service and keep it safe.

Matching. Our compatibility engine uses your interests, onboarding answers, school, and availability to suggest buddies, buddy groups, and events you are likely to enjoy.
Operating the service. Delivering messages and notifications, managing RSVPs, forming buddy groups, and awarding badges.
Personalisation. Prioritising events at your own school and near your campus, and ordering what you see so the most relevant things come first.
Safety and integrity. Verifying that accounts belong to real students, acting on reports of harassment, spam, and impersonation, enforcing our Terms, and responding to reports and appeals. When another student reports a conversation, our safety team can review the reported messages — that limited access exists precisely so we can act on abuse.
Communication. Sending account and security emails, replying to support requests, and — only if you have not opted out — occasional product emails. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link.
AI assistant. Messages you send to the in-app AI assistant are processed by our AI provider so it can generate a reply. Your conversations are not used to train third-party models.
Improving BFF Compass. Understanding which features actually help students connect, using aggregated and de-identified analytics.

3. How Your Information Is Shared

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not run third-party advertising on BFF Compass. Information is shared only in these situations:

With other students. The profile details you choose to show, your presence on Radar while you are actively scanning, and any messages you send. You control what your profile displays and can leave a scan at any time.
With your buddy groups. Members of a group you join can see your name, photo, and the messages you post in that group.
With service providers. Companies that help us run the platform — hosting, databases, email delivery, push notifications, image hosting, AI model providers, and error monitoring. They may only use your information to provide those services to us and are bound by confidentiality obligations.
With event organisers. If you RSVP to an event listed by a campus organiser, we may share that you registered so they can admit you at the door. We do not hand over your wider profile.
For legal and safety reasons. We may disclose information when we believe in good faith that it is required by law, or necessary to prevent fraud, imminent physical harm, or a serious violation of our Terms.
In a business transfer. If BFF Compass is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred. We will tell you before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

4. How Long We Keep Information

We keep your information for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, your profile, matches, and messages are removed from active systems within 30 days. We retain a limited amount of information for longer where we must — for example records relating to a safety report, a ban, or a legal obligation — and we keep aggregated, de-identified statistics that can no longer identify you.

5. International Transfers

BFF Compass is operated from, and uses service providers located in, countries that may differ from where you live. When we transfer information across borders we rely on appropriate legal safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, to protect it.

6. Your Rights and Controls

You are in control of your information:

Review and update. Edit your profile, interests, and preferences at any time from the Profile page.
Download or delete. Request a copy of your data, or deletion of your account and its data, by emailing support@bffcompass.com.
Notifications and email. Turn push notifications off from your device settings and unsubscribe from product emails using the link in any of them.
Visibility. Leave a Radar scan, block or report another student, or leave a buddy group whenever you want.
Regional rights. Depending on where you live (for example in the EU, UK, or California) you may have additional rights to access, correct, port, or object to our use of your information, and to complain to your local data protection authority. We honour these requests regardless of where you are.

7. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and local storage to keep you signed in, remember your preferences, protect against abuse, and measure how features are used. Essential cookies are required for the service to work; you can clear or block the rest through your browser settings.

8. Security

All traffic between your device and BFF Compass is encrypted in transit with TLS. Private messages — direct messages and buddy-group chats — are additionally encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM, so message content in our database, and in any backup of it, is stored as ciphertext rather than readable text. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes, and internal access controls limit who on our team can access what. To be clear about what this means: BFF Compass is not end-to-end encrypted. Our systems encrypt and decrypt messages on the server so we can deliver your history to your devices and so our safety team can review conversations in the narrow cases described in sections 2 and 3 — a reported conversation, or a lawful request. Staff do not browse messages outside those cases. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password and tell us immediately if you think your account has been accessed by someone else.

9. Age Requirement

BFF Compass is intended only for university students aged 18 and over. You must be 18 or older to create an account. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, and if we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18 we will remove it and delete the associated data.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the service evolves. When we make material changes we will update the date at the top and, where appropriate, notify you in the app or by email before the change takes effect.

11. Contact Us

If you have a question about this policy, or you want to exercise any of the rights above, email us at support@bffcompass.com or reach us through our Contact page.