GuyDar Privacy Policy

1. Who operates GuyDar

Colton Jorgensen operates GuyDar and is responsible for the personal information described here. Contact: [email protected]; mailing address: 358 S 700 E Ste B242, Salt Lake City, UT 84102, United States. This policy covers the GuyDar website and app, including its current testing service. Effective date: October 7, 2026.

GuyDar is for eligible adults only. Events and Groups & Places are temporarily unavailable. This policy describes the current service, not planned advertising, billing, identity verification, or video features.

2. Information we collect and where it comes from

Account information comes from you: username, email address, display name, date of birth, adult-eligibility confirmation, password information, and email-verification status. We store a salted password hash rather than your plain-text password. We use date of birth to calculate age and enforce adult eligibility; date of birth and email are not ordinary public profile fields.

Profile information comes from you: biography, intent, gender, sexual orientation, relationship and community information, appearance and body details, preferences, interests, activities, hashtags, and other optional answers. Some answers reveal highly sensitive personal information. You choose which optional fields to complete and which to display.

Health information comes from you when you choose to provide it: HIV, COVID-19, and mpox status, health-test dates, and other health-related or sexual-practice disclosures. Messages, photos, or reports can also contain health information. We do not obtain medical records or verify your statements against a healthcare provider.

Photos come from files you choose to upload. We store processed images, thumbnails, crop settings, and review status. An imported profile screenshot can be processed for text recognition in your browser; profile information you subsequently save is sent to GuyDar. Do not import someone else’s private content without permission.

Location comes from the coordinates you submit or authorize your browser to provide. We store those coordinates and your displayed-location setting to place your profile and calculate approximate distances. A moved display pin does not remove the underlying coordinates from our systems.

Communication and relationship information comes from your interactions: sent and received messages, timestamps, read status, winks, favorites, pinned conversations, blocks, saved conversation starters, and reports. Another user may provide information about you in a message or report.

Technical and service information includes session identifiers, request information needed to operate the service, connection addresses used for abuse prevention, activity timestamps used for online status, application errors, and browser preferences. Infrastructure providers may also process IP addresses and request details.

3. Why we use information

We use account information to create and secure accounts, confirm adult eligibility, verify email access, maintain sessions, and provide support. We use profile and location information to display profiles, browse and filter results, calculate distances, and provide the features you request.

We use messages and relationship information to deliver communications, show unread indicators, manage conversations and winks, and honor blocks and favorites. We use photos to provide profile images and administer any review process. We use technical information and reports to prevent abuse, diagnose problems, handle complaints, protect the service, and meet legal obligations.

Optional health and intimate details are used to store your chosen answers and display them according to your visibility choices. They are not medical advice, verified health records, or a guarantee about another person. We do not require optional health disclosures to create an account.

The current app does not contain targeted-advertising tools or a feature for selling personal information. It does not send chats or health disclosures to an external generative-AI service to create conversation starters; the current built-in starters are preset text, with an option to save your own.

4. Who can receive information

Other users can receive the profile answers and photos you make visible, your displayed map location and approximate distance, your status indicators where shown, and messages or winks you send them. Profile information may reach more people than the person you are currently chatting with. Recipients may save, copy, or share it outside GuyDar; a later privacy change cannot reliably retrieve those copies.

Authorized operators and service providers may access information as necessary to host, maintain, secure, support, and administer GuyDar. Messages are stored on the server and are not end-to-end encrypted. We do not promise that operators are technically unable to access them. Photo review and complaint handling may involve review of the relevant content.

Email delivery providers receive the email address and content needed to send verification or other requested service messages. GuyDar is hosted on DigitalOcean servers in the United States and uses Cloudflare to proxy website traffic. These providers process application data or connection information as needed to provide hosting, delivery, and security. DigitalOcean daily server backups are enabled; migration and recovery copies may also remain on the operator’s NAS. Verification emails are sent through Microsoft 365. Internet and network services used to deliver the website may process connection information needed to carry requests. Map images load directly from OpenStreetMap servers. Those requests disclose technical connection details, such as your IP address, and identify the map tiles being requested; that may indicate the map area you are viewing. They do not by themselves send your GuyDar health answers or chat contents. OpenStreetMap’s own privacy policy applies to its handling of those requests.

We may disclose information when legally required, to respond to valid legal process, or when reasonably necessary to address fraud, a security incident, or a serious safety threat, subject to applicable legal limits. If ownership of the service changes, any transfer must remain subject to this policy and applicable law; we will provide required notice and obtain consent when required. This is not permission for unrestricted sale of sensitive information.

5. Location, visibility, and sensitive-data choices

You can deny or revoke browser location permission. Revoking permission stops future browser-authorized access; it does not automatically delete a saved location. Contact [email protected] to request removal of stored location information, or delete your account.

In Settings → Your displayed location, the distance slider changes the displayed position relative to the stored position. Zero distance may display your actual stored coordinates. Larger offsets reduce precision but do not guarantee anonymity or prevent someone from inferring where you are.

The Visible control on an optional answer controls whether that answer is included in your profile shown to other users. A hidden answer remains stored and available to you and authorized operators. To remove an optional answer, clear it and save the profile, or request deletion. Review settings before adding sensitive information; do not assume that entering an answer automatically keeps it private.

Invisible mode hides online status and the discovery marker but does not delete your information or guarantee that existing contacts and favorites cannot view your profile. Hide photos is a viewing preference for your own screen, not a guarantee that your photos are hidden from others. Blocking prevents contact and hides the previous conversation for the affected relationship; it is not a physical deletion of the stored message history.

Where applicable law requires separate consent to collect or share sensitive or health information, that consent must be obtained outside this policy. Accepting Terms or reading this policy is not a substitute for that consent. You can request withdrawal of consent through [email protected], subject to any processing otherwise permitted or required by law.

6. Cookies, browser storage, and tracking

GuyDar uses a first-party session cookie to recognize an authenticated account. The current cookie can persist for roughly 400 days and may be renewed during use. The service may retain the server session until you log out or it is otherwise revoked. The app’s current login screen requires selecting Log In before restoring a remembered login. On a shared device, log out when finished and protect access to your browser.

Browser local storage saves preferences such as measurement units, map/grid layout, photo-display preferences, clustering, and sound settings. Session storage remembers the adult-entry confirmation for the current browser session. Clearing browser storage can reset preferences or end a browser login but does not delete server-side account information.

The current app does not use advertising cookies or build a cross-site advertising profile. It does not implement a separate response to a Do Not Track browser signal. Mandatory rights and any required handling of legally recognized opt-out signals still apply. Third-party map requests follow the map provider’s practices.

7. Retention and account deletion

We retain account information, profiles, photos, messages, and relationship records while needed to operate your account and provide the requested service. The current app does not automatically delete all older messages after a fixed age. Activity timestamps and certain temporary records have separate operational lifetimes. Account-related records generally remain until account deletion. Administrative audit records and operational logs do not necessarily follow the same account-deletion rules, and may remain for security, troubleshooting, or legal purposes. Contact [email protected] to request information about, or deletion of, any remaining records associated with your account.

Settings → Your profile includes a permanent account-deletion option. In the current application database, deleting a user removes the account and its dependent profile photos, sessions, messages involving that user, favorites, pins, blocks, and other records linked to the account through deletion rules. Some administrative audit records may remain after account deletion. A database deletion is not a promise that a prior backup has already been overwritten or that recipients’ screenshots have been deleted.

We may retain narrowly necessary records for legal requirements or a specific security, fraud, or dispute matter, with access restricted to that purpose. If backup copies exist, deletion from the active database does not necessarily erase them at the same time. Contact [email protected] to ask about retained copies and request their deletion where applicable law provides that right. If you request deletion without using the in-app control, we will verify that you are authorized to make the request before acting. We do not ask you to send your password.

8. Security and processing location

The current service uses HTTPS for its public website, salted password hashes, authenticated requests, and access restrictions for ordinary account functions and administrator features. These measures reduce risk but do not guarantee security. We do not claim that stored messages or the database are end-to-end encrypted or that storage is encrypted at rest unless that has been separately verified.

Account data is stored on the server operated for GuyDar. GuyDar’s primary application data is hosted on DigitalOcean in San Francisco, United States. Microsoft 365 and OpenStreetMap may use infrastructure in different countries; this policy does not promise that every service provider processes information only within the United States. Email and map providers may process information in other locations. If applicable law requires safeguards for an international transfer, those safeguards must be established before the transfer occurs. We will provide notifications of a security incident when and as required by applicable law.

9. Privacy requests and legal rights

You can review and change profile answers and visibility settings in the app, remove photos, revoke browser location permission, block users, and delete your account. For access, a copy, correction, deletion, consent withdrawal, or other privacy requests, contact [email protected] and identify the account concerned. Do not include your password or unnecessary medical information in the request.

Depending on your location and which laws apply to GuyDar, you may have additional rights to know about collection and disclosure, access or obtain portable information, correct information, delete information, restrict processing of sensitive information, object to certain processing, opt out of sale or targeted-advertising sharing, or appeal a denied request. We will handle applicable rights within the legally required time and may reasonably verify identity or an agent’s authority. We will not retaliate against you for exercising a protected privacy right.

Where available under applicable law, you may appeal a decision by contacting [email protected] with “Privacy appeal” in the subject, and you may complain to the relevant public authority. If Washington consumer-health-data law applies, it can create additional access, withdrawal, deletion, and recipient-disclosure rights. Contact [email protected] to exercise any applicable consumer-health-data rights. GuyDar must obtain separate consent for collection or sharing whenever applicable law requires it; agreeing to the Terms does not provide that consent. The current launch region is the United States. The availability of particular statutory rights depends on your location and the law’s scope.

10. Children and changes to this policy

GuyDar is not intended for anyone under 18 or below the age of legal adulthood where they live. Do not submit a minor’s profile or photos. Contact [email protected] if you believe a minor’s information has been collected so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

We will update the policy when our practices change and identify its new effective date. We will provide appropriate notice of material changes and obtain new consent when the law requires it. A policy update alone does not authorize new uses of sensitive information requiring consent.

For questions or privacy requests, contact Colton Jorgensen, 358 S 700 E Ste B242, Salt Lake City, UT 84102, United States, [email protected].

Private photos and photo access

Your first/main photo is always public to eligible signed-in users who can view your profile. You may mark additional photos private in the photo editor. Private photos are available to you, authorized moderation when submitted for review, and people you explicitly unlock them for. A chat unlock shares all your private photos with that person, including photos you mark private later, until you lock them again or either person blocks the other. Removing your first photo makes your next photo public as the new main photo.

Hide Photos is a display preference on your screen; it does not change who can access your uploaded photos. It hides photos except the main photo of your chat partner. Locking photos prevents future access through GuyDar but cannot remove copies someone already saved or captured.

Changing your account email

You can view your current email address and request a change in Account Settings. A change requires your current password and confirmation sent to the new address. Your existing address stays active until confirmation, which signs out all sessions. Unconfirmed change links expire after 24 hours.

Recent activity indicators

While you use GuyDar, interaction with the page updates a recent-activity timestamp. Profiles show Active now for approximately two minutes after recent interaction, then show the elapsed time near the distance indicator. Leaving a tab open without interaction does not keep it active indefinitely. Invisible mode suppresses this activity indicator. Signing out clears your public activity status.