Privacy Policy
In plain words
Butterflies introduces people for friendship and dating. To do that well we collect what you tell us about yourself, a photo, and, for dating, a check of your ID. We use it to find and introduce matches and to keep people safe. We do not sell your data and we do not show ads. You can delete your account whenever you like.
What we collect
| What | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Email address (to sign in) | Your account, sign-in, and notices about your matches, plans and messages. |
| Name, birth date, city, gender, who you are interested in, age range | Matching, making sure everyone is 18 or older, and showing matches your name, age and city. |
| Five photos (the first is your profile photo) | Shown to the people you are introduced to. Matching requires all five. Photos you remove are deleted from our storage. |
| Interests, personality answers, weekend style, drinking, relationship goals, wanting kids | Working out compatibility. |
| Religion or beliefs and political views (optional) | Compatibility only, and only when you choose to answer. See "Sensitive information" below. |
| Messages, plans, check-ins, reports and blocks | Running chat and meetups, reminders, a private after-meetup check-in, and safety. |
| ID check result and date of birth from your ID (dating only) | Confirming you are who you say you are and are 18 or older. |
| A private reliability score | Based on cancellations and no-shows, used to rank introductions. It is never shown to other people. |
| Basic technical data (device type, time zone, error logs) | Keeping the service working and secure. |
ID checks
If you choose dating, we ask you to verify your ID. The check is done by our verification partner, Stripe. Stripe collects and handles your ID photos and selfie under its own privacy policy. We never receive the images. We receive only whether the check passed and the date of birth printed on your ID, and we use that date of birth as your age. If you are under 18 your account is removed from matching. Your ID verification result and date of birth are sensitive information. We use them only to confirm your age and identity, never for advertising, and Stripe handles them for us under its agreement with us.
Sensitive information
Your answers about religion or beliefs and politics are optional, and "prefer not to say" is always available. We use them only to work out compatibility. Other members cannot see them. At most, an introduction may say something like "Similar beliefs", without saying what yours are. If you tell us a topic matters a lot to you, we only introduce you to people whose answers are close to yours on that topic. You can change or clear these answers in My profile at any time.
How we use it
- To choose and send introductions, and to rank them by compatibility.
- To run chat, plans, reminders and notifications, including email.
- To keep people safe: handling reports and blocks, preventing fake accounts, and enforcing our Terms. When someone reports a person, a member of our team may read the conversation between the two of them to decide what to do. Those reads are logged. We do not otherwise read private conversations.
- To fix problems and improve Butterflies.
- To meet legal obligations.
Why we are allowed to use your information (EEA and UK)
If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the legal bases we rely on are: contract, to provide the service you signed up for (accounts, introductions, chat, plans); legitimate interests, to keep members safe, prevent fraud and improve Butterflies, balanced against your rights; consent, for optional sensitive answers such as religion and politics, which you can withdraw by changing or clearing them in My profile; and legal obligation, where the law requires us to keep or share information.
How introductions are chosen
Introductions are chosen and ranked by an automated process. It compares answers you and others gave, and it also takes into account a private reliability score based on late cancellations and no-shows. It never uses your photos to judge you, and it does not use the religion or politics answers unless both people gave them. If you would like an explanation of how a particular introduction came about, or want a person at Butterflies to review a decision, email the privacy address below.
Who sees your information
- Your matches see your name, age, city, photo, whether you are ID verified, your shared interests, and what you share in chat or in introduction answers.
- Service providers that run Butterflies for us: Supabase (database, sign-in, file storage and servers), Stripe (ID verification), Resend (email), and Cloudflare (our domain). They may use your data only to provide their service to us.
- Authorities or others when the law requires it, or when needed to protect someone's safety.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.
California residents
We do not "sell" or "share" personal information as those words are defined by California law, and we have not done so in the past 12 months. If that ever changes, we will give you a clear way to opt out first. California residents can ask us to tell them what personal information we hold, to correct it, or to delete it, and can ask us not to use sensitive information beyond what is needed to run the service (we already do not). We will not treat you differently for asking. To make a request, email the privacy address below. We may need to confirm it is really you before we act, and an authorized agent may make a request for you with your written permission.
How long we keep it
We keep your information while your account is open. When you ask us to delete your account, we delete your profile, photo, answers and messages within 30 days. We may keep a limited record of reports about or by you, without your profile attached, for up to 3 years after you leave, or longer if the law requires it or an investigation is open. If your account was suspended, we keep a one-way scrambled form of your email address (a hash, not the address itself) for as long as needed to stop that account from rejoining. Backups are overwritten on their regular cycle.
Your choices and rights
- Change your profile, photo and answers in the app.
- Turn off notification emails in My profile.
- Block or report anyone from an introduction card or a chat.
- Delete your account yourself with Delete my account in My profile.
- Ask for a copy of your data, a correction, or deletion of your account by emailing the privacy address below.
Depending on where you live (for example California or the European Economic Area) you may have additional rights, including to object to or restrict certain uses. Email us and we will honor them as the law requires. You may also complain to your local data protection authority.
Cookies and tracking
Butterflies does not use advertising trackers or third-party analytics. The app stores a sign-in token on your device to keep you signed in, and our website does not set tracking cookies. If this changes, we will update this policy and ask for consent where the law requires it.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit, access to the database is limited by per-person security rules, and chat messages cannot be edited or deleted by others. No service can promise perfect security, so please use a strong password and tell us right away if you suspect a problem.
Children
Butterflies is only for people 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we remove it promptly.
International use
Our providers may process data in the United States and other countries. Where the law requires it, we rely on safeguards such as the standard contractual clauses in our providers' data processing agreements.
Changes
If we change this policy in a meaningful way we will tell you in the app or by email before the change takes effect.
Contact
Questions, data requests and deletion requests: [email protected]
Land of Lincoln LLC, c/o Divine Accounting and Consulting LLC, 6155 N Ravenswood Ave, Apt 2, Chicago, Illinois 60660
Butterflies is operated by Land of Lincoln LLC. Contact: [email protected]