Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated 27 October 2026 · Terms of Use

In short

This policy covers the Bindung app and this website, bindung.app.
We collect what the app needs to work: your account, your page, your friends.
No ads, no tracking, no analytics, and we never sell your data. If the app crashes, it sends us an anonymous crash report so we can fix it.
Your email and phone number are never shown on your page. We never ask for your year of birth.
You can delete your account in the app at any time, and it's gone straight away.
The website has no ads, tracking or analytics either. It sets a single cookie, and only if you open the password-protected Bindery.

Who is responsible

Bindung is run by an individual, who is the controller of your data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

Nils Christopher Garny, Netherlands
Email: [email protected]

What we collect

Your account

Your email address, a password (in hashed form) and your username. When you sign up you confirm that you're at least 16; we store only that confirmation and when you gave it, never your date of birth.

Your page

Whatever you choose to add: first and last name, favourite colours, answers to questions, where you sit on scales, links to your profiles on other apps, and your favourite place (its name, address and map position, picked through Apple Maps).

Your phone number (optional)

If you add a phone number, it's stored privately with your account. If you also switch on “Let friends find me by phone number”, we store a one-way code (a SHA-256 hash) of it, so people who already have your number can find you. Switch it off and you can't be found that way.

Your contacts (only if you allow it)

If you give the app access to your contacts, it reads their phone numbers on your device, turns each into the same one-way code and checks whether that code belongs to someone who has chosen to be findable. Names and other contact details are never read. Raw phone numbers never leave your phone, and we don't store the codes we check. Please note that a phone-number hash is a protective measure, not full anonymisation.

Activities (only if you use them)

To suggest meeting up (“Who is down to grab a coffee?”) and to see friends' suggestions, you pick your city once. We store the city's name and its rough position with your account, never where you are exactly, and the app never asks for your location. A suggestion stores its text, a short description if you add one, the day it's for (today or one of the next six days), the rough time (now, soon or later; morning, afternoon or evening on a later day) and your city, and is shown only to friends whose city is within about 30 km of yours (or, if you choose, only to the friends among them in the Chapters you pick). When a friend taps “I'm down!”, you can see it, and so can the others the suggestion was shown to: they see the names of those who are also their friends, and only a count of everyone else. Suggestions and replies are hidden at the end of the day they're for and deleted from our servers shortly after, usually within a day.

Activity chats (only if you use them)

You can message a friend about their suggestion. Whoever suggested an activity can message each friend it went to, and start a group chat with everyone who said “I'm down!”. Whoever says “I'm down!” later joins the group chat, and whoever takes it back leaves it; the chat shows a short line about it. We store each message's text, who wrote it, when, and which message it replies to, as well as who is in the chat and whether you've muted it. Everyone in a chat can read all of its messages, including those written before they joined. In a group chat, people see each other's first name and colours, also people who aren't their friends, and can send them a friend request. Messages aren't end-to-end encrypted: they're stored on our servers like the rest of your data. Chats are hidden at 6 a.m. the morning after the activity's day, or the morning after it's cancelled, and deleted from our servers shortly after, usually within a day. Which messages you've read is kept only on your device.

Search by name (only if you switch it on)

If you switch on “Let people find me by name”, we add search words made from your first and last name to your profile card, so other users can find you by typing your name. Switch it off and the search words are removed straight away; people can then only find you by your username.

Friend suggestions (unless you switch them off)

To suggest people you might know, our servers look at who your friends are friends with. Someone is suggested to you when at least 30% of your friends (and at least two), or at least five of them, are friends with them. A suggestion shows only their name, username and colours, and how many friends you have in common, never who those friends are. People you're already friends with, have a request with or have blocked aren't suggested. Nothing extra is stored for this. Switch off “Suggest me to friends of my friends” and you're no longer suggested to anyone; you still see suggestions yourself.

Notifications (only if you allow it)

If you allow notifications, your phone gets a push token: a random code that lets us send notifications to it. We store this token with your account, together with your phone's time zone, so that birthday reminders arrive in the morning where you are. You choose in the app which notifications you get (friend requests, birthdays, friends' activities, messages), and we store those choices too, as well as which chats you've muted. Notifications are delivered through Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) and Apple (Apple Push Notification service), and contain only a short message, such as “Léa accepted your friend request”. You can turn notifications off in the app or in your iPhone's settings at any time. When you sign out, the token is removed from your account.

Chapters (only if you make them)

If you sort your friends into Chapters, we store each Chapter's title and which of your friends are in it. Only you can see your Chapters; your friends are not told which Chapters they're in.

Friends, blocks and reports

Who you've sent requests to, who you're bound to, and who you've blocked. If you report someone, we store your user ID, their user ID, the reason, your optional note and a copy of their page as it was at that moment, or of the chat message you reported. The person you report is not told who reported them.

Suggestions you send us

If you use “Suggest a feature”, we store your message together with your user ID, your username and when you sent it, and forward the message and your username to us through Telegram so we read it quickly.

Technical data

When the app talks to our servers, our hosting provider processes technical data such as your IP address, device and app version, and timestamps. This is used to run the service securely and to fix problems. To stop fake apps and scripts from misusing our servers, each request also carries a token confirming that it comes from the genuine Bindung app on a real device (Firebase App Check, using Apple's App Attest). Your choice of light or dark appearance stays on your device.

Crash reports

If the app crashes, it sends a crash report so we can find and fix the problem: where in the app it crashed, your device model, your iOS and app version, whether the app was in the foreground, and a random ID for this installation. Crash reports don't contain your name, email address, page or contacts, and they aren't linked to your account. They're kept for 90 days.

The website

Visiting bindung.app

The website is hosted by Cloudflare. To deliver pages and protect the site against attacks, Cloudflare processes technical data such as your IP address, your browser, the page you asked for and the time. We don't run analytics, ads or tracking on the website, and it loads no fonts, scripts or images from other companies.

Light or dark

If you pick light or dark in the menu at the top, your browser remembers that choice on your device (in local storage). It's never sent to us.

Messages from the form

If you use “Suggest a feature” on the website, we receive your message, the kind of message you picked and, only if you enter it, your email address. The message reaches us through Telegram and is not stored on the website. We use your email address only to answer you.

The Bindery

The Bindery is a password-protected part of the website, meant for employers. When you enter the password, we set one cookie, called “bindery”, so you don't have to enter it again for 30 days. It holds no personal data, only a signed note that the password was entered, and we don't record who opens the Bindery.

Emails

If you write to [email protected], we receive your email address and message and use them only to answer you. Emails to this address are forwarded to our inbox through Cloudflare Email Routing.

Who can see what

Other Bindung users can find you by username, and by name if you've switched that on, and see your name, username and colours: in search, on a friend request, in their phonebook matches if you've made yourself findable, and among their friend suggestions if you share several friends, unless you've switched that off.
Friends — the people you're bound to — see your whole page. Our servers enforce this, not just the app.
Friends near your city see your activity suggestions until the end of the day they're for. Who replied “I'm down!” is visible to you; others who see the suggestion see their own friends among them by name, and only a count of the rest.
People in a chat see its messages, including those written before they joined. In a group chat they also see each other's first name and colours, whether or not they're friends.
Nobody but you sees your Chapters, your email address or your phone number. Your birthday is optional, is the day and month only, and is shown to friends only if you add it.

When you remove a friend or block someone, they can no longer see your page.

Why we process it

To provide the app - your account, page, friendships, search and activities (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, performance of our agreement with you).
Phone-number matching, contact matching, search by name, notifications and showing your birthday — only because you switched them on (Art. 6(1)(a), consent). You can switch them off at any time.
Friend suggestions — helping you find people you probably know (Art. 6(1)(f), our legitimate interest in helping friends find each other). You can object at any time by switching them off.
Keeping people safe — the age check, blocking, reports, moderation and security logs (Art. 6(1)(f), our legitimate interest in a safe service, and Art. 6(1)(c) where the law requires it).
Keeping the app working — crash reports and App Check (Art. 6(1)(f), our legitimate interest in a stable app that can't be misused).
Improving the app — reading the suggestions you send us (Art. 6(1)(f), our legitimate interest in making Bindung better).
Running the website — delivering and protecting it, the Bindery cookie and answering messages and emails (Art. 6(1)(f), our legitimate interest in a secure, working website and in hearing from you). The Bindery cookie is strictly necessary for the area you asked to open.

Who helps us

Google (Firebase)

Login, database, server functions, notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging), crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics) and App Check run on Google Firebase, provided by Google Ireland Limited. Our database and server functions are located in Belgium (europe-west1). Firebase Authentication may process data outside the EU, including in the USA. Such transfers are covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, as part of Google's data processing terms.

Apple

When you search for a favourite place, your search is sent to Apple Maps, and opening a place shows Apple's map details. Apple handles that data under its own privacy policy. Apple also distributes the app through the App Store, and notifications reach your phone through the Apple Push Notification service.

Cloudflare

The website, its form and our email address run on Cloudflare, provided by Cloudflare, Inc. Cloudflare may process data outside the EU, including in the USA. Such transfers are covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, as part of Cloudflare's data processing terms. Cloudflare handles that data under its own privacy policy.

Suggestions you send us in the app (your message and username) and messages from the website's form reach us through Telegram, provided by Telegram FZ-LLC, which may process them outside the EU. When someone files a report, we also get a short Telegram alert that contains only the reason, no names or page content. Telegram handles that data under its own privacy policy.

Links to other apps on someone's page take you to those services, whose own privacy policies apply.

How long we keep it

We keep your data for as long as you have an account. When you delete your account in the app, we immediately delete your page, your private details, your friendships and requests, your blocks, your username, your phone-number code, your city and activity suggestions with their chats, the chat messages you wrote, your Chapters, your notification settings and push tokens, and your login. Copies may remain in our provider's backups and logs for a short period until they are overwritten.

Reports are kept after an account is deleted, as a record of moderation, for as long as needed to keep the community safe and to meet legal obligations.

Suggestions you've sent us are kept after an account is deleted too, so we can keep track of ideas. Write to [email protected] if you'd like yours removed.

Messages from the website's form and emails stay with us for as long as we need them to answer you or to keep track of ideas; ask us and we'll delete yours. We don't keep logs of website visits ourselves. The Bindery cookie expires after 30 days, and you can delete it in your browser at any time.

Your rights

You have the right to access your data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to its processing, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting what happened before. Most of this you can do in the app; for anything else, write to [email protected].

You also have the right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the EU country where you live.

Children

Bindung is for people aged 16 and over. Sign-up is refused for anyone younger. If you believe someone under 16 has an account, please tell us and we'll delete it.

Changes

If we change how we handle your data, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app.