Privacy Policy

Hingtam is a dating app for Bhutanese people looking to make meaningful connections, and for those who want to meet them. We are Hingtam, a sole proprietorship based in the Kingdom of Bhutan, and we provide the platform (called "Hingtam", "we" or "us" in this policy).

We decide how and why your personal information is used, so we are responsible for it (the "controller", in the words some laws use). You can reach us at support@hingtam.com about anything in this policy.

Hingtam is designed for people in Bhutan. Anyone who uses it from somewhere else is welcome, and gets the same protections described here.

What you give us

• Account details — your email address, or what Google or Apple gives us if you sign in with them (with Apple this may be a private relay address), and basic profile details.
• Your profile — your name, date of birth, gender, who you are interested in, photos, bio, prompt answers and interests.
• Optional details — anything you choose to add, such as height, star sign, where you were born, drinking, smoking, diet, love language, personality type and what you are looking for.
• Your preferences — such as how far away you want to see people, and your privacy settings.
• Your messages — the messages and images you send.
• Reports and contact — what you tell us when you report someone, appeal a decision or email support.

To use Hingtam you must give us your email address (or sign in with Google or Apple), first name, date of birth, gender, who you are interested in, and at least one photo. Everything else is optional.

Sensitive information

Some of what you tell us can reveal sensitive things: your gender and who you are interested in (which can show your sexual orientation), where you were born (which can suggest ethnicity or nationality), your photos, and optional details like drinking, smoking and diet (which can relate to health or religious practice). Adding them is your choice, and you can change or remove most of them in Edit Profile at any time. We use them only to run Hingtam: to show you people who may suit you, and to show you to them. By adding them, you agree to that use.

Your location

If you allow it, we read your phone's location while you use Hingtam and save one point, rounded to about 500 metres, so your exact spot is never stored. We use it only to work out distances and show people nearby. We keep one most-recent point, never a history, and refresh it when you open the app. Other members see a distance in whole kilometres, never your coordinates. You can turn location off at any time in Settings, then Location (this deletes the saved point), or in your phone's settings. You can also choose a town or city instead: we then save a point in the middle of it, and its name, which only you can see. Hingtam still works without location, but distance-based matching does not. If you search for a place that is not on our list, what you type is sent to Apple or Google's place search.

What we record when you use Hingtam

• Your likes, passes, Super Likes, matches, blocks, hidden profiles and reports.
• The counts we need to apply your plan's daily limits.
• When you were last active. Other members may see this (for example "Active now") unless you turn it off in Settings.
• Your plan (Free, Pro or Premium) and whether it is monthly or yearly. Apple or Google take the payment; we never see your card details.
• If you turn on notifications: a code that identifies your phone to the notification services, and your notification choices. We remove the code when you sign out, delete your account, or it stops working.
• Sign-in data that keeps you logged in, and technical records (such as your IP address and request times) that our service providers keep for security and for fixing faults.

What we do not collect

• No government ID documents, face scans or other biometric data.
• No access to your phone contacts, microphone or advertising ID.
• No history of your movements.

If we ever add something like ID or selfie verification, we will update this policy first and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

Some privacy laws ask us to name the legal reason for each use. Here they are:

• To run Hingtam — create your profile, show you candidates, match you, deliver messages, and apply your plan. Reason: needed to provide the service you asked for (contract).
• To work out distance — using your location, if you allow it. Reason: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
• To use the sensitive details you add (section 2). Reason: your explicit consent.
• To keep people safe — screening photos, reviewing reports, banning accounts that break our rules, stopping banned people from returning, and preventing scams. Reason: our legitimate interest in a safe service, and legal duties.
• To send the notifications you ask for — new matches, messages and likes. They say who it is from, never what a message says. Reason: your consent, which you can withdraw in Settings or in your phone's settings.
• To contact you about your account — sign-in codes, email-change confirmations and important notices. We send no marketing emails; if we ever do, we will ask first. Reason: contract.
• To fix problems and keep the app secure. Reason: our legitimate interest.
• To meet legal duties and handle disputes. Reason: legal duty and legitimate interest.

Automated decisions

• Safety screening. Every photo and chat image is checked by an automated service (Google Cloud Vision SafeSearch) for nudity and graphic violence before anyone else sees it. A rejected image is not saved. Checks can be wrong: if you think a photo was rejected by mistake, email support@hingtam.com and a person will look.
• Who you see, and in what order. Candidates are chosen using your preferences (who you are interested in, distance, blocks) and ordered by a simple score: whether you want the same thing, shared interests, and recent activity. "Top Picks" are ordered by recent likes. The order never hides someone who matches your preferences, and it does not use your sensitive details to exclude anyone.

• Other members see what you choose to show: first name, photos, bio, prompts, interests, the optional details you add, an approximate distance and, unless you turn them off, your age and when you were last active. Members you match with also see your messages.
• Paying members have extra tools, such as seeing who has liked them. They see only what other members see.
• Screenshots. We cannot stop another member copying or screenshotting what you share, so only share what you are comfortable with.

You control what is visible: Hide my profile removes you from other people's decks, Show my age and Show when I'm active can be switched off, and you can block or hide anyone.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. We share it only with:

• Service providers who help us run Hingtam, who may use your information only to provide their service to us: Supabase (our database, sign-in and file storage, hosted in the Asia-Pacific region); Google (Google Cloud Vision for photo and image safety checks, and Google sign-in if you choose it); Apple (Sign in with Apple, if you choose it); Resend (account emails such as sign-in codes); Expo (which delivers notifications to your phone through Apple's and Google's notification services, and so receives the notification text, which includes the sender's first name, and the code that identifies your phone); and Apple and Google (app store billing and their notification services).
• Authorities, when the law requires it, or when we believe it is necessary to protect someone's life or safety, to report child sexual exploitation or other serious crime, or to protect our rights. Where we are allowed to, we will tell you first.
• A new owner, if Hingtam is ever sold or merged, on terms that keep this policy's protections for your information.
• Anyone else, only with your clear permission.

Hingtam is run from Bhutan. Your information is stored on secure cloud servers in the Asia-Pacific region, outside Bhutan, and we access it from Bhutan. Our service providers may handle it in other countries too, including the United States (for example, Google's image-safety check and our notification service). Bhutan does not have a general data protection law of the kind some countries have, so we apply this policy to everyone, wherever they live. Where a law requires safeguards for sending information abroad, we use them, such as written agreements with our providers.

• While you have an account — we keep what you give us so Hingtam works.
• When you delete your account (Settings, then Delete Account) — we erase your profile, photos, interests, prompt answers, likes, matches, blocks, reports and messages (including images you sent) straight away. This also removes the conversations from the other person's side. Nothing is kept "just in case".
• The one exception: banned accounts. For an account that was banned, we keep a scrambled, one-way fingerprint of its email address (not the address itself, and nothing else about the person) for as long as needed to stop it being used to sign up again.
• Photos that fail safety screening are not saved.
• Backups and logs. Our hosting provider may keep short-term backups and technical logs. Deleted information drops out of backups as they rotate, normally within 30 days, and we do not restore deleted accounts.
• Legal reasons. If we must keep something by law, or need it to handle a legal claim or an investigation, we keep only what is needed, for as long as it is needed.

Your choices

• Edit or remove your profile details, photos, prompts and interests in Edit Profile.
• Privacy settings in Settings: hide your profile, hide your age, and hide when you were last active.
• Location: turn it off, or choose a city instead, in Settings, then Location, or change it in your phone's settings, at any time.
• Block, hide or report anyone. Reporting someone also blocks them.
• Delete your account in Settings. If you cannot get into the app, email support@hingtam.com from the address on your account and we will do it for you.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy;
• correct information that is wrong;
• delete your information (you can also just delete your account);
• stop or limit how we use it, or object to a use you do not agree with;
• give you your information in a portable format; and
• withdraw a consent you gave us (for example, for location).

To make a request, email support@hingtam.com from the email address on your account (so we know it is you) or use the in-app controls. We aim to reply within 30 days. We will not charge a fee unless a request is clearly excessive. If the law where you live gives you further rights that apply to us, we will respect them.

If you are not happy with our response, please tell us first. You can also complain to the data protection regulator where you live, if there is one. In Bhutan, privacy is mainly covered by the Information, Communications and Media Act 2018 and the National Digital Identity Act 2023, and you can raise concerns with the relevant Bhutanese authority.

Hingtam is for people who are 18 or older. We ask for your date of birth when you sign up and do not let anyone under 18 create an account. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you think someone under 18 is using Hingtam, tell us at support@hingtam.com or use Report in the app. We will remove the account and its information. Any content involving minors is banned and may be reported to the authorities.

• Information is encrypted while it travels between your phone and our servers.
• Our hosting provider encrypts stored data, and photos are kept in private storage that is shared with other members only through short-lived links.
• Access rules in the database mean a member can only read what they are allowed to see.
• Only a very small number of people can reach the systems, and administrator actions need two-step verification.
• Sign-in uses one-time email codes, Google sign-in or Sign in with Apple, so there are no passwords for us to lose.

No system is completely safe. If a breach is likely to harm you, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires, without undue delay, and explain what happened and what you can do.

hingtam.com shows information about Hingtam and our legal documents. It does not use cookies or analytics, and it does not collect anything from you. Its fonts are stored on our own site, so opening a page does not contact any other company.

We may update this policy as Hingtam grows or the law changes. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect, and for changes that need your consent we will ask again. The "last updated" date at the top always shows the current version. If you do not agree to a change, you can delete your account.

Questions, requests or complaints: support@hingtam.com. We will answer within 30 days.