Privacy Policy
How Spark collects, uses, and protects your data.
1. Who we are
Spark is operated from the Netherlands. For anything in this policy, write to support@hi-spark.app.
This policy explains what we hold about you, why, and for how long. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
2. What you tell us
To sign in: an email address, or an Apple ID. If you use Sign in with Apple and choose Hide My Email, we never see your real address.
Your profile: your name, age, pronouns, photos, and whatever else you choose to fill in — a bio, interests, height, body type, position, relationship status, communities, languages, lifestyle answers, prompts.
Your conversations: messages, photos you send in chat, private albums you share, voice notes, and meeting places you propose.
Everything beyond a name and one photo is optional. Leave it blank and Spark works.
3. Sensitive information, and why it is different
Using Spark says something about your sexual orientation. If you fill in health practices, that says something about your health. European law treats both as special categories, and holds them to a higher standard.
We hold this information because you chose to give it to us, and for one purpose: showing your profile to other members of Spark. We do not use it to target advertising, we do not analyse it, and we do not share it with anyone. You can remove any of it at any time, and health practices can never be used as a search filter by anyone.
4. Location
Spark shows other members roughly how far away you are, which means we need to know where you are.
Your coordinates stay on our servers. They are never sent to another member's phone. Distances are worked out on our side and rounded before they leave — whole kilometres, and "less than 1 km" for anything nearer. Nobody sees a precise figure, because we never send one.
Turn off Show my distance in Privacy settings and other members stop seeing how far away you are. You stay in their grid; only the number goes.
Turning location off in your phone's settings goes further: we delete the position we held for you, and you disappear from other people's Discover entirely. Nothing is kept from before.
We also let a stored position expire on its own. If you have not opened Spark for 30 days, it stops counting and you drop out of the grid until you come back.
5. What happens automatically
When you use Spark we record when you were last active, so others can see whether you are online — unless you turn that off. We keep a count of your unread notifications so the badge on the app icon is right.
There is no advertising in Spark, no analytics, and no tracking. We do not build a profile of your behaviour, and there is nothing in the app that reports what you do back to anyone.
There are no cookies, no advertising identifiers, and no third-party trackers. Spark does not ask permission to track you across other apps, because it has nothing to do with that permission.
6. Who else sees your information
Other members see your profile, and whatever you send them. What they see is governed by your privacy settings.
Google stores it for us: Spark runs on Google Firebase, on servers in the Netherlands. Google processes this on our instructions and for nothing else.
Apple delivers push notifications and handles Sign in with Apple, if you use it.
That is the list. We do not sell your information, we do not share it with advertisers, and we do not hand it to data brokers.
If the law requires us to disclose something — a valid order from an authority — we comply, and we tell you unless we are forbidden to.
7. Photo review
A person reviews each new photo before other members can see it. That means a moderator looks at what you upload. Photos that are rejected are removed; the decision is kept so the same picture is not reviewed twice.
8. Reports and moderation
When someone reports you, we keep a copy of the conversation involved so the report can be reviewed fairly. It is deleted once the report has been dealt with — normally within 24 hours, and after 30 days at the very latest. Clearing or blocking removes the messages everywhere else, but the copy stays until the report is handled.
In that one conversation, a moderator can only open the photos and voice messages you sent, and can see that you shared a meeting place — never where. Nothing from the person who reported you is opened.
If an account is permanently removed for breaking the rules, we hold it for 14 days so an appeal is possible. If someone deletes their account while a report about them is open, we hold the relevant part for 48 hours to finish handling it.
9. How long we keep things
Your profile, photos, and messages stay while your account exists. Delete your account and they go — not marked as deleted, actually removed.
Your location is the one thing with a shorter life than your account: it expires after 30 days without opening the app, and it is deleted outright the moment you turn location off (clause 4).
The only other exceptions are the moderation windows in clause 8, and a record that an account was deleted, which contains no personal information beyond that fact.
10. Your rights
Under European law you can ask us to show you what we hold, correct it, delete it, hand it over in a portable form, or stop a particular use of it.
Some of it you can do yourself, straight away: your profile is editable in the app, and Settings has Delete Account, which removes everything on the spot.
For a copy of your information, Settings has Request My Data — it opens an email to us with your account ID filled in. We answer within a month, and usually much sooner. Write to support@hi-spark.app for anything else on this list.
If you think we are handling your information wrongly, you can complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, or to the equivalent authority in your own country.
11. Why we are allowed to hold this
European law asks us to name a reason for each thing we do with your information.
- To give you Spark — your profile, your messages, your matches. We need this to provide what you signed up for.
- Because you chose to share it — anything you tell us about your health practices, and your location. You can withdraw either at any time.
- To keep people safe — photo review, reports, moderation. Members are entitled to an app where the rules mean something.
- Because the law requires it — the few cases where we must keep or hand over something.
12. Where your information is
Spark's servers are in the Netherlands, and your information stays in the European Union. Push notifications pass through Apple, which may involve their infrastructure outside the EU; that carries no more than the notification itself.
13. Keeping it safe
Information travels encrypted between your phone and our servers, and is stored encrypted. Access to member data is limited to what moderation actually requires.
No system is beyond reach. If something happens that puts your information at risk, we will tell you.
14. Age
Spark is for adults. We ask for a date of birth when you join and refuse anyone under 18. If we find out that an account belongs to someone under 18, we remove it.
15. Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.
Last updated: 21 August 2026