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Privacy Policy

Last updated October 13, 2026

This policy explains what information VCH Solutions, LLC (“DateChi,” “we”) collects when you use DateChi, how we use it, and the choices you have. DateChi launches in Chicago with Plan first. Live is coming soon and will launch separately; its location features are described below for when they are available.

What we collect

  • Account: your email address, used to sign you in.
  • Launch list: if you join our Chicago waitlist on the website, your email address and selected city, used for launch updates. Email us to be removed.
  • Profile: first name, last initial, birthday, gender, who you’d like to meet, city, neighborhood and required height. Optional details include job, school, bio, up to eight interests (including up to five custom interests), food and drink favorites, days you’re usually free, and lifestyle answers such as kids, drinking, religion and politics.
  • Race / ethnicity (optional): only if you choose to add it. It’s shown on your profile and may be used in matching according to the preferences members choose. You can remove it at any time in Profile → The basics. By adding it, you consent to us using it this way.
  • Dating preferences: who you’d like to meet (age, height and the optional filters you choose). Only you can see these.
  • Location, when Live launches: with your permission, the Live screen uses your phone’s precise location to find nearby venues and confirm check-in. Foreground presence checks can check you out when you leave; those later coordinates are not stored in the check-in record. Other members see the venue you check into, never your exact coordinates. A scheduled cleanup removes stored check-in coordinates after 24 hours once the check-in has ended; venue and time remain. We do not request background location tracking. The Coming soon preview does not request location or perform a real check-in.
  • Photos you upload. We re-encode them on your device before upload, which removes embedded location (GPS) data.
  • Activity: who you like or pass on, your discovery batches, sign-in/activity and proposal/message responses, matches, date proposals, messages, blocks, and reports. Activity and responsiveness help order eligible profiles; unreviewed inbound likes may temporarily reduce discovery exposure.
  • After-date check-ins: your Yes, No or Skip decision for “Date #2?”, or dismissal, during the 24-hour window beginning at 9:00 AM Chicago time the next morning. Individual answers are not shown to the other member. If both answer Yes, both learn that the interest is mutual through an in-app notification and highlighted chat. A No quietly ends the match. Skipping or timing out has no matching effect. Authorized administrators can review stored feedback.
  • Invitations: your invite code, referrals attributed to it, their approval eligibility and your reward progress. The inviter sees an aggregate count, not a list of friends’ private applications or decisions. We do not read your address book.
  • Notifications: if you allow push notifications in the iPhone app, a device token so we can send them to your phone. You can turn them off in Profile or in your phone’s settings.
  • Venue searches: the text you type when searching for places to meet.
  • Selfie check: when you apply, a selfie of you doing a pose we pick. A member of our team compares it with your profile photos by eye; we don’t use automated face recognition. Only our team can see it, and we delete it once your application is reviewed.
  • Access: application/selfie-review status, founding Plan end date, saved or activated founding Live benefit and its dates, earned invite rewards and admin grants. No paid subscription sales or payment-card collection are available during the founding launch. If optional government-ID verification is enabled, we also record its verification-session reference and result.
  • Error reports, when enabled: sanitized error stacks, application version and basic device/browser details help us find and fix faults. Our application error-reporting configuration excludes account identifiers, messages, photos, precise location, request bodies and session replay. Providers may process network metadata to deliver and secure these reports.
  • Technical data: sign-in session cookies and standard server logs (such as IP address and browser type) kept by our hosting providers for security.

Our manual selfie review does not use automated face recognition or create a facial-geometry template. We do not read your contacts or your calendar.

Who sees what

  • Other members see your first name, last initial, age (never your birthday), photos, and the profile details you fill in.
  • Your email address, birthday, passes, dating preferences and reports are not shown to other members. A person you like can see your interest in their Likes; hidden Live check-in becomes visible to people you like.
  • Messages are visible only to you and the person you’re chatting with. If either of you files a report, our team may read your messages with that person to review it; every such review is logged.
  • Adding a date to your calendar uses your phone’s own calendar screen; we don’t read your calendar.
  • Profiles are visible only to signed-in members, never on public pages.
  • When you pause, you stop appearing in new discovery and Live; your existing matches can still see your profile and conversation.

How we use it

  • To run the service: apply mutual preferences, schedule discovery drops, rank eligible profiles by activity, manage crowded like queues, create matches, deliver proposals/messages and administer free access benefits.
  • To keep members safe: review reports, enforce our Terms, and prevent abuse.
  • To send sign-in emails and essential service messages.

We do not sell or rent your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising.

Service providers

We use a small number of providers that process data on our behalf:

  • Supabase — database, sign-in, photo storage, and real-time messaging.
  • Vercel — website/API hosting and operational logs.
  • Google Fonts — website typefaces loaded from Google’s servers; those requests expose ordinary connection information such as your IP address to Google.
  • Sentry, when error reporting is enabled — processes the limited error reports described above. Provider retention and security logs apply separately from DateChi’s member-data cleanup.
  • Resend — email delivery, including service notifications. Our configured sign-in email provider also processes your email address and sign-in messages.
  • Expo and Apple — app distribution and push delivery using device tokens and notification content. After-date mutual-interest notifications remain in-app only.
  • Google Maps Platform and, when configured, OpenStreetMap — place search using search text, the city/area or coordinates used to find nearby venues, and place identifiers. We do not attach your DateChi name or email to those requests. Native maps may also use the device’s map provider.
  • Stripe Identity, only if optional ID verification is enabled — its hosted check can collect an ID and matching selfie and process biometric information. Consent is required before starting that check. DateChi stores the session reference and verification result, rather than the ID images or biometric template. See Stripe’s privacy policy for its handling of verification data. This is separate from DateChi’s manual application selfie review.

We may disclose information if required by law, or to protect someone’s safety.

Keeping and deleting your data

  • We keep your information while your account is active, with these limits:
  • Conversations with no new message for 12 months are deleted.
  • Live check-in coordinates are cleaned up after 24 hours once the check-in ends; the venue and timestamps remain. Live matches use the regular match conversation, not a separate Live chat.
  • Notifications are deleted after 90 days. Message notifications never include what was said.
  • Accounts nobody has signed in to for two years are eligible for scheduled deletion with their photos; administrators and accounts with current paid membership or a current Live access grant are excluded by the retention rules.
  • You can pause your profile at any time to stop appearing in discovery.
  • You can delete your account from Profile → Delete my account. This permanently erases your profile, photos, likes, matches, and messages. Backups held by our providers roll off within their standard retention periods.
  • Safety reports, reported-conversation records and administrative audit logs may remain after account deletion so we can investigate abuse and protect members. They are restricted to authorized safety/administrative review.
  • You can download a copy of your data from Profile → Safety & legal → Download my data.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and other states), you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of your personal information, and to not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. Most of this you can do yourself in your profile. For anything else, contact us at support@datechi.com.

Age requirement

DateChi is only for adults 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18, and we delete such accounts when we learn of them.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Stored messages and report details have additional application-level encryption using a key managed through Supabase Vault. Database access rules limit what members can read or change, and our admin team must use two-step sign-in. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a unique email password and tell us about any concern.

Changes

If we make material changes, we’ll update this page and the date above, and notify members by email or in the app.