1. What this covers
Two things, and nothing else: the usage statistics the app sends when you allow it, and the small amount of information the app and this website keep on your device. Your account, your listings and your chats are a different subject and live in the Privacy Policy.
2. Nothing is sent until you say yes
The app asks the question once, and asks it as a question with two real buttons rather than as a pre-ticked box. During sign-up it comes right after the app has established that you are an adult; if you already have an account and are signing in on a new phone, it comes on the first launch there, because the answer is kept on the device rather than on your account. Both answers move you straight on: the question gates nothing, which is what makes an answer to it worth having.
- Off by default — the statistics library is built into the app already switched off. A device that has never answered sends nothing at all — no answer reads as a no.
- Declining costs nothing — every part of SwapMatch works identically whether you accept or decline. We do not ask twice.
- Reversible at any moment — Profile → Menu → Your data → Privacy holds the switch, and it takes effect the moment you touch it rather than at the next launch.
3. What an event contains
An event is one line saying that something happened on a screen. It carries:
- What happened — a screen was opened, a button was tapped, a card was swiped, an offer was made, a swap was agreed, a chat was started, a profile was opened, an achievement was shared — named from a fixed vocabulary written in the app's source.
- What it happened to — the kind of thing (an item, a swap, a conversation, an achievement) and its internal identifier — never its title, its description or its photo. An achievement travels as its fixed key instead — first_swap, the same word on everybody's — which names the coin rather than the person holding it.
- The build it came from — app version, platform, operating-system version, language, and which of our two environments the build points at.
- Where you are, as you set it — the country and the city on your profile — the country as a two-letter code and a name, the city by name. Not your coordinates, not your address, and not read from your network: it is the place you chose, and it is absent from every event until you set one. We use it to see which cities SwapMatch is working in, which is the difference between opening it in a new one and guessing.
- Who it came from — an identifier generated for the app on your device, and — once you are signed in and have consented — the identifier of your account. Not your name, not your email address.
4. What is never in one
- The text of a message, or a photo from a chat.
- The title, description or photograph of any item.
- Your name, your email address or your phone number.
- Your coordinates or your address — the city above is as precise as it gets.
- Anything another member wrote or sent.
- A password, a sign-in token or any other credential.
- Any location read from your network. We switched off the part of our analytics tool that turns an IP address into a place, so the only location in an event is the one you set yourself.
5. Crash and error reports
The app reports its own failures through the same channel: a request that failed, an error it caught and handled, a crash. Those reports carry an error name, a code, a duration or a count, and the technical trace of where in the app it happened. They do not carry what was on the screen when it happened.
They are tied to the same consent as everything else here — decline, and the app reports nothing at all, its own crashes included. That is a real cost to us and we have accepted it: an answer that only counts when it is convenient is not an answer.
6. Where it goes
To PostHog, on their European cloud — eu.i.posthog.com, hosted in Frankfurt, Germany. They process it for us and may not use it for anything of their own, under a contract that says so. Their own privacy policy is about the people who buy PostHog, which is us: what happens to your events is governed by this page, not by theirs. Nothing goes to an advertising network, because there is none: SwapMatch shows no adverts, carries no advertising library, and does not follow you into other apps or websites.
Our own servers report on themselves to a separate project on the same European cloud — error levels, identifiers, timings, the ordinary signals of a service that is working or is not. Those are the service's events rather than yours, they are recorded against the service itself, and they do not build a profile of anybody.
7. How long it is kept
Two windows. The crash and error reports in section 5 are kept 14 days and then deleted, automatically and for everybody. The usage statistics in sections 3 and 4 are kept 84 months, which is the retention our analytics provider applies; no setting on our side shortens it. If either window changes, this page changes with it.
Neither window changes what an event contains: section 4 is the list of what is never in one. Before a window expires, deletion happens on request rather than on a clock — the three controls in section 8, of which the first two take effect at once.
8. Turning it off, and taking back what was sent
- Stop the sending — Profile → Menu → Your data → Privacy. Immediate, and it stays off.
- Delete what was already sent — deleting your account asks PostHog to delete the person and every event recorded against your account id, not merely to detach the name from them.
- Ask us instead — if you would rather have the events deleted without deleting your account, write to support@swapmatch.me and we will do it.
9. What is kept on your device
In the app, in the phone's own storage — the secure keystore for the first of these:
- Your sign-in session — so you are not asked to sign in every time. Signing out removes it.
- Your preferences — theme, language, your answer to the statistics question, the places you have searched for recently, and a few notes about what the app has already shown you.
On this website, swapmatch.me, there are no cookies at all: no analytics, no tracking pixel, no advertising, and therefore no banner to click through. The site keeps exactly one thing in your browser's local storage — whether you chose the light or the dark theme — and clearing your browser's data for this site removes it.
10. The language of this policy
This policy is written and published in English, and English is the only version we stand behind. We publish no official translations, and a translation — your own, your browser's, or one we send you as a courtesy — has no legal effect and cannot be relied on against the English text.
If English is difficult, ask us for a translation at support@swapmatch.me and we will send one to help you read it. The English version still governs.
11. Contact
Questions about anything on this page: support@swapmatch.me. Related reading: the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use.