met privacy policy: the app, the site and the beta

In short

We do not sell data, we do not show ads and we do not track you in other apps or on other websites.
Private and group conversations are end-to-end encrypted: only the participants can read what is in them.
You show your location to friends only when you want to, and for as long as you choose.
You can delete your account in the app: “Profil, Usuń konto” (Profile, Delete account).
For any matter concerning your data, write to met@metfriend.pl.

Who processes your data

The controller of your data is Jarosław Grasza, the creator of the met app and the metfriend.pl website. Contact for data matters: met@metfriend.pl. We have not appointed a data protection officer, because the law does not require us to.

This policy covers the met app for iPhone (including during testing in TestFlight), the metfriend.pl website and sign-ups for testing. The rules for using met are set out in the Terms of Service.

What data and why

Account and sign-in

To create an account, we need an email address and a password, or sign-in with Apple or Google. We store your email address, a hash of your password (we do not know the password itself) and your Apple or Google account identifier. If you sign in with Apple, you can hide your address: we then receive a forwarding address from Apple. We send confirmation codes and password change messages to your email address. Your sign-in session stays in your phone’s keychain.

Profile

Your profile consists of a nickname, your first name and the first letter of your surname (e.g. “Jarek G.”), a photo, your city, a short description, your interests and your mode: “Wolny” (Free), “Zajęty” (Busy) or “Cisza” (Quiet). Your profile can be seen by signed-in met users, except people you have blocked or who have blocked you. Only your friends see your full name. If you pause your account, your profile disappears for others until you come back.

Friends, codes and invitations

We record who you are friends with and how you connected in met: by QR code, by link, through the “Obok” (Nearby) feature or by joining a meet-up. Your list of friendships can be seen by you and by each party to the friendship in question. A QR code is valid for 10 minutes; an invitation link can be used once and is valid for 7 days.

The “Obok” feature lets you add someone who is standing next to you. It works over Bluetooth and, where the phone supports it, over Nearby Interaction (UWB). It does not use GPS. Your presence in “Obok” is valid for 90 seconds and can be seen only by people who are also using it at that moment.

Location and map

The app asks for your location only while you are using it and never tracks you in the background. Your phone’s position is used to show the map around you and suggestions nearby. Only what you choose to share reaches the server:

“Jestem tutaj” (I’m here): the exact place, its address and an optional note. Your friends can see them for the time you choose (from 15 minutes to 12 hours). Your friends also get a notification with the address.
“Wybieram się” (I’m heading there): where you are going and roughly when. Friends see an approximate place (to an accuracy of about 500 metres), unless you choose “Dokładnie” (Exact). It disappears 2 hours after the time you gave.
Places and meet-ups: points you pin on the map and add to plans, events and trips.

The approximate area (about 1 km) where you were most recently stays only on your phone for 7 days and is not sent to the server. On first launch, your phone converts your position into the name of a city (an Apple service). You can turn off location access at any time in your iPhone’s Settings, and remove a shared place in the app.

Plans, events, trips and photos

We store what you publish: title, description, time, place, photos, links, list of participants, comments, reactions and requests to join. Each post has the visibility you choose: public (seen by signed-in met users), friends only or private. Before photos are uploaded, we re-encode them, which removes the data about where they were taken. Videos and files are uploaded as you add them, so they may contain such data.

Meet-up invitations may reach friends of your friends and people you have been at a meet-up with in the last 180 days, if you set the post’s reach that way.

Conversations

Private and group conversations are end-to-end encrypted on your phone. We cannot read the content of messages, attachments or places shared in them. Encryption keys are kept in your phone’s secure storage, and only public keys are sent to the server.

To deliver messages, we can see who is in a conversation, who wrote and when, who has read what, reactions and group names. Conversations attached to plans, events, trips and places are not end-to-end encrypted, because new people can join them. Nor are messages sent before 12 October 2026. If you report a message, its content is sent from your phone for moderation.

Calendar and “Kiedyś” (Someday)

We store the free time you enter in the calendar. By default your friends can see it; you can turn this off in the calendar’s privacy settings. “Kiedyś” shows two people only the free slots they have in common, and only once both of them have agreed to it. The app does not read the calendar on your phone.

Saved lists

Lists can be seen by you and by the people you add to them. If you share a list by link, anyone with the link will see on metfriend.pl its name, your public name, and the public upcoming plans and places on the list. Your friends’ private places never appear there.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, we store the device token from Apple and your notification choices. The content of a notification passes through the Apple Push Notification service. For encrypted conversations, the notification only says “Zaszyfrowana wiadomość” (Encrypted message); for the others, it contains the beginning of the message. You can see your notification history in the app.

Reports, blocking and moderation

When you report someone, we store the reason, your note and a copy of the reported content as it was at the time of the report (profile, message, plan, event or trip), so that the moderator sees the same as you did, even if the author changes it. The reported person will not find out who reported them. We also store moderation decisions, sanctions and appeals, and the list of people you block.

Phone permissions

The app asks for access only when it is needed: location (the map and “Jestem tutaj”), camera (profile photo, photos, QR code), photos (adding photos), microphone (voice and video messages), Bluetooth and Nearby Interaction (“Obok”). We do not ask for access to your contacts or calendar, and we do not track you across apps. You can withdraw any consent in your iPhone’s Settings.

Sign-ups for testing

When you sign up for testing on metfriend.pl, you give your first name, email address, city or district, Instagram handle (if you wish), who you will be testing with and how you heard about met. We also record the moment you gave consent. To protect against spam, we keep a hash of your IP address, not the address itself, for one day and then delete it. Once you submit your application, you immediately get a TestFlight link and use it to join the testing with Apple yourself. When we invite someone by email, we pass their first name and email address to App Store Connect so that Apple can send the TestFlight invitation. When a new application comes in, the creator of met gets a phone notification with the first name and city.

Site statistics

Only if you agree does metfriend.pl count visits, using Vercel Web Analytics. It does not use cookies and does not track you on other websites. The statistics receive the address of the page visited, the page you came from, the country and city determined from your IP address, the device type, operating system and browser. A visitor is recognised by a hash of the request data, which disappears after 24 hours, and Vercel does not store the IP address with the statistics. We remove invitation and list tokens from the addresses and leave out the applications panel. You can give or withdraw consent at any time using the “Site statistics” link in the footer.

The metfriend.pl website

The website is hosted by Vercel, and data from forms and lists goes to Supabase. Supabase and Vercel record technical server logs, including IP addresses, and keep them for a short time in line with their own policies. The same applies when you use the app. The typefaces and the video are on our own server, so the website does not connect to Google Fonts or YouTube.

Legal bases

Contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR, known in Polish as RODO): account, profile, friends, map, posts, conversations, calendar, lists, notifications and everything you do in the app, that is, providing the service described in the Terms of Service.
Consent (Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR): access to location and other phone permissions, sharing your location with friends, sign-ups for testing and site statistics. You can withdraw consent at any time, in the app, in your iPhone’s Settings, in the website footer or by writing to met@metfriend.pl. Withdrawal does not change what we did before.
Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR): the safety of users and of the service, handling reports, preventing abuse and the return of banned people, protection against spam, backups, and the establishment, exercise and defence of legal claims.
Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR): handling reports of illegal content and statements of reasons for moderation decisions under the Digital Services Act (DSA), complaints, and responding to requests from competent authorities.

Providing an email address is necessary to create an account, and without it we cannot provide the service. Everything else you provide voluntarily. Without consent to location access, the map still works; it just will not show where you are.

Who we share data with

Other users, to the extent you set: profile, posts, places, conversations, free time.
Supabase stores the database, accounts, files and server functions on servers in London.
Vercel hosts the metfriend.pl website and, with your consent, counts site statistics.
Apple: signing in with Apple, notifications (Apple Push Notification service), the city name from your position, and App Store Connect and TestFlight for testing. From there on, Apple’s privacy policy applies.
Google: maps (Google Maps), place search (Google Places, which receives the text you type and the visible area of the map), converting a pinned point into an address, and signing in with Google, if you choose it. Google processes this data as a separate controller under Google’s privacy policy.
Public authorities, when the law requires it, for example where a criminal offence threatening life or safety is suspected.

Supabase and Vercel process data on our behalf under data processing agreements.

Transfers outside Europe

Supabase’s servers are in the United Kingdom, which is covered by a European Commission decision on an adequate level of data protection. Supabase, Vercel, Google and Apple are companies with their headquarters or subsidiaries in the United States, so some data may be transferred to the USA. Such transfers are based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or on standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission. If you ask at met@metfriend.pl, we will send you a copy of the safeguards.

How long we keep data

Account and content: for as long as you have an account. When you delete your account, we immediately erase your profile, friendships, posts, messages (including those in other people’s conversations), shared places, calendar, lists, devices and sanctions. Photos and other files immediately stop being accessible to anyone. Database backups are overwritten within 7 days.
“Jestem tutaj” and “Wybieram się”: visible for the time you choose. The notification with the address that your friends received at the time stays in their notification history.
QR codes and invitation links: valid for 10 minutes and 7 days respectively. Meet-up invitations: 60 days.
Notification queue: 7 days. Notification history in the app: for as long as you have an account.
Reports and copies of reported content: 90 days from when the case is closed and, if an account is banned, 90 days from when the ban is lifted. We keep the data hash needed to stop a banned person from coming back with a new account for as long as the ban lasts.
Sign-ups for testing: until the end of testing, and no later than 30 days after it ends. We will delete your application sooner if you ask us to. IP address hash: 1 day.
Site statistics: 24 hours for the hash that recognises a visitor; aggregate figures are kept longer, but they cannot be used to work out who you are.
Data needed for legal claims: until the limitation periods expire.

Your rights

You have the right to access your data, to have it rectified or erased, to restrict its processing and to data portability, as well as the right to withdraw consent. You can do most of this yourself in the app: edit your profile, remove a shared place, pause or delete your account. For anything else, write to met@metfriend.pl. We will reply within one month.

Right to object. You can object at any time to the processing of your data based on our legitimate interests. We will then stop, unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds or the data is needed for legal claims.

You can also lodge a complaint with the President of the Personal Data Protection Office (UODO), ul. Stanisława Moniuszki 1A, 00-014 Warszawa.

Automated decisions

We do not profile you for marketing purposes. The only automated action is temporarily hiding a public plan, event or trip when three different people report it. The content then waits for a moderator’s decision, and its author can still see it. Warnings, suspensions and account bans are decided by a human.

Security

Connections are encrypted, private and group conversations are end-to-end encrypted, and access to data in the database is restricted by rules checked on every query. We store passwords only as hashes. If there is a breach that may put you at risk, we will notify you and the President of UODO.

Device storage and cookies

The metfriend.pl website does not use cookies. In your browser’s storage (localStorage), it saves only your choice about statistics and, in the test applications panel, the session of the person who operates it. These entries are necessary for the website to work, so they do not require consent. You can clear them in your browser settings.

The app saves on your phone your sign-in session, encryption keys, your settings, recent searches and the approximate area from the map. This data is used only to run the app on that phone and disappears when you delete the app.

Minors

People who are at least 16 years old can create an account in met. Meet-ups with strangers are for adults only. If we learn that an account was created by someone under 16, we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we will publish the new version on this page with a new date, and we will give notice of significant changes in the app before they take effect. This version applies from 21 October 2026.