Privacy Policy

Last updated: 5 August 2026

Tripfolk is a meetup app for travellers and locals. This policy explains exactly what we collect, why we collect it, who else sees it, and how to get rid of it. It is written to be read, not to be survived.

The short version. We store the profile you fill in, the trips and plans you create, your messages, and an approximate location. We never store the precise coordinates your phone reports. We do not sell data, we do not run ads, and there are no third-party analytics or tracking SDKs in the app.

1. Who we are

Tripfolk is operated by Ali Kaptanoğlu (İstanbul, Türkiye), the data controller for the purposes of the GDPR and Türkiye's KVKK. Contact: privacy@tripfolk.app.

2. What we collect

Data	Why	Legal basis
Google account: email, name, profile picture	To create and sign you into your account	Contract
Profile: display name, date of birth, home country, bio, languages, interests, photos	To show you to other members and check you are 18+	Contract
Approximate location (see §3)	To show travellers near you and put you in a city	Consent (you can refuse or withdraw)
Trips: city and dates	To show who else will be there at the same time	Contract
Plans and group/direct messages	To run the meetups and conversations you take part in	Contract
Countries you mark as visited	Your passport map and shared-country badges	Contract
Verification selfie	To confirm you are a real person; deleted right after review	Consent
Reports, blocks, moderation decisions	Safety, and to stop banned people coming back	Legitimate interest
Device push token, app version, coarse country from IP	Notifications, security, abuse prevention	Legitimate interest
Subscription status (if you buy Tripfolk Plus)	To unlock paid features	Contract

We do not collect your contacts, your photo library beyond the images you pick, your calendar, or your browsing activity. There is no advertising SDK and no third-party analytics in the app.

3. Location — how it actually works

This is the part most apps gloss over, so here is the mechanism in full.

When you enable location, your device gives the app a precise latitude and longitude.
Before anything is written down, the server shifts that point by a distance between 300 and 800 metres, in a direction derived from a secret key and your user ID. The offset is therefore constant for you — it does not jitter around, which would let someone average it out over time.
The shifted point is then snapped to a 500 metre grid.
Only that fuzzed point is stored. The precise coordinates are never written to the database and are discarded within the request.
Other members never receive coordinates at all. The API returns rounded distances such as "<1 km" or "2.4 km". The pin you see on the map is drawn at an arbitrary angle around you and is not a real position.
Stored locations expire automatically. You can turn visibility off at any time, which removes you from discovery.

4. Who else sees your data

Other members

Your display name, photos, role, home country, bio, languages, interests, verified badge, passport countries and approximate distance are visible to other signed-in members. Your email address, date of birth and precise location are never shown. People you block cannot see you at all, and you cannot see them.

Service providers

Cloudflare — hosting, database and file storage. All data is processed on Cloudflare's global network.
Google — only for Sign-In (we receive your email, name and picture) and, once enabled, push notification delivery.
Apple / Google Play — payment processing if you subscribe. We never see your card details.

We do not sell or rent personal data to anyone, for any purpose.

5. How long we keep it

Location: expires automatically; old rows are deleted daily.
Verification selfie: deleted the moment a moderator approves or rejects it.
Profile, trips, plans, passport: until you delete your account.
Messages: kept while the conversation exists.
Reports and moderation records: kept after account deletion. Without this, a banned account could be deleted and recreated to escape a ban.

6. Deleting your account

Open the app, go to Profile → Settings → Delete account. Your profile is anonymised and your trips, plans, chat memberships, passport entries, location history and sign-in identities are deleted. This cannot be undone. If you cannot access the app, email privacy@tripfolk.app from your registered address.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export, restrict or erase your data, to object to processing, and to withdraw consent. Write to privacy@tripfolk.app and we will respond within 30 days. You may also complain to your local data protection authority (in Türkiye, the KVKK Board).

8. Children

Tripfolk is for people aged 18 and over. We ask for your date of birth at sign-up and it cannot be changed afterwards. We remove accounts we find to belong to minors. If you believe a minor is using Tripfolk, report the profile in the app or email safety@tripfolk.app.

9. Security

Traffic is encrypted with TLS. Sign-in tokens are short-lived and refresh tokens rotate — if a refresh token is ever reused, every session for that account is revoked immediately. Location fuzzing is keyed with a secret held only on the server. No system is perfect; if you find a vulnerability, please write to security@tripfolk.app.

10. International transfers

Cloudflare processes data on servers around the world, so your data may be handled outside your country. Transfers out of the EEA and UK rely on Standard Contractual Clauses.

11. Changes

If we change this policy in a way that materially affects you, we will tell you in the app before the change takes effect. The date at the top always reflects the current version.