Privacy
Last updated: 29 October 2026
How south handles your data, the cookies on this website, and who runs south.
Privacy policy
This policy explains what south collects, why, who sees it, and your rights. south is run from Switzerland and offered to people in the UK, so it follows both: the UK GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act 2018, and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection.
Who is responsible
south Hassler, a sole proprietorship based in Switzerland, is responsible for your data (the "controller"). Contact: contact@south-app.com.
What we collect
- Your application and account: name, email, your date of birth (to check that you are 18 or over), photos, bio, interests, the city you join, who invited you, and any profile links you add.
- Your verification video, if we ask for one. A person on our team looks at it. We don't use automatic face recognition.
- Location: with your permission, your location is used on your phone only, to check that you're in or near the city when you join and to centre the map. It is never sent to us: we keep only the city you joined.
- Your passport: stamps, your passport code and your check-in codes.
- What you do on south: events and places you save, show interest in or sign up to, check-ins, cancellations, plans, connections and requests.
- Visits and loyalty: the visits scanned at places, your degrees south and level, and the loyalty cards and rewards you collect.
- What you share: messages, edits, photos (including pictures sent to be seen once), voice memos, stories and reactions.
- Safety: reports you make or receive, blocks, bans, and the record of messages described below.
- Your device: a notification token if you allow notifications, basic technical details such as the app version, and an anonymous code for your phone, used only so the age limit can't be avoided by opening a new account.
- The website: see the "Cookies" section below.
Why we use it
- To run south for you: your account, your profile, events, messages, plans, and your degrees and loyalty cards. (Legal basis: our contract with you.)
- To keep south safe: reviewing applications, checking reports, preventing abuse and fake accounts, and enforcing the house rules. (Legal basis: our legitimate interest in a safe community, and our legal duties.)
- With your permission: location, notifications, camera, microphone and photo library. You can change these in your phone's settings. (Legal basis: consent.)
- When the law requires it, for example a lawful request from the authorities.
We don't sell your data, and south has no advertising.
Who sees what
- Other people on south see your profile, photos, passport stamps, stories, your level, and the events you are interested in or signed up to. Your passport code is visible only to you and to the people who check you in.
- Hosts and partners see the name, photo and check-in status of people who sign up to their events. When a place scans your code, its staff see your name, photo, your progress on its card and your level.
- Our team sees what it needs for its role. Only people handling reports can open the message record, and only for a reported conversation.
- Our service providers, who process data only on our instructions: Supabase (database, files, server functions and account emails, hosted in Ireland), Apple (App Store, notifications and Wallet), Google (email) and Netlify (our website and our internal tools).
- Authorities, when the law requires it.
Where your data goes
Your data is stored in the European Union (Ireland), and handled from Switzerland and the UK, which recognise each other's protection. Where a provider handles data in another country, we use the safeguards the law requires, such as standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep it
- Your account and what you share: while your account exists, then deleted within 30 days.
- The safety record of deleted and edited messages, and pictures sent to be seen once: 12 months, longer only if they are part of a report or a legal claim.
- Verification videos: 30 days after the decision on the application.
- Declined applications: 6 months.
- Age checks (a date of birth given, and the phone's code): for someone under 18, until 3 years after their 18th birthday; otherwise as long as the account exists.
- When you delete your account: it disappears from south straight away, and everything is erased 30 days later (until then, you can ask us to restore it). We then keep a minimal record (your name, email, when your account was opened and deleted, and whether it was reported or banned) for 12 months, or 3 years after a ban, to handle complaints, safety issues and legal claims.
- Reports and ban decisions: 3 years. A copy of a reported message, and its picture or voice memo, is kept with the report even if the message or the account is deleted, until 1 year after the report is closed.
- When the law requires it: if the police, a regulator or a court asks us to keep information about an account, we keep it until the request ends, even if the account is deleted. We only share information with them when the law allows it, only what is needed, and we keep a record of each request.
- Event sign-ups, check-ins, visits and rewards: 24 months.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit, access is limited by role, and private-event screens are protected from screenshots in the app.
Your rights
You can ask to see, correct, delete or export your data, to limit or object to how we use it, and you can withdraw a permission at any time. Write to contact@south-app.com. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) or the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (edoeb.admin.ch).
Age
south is only for people aged 18 and over. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we delete it.
Changes
We tell you in the app before an important change to this policy.
Cookies
This notice is about our website, south-app.com. The south app has no advertising trackers.
What our website uses
Our website is a simple site hosted by Netlify. It doesn't use cookies to track you, and it has no advertising.
Our team's login page keeps a sign-in session on the device that uses it, so staff don't have to log in again each time.
Contact
Who runs south
south is run by south Hassler, a sole proprietorship based in Switzerland.
For any question, a request about your data, or a legal notice, write to contact@south-app.com. We reply in writing.