Privacy Policy

Flat White is an Australian service that introduces two people for a coffee meetup in their city. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what control you have over it.

We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

What we collect

Account and identity

• Your email address, and a Firebase account identifier used to sign you in.
• Your first and last name, your display name, and your username.
• Your mobile number, once you choose to verify it.

Your profile

• Year of birth, gender, and pronouns.
• Occupation, a short intro, languages, and the interests you pick: topics, activities, skills, and the kinds of people you would like to meet.
• Which part of your city you are based in.

What you are looking for

You tell us your intentions for using Flat White — friendship, networking, mentorship, or dating — and, for each of those, which genders you are open to meeting. Where this reveals something about your sexual orientation, it is sensitive information under the Privacy Act. We collect it only to make introductions, we never show it to other members as a standalone attribute, and you can change or clear it at any time in the app.

Photos and video

Your profile photo, your optional intro video (which includes audio), your optional avatar loop, and your optional "doing what you love" photo or video. These are stored as private files and served to other members through short-lived signed links.

Location

When you arrive at a café for a meetup, the app checks your location once to confirm you are there so you can check in. We do not track your location in the background and we do not build a history of where you go.

How you use Flat White

• Who you have been shown, and whether you passed or said yes.
• Invites you send and receive, meetups you attend, and cancellations.
• Feedback you leave after a meetup, and anyone you block or report.
• A reliability record based on whether you turn up and how late you cancel.

Payments

Bookings are paid by card. Your card details are handled directly by Stripe and never reach our servers. We keep a customer reference, a record of each payment, its status, and any refund.

Your device

A push notification token, so we can tell you about invites and meetups. You can turn notifications off in your device settings.

When the app crashes or hits an unexpected error, we send a diagnostic report to Google's Firebase Crashlytics so we can fix it. That report describes your device and the fault — the model, operating system version, app version, and the technical detail of what went wrong. It does not include your name, email, phone number, photos or messages.

Why we collect it

• To create your account and sign you in.
• To make introductions that suit what you are looking for.
• To arrange, take payment for, and confirm meetups.
• To keep the community safe — verification, blocking, reporting, and reliability.
• To prevent abuse of referral credit.
• To notify you about your meetups.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it with the service providers that run Flat White:

• Google (Firebase) — sign-in, SMS verification codes, push notifications, and crash diagnostics.
• Stripe — payments and card storage.
• Amazon Web Services — our database, file storage, and email delivery.
• Vercel, Neon and Cloudflare — our website and its waitlist.
• Meta (Facebook and Instagram) — advertising measurement on our website. See Cookies, analytics and advertising below.
• Google Analytics — visitor analytics on our website. See Cookies, analytics and advertising below.

Other members see only what your profile is meant to show them. Partner cafés see the booking, not your profile.

Overseas

Our database, files and email run in Sydney, Australia. Some providers above process data overseas, including in the United States. By using Flat White you agree to that disclosure.

Cookies, analytics and advertising

We advertise Flat White on Facebook and Instagram. To measure whether those ads work, our website uses the Meta Pixel — a small piece of Meta's code that runs on the pages you visit at joinflatwhite.com.

When you visit one of those pages it tells Meta that a visit happened, along with your IP address, information about your browser and device, which page you were on, and the site you came from. It also stores a cookie in your browser so Meta can recognise the same browser later. If you have a Facebook or Instagram account, Meta can connect this activity to it.

If you join the waitlist, we also tell Meta that a signup happened and which town you entered, so we can see which ads bring people in. We do not send Meta your email address, your name, or anything from your Flat White profile.

Our website also uses Google Analytics, so we can see which pages get visited and roughly where in the world our visitors come from. It records the pages you view, an approximate location worked out from your IP address, and information about your browser and device — Google does not keep the IP address itself alongside that data. It also stores a cookie in your browser to tell one visit from another. Google Analytics does not tell us who you are, and we do not send it your email address, name, or anything from your Flat White profile.

This is on our website only — the Flat White app contains no advertising or analytics tracking. Nothing you do inside the app is reported to Meta or Google Analytics.

You can limit this. Most browsers let you block or delete cookies, Meta offers its own ad preferences controls, and Google offers a browser add-on to opt out of Analytics. Blocking any of this does not affect your ability to join the waitlist or use Flat White.

How long we keep it

When you delete your account, your profile stops being visible immediately and your personal information is erased around 30 days later, including your photos and video.

Some records outlast that:

• Payment records are kept for financial reconciliation and to resolve disputes.
• Meetup and invite records are kept, with your identity removed.
• Verified mobile numbers are kept permanently as a one-way cryptographic hash. This cannot be reversed to recover your number. We keep it solely to stop the referral credit system being abused by deleting and re-creating accounts, which is a purpose that cannot work if the record disappears with the account.

Your choices

You can ask us to give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you, correct anything that is wrong, or delete your account. Most of this you can do yourself in the app under Settings. You can also complain to us about how we have handled your information, and if you are not satisfied, to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Security

Your data is encrypted in transit. Photos and video are private and reachable only through short-lived signed links. Access to production systems is restricted and audited. No service can promise perfect security, but we take this seriously.

Children

Flat White is for people 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we will delete it.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update this page and, where the change is significant, tell you in the app.

Contact us

Use our contact page to reach us about anything in this policy, including a request to access or correct your information.