Oye Buddy · Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 4 October 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Oyeteck Innovations, which operates Oye Buddy ("Oye Buddy", "we", "us"), collects and uses your personal data when you use the Oye Buddy app. We act as the Data Fiduciary under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 ("DPDP Act"). You are the Data Principal.

1. Who can use Oye Buddy

Oye Buddy is only for adults aged 18 to 80. We do not knowingly collect personal data of anyone under 18. If we learn that a user is under 18, we delete the account and its data. If you believe a child is using Oye Buddy, write to [email protected].

2. Data we collect

• Account data: email address, password (stored only as a secure hash by our authentication provider), and, if you use Google sign-in, your Google account email and name.
• Profile data you choose to share: name, age, gender, photos, bio, job, interests, what you are looking for, city.
• Location: your device location, when you allow it. We store it rounded to roughly 1 km and never show your exact location to anyone. Other people only see an approximate distance. If you share a pin in chat, it is rounded to about 100 m.
• Activity: likes, passes, matches, messages, Buddy Feed posts (which expire automatically), blocks and reports.
• Discovery preferences: distance, age range and who you want to see.
• Verification selfie (optional): if you choose to get verified, one live selfie taken with your front camera in a pose we show. Only authorised safety staff see it, to compare it with your profile photos (no automated face recognition, no face template). It is deleted 30 days after the review decision, or right away if you don't finish, withdraw or delete your account. We keep only the result (verified or not, and when).
• Photo safety checks: photos you upload are automatically checked for nudity by an open-source image model that runs on our own cloud project (photos are not sent to any other company). Photos it flags are hidden and reviewed by our safety team.
• Subscription data: plan, start and end dates. Card or UPI details are handled by the payment provider, not stored by us.
• Device and technical data: app version, device type, push-notification token, and basic logs needed to keep the service secure.

3. Why we use it (purposes)

We use your personal data only to:

1. create and run your account and show your profile to people near you;
2. show you nearby people, Buddy Feed posts and matches based on your location and preferences;
3. let you chat with matches (and, for subscribers, message first);
4. keep the community safe: detect fake accounts, spam, abuse and underage use, verify profiles that ask for it, screen uploaded photos for nudity, review reports, and enforce our Terms and Community Guidelines;
5. manage subscriptions and daily free limits;
6. send service notifications (for example new matches and messages);
7. comply with law and respond to lawful requests from authorities.

We do not sell your personal data. We do not use it for third-party advertising.

4. Consent

We process your personal data on the basis of your consent, which you give when you create an account and when you grant permissions such as location, photos and notifications. You can withdraw consent at any time, for example by turning off location in your phone settings or by deleting your account. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that happened before. Some features (such as showing nearby people) cannot work without the related data.

We may also process data without consent where the DPDP Act allows it, for example to comply with a law or a court order.

5. Who can see your data

• Other users see your profile (name, age, photos, bio, job, interests, looking for, city), an approximate distance and your Buddy Feed posts. Your gender and email are not shown publicly.
• Matches and people you chat with see the messages you send them.
• Our team (authorised staff only) can see data needed to review reports and keep the service safe.
• Service providers (Data Processors) who host and run the app for us under contract:
• Supabase (database, authentication, file storage; our project is hosted in the Mumbai (ap-south-1) region);
• Expo / EAS (app build and update service);
• Google Firebase (push notifications), and Google if you choose Google sign-in;
• payment providers, when payments are enabled.
• Authorities, when required by law.

6. Cross-border transfers

Some of our service providers may process data outside India (for example in the United States or the European Union). We transfer personal data outside India only as permitted by the DPDP Act and any rules or restrictions notified by the Government of India, and we require providers to protect it.

7. How long we keep data (retention)

• We keep your account data while your account is active.
• When you delete your account, your profile, photos, location, likes, matches and messages are deleted immediately from our live systems. Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis.
• Exception, for safety: if either person in a chat had blocked the other, or there is an open report or safety case involving either of you, that chat is kept (hidden from users, visible only to our safety team, no longer linked to your account) and deleted 180 days after your account was deleted, once nothing about it is still open.
• Buddy Feed posts expire automatically after a few hours.
• Verification selfies are deleted 30 days after the review decision (immediately if not completed, withdrawn, or the account is deleted). Photos removed by our safety team are deleted after 30 days, kept until then only to handle appeals.
• We may keep a minimal record of reports, blocks and security logs (without your profile) for as long as needed to keep the community safe, prevent repeat abuse, resolve disputes or meet legal obligations (for example, records required under the IT Rules 2021 for 180 days).

8. Your rights as a Data Principal

Under the DPDP Act you have the right to:

• access a summary of the personal data we process about you and how;
• correct, complete or update your data (you can edit most of it in the app under You → Edit profile);
• erase your data (You → Settings → Delete account);
• withdraw consent at any time;
• grievance redressal through our Grievance Officer (below);
• nominate another person to exercise your rights in case of death or incapacity.

To use these rights, write to [email protected] or to our Grievance Officer at [email protected]. We may need to verify your identity.

9. Security

We protect your data with encryption in transit, access controls (row-level security in our database), private photo storage with time-limited links, and limited staff access. No system is perfectly secure; please use a strong, unique password.

10. Personal data breaches

If a personal data breach happens, we will inform the Data Protection Board of India and affected users as required by the DPDP Act and its rules, describing what happened, the likely impact and the steps we are taking.

11. Grievance Officer

Mayank, Grievance Officer
Oyeteck Innovations
Email: [email protected]
Address: Currency Tower, Raipur, Chhattisgarh 492001

We acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and resolve them within 15 days of receipt. If you are not satisfied, you may approach the Data Protection Board of India.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. We will tell you in the app before material changes take effect.

13. Contact

Oyeteck Innovations (operator of Oye Buddy)
Support: [email protected]
Company: [email protected]
Address: Currency Tower, Raipur, Chhattisgarh 492001