Bumble Privacy Policy

Welcome to the Bumble Group Privacy Policy. Whether you’re ready to put yourself out there and start dating or just looking for a new friend, at Bumble, we believe every relationship and opportunity should start with respect and equality… especially when it comes to your personal information.

Bumble was originally founded to challenge the outdated rules of dating.

And now, we’ve evolved into a tool that empowers members to connect with confidence.

When we talk about Bumble Group, we refer to Badoo Trading Limited and Bumble Trading LLC (also known simply as “Bumble”, “we”, “us”, or “our” in this policy). This Policy explains how we process your personal information. It applies any time you’re using the Bumble mobile application or desktop version (“App”), and to your use of our “Sites”, which includes our websites like Bumble.com, microsites, and other digital products and services, like our competitions or surveys. We also suggest you read our Terms and Conditions of Use.

Have any questions about this Policy?
Just Contact Us and we’ll be happy to help.

GOOD TO KNOW

We will need to change this Policy from time to time, but the most current version (at http://bumble.com/privacy-policy) controls how we use your information. Be sure to regularly check for updates, but we will let you know by email or notice of any material changes.

What do we collect?

You Make the First Move by using the Bumble App or Sites, which is when we collect some information about you. While enjoying our App and Sites, you can also choose to share information with people you connect with, such as other members or your friends and contacts.

We are responsible for taking care of all the personal information we collect and you share with us. According to the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) of 27 April 2016 and other applicable personal information laws, we are the data “controller” for all personal information collected and processed through our App and Sites.

The type of information collected or shared depends on the specific situation and what exactly you are doing.

You will not be able to change your date of birth and, if you give Bumble access to your location in your device settings, your location is automatically updated based on the location of your device. Others using the App might be able to see some of your Registration Information when they view your profile page, such as your sexual preference, name, and username.

When you download the App and create a Bumble account, you may provide certain information about yourself to provide our service and help enhance the App, and over time, this can include:

Name
Username
Gender identity
Location (city, town)
Email address
Date, and location of birth
Photographs
Mobile number
Sexual preference
Login information for social media accounts you connect to your Account, like Facebook.

After you register, you can change some of this information at any time through your account. You are responsible for making sure your account details are kept up to date, particularly if your phone number changes.

We want to help simplify and enhance your connecting. One way we do this is by making it possible for you to use your other social media accounts during your Bumble experience. Just be aware that it means sharing with us some of the personal information you shared with these social networks.

Using social media accounts to register or sign in to Bumble

Facebook: If you choose to register or sign in using your Facebook account, you give Facebook permission to share your name and profile picture with us. And, unless you choose to opt-out of sharing these details, you also give Facebook permission to share your:

  • email address (if there is one associated with your Facebook account)
  • date of birth
  • other profile photos
  • gender
  • pages you like
  • current town or city

Apple ID: If you choose to register or sign in with your Apple ID, you give Apple permission to share with us:

  • your Apple login
  • a name (which you can edit)
  • an email that will be linked to your Bumble account and used to retrieve it

You can choose to use your personal email, or Apple will create and use a random email address so your personal email can stay private.

We will then use the personal information we receive from Facebook or Apple to form your Bumble account. If you remove the Bumble app from your Facebook settings or Apple ID, we will no longer have updated access to this information.

Linking social media accounts to your Bumble account

You can link your Bumble account with your Facebook or Spotify accounts. This allows you to share some information from those accounts directly to Bumble, like your top Spotify artists.

You decide with Facebook/Spotify what limited information we receive when you first link these accounts to your Bumble account.

If you want to disconnect any linked social media accounts from Bumble, just visit your settings in Facebook, or Spotify and follow the instructions to remove the Bumble App access permissions.

GOOD TO KNOW

If you unlink a social media account, this does not automatically delete the information that was already added to your Bumble account. If you’d like this information removed, you must also delete it within your Bumble account.

We want to ensure the safety and security of everyone on our App and Sites, and give people the best possible user experience. To do this, we require every person using our App and Sites to verify their accounts. Please see more information about this process here

This means we will ask for your phone number and, in some cases, ask that you carry out a photo verification or ID verification to enforce our <a href="https://bumble.com/guidelines">Community Guidelines</a>. This allows us to make sure the people on Bumble are actually people, that are of age, avoid fake accounts that can be used for malicious activities and cybercrime – all of which can threaten the Bumble network and spoil things for everyone.

You can also choose to (i) verify your photo voluntarily, which will allow you to add a grey “verified” badge to your profile, and (ii) verify your identity with your ID document, which will allow you to add a blue “verified” badge to your profile. If you choose to verify your profile photo, we will scan each photo that you submit. This scan can include the use of facial recognition technology to compare the submitted photo(s) to your profile photo, which helps us make sure you are who you say you are. If you choose to also verify your ID, our third party partner called Veriff will carry out the ID check on our behalf. Veriff will compare a selfie you take to your ID document. This scan can include the use of facial recognition technology and involves the collection of biometric data, but you also have the option to request a manual review if you do not want facial recognition technology to be used or your biometric information to be collected.

When you choose to verify your photo, we do not add verification photos to your profile, but we do keep the scans to verify you in the future and for our records. We will only keep the scans as long as we need them for these purposes, but never longer than 3 years after your last interaction with us. Once we no longer need the scans or the 3 years have passed, we will take reasonable steps to permanently and securely delete the scans from our systems. When you choose to also verify your ID, your selfie and your ID are compared by our third party partner, Veriff. Veriff will retain your selfie and the picture of your ID for up to 72 hours. You can read more about Veriff’s privacy practices here. For members in South Korea: ID verification will be conducted manually. Before submitting your government-issued document, please ensure that all information is redacted other than your name, photo, date of birth, sex, and document expiry date. For members in countries where the collection of identification numbers is not permitted, Bumble's verification process automatically redacts any individual identification code from government-issued ID documents immediately upon receipt. The original image is permanently deleted after redaction, ensuring that the code is neither stored nor viewed by a human as part of a manual verification process.

GOOD TO KNOW

If your account is blocked for any reason, our anti-fraud and anti-spam procedures might also block your account(s) on our other platforms and applications, such as Badoo.

If you decide to purchase any of our premium services, we will process your payment information via our third-party payment processor and keep it for audit/tax purposes and to prevent fraud.

To prevent fraudulent payments from being processed, we use automated decisions and our systems to check payment information and transactions for behaviour that might violate our Terms and Conditions of Use. We may automatically block any transaction that we believe is fraudulent or violates our Terms and Conditions of Use. If a transaction is blocked, the relevant person will be notified that their transaction cannot be processed and can contact us to contest the decision.

GOOD TO KNOW

You can always turn off geolocation if you ever change your mind about giving Bumble access to your location by using the settings on the app:

  • iPhone — go to settings > security and privacy > location services > Bumble
  • Android — go to settings > location > Bumble > permissions > location

If you give Bumble access to your location in your device settings, we will collect information about your location when you use your mobile device. We do this to personalise your App experience and make it easier for you to make connections and interact with others.

This can include information about WiFi access points and your longitude/latitude, and we can save your device’s coordinates to offer certain features to you.

For example, by enabling your general location information to appear to people seeing your profile and show you the profiles of people who are near you.

When you use the App, we will collect information about your device for the purposes described in this Policy. This information covers your device’s unique identifier, model, and operating system, as well as log and usage data. You can also choose to give our App access to your device’s address book, which will only be used when you want to add someone to your contacts.

We want to help you put your best foot forward, so we collect data about your profile photos that allows us to arrange them in a way that is favourable to you (higher number of ‘yes’ votes first). This includes data such as which photos people spend the most time looking at or which have the best lighting, etc. You can opt-out of this feature through our app settings at any time.

You might come across some links while using our App or Sites. If you use them, we will keep track of how you interact with links, including to third-party services that we are not responsible for, by monitoring redirecting clicks or other methods.

We review the content of messages sent in the App to identify topics, sentiments, and trends across our Users. We will take steps to remove personally identifying information from such messages, prior to reviewing them. We will not share the content of User messages or information we derive from them with any third party.

We also use a combination of internal automated systems and a team of moderators to monitor and review accounts and messages for content that suggests a violation of our Terms and Conditions of Use - see Moderation Practices section below.

From time to time, we may contact you to see if you would like to take part in a research survey, provide feedback or a testimonial, or be part of a marketing campaign. For example, if you let us know you found a match on the App, we might ask if you want to be featured in Bumble advertising. We will provide you with more information when we contact you with any such request.

You can always say no and your participation is completely optional, but if you don’t want to be contacted regarding these requests, just tell our Customer Support Team via our Feedback Page.

If you contact our Customer Support team via our Feedback Page, we will collect your IP address and will receive your email address and the information you share with us to help resolve your request.

We keep records of our communications with you for 6 years after your account is deleted, including any complaints from you about other people using the App or Sites.

When you use our App or visit our Sites, we will collect personal information from you automatically by using cookies or similar technologies.

Some cookies are necessary for the App and Sites to function and cannot be switched off, but you do have choices for others, for example, to see targeted ads. Check out our Cookie Policy to learn more about cookies, how we use them, and your options for these technologies.

What’s a cookie?

A cookie is a small file placed on your device or internet browser that allows us to recognise and remember your preferences. Cookies generally help us better personalise and improve your experience on our App and Sites.

How do we use your information?

Our main goal: give you an enjoyable Bumble experience as you connect.

GOOD TO KNOW

We will only use your information for email direct marketing if you consent when creating your account or in the App settings. If you ever change your mind, you can always withdraw from marketing in the App settings or by using the opt-out tools and links provided in our communications.

To achieve our goal of giving you an enjoyable connection experience, we use your personal information to:
  • offer our services and features to you
  • contact you with information about the App, such as updates and new features
  • personalise the App, Sites, and content we deliver to you
  • carry out research and analysis about how you use and interact with the App and Sites
  • test new technologies and processes meant to enhance and improve the App and Sites
  • resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, and enforce our Terms and Conditions of Use
  • investigate fraud and protect our legal rights
  • protect third parties and the people on our App and Sites from harm
  • if you’ve signed up for our communications or otherwise consented, send you information by direct marketing and other communication methods about our promotions and offers, such as letting you know the types of goods, services, and offers we provide.

We want to ensure the safety and security of everyone on our App and Sites, and give people the best possible user experience. To do this, we require every person using our App and Sites to verify their accounts. This means we might ask for your phone number, and in some cases, ask that you carry out a photo verification or ID verification This allows us to take steps to ensure the people on Bumble are actually people, that are of age, avoid fake accounts that can be used for malicious activities and cybercrime, and prevent fraud - all of which can threaten the Bumble network and spoil things for everyone.

Members receive a message to their emails to ensure the email used to register is accurate. Members are required to provide a phone number so that we can ensure members do not have multiple accounts. We send an SMS or a one-time password to your phone to authenticate you. Members are also encouraged to verify their identities by photo verification and ID verification.

This allows us to understand how close you are to others and show you profiles of people nearby.

We want to help you find the best possible connections, so we developed matching algorithms to predict your compatibility with others and show you people we think are a good match for you.

To predict your compatibility with others and recommend profiles, our matching algorithms use a range of factors:

  • the information you share about yourself in your profile so we can show you people who are appropriate and share a similar demographic as you
  • information about your activity on the App to suggest to you people with similar interests and engagement
  • whether you’ve verified your photo to confirm the photos on a profile match
  • your device coordinates, which are necessary to understand your proximity to other members

We also use algorithms to keep the platform safe for members. For example:

  • Private Detector uses A.I. to automatically blur a potential nude image shared within a chat on Bumble or Bumble For Friends. It’ll then notify you that you’ve been sent something that’s been detected as inappropriate; it’s up to you to decide whether to view or block the image. See more information about the Private Detector here
  • Deception Detector™: our AI-powered tool works behind the scenes to flag and prevent scams before they happen, backed by a dedicated human moderation team. The tool detects when certain criteria are met that suggest that a transaction is likely to be fraudulent and will be automatically blocked. If this happens, the affected member will be notified and Bumble can be contacted to contest the decision.
All decisions made using an automated system or by a human at Bumble can be appealed or contested by reaching out to us using the contact details in section “How to contact us?”. See a description of all tools Bumble uses and offers to members to keep the platform safe here

To be clear

If you post anything that is inconsistent with our Terms and Conditions of Use, we can restrict your account access or terminate it altogether across Bumble group apps.

Safety on our App and Sites is very important to us, so we take steps to make sure every person follows our Terms and Conditions of Use while connecting. We use a combination of internal automated systems and a team of moderators to monitor and review accounts and messages for content that suggests a violation of our Terms and Conditions of Use. This process involves some personal information, such as photos and any other information uploaded to a profile or shared in messages.

We will issue a warning to the relevant account if any account or message meets the relevant criteria suggesting a likely violation. We can also restrict or block the relevant member’s access, who can contact Bumble to contest the decision.

GOOD TO KNOW

If the legal basis is consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time. If the legal basis is legitimate interests, you have a right to object to how we use that information.
How? Just contact us or follow the instructions provided in the relevant sections of this Policy.

According to European Union (“EU”) and United Kingdom (“UK”) data protection laws, processing personal information must always have a specific lawful basis – meaning there must always be a legal reason, which is defined by the GDPR and other relevant laws. Here you will find the legal basis for all of the personal information we collect, use, and process.

Badoo Trading Limited and Bumble Trading LLC are joint controllers in relation to member personal data. Bumble Trading Limited will help members with their questions and support them in exercising their rights under the GDPR.


What about the CCPA categories?

You will see some of the CCPA’s specific categories of personal information mentioned under the section for Californian residents. You can find more information about these categories here.

Why we use your information

What information we use

Where we get the information

Our legal basis under the GDPR and retention period

To provide you with the Bumble social networking service and App by onboarding you as a member.
  • Name (mandatory)
  • Email address
  • Date of birth (mandatory)
  • GPS location
  • Phone number mandatory for 1 Member = 1 account
  • App activity (mobile device ID, browser identification)
  • OTP (verification code)

You provide us with your name, email address, and date of birth.
We get location and app activity data from the device you use to access the service.
Contractual Necessity

Geocoordinates, email, external IDs, phone number, gender, city, birthday, and name are retained for six years from account deletion/erasure
To facilitate networking opportunities on the App by enabling you to create your profile.
To personalise the service by enabling optional filtering feature ‘Discover’ based on similar interests, dating goals, and communities in common. See further detail here

Optional information that you choose to share in your profile, through profile verification, or by adding Bumble badges, which may include information about your:

  • dating intention
  • gender preference
  • your gender (including non-binary gender)
  • religion
  • ethnic background (in US and Canada only)
  • photos
  • height
  • prompts
  • interests
  • other similar details you choose to share (e.g. work, education, hometown, lifestyle & habits, causes, languages, values)

You choose to provide us with this optional information

Contractual necessity

Your consent for special category data (racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and genetic data, biometric data if used for the purpose of identification, health data or sex life or sexual orientation).

Almost all profile data is deleted 28 days after account deletion/erasure

To predict preferences of members to facilitate networking on the App and Sites
  • User Id
  • Geolocation
  • Profile features
  • Vote history
  • Profile information (excluding special category data)
  • Embeddings of the profile features (interests and characteristics shared on the profile excluding special category data) to predict if two members will match with each other
  • Photos

You provide us with your phone number and photos.
We get geolocation and device information from the device you use to access the Bumble social networking service.
Our legitimate interests in predicting matches of members to increase meaningful connections
To verify your identity, prevent fraud, and ensure the safety and security of everyone using the App and Sites.
  • Name
  • IP address
  • Phone number
  • If requested or permitted, photo provided for profile verification
  • If requested or permitted, photo of Government issued ID and selfie for ID verification
  • For members based in countries where age verification is legally required:
    • photo of Government issued ID
    • geolocation and device information at the time of uploading ID

You provide us with your phone number, government ID and photos.
We get geolocation and device information (including IP address) from the device you use to access the Bumble social networking service.
Our legal obligation in making sure accounts are not set up fraudulently or by people underage and to protect the safety and security of people using our App or Sites.
We retain your ID for 90 days from completion of the ID verification process
To take payments for premium services.*
*This does not apply if you make payments via the Apple App Store.
Payment card details
You provide us with this information.
Contractual necessity
To promote Bumble by organising events, recruiting for and conducting video and photoshoots for members and use the content for marketing purposes
To send you marketing information about our events, offers, and services
To send Bumble merchandise to members for gifting and community engagement
  • Name
  • Email address
  • Photos or videos where relevant
  • Mobile phone number
  • Birthday, interests, location, postal address, device coordinates for sending merchandise

You provide us with this information.

Consent where required by law

Our legitimate interests in promoting our business and products, while following all laws that apply to our marketing activities.
The data is kept for 2 years from the end of the relevant event/campaign
Details of merchandise fulfillment are kept for 6 years from the date of fulfilment

To carry out research and analysis to help us improve the App, and test new technologies and processes meant to enhance and improve the App and Sites
Log and usage data, including:
  • Name, phone number, email address, photos
  • User ID
  • Survey responses
  • Recording of interviews, focus groups
  • Registration details
  • Paypal account details to process incentives
  • Profile information

We get log and usage information from the device you use to access the Bumble social networking service.
You provide us with the other information.
Our legitimate interests in analysing how people access and use our services, and testing new technologies so that we can further develop the App, implement security measures, and improve the service.
We retain the information for one year from the end of the survey or research
To respond to correspondence and requests submitted to us, including social media queries or chatbots.
  • Email address
  • Social media name
  • Phone number
  • IP address
  • Any information you send to us to help resolve your query

You provide us with your email address, social media name, and phone number when you contact us.
We get your IP address from the device you use to contact us.
Our legitimate interests in responding to requests and queries, and making sure we provide good service and troubleshoot problems.
Our obligation under the contract with you to provide our services. Our legal obligation in responding to requests and queries, in relation to your personal information.
We retain correspondence and responses to requests for six years after account deletion
To enable the sharing details of a date functionality
  • Name and photo
  • Time and location of a date
When using the profile-sharing functionality with your trusted contact, you provide the time and location of the date and share the matched member's name and profile photo.
Our legitimate interests in preventing unauthorised behaviour, and maintaining the safety of our members and services.
To moderate messages for unathorised, toxic or harmful behaviour, investigate and block people for reported infringements of our Terms and Conditions of Use.
To enable the ‘review before you send’ functionality, where any texts are scanned automatically to keep conversations respectful via ‘Review before you send’ feature.
See more about the ‘Review before you send’ feature here
  • Name
  • Registration information
  • Profile information
  • Activities on the app:
    • Message content
  • Photographs
  • Usage and device data, including (IP address, IP session information)
  • Activities off the app reported to us

You provide us with your registration information, profile information, messages, and photographs.
We get the other information from the device you use to access the Bumble social networking service or from others who may submit queries or reports involving you.
Our contractual obligation to enforce the terms with members to prevent unathorised behaviour against our Community Guidelines (e.g. commercial activity on the App) and a legal obligation to maintain the safety and integrity of our App and Sites (e.g. harmful behaviour).
We retain details of toxic language moderation results for 90 days after account deletion, and the results of investigations for one year after account deletion/erasure, and for six years where a member was blocked
We may keep details of certain blocked members for up to 15 years, depending on the seriousness of harm, to prevent them from rejoining as a member
To improve your experience on the App by providing feedback on, your profile, your photo quality and reordering photos to place.
Profile information like your prompt and bio,
Profile photo data, such as whether the:
  • first profile photo is scrolled on or not
  • vote is a yes or a no
We get this information directly from you, and from how people interact with the App and profile photos of other members.
Our contractual obligation
We retain details of feedback for six years after account deletion
To allow people using the App to create and enhance their Bumble profile, and log into the App via third-party accounts.
Linked Social Media Information from Facebook and other third-party accounts (e.g. Spotify)
We get this information from Facebook or the providers of any other accounts you use to log in to Bumble or connect with your Bumble account.
Our contractual obligation
We retain the information for 42 days after the account deletion
To detect fraudulent behaviour and block payment transactions as part of our anti-fraud procedures.
  • Name
  • IP address
  • Email address
  • Mobile number
  • Cardholder name
  • Payments received
  • Type of payment
  • Member ID
  • Member country
  • Activities on the App or Sites
  • Device ID

You provide us with your name, email address, mobile number, and card details.
We get your IP address from the device you use to contact us.
We get your payment information from your interactions with our App and Sites.
Our legal obligation to prevent fraudulent transactions and maintain the security of our App and Sites.
We retain the information on blocking decisions for six years from the date of blocking the account.
We may keep the information on serious cases for fifteen years from the date of blocking the account.
To share targeted third-party advertisements on the App.
  • Gender
  • Age
  • IP address
  • Coarse location

You provide us with your gender and age.
You choose to provide us with optional profile information.
We get IP address and coarse location data from the device you use to access the Bumble social networking service.
When you have given us your consent to do so through Settings preferences under Security and Privacy, or your browser or device privacy preferences.
To share Bumble advertisements on third-party networks and measure their effectiveness, and receive data on interactions you had with our ads.
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Data about your visit to our App or Sites and the actions you take, for example, if you:
    • downloaded our App
    • created a Bumble account
  • IP address
  • Estimated location based on IP address
  • Device ID

You provide us with your gender and age.
We get the other information from the device or browser you use to access the Bumble social networking service.
When you have given us your consent to do so through your Settings preferences under Security and Privacy Settings preferences, or your browser or device privacy preferences.
For example, this might be required by your device manufacturer, such as if you use an Apple device operating on iOS 14.5.
To contact you to run research surveys, get feedback, (Appstore ratings and reviews and customer satisfaction surveys), and find out if you want to take part in marketing campaigns.
  • Name
  • Email address
  • Mobile phone number

Appstore feedback:
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Text of the review from a member

Customer satisfaction feedback:
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Location
  • Email
  • Text of the review from a member

You provide us with this information.
Our legitimate interests in carrying out research so we can further develop the App and improve the Bumble social networking service.
We retain survey and research results for year, after which they are aggregated.
To facilitate easy connections by offering AI-powered messaging options via an icebreaker feature (generating up to three conversation starters between matched members). For more details, see here
  • Public profile data (e.g. life badges and interest badges, and excluding any special category data)
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Profile name (for salutation only)
  • Work, education
  • Location (city, town level)
We get this information from your profile
Our legitimate interests in enhancing member experience
We retain prompts and inputs for six years after account deletion
To allow video and audio call functions, and the sending of images and videos.





  • Video and audio call usage data
  • Images
  • Video

We get this information from the device you use to access the Bumble social networking service.
Our contractual obligation in providing these functionalities as part of the App and Sites.
To respond to and evaluate legal claims
  • Case details, correspondence
  • Evidence
  • Witness statements
  • Profile and account data
We get this information from the information available to Bumble via the app use, or if you provide the information to us.
Our legitimate interests to obtain legal advice, to exercise or defend legal claims
The data is retained for seven years from the closure of the case/investigation/claim
Students

To understand which of our users might be in college or university in order to improve services for students.*
*This only applies to people who use the App and identified themselves when registering as being from the United States or Canada (except Quebec) and 18 – 24 years old.

What exactly does this mean?

What we’re doing. We do this by using recent location data of where you opened the App to see if your device’s coordinates match a general university or college area. It’s then a simple “are they at campus? yes/no” result based on what we find.

Why we’re doing this. We combine these results with other relevant information we have so that we can:

  • send the right offers, events, and features to the right users
  • understand which Bumble events are popular with students or not working so well
  • improve the App design to meet the needs of students

What we don’t do. We do not:

  • track your live, real-time movements as part of this activity
  • identify or store information about where you are studying

Historic location data

To be clear: to protect your privacy, we do not keep any of the location data used for this activity. It is permanently deleted once we have the “at campus? yes/no” result.

We get this information from the device you use to access the Bumble social networking service.
Our legitimate interests in providing a more tailored experience for students using the App and optimise their chances of finding the right connections.
To ensure the security of the App and Sites by monitoring, detecting and responding to security incidents and alerts
  • Device ID
  • IP addresses
  • Usernames
  • Access logs
  • Geolocation metadata
  • Alert data from security tools
We get this information from the device you use to access the Bumble social networking service.
Our legitimate interests for information security and incident management
The data is retained for 12 months from the last record on our systems
BFF

Offer the chance to join Hive groups, which are groups of people and chats based on specific location or topics, and automatically recommend Hive groups for you to join based on your location, activities, and “my life” and “my interests” information.

  • User IDs (including Hive group admins and members)
  • Profile information
  • Activity information (e.g. data, text, audio, image and video messages, poll responses)
  • Location

You provide us with your profile and activity information.

We get location information from the device you use to access the Bumble social networking service.

Contractual necessity to connect you.
Badoo only
Show ‘nearby’ locations to other members
  • Geocoordinates from the device of the member only shown as ‘nearby’ to other members
We get location information from the device you use to access Badoo
Contractual necessity to connect you
The information is retained for 6 years after account deletion
WHAT INFORMATION CAN OTHERS SEE?

We think every person deserves meaningful connections, so we have built certain features to help you share with other members what makes you unique with the world. Our App is specifically designed to make it easier for you to connect and interact with other members, which involves making certain information about you available to others on the App.

Because of this and the nature of this type of connecting, we encourage every person on our App and Sites to think carefully about the information you share about yourself with others. Be careful about posting information that may eventually be made public when using the App. You should always assume that anything you post or submit may be publicly-viewable and accessible to people on or off the App.

The information you post about yourself, put on your profile, or share with others is at your own risk – we are not responsible for the information you choose to share with others.


  • We recommend not putting sensitive information that could be used for abuse or misuse on your profile for others to see, such as:
    • email addresses
    • URLs
    • instant messaging details
    • phone numbers
    • full names
    • addresses
    • credit card details
    • national identity numbers
    • driver's licence details
    • any other sensitive information
  • Be careful when posting sensitive details about yourself on your profile or by adding certain Bumble badges to your profile, such as your religious denomination, political leanings, sexual preferences, and health information. Although you can voluntarily choose to provide us with this information when you create your profile, sharing these sensitive details is not required. And remember the photographs you post on Bumble can also reveal information about yourself. If your photos contain images of others, please ensure you have their consent before posting on Bumble.
  • When using the Bumble App, you should assume that anything you post or submit on the App may be publicly-viewable and accessible, both by members and non-members of the App. We want our members to be mindful about posting information that may eventually be made public. This includes certain information added to your profile by third-party accounts like Facebook, Instagram, or Spotify.
    • For example, Bumble’s safety feature ‘Share Date’ allows members to share their match’s Bumble name, photo, time and location of their date with their trusted contact. Also, a person using the App might recommend you as a match to their Facebook friend by sharing a screenshot of your profile picture, whether or not that friend also uses the App.
  • Some countries (currently only South Korea) might require that people have the option to download a copy of their conversation history. In this case, we have no control over how this information might then be used or shared after we are required to provide it.
  • Remember to log out of any app or third-party account you use to log in to or access our App when you are done to keep others from accessing your Bumble account.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR DATA

When you choose to share sensitive information about yourself with us, including by adding badges to your profile, to discover others and be discovered, you are explicitly consenting to us processing this information and making it public to other people on the App.

If you use BFF mode, you should assume that whatever information you share in BFF can be seen by any BFF member. This includes information like which Hive groups you’ve joined and those conversations. BFF members can only see Hive discussions after they join the specific chat, which then gives them access to the full chat history.

You can choose to provide information like your beliefs, sexuality, and political leanings, but it’s not required. Just know that when you choose to share sensitive information like this about yourself with us for BFF, you are explicitly consenting to sharing that information with other BFF members.


BFF Profile Sharing

If you use BFF mode and are in a region where our separate Bumble For Friends app is available, your BFF profile will automatically be visible both in BFF mode on the main Bumble App and on the separate Bumble For Friends app. We do this to provide you with a richer pool of potential friends to connect with. If you do not want your BFF profile to be shown on the Bumble For Friends app, just check out this help page.

Do we share your information?

In order to help you make connections and provide an enjoyable Bumble experience, it is necessary to share some personal information with other members. We may also share your personal information with third parties that assist us in providing our services, or where we are under an obligation to report to. But rest assured: we will only ever share your personal information in the limited circumstances described in this Policy.

What you’ll find in this section

GOOD TO KNOW

With this in mind and under these restrictions, you should be aware that some of these trusted third parties might also use the personal information they collect for their own purposes.

We investigate and verify (also known as carrying out due diligence) all of the trusted third parties we work with, or “Service Providers”, to make sure they have adequate data protection and information security measures in place.

We take steps to make sure the personal information we share is as unidentifiable as possible.

We hold our Service Providers to extensive contractual requirements, including strict limits on processing personal information.


What is aggregating?

Aggregating personal information and data means combining information from multiple people and sources in a way that does not personally identify you or anyone directly.

When we share information, with who, and why

What information we share

Other members

To connect you with other members on our app.

Where required by law, we may let members who may have reported a violation of our Terms and Conditions of Use involving you, what actions we took, if any, as a result of their report.

All information that you voluntarily make available on your profile or share with other members via the App.

Members may share information about you (e.g. as part of a ‘Share Date’ feature, to recommend to a friend, or to report a violation of the Terms and Conditions of Use).

Service Providers

To offer some of our functions and services that are made possible by working with our trusted Service Providers. The specific Service Provider we share personal information with depends on various factors, such as which of our App, Sites, and other services a person is using.

We will only share your personal information with Service Providers when necessary to perform these functions and provide such services.

Each Service Provider will only have access to the personal information necessary for the specific service they are providing.

For example, in order to provide our services, we typically use Service Providers like:

  • Billing services to allow customers to purchase paid features of our App
    (for example, Google Play)
  • Authentication services to allow customers to authenticate their account
    • Veriff provides identity verification services using document and biometric checks (e.g. ID scans and selfies). Veriff will delete any data collected during the verification process, such as a selfie, the photograph of your ID, and any biometric data it may have collected, within 72 hours and never retain it for longer than 30 days after the verification is complete.
    • Twilio provides communication and authentication services used for account verification via SMS or voice. The platform processes limited user data, such as phone numbers and verification codes, to confirm user identity securely.
    • Prove provides authentication services used for account verification. The platform processes device information, such as IP address, to confirm user identity securely. These authentication services may share this data with other third parties, such as wireless carriers and mobile network operators
  • Social media providers to allow customers to create and connect their Bumble account with their social media accounts
    (for example, Facebook, or Spotify)
  • Customer support services to help us respond to your enquiries
    • Zendesk provides customer support software for managing member inquiries and service tickets. It processes user contact details and message content to facilitate effective issue resolution.
    • Sierra delivers customer support services, helping to manage member communications and automate common support tasks. It processes customer interactions to ensure timely and accurate responses.
  • Moderation services
    • Cinder is a content moderation and community management platform that helps identify, review, and act on harmful or policy-violating content. It processes user-generated data, such as reports, messages, and media, to support safe community interactions and ensure compliance with moderation standards.
  • Product improvement and market research by working with third-party platforms and agencies to carry out customer surveys and research to improve our products and services
    • Typeform provides survey and form tools to collect user feedback and research data. It processes member responses and identifiers to support product improvement and customer insights.
    • Kantar delivers market research and analytics services, helping to understand user behaviour and preferences. It processes aggregated and anonymised data to provide market insights and benchmarking analysis.
  • IT services by working with third-party software providers used in operating our business for technical support
    • Google Cloud supplies cloud hosting and computing infrastructure for storing and processing member data.
  • AI tool providers to assist with message prompts - product features - OpenAI (it only retains inputs and prompts for 30 days) (for example, our Icebreakers feature - see more information here)
Depending on the service or function, this can include any personal information discussed in this Policy that we have related to you.
Moderators

To monitor activity on the App for compliance with the Community Guidelines and the Terms and Conditions of Use.

  • Name
  • Member registration details
  • Profile information
  • Message content
  • Photographs
Payment Processing and Telecommunications Companies

To facilitate payments for our premium services.

  • Cardholder name
  • Cardholder address
  • Card number
  • Payment amount
  • Transaction date/time
Marketing Service Providers*

To partner with Service Providers focused on marketing services to:

  • market and advertise our App and services on third-party websites and applications
  • measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns

For example, this can involve:

  • excluding people who already have a Bumble account from advertising campaigns aimed at finding new members
  • showing Bumble ads to people who have visited our App or Sites but haven’t created an account yet
  • creating an advertisement audience of other potential members with characteristics suitable for our App (including behavioural factors - they upload photos, make purchases, photo verify, respond to profile prompts, have not been penalised for bad online behaviour, swipe speed) based on a Marketing Service Provider’s information (also known as a “lookalike audience”)
  • sending you specific Bumble advertising content by including you on a list of people we think are most likely to be interested in a particular advertisement (also known as a “custom audience”)

*The full list of marketing service providers can be accessed in the Settings under Security and Privacy section

  • Advertising identifier associated with your device (Device ID)
  • Estimated location (based on your IP address)
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Data about your visit to our Sites or App and the actions you take, for example, if you:
    • downloaded our App
    • created a Bumble account
    • made purchases in the App or on the Sites
  • Encrypted (hashed) email address (only to create “custom audiences”)*

*When shared with a Marketing Service Provider, hashed emails are deleted after the ads are served.

Advertising Partners

To publish third-party ads on our Apps

We share limited personal information with advertising partners, if you provide your consent via a cookie consent banner, to show you relevant third party ads on our App.

  • Gender
  • Age
  • IP address
  • Coarse location
Facebook

To partner with Facebook as a Marketing Service Provider to:

  • measure the effectiveness of our advertising
  • improve our marketing practices
  • deliver more relevant advertising to you and people like you, including on social media

When we share personal information with Facebook in this specific context, such as through the Facebook “Like” function, we are considered “Joint Data Controllers” with Facebook Ireland for this data processing.

What does this mean?
We tell you about this processing of your personal information here in this Policy, but you should contact Facebook if you want to exercise your data protection rights for this processing.
To learn more about how Facebook processes your personal information as an independent data controller and allows you to exercise your rights, check out Facebook Ireland’s Data Policy. If you want more information about our relationship with Facebook, just email DPO@bumble.com.

  • Actions you take on our Sites and how you interact with them
  • Information collected from cookies or similar technologies, including the Facebook pixel
Legal Enforcement and Preventing Harm

To ensure everyone using the App behaves appropriately and follows our Terms and Conditions of Use.
To work with third parties to enforce their intellectual property or other rights.
To cooperate with legal requests for information from law enforcement when we are required by law, which can include an investigation into alleged criminal behaviour or to protect a person’s vital interests.

What does this mean?
We can save or share any of your personal information discussed in this Policy if we believe in good faith that it is necessary to:

  • follow a law or regulation, binding court order or direction, or lawful request
  • protect the safety of any person
  • address fraud, security, or technical issues, such as by working with anti-spam providers to protect the App and Sites from criminal activity
  • protect a third party’s rights or property, or our own

In any of these cases, it is our decision alone whether or not to act on any right available to us, such as rejecting a request for information where necessary.

Depending on the specific request or issue, this can include any personal information discussed in this Policy that we have related to you.

Our Business Transfers

To help bring a smooth changeover in the event one of our companies, a Bumble Group entity, or any of our affiliates goes through a business transition or change of ownership. For example, this can include:

  • merger
  • acquisition by another company
  • re-organisation
  • sale of all or a part of its assets
  • insolvency or administration

Depending on the situation, this can include any personal information discussed in this Policy that we have related to you.

Anti-Spam and Anti-Fraud Procedures

To apply our anti-spam and anti-fraud procedures by sharing your personal information with our other companies (Bumble Group companies). For example, to block accounts and suspected fraudulent payment transactions.

  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • IP address
  • IP session information
  • Social network ID
  • Username
  • User agent string
  • Transaction and payment data
Aggregated Information

To carry out analysis of our industry and demographic profiling by sharing aggregated information with third parties for this purpose. For example, we can share aggregate click statistics, such as how many times a particular link was clicked.

Personal information that does not directly identify you, together with other information, including log data

You generally have the following rights regarding your personal information, depending on the specific circumstances:

  • Your right to know what personal information we process and why.

  • Your right to request a copy of the personal information we have about you.

  • Your right to correct the personal information we have about you if it’s inaccurate.

  • Your right to retrieve your personal information from us to easily transfer it to another location.

  • Your right to have your personal information deleted, except if we have compelling reasons to keep it (like following the law).

  • Your right to limit or stop how we use your personal information. If processing is restricted, we can still store the information but can’t use it further.

  • Your right to complain to us or your country’s data privacy authority if you don’t agree with how we handle your data or address your concerns. If you have a concern about how we handle your personal information or a request, we encourage you to first contact us.

  • Your right not to be affected by automatic decisions made without any human involvement, especially if those decisions have significant or legal effects on you.

If you live in the UK, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

If you live in the EU or European Economic Area (“EEA”), you can get in touch with your local Data Protection Regulator.

If you live outside the UK, EU, or EEA, reach out to your local privacy data protection regulator.

If you want to learn more or exercise your rights, just visit our Feedback Page, email our Data Protection Officer at DPO@bumble.com, or contact us. To protect you and everyone on the App and Sites, we might need to ask you for specific information to help us confirm your identity before we answer your request.

If yes, there’s a bit more information you need to know. In addition to the rights we just described, people living in California have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”):

Right to exercise your rights
Right to know
Right to delete
Shine the Light Law
Joint promotions
Do not track signals
How do we handle and store your personal information?

We will only keep your personal information as long as necessary for the relevant purpose and legal basis described in the How do we use your information? section, but never longer than allowed by applicable law.

And don’t forget:

  • Profile Verification Information: if you verify your profile, we only keep any biometric scans we receive so that we can verify you in the future and for our record-keeping purposes until we no longer need them for such purposes or for three years after your last interaction with us, whichever occurs first.

GOOD TO KNOW

Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may still be viewable or accessible if it was previously shared, copied, or stored with or by others. We cannot control this and we are not legally responsible or liable for this.

If you give third-party apps or websites access to your personal information, their own terms of service or privacy policies control how they handle your personal information.

If you delete your account, we make sure it is no longer viewable on the App. Just in case you delete by accident or change your mind, it’s possible to restore your account for up to 28 days after deleting. We will also begin the process of deleting your personal information if you are no longer actively using your account, i.e. after 4 years of no activity on your account.

GOOD TO KNOW

Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may still be viewable or accessible if it was previously shared, copied, or stored with or by others. We cannot control this and we are not legally responsible or liable for this.

If you give third-party apps or websites access to your personal information, their own terms of service or privacy policies control how they handle your personal information.
For Example
  • If you make purchases within the App, we might need to keep some personal information for tax and accounting purposes for 10 years after which it will be anonymised
  • If an account is blocked, we might need to keep some account information and a record of the behaviour that resulted in blocking the account as evidence for possible queries or legal claims for 6 years (or for 15 years in severe cases)
  • If there is a payment dispute for a paid feature, we might need to keep personal information to resolve it for 6 years
  • If a member was banned for unsafe behaviour or security incidents, we might need to keep information to prevent them from opening a new account for 6 years (or for 15 years in severe cases)

After these 28 days, we start the process of deleting your personal information, unless:

  • we must keep it to follow applicable law
  • we must keep it to prove we followed applicable law
  • there is an outstanding issue, claim, or dispute that requires us to keep the relevant information until it is resolved
  • the information must be kept for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud prevention and enhancing safety and security for people using our App and Sites

Our App and Sites are global – we want you to be able to access Bumble and make connections wherever you happen to be in the world. To make this possible, we operate a global network of servers to provide the App and Sites, and store your personal information. Our network includes servers in the US, UK, and the EU. Here are some points to keep in mind:

  • Your personal information will be sent to and used in the US and UK, no matter what country you live in.
  • The personal information collected by our trusted Service Providers and advertising partners might also be held outside the US and EU.

In any case, we make sure your personal information is adequately protected – especially when transferred overseas. We make sure that valid, legal mechanisms are in place, such as the EU-approved model clauses, and the UK addendum to such clauses, and enforce strong contractual standards. If you want more information about the protections we have in place, just email DPO@bumble.com.

How do we keep your information secure?

Here at Bumble, we take all appropriate and reasonable security measures to:

  • help protect your information against loss, misuse, and unauthorised access or sharing
  • protect the confidentiality of your personal information, such as by using secured servers with firewalls

Although we want as many people as possible to enjoy our creation, you must be at least 18 years old to use Bumble.

We do not knowingly collect any information or market to children, minors, or anyone under 18 years old. If we become aware that someone under 18 has registered a Bumble account and shared personal information with us, we will take steps to terminate that person’s registration.

Your US State Privacy Rights

Some US states have their own privacy laws, regulations, and rights. If you see your state listed here, we have some extra information to share with you. Please read this information along with our Privacy Policy.

GOOD TO KNOW

Wherever you live, we care about your privacy. You can make a request for your data either through our app or by contacting our support team.

Your US State Privacy Rights

Some US states have their own privacy laws, regulations, and rights. If you see your state listed here, we have some extra information to share with you. We encourage you to review this information carefully, along with this Privacy Policy so you can understand your options and make the choices that are best for you.

Right to know

You have the right to request to know what personal information we have collected about you, including the categories of personal information, the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected, the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing personal information, the categories of third parties to whom we disclose personal information, and the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you. You may also receive additional information regarding certain disclosures we make to third parties.

Right to delete

You have the right to request that we delete personal information that we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions. Note we may not be able to (or be required to) fully address your request to delete, such as if we need to complete a transaction for you, to detect and protect against fraudulent and illegal activity, to exercise our rights, for our internal purposes, or to comply with a legal obligation.

Right to data portability

You have the right to request to access your information in a portable format.

Right to Correct

You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information that we may maintain about you, subject to appropriate verification.

Right to Opt Out of the Sale or Sharing of Personal Information

You have the right to opt-out of the “sale” or “sharing” of your personal information to third parties, as such terms are defined in applicable privacy law.

Right to Opt Out of Targeted Advertising

You have the right to opt-out of “targeted” advertising, as such term is defined in applicable privacy law.

Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information

You may have the right to request that we only use your sensitive personal information for limited purposes.

To exercise your privacy rights available to you, please visit the How Can You Reach Us section below for additional information on how to contact us. We may request certain information to verify your identity before we can respond to your requests. We will confirm receipt of your request and will respond to your request within the legally required timeframe (if any), after verification, unless we need additional time, in which case we will let you know.

Right to appeal

You may have the right to appeal our decision to decline a request made in connection with your personal information. If we decline your request, we will provide you with instructions regarding how to appeal such a decision when we notify you that we have declined your request.

Authorized Agent

You may authorize someone to make a privacy rights request on your behalf (an authorized agent). Authorized agents will need to demonstrate that you've authorized them to act on your behalf or must demonstrate they have the right to make such request. Bumble retains the right to request confirmation directly from you that the agent is authorized to make such a request, or to request additional information to confirm the agent's identity.

Shine the Light Law

If you are a resident of California, California's "Shine the Light" law permits you to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To request more information concerning the categories of personal information we share with third parties for their direct marketing purposes, please contact us using the information at the bottom of this policy.

Do not track signals

To exercise your right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information or to opt out of targeted advertising, you may also choose to enable online, where available, a universal tool that automatically communicates your opt-out preferences, such as the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”). We will process the GPC signal as a request to opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information.



Types of Information we have Sold or Shared in the Previous 12 MonthsPurposeCategories of Third Parties
  • Advertising identifier associated with your device (Device ID)
  • Estimated location (based on your IP address)
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Data about your visit to our Sites or App and the actions you take, for example, if you:
    • downloaded our App
    • created a Bumble account
    • made purchases in the App or on the Sites
  • Encrypted (hashed) email address (only to create “custom audiences”)*

*When shared with a Marketing Service Provider, hashed emails are deleted after the ads are served.

Marketing Service Providers*

To partner with Service Providers focused on marketing services to:

  • market and advertise our App and services on third-party websites and applications
  • measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns

For example, this can involve:

  • excluding people who already have a Bumble account from advertising campaigns aimed at finding new members
  • showing Bumble ads to people who have visited our App or Sites but haven’t created an account yet
  • creating an advertisement audience of other potential members with characteristics suitable for our App (including behavioural factors - they upload photos, make purchases, photo verify, respond to profile prompts, have not been penalised for bad online behaviour, swipe speed) based on a Marketing Service Provider’s information (also known as a “lookalike audience”)
  • sending you specific Bumble advertising content by including you on a list of people we think are most likely to be interested in a particular advertisement (also known as a “custom audience”)

*The full list of marketing service providers can be accessed in the Settings under Security and Privacy section

Marketing Service Providers
  • Gender
  • Age
  • IP address
  • Coarse location
Advertising Partners

To publish third-party ads on our Apps

We share limited personal information with advertising partners, if you provide your consent via a cookie consent banner, to show you relevant third party ads on our App.

Advertising Partners
  • Actions you take on our Sites and how you interact with them
  • Information collected from cookies or similar technologies, including the Facebook pixel
Facebook

To partner with Facebook as a Marketing Service Provider to:

  • measure the effectiveness of our advertising
  • improve our marketing practices
  • deliver more relevant advertising to you and people like you, including on social media

When we share personal information with Facebook in this specific context, such as through the Facebook “Like” function, we are considered “Joint Data Controllers” with Facebook Ireland for this data processing.

What does this mean?
We tell you about this processing of your personal information here in this Policy, but you should contact Facebook if you want to exercise your data protection rights for this processing.
To learn more about how Facebook processes your personal information as an independent data controller and allows you to exercise your rights, check out Facebook Ireland’s Data Policy. If you want more information about our relationship with Facebook, just email DPO@bumble.com.

Social Media Companies


Students

We collect information about members who might be in college or university in order to improve services for students. This only applies to people who use the App and identified themselves when registering as being from the United States or Canada (except Quebec) and 18 – 24 years old.

We collect recent location data of where you opened the App to see if your device’s coordinates match a general university or college area. It’s a simple “are they at campus? yes/no” result based on what we find. We get this information from the device you use to access the Bumble social networking service.

We combine these results with other relevant information we have so that we can:

  • send the right offers, events, and features to the right users
  • understand which Bumble events are popular with students or not working so well
  • improve the App design to meet the needs of students

What we don’t do. We do not:

  • track your live, real-time movements as part of this activity
  • identify or store information about where you are studying

To be clear: to protect your privacy, we do not keep any of the location data used for this activity. It is permanently deleted once we have the “at campus? yes/no” result.

How Can You Reach Us?

Your experience with Bumble, our App, and our Sites is very important to us.

What you’ll find in this section