Privacy Policy

Mad Buddy ("we", "us") is a private social proximity app operated by Godfred Ofosu Asante, Ashongman Estate. It helps mutually approved friends ("Muddies") notice roughly when they are nearby, lets you deliberately enable Linkr when you want to discover someone new, and offers Conference for anonymous-to-other-members local conversations. In both cases, the ordinary proximity experience is designed not to reveal your exact location to another user. This policy explains what we collect, why, what other people can and cannot see, and what control you have.

• Account information: your email address, display name, username, and password (stored as a hash by our authentication provider; we never see your plain-text password).
• Profile information you choose to add: a bio, a mood status, and a profile photo.
• A single location signal: when your glow is on, your device sends your current coordinates over an encrypted connection. We store only your most recent signal: each update overwrites the previous one. We do not keep a location history.
• Derived proximity signals: short-lived records of broad proximity used by Mad Buddy's proximity features, designed to expire after 15 minutes. A feature may display a named proximity band, its broad category range, or a coarsely rounded estimate, but not the underlying precise measurement.
• Conference activity: Topics, Voices, Hype/Pass votes, reports and anonymous per-Topic Voice identifiers. Conference also keeps one coarse current location signal while you use it so the server can decide which Topics are within 15 km.
• Notifications and social activity: friend requests, waves, meet-up pings, and in-app notifications you send or receive.
• Billing information: if you subscribe, our payment provider (Paystack) processes your payment. We store a reference to your subscription status and plan, never your card number.

• Location is collected only in the foreground, when the app is open and your glow is on. There is no background tracking.
• Your raw coordinates are processed on our servers only. They are converted into broad proximity information before anything is shared with another user.
• A label may be explained with a broad category range, such as Just Around · 0–100 m. This range describes the category that the signal falls within. It is not your precise measured distance or position.
• Other users do not receive your coordinates, a live map position, your precise measured distance, your direction of travel, your street address, or your location history through Mad Buddy's ordinary proximity experience.
• Turning on Ghost Mode removes you from nearby visibility immediately. This is enforced on the server, not just hidden in the interface.
• Conference is separate from Glow. Opening Conference does not turn Glow on or refresh your Glow location. Conference uses its own overwrite-only coarse current signal when needed, including while Ghost Mode is on.

• Muddies are people you have mutually approved.
• Approved Muddies may receive privacy-preserving proximity information according to your visibility settings.
• They may see a named proximity band and its broad category range, together with the profile information you have chosen to make available in that relationship. The category does not reveal your precise measured distance or position.
• Removing a Muddy or blocking someone ends their Muddy proximity access.

• Linkr is different from Muddy proximity. It is a discovery mode you deliberately enable when you want to meet someone new.
• While you have Linkr enabled, eligible people who are not yet Muddies may receive a privacy-safe approximate proximity signal as part of discovery.
• Linkr may show a broad or coarsely rounded proximity estimate. It does not give another person your exact GPS coordinates, street address or street-level location, precise measured distance, live map position, direction of travel, or location history.
• A Linkr discovery does not make someone a Muddy automatically. A continuing connection still requires mutual choice.
• When you stop your Linkr session, Linkr discovery stops.

• Conference shows local Topics from members whose Topic anchor falls within roughly 15 km of your current Conference area.
• Other members see a temporary per-Topic label such as Voice 12, not your Mad Buddy profile identity. Mad Buddy keeps the account mapping privately for safety, blocking and moderation.
• Conference never shows another member your coordinates, map position, exact distance, direction of travel or street-level location.
• A Topic stores a coarse server-only creation anchor while it is active. That anchor is cleared when the Topic expires.
• Blocking someone removes their Conference content in both directions. Reporting a Topic or Voice hides that item from the reporter immediately and sends it to the existing safety review system.
• You can delete your own Conference Topics and Voices. A deleted Topic disappears immediately and its coarse location anchor is cleared immediately; limited server-side content retention may continue briefly for safety, moderation and abuse review.

• Exact GPS coordinates.
• A live map position or map pin showing where you are.
• Precise measured distance or direction of travel. A broad category range or coarsely rounded estimate is not the underlying precise measurement.
• Street addresses or street-level location.
• Location history.

• For Muddy proximity, only people you have mutually approved as Muddies can receive your Muddy proximity signal, subject to your visibility settings.
• For Linkr, eligible people who are not yet Muddies may receive a privacy-safe approximate proximity signal only while you have deliberately enabled Linkr discovery.
• Blocking someone removes proximity visibility and interaction in both directions.
• Removing a Muddy ends their Muddy proximity access.

• Location signal: only the most recent one; each update overwrites the last.
• Proximity records: designed to expire after 15 minutes.
• Account, profile, and social data: kept while your account exists.
• After account deletion: see below.

When you delete your account from Settings, we delete your profile, your stored location signals, your proximity records, your Conference Topics, Voices, votes and hidden-Voice state, your friendships and requests, your notifications, your circles, your preferences, your uploaded photos, and your authentication record. We retain a minimal audit entry (a "Deleted User" label and a billing reference, where a paid subscription existed) for fraud prevention and financial record-keeping, and reports you filed or that were filed about you are anonymized rather than deleted so that our safety team's decisions remain accountable.

Subscriptions are processed by Paystack. Payment webhooks from Paystack are cryptographically verified before we act on them. We never store your full card details.

Our server logs record request metadata (route, status, timing, error category) for reliability and abuse prevention. Our logging layer is built to refuse location fields, so coordinates are not written to logs.

Our website uses Google Analytics to understand how visitors use it and improve the experience. Google Analytics may use cookies and collect page views, interactions, browser and device information, referral information, and an approximate region derived from the request's IP address. This website analytics is separate from the location signals used for Mad Buddy's proximity features.

Mad Buddy uses essential cookies and browser storage for functions such as signing in and remembering preferences. Google Analytics also uses cookies for website measurement.

We have applied to use Google AdSense. Applying and verifying ownership do not mean that advertising has been approved or enabled. When advertising is enabled, Google and its advertising partners may use cookies, web beacons, IP addresses and device information to deliver and measure ads and prevent fraud. Third parties may place or read cookies in your browser as a result of ad serving. Google advertising cookies can support personalised ads based on visits to this and other websites, subject to applicable consent requirements and your choices.

You can manage Google's personalised advertising choices at https://myadcenter.google.com. You can also restrict cookies in your browser and use Google's Analytics opt-out browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Blocking essential cookies can affect sign-in and other app functions. Google's explanation of data use on partner websites is available at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

• Pause your visibility or turn on Ghost Mode at any time.
• Stop a Linkr discovery session when you no longer want discovery active.
• Export a copy of your account data from Settings.
• Delete your account from Settings at any time.
• Contact us about your data at hello@mad-buddy.com.

We will update the "Last updated" date above when this policy changes, and material changes will be announced in the app before they take effect.

Questions about privacy: hello@mad-buddy.com. General support: support@mad-buddy.com.