Privacy Policy
BestDiveBuddy ("BestDiveBuddy", "we", "us") is operated by Zeljko Mijatov, an individual developer based in Serbia. This policy explains what information the BestDiveBuddy app and website collect, why, and what choices you have. It applies to the mobile apps (iOS and Android) and the website at bestdivebuddy.com and app.bestdivebuddy.com.
If anything here is unclear, email support@bestdivebuddy.com — we'll do our best to explain or fix it.
1. Information we collect
We only collect what's needed to run the app: matching divers, letting you communicate, keeping the community safe, and sending the notifications you'd expect.
Account & profile information
- Contact info: your email address (used to sign in and for account-related messages).
- Profile details: display name, username, date of birth, gender, country, preferred language(s), diving certification agency and level, diving pace/air-consumption/depth-comfort preferences, interests, and — once we add the feature — a profile photo.
- Matching preferences: your preferred buddy gender and age range, and whether "mentor mode" is on.
Dive plans & location
- The dive area/region and dates you post when creating a dive plan. This is a general area you choose (e.g. "Hurghada, Egypt"), never your device's precise GPS location.
Communications & user content
- Messages you send to a matched dive buddy in the app's chat.
- Messages you send to our support team, and any suggestions or bug reports you submit.
- Ratings and written feedback you give another user after a dive, and reports you file about another user.
Technical & usage information
- A push-notification token, if you allow notifications, so we can deliver them.
- Which platform you're using (iOS, Android, or web).
- Referral information if you were invited by another user (e.g. an anonymous install-attribution signal on Android, or a short-lived invite code read from your clipboard on iOS immediately after tapping a referral link — never anything else on your clipboard).
Information from third-party sign-in
If you sign in with Google (or, in future, Apple), that provider shares your name, email address, and profile photo with us, per their own privacy terms, so we can create your account. We don't receive your password.
What we don't collect
We don't collect precise GPS location, payment/card details (the app has no in-app purchases today), or any data for third-party advertising — we don't use any ad or analytics SDKs.
2. How we use your information
- To create and run your account, and match you with compatible dive buddies.
- To let you and a matched buddy communicate, propose, and confirm a dive.
- To send notifications about matches, messages, dive reminders, and (only if you opt in) occasional promotional messages.
- To respond to support requests and suggestions.
- To review reports, enforce our Terms of Service, and keep the community safe — including a human admin (currently just the developer) being able to view a reported match's chat history to investigate a dispute or safety concern.
- To detect and prevent abuse, fraud, and ban evasion.
Our legal basis for this processing is: performing our contract with you (running the service you signed up for), our legitimate interest in keeping the platform safe and functioning, and your consent where we ask for it (e.g. the marketing-notifications toggle).
3. Who we share information with
We don't sell your data, and we don't share it with advertisers. We do use a small number of service providers ("processors") to run the app:
| Provider | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, authentication, and file storage — where your account and app data actually lives. |
| Resend | Delivers account-related emails (sign-in codes, password resets). |
| Expo / Google Firebase Cloud Messaging / Apple Push Notification service | Deliver push notifications to your device. |
| Google (Sign-In) | Lets you sign in with your Google account, if you choose to. |
| Cloudflare | Hosts this website and handles email routing for our support inbox. |
We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of BestDiveBuddy, our users, or the public.
4. How long we keep your information
We keep your data while your account is active. If you delete your account, we anonymize your profile (name, photo, and identifying details are cleared) and cancel any open dive plans, rather than instantly erasing every database row — this is so that other users' chat history, ratings, and match records they legitimately hold onto stay intact and coherent. We also keep a hashed (non-reversible) record tied to your old email address for a period, purely to detect someone evading a ban by re-signing up — this hash can't be reversed back into your email address. See how to delete your account for the practical steps.
5. Your choices and rights
- Access & correction: you can view and edit almost all of your profile information directly in the app at any time.
- Marketing notifications: off by default; toggle them on/off anytime in Profile → Notifications.
- Deletion: delete your account anytime — see this page.
- Blocking & reporting: you can block another user (stopping all future matching and messages with them) or report them to us, from their profile or chat.
Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under local law — for example the right to request a copy of your data, object to certain processing, or lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (in the EU/EEA, this is the authority for your country of residence; in Serbia, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection). Contact us first at support@bestdivebuddy.com and we'll try to resolve it directly.
6. Children's privacy
BestDiveBuddy is intended for adults 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor is using the app, please contact us at support@bestdivebuddy.com and we'll investigate and remove the account if confirmed.
7. International data transfers
Our service providers (see section 3) may process and store data outside your own country, including outside the EU/EEA. Where that happens, we rely on those providers' own safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses) for the transfer. By using BestDiveBuddy, you understand your information may be processed in a country with different data protection laws than your own.
8. Security
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your data, including encrypted connections (TLS) and database-level access controls that restrict data to the people who are actually meant to see it. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee absolute protection.
9. Changes to this policy
If we make a material change, we'll update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, let you know in the app.
10. Contact us
Questions, requests, or concerns about this policy or your data: support@bestdivebuddy.com.