Privacy Policy

Who we are

Citymates, LLC (“Citymates,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) runs a vetted, video-first dating service for adults, starting in Nashville, along with in-person mixers run by independent Hosts. This policy explains what we collect, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the choices and rights you have when you use our websites, mobile apps, and events (together, the “service”).

Citymates is for adults 18 and older in the United States. If you don’t agree with this policy, please don’t use the service.

The short version

• We collect what we need to verify you, review your profile, match you, and keep members safe.
• Your video answers are transcribed and summarized with AI. We never score looks, faces, bodies, voices, or age, and there is no public score or ranking of any member.
• ID verification is done by Stripe. You choose a selfie face match, or an ID check with no selfie that our staff review. Citymates never receives your face geometry, and we tell Stripe to delete your ID images and face data once your check is done.
• If you don’t sign in for two years, we email you and then delete your account.
• You can turn off AI scoring of your answers, download your data, and delete your account at any time.
• We do not sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Information we collect

Account and sign-in. Your name, email address, and sign-in details. Sign-in is handled by our authentication provider, Authio, which may use email codes or passkeys.

Identity verification. To confirm you’re a real adult, you verify with a government-issued photo ID through Stripe Identity, either with a selfie that Stripe matches to your ID or without a selfie. Stripe collects the ID images and, if you choose it, the selfie. Citymates receives the verification result, the Stripe session reference, and the date of birth on your ID, and keeps a record of the notice you agreed to and when. See Biometric information below.

Profile. Display name, birthdate (we show your age, not your birthdate), gender, who you’re interested in, the age range and distance you’re looking for, bio, and photos. Photos are stored in private storage that we control and are shown to other members through short-lived links.

Optional details. If you choose to share them: whether you have or want kids, how important religion is to you, drinking, and smoking. You can leave these blank.

Video and what we derive from it. Video answers to profile prompts and to other members’ questions, audio, transcripts, short AI summaries (“vibe cards”) with interests and conversation starters, positions on our dating sliders, text embeddings used for similarity, and private fit scores. See Video and AI processing.

Compatibility quiz. Where you place yourself on each dating slider, what you’re looking for, how important each one is to you, and any dealbreakers.

Activity. Questions you set and your private “what I’m looking for” note, answers you send and receive, passes, matches, chat messages, blocks, reports, Ask friends links you create and the votes friends leave on them, mixer tickets, and check-ins.

Location. Your city and an approximate, neighborhood-level location, used to confirm you’re in a city we serve and to apply distance filters. We do not collect precise GPS location.

Safety and security signals. Signals we use to prevent fraud and abuse, such as whether an email address is disposable, moderation results on your messages and videos, reports from other members, and attempts to move a conversation off Citymates early.

Matchmaker. If you subscribe to Citymates Matchmaker, the brief you write about what you’re looking for, which Host is your matchmaker, the intros they send you and their notes, and whether you accepted or passed. If a matchmaker suggests you to a subscriber, the intro, the note, and your decision.

Payments. If you subscribe to Citymates Pro or Matchmaker, or buy a mixer ticket, Stripe processes your payment. We receive the plan, amounts, and payment status. We don’t store full card numbers.

Device and usage. Device type, app version, IP address, browser, pages viewed, and push notification tokens if you allow notifications.

Communications. Emails and support requests you send us, and records of the service emails and notifications we send you.

Hosts. If you apply to be a Host, we also collect your application, five recorded screening video answers with their transcripts and AI scores, your background check status from Checkr, and, once approved, payout details through Stripe Connect. See Host applicants.

Sensitive information

Some information you give us is sensitive under U.S. state privacy laws, including your sexual orientation (who you’re interested in), and religion or health-related details you choose to share. Your ID and date of birth are also sensitive. We use sensitive information only to provide the service you asked for: verifying you, showing you compatible members, and keeping the community safe. We don’t use it for advertising, and we don’t sell or share it. By adding optional details like religion to your profile, you consent to us processing them for these purposes. You can remove optional details at any time.

Gender and who you’re interested in. Together these can reveal your sexual orientation, so we ask for your explicit opt-in before we store them, in a separate checkbox next to those questions. We keep a record of when you agreed and which version of the wording you saw. We use them only to match you and to show your profile to the right people. You don’t have to agree to sign up or use Citymates, but we can’t match you until you do. You can change them in your profile at any time, or withdraw your consent and have them deleted by emailing privacy@citymates.com.

Video and AI processing

When you record a video answer on Citymates:

• We store it with our video provider, Mux, in an environment used only for Citymates.
• We transcribe it using Deepgram, so people can read along and so we can check it for safety.
• We summarize it with an AI language model into a short vibe card with interests and conversation starters.
• We estimate where you fall on our dating sliders (for example, homebody vs. out-and-about) from your answers and, if you take it, your compatibility quiz.
• We check it for safety. Automated tools look for harassment, hate speech, sexual content, self-harm, and nudity in transcripts and sampled video frames.

This video, transcription, and analysis work is run for us by InsightHire, a company under common ownership with Citymates, acting as our service provider. Only a Citymates member ID is shared with InsightHire, not your name or email, and your answers go through a tool designed to remove personal details before any AI model sees them.

Scores. Match % is calculated from both members’ slider positions, preferences, and answers, checked in both directions. When you answer another member’s questions, an AI model compares your answer with what that member privately said they’re looking for and gives them a fit score. Only that member sees it, and it means “fit for them,” nothing more. There is no public score or ranking of any member.

What we never do. We never score looks, faces, bodies, voices, or age. We never use facial recognition or emotion analysis on your videos. We never sell your videos or transcripts.

Opting out of AI scoring. You can turn off AI scoring of your answers at any time in your settings. Your answers will still be transcribed and safety checks will still run, and members you answer will still see your video and transcript, but no fit score.

Chat safety. Chat messages are checked by automated moderation, which may use OpenAI’s moderation service and Anthropic’s Claude models, plus our own rules. Messages that look like threats, requests for money, or sexual content involving minors are held and not delivered. Early in a conversation, phone numbers, emails, links, and social handles are hidden automatically to help prevent scams.

Automated processing and human review

A person on our staff reviews every profile before it can be shown to anyone, and people make decisions to approve, reject, restrict, or remove accounts. Automated tools flag content for review and help hold clearly unsafe chat messages, but they don’t make final approval or enforcement decisions on their own. You can ask for a review of any decision by emailing support@citymates.com.

Host applicants

If you apply to host mixers, this section applies to you in addition to the rest of this policy.

• What we collect: your name, email, phone number, neighborhood, how long you’ve lived in the city, why you’d be a good Host, the campaign link you came from (if any), and whether you’ve verified your identity. Staff add review notes and the decision.
• Screening videos: you record five short video answers to fixed questions inside Citymates. They are stored with Mux, transcribed by Deepgram, and analyzed by InsightHire, our service provider. Only your application ID is shared with InsightHire, not your name, email, or phone number.
• AI scoring, human decision: an AI model scores each answer against a written rubric for the qualities a Host needs (for example, welcoming newcomers, handling a guest who ignores a “no,” and reliability), and we average the scores. Staff watch your videos, read your transcripts, and make every decision to advance, hold, or reject. The score never rejects anyone automatically. We don’t score looks, faces, voices, or age, and we don’t use facial recognition on screening videos.
• Background check: applicants who reach that stage are checked through Checkr, a consumer reporting agency, which asks for your authorization and gives you the disclosures the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires. We keep the check’s status, and authorized staff can view the report in Checkr. If Checkr isn’t available, staff complete the check manually and record the result.
• How long we keep it: screening videos, transcripts, and per-answer scores are kept while your application is being considered and while you’re a Host. If your application is rejected, we erase them from Citymates and InsightHire, including the video, 90 days after the decision. Staff can erase them sooner, and you can ask us to at any time by emailing privacy@citymates.com. Your application record, overall score, and decision are kept as a record of who has applied and why we decided as we did. You can ask us to delete it.

Biometric information: notice, consent, and retention schedule

Verifying a government ID is optional; members who do it get a Verified badge. Verification runs through our identity partner, Stripe. You choose how:

• ID + selfie (fastest). Stripe compares a selfie you take with the photo on your ID. To do this, Stripe creates facial geometry, which is a biometric identifier under laws such as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, Texas Business and Commerce Code § 503.001, and Washington RCW 19.375.
• ID only, no selfie. Stripe checks that your ID is genuine and reads your date of birth, with no selfie and no facial geometry. A person on our staff then compares the photo on your ID with your profile photos and videos by eye. This takes longer.

This notice is our written policy for biometric information:

• Consent first. Before any check starts, the app and website show this notice and ask you to tick a box agreeing to it. We record the date, time, and notice version you agreed to. Stripe also asks for consent in its own flow. If you don’t agree, choose the ID-only option or don’t verify.
• What is collected: images of your ID, and for the selfie option, a selfie and the facial geometry Stripe derives from it to compare the two.
• Who collects it: Stripe, as our service provider and under its own privacy policy. Citymates never receives or stores facial geometry or your selfie. Our staff can view your ID images in Stripe’s dashboard only for ID-only checks, to complete the review. We receive the result, the Stripe session reference, and your date of birth.
• Why: only to verify your identity and age and to prevent fraud and fake accounts. It is never used for matching or marketing, and it is never sold, leased, traded, or otherwise used for profit. It is disclosed only to Stripe, or where the law requires.
• Retention and destruction: as soon as a check is finished (for ID-only checks, as soon as our staff decide), we instruct Stripe to permanently delete the ID images, selfie, facial geometry, and extracted details from that check; Stripe completes deletion within a few days. When you delete your account, we instruct Stripe to delete every check on file. For a check that fails or that you never finish, Stripe keeps biometric identifiers for no more than one year and ID images for no more than three years, unless you delete your account sooner. In no case is biometric information kept longer than one year after your last check or longer than the law allows.
• Security: biometric information is protected with at least the same care we use for other sensitive information.

We don’t use facial recognition on your profile photos or videos, and we don’t extract facial geometry, voiceprints, or any other biometric identifier from them. You can read more in Stripe’s Identity privacy information.

How we use information

• Verify your age and identity and review your profile.
• Show you members who fit what you’re looking for, run Discover, answers, matches, chat, and mixers.
• Keep members safe: moderate content, detect scams and fake accounts, investigate reports, and enforce our Community Guidelines.
• Run Matchmaker: assign subscribers a Host in their city, suggest compatible members to that Host, and deliver intros.
• Process subscriptions, mixer tickets, refunds, and Host payouts.
• Send service emails and push notifications, and, where allowed, updates you can opt out of.
• Understand, fix, and improve the service, including measuring quality and cost.
• Comply with law and protect the rights and safety of members, Hosts, Citymates, and the public.

How we share information

With other members. Approved members can see your profile: display name, age, photos, profile videos, vibe card, and match %. Members you answer see your answer video, transcript, and summary. Matches see your chat messages. Hosts of mixers you attend see your display name and ticket and check-in status, never your contact details.

With matchmakers (Matchmaker). If you subscribe to Matchmaker, your assigned Host sees your profile as other members see it, your brief, and the intros they’ve sent you. If you’re an approved member, a Host working for a subscriber in your city may see your profile as that subscriber would see it in Discover, including your match % and match breakdown with them, so the Host can decide whether to introduce you. The Host sees whether each person accepted or passed an intro they sent. Both people in an intro see the Host’s note. Hosts never see your contact details, last name, ID, fit scores from your answers, or chat messages, and they must keep what they see confidential. Our staff can see Matchmaker records to run the service and handle reports.

With a member’s friends (Ask friends). A member who can see your profile, or who received an answer from you, can send it to friends through a private Ask friends link. Friends don’t need an account. They see your first name, age, photos, bio, interests, and profile videos, or for an answer, the questions, your video answers, transcripts, and summaries. They never see your last name, location, match %, contact details, or fit scores, and chat messages are never shared. Links expire after 72 hours, the member can revoke them, and they stop working if either of you blocks the other or you’re no longer visible to that member. You can opt out at any time in Settings, which closes any open links about you. Friends who vote give us a first name, their vote, and an optional note, and we use their IP address to limit abuse; the member who sent the link sees the name, vote, and note.

With service providers. Companies that process information for us under contract, listed below.

For safety and legal reasons. When we believe in good faith that it’s required by law or legal process, or needed to prevent fraud or serious harm. We report child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children as required by law.

Business transfers. In connection with a merger, financing, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to this policy.

We do not sell personal information for money or other value, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Service providers

• InsightHire LLC: video, transcription, and AI analysis of member video answers and Host screening videos (an affiliate under common ownership with Citymates, acting only on our instructions).
• Mux: video storage and playback.
• Deepgram: speech-to-text transcription.
• OpenAI and Anthropic: AI models for summaries, slider placement, fit scores, and chat safety checks.
• Stripe: identity verification (Stripe Identity), payments and subscriptions, and Host payouts (Stripe Connect).
• Checkr: background checks for Host applicants only (a consumer reporting agency).
• Discord: community and coordination for approved Hosts only.
• Authio: sign-in and authentication.
• Resend: email delivery.
• Expo: mobile push notification delivery.
• Railway: application hosting, databases, and photo storage.

Stripe acts as an independent controller for some identity and payment data under its own privacy policy.

How long we keep information

• Profile, photos, videos, transcripts, summaries, slider placements, embeddings, and fit scores: while your account is open. When you delete your account, we erase them from Citymates and InsightHire.
• Answers you sent to other members’ questions, and your questions: while your account is open, then erased when you delete your account.
• Matchmaker: your brief and intro notes while your account is open; when you delete your account, the brief and the notes on intros involving you are erased and any open intros are closed. Subscription and Host payout records are kept as payment records.
• Chat messages: while your account is open. When you delete your account, the content of messages you sent is replaced with “[deleted].”
• Inactive accounts: if you don’t sign in for two years, we email you, and if you still don’t sign in within 30 days, we delete your account as if you had deleted it yourself.
• Host screening videos: erased 90 days after a rejection, or sooner on request, as described in Host applicants.
• Reports, blocks, and safety records: kept after account deletion, with your profile anonymized, for as long as needed to protect members, investigate harm, and keep banned people from returning.
• ID verification: the result and date of birth from your ID while your account is open; Stripe’s copies are deleted as described in Biometric information.
• Consent records: the notices you agreed to and when, kept after account deletion as proof of consent.
• Payment and tax records: as long as required for accounting, tax, and legal purposes.
• Backups: deleted data may remain in encrypted backups for up to 89 days, after which it is removed from them.

Your choices and rights

• Access and download: download a copy of the data Citymates holds about you from your account, or email us.
• Correct: edit your profile at any time, or ask us to fix something you can’t edit.
• Delete: delete your account from your settings. This erases your video and AI data at InsightHire, deletes your photos, tells Stripe to delete your ID checks, cancels any Citymates Pro or Matchmaker subscription, and removes or anonymizes your Citymates data as described above.
• Opt out of AI scoring in your settings.
• Limit sensitive information: leave optional fields blank or remove them. We already use sensitive information only to provide the service.
• Notifications and email: turn off push notifications in your device settings and unsubscribe from non-essential emails using the link in each one.
• Appeal: if we decline a privacy request, you can appeal by replying to our decision.

To make a request, email privacy@citymates.com from the address on your account. We’ll verify your identity before acting and respond within the time the law requires (generally 45 days). You can use an authorized agent where the law allows. We won’t discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

State privacy rights

California. Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended, California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect, use, and disclose; to access, correct, and delete it; to opt out of sale or sharing; and to limit the use of sensitive personal information. In the past 12 months we collected the categories described in Information we collect: identifiers; customer records; characteristics of protected classifications (age, gender, sexual orientation); commercial information (subscriptions and tickets); internet and device activity; approximate geolocation; audio and video recordings; inferences (slider placements and fit scores); and sensitive personal information (government ID details, sexual orientation, and, through Stripe, biometric information). We collect them from you, your device, other members (for example, reports), and our service providers, for the purposes in How we use information, and disclose them to the service providers listed above. We do not sell or share personal information, and we do not use sensitive personal information beyond what California law permits.

Other states. Residents of states with comprehensive privacy laws, including Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and others, may have rights to access, correct, delete, and port their data, to opt out of targeted advertising, sale, and certain profiling, and to appeal our decision. We ask for your consent before processing sensitive data, and you can exercise these rights using the contact details below.

Washington and Nevada consumer health data. Under Washington’s My Health My Data Act and Nevada SB 370, “consumer health data” can include biometric data. The only such data involved in Citymates is the facial geometry Stripe creates if you choose the selfie ID check, collected only with your consent, used only to verify you, shared only with Stripe, and deleted as described in Biometric information. We don’t collect health conditions, and we never sell consumer health data. You can confirm, access, or delete it, or withdraw consent, using the contact details below, and appeal any refusal by replying to our decision.

Security

We use encryption in transit, access controls limited to staff who need it, private storage with short-lived links for photos and video, a separate video environment for Citymates, and redaction of personal details before AI processing. No service can guarantee perfect security, so please use a strong sign-in method and tell us right away if you think your account has been compromised.

Adults only

Citymates is only for people 18 and older. Every member gives their date of birth and a person reviews every profile before it can be shown; members who verify a government ID have their age confirmed from it. We don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 18, and if we learn someone under 18 has an account, we remove it and delete their data, except what we must keep to prevent them from returning or to meet legal duties.

Where we operate

Citymates is offered in the United States, and your information is stored and processed in the United States.

Changes and contact

We’ll post any changes on this page with a new “Last updated” date, and tell you in the app or by email before material changes take effect.

Questions or privacy requests: privacy@citymates.com. Citymates, LLC.