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Privacy Policy

Effective date: 29 September 2026

Who we are

Oxformals helps Oxford students find, list and swap seats at college formals. The controller of your personal data is Nobel Suhendra, 140 Kingston Road, Oxford OX2 6RP. Contact us about anything in this policy at team@oxformals.com.

What we collect and who sees it

We collect what you give us and what you do on Oxformals. Nothing is bought from third parties.

DataWhatWho can see it
AccountOxford email address, name, college, year, role (e.g. undergraduate), subject. A password if you set one (stored hashed).Who can see it: Email: only us. Name, college, year, role, subject: other members. Name, college, year and role also show on your listings, which anyone can see.
University CardA photo of your University Card, only if you sign up without an Oxford email, to confirm you're an Oxford student. The photo is deleted once it's checked; the college and expiry date read from it are kept.Who can see it: OpenAI, which reads it. If it's unclear, the Oxformals admin.
ProfileBio, profile photo or avatar, Instagram handle, phone/WhatsApp number (optional), dietary requirements (only if you opt in).Who can see it: Bio and photo: other members. Instagram, phone and dietary requirements: only people you're matched with for an upcoming formal.
ActivityListings, requests and swaps, spoons (seat credits), group bookings and the friends you name in them, follows, your private-account setting, college reviews and their photos, review votes, feed comments, likes and bookmarks, badges, attendance confirmations, wishlist colleges, college tips and guide edits.Who can see it: Listings, reviews, tips and guides: anyone (you can post a review anonymously). Comments: anyone who can see what you commented on. With a private account, your reviews, badges, attended formals and wishlist are followers only. Requests and swaps: the people involved. Votes, likes, bookmarks, credits: only you.
ContactsOnly in the mobile app, and only if you tap Find friends: the phone numbers and email addresses in your address book are sent to us to see who is already on Oxformals. They are compared and discarded straight away; we do not store them or contact anyone in them.Who can see it: Nobody. People who already hold your number or Oxford email can find your account this way; switch that off under Settings, Privacy.
MessagesChats and group chats, including mentions and shared listings.Who can see it: The people in that chat.
ReportsReports you make or that are made about you, of a person, bio, review, listing, comment or message (including a copy of the reported text).Who can see it: Only us.
DevicePush notification tokens for the mobile app, your notification settings, your chosen UI font.Who can see it: Only us.
TechnicalServer and security logs (IP address, browser or device, time of request) kept by our hosting providers.Who can see it: Only us and those providers.

Share images (for Instagram stories) show only a first name, or no name for anonymous reviews and private accounts.

Why we use it

PurposeLawful basis (UK GDPR)
Running your account, listings, requests, swaps, spoons, chats and profileBasis: Contract: it's the service you signed up for.
Service emails (sign-in codes, request updates, formals that change)Basis: Contract.
Checking you're an Oxford member (Oxford email, or a photo of your University Card)Basis: Legitimate interests: keeping the community to Oxford students.
Safety and moderation: automated checks on bios and tips, reports, swap-break records, rate limitsBasis: Legitimate interests: keeping members safe and stopping abuse.
Fixing bugs and improving the productBasis: Legitimate interests.
Sharing dietary requirements with your formal matchesBasis: Explicit consent (the tick box in your profile). Untick it to withdraw.
Push notifications and optional email notificationsBasis: Consent. Turn them off in Settings or on your device.

We don't sell your data, show ads or make decisions about you by automated means alone.

Service providers and transfers

These companies process data for us, under contract and only on our instructions:

  • Convex — Database, file storage and backend.
  • Vercel — Hosts the website.
  • Resend — Sends our emails.
  • Expo — Delivers push notifications to the mobile app.
  • OpenAI — Automatically checks bios and college tips for abusive content before they're published, and reads University Card photos. Reports from members, and cards it can't confirm, are reviewed by a person.

All of them are based in, or store data in, the United States. We rely on the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (the “UK–US data bridge”) where the provider is certified, and otherwise on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

How long we keep it

  • Sign-in codes: 10 minutes, single use.
  • Sign-in cookie: 7 days. Server sessions end after 30 days, or when you sign out.
  • Your account: until you delete it. Past listings and requests stay with your account until then.
  • Server logs: as long as our hosting providers keep them, typically days to weeks.

When you delete your account we remove your profile, email, sign-in records, follows, likes, bookmarks, comments, tips, votes, reports, badges, wishlist, push tokens, spoon balance and every photo or file you uploaded, and blank the free text on your requests. Some records are kept, without your name, because other people rely on them:

  • Messages you sent stay in the other person's chat, shown as from “Deleted user”, for 12 months.
  • Your college reviews (text and ratings, not photos) stay, shown as by “Deleted user”, for 24 months.
  • Seat-credit records stay so other members' balances add up, for 2 years after the formal (or after a dispute about it is settled, if later).
  • Records of broken swaps stay to prevent abuse, for 12 months from when the swap was broken.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can:

  • Access your data: ask us for a copy.
  • Correct it: edit your profile, or ask us.
  • Erase it: Settings → Delete account, any time. It takes effect immediately.
  • Take it with you (portability): email team@oxformals.com for an export.
  • Restrict or object to how we use it.
  • Withdraw consent: untick dietary sharing in your profile, or turn off notifications. This doesn't affect what we did before.

Email team@oxformals.comto use any of these. We reply within one month. If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Cookies

We use only strictly necessary cookies: the sign-in cookies that keep you signed in, for up to 7 days. No analytics, advertising or tracking cookies, so there's no cookie banner. Fonts are served from our own site, not Google.

Age

Oxformals is for people aged 18 or over. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone younger; if you think we have, email team@oxformals.comand we'll delete it.

Changes

If we change this policy we'll update the date above. For significant changes we'll tell you by email or in the app first.