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PRIVACY POLICY.

Effective November 5, 2026 · Version 2026-11-05

BRUTAL (joinbrutal.com) is operated by Daylin Walker, an individual doing business as BRUTAL in California, United States. This policy explains what we collect, why, who sees it, how long we keep it, and your rights. Questions and requests: daylin@joinbrutal.com.

The short version

What we collect, and why

We process your data to run the Service you signed up for (performance of our agreement with you), to keep members safe and enforce our Terms (our legitimate interest and legal duties), and, where the law requires it, with your consent, which you can withdraw. We collect only what the sections below describe.

Collected account data

Our database stores your email address, salted password hash, date of birth, name, entered gender/interests, city, optional height and weight, dating intent, bio, photos, sessions, activity, swipe choices, ELO, messages, date plans, reports, and data-correction records. Photos are files on the server. You can inspect and export much of your account data in Settings.

How you found BRUTAL

If you arrive through a link with a channel code (for example ?ref= from a creator or an ad), your browser keeps that short code for up to 30 days and it is saved with your account when you sign up. We use it only to count signups per channel. It is never shown to other members, it is included in your data export, and it is deleted with your account. If you join through a member's personal invite link, that member is recorded as your inviter. They see only how many people joined through their link, never who.

The Intake

The Intake at /intake works without an account. It stores your four claims (your gender, who you want to see, your intent, whether height matters, and your guess), your like or pass on each fictional card, the receipt computed from them, the channel code you arrived with, and a private random link key. The cards are fictional: no real person is shown, and nobody is told about your choices. If you add a city, it is used to rank you against other Intakes in that area once 30 others there have finished, and to show how many people in your area have taken it, only when that number is at least 5. If you ask to be told about Deck 2, your email is stored for that single notice: it is sent once, never shown to anyone, and never used for anything else. You can remove the email or delete the whole Intake from its page at any time. If you create an account and choose to save your receipt to it, the Intake is included in your data export and deleted when the account is deleted. You can also ask us to delete it.

BRUTAL Ratings

When you start a rating test, BRUTAL stores the test (one photo or your full profile: published photos, bio and prompt answers as they were when you started it), who you chose to rate it, the optional rater age range, and whether you allow reach-outs. Only photos that passed the automatic safety scan, or a moderator's review, can be used. Your photos are shown to raters without your name or city, through a link that works only for the rater it was served to and only until they answer. You must agree to this before your first test, and you can withdraw that consent in Settings, which stops your running tests. Deleting a photo stops every test that uses it.

For each vote BRUTAL stores the yes/no answer, the optional slider scores and tag, the rater's gender, how long the photo was on screen before the vote, and the time. Raters are never named to you: your receipt shows only totals, a gender split and tag counts. To weight out lazy voting, BRUTAL compares each rater's past answers with everyone else's on finished tests; this weighting is private and never shown to anyone. Results are private to you. They are never ranked publicly. Comparisons ("hotter than X%") use only anonymous totals of other finished tests, and only once at least 30 comparable tests exist.

Karma and credits are kept as a ledger of earned, spent and purchased amounts. A one-time credit pack is paid through Stripe's hosted checkout; BRUTAL stores the checkout session ID, the amount and the number of votes, never card details. If you delete your account, the record of a paid sale is kept for bookkeeping without your account attached.

If you allow reach-outs, a rater who said yes may send you a wave or a short intro of up to 280 characters. You see their first name, age, first published photo and their own rating headline; they agreed to share these when sending. They never see your results. If you accept, a regular BRUTAL chat opens. Ignoring tells them nothing. You can block or report a reach-out; reports go to our moderation queue with the reach-out text.

If you ask to be told when dating opens in your city, BRUTAL stores that request and emails you once when we open your area. Tests, votes you cast, votes you received (without who cast them), your ledger, purchases and reach-outs are included in your data export and deleted with your account.

Front page photos (only if you turn it on)

If you switch on "Show my photos on the front page" in Settings, photos from your running Ratings tests can be shown on BRUTAL's public front page to visitors who have not signed up, without your name or city, so you get votes faster. A visitor's vote is kept only in their own browser and counts only after they create an adult account; it follows the same rules as any other vote. It is off by default. Turning it off, withdrawing photo consent, or stopping a test removes your photos from the front page right away. The founder's own test photos are shown there too.

Your photos in BRUTAL ads (only if you sign)

BRUTAL never uses your photos or results in its advertising unless you separately sign the ad permission in Ratings or Settings. It is never pre-ticked and never part of signup. If you sign, BRUTAL stores the exact wording you agreed to and when, and may feature the photos from your Ratings tests with their results (score, tier, vote and reach-out counts) in its own ads, website, app store pages and emails, never with your name, city or contact details. You can withdraw at any time in Settings: no new ads will use you, and ads BRUTAL controls come down within 30 days. The record of your permission and its withdrawal is included in your data export and deleted with your account.

What other people can see

Other eligible members can see your profile photos, name, calculated age, city, entered facts, ELO, and receipt cards. On sufficiently populated local cohorts, BRUTAL+ members can view factual city leaderboards, including optional entered measurements. You cannot selectively hide a true stat on a participating profile. Private message text, exact birth date, email, GPS coordinates, swipe identities, and match identities are not on public receipts. BRUTAL+ can show inbound likes by name in a private Decision Ledger, and can show an incoming pass by name only when that person explicitly agreed to disclosure for that swipe and has not withdrawn permission.

Decision Ledger and Post-Match Dossier

Incoming yes/no counts reflect explicit recorded swipe choices, not people who merely viewed a profile. For privacy, no-vote totals need a minimum number of qualified viewers. BRUTAL+ may identify incoming likes. Individual left swipes are identified only after the swiping member specifically enables disclosure; old votes are not retroactively unmasked, and permission can be revoked. Members who mutually match can separately agree to share how many other mutual matches and both-confirmed in-app dates occurred after their match. The Post-Match Dossier is private to the pair, available only after both agree and the viewing member has BRUTAL+, and excludes events from the latest seven days. It never identifies other matches, displays other conversations, or claims to know about offline dates. Blocking or unmatching terminates dossier access.

Location

City is self-entered. If you opt in to browser location access, your device briefly sends GPS coordinates to our server over an encrypted connection; the server rounds them to approximately a 0.1-degree grid before storing them. The app returns coarse distance bands between participating users. You can remove the saved rounded location in Settings.

Messages, receipts, and verification

Chats are visible only to mutual matches who are not blocking each other. Receipt Duet additionally needs consent from both. Your age is self-attested at signup and verified by Didit before you can use chat. Age and identity checks are run by Didit (see Third parties below).

Automatic photo-safety processing

Uploaded profile pictures are inspected locally using an image-detection model. The version shared with other members is saved with opaque patches over detected exposed intimate body areas. A false-positive or uncertain detection may hold the photo privately for review by us. Original upload bytes are not intentionally retained for public serving; an optional separate external AI-image integrity check is sent to the third-party provider only when explicitly requested. Safety scans are imperfect and may require moderator intervention.

Third parties we share data with

We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We disclose data to authorities only when legally required or to protect someone's safety.

How long we keep it

Your rights

You can, at any time and for free: access and export your data (Settings → Export), correct it, delete your account (Settings → Delete), and withdraw consent for ratings, reach-outs or ads. California residents have the rights to know, delete, correct, and to opt out of sale or sharing (we do none), under the CCPA/CPRA, and we will not treat you differently for using them. Residents of other places have the rights their local law gives them. To exercise a right we cannot serve in-app, or to appeal a decision, email daylin@joinbrutal.com; we answer within 45 days and may ask you to confirm you own the account.

Security

Connections are encrypted (HTTPS). Passwords are stored as salted hashes. Sessions use secure, HTTP-only cookies. Photos served to raters use one-time links. Access to the server is key-based and limited to the operator. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we will notify you as the law requires.

Children

BRUTAL is for adults only. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If we learn a member is under 18 we delete the account. If you believe a minor is using BRUTAL, email us immediately.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will show a notice in the app or email you before it takes effect, and the version date at the top will change.

BRUTAL · Operated by Daylin Walker, California, USA · Terms · Safety