Last updated: November 8, 2026
Ideas Match helps people find others nearby who want to talk about the same topics, then meet in person. In this policy, "we" means the operator of Ideas Match, named in our Terms of use. We're based in Canada. Our privacy officer is responsible for how we handle your information. Questions and requests go to privacy@danielthorp.com.
What you give us. Your email address, first name, date of birth, role, fields of interest, what you're looking for, city, and campus. A photo and a line about yourself are optional.
What you do in the app. The topics and people you swipe on, your stance on question topics if you pick one, your messages (encrypted, so we can't read them), the meetups you propose and answer, whether you say a meetup happened, your answers to the questions that follow, any takeaway line you write, the topics you suggest, and the people you report or block.
Device details. A push notification token if you allow notifications, and your phone's public encryption key. Your IP address reaches our host with every request, and we use it to slow down abuse of sign-in. Our host keeps request logs, including IP addresses, for up to a week.
Crash reports. If the app crashes it sends the error message, the technical trace, your platform, and the app version. These reports carry no account ID or name, and we delete them after 30 days. An error message could in rare cases contain text from the screen you were on.
You agree to this policy by ticking the box when you sign up. Some of what you tell us is sensitive: your date of birth, your stance on questions, and whether you're open to dating. We require your date of birth because the app is only for adults. You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting your account, but you can't use the app without one.
If you tap the location icon, the app asks your phone for your rough location once and picks the nearest city on the phone. Your coordinates never reach our servers. Only the city you end up with does, and you can search for a city by hand instead.
People in your city who share a topic with you can see your first name, photo, line about yourself, role, campus, fields, what you're looking for, and the topics you share. If your school email verified you, they see that too, but not the address.
Your date of birth and email address are never shown to other people. Your stance on a question is never shown as yours. A group only sees the total number of people with each stance. People in your city can see percentages for a question once at least 10 people have answered and they don't all agree.
People in a chat with you can see your messages and profile. Anyone with a meetup's share link can see its topic, time, and place, but not who's going. Your answers about how a meetup went only appear as percentages for its topic, once enough people have answered. If a moderator approves a takeaway line you wrote, it appears on the topic's public page without your name. If you report someone, we don't tell them it was you.
We use your information to sign you in, show you topics and people, form matches and groups, deliver messages, remind you about meetups, keep people safe, and fix problems. Your date of birth is there to confirm you're 18 or older. We don't sell your information and we don't show ads.
The app ranks topics and people automatically, using your fields, the topics you pick, what you're looking for, your campus, and how many people nearby picked a topic. A person, not the app, makes moderation decisions.
Messages are end-to-end encrypted. Only the phones of the people in a chat can read them, and we can't, so we couldn't hand them over even if asked. If you report someone from a chat, your phone shares the reported message and the ones around it with us so a moderator can review them, and we keep that text with the report. We can see who you chat with and when. Meetup times and places, and notes the app itself adds to a chat, aren't encrypted, because we use them to send reminders and share links. Takeaway lines aren't encrypted either, because a moderator reads each one before it can be shown. If you sign in on a new phone or reinstall the app, it can't read older messages unless you restore a backup. A backup is a file you choose to save, protected by a passphrase we never see. Each chat's About screen has a security code you can compare in person, to check that nobody else was added.
We email you only to sign you in, and about safety or your account. Push notifications tell you about matches, messages, new groups, and meetups. You can mute a chat in the app, or turn notifications off in your phone's settings. We don't send marketing. If that ever changes, we'll ask you first, and you'll be able to unsubscribe from every message.
We use these companies to run the service, and only for that purpose:
These companies may process information outside Canada, including in the United States, where other laws apply. We also disclose information if the law requires it, or if we believe it's needed to protect someone from serious harm. If Ideas Match moves to a company or a new owner, your information moves with it under this policy, and we'll tell you.
Go to You, then Delete account. That removes your email address, date of birth, profile, photo, swipes, messages, meetup answers and takeaways, blocks, and notification tokens. An empty record with no personal details stays behind so that other people's conversations keep working. Our host's backups can hold deleted data for up to 30 days, and we can't reach screenshots or anything else people saved.
Reports made about you stay for the period above, so that deleting an account can't erase a safety record.
You can ask for a copy of your information, ask us to correct or delete it, and ask how the app's ranking affected what you saw. You can withdraw consent at any time by deleting your account. You can change most of it yourself under Edit profile. Write to privacy@danielthorp.com for anything else, and we'll answer within 30 days.
Ideas Match is for people 18 and over. If we learn that someone is younger, we'll close the account.
We encrypt traffic between the app and our servers and store only a hash of sign-in codes and session tokens. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach creates a real risk of harm to you, we'll tell you and the authorities.
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
Privacy policy · Terms of use · Safety standards
Ideas Match is where people find each other through what they want to talk about, then meet in person.