This is a translation. In case of discrepancies, the German version prevails.

Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains which personal data are processed when you use before: in the web app you open at the door of an evening via the QR code, in the app and on the website before.social. It is addressed to guests, organizers and visitors of the website.

1. Controllers

The controller responsible for data processing is:

Thomas Gnahm (before)

Mainzer Str. 44

12053 Berlin

Germany

Email: contact@before.social

Contact form: before.social/contact

Jointly with the organizer: For the check-in, the guest list and entry via before at an evening, we are joint controllers together with the respective organizer (Art. 26 GDPR). At the latest before your check-in, you will find the organizer's legal name and contact details on the door page of the evening that you open via the QR code or in the privacy policy linked there; you can also ask us for them at any time.

The essence of the joint controllership arrangement (version 3.2), which each organizer and each person in their team confirms before using before for an evening:

Who decides what: before and the organizer are joint controllers for check-in, the guest list and admission through before. The organizer creates the evening and offers the check-in at their door. We provide the technology and decide how it works.
No access for the organizer: The organizer and their team have no access to photos, wishes or chats and do not participate in their own evening's photo exchange.
Who informs you: We inform you at the door, in this privacy policy and on the page Joint controllership.
Whom you contact: Most easily us. You can, however, exercise your rights against each of the joint controllers (Art. 26(3) GDPR); the organizer forwards requests to us without delay.
What the organizer may do: They use the guest list only for their evening, not for advertising or profiling, and do not pass it on to third parties. They delete copies in their own records as soon as they no longer need them for the evening or we inform them of a justified deletion request.
What we take care of: We carry out deletions and corrections in the system and inform the organizer of justified deletion requests concerning their evening.
Data breaches: The organizer reports any personal data breach it notices to us without delay. We notify it to the supervisory authority and the persons concerned where required; both sides support each other in doing so.

We alone: For everything else we are the sole controller: your account, the photo exchange, wishes, chats, emails and notifications from before, blocking and reporting, and the security of the service. The organizer and their team do not take part in the photo exchange of their own evening and see neither photos nor wishes nor chats of the guests.

2. Privacy contact

For all questions about data protection and to exercise your rights, you can reach us at contact@before.social or via the contact form. Your request goes directly to the operator. If a data protection officer is appointed, we will state their contact details here.

3. How before works

before is software for organizers of evenings where people meet, such as supper clubs, cultural and community formats. Our customers are the organizers; for guests, before is free of charge. We do not run any evenings ourselves.

At the door: You scan a QR code that opens a web app under the organizer's brand. You sign in with your email address and a one-time code or with Apple or Google and, with one tick, confirm that you are 18 years old or older and accept the terms of use. You are then checked in.
Photo exchange, voluntary: At or after check-in you decide whether to join the photo exchange of the evening. If you share a photo, you see the photos of the other participants in the afterparty; if you do not share one, you see none. Without a photo you remain checked in, but you see no photos and cannot send or receive wishes to meet again.
Afterparty: It usually opens at 10 a.m. Berlin time after the event ends, but no later than 24 hours after it ends, and runs for ten hours, so as a rule until 8 p.m.; the app shows the exact period. When it opens, we send you an email on behalf of the organizer, if we have an address for you.
See each other again, if you both want to: In the afterparty you can send a wish to meet again to other participants in the photo exchange. Only if the wish is mutual are both of you informed, and a chat opens at the end of the afterparty. Wishes to meet again are part of the before service; you can turn them off in the settings at any time (section 4.8).
What does not exist: no algorithmic matching, no suggestions, no filters by age or gender, no profiles with preferences, no tickets, no facial recognition.

4. Which data we process and why

For each step, the following explains which data arise, what we need them for and on which legal basis this happens. Where we rely on the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR), this means the contract of use that you as a guest conclude with us when you accept the terms of use. The contract between us and the organizer is not a basis for this. Where we rely on your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), you can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future; processing before your withdrawal remains lawful to the extent that it was based on valid consent.

Sources of data: You provide most data yourself. Data about you may also come from other guests, such as messages, wishes or reports with supporting evidence, and from Apple or Google if you sign in through them. We may receive contact details of organizer representatives and team members from the organizer. Where we obtain data indirectly, we generally inform you within one month, or earlier when first contacting you or first disclosing the data. We assess and document any statutory exception individually; in doing so we do not reveal who submitted a report, unless the law requires otherwise.

4.1 Sign-in

Data: email address and the one-time code we send you; when signing in with Apple or Google, the identifier that Apple or Google transmits to us for you, the email address (with Apple possibly a relay address) and, if transmitted, your name; your first name as you enter it in before; an internal account identifier; sign-in times. Guests do not need a password.
Purpose: create your account, recognise you, give you access to the afterparty.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
Requirement: Without signing in you cannot use the digital features of before. You decide whether to sign in with email, Apple or Google.

When you are signed in to the app and no language is stored with your account yet, we store the language in which you use the app with your account, so that emails from before reach you in that language where they exist in it, otherwise in English. The email with your sign-in code may also come in a different language. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

If you choose Apple or Google, you authorise the sign-in there. Apple and Google process data under their own responsibility according to their own privacy policies; they are not our processors (details in sections 6 and 7).

4.2 One-time pass without email

We currently do not offer a one-time pass for guests without access to their email; anyone who does not sign in takes part in the evening on site but not in the digital features. Anyone taking part with a one-time pass will not be able to send wishes to meet again or be chosen (section 4.8). Before we introduce the one-time pass, we will update this section.

4.3 Age confirmation, terms of use and records

Data: that and when you ticked "I'm 18 or older and accept the terms of use" when signing in; which version of the terms of use you accepted and when, also if you later confirm a new version in the app; for consents, the version of the text, the time it was given and, where applicable, the time it was withdrawn. This applies to your choice in the photo exchange and earlier consents to wishes (below).
Purpose: use only by adults, conclusion of the contract, proof of consent.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR for the age confirmation and the terms of use; Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR in conjunction with Art. 7(1) GDPR for the proof of consent.

Records contain only the information needed to document the decision; they do not include photos, messages, specific wishes or the category of an evening. Section 8 states how long we keep which record. Where specially protected data are exceptionally necessary for specific legal claims, we retain them separately under Art. 9(2)(f) GDPR and delete them when that purpose ends.

The age confirmation is a self-declaration. We do not check any ID and do not establish your age. You do not accept the privacy policy: below the tick we only refer to it so that you know how before processes your data; this reference is not consent. We obtain consents separately, each with its own button that is not preselected, and with an option to decline.

Earlier consents to wishes: We used to obtain explicit consent to wishes per evening. If you gave such consent, its record stays stored without effect; wishes to meet again no longer depend on it (section 4.8). We delete the record under section 8, at the latest with your account.

4.4 Check-in and guest list

Data: your name, the evening you checked in to and the check-in time. If you registered for an evening in before in advance, your name appears on its guest list before the check-in. If you register in advance, we confirm your registration by email; if an evening you are registered for or on the waiting list for is cancelled, we let you know by email (sent via Resend, section 6).
Purpose: record who attended an evening so that only guests of that evening get into the afterparty; show the organizer who has checked in.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract of use with us) and Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (the organizer's legitimate interest in organising entry to their evening and knowing who is there).
Responsibility: joint with the organizer (section 1 and Joint controllership).
How long: We delete the guest list with name and check-in time twelve months after the evening; the organizer sees it for that long. The link between your account and the evening for the afterparty features ends when the afterparty ends, or with the cancellation if the event is cancelled. Chats that came from a mutual wish follow section 4.9. We delete your entry earlier if you delete your participation in the event or your account. If you registered for the event beforehand, that registration remains when you delete your participation, and the organizer still sees your name on the guest list, without a check-in time.

The organizer sees the check-ins and the guest list of their evening with name and check-in time. They never see photos, wishes or chats.

In the current web app and app, we do not ask about your sexual orientation, your health or your faith; for older app versions, including those still in use, see section 4.18. If an evening is aimed at a particular group, your attendance alone can reveal something about this, and the organizer and the other guests can see you there as at any other evening. We treat such evenings like any other evening and do not obtain separate consent for them.

4.5 Photo exchange

The photo exchange is voluntary. It helps the guests of an evening recognise each other in the afterparty.

Data: a photo of you that you take at or after check-in, or choose as a current photo from your gallery; for a gallery photo, your confirmation that it shows you and is recent enough for other guests to recognise you; the link to the evening; your choice with time and text version (section 4.3).
Purpose: The other participants in the photo exchange of the same evening should be able to recognise you in the afterparty, and you them. If you both want to meet again, you also recognise each other at the resolution and in the chat (section 4.10).
Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).
When you consent: Only after the preview, with the button "Join with this photo". Choosing the camera or the gallery is not yet consent; the photo stays on your device until you confirm and is only uploaded afterwards. With "Continue without a photo" you decline. With the version of the photo choice of 29 October 2026, this one consent also covers showing your photo when you both want to meet again and in the chat (section 4.10); there is no second button for it.
Reciprocity: You only see the others' photos if you share a photo yourself. Without a photo you remain checked in; you can only send and receive wishes to meet again with a photo.
Who sees it: only the other participants in the photo exchange of the same evening, during the viewing period, and, if you both want to meet again, the person you want to meet again, at the resolution and in the chat, also after the viewing period (section 4.10). Anyone who has blocked you or whom you have blocked does not see it. The organizer and their team never see it.
Viewing period: the period of the afterparty, that is ten hours from its opening (section 3); the app shows the exact period. If you join later, only the remaining time is available. If the event is cancelled, the afterparty does not open; from the cancellation others can no longer access your photo; ten hours after the planned end of the event we delete it in the next regular deletion run, as a rule within an hour.
End: At the end of the viewing period, access through the photo exchange ends, including through existing image links; we delete the photo stored for it after the resolution at the end of the afterparty in the next regular deletion run, as a rule within an hour, at the latest in the first deletion run from 24 hours after the afterparty ends. If we show your photo in a chat from a mutual wish to meet again, it stays stored for that chat; section 4.10 applies to this.
Leaving: You can withdraw at any time under "End the photo exchange". Your photo can then no longer be accessed through the photo exchange, including through existing image links, and we delete it for the photo exchange; on screens that other guests already have open, as a rule it may remain visible for up to two minutes. You will then no longer see the others' photos either. At the same time, your wishes to meet again end for this event: we delete your outgoing and incoming wishes from this event, including mutual ones, and the resulting chats end for both participants as with "End chat" and disappear right away. A copy of the messages is kept separately for no more than 25 hours so that the other person can still report these chats to us by email for 24 hours, and is then deleted (section 4.9). Your check-in remains.

We remove image details such as location and capture time before storing. We do not analyse photos biometrically; there is no facial recognition and no ID check, and the photo is not an age check. We cannot retrieve copies that others have already made themselves, for example by taking a screenshot; the terms of use prohibit this.

4.6 Afterparty email

Data: email address, name, evening, organizer, content of the email, delivery data (such as whether the email was delivered).
Purpose: send you access to the afterparty when it opens. We send the email for the organizer. It comes from before; the organizer's name appears in the email where it is on file and may also appear as the sender (with the addition "via before"); the organizer does not receive any data from us for this.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

After the afterparty ends: If at the end of the afterparty you take part in the photo exchange with a photo, are checked in and have wishes to meet again turned on, we send you another email after the resolution (section 4.8) saying that the wishes have been resolved and you can have a look, to your confirmed email address and provided you have not turned off the "Afterparty is open" emails in the settings. You get this email whether or not you have sent or received a wish. Apart from your name in the subject line and greeting and the language of the email, it has the same content for every guest of the evening and says neither whether or to whom you sent a wish nor whether one is mutual. If the email cannot be sent after a few attempts or within two hours of the resolution, for example after a fault, we no longer send it. We also do not send it if you have previously deleted your account, turned wishes to meet again off or deleted your digital attendance record for the event with "Delete my participation in this event"; we check this when we prepare the email for sending. The same data and the same legal basis as above apply to it.

Both emails are part of the service and are not advertising. We only send advertising for further evenings if you have separately subscribed to it (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, Section 7(2) UWG); you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in every such email. If you subscribe to advertising in the app, we first send you an email with a link with which you confirm the subscription.

4.7 Notifications on your device

In the current web app and app, notifications on your device (push) are turned off for now. We do not send any notifications this way and do not store delivery addresses. We tell you about new events, such as the afterparty opening, by email (section 4.6). Before we turn notifications on, we will update this section.

4.8 Wishes to meet again

In the afterparty you can send a wish to meet again to other guests of the evening whose photo you see in the photo exchange. Wishes to meet again are part of the service we provide to you under the terms of use. A wish carries no label and no category; it only says that you would like to see someone again.

Data: your outgoing wishes and the wishes of others to you, linked to your account, the other person's account and the evening; whether a wish is mutual; whether a wish is inert; times; whether your switch "Wishes to meet again" is on or off. Also, for each evening, the number of wishes you sent, without saying to whom you sent them (section 4.14).
Purpose: check whether a wish is mutual. Only then are both of you informed, and we provide you with a chat. Wishes that are not mutual are not shown to other guests. If a wish is mutual, we show each of you the other's photo from the evening at the resolution and in the chat (section 4.10). We also record totals for each evening and numbers for each guest, and show our own team who wished for each other (section 4.14).
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract of use with us). A wish to meet again carries no label and no reason; we do not ask for any data under Art. 9 GDPR for it and do not evaluate wishes for such data. For the totals, the numbers for each guest and the pair view, section 4.14 applies.
Switch: The settings contain the switch "Wishes to meet again". It applies to your whole account, is on unless you turn it off, and can be turned off and on again at any time.
Sending wishes: You can send a wish while the afterparty is open, you are checked in, take part in the photo exchange with a photo and have wishes to meet again turned on. You can choose any guest whose photo you see in the photo exchange. If that person has turned wishes to meet again off when your wish reaches them, or turns them off afterwards, your wish does not lead to a chat, even if they turn them back on before the end of the afterparty, and is deleted at the end of the afterparty; for you, it looks exactly like a wish that is not returned.
Turning off: If you turn wishes to meet again off, we delete your pending wishes, and you cannot send new ones. Wishes of others to you are never shown to you. A wish to you that reaches you while you have turned wishes to meet again off, or that already exists when you turn them off, never leads to a chat, even if you turn them back on before the end of the afterparty and wish back yourself. Such a wish stays stored until the end of the afterparty as an inert entry of the person who sent it and is then deleted like any wish that does not lead to a chat. We do not delete or decline it earlier because of your switch, because otherwise the person who sent it could infer that you have turned wishes to meet again off. Your existing chats remain; you end any chat you no longer want individually (section 4.9).
Who sees what: Other guests do not see whether you have turned wishes to meet again on or off, or whether or to whom you have sent a wish unless it is mutual; this also applies to the person you send a wish to. The organizer and their team see no individual wishes, not even mutual ones, and no numbers for individual guests; the recap shows neither individual wishes nor who with whom (section 4.12). We do not show anyone, not even our own team in the admin area, to whom you sent a wish that is not mutual, and after the resolution we do not store whom it was for. For evenings under section 4.14, our own team sees for each guest the number of wishes sent and, as long as the chat exists, who wished for each other; being counted there also shows our team that your wishes to meet again were on at the resolution. We ourselves process wishes in order to match them (point Purpose) and to count them (section 4.14).
When a chat arises: only at the resolution at the end of the afterparty, and only if you have chosen each other, both have wishes to meet again turned on, neither wish has become inert (point Turning off), both are checked in and there is no block. Meeting again only comes about if both of you take part in the photo exchange with a photo at the end of the afterparty.
Pending wishes: We delete wishes that do not lead to a chat at the end of the afterparty in the resolution run that follows, as a rule within a few minutes, and do not restore them. You can withdraw a pending wish at any time until the afterparty ends; it is then deleted. Section 8 states how long we otherwise store data.
One-time pass: With a one-time pass, which we do not currently offer, you will not be able to send wishes or be chosen (section 4.2).

Withdrawal: If you leave the photo exchange, you withdraw your consent to it (section 4.5); with "Delete my participation in this event" you delete your digital attendance record for the event (section 4.9). In both cases we delete your outgoing and incoming wishes from this event, including mutual ones, and the resulting chats end for both participants as with "End chat" and disappear right away. A copy of the messages is kept separately for no more than 25 hours so that the other person can still report these chats to us by email for 24 hours, and is then deleted (section 4.9). We keep evidence relating to specific reports separately and for a limited period (section 4.11). If you only leave the photo exchange, and only after the resolution, the number of wishes you sent at this evening under section 4.14 stays stored until its period ends (section 8); if you leave it before the resolution, no number is created; if you delete your attendance record or object to being counted (section 9), we delete it.

4.9 Chats

Data: messages that you write and receive after a mutual wish, with times, and the connection between you and the other person including the evening at which you met.
Purpose: deliver and display messages.
How a chat arises: A chat only arises from a mutual wish at the resolution at the end of the afterparty (section 4.8). If you turn wishes to meet again off, your existing chats remain; you end any chat you no longer want individually.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract of use with us, section 4.8).
How long: We retain a chat and the mutual wish it came from until either person ends the chat, leaves the photo exchange of this event, deletes their digital attendance record for the event or deletes their account. The chat then disappears right away for both participants; a copy of the messages is kept for no more than 25 hours (paragraph "End chat" below). We also delete the chat for both participants after 90 days without a message in it. The 90-day period runs from the last message or, if no message has been sent, from creation of the chat.

End chat: You can end a chat at any time. It then disappears right away for both participants. The other person can still report it to us for 24 hours, by email to contact@before.social, even if you delete your account during that time; if you delete your account, all your chats end this way and the same report window starts for every other person. For this we keep a copy of the chat with all messages separately for another 24 hours and then delete it for both participants in the next hourly clean-up run, that is no later than 25 hours after the chat was ended, even if a report has come in during that time. The legal basis for this short retention is our legitimate interest in being able to investigate harassment (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Messages that were selected in a report before the chat was ended remain in that report together with their context; the rules for evidence in section 4.11 apply to them. In the app you report messages only from an existing chat; if you want to report something from a chat, report it before you end the chat. Messages are intended for the two people involved. We only look at content if a report requires it (section 4.11) or if it is unavoidable to fix a technical fault.

Deleting your attendance for an event: If you delete your digital attendance record for an event in the app with "Delete my participation in this event", we delete your incoming and outgoing wishes from this event, including mutual ones; the resulting chats end for both participants as with "End chat" and disappear right away. A copy of the messages is kept separately for no more than 25 hours so that the other person can still report these chats to us by email for 24 hours, and is then deleted. If you only leave the photo exchange, your check-in remains; wishes and chats from this event nevertheless end in the same way (section 4.5).

4.10 Photo in a chat

If you both want to meet again after an evening, each of the two people gets, at the resolution at the end of the afterparty, a permission for their photo from the photo exchange of that evening in the chat that is created then. The other person then sees your photo at the resolution and in the chat, in the chat list, in the header of the chat and in its photo strip, for as long as this chat lasts, also after the viewing period ends; you see theirs in the same way. This only applies if both of you took part in the photo exchange with the version of the photo choice of 29 October 2026; otherwise neither of the two people gets a permission, and participations with an earlier version never get a photo in a chat. Only the other person in this chat sees your photo in the chat: the organizer and their team never see it, and other guests do not see it after the viewing period ends. A photo that is blocked for review after a report is not shown in the chat either. The legal basis is your consent to the photo exchange (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, section 4.5), which you give with the button "Join with this photo"; it covers the permission in the chat, and there is no second button. The permissions of a chat end when either person ends the chat, blocks the other, leaves the photo exchange of the evening, deletes their digital attendance record for the event or deletes their account, and when the chat ends after 90 days without a message. You can also withdraw your permission at any time in the chat menu with "Delete my photo from this chat"; this applies only to your own photo and is final, and the other person keeps their photo in the chat until they delete it themselves. When the last permission for your photo ends, we delete it in the next deletion run, as a rule within a few minutes; on screens that are already open, it may as a rule remain visible for up to two minutes. We do not analyse the photo biometrically in the chat either. We cannot retrieve copies that the other person makes themselves, for example by taking a screenshot; the terms of use prohibit this.

4.11 Blocking, reporting and safety

If you block someone, an existing chat with that person ends as with "End chat"; lifting the block later does not restore it. As there, the blocked person can still report it to us by email for 24 hours (section 4.9).

Data: whom you block and, for your list of blocked people, that person's first name and the date of the last evening you shared at which you could already see them through a mutual wish to meet again, a chat or the photo exchange, as both were when you blocked; if there is no such evening, we store neither first name nor date; reports with reason and, for reports by email or via the contact form, also your description, your name if you give it and your email address; when messages are reported, a copy of the reported messages (at most ten) and of up to five preceding messages each from the same chat as context; our decisions and measures; suspensions.
Purpose: protection against harassment and abuse, handling reports, enforcing the terms of use, dealing with illegal content.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (blocking as a feature), Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a safe service and in handling the reported case) and, where legal obligations exist, Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR.

Reported photos: You cannot report individual photos in the app; you report them by email or via the contact form (section 6 of the terms of use). The operator may view the photo only where necessary and legally permitted to assess the report. We do not create an additional copy of the photo and do not extend the deletion period: if the photo window ends earlier, the photo is deleted anyway, unless it is shared in a chat; section 4.10 applies to this.

Evidence and periods: The copies of reported messages are kept even if the chat is deleted or either person deletes their account; we then replace the accounts with internal identifiers. The following periods are maximums; we delete earlier if we no longer need the data, and we only keep what the case requires:

Copies of reported messages: at most six months after our decision, for an undecided report at most six months after it was received.
Receipts for your own reports (time of receipt, reason, identifiers of the messages you selected, without description and without a separate identifier of the reported person): at most six months after receipt, regardless of the outcome of the report.
Reports we reject and undecided reports: at most six months after the decision or receipt.
Reports on which we take a measure: at most 24 months after the decision, so that we can recognise repeated abuse; we remove the description of the report after six months.

Reports and evidence that reach us by email or via the contact form are deleted from our mailbox by hand, including attachments, according to the same periods. We keep data longer only if we must secure them for a specific legal proceeding, and only for as long as it requires.

Specially protected data in reports: Reports may contain data about sexual orientation, sex life or health, for example in cases of sexual harassment. We process such data only to the extent necessary for the specific case: for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims (Art. 9(2)(f) GDPR) or where another exception under Art. 9(2) GDPR actually applies. A general interest in safety is not sufficient for this. Only the operator has access, and only for the case in question.

Criminal offences: We process information about criminal offences or related suspicions only where a statutory authorisation applicable to the specific operation satisfies Art. 10 GDPR. Section 24 BDSG is relevant only to a change of purpose covered by that provision. We disclose special-category data to authorities only where an applicable exception under Art. 9(2) GDPR exists; we rely on point (f) only where processing is necessary for specific legal claims.

Reports are handled only by the operator, never by the organizer. A person who is the subject of a report does not find out who reported them, unless the law requires otherwise.

4.12 Review for organizers

In the review of their evening, organizers only see totals, such as how many guests checked in. For small groups we withhold numbers so that no conclusions about individual guests are possible. Individual wishes, who matched with whom and messages are never included in the review; there are no personal analyses for organizers. How many pairs want to meet again is shown only rounded in bands (3 to 5, 6 to 10, more than 10), recorded once after the afterparty ends, and only from 10 confirmed check-ins and at least 6 different people in pairs; below that no pair figure is shown. The legal basis for creating the review is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in giving organizers an evaluation of their evening).

4.13 Operation, security and error monitoring

Data: IP address, time, address requested, browser and device information in server logs. In the event of errors in our server functions, an error report to Sentry with the error message, code location, name of the function and internal identifiers, for example of an evening or an account.
Purpose: provide the service, fend off attacks, find and fix errors.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a stable and secure service).

We currently do not collect error reports from the app and the web app, that is from your browser (section 4.14). The content of wishes and messages and mutual results are not sent to Sentry from our server functions either. Section 8 states how long logs and error reports are stored.

4.14 Usage analytics and browser error reports

We currently do not use usage analytics or browser error reports in the app and the web app. Such services do not start and store nothing on your device. Before we turn them on, we will update this section and ask for your consent first.

We do not keep after the resolution, and do not analyse, to whom a guest sent a wish that is not mutual. We do not use wishes, mutual results or messages for personal analyses for organizers, and we do not use the content of messages for our own analysis either. For our own analysis of the wish feature, we record totals for each evening before we delete the pending wishes: how many guests were checked in and how many of them had a confirmed account and were not on the organizer's team, how many checked-in guests had wishes to meet again turned on and how many of them took part in the photo exchange with a photo at the reveal, how many guests sent at least one wish, how many wishes there were in total and how they were spread (how many of the guests with a photo sent no wish, one, two or more), how many different guests received at least one wish, how many pairs wished for each other and got a chat from it, how many of the resulting chats had a first message, how many guests left the photo exchange, how many participations were deleted, by the guest or because the organizer removed the check-in, and how many check-ins removed by the organizer were still recorded at the resolution. These totals contain no names, no accounts, no photos and nothing about who chose whom. Only our own team sees them in the admin area; organizers do not see them. At an evening with few guests, totals can allow conclusions about individuals; we therefore do not pass them on. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in understanding whether the wish feature works and in improving it). We do not transmit wishes, mutual results or messages to Sentry from server functions.

Numbers for each guest and pairs: The totals above and the numbers in this paragraph are created on our servers at or after the resolution; they are not usage analytics from the browser within the meaning of the first paragraph of this section and are not based on consent but on the legitimate interest we name for each of them. For evenings that start after this version is published, at the resolution we also record for each guest how many wishes they sent at that evening, without the people they sent them to; we do not store for each guest how many of them were mutual. We count all guests who are checked in and have wishes to meet again turned on at the resolution, including those who sent no wish. Guests who left the photo exchange before the resolution are not counted. Our own team sees these numbers in the admin area with the guest's name and also sees there who wished for each other at the evening, with both names; this pair view only reads the existing chats, stores nothing of its own and shows a pair only as long as its chat exists. Organizers see neither the numbers nor the pairs; we do not pass them on, do not transmit them to analytics or error reporting services and do not use them to rate, select or treat guests differently. The purpose is to understand how guests use the wish feature and whether it leads to people meeting again, and to improve it. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (this legitimate interest); we do not show to whom someone sent a wish that is not mutual, and only our own team sees numbers and pairs. For each guest we store only the number of wishes sent, for up to twelve months. At small evenings, when only a few guests send wishes or when the wishes reach only a few people, this number together with the evening's totals can reveal whom a wish was for or who wished for each other, even after a chat has ended. We do not draw such conclusions about individual guests. Section 8 states how long we store the numbers. You can object to being counted and to the pair view at any time (section 9); we then delete your numbers, no longer count you and no longer show you in the pair view.

Website: On the website before.social we measure reach with Vercel Web Analytics, without cookies and without storing anything on your device. We record the page viewed, the referring page, the country and the browser, operating system and device type; page views of one visit are grouped only by a hash derived from the request, which expires after 24 hours. There is no recognition across days or devices. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in understanding which pages are used (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

4.15 Website before.social

Data: server logs when the site is accessed (IP address, time, page requested, browser information) at the hosting provider Vercel.
Purpose: delivery and security of the website.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

The website uses Vercel Web Analytics as described in section 4.14, but no advertising services. It stores your language choice in your browser, the city you chose in the guides, that you have closed the notice about storage, and, while you fill in a request as an organizer, a draft of your entries. If you open the contact form, the Cloudflare Turnstile service also stores its own entries in your browser (section 5).

4.16 Contact form

If you write to us via the contact form, we process your details to answer your request:

Data processed: name, email address, message, for requests as an organizer additionally the details about your events you choose to give (see below), for call requests the name of your studio or club; for technical reasons the hosting provider processes your IP address when the form is accessed
Purpose: answering your request
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR if your request concerns a contract or pre-contractual measures, otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in answering requests); we handle requests concerning your data protection rights under Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR
Recipients: Vercel (hosting of the website and the form), Resend (sending the message to us as an email) and Google (our mailbox), for requests as an organizer, requests about your first event and call requests additionally Supabase (storage in our contact management), and Cloudflare (bot check with Cloudflare Turnstile, see protection against abuse), see section 6
Requests as an organizer: A request as an organizer is any message you send via the contact form with the organizer topic, including a simple question before your first event. An organizer contact request is not an application. Name, email address and message are enough. Optionally you can also give the name of your events or series, the kinds of your events, your Instagram profile or website (or that you don't have one), whether your events are 18+, the city, how often you host, roughly how many guests come, your next date and how you heard about us. We also attempt to store requests with the organizer topic in our contact management at Supabase (Frankfurt): name, email address, message, the language of the page and the details you chose to give, so that we can process and answer the request. Additional storage may fail because of a technical error or incompletely configured spam protection; the request still reaches us by email. The same case-dependent legal bases stated above apply to additional storage. For contact persons who are not themselves contracting parties, we base necessary communication on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. We delete the request data two years after our last exchange with you unless a collaboration results. Internal processing notes do not extend this period.
Requests about your first event: As long as you cannot create your first event yourself in the app, the buttons for creating your first event open a short form. There you only give your name and email address; we process them to get back to you about your first event. We receive them together with the language of the page (German, otherwise English) as an email in our mailbox (sent via Resend) and attempt to store your name, email address and this language with a fixed note about this form in our contact management at Supabase (Frankfurt). This storage may fail because of a technical error or incompletely configured spam protection; the form still reaches us by email. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures), for contact persons who are not themselves contracting parties Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. We delete the request data two years after our last exchange with you unless a collaboration results. Internal processing notes do not extend this period.
Call requests: The "Book a call" button on our page for studios and sports clubs opens a short form. There you give your name, your email address and the name of your studio or club, and a message only if you like; we process these details to arrange a time for a call with you. We receive them together with the language of the page (German, otherwise English) as an email in our mailbox (sent via Resend) and try to store them with a fixed note on this form in our contact management at Supabase (Frankfurt). In the event of a technical error or spam protection that is not fully set up, this storage may not take place; the form then still reaches us by email. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures), and for contact persons who are not themselves contracting parties, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. We delete the request data two years after our last exchange with you unless a collaboration develops. Internal processing notes do not extend this period. We need your name, email address and the name of your studio or club to reach you and prepare the call; without them the request cannot be sent. You are under no obligation to give us this information.
Draft in your browser: While you fill in a request as an organizer, your browser keeps a draft of your entries in the session storage of this tab (sessionStorage), so that they are not lost if you close the form and open it again. The draft stays on your device and is not sent to us before you submit. As soon as the form confirms that your request has arrived, it deletes the draft; otherwise it disappears when the session of the tab ends. This is strictly necessary storage (Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG, section 5).
Protection against abuse: To prevent automated abuse of the form, we check, among other things, the time since the page was loaded when the form is submitted and briefly limit the number of requests per IP address in memory. The contact form also uses the Cloudflare Turnstile service of Cloudflare, Inc. (USA). As soon as you open the contact form, on the contact page or as a window on another page of the website, your browser loads a script and a verification widget from Cloudflare (challenges.cloudflare.com); in the process Cloudflare receives your IP address and technical characteristics of your browser, even if you do not submit anything. The widget processes these data to detect bots. When you submit the form, our server sends the widget's verification token and your IP address to Cloudflare for verification. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (protection against spam), and the transfer to the USA is based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which Cloudflare has joined.
Storage period: Except for requests as an organizer, requests about your first event and call requests (see above), the message is not stored in a database. Emails concerning requests as an organizer, requests about your first event and call requests remain in our mailbox at Google Workspace (section 6). Without a collaboration, we delete these emails two years after our last exchange with you. During a collaboration, we retain them only where necessary for contract administration; after it ends, the statutory retention periods in section 8 apply where relevant. Other messages remain as emails in our mailbox at Google Workspace (section 6) until your request has been dealt with, and longer only to the extent that we need them as proof (for example to handle a data protection request) or statutory retention obligations apply.

4.17 Organizers as customers

Data: name and contact details of the contact persons, the organizer's legal name and contact option for the door page, details about the organizer and their evenings, account and sign-in data, the members of their team, the record that the joint controllership arrangement was confirmed; billing data if organizers pay for before.
Purpose: contract with the organizer, communication and contract management, billing, proof of the arrangement under Art. 26 GDPR.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, to the extent that you as a contact person are yourself our contracting party (for example as a sole trader); if you are an employee or agent of an organizer, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in communicating with our customer and managing the contract); Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR for retention under tax and commercial law and for the proof under Art. 5(2) and Art. 26 GDPR.

We currently bill paid plans by invoice; we do not process payment card data for this. If we use a payment service provider (Stripe is planned), we will first add the company, its role and the transfer basis to this information.

Location search when creating an evening: When you as an organizer enter the venue of an evening, the app suggests addresses via Google Maps. For this, your browser loads a service from Google Ireland Limited, which processes your IP address and your input. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a correct venue). Guests do not use this feature.

Review before approval: As long as we have not approved your organizer, an evening you publish does not go online unless it is already published or completed for your organizer: the app automatically holds it back as a draft and stores on the evening the time at which it held it back. For the review we look at the details of your organizer and their evenings, including the legal name and the contact option for the door page. Whether we approve your organizer is decided by a person on our side. With the approval, the held-back evenings that are not over yet go online, and we delete the stored time. It is also removed as soon as an evening is no longer a draft or is assigned to another organizer; otherwise it stays stored for as long as the evening is stored. The purpose is to protect guests and to prevent abuse. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in safe evenings for guests and in preventing abuse). We store the hold and the time in our database at Supabase (sections 6 and 7). If you save your organizer's profile while it is not approved, we send you a confirmation of receipt to your email address and ourselves an email with your name, your email address and the details from your organizer's profile; we send both via Resend, ours goes to our mailbox at Google (sections 6 and 7).

Email to us for the review: If the app holds back an evening of your organizer as described above, we send ourselves an email to our mailbox at Google during the review, so that we can start the review soon. It contains your organizer's name, its legal name and the contact email address for the door page, for the evening held back first its title, start, venue and kind of evening, and a link to our review page in the app. We send it via Resend (sections 6 and 7). So that the email is not sent more than once and a failed sending can be repeated, we store a record in our database at Supabase with your organizer's identifier, the state of the sending, the number of attempts and the times, without names or contact details. We delete the record once the review ends, that is when your organizer is no longer waiting for approval or no evening is held back any more, at the next run of our sending, which takes place every ten minutes; if your organizer is deleted, we delete the record with it. The purpose and legal basis are the same as for the review (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Emails about the first evening: Once your organizer is approved, we send tips for getting started to the email address of the account that owns the organizer: one email when its first evening has gone online, and one on the day before its first evening. Both contain the title of the evening and a link to an explanatory video on before.social; the email about going online also contains the start and cover image of the evening and a link to your events, and the email on the day before the name and, if set, the logo of your organizer and a link to the poster. We send them via Resend (sections 6 and 7); you can reply to them. We do not send them once the deletion of the account has started. So that each of these emails is sent only once, we store a record in our database at Supabase with your organizer's identifier, the kind of email, for the email on the day before the identifier of the evening, the state of the sending and the times, without names or contact details. We delete the record 30 days after the sending attempt at the next hourly run, earlier if your organizer or, for the email on the day before, the evening is deleted. The purpose is to make it easier for you to get started with before. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in making it easier for our customer to get started with before). You can object to these emails at any time and without giving reasons by writing to us; section 9 explains how. Once we have processed your objection, we will no longer send them to you.

Invitations to future organizers: If you have asked or agreed to be invited as an organizer, we create an invitation with your email address, the name of your organizer and the end of the period in which you can use before free of charge, and send you an email with a personal link via Resend (sections 6 and 7). We have the address from our contact with you, for example from your request or a conversation. The invitation is valid for 14 days; we delete it when you accept it or we withdraw it, and no later than one day after it expires. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures), for contact persons who are not themselves contracting parties Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

Invitations to an organizer's team: If an organizer invites you to their team, they enter your email address on before for this; so we have the address from the organizer. We store the invitation with your email address and the organizer, and send you an email with a personal link via Resend (sections 6 and 7); if sending fails, the organizer can pass the link on to you themselves. The link is valid for 7 days. If you do not accept the invitation, we delete it no later than one day after it expires, earlier if you object. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest and that of the organizer in inviting their team). You can object to the use of your email address for the invitation at any time and without giving reasons; section 9 explains how.

4.18 New system and data requested in the past

New system: With the go-live of the new version, before moved to a new Supabase project, also in Frankfurt am Main (section 6). All data of the current web app and app are stored there. The previous project only serves older app versions (iOS up to 0.3.3, Android up to 208) until the new versions are available in the app stores. Only then will we shut it down and delete it with all accounts and data stored in it; we will state the date here once it is fixed. Guest accounts do not move: anyone using the new app creates a new account. Only organizer accounts approved before the go-live move to the new project with their account and organizer details. Your rights under section 9 also apply to the data in the previous project for as long as it exists.

Data requested in the past: Earlier versions of the app asked for sexual orientation, relationship style and gender preference in the profile. We stopped asking on 2 October 2026 and deleted these data from the live database of the previous project, as well as the desired age range, entries in the gender field other than woman and man, individual interests and answers to individual profile prompts that we no longer offer. Since then we no longer store these data, even if an older version of the app still asks for them; we have not carried them over into the new project. They may still be contained in backups of the previous project until the backup period there expires (section 8), at the latest until it is deleted; we do not use them there for app features or analyses.

5. Storage on your device

For some features we or an embedded service store information in your browser or your app (localStorage, cookies and similar storage) or read it. Whether this is permitted without consent is governed by Section 25 TDDDG; the subsequent processing of personal data by the GDPR (section 4).

Sign-in (app): session token so that you stay signed in. Strictly necessary (Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG); stored until you sign out or the session expires.
Language choice (website and app): app_lang, so that your chosen language is kept. We consider this strictly necessary to display the language you want (Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG); stored until you delete your browser data.
Notice closed (website): before_cookie_ok, so that the notice about storage does not appear on every visit. Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG; stored until you delete your browser data.
City for the guides (website): guide_city, so that the city you chose in the guides is kept. Only an identifier for your selection is stored, meaning the chosen city or all cities, and only after you explicitly make that selection. We consider storing and reading this selection strictly necessary to retain your chosen city on subsequent visits to the guides overview (Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG); stored until you delete your browser data, a new choice replaces the previous one. If you have not chosen a city yet, the guides overview tries to suggest one using your browser's time zone and, where applicable, its first language preference; if there is no unique match, it shows all cities. The page also uses the time zone, even after you have chosen a city, to move the matching country to the top of the list of cities. This information is processed exclusively in your browser: the suggestion and the sorting trigger no additional network requests, transmit neither the information they read nor their result, and do not persist either in browser storage. Independently of this, your browser may send language preferences in HTTP headers with ordinary page requests; when you open a guide, its address is processed as described in sections 4.14 and 4.15. We therefore do not consider the suggestion and the sorting an access to your device within the meaning of Section 25 TDDDG that would require your consent.
Draft of a request as an organizer (website): before_host_draft in the session storage of the tab (sessionStorage), so that your entries are not lost if you close the form and open it again (section 4.16). Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG; deleted as soon as your request has arrived, otherwise when the session of the tab ends.
Abuse protection of the contact form (website): When you open the contact form, on the contact page or as a window on another page of the website, it loads Cloudflare Turnstile (section 4.16). In doing so, Turnstile creates the localStorage entry cf.turnstile.u and a small file in the storage area of challenges.cloudflare.com in your browser. We did not find any cookies when the form was opened; in the course of the check, Turnstile may create further entries. According to Cloudflare, Turnstile relies on such entries to maintain state and track visitor behavior. According to Cloudflare, the purpose of collecting the signals that Turnstile evaluates is not to identify, profile or target any individuals but solely to detect and block bots. We consider storing and reading these entries strictly necessary to protect the form against abuse (Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG). We have not determined how long these entries are actually stored. You can remove them by deleting your browser data; Turnstile or your browser can also remove them. Cloudflare may change the names and scope of the entries.

6. Recipients

Other participants in the photo exchange of the same evening: your photo and your name during the viewing period, only if you take part.
The person with whom a chat is created at the resolution: that you have chosen each other, at the resolution at the end of the afterparty. No other person learns about wishes that are not mutual or whether you have turned wishes to meet again on or off; section 4.14 states what our own team sees.
Your chat partners: your messages and, after a mutual wish to meet again, your photo from the evening (section 4.10).
Organizer of the evening: name and check-in time on the guest list (joint responsibility); in the review only totals.
Apple and Google: only if you sign in with them. They process the sign-in as independent controllers: Apple Distribution International Ltd., Ireland (Privacy at Apple), and Google Ireland Limited, Ireland (Google Privacy Policy).
Google Maps: only for organizers in the location search (section 4.17).
Cloudflare, Inc., USA (Cloudflare Turnstile): for the contact form of the website (section 4.16): your IP address, technical characteristics of your browser and the verification token. According to its own statements, Cloudflare processes these data for the verification on behalf of website operators and as an independent controller to improve its bot detection (Turnstile privacy addendum).
Authorities and courts: only to the extent that we are legally obliged to do so or it is necessary and legally permissible to avert a serious danger or to prosecute criminal offences (Art. 6(1)(c) or (f) GDPR); specially protected data only where an applicable exception under Art. 9(2) GDPR exists, and information about criminal offences only under section 4.11.

We also use service providers that process data on our behalf and according to our instructions (processors under Art. 28 GDPR, with a data processing agreement):

Supabase Pte. Ltd., Singapore: database, sign-in, server functions and file storage (including photos). The data are stored in a data centre in Frankfurt am Main (AWS eu-central-1). Access from third countries, for example for support and maintenance, is possible (section 7).
Vercel Inc., USA: hosting of the web app and the website, server logs, running the contact form. Processing in the EU and in the USA is possible.
Plus Five Five, Inc. (Resend), USA: sending emails to guests, to organizers and their teams, to future organizers and to us (for example one-time codes and other account emails, confirmations of registration for an evening, notices of cancelled evenings, afterparty email, confirmations of a subscription to advertising, invitations to an organizer's team, emails about the review for organizers, emails to organizers about their first evening, invitations to future organizers, messages from the contact form, emails about approval as an organizer, emails to us about the review of new organizers) with email address, content and delivery data.
Functional Software, Inc. (Sentry), USA: error reports from our server functions. Storage in Sentry's EU region (Frankfurt am Main); access from the USA is possible.
Google Ireland Limited (Google Workspace), Ireland: our email mailbox, which holds enquiries to us and messages from the contact form. Processing in Google data centres, including outside the EU.

7. Transfers to third countries

Some service providers are based outside the EU or access data from there, even if the data are stored in the EU. Storage in Frankfurt does not rule out such access. Transfers by us are based on the following grounds per provider (Art. 44 to 49 GDPR):

Supabase Pte. Ltd. (Singapore): EU standard contractual clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR, module 2), which are part of the data processing agreement. There is no adequacy decision for Singapore. Supabase's onward transfers are subject to the applicable adequacy decision or agreed safeguards for the recipient and destination.
Vercel Inc., Plus Five Five, Inc. (Resend), Functional Software, Inc. (Sentry) (all USA) and Google Ireland Limited for transfers to Google LLC (USA): adequacy decision of the EU Commission on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Art. 45 GDPR), in which these companies participate according to their own statements; in addition, their data processing agreements contain EU standard contractual clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR) in case the adequacy decision does not apply.
Cloudflare, Inc. (USA), for Cloudflare Turnstile on the contact form of the website: adequacy decision of the EU Commission on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Art. 45 GDPR), in which Cloudflare participates according to its own statements.

Apple and Google are independent controllers for the sign-in, as is Google for the location search. Whether and on what basis they further transfer data from the EU is for them to decide and is described in their privacy policies: according to its own statements, Apple bases transfers from the EEA on EU standard contractual clauses; Google bases transfers to Google LLC in the USA on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and additionally uses standard contractual clauses (Google's transfer frameworks).

You can request a copy of the standard contractual clauses we have agreed with our service providers from us at contact@before.social.

8. Storage period and deletion

We only store data for as long as we need them for the respective purpose or are legally required to retain them. For files, deletion means: access ends and the file is removed from our storage. We cannot retrieve copies that others have already made themselves. Specifically:

Account, name, sign-in data, settings such as the switch "Wishes to meet again", records of age and terms of use: until you delete your account.
Guest list with name and check-in time: twelve months after the evening, earlier if you delete your participation in the event or your account. A prior registration for the event remains when you delete your participation.
Link between your account and the evening for the afterparty: until the end of the afterparty, or until the cancellation if the event is cancelled; chats follow section 4.9.
Photo in the photo exchange: accessible until the end of the viewing period, that is until the afterparty ends ten hours after it opens, for a cancelled event until the cancellation. We then delete it after the resolution at the end of the afterparty in the next regular deletion run, as a rule within an hour, at the latest in the first deletion run from 24 hours after the afterparty ends; for a cancelled event in the next deletion run from ten hours after its planned end, as a rule within an hour. Earlier if you leave the photo exchange or delete your participation in the event or your account. For a photo shown in a chat from a mutual wish to meet again, the point Photo in a chat applies.
Photo in a chat and permission records: We store your photo in a chat until the last permission for your photo ends (section 4.10), and then delete it in the next deletion run, as a rule within a few minutes. We keep the record of each permission with account, chat, evening, version of the photo choice, times and reason for the end after it ends until the end of the third calendar year after the year in which it ended, and then delete it in the daily deletion run; at the latest, we delete it together with your account.
Pending wishes: until the end of the afterparty; after that we delete them in the resolution run, as a rule within a few minutes. This also applies to wishes that reached a person while they had turned wishes to meet again off, or that already existed when they turned them off; until then they stay stored as inert entries of the person who sent them, even if the person turns them back on (section 4.8). We delete your own outgoing pending wishes earlier if you withdraw them or turn wishes to meet again off. Your turning them off alone does not delete incoming wishes. If you leave the photo exchange or delete your participation in the event or your account, we delete wishes in both directions. Wishes deleted before the resolution are not counted in the totals for each evening; we only count how many guests left the photo exchange, how many participations were deleted and how many check-ins removed by the organizer were still recorded at the resolution (section 4.14).
Totals for each evening about the wish feature (section 4.14): without reference to individual accounts; we keep them for five years after the evening and then delete them.
Numbers for each guest and evening about the wish feature (section 4.14): twelve months after the evening; earlier if you delete your digital attendance record for the evening or your account, or object to being counted. The pair view stores nothing of its own; the point Mutual wishes and chats applies to the chats it reads.
Mutual wishes and chats with all messages: until either person ends the chat, leaves the photo exchange of the event, deletes their digital attendance record or deletes their account, at the latest after 90 days without a message. If a person ends the chat in one of these ways, it disappears right away for both participants, and a copy of the messages is kept for no more than 25 hours (section 4.9).
Record of your choice in the photo exchange: one year after the end of the afterparty, also if it did not open, then counted from its scheduled end; at the latest until your account is deleted.
Record of earlier consents to wishes per evening: stored without effect until your account is deleted; without any specific wish.
Other consent records: We delete them after the related processing ends as soon as no specifically justified evidential obligation remains.
Blocks: until the block is lifted or until either account is deleted; if you lift a block while an evening you or the other person is registered or checked in for is under way or its afterparty has not yet ended, it lasts until that afterparty ends, or with several such evenings until the last of these afterparties ends. We delete the first name and date stored with a block earlier: both as soon as the blocked person's participation in that evening or the evening itself is deleted, the date alone once your attendance at that evening is deleted; after that we keep the reference to that evening only internally, without showing it in the app, so that we can delete the first name as soon as the blocked person's participation in that evening or the evening itself is deleted.
Reports, evidence and measures: according to the maximum periods in section 4.11.
Accounts and data in the previous Supabase project: until it is shut down and deleted (section 4.18).
Server logs of the web app and the website at Vercel: one day after they are created.
Logs of the database, sign-in and server functions at Supabase: for no longer than seven days after they are created.
Emails at Resend, including content and delivery data: 30 days after sending.
Server-function error reports at Sentry: no longer than 90 days after receipt in the regular event store. Sentry additionally creates backups of event data and deletes these within 30 or 90 days of backup creation, depending on the data type.
Verification data at Cloudflare Turnstile (contact form of the website): According to Cloudflare, the verification token is valid for five minutes. In its information on Turnstile, as far as we have checked it, Cloudflare does not state a storage period for your IP address and the other verification data; according to its general privacy policy, Cloudflare stores personal data for as long as is consistent with the purposes of the processing or required by legal obligations.
Record of the email to us about the review of an organizer: until the review ends, deleted at the next run every ten minutes; earlier if the organizer is deleted (section 4.17).
Records of the emails about the first evening: 30 days after the sending attempt, deleted at the next hourly run; earlier if the organizer or, for the record of the email on the day before, the evening is deleted (section 4.17).
Organizer data: for the duration of the collaboration. We retain accounting records, including invoices, for eight years, books and annual financial statements for ten years and business letters for six years, each calculated from the end of the calendar year (Section 147(3) AO, Section 257 HGB, where applicable); statutory extensions remain reserved. We retain the record of the joint controllership arrangement for as long as it is needed as proof under Art. 5(2) GDPR.

Records about an evening name that evening until their retention period ends, including evenings aimed at a particular group (section 4.4). While a record of your attendance is linked to your account, it shows that you attended that evening. We remove the link to the evening earlier in the cases stated above, for example when you delete your account, and to the extent that removal is required to give effect to a right you exercise under section 9. Section 4.3 applies to separate retention for specific legal claims.

Backups: In the new Supabase project, we use daily database backups with a retention period of seven days. This period does not apply universally to the previous project; any remaining backups there are deleted no later than the permanent project deletion described in section 4.18. During this time, deleted data may still be contained in them; we do not use them. If we ever have to restore a database from a backup, we carry out all deletions and withdrawals made since then again before we release the service. Photos are not part of the database backups.

Deleting your account: In the settings you delete your account without undue delay. We then delete it with check-ins, photos, wishes, chats and messages, and your access ends immediately. After that, only what this section and the sections referred to expressly describe remains: your chats for the other person for another 24 hours for reporting, stored for no more than 25 hours (section 4.9), evidence relating to reports under section 4.11, separate records under section 4.3 and the backups above. Deleting your account does not end the other person's way to report: they can still report chats that end this way to us by email for 24 hours (section 4.9). We delete all records of your consents together with your account. Account deletion is final; your account cannot be restored.

9. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the following rights:

Access (Art. 15 GDPR): which data we process about you. The data copy we provide automatically does not contain messages from chats that are currently not visible to you or evidence from reports against you, to protect the other person's decisions and safety (Art. 15(4) GDPR); for your own reports, it contains a receipt with the time of receipt, the reason chosen and the identifiers of the messages you selected. It contains your own pending wishes while the afterparty is running and you can choose the person; wishes that led to a chat appear there as a match and a chat as long as the chat is visible to you. It also contains your numbers for each evening under section 4.14. It does not contain wishes of others to you that did not lead to a chat, because they would disclose a decision of another person that is not communicated to you (Art. 15(4) GDPR). Beyond that, on request you receive access to all personal data we process about you, including in these categories, such as data concerning you in your description, in stored evidence or in reports against you; the automatic data copy does not limit this right. Where disclosure would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others in an individual case, we balance those rights against your right of access and redact or omit individual details where necessary. We explain any restriction in accordance with Art. 12(4) GDPR.
Rectification (Art. 16 GDPR): correction of inaccurate data.
Erasure (Art. 17 GDPR): erasure of your data, unless a legal obligation or another exception applies.
Restriction (Art. 18 GDPR): restriction of processing, for example while the accuracy of your data is being checked.
Data portability (Art. 20 GDPR): the data you have provided to us and that we process automatically on the basis of your consent or the contract, in a common machine-readable format.
Withdrawal of consent (Art. 7(3) GDPR): at any time with effect for the future, as easily as you gave it. The photo exchange in the app under "End the photo exchange" or "Delete my participation in this event"; any consent also at any time by message to us. The lawfulness of processing before withdrawal remains unaffected to the extent that it was based on valid consent.
Turning off wishes to meet again: If you do not want to take part in wishes to meet again, turn off the switch "Wishes to meet again" in the settings; section 4.8 explains what happens then.

Right to object (Art. 21 GDPR): If we process data on the basis of a legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), you can object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will then no longer process the data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, or the processing serves the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. You can object to processing for advertising at any time without giving reasons; we will then no longer use your data for this purpose. You can object to being counted for each guest and to the pair view of the wish feature (section 4.14) at any time without giving reasons, in the way described in the next paragraph; once we have processed your objection, we delete your numbers, no longer count you and no longer show you in the pair view.

How to exercise your rights: Write to us at contact@before.social or via the contact form. You can also exercise your rights without an existing before account, after the end of the afterparty and even if you have not accepted a new version of the terms of use; privacy settings, leaving the photo exchange and account deletion remain available in the app in any case. For the check-in and the guest list you can contact us or the organizer; you can exercise your rights against each of the joint controllers (Art. 26(3) GDPR). We only verify your identity as far as necessary and do not require an ID as a matter of course. We respond without undue delay, at the latest within one month; for complex or numerous requests the period may be extended by up to two further months, and we will inform you of this within the first month (Art. 12(3) GDPR).

10. Right to lodge a complaint

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority if you consider that the processing of your data infringes the GDPR (Art. 77 GDPR), in particular in the member state in which you live or work.

The supervisory authority responsible for us is:

Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit (Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information)

Alt-Moabit 59-61

10555 Berlin

Email: mailbox@datenschutz-berlin.de

Website: www.datenschutz-berlin.de

11. No automated decisions

We do not make solely automated decisions that produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you. before does not suggest anyone and does not sort anyone by preferences, age or gender. For wishes, we only check whether two choices made by guests are mutual; we do not use them to create personality or preference assessments.

12. Changes to this privacy policy

We adapt this privacy policy when the service or the legal situation changes. The current version is always available here; we keep earlier versions and send them to you on request. We actively inform you of material changes that affect you, with a notice in the app before your next use and by email if we have an address for you. Mere corrections without new processing are shown without a separate notice. If new processing requires your consent, we ask you beforehand.

Last updated: 13 November 2026