Privacy Policy — BUDU Global Networking

This Privacy Policy explains how BUDU Global Networking ("BUDU", "we", "us") collects, uses, stores and shares your personal data when you use our website (budu.com) and mobile apps (the "Service"). By using BUDU you confirm you have read and understood this policy.

1. Who we are

BUDU Global Networking is an independent platform that connects people for in-person, platonic, public networking. The data controller is the operator of BUDU. Questions or requests should be addressed to palmies@pm.me.

2. Data we collect

You give us directly:

Account: username, email address, password (stored only as a bcrypt hash).
Age verification: date of birth (used only to confirm you are 18+; never displayed publicly).
Profile: bio, gender, city, country, industry, skills, what you are looking for, profile photo and any additional photos you upload, member type, meeting preference, experience level.
Content you post: feed posts, replies, messages, reports of other users.

Collected automatically:

Approximate GPS location (latitude/longitude) — only if you grant location permission; you can revoke it at any time and stop appearing in Nearby/Map.
IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, app version — used for security, anti-abuse and crash diagnostics.
Session cookies and an optional long-lived "remember me" cookie for login persistence.
Anonymous traffic statistics (Statcounter).

We do not collect: contacts, photos library (beyond what you explicitly upload), microphone, sensors, advertising identifiers. We do not run third-party tracking SDKs.

3. Legal basis (GDPR)

We process data on the following bases: performance of a contract (so we can run the Service you signed up for), your consent (location, optional emails), legal obligation (age verification, abuse reports), and legitimate interest (security, fraud prevention).

4. How we use your data

To operate BUDU — show your profile to others nearby, route messages, deliver notifications.
To verify you are 18 years or older.
To moderate the platform — investigate reports, enforce community guidelines.
To secure your account — detect abuse, throttle abuse, recover lost access.
To communicate with you — welcome emails, password resets, account-deletion confirmations, important policy updates.

5. What we do NOT do with your data

We never sell your personal data to third parties.
We do not share your data with advertisers.
We do not use your data to train AI models.
We do not access your messages except when investigating a user report.

6. Third-party processors

We rely on a small set of processors who handle data on our behalf under written agreements:

SparkPost — transactional email delivery (welcome, password reset, deletion confirmation).
Bunny.net — image and video CDN.
Cloudflare — DDoS protection and HTTPS termination.
Statcounter — anonymous traffic analytics.
Hosting provider — the server hosting our database.

None of these processors are authorized to use your data for their own purposes.

7. International transfers

Your data may be processed on servers located outside your country. Where required, we rely on the European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent safeguards to ensure transfers comply with applicable law.

8. How long we keep data

Active account: for as long as your account exists.
Deleted account: permanently removed within 14 days of deletion request (account row + profile + photos + posts + replies + messages + GPS location). Anonymous aggregate stats may persist.
Abuse reports: retained for up to 12 months to investigate repeat offenders.
Email and web server logs: rotated after 90 days.

9. Your rights (GDPR & CCPA)

Regardless of where you live, you can:

Access a copy of the data we hold about you.
Correct inaccurate data — most of it can be edited yourself in the app's Edit Profile screen.
Delete your account and all associated data permanently — Profile → Settings → Delete Account in the app, or by emailing palmies@pm.me.
Export a machine-readable copy of your data (data portability).
Object to processing or withdraw a consent.
Lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (in the EU: the supervisory authority of your member state; in the UK: ICO; in California: California Attorney General).

We will respond to any verified request within 30 days.

10. Children

BUDU is for adults aged 18 and over only. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe an under-18 has created an account, please report it to palmies@pm.me and we will remove the account immediately.

11. Security

All traffic is encrypted with HTTPS. Passwords are stored as salted bcrypt hashes. Database access is restricted by IP and credential. We follow industry-standard practices and patch known vulnerabilities promptly. No system is perfectly secure — if you suspect your account has been compromised, change your password and email us immediately.

12. Cookies

We use a strictly-necessary session cookie (PHPSESSID) to keep you logged in, and an optional long-lived "remember me" cookie (user_token) if you check that box at login. We do not use third-party advertising cookies. You can clear cookies at any time in your browser; clearing them will log you out.

13. Push notifications

If you opt in to push notifications (mobile app only), we use your device's native notification service (Apple Push Notification Service or Firebase Cloud Messaging) to deliver them. You can disable push at any time in your device settings.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be announced inside the app and via email to your account address at least 14 days before they take effect. The effective date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised.

15. Contact

Questions about this policy, or to exercise any of your rights above:
palmies@pm.me

For our community rules and acceptable-use terms, see the Terms of Service. For our zero-tolerance policy on child safety see the Child Safety Standards.