Version 2026-10-19
What we collect, why, how long we keep it, what we will not do, and the rights you have over it.
The short version
- we collect what is needed to run your account and keep members safe, and nothing for advertising
- there is no outside analytics, no advertising network, no tracking company and no social media integration
- we do not sell or rent anything about you, and we do not share it for anybody else's marketing
- no person, company or organisation controls the members' critical data
- you can see, download, correct and delete your data yourself, in the app
Who runs KinkEU
KinkEU is responsible for the personal data described here. KinkEU is a project for freedom of expression in the fetish and BDSM world. It does not operate through any company or business bank account, and nobody profits from it except providers, from their own services. It is overseen by an automatic, secure system, with the help of its own members. Questions and requests about your data go to privacy
What we collect
- what you give us: an email address and password to sign in, what you put on your profile, what you write in messages, and what you upload
- what the platform records because it happened: sign ins, devices you enrolled, reports you made or received, and decisions taken on your account
- your answers to the test, if you take it. They are compared with other people's answers to show who would match you, and are never published unless you show them
- the place you share, only if you choose to, for example to search by distance or to be findable near you
- a coarse idea of the country a request came from. It is used to apply the rules of the place you are in, and for security. It is not a precise location and no movement history is built from it
- records of Keys: what you bought, spent, received and withdrew
- the app region you chose, and each change of it, with its date, the region before and the region after. It decides which region's rules apply to what you see. Where you live, if you add it, is separate: it is shown on your profile and used for search, and it decides no rules
Sensitive information
Using KinkEU, and what you choose to publish here, can reveal things about your sex life and sexual preferences. The law treats that as special information. We use it only to give you the service you asked for, with your explicit consent, which you give when you join and each time you choose to publish something. You can withdraw it by removing what you published or by closing your account.
Verification of your face
Some checks ask you for a short live video, in which you do and say what the screen asks. With your explicit consent, given in the app before the check starts, the video is checked automatically and compared with photos on your own profile, to confirm that the same real person is present. This is done by KinkEU's own system, and the video is not sent to any outside company. The check does not estimate your age and does not identify you against any outside database.
The result may be reached automatically. You can ask for a person to look at it, through an appeal or the contact form, and you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing it ends the check and the badge that depends on it. What is kept is a sealed face template, never a photo, and the first verification video, kept sealed. Later recordings are deleted once they are checked. All of it goes with the account, and none of it is used for anything else.
Why we use it, and on what basis
- to run your account and give you what you asked for: because it is needed for the agreement between us
- to keep members safe, prevent fraud and abuse, check that Keys add up, and secure the platform: because we and our members have a legitimate interest in it
- to keep payment records, answer lawful requests and meet other duties the law places on us: because the law requires it
- for sensitive information and face verification: because you gave your explicit consent
What we do not do
- we do not read message content for advertising or for profiling
- there is no behavioural advertising here, of any kind
- we do not sell anything about you, and we do not share it for anybody else's marketing
- we do not check your identity against an identity document or an outside database
Who else handles data
A small number of outside services handle data for KinkEU, only to make the service work, and never for their own purposes:
- a network service that carries and protects this site's traffic, including a quick safety check when you join, sign in or recover an account
- a service that carries the project's own emails and notices
- a payment partner, only if you buy Keys by card when that is offered. Your card details are entered on its own page, never on KinkEU, and we never receive or store them
Messages
Chat here is not end to end encrypted. Messages are protected in transit and in storage.
Buying Keys
When you buy Keys we record the package, the price, the time, how you chose to pay, and that you ticked the box confirming that Keys are a digital product and that all payments are final. A payment from your own digital currency wallet is a transfer on a public blockchain. We record the transfer that paid for your Keys, including the sending address, which anybody can already read there.
Keys between members
When you spend Keys on another member, we record who paid whom, how many Keys, what for, and the 1 Key fee. It shows in your Keys history and in theirs. Free Keys for first steps are recorded with the step that paid them. So that a step pays once per person, we keep a fingerprint of the verified email address, not the address itself, even after the account is closed.
Withdrawals
When you ask for a withdrawal we record the wallet address you gave, how many Keys, and every step of it, including its approval and the transfer that paid it. The transfer is on a public blockchain, so the address and the amount can be read there by anybody, as with any transfer.
Checking that Keys add up
We check every account's Keys against what came in and what went out, to catch fraud and mistakes. The check reads your Keys history and nothing else: not your messages and not your media. If your Keys do not add up, your account may be frozen while it is checked, and every flag, freeze and lifting is kept on the record.
Storage
We count the space everything you upload takes, so the limit of your storage can be applied. We do not look at what the files are to count them.
Publicly visible social profiles
Where the platform looks at a social profile that is already public, in order to confirm a link somebody has claimed, it records only what it needed for that purpose and keeps it for a stated period. You can object, and an objection is permanent: once you have objected, that profile is not looked at again.
How long we keep things
Every kind of record has a retention rule, set out in the data retention document. Consent records, legal acceptances and records of Keys are never edited or erased: a mistake is corrected by adding a new record that refers to the old one, because the point of them is that they cannot be quietly changed.
When data may be disclosed
Data may be preserved beyond its ordinary retention when there is a legal obligation to preserve it, and may be disclosed to an authority, including a tax authority, where the law requires it. Where we may say that this has happened, we say so.
The transparency report
The transparency report publishes counts only. It never publishes anything about an individual account.
Where data is processed
KinkEU is used around the world, so your data may be stored and processed in a country other than your own, where the rules on data may differ. The rights in this document are yours wherever you live.
Keeping data safe
We protect data with measures suited to how sensitive it is. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your rights at risk, we tell you and the authorities where the law requires it.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can:
- see your data and download a copy: You, then Settings, then My data. It also shows when your record was looked at
- correct your data: You, then Your profile for what others see, and You, then Settings, then Account and identity for your account details
- delete your account: You, then Settings, then Account and identity, then Close my account. The account deletion document says what goes and what has to stay
- object to a use of your data, ask us to limit it, or withdraw a consent you gave, by writing to privacy
@kinkeu.com - complain to the data protection authority where you live
We do not treat you differently for using any of these rights, and we answer within the time the law sets.
Children
KinkEU is only for adults aged 21 or over. We do not knowingly collect data about anybody younger. If we learn that an account belongs to somebody under 21, it is closed.
Asking about your personal data
Write to privacy
Changes
This document carries a version. When it changes the version changes, and if a change matters to you, you are told before it applies. A translation is published only when it is complete.