Who we are
On My Compass helps adults in the UAE meet people nearby, chat and buy, sell or swap things locally. It runs at www.onmycompass.com and inside Telegram, and is operated by Onmycompass.com (“we”, “us”). Questions about your data go to onmycompass@gmail.com.
We collect only what the app needs to work, keep your exact position private, and never sell your data or show you advertising.
What we collect and why
| What | Examples | Why we need it | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account | Email and password, or your Telegram account ID if you sign up with Telegram | To sign you in and keep your account secure | Contract |
| Profile | Alias, display name, date of birth (shown as your age), gender, bio, interests, profile and gallery photos | To show you to people nearby and in chats | Contract; consent for optional fields |
| Location | Your device's position when you use Nearby, the Market or Compass | To show people and listings near you, by approximate area only | Consent, which you can turn off |
| Messages | Text, photos and videos you send, and whether they have been read. View-once photos are deleted shortly after they are opened (or after 14 days if never opened) | To deliver your chats | Contract |
| Connections | Requests, connections and favourites | To run the Connections feature | Contract |
| Market | Listings, their photos, price and approximate area | To show your listings to people nearby | Contract |
| Business | Business name, description, area served, licence or permit number and emirate, business phone | To verify businesses and let members call or WhatsApp them | Contract; legal compliance |
| Safety | Reports you make or receive, blocks, moderation decisions, account restrictions, and which business numbers you viewed | To keep members safe, enforce the rules and prevent misuse | Legitimate interests; legal compliance |
| What's on | “Looking for a game” posts (sport, level, town, area, day, time and note), replies, and who accepted whom. Posts never show your name or location | To help you find people to play with | Contract |
| Feedback | Notes you send with Feedback, with the page you were on and whether you used Telegram or the web | To fix problems and improve the app | Legitimate interests |
| Technical | Session cookies, IP address and device details in server logs, and anonymous timing measurements | To keep you signed in, run the service and fix problems | Legitimate interests |
We do not collect your contacts, your Telegram name, username, photo or phone number (unless you choose to share your phone to verify a business), or any payment details: the app does not handle payments.
Telegram. If you open On My Compass in Telegram, Telegram sends us a signed launch message. We keep only your Telegram account ID, to sign you in, and use our bot to send you notifications about new messages and connection requests.
Photos. Photos are re-saved when you upload them, which removes hidden location data (GPS) from the file.
Consent. Where we rely on consent, for example location and optional profile fields, you can withdraw it at any time in the app. Withdrawing may stop some features from working.
Location privacy
Nobody, including other members, ever sees your exact position. We store only your most recent position, privately, and replace it each time it updates.
- Nearby is off until you turn it on. You choose whether you appear to people nearby, and can switch it off at any time.
- Distances are rounded. Other members see “Within 1 km” or a whole number of kilometres, measured between areas of about 1 km, never between exact points.
- Listings show an area, not an address. A Market listing is placed at the centre of your ~1 km area when you post it.
- Compass shows crowds, not people. The map shows how many people are active in an area only when there are at least 3, never who they are.
- Market on the Compass. Listings are counted in areas of about 5 km or larger.
- Old positions stop counting. After 7 days without an update, you no longer appear to others.
- Your position can't be probed. Position updates are limited to one every 20 seconds.
Who sees your data
| Who | What they see |
|---|---|
| Members near you | Your alias, age, gender, bio, interests, photos you've made visible, and your rounded distance |
| People you chat with | Your messages, photos and videos in that chat, and when you've read them |
| Market buyers | Your listing, its approximate area and your alias; for a business listing, the business name and, if they tap Call or WhatsApp, the business number. Customers who message a business see the business name, not your alias |
| People you've blocked, or who blocked you | Nothing: you are hidden from each other |
| Our moderators | Reports and the content reported, listings and businesses waiting for approval, feedback you send, and account restrictions. They do not read private chats; a report can include what the reporter chooses to tell us |
| Service providers | Only what each needs to run its part of the service (below) |
We never show anyone your email address, exact date of birth, exact location or personal phone number.
Service providers
| Provider | What they do | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Stores the database, sign-in and photos | Mumbai, India |
| Vercel | Hosts the website and runs our server code | Server code in Mumbai, India; delivered worldwide |
| Telegram | Runs the Telegram version, sign-in and notifications | Telegram's own servers |
| Anthropic | Checks new Market listings' text and photos against the rules | United States |
| Sentry | Records technical error reports so we can fix problems; reports contain no messages, photos, locations or contact details | Germany (EU) |
| OpenFreeMap | Supplies the map on Compass; your device fetches map images directly from it | Europe |
Each provider processes data only to provide its service to us. We do not sell your data, share it with advertisers, or allow it to be used for advertising.
International transfers
Your data is stored in India and some providers operate from the United States and Europe, so it leaves the UAE. We rely on each provider's contractual data-protection commitments, and on transfers being necessary to provide the service you asked for.
How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Account, profile, photos, connections | Until you delete your account |
| Location | Only your latest position; it stops being shown after 7 days without an update |
| Chats, photos and videos in them | Until you or the other person deletes their account; the whole chat is then deleted for both |
| Photos or videos uploaded but never sent | Deleted within a day |
| Market listings | Live for 30 days; then kept in My listings until you delete them or your account |
| Moderation and account records | 2 years after the decision, even if the account is deleted, to handle appeals, repeat abuse and legal requests. These hold the alias, listing or business name, licence and phone number involved, the decision and the reason |
| Server logs | A short period set by our hosting provider |
Your rights
You can, at any time:
- See and correct your profile, photos, listings and business details in the app.
- Delete your account from My profile → Delete my account. This permanently removes your profile, photos, location, listings, business, connections and chats straight away.
- Withdraw consent, for example by turning off Nearby or location.
- Ask us for a copy of your data, to restrict or object to how we use it, or any other question, at onmycompass@gmail.com. We reply within 30 days.
If you're unhappy with our answer, you can complain to the UAE Data Office or, in the EU or UK, your local data protection authority.
Children
On My Compass is for adults aged 18 and over. Members can report someone who may be under 18; we review those reports first and delete the account if they are.
Security
All traffic is encrypted. Data is stored privately and checked against access rules on every request, so members can see only what is meant for them. Photos are shown only to signed-in members who are allowed to see them. Telegram sign-ins are verified against Telegram's signature and can be used only once. If a breach puts your data at risk, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.
Changes to this policy
We'll post changes here with a new effective date, and tell you in the app before significant changes take effect.