Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 13, 2026

Arabio (“we”) is a social app. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have.

What we collect: the account details you give us (name, email, password — stored only as a secure hash), your profile (photo, cover, bio, headline, school, city and state, birthday and who can see it, website, interests, language), and what you create (posts, photos, videos, reels, comments, reactions, stories, albums, messages including photos and voice messages, groups, events, event tickets, listings and business pages).

Location: only if you turn on “Show me to people nearby”. We snap your location to a grid of about 2 km (1.2 miles) before storing it, other members only ever see a rough range (within 1, 5, 10 or 30 miles) — never an exact distance — and turning it off deletes it.

Location on the map and in listings: the marketplace map shows listings at an approximate, city-level spot — never your home address. Your phone shares your location with Arabio only while you use a feature that needs it (Near you, “Locate me” on the map, adding a business, or “Use my area” when you add a place to a post or reel — only when you tap it, and the post shows an area, never an exact spot), never in the background. Please don’t type your home address into a listing.

Searching for a place: when you type in “Add location”, what you type goes through our server to Google Places (Google’s place search), with a wide area around your profile city to rank the results. We never send Google your name or account. With your post we keep the area you picked (its name and an approximate point from our own list) and Google’s reference to that place, so you can edit it later. Other members only ever see the area.

How we use it: to run the app — show your posts to the community, deliver your messages, suggest people, groups and events near you, keep the community safe (reports and moderation) and prevent abuse (rate limits, which can use your device’s IP address — for example to slow down repeated sign-in attempts). We do not sell your data, we do not share it for advertising, and we do not show third-party ads.

Automatic safety checks on photos: to keep the community safe, photos you upload may be checked automatically for nudity, sexual content, violence and the safety of children — by our hosting provider’s AI (Cloudflare Workers AI) and, when we turn it on, by a specialist moderation service (Sightengine), which receives the photo only to check it. Photos you send in private chats are checked only if an admin turns that on. A photo that looks like it breaks our rules may be hidden until a moderator reviews it; nothing is deleted without a person deciding.

Who can see what: your profile and public posts are visible to signed-in members. Each post follows the audience you choose for it. Private-group content is visible to that group’s members. Messages are visible only to the people in the conversation. When you watch someone’s story, they can see that you viewed or liked it. People you block can’t see your posts or message you.

Events and tickets: when you get a ticket, the event’s host can see your name, your ticket and whether it was checked in at the door.

Voice and video calls (when available): calls between friends connect directly between the two devices, so each device can see the other’s internet (IP) address — that’s how direct calls work. To hide yours, turn on Settings → Privacy → “Relay calls (hide my IP)” and your calls go through our relay instead. Calls are never recorded. We keep the call history — who called whom, voice or video, when, how long and how it ended — and, for 30 days, a technical quality summary from each of your devices (the kind of device and browser, whether the call went direct or through our relay, and connection figures such as delay, lost data and video resolution — never your IP address or anything said or shown) so we can fix poor-quality calls. Both are in Download your data and deleted with your account.

GIFs in comments come from GIPHY: when you search, your words go to GIPHY from our server (never your identity), and a GIF in a comment loads straight from GIPHY’s servers, which can see your device’s internet (IP) address — as with any picture from another site.

Service providers: we host on Cloudflare (servers, database and file storage in the United States). Push notifications are delivered through Expo, Apple and Google. Area maps are drawn from an open map-tile service (OpenFreeMap), which receives your device’s request for the map area on screen. When you type an address or venue, what you type is sent to Google Places to suggest matching places, and venue maps are shown with Google Maps; Google’s use of that data is governed by the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service (maps.google.com/help/terms_maps) and the Google Privacy Policy (policies.google.com/privacy). If you sign in with Google or Facebook, that provider shares your name and email with us.

Security and 2-step sign-in: passwords and sign-in sessions are stored only as secure hashes. You can turn on 2-step sign-in (Settings → Security) so signing in also needs a code from an authenticator app; we keep the setup key needed to check those codes, and your recovery codes are stored only as secure hashes.

Admin statistics: to run and protect Arabio, our admins see counts about members (for example how many joined, the app language, and the kind of device). For each signed-in device we keep its name (like “Safari on iPhone”), when it was last used, and the rough country and state or region that Cloudflare estimates from your connection — never your IP address. When you sign up, we also keep roughly how you found Arabio (a shared link, another website’s name or a campaign tag, never the full address). All of this is in Download your data and is deleted with your account.

Download your data: Settings → Your data gives you one file with your profile, posts, comments, reactions, albums, stories that are still up, the messages you sent, your friends, follows, blocks, groups, events and listings, your signed-in devices, the messages you sent to support, and, if you use Dating, your dating profile and photos and the likes, passes and blocks you made there, and how you found Arabio. The download link works once, for 10 minutes, and you can ask for it 3 times a day. It never includes other people’s private messages.

How long we keep it: stories are deleted 24 hours after you post them. When you delete a post, reel, listing or message, it is removed from the app. Database backups kept for recovering from failures may hold deleted data for up to 30 days before it is overwritten.

Your choices: edit your profile anytime; turn nearby off anytime; choose who sees each post; block and report members; download your data; and delete your account in Settings → Delete account, which permanently removes your account, posts, comments, messages, photos and all other content.

Your privacy rights: depending on the state you live in (for example California), you may have the right to know what we hold about you, get a copy, correct it and delete it. You can do most of this yourself in the app; for anything else, write to us from Help & support › Contact support or at support@arabio.io, and we won’t treat you differently for asking.

Paid features (future): nothing in Arabio is for sale today. If we add paid features later, payments will be handled by Apple, Google or a payment company — we won’t see or store your full card number — and we’ll update this policy first.

Children and age: Arabio is for people 18 and older. We ask for your birth date when you sign up and don’t create an account for anyone younger — and we don’t keep the birth date of anyone we turn away. Members who joined before October 2026 keep their accounts, with the same protections as before (hosting or speaking in rooms, gifts and — when it’s open — Dating stay 18 and over). If we learn an account belongs to someone under 13, or a new account to someone under 18, we delete it.

Birthday and gender: we ask for both when you sign up. They keep Arabio right for your age and place you in areas made for men or women (like Dating). We never use them for ads. Your gender is visible only to you unless you choose otherwise; your birthday shows to friends as the month and day only, never the year or your age. Both are locked once saved — if one is wrong, use Request a change, and our team reviews it. You may add a photo of an ID to that request; it is optional, only our admins see it, and we delete it as soon as the request is decided. Your birthday and gender are deleted with your account.

Contact: for privacy questions, use Help & support › Contact support in the app (logged out: “Need help?” on the log-in screen) or email support@arabio.io. We reply by email. A message sent with Contact support keeps what you wrote, a line about the app and device (version and system), the email we reply to and any screenshot you add; it is emailed to our support inbox and our admins read it.