Privacy Policy
Last updated 12 October 2026
Wander is built to collect as little about you as possible. This policy explains what Abdel Rahman SayedAhmed (“we”, “us”), who operates Wander from British Columbia, Canada collects, why, who can see it, where it’s kept and for how long. It is written to meet British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and Canada’s PIPEDA.
Who is responsible for your information
Abdel Rahman SayedAhmed is responsible for the personal information Wander collects and acts as its privacy officer. Contact: support@wanderappstudio.com.
Your account and profile
Account: your email address and password. The password is stored only in scrambled (hashed) form by our login provider. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your email address and name from them.
Profile: first name, birthday (only your age is ever shown), gender, who you want to see, age range, interests and your intro answer.
Vibe quiz (optional): your answers are used only to work out a compatibility percentage with people nearby. Nobody ever sees your answers; Wander Premium members see the percentage. Kept until you change them or delete your account.
Why: to run your account, check you’re 18 or over, and show your intro to suitable people.
Kept: until you delete your account.
Photos and verification selfies
Profile photos: seen only by people you match with. Moderators may see your photos when reviewing a report or a selfie. Kept until you remove them or delete your account.
Verification selfie: seen only by our moderators, to compare with your photos. Kept until you delete your account.
Who at Wander can see your information
Moderators see what they need to handle reports and verification selfies. Wander’s operator can look up an account’s profile, photos, email address and account status (for example verified, Premium or banned) for support, safety and running the service. These tools never show your location, your messages or your quiz answers.
People who maintain Wander’s systems could technically access stored data. We only do so when needed for safety, legal reasons or to fix a problem.
Automatic safety checks
Before a chat message or a new profile photo is posted, it is sent to OpenAI’s moderation service (United States), which checks it for harmful content such as threats, hate, harassment, sexual content involving minors, or sexual or violent photos. If it is flagged, it is not posted.
OpenAI states that content sent to this service is not stored and is not used to train its models. We keep only a record that a check happened and which categories were flagged, never the content itself.
Messages, names and intro answers are also checked against a list of banned words and phrases.
Location
Your phone turns your GPS position into an area of about 1 km before anything is sent. Your exact coordinates are never sent to Wander’s servers, except with Find each other (below), and only when you turn it on.
Your phone’s own map service (Apple or Google) receives the centre of that ~1 km area to look up a neighbourhood name.
While you are set to Visible and the app is open, we store your ~1 km area and neighbourhood name. It is used for matching for 20 minutes, counted anonymously (the “people around here today” figure and busy-area circles) for up to 24 hours, and then deleted. Going Invisible deletes it immediately.
Busy-area circles: to show them, your phone sends a rough area of about 5 km. We don’t store it. Circles only show areas with at least 3 people, and never show counts or who is there.
Wander Premium heatmap: uses the same anonymous ~1 km area counts as the busy-area circles, with the same minimum of 3 people. It never shows counts, names or who is where.
On your own screen, the map can show your exact position (including in 3D street view). That happens only on your phone and is never sent to us.
Find each other: after you match, you can choose to share your exact live location with that one person for up to 30 minutes, while the app is open, so you can see each other on a map and follow an arrow to meet. They see it only while they are sharing theirs with you too. We keep only your latest position, and delete it when you stop sharing, when the 30 minutes end, or if either of you unmatches or blocks the other.
Meetup suggestions: the centre of your ~1 km area is sent to OpenStreetMap to find public places nearby.
Your home zone, if you set one, is stored only on your phone. We never learn it.
Activity on Wander
Who you said yes or pass to, and your matches. Kept until you delete your account. A match nobody messages in 48 hours is deleted automatically.
Messages and when they were read: kept while the match exists, and deleted when either of you unmatches or blocks, or an account is deleted. If you delete a message, its text is erased.
Blocks and reports: kept until either account involved is deleted, to keep people safe.
Which people you were notified about: kept for 2 days so you don’t get repeat notifications.
Feedback board: posts you write are visible to everyone on Wander, with your first name. Stars you give are private. Kept until you delete the post or your account.
Your acceptance of these documents (which version, and when): kept until you delete your account.
A notification token for your device: kept until you sign out or delete your account.
What stays on your phone only
Your home zone and your visibility settings are kept only on your phone. We never receive them.
Website waitlist
If you join the waitlist on wanderappstudio.com, we keep your email address and which phone you use (iPhone or Android), only to tell you when Wander launches. We don’t use it for anything else or share it with anyone. To be removed, email support@wanderappstudio.com.
Technical information
Like all online services, our service providers automatically record technical information such as your IP address, device and app details, and the time of each request. It is used for security and fixing problems, and kept according to their policies.
How we use your information
Only to run Wander: your account, matching, chat, notifications, keeping people safe (automatic safety checks, reports, moderation, bans), preventing abuse and security problems, and meeting legal obligations.
We don’t sell your information, we don’t show ads, and we don’t share your information with advertisers or data brokers.
Who we share it with, and where it’s stored
Supabase stores our database, logins and photos. Our servers are in Oregon, in the United States.
Expo (United States) delivers notifications and app updates. OpenAI (United States) checks messages and new photos for harmful content, as described above. Apple and Google deliver notifications to your device, provide maps and neighbourhood names, and run sign-in with Apple or Google if you use it. OpenStreetMap provides meetup suggestions.
Your information is therefore stored and processed outside Canada, mainly in the United States. There, it’s subject to local law, which may allow authorities to access it.
We may also disclose information when the law requires it, or to protect someone’s safety.
Your choices and consent
You agree to this policy when you accept it in the app. You can withdraw your consent at any time: go Invisible, stop sharing your location in Find each other, turn off notifications in your phone’s settings, or delete your account. Some features stop working without certain information.
Delete your account from the Profile tab. This permanently removes your profile, photos, selfie, matches and messages from our live systems straight away. Copies may remain in our providers’ backups for a limited time until they are overwritten.
Your rights
You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask how it has been used and shared. Email support@wanderappstudio.com. We’ll respond within 30 days, and we may need to confirm your identity first.
Security
Information is encrypted in transit, and database rules limit what each person’s app can see to only what each screen needs. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password.
If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we’ll notify you and the privacy regulators as the law requires.
Adults only
Wander is only for people aged 18 and over. If we learn that we hold information about someone under 18, we delete it.
Changes and complaints
If we change this policy significantly, we’ll ask you to agree again in the app.
If you have a concern, please contact us first at support@wanderappstudio.com. You can also complain to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (oipc.bc.ca) or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca).