Privacy policy
What we collect
We collect three kinds of information: what you give us, what is created when you use the platform, and what your device reports automatically.
Information you give us
- Account details: your email address and password.
- Profile details: display name, age, role, the Chicago neighborhoods you select, your interests and anything you write in your bio.
- Photographs you upload, including any you mark as private.
- Verification images, if you choose to verify your photos.
- Messages you send to other members, and reports you submit to moderation.
- Payment details, if you take out an optional paid membership. These are handled by our payment processor; we do not store full card numbers.
Information created by using the platform
- Which profiles you view, save or like, and which filters you apply.
- When you were last active, which is what produces the online indicator.
- Blocks you set and reports you make or receive.
Information collected automatically
- IP address, browser and device type, and approximate location derived from your IP address.
- Pages visited and actions taken on the site, for security and for fixing things that are broken.
How we use it
- To create and operate your account and show you relevant members.
- To deliver your messages and keep conversations available to you.
- To run photo verification and display the verified badge.
- To review reports, investigate fraud, and remove accounts that break our rules or the law.
- To send service messages such as password resets and security notices. Marketing email is optional and can be turned off at any time without affecting your account.
- To understand which parts of the site are used, so we can improve them.
We do not use your private messages to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell your personal data to anyone.
Who can see your information
Your profile is visible to registered members, not to the open internet, and it is not indexed by search engines. Within that:
- Public profile fields — display name, age, role, neighborhood, interests, bio and public photos — are visible to any signed-in member.
- Private photos are visible only to members you have released them to.
- Messages are visible only to you and the member you are writing to, plus moderators reviewing a report.
- Your email address, password and payment details are never shown to other members.
You can hide your profile from browsing and search at any time from your settings, which keeps your conversations intact.
Sharing and disclosure
We share personal data only in these circumstances:
- Service providers who host the platform, deliver email, process payments and provide fraud protection, under contract and only for those purposes.
- Legal requirements, where we are obliged to respond to a valid legal request, or where disclosure is necessary to investigate fraud or to protect someone from harm.
- A change of ownership, if the business is sold or merged. You would be told before your data moved to a new controller.
We do not sell personal data, and we do not share your profile or messages with advertisers.
Cookies
We use cookies and similar storage for a small number of purposes:
- Keeping you signed in and protecting your session.
- Remembering preferences such as your last filter settings.
- Measuring aggregate usage so we can see which pages are useful.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking the essential ones will prevent you from staying signed in.
How long we keep it
- Account and profile data is kept while your account is open.
- When you delete your account, your profile, photos and conversations are removed.
- Some records are kept longer where we are required to — for example, records relating to a report of serious misconduct, a fraud investigation, or a legal or tax obligation.
- Aggregate statistics that cannot identify you may be kept indefinitely.
Your choices and rights
You can, at any time and from your account settings:
- Edit or remove anything on your profile, including photographs.
- Hide your profile from search and browsing without deleting it.
- Turn marketing email off while continuing to receive essential service messages.
- Delete your account entirely.
Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, to ask us to correct it, to ask us to delete it, and to object to certain processing. Illinois residents have specific rights concerning biometric information; photo verification images are used only to confirm an identity match and are handled accordingly. Write to us to make any of these requests and we will respond within the period the applicable law allows.
Security
Traffic to and from the site is encrypted in transit, passwords are stored hashed rather than in plain text, and access to member data by our own staff is limited to those who need it to run moderation and support.
No system is perfectly secure. You can materially reduce your own risk by using a password you use nowhere else, keeping conversations on the platform, and reading the safety guide before you share anything identifying.
Age requirement
Sugar Baby Chicago is for adults aged twenty or over. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under twenty. If we learn that an account belongs to someone below the age requirement, it is removed and the associated data is deleted. If you believe a member is under twenty, report the profile immediately.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes in a way that materially affects you, we will tell you before the change takes effect. The date at the top of this page always reflects the current version.
Questions about this policy, or a request concerning your data, can be sent to privacy@sugarbabychicago.com.