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Svala — Privacy Policy

Svala is a private, invitation-only club with end-to-end encrypted messaging. This policy is written plainly, and it is written honestly: it tells you what we cannot see, and it tells you what we can.

1. Who we are

Svala ("we") operates the Svala application and svala.club. Contact: privacy@svala.club.

2. What we cannot read

Message content, photographs, videos, membership application answers, and concierge conversations are end-to-end encrypted. They are sealed on your device with keys that never leave it, and opened only on the recipient's device. We hold no key that opens them. Neither we, nor our hosting provider, nor anyone who compels us, can read them, because we cannot.

That guarantee is mathematical, not a promise of good behaviour. It has one honest limit, stated in section 4.

3. What we hold

To run a members' club we do hold, in readable form:

• Account: your email address and authentication record.
• Membership: your status (approved, active, lapsed, revoked), when it changed, whether you hold a Founding badge, and your invitation record.
• Profile, as you choose to publish it: display name and display mode, industry, title, country or city, a 140-character line, and an optional monochrome portrait. You control every one of these, including showing none of them.
• Encrypted blobs: ciphertext we store and route but cannot open.
• Public keys: the public half of your device's message keys.
• Operational metadata: see section 4.
• Reports you file: your stated reason, and — only if you explicitly choose to share them — the recent messages you consent to reveal. Reports are deleted after 30 days.

4. Metadata — the honest limit

End-to-end encryption hides content. It does not hide the existence of communication. Our infrastructure can see, and to some degree must retain:

• that an account exists and is a member;
• that two members have a conversation, and when messages passed through it (not what they said);
• when you were last online, if you have not switched that off;
• the size and timing of encrypted uploads;
• ordinary server logs kept by our hosting provider (Google Firebase), including IP addresses, for a limited period.

We say this rather than claiming "no trace". There is a trace. There is no readable content.

5. Everything expires

Messages and media are deleted within 24 hours of being sent — from your device, from our database, and from encrypted storage. Deletion runs on a schedule and is not reversible by us. Announcements expire the same way. Reports expire after 30 days. If your membership lapses and is not resumed within 30 days, your account and its records are deleted.

6. What we do not do

• We run no analytics SDK, no advertising, no trackers, no profiling.
• We do not sell, rent, or share your data with anyone for their own purposes.
• We send no marketing email.
• Push notifications contain no content and no sender name — only "Svala — The desk has written to you." or "Svala — Someone has written to you."

7. Who processes data for us

• Google Firebase (Google LLC): authentication, database, encrypted file storage, server functions, push delivery. Data is hosted in the United States.
• Google Play (Google LLC), Android only: purchase, billing, and refunds of the Google Play subscription under Google's own terms.
• RevenueCat, Inc., Android only: the status of your Google Play subscription and your member ID, so the club knows dues are settled. Your payment details are handled by Google, and are never seen by us or by RevenueCat.
• On iPhone, nothing is bought inside the app and no purchase data is collected. Dues are settled directly with the club; the desk writes to you by email, and any payment is taken by the provider named in that message under its own terms.

8. Your rights

Wherever you live, you may: ask what we hold, correct it, delete your account and its data from within the app at any time, export what is exportable, and object to processing. Under GDPR and similar laws our lawful bases are contract (running your membership) and legitimate interests (security and moderation). Under CCPA/CPRA: we do not sell or share personal information. Write to privacy@svala.club; we answer within 30 days.

9. Screenshots and other members

We cannot technically prevent another member from photographing their screen. It is forbidden by the Rules of the House and grounds for expulsion, but no encryption defeats a camera. Speak accordingly.

10. Children

Svala is for adults. It is not offered to anyone under 18, and the app is rated accordingly.

11. Changes

If this policy changes materially, members are told inside the app before the change takes effect.