Solare legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2 November 2026
1. Who we are
Solare is a members-only community for people building a new life in a new city. In this policy, "Solare", "we" and "us" mean the team that runs Solare.
This policy explains what personal data we collect when you apply to join, use the Solare website or app, or contact us, and what we do with it. It works together with our Terms of Service.
The short version: we collect only what we need to run a safe community. A person on our team reviews every application. We don't sell your data, and our team doesn't read private or community chats unless a message is reported to us.
Questions? Email hello@solarecommunity.com.
2. What we collect
| Type | What it includes | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Application | Your photo, full name, email, the city you live in or are moving to, gender, country of origin, hometown, the year you arrived (or that you’re moving soon), confirmation that you're 18 or older, and when you accepted the Terms. If we ask you to update your application, the changes you send. | You |
| Account and profile | Your username, password (stored only in encrypted, hashed form, so we can't read it), profile photos, bio, interests, and settings such as activity sharing, notifications and email preferences. | You |
| Activity | Connection requests and their notes, private messages, GIFs you send, communities you join or run, community messages, threads and mentions, events you host or RSVP to, questions you ask and answers you give on events, invitations, and people you block. | You and other members |
| Safety | Reports you send or that are made about you, messages that were reported or hidden, and decisions our team or community admins made. | You, other members and our team |
| Technical | Sign-in and session data, basic device and browser information, the bot check on our forms, and email delivery status. Your IP address is used to stop spam, and we store it only in a scrambled (hashed) form. | Your device and our service providers |
| Messages to us | What you write when you email hello@solarecommunity.com. | You |
What we don't collect: identity documents, payment or bank details, your precise location, or your phone contacts. We don't use facial recognition on your photos: a person looks at them.
3. Why we use it
We use your data only for the purposes below.
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Reviewing your application, including asking you to update it, deciding who joins, and running city waitlists | Our legitimate interest in keeping Solare safe and true to its purpose, and steps you ask us to take before joining |
| Running your account: showing your profile, connections, chats (including GIFs), communities and events | Performing our agreement with you (the Terms) |
| Emails you need: your invitation, password resets, changes to events you're going to, and replies to your requests | Performing our agreement with you |
| Optional emails and notifications, such as the weekly summary | Your choice in Settings. You can turn them off at any time |
| Safety and moderation: handling reports, hiding content, restricting or removing accounts, and stopping removed members from rejoining | Our legitimate interest, and our members' interest, in a safe community; legal obligations |
| Preventing spam and abuse: the bot check and limits on how often forms can be sent | Our legitimate interest in protecting Solare |
| Improving Solare, using basic, combined information about how features are used | Our legitimate interest in making Solare better |
| Following the law, including answering valid requests from authorities | Legal obligation |
Why we ask for gender and country of origin. Solare is built primarily for women and welcomes all genders. We ask for gender so members can choose whether they want to see members of other genders. Country of origin and hometown help members find people with a shared background, and are shown on your profile.
No automated decisions. A person on our team makes every decision about applications and moderation. We don't use your data for profiling that has legal or similar effects on you.
4. Who can see your information
Other members. Approved members can see your profile (name, username, photos, city, country of origin, hometown, the year you arrived in your city, bio and interests, or a "Moving soon" label if you haven’t moved yet). They can also see the communities you're in and the events you're going to, unless you turn off activity sharing in Settings. Your gender is used so members can choose which genders they see. Your email address and application answers are never shown to other members.
- People you chat with see your messages.
- Members of a community see what you post there.
- Event hosts see who is going to their event.
- Members who can see an event see the questions and answers on it.
- Community admins see join requests and messages that were reported or hidden in their community.
Our team. A small team reviews applications (including your photo), handles reports and moderates. Our team doesn't read private or community chats. We see a message only if it's reported to us or hidden by a community admin. We never sign in as you.
Services that help run Solare. These companies process data for us, only on our instructions, and aren't allowed to use it for their own purposes, except where noted.
| Service | What it does for Solare | Where the data is |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, sign-in and photo storage | EU (Frankfurt, Germany) |
| Lovable | Hosts the Solare website and app | Its hosting providers |
| Resend | Sends Solare's emails | EU (Ireland) |
| Cloudflare | Domain, forwarding emails sent to hello@, and the bot check on our forms. For the bot check, Cloudflare also uses limited signals (such as IP address and browser details) to improve its own bot detection | Global network |
| The inbox where we receive emails you send to hello@solarecommunity.com | Google's data centres | |
| GIPHY | GIF search in chats. Our server sends GIPHY only your search words and language, never your name, email or account. When a GIF appears on your screen, your device loads it directly from GIPHY, so GIPHY receives your IP address and basic browser details, and its own privacy policy applies to that | United States |
Authorities. We share data with police, courts or regulators only when the law requires it, or when someone's life or safety is at serious risk.
If Solare changes hands. If Solare becomes a company, or joins another organisation, your data may move with it. This policy will keep applying to your data, and we'll tell you before anything changes.
We never sell your personal data.
Ads. Solare may show ads in the future. Before we do, we'll update this policy and tell you. We'll ask for your consent where the law requires it, for example before using advertising cookies or showing ads based on your data.
5. How long we keep it
We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purposes above.
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account, profile, photos and activity | Until you delete your account. Messages you sent may stay visible to the people you sent them to |
| Application of an approved member | Until you delete your account |
| Application waiting for review or on a city waitlist | Until we decide on it or open your city, or until you ask us to delete it |
| Application we asked you to update | The update link works for 14 days. If you don't update it, the application is declined |
| Declined application, including the photo | 6 months, so we can recognise a repeat application, then deleted automatically |
| Reports, moderation decisions and records of removed accounts | Up to 2 years after the account ends, or longer if needed for a legal claim or to keep members safe |
| Scrambled (hashed) IP addresses and emails used to stop spam | Up to 30 days |
| Records of how often you searched for GIFs (not what you searched) | Up to 24 hours |
| Emails you send to hello@solarecommunity.com | Up to 2 years |
| Backups | Overwritten within 30 days |
When you delete your account, we delete or anonymise your data within 30 days, except what we must keep for the reasons in this table.
6. Your rights
Wherever you live, you can:
- see and download the data we have about you (in Settings, or by asking us);
- correct it, by editing your profile or asking us;
- delete your account and data, in Settings or by asking us;
- choose which optional emails and notifications you get, in Settings;
- ask questions about how we use your data.
If you live in the EU, EEA or UK, you also have the right to object to our use of your data based on legitimate interests, to restrict how we use it, to data portability, and to complain to the data protection authority in your country.
If you live in Brazil, under the LGPD you also have the right to confirm whether we process your data, to anonymisation, blocking or deletion of unnecessary data, to portability, to know who we share it with, to withdraw consent, and to complain to the ANPD (Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados).
If you live in the United States, depending on your state you may have the right to know, access, correct and delete your data, and to appeal our decision on your request. We don't sell your personal data. If we ever share data for targeted advertising, you'll be able to opt out. We won't treat you differently for using your rights.
How to use your rights. Most things can be done in Settings. For anything else, email hello@solarecommunity.com from the email on your account. We may ask you to confirm it's you. We reply within one month (within 15 days for a full access request under the LGPD). Using your rights is free.
7. International transfers
Our database and photos are stored in the EU (Frankfurt, Germany), and our emails are sent from the EU (Ireland). Some of the services in section 4, such as Cloudflare, Google, GIPHY and our website hosting, may process data in other countries, including the United States. When data leaves the EU, EEA or UK, we rely on protections the law recognises, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or adequacy decisions (for example the one between the EU and Brazil).
8. How we protect your data
We use encrypted connections, store passwords only in hashed form, keep application photos in private storage, and limit what each person on our team can see to what their role needs. Access rules in our database stop members from seeing data that isn't meant for them. No system is perfectly secure, but if a data breach puts you at risk, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.
9. Cookies
We use only essential cookies and similar storage: to keep you signed in, remember your cookie choice and your settings, and run the bot check on our forms. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies today. If we add them, we'll ask for your consent first.
10. Age
Solare is only for people aged 18 or older. If we learn that someone under 18 has applied or joined, we'll delete their application or account.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as Solare grows. For important changes, we'll tell you by email or in the app before they apply. The date at the top always shows the latest version.
12. Contact
For privacy questions or requests, email hello@solarecommunity.com. You can write to us in English, Spanish or Portuguese.