Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 2026. This policy explains how Ranked handles your personal data under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

What we collect

If you join the Ranked waitlist, we store your email address, sign-up time and sign-up source to manage the list and, with your consent, send launch updates. Waitlist emails are accessible only to the authorised Ranked administrator and are never displayed to other users. For spam protection we keep a hashed request identifier and attempt counter, not your raw IP address. Joining the waitlist does not create a student account. You can withdraw your consent or request removal at any time.

Once you create a student account, we store your university email and authentication details, and your profile: your photos (including your crops, edits, captions and the order you arrange them), your first and last name, whether you display your full name or surname only, your username, pronouns, age, university, accommodation, bio and photo settings. We also store the ratings you give and receive, rating-based and search-based connection requests and their outcomes, direct messages (including seen receipts, disappearing-message settings and deletions), notifications, hidden chats and messages, and any blocks or reports you make. If you use nearby results, we store a rounded approximate location. If you use compatibility matching, we also store the private description of what you value in a connection, which is never shown to other users.

Why we use it

We use this data to verify that you are a UK or Irish university student aged 18 or over; provide profiles, anonymous ratings, leaderboards, nearby results, connection requests, messages and notifications; let students search for others by name or username; check that photos you upload contain a visible person without identifying who it is; prevent abuse; and secure the service. We rely on performance of our contract, our legitimate interests in operating and protecting Ranked, and consent where the law requires it, such as device location permission.

Who sees what

Other signed-in students can see your photos, your name as you have chosen to display it, username, pronouns, age, university, accommodation and bio. Your email, exact location and private compatibility preferences are never shown. Ratings are anonymous: other users cannot see who rated them or any individual rating, and ratings remain anonymous even after a connection is accepted. Connection requests must be accepted before you can exchange messages. If a request is declined, the two profiles are hidden from each other rather than either account being affected. Direct messages are visible only to their participants, and disappearing messages are removed after the sender's chosen viewing window. If you hide a chat, only your view is affected. Authorised moderators can review reports and the related content needed to investigate them.

Your controls

You can edit your profile, add or remove photos, reorder them, caption them and adjust how each one looks; choose whether to display your full name or surname only; add or change your pronouns; hide your profile from leaderboards; cancel connection requests you have sent; decline requests, which hides the two profiles from each other; delete individual messages or hide chats; turn disappearing messages on or off for a chat; block people; withdraw location permission; or delete your account. Account deletion removes your profile, photos, ratings, connections, preferences, messages, notifications, blocks and reports, subject to limited legal or security records we must retain.

How long we keep it

We keep account content while your account exists or for as long as needed to provide the service. Deleted account data is removed from the live service promptly. Limited copies may remain in encrypted backups for up to 30 days, and safety or legal records may be retained longer where necessary to prevent abuse, resolve disputes or meet legal obligations.

Third parties

We use trusted service providers to host and protect Ranked. Compatibility matching compares the private preferences you provide with details other students chose to make visible; it never sees your email or exact location. Photo checks confirm only that an uploaded image contains a visible person; the process does not identify anyone. Maps are provided by OpenStreetMap and CARTO, and map searches are sent to OpenStreetMap's search service. We do not sell personal data or use it for advertising.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you may ask for access to or a copy of your data, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, or to object to processing. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it. You may also ask for human review of a significant automated decision; Ranked's matching features only suggest profiles and do not make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. We may need to verify your identity before responding, normally within one month. You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Contact

Questions or data-rights requests can be raised from within the app, including through the report option on any profile. You can also delete your account at any time from your profile settings to exercise your deletion rights.