Location Privacy Policy
Operator: Foo AI Corp. · Effective: 2026-11-04 · Document version: loc-2026-11-04 · Consent version: 2.1 · Contact: support@fadetalk.app
Current status: in service. Everything below applies as written. Location is processed only after you consent to Near, and only when you tap Check nearby, on-site confirmation or venue setting yourself.
1. Scope
This Policy covers the personal location data Foo AI Corp. processes in order to provide FadeTalk’s location-based service (“Near”). The terms of that service are in the Location-Based Service Terms; all other personal data is covered by the Privacy Policy. We process no location data for users who have not consented to Near.
In this Policy, “Near” covers showing people nearby and the three place-room features that use location: On-site confirmation in place rooms · Showing nearby place rooms · Publishing a place room's venue. All three are offered only to users who have consented to Near.
Chat, accounts and every other feature read no device location. The coarse country/region our hosting and web-analytics providers derive from an IP address is connection metadata (Privacy Policy §1), not the personal location data this Policy governs.
2. Purpose and Retention
art. 21-2; Enforcement Decree art. 25-2(i)
There are four purposes. We use location for nothing else — no advertising, no marketing, no profiling.
- Showing people nearby and connecting chat requests — when you ask Near for a list.
- On-site confirmation in place rooms — when a member taps to confirm in a place room whose host has turned it on. In the same cell as the room’s venue or an immediately neighbouring one (within ring 1), the screen says “Confirmed to be in the same area (about 2.2 km)”. The result goes only to the host who opened the room, and the screen says “Shown to the host only”.
- Showing nearby place rooms — when you tap to look for place rooms nearby. The result is shown to you alone.
- Publishing a place room's venue — when a place room’s host taps to set the venue. The screen says “This publishes this room's venue”.
What is stored, and for how long:
| Item | Detail | Retention |
|---|---|---|
| Cell identifier | The pair of integers your device produces by snapping your coordinates to a fixed grid cell of at least about 3 km², plus the latitude band, grid version, audience and expiry. One row per user, overwritten. No coordinates, accuracy, altitude, speed or bearing. | At most 30 minutes. After expiry it is no longer readable, and a job running at least every 6 hours deletes the row. |
| A place room’s venue | The cell identifier the host published (the pair of integers, latitude band and grid version) and when it was set. Stored as a property of the room; no coordinates. | Kept until the room ends. Deleted at once if the host removes it or withdraws Near consent; once the room ends it is no longer used, and an automatic job deletes it with the room's records. |
| On-site confirmation time | When a member last passed on-site confirmation. No cell, no distance. | Kept until the member leaves or is removed from the room, withdraws Near consent, or the room ends. The cell used for the check is not stored. |
| Near settings | Consent timestamp, the document version consented to, audience, notification method and frequency, pause and withdrawal timestamps. Settings, not location. | Until you delete your account |
| Statutory activity records | See clause 3. They contain no location. | 6 months |
| Consent and withdrawal records | Which item (collection/use, disclosure, notification method, notification frequency, audience), whether it was granted, the notice text shown on screen, the document version, and when | As long as needed to evidence that consent was obtained. On account deletion the link to the account identifier is removed. |
| Destruction records | The public ID, the number of records destroyed, and when — so that destruction is itself provable | As long as needed to evidence the destruction |
| Staff access log / authority changes | Access by location-handling staff; grants, changes and revocations of that authority | 1 year · at least 5 years |
| Chat requests · mutual hiding | Who was asked and when (no location); mutual invisibility after a report or a declined request | Requests are deleted on expiry or on accept/decline · hiding lasts 30 days |
| Query budget records | Daily counts and a cryptographic value used only to tell whether the cell changed (the original cell cannot be recovered from it). These exist to stop bulk collection and tracking. | 30 days |
The cell used for a nearby place room lookup or an on-site check exists only while the request is processed and is never stored.
3. Statutory Activity Records: Basis and Retention
Decree art. 25-2(ii); Act art. 16(2)
- Basis — art. 16(2) requires automatic recording and retention of the fact that location data was collected, used or disclosed. We keep these records to comply.
- When — in the same database transaction as the act itself. Collection and use are recorded even when there is nobody nearby to show.
- What — the kind of act (collect / use / disclose), the purpose (Showing people nearby and connecting chat requests / On-site confirmation in place rooms / Showing nearby place rooms / Publishing a place room's venue), who requested it, how it was obtained, the method, the recipient, and a timestamp at 10-minute granularity. The location itself is not recorded — no column could hold it.
- Repeats inside one 10-minute window — a repeated disclosure to the same person within the same window is recorded once, and that window is the granularity of every timestamp you are shown.
- Retention — 6 months; an automatic job deletes older entries.
- Immutability — after writing, modification and deletion are refused by the database. Only marking a notification delivered, and destruction required by law, run through their own procedure; anything else fails.
4. How Location Data Is Destroyed
Decree art. 25-2(iii); Act arts. 23, 24(4)
- When the purpose is met — an expired cell identifier is excluded from every query, so it is neither used nor disclosed again, and a job running at least every 6 hours deletes the row. We do not describe this as instant physical deletion.
- On withdrawal or a deletion request — the stored cell identifier is deleted in the same operation, your entries in the statutory records are destroyed through the controlled procedure, and the count and time of that destruction are recorded. That record exists so that “never collected” and “destroyed on withdrawal” remain distinguishable.
- Conflicting periods — while consent stands, the 6-month retention duty in clause 3 governs. On withdrawal we destroy your entries, except records the law requires us to keep, which are retained for the statutory period and then destroyed.
- Method — rows are deleted from the database so they cannot be restored. Anything left in point-in-time backups is purged within 7 days. We never print location data or export it to a separate file, so there is no paper-destruction procedure.
- On account deletion — your Near settings and cell identifier go with the account. Statutory records remain with the account identifier detached and are destroyed at the end of the clause 3 period, or immediately if you withdraw and ask for destruction.
- Place rooms — when a host removes the venue or withdraws Near consent, the venues that host published are deleted in the same request, and on-site confirmation and nearby visibility are switched off with them. Once a room ends, its venue and confirmation times are no longer used and an automatic job deletes them with the room’s records. When a member leaves or is removed, that member’s confirmation time goes with them.
5. Disclosure to Third Parties
Decree art. 25-2(iv); Act art. 19(2)
We disclose location data only where you have consented to disclosure, and only within the scope below. That consent is a separate item from collection/use consent; declining it means Near is unavailable, and nothing else changes.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Recipients | Other FadeTalk users using Near at the same time (friends, or everyone nearby, per your audience setting; Korean and unknown-region accounts need phone verification for everyone nearby) |
| Data | Distance band (same / adjacent / this area) and the display name, if one is set. The ID code and the profile photo are shown only to mutual friends. For anyone who is not your friend a single-use reference goes with the card instead; it is never displayed and expires with the card. |
| Purpose | Showing people nearby and connecting chat requests |
| When and how | Displayed on screen when a recipient queries Near. No file transfer, no API feed, nothing on a schedule. |
| Never included | Coordinates, maps, distance in metres or kilometres, bearing, movement history, past locations |
| Never disclosed to | Anyone you blocked, anyone hidden for 30 days by a report or declined request, anyone paused or withdrawn |
| Precondition | Only accounts with a verified email address we can deliver to, because that is how each disclosure is notified (clause 6). An address our mail cannot reach cannot carry a notice, so an account holding only Apple’s private relay address — issued when you hide your email while signing in with Apple — cannot use Near, and no disclosure occurs for it. |
| Recorded | Every disclosure is recorded in the statutory records and notified to you (clause 6). |
On-site confirmation in place rooms is a disclosure too: when it confirms, the room’s host learns that the member is in the same area as the room’s venue, and when. It is offered only to members who gave the disclosure consent above, within this scope:
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Recipients | The host of the place room where you requested on-site confirmation (confirmation result only) |
| Data | The place room host receives only whether you were confirmed on site and when. |
| Purpose | On-site confirmation in place rooms |
| When and how | When a member asks for on-site confirmation and is confirmed, shown as a mark and a time in the host’s member list. Repeated confirmations in the same room within 10 minutes are recorded once. |
| Never included | Cell identifier, distance, bearing, movement. Not shown to other members, including those marked as hosts, and a check that does not confirm is shared with no one. |
| Recorded and notified | Every such disclosure is recorded with the host as the recipient and notified as in clause 6. |
We do not treat Showing nearby place rooms or Publishing a place room's venue as a disclosure to third parties. A nearby place room lookup is shown only to the person who made it, and a room’s venue is a property of the room that its host published: it is used only as “the room is in the same or a neighbouring area”, and the cell identifier itself is shown to no one. Both are recorded in the statutory records as collection and use.
We do not sell location data and do not disclose it for advertising or marketing. Processors unrelated to Near, including the AI reply-suggestion provider, receive none. Where a law enforcement request is lawful we disclose only what is required, and the fact is written to the statutory records and the access log.
6. Notifying You of Disclosures
Decree art. 25-2(v); Act art. 19(3)–(5), Decree art. 24
- Contents — recipient, date and time (10-minute granularity) and purpose, shown in Provision records in the app, on the device the location came from.
- Method — all three are emailed to your account’s verified email address. Email is the channel, and having one is also what makes you eligible for Near (clause 5). If you read the entry in Provision records before the mail goes out, that reading discharges the notice and no mail is sent.
- App notification — if you chose app notifications, a content-free alert goes out alongside the email. It names neither the other person nor any location, it never replaces or delays the email, and on its own it does not discharge the notice.
- Timing — per disclosure by default, which means one notice every time a disclosure happens. You may batch every 10/20/30 disclosures or every 10/20/30 days (30 days maximum), and switch back at any time.
- If we cannot reach you — with no verified email address we can deliver to, Near does not run, and any cell identifier still held is deleted in the same request. Nothing is stored and nothing is disclosed, so there is nothing to notify.
- On-site confirmation in place rooms — a disclosure made by an on-site confirmation is notified the same way and on the same schedule. The recipient is the room’s host and the purpose is “On-site confirmation in place rooms”.
- Access — the records screen shows only records about you; it cannot be used to enumerate the people you saw.
7. Guardians of Children Aged 8 or Under
Decree art. 25-2(vi); Act arts. 26, 25
- We do not provide the art. 26 service under which a guardian may consent on behalf of a child aged 8 or under or another protected person. There is therefore no guardian consent flow, and no feature that lets anyone look up another person’s location as a guardian.
- FadeTalk does not accept registrations from anyone under 14, and the Near consent step requires the same confirmation. Accounts found to belong to someone under 14 are deleted. As a result we process no location data of children under 14 and operate no legal-guardian consent flow.
- If you believe you are the guardian of an affected user, contact support@fadetalk.app. After verifying as the law requires, we will stop location processing for that account and destroy the data.
8. Location Information Manager
Decree art. 25-2(vii); Decree art. 20(1)(i)
- Name and title: JEEHO SONG, Chief Executive Officer
- Role: Location Information Manager (위치정보관리책임자)
- Contact: support@fadetalk.app · 359 Gangnam-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Designations and changes are recorded with their date, and those records are kept for at least 5 years.
9. For Reference: Your Rights and How to Use Them
Added for convenience, beyond the statutory contents.
- Pause — one action from the list screen or Settings, effective immediately; we never refuse it.
- Withdraw consent — Settings → Near → Withdraw consent, or support@fadetalk.app.
- Access, correction, deletion — Settings → Near → Provision records, or support@fadetalk.app.
- Change audience or notification settings — Settings → Near.
- If we have suspended your account — pausing, withdrawing consent and access are not affected. Signing in again with the same method gives you a credential limited to those three plus a read of your Near settings; it cannot query Near, give consent or change settings. The same requests are accepted by email to support@fadetalk.app.
- Remedies — Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee (1833-6972, kopico.go.kr), Privacy Infringement Report Center / KISA (118, privacy.kisa.or.kr), Korea Communications Commission (kcc.go.kr). Users elsewhere may also contact their local data-protection authority.
10. For Reference: Processors and Cross-Border Processing
Added for transparency, beyond the statutory contents.
- Cell identifiers and statutory records are stored and processed in our database (Neon, Singapore) and API servers (Fly.io, Singapore), under contracts restricting use beyond the assigned task and onward sub-processing.
- Notice emails pass through our email provider (Resend, United States). The body carries the recipient (a display name and a partly masked ID code), the time of disclosure (10-minute granularity) and the purpose; it carries no coordinates and no cell identifier.
- App notifications pass through notification providers (Expo · Apple · Google, United States), but their contents include no location, cell identifier or other person’s details.
- Cell-related fields are stripped from error monitoring (Sentry) and usage analytics before sending.
- The AI reply-suggestion provider receives no location data.
11. For Reference: Security Measures
Added beyond the statutory contents.
- No column anywhere can hold coordinates, accuracy or a movement history, so a location history cannot come into existence.
- Statutory records cannot be modified or deleted once written (database trigger).
- Staff access is least-privilege and logged for 1 year.
- Data is encrypted in transit, and query budgets (distinct cells per day, observations per pair) limit bulk collection and tracking.
- A reported position implying a physically impossible movement is rejected.
12. Publication and Changes
This Policy is published at fadetalk.app/location-policy and linked from the Near consent screen in the apps and on the web. If we change it, we publish the change and its effective date the same way, and announce any change unfavourable to users in-Service before it takes effect.
This English text is provided for a global audience; the Korean version is the authoritative text and prevails in case of any conflict.
Business registration 284-81-02702 · Location-based service filing No. 2921 · CEO JEEHO SONG · 359 Gangnam-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Location-Based Service Terms · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service · Support