Privacy notice
LdnGays is a private, invite-only community for adults aged 18 and over. Minors are not allowed.
Who is responsible
This community is run by Ldn Gays, who is responsible for your data. You can reach us through Me › Contact the admin or at admin@ldngays.co.uk.
What we store
Your username, password (stored only in scrambled form), optional PIN (also stored only in scrambled form), date of birth, profile details (including optional sexual-health information, which you can hide from your profile at any time), your status and Looking Now switch, your photos and videos (profile and albums), the messages, photos, videos, albums and approximate locations you send, your London chat posts, your saved phrases, who you tap, favourite, view or block, and when you were last online.
Why we can use your data
We use your account details, messages and photos to run the community you chose to join. For sensitive details, such as sexual-health information or anything that reveals your sex life or sexual orientation, we rely on your explicit consent. You give this consent with a separate tick-box when you join, and we record the date. You can remove those details, or withdraw your consent, at any time by editing your profile or deleting your account.
Invites and requests
If you ask for an invite, we store the username you would like, any contact details, the Telegram or X username you give us, and your note. The admin sees this and may email you if you gave an email address. If you cannot give a social account, you can send a note instead. Requests and contact messages are kept so the admin can reply and handle them.
Taps and views
When you tap someone or open their profile, they can see that you did. Only the fact of the tap or view, and when, is recorded; the other member cannot see anything else about your browsing.
Location
Location is optional. You can pick an area by hand, use approximate GPS, or switch it off. Other members only ever see a distance range such as “Within 2 km”, never coordinates. GPS positions are rounded before they are saved. On the map, each member appears at their chosen area or their rounded GPS position, offset by the accuracy they choose in Settings (85% by default), so a pin never shows an exact spot. A location you send in a private chat or in London chat is rounded to about 1 km, drawn inside the app, and disappears after the time you choose (15 minutes to 24 hours).
Postcodes, events and maps
When you create an event, its postcode is looked up once on the server using postcodes.io. That service receives the postcode only, not your name or account. Everyone sees the area the postcode falls in; the full address is shown only to the host and to people the host accepts. The member map uses street tiles from Esri. Esri receives the part of the map you are viewing and your device’s IP address, but never any member’s location or identity: member pins are worked out on our server from public area centres or rounded GPS positions, plus each member’s accuracy setting.
Albums
A public album can be seen by any signed-in member. A private album can be seen only by you and by people you have messaged. A private album can also be kept off your profile. Deleting an album deletes its photos. Members can have up to 10 albums and 10 items in each album; the admin is not limited.
London chat
London is one room that every signed-in member can read and post in. Treat anything you post there as visible to the whole community, and remember that people can screenshot it. You can reply to a post, tag someone with @, send photos and videos, share an event, or share an approximate location. Links are not allowed. Admins and moderators can remove a post, quiet a member for a period, or send a warning; those moderation actions are kept in the admin activity log. Mentioned members get a notification.
Login and staying signed in
We keep a login cookie and, if you tick remember this device, a device cookie that lets you come back without retyping your password. The device cookie stores only a scrambled token. If you set a PIN, this device asks for the PIN before it signs you back in. Logging out removes the device.
Branding and marketing
Any intro splash, landing pop-up or advertising images are chosen by the admin and stored on this site. They are first-party images: we do not use third-party advertising or tracking cookies. A landing pop-up is shown once for each campaign and stays closed after you dismiss it.
Other services we use
This site is hosted by Namecheap in Arizona, USA. Map tiles come from Esri, a US company, so your device’s IP address is sent outside the UK when you view the map.
Who can see it
Other members can see your profile unless you hide from the grid or block them. The admin, and moderators the admin has given specific permissions to, can see account details, reports, invite requests and contact messages, and can act on them. Their actions and IP addresses are recorded in an admin activity log so the admin can review them. We do not sell data. The admin screens do not show private messages, but messages are stored on the server, so the person who runs the site could technically access them.
How long we keep data
We keep your data while your account is open. When you delete your account, your profile, photos, messages and posts are deleted straight away. Other items are deleted automatically after these periods: London chat posts after 90 days; invite requests after 90 days; contact messages after 12 months; reports after 12 months; the admin activity log, including IP addresses, after 6 months. Each day a copy of the database is saved on the server and the newest 14 are kept, so deleted data can remain in those copies for up to 14 days. Copies the admin downloads are deleted within 30 days, and the hosting company keeps its own backups, which may last longer. Accounts that have not been used for 24 months may be deleted by the admin.
Your rights
You can edit your profile at any time and delete your account and all your data under Me › Settings. You can also ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct it, or object to how we use it, using Me › Contact the admin, and we will reply within one month. You can withdraw consent whenever you like. UK users can also complain to the ICO (ico.org.uk).