Your privacy matters.

1. Who We Are

Hearts.ca is an emerging Canadian social and community platform operated by Hearts.ca.

Our goal is to help people build meaningful connections through communities, shared interests, and conversation.

2. Information We Collect

Information collected depends on how you interact with our website.

• Email addresses: When you join our waitlist or request updates relating to your participation.
• Phone numbers: When you initiate phone registration and request SMS verification.
• Consent records: The date and time you provide consent for a particular purpose.
• Technical information: Information such as IP addresses, browser information, timestamps, and security events may be processed by our website infrastructure.
• Session information: Essential cookies or session identifiers may be used to support forms, prevent abuse, and maintain website security.

We aim to limit personal information to what is reasonably necessary for each service you choose to use.

3. How We Use Information

We process information for purposes including:

• Processing waitlist requests and confirming email addresses.
• Verifying phone numbers and preparing registration records.
• Protecting the website against fraud, spam, and unauthorized activity.
• Responding to requests and providing support.
• Maintaining the reliability and security of Hearts.ca.

Joining a waitlist or verifying a phone number does not automatically constitute consent to unrelated marketing messages. Any optional marketing communications will require an appropriate legal basis, including consent where required.

4. Data Storage and Canadian Sovereignty

We believe Canadians should have greater transparency and control over their personal information.

Access to personal information should be restricted to authorized operations and service providers.

Our primary application database is hosted in Canada. Some external services may process information in other countries, as described below.

Canadian data sovereignty is an important design objective for Hearts.ca. It does not mean that every service or operation necessarily takes place in Canada.

5. Sharing Information

We do not intend to operate a business model based on selling personal contact information to advertisers or data brokers.

Personal information may be disclosed where necessary to:

• Provide infrastructure, hosting, email delivery, and SMS verification.
• Investigate misuse or protect the security of our systems.
• Comply with applicable legal requirements.

For phone verification, Hearts.ca may use Twilio Verify. Phone numbers and verification-related information are transmitted to that provider when SMS verification is requested.

Service providers may process information outside Canada. Their applicable privacy terms and safeguards also matter.

6. Security

Hearts.ca is designed to incorporate security protections appropriate to the information being processed.

These include application-level input validation, prepared database queries, request throttling, and protection against cross-site request forgery.

We also aim to restrict access to sensitive configuration values and service credentials.

No internet service can guarantee absolute security. We will continue evaluating safeguards as the platform develops.

7. How Long We Keep Information

We aim to keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for its identified purpose, subject to legal, security, and operational requirements.

Waitlist and phone registration information may remain in our records while the corresponding request or registration remains active.

You may contact us to request deletion or clarification of the retention period applicable to your information. Certain records may need to be retained where legally required or reasonably necessary for security purposes.

8. Your Privacy Choices

Subject to applicable law, you may request:

• Access to personal information we hold about you.
• Correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Deletion of information that is no longer required.
• Withdrawal of consent where consent is the applicable basis for processing.
• Information about how your personal information is used or disclosed.

We may need to verify your identity before completing a privacy request. We will not disclose someone else's information simply because a requester knows their email address or phone number.

Withdrawal of consent may affect your ability to use certain services. Some retention or processing may remain necessary or legally permitted.

9. Cookies and Sessions

Hearts.ca uses essential session functionality to support forms, security controls, and requests.

These sessions may use browser cookies. Blocking them can interfere with registration, verification, or other interactive features.

Any future use of non-essential analytics, advertising, or tracking technologies will be evaluated separately, with appropriate disclosures and consent mechanisms where required.

10. Artificial Intelligence

Hearts.ca may introduce AI-powered assistance, discovery, and moderation features in the future.

We intend to make it clear when information is being processed by an AI-enabled service and explain how relevant information is used.

This policy will be updated before materially different AI processing activities are introduced.

11. Children and Young People

Our current contact collection features are not specifically designed for children. We do not knowingly seek to collect personal information from children without appropriate authorization.

If you believe that a child's information has been submitted inappropriately, please contact us.

12. Changes to This Policy

As Hearts.ca develops, we may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to our services, technologies, or legal obligations.

The effective date at the top of this page identifies the current version. Material changes may require additional notice or consent.