Privacy

Who is responsible

The data described on this page is handled by Mustafa Pat, Silahtarağa Caddesi No 161, Daire 5, Eyüpsultan, Istanbul, Türkiye, who operates EduFabTech as an individual (the legal notice has the details). In the words of the European and Turkish data protection laws, the operator is the controller of this data. Questions about your data go to hello@edufabtech.com or through the contact form.

Why we are allowed to do this

Each kind of processing on this page rests on one of these grounds (Article 6 of the EU and UK GDPR, Article 5 of Türkiye's KVKK):

Running the service you asked for. Your account, what you publish, your messages, stays, plans, references, notifications and the settings you choose exist because you use the site; without them it cannot work. (Contract.)

Your consent. The newsletter, device notifications, travel update emails, the optional profile details, your travel and hosting profile, the friend-matching card and — separately and explicitly — the private details you may add to it, the cookie choice itself. Each of these is something you turn on, and each can be turned off again from your account; turning it off does not undo what was done while it was on.

Our legitimate interest in keeping the site working and safe. Server logs, rate limits, the one-second arithmetic that keeps robots out of forms, reports and the evidence attached to them, the record of which campaign link or search engine brought you here (never the full address), and the few things that stay after an account is closed, listed under Your control. We keep each of these to the minimum that does the job, and this page says how long.

A legal duty. Answering a lawful request from an authority, and keeping what a law obliges us to keep.

Age

Accounts are for people aged 16 and over; the adult-only parts of the site ask for a separate confirmation that you are 18 or older before the first use (see the terms). We do not knowingly keep data about anyone under 16; an account found to belong to one is closed and its data deleted.

Where your data is kept

The site runs on a single server rented from IONOS Inc., United States; everything described on this page is stored there, and nowhere else, except email. Emails we send you — sign-in links, the newsletter, the alerts you turned on — go out through Google Workspace, and the replies and contact messages you send us arrive there, so Google handles those messages as our email provider under its standard data-processing terms. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, this means your data is processed outside those areas, in Türkiye and the United States; we rely on the standard contractual clauses of our providers for the transfer, and we keep the data minimal so that there is as little to transfer as possible. No other company receives personal data from this site.

Reading the site

You can read everything published here without an account. Server logs record the request, the time and the IP address for security and abuse handling, and are kept for a limited period.

We count how many people open each page, on this server only: one person counts once per page per day. A page counts only once you actually touch it in your browser — move the pointer, scroll, tap or press a key: the site's own script then sends this server one request that carries no cookie. A page that is merely loaded, by a program or in a background tab, is not counted. To tell one day's visitors apart we keep, for two days, a one-way code made from the day, your IP address and your browser — the address itself is never stored, and the code changes every day, so nobody can be followed from one day to the next. We also keep which kind of site a visit came from (a search engine, a social network, another website's domain) — never the full address. There is no third-party analytics script, no tracking cookie and no third-party service.

Links in an article's Sources box go through a short address on this site (/go/…) before they open the source. We count how many times each source is opened per day — only that number. No IP address, cookie or account is stored with the count, and nothing is passed to the source's website beyond the normal visit.

Calculator. The scientific calculator at /tools/calculator computes everything in your browser; nothing you type is sent to the server while you calculate. Without an account, your history, saved calculations and variables stay in that browser only (local storage) and we never see them. Signed in, those three things are stored on our server so that they follow you to other devices, and only you can read them. They are deleted when you close your account.

Grades. The gradebook at /tools/gpa is for members: the school, programme, grading scale, terms, courses, credits and grades you enter are stored on our server so that they follow you to every device. They are entered by you and never verified; we ask for no documents and keep none. Nobody else can see them — not other members, not our staff — unless you switch something on yourself: showing your cumulative average on your profile (always marked “self-reported”), or counting it anonymously in school and programme statistics. Statistics are numbers only, never names, and nothing is shown for a school until at least 10 members contribute; the only thing you see about others is where your own average stands among them. If you ask for reminders, we send a notification on the site when you have not updated the gradebook for the period you chose. Your gradebook is deleted when you close your account.

Saved tool outputs. When you save a physics simulation, a graph, a data set, a circuit or a chemistry calculation to your library at /tools/library, we store the settings you chose and a title, and our server renders them into files — a video and an animated GIF for simulations, images and a data file for every tool. Those files live under an address made of random letters, so nobody can guess it; only you can see the library. Nothing is shared unless you switch sharing on for an item — then anyone with that item's link can open a page with the files, the settings and your public name, and you can switch it off again at any time (the old link and file addresses stop working). We keep at most 200 items and 500 MB per member. Our staff do not browse libraries. Everything in it is deleted when you close your account.

Games. The games at /games run in your browser. If you are not signed in, nothing about your round is sent to us. If you are a member, we store each finished round: the game, the day, your score and the raw measures behind it (time, mistakes, moves) — never your keystrokes or taps. Your display name appears in the leaderboards next to your score unless you tick “Keep me off the leaderboards” on the games page; then others do not see you there and you still see your own place. A challenge is seen only by the two members in it. Rounds, scores and challenges are deleted when you close your account.

Books and your shelf. The book archive at /books holds no personal data: a book page is the same for everyone. When you add a book we record that your account added it (shown to nobody) and, if we had to look it up, the ISBN you asked for. Your shelf is yours: what you have read, your ratings, the month you finished and your reviews are public under your name, like a forum post. Books you own are private unless you tick “I share this copy” — then members see your name on that book's page as someone who has one; untick it and you disappear from the list. Our staff do not browse shelves; moderators can hide a review. Closing your account deletes your whole shelf — reading list, ratings, reviews and owned books — and detaches your name from the lookups you asked for; the books themselves stay in the archive. Loan notes: when you note that you lent a copy to a member, only you and that member see the note (who, since when, due when); a name you type instead of a username is seen by you alone. You both get one reminder when it is due. Nobody else, and no member of staff, reads the ledger. Closing your account deletes the notes you made; in notes other members made about you, your name becomes “Removed account”. Book clubs are public: the book a circle picks and the forum topic about it are visible to everyone, like the circle itself. The libraries page reads only the city on your profile to pick which libraries to list, and stores nothing. Import and export: a Goodreads file you upload is read once and discarded — only the books, statuses, ratings and reviews it names land on your shelf; the export file is your own shelf in the same layout. A collection name you give an owned book is shown wherever that book is shown (to you, or to others if the copy is shared).

Supporting EduFabTech. Support is paid on an independent platform (see /support), never on this site: we have no card form and store no payment details. When the platform tells us about a payment we keep the platform's record — a display name, the email address used there (only to match it to your account, shown to nobody), the tier or amount, the status and the dates — and, when it is linked to your account, we show a supporter badge on your profile and, only if you tick the box, your name on the supporters list. The link happens when you pay while signed in or use the same verified email address; you can untick the list at any time on /support. Clicks on the support buttons are counted per page and day, without IP address or cookie. Closing your account removes the link and your name from the list; the platform's own record of the payment stays for accounting, under the platform's terms.

Accounts

If you create an account we store your email address, your username, a hashed password and a display name (your username until you change it) — nothing else is required. We email you a link to choose your password; that link also confirms the address and works for 24 hours. Optionally, you can tell us what you do (for example “university student”) and your year of birth — only the year, never the full date. Both are shown to no one, are used only to understand in aggregate who reads the site, can be cleared at any time in your account, and are deleted when you close it. Your account carries no location unless you add one yourself in the travel and hosting profile described below; a listing you publish carries the country and city you chose for that listing, and you can change or remove it at any time.

You stay signed in until you sign out. When you sign in, your browser keeps a random sign-in key; we store only a scrambled version of it, never the key itself. Signing out deletes it. Changing your password, or using “Sign out on all other devices” in your account, signs out every other device.

For each device you are signed in on, we keep a short name made from your browser and system — for example “Chrome on Windows” — and when it was last used, so that you can see your devices and sign any of them out from your account. We do not keep your browser’s full details or the device’s IP address for this. When you sign in while another device is still signed in, we tell you on screen, in your notifications and by email, so that a sign-in you did not make does not go unnoticed.

Cookies

Only what is strictly necessary: signing you in, protecting forms, and remembering the choice you made on the cookie page. Every single one is listed by name, with what it does and how long it lives, on the cookies page.

What we do not do

No advertising trackers, no third-party analytics scripts, no selling or sharing of personal data. Pages are rendered on the server, so there is nothing loading in the background that we have not told you about.

When you use the contact form or report a listing without an account, you answer one short question and your browser does about a second of arithmetic in the background, to show that a person, not a program, is writing — nothing is sent to anyone else. We keep only a scrambled fingerprint of the form for one day, so the same form cannot be sent twice; it says nothing about you. A message that looks like advertising is filed as spam rather than refused, and a person can still read it.

A contact message from someone without an account reaches us only after they confirm it from the email address they gave: we send one email there with a confirmation link and nothing else in it. We look up whether the address's domain can receive mail at all. A message that is not confirmed is deleted unread after seven days. Once an address is confirmed, messages from it arrive without a new link for 180 days — we keep no separate list for that; the confirmed message itself is the record, and deleting it ends it.

Listings

A published listing contains what you put in it: title, description, price, category, the country and city you chose, photographs, whether you posted as a person or as a business, and the contact method you picked. A listing is public and can be found by search engines.

The contact detail itself is different: it is shown only to a signed-in member who asks for it, and it is never part of the page’s source, so it cannot be collected in bulk. If you choose to be contacted through messages on EduFabTech, no contact detail is published at all.

You can also pin a listing on a map. We store the exact point you pin, but only you see it, when you edit the listing. Everyone else sees an area of about 400 metres around it, whose centre we move by a random distance once, when you save — unless you post as a business, whose address is public anyway; then the pin is shown exactly. Distances such as “about 4 km away” are measured from that area, not from your pin.

An event also carries its date, time and time zone, whether it happens in person or online, and — only if you give them — the venue and its address. Those are public, like the rest of the listing. An online event has no pin of its own: if you give a city, it is shown at that city’s centre. “Add to calendar” builds a calendar file from the public listing when someone asks for it; nothing about who downloads it is kept.

A space to rent can also carry how many people it fits, its opening hours, its equipment and what it has (Wi-Fi, step-free access and so on) — only what you fill in, and public like the rest of the listing.

Maps are drawn from OpenStreetMap tiles that our server fetches and keeps, so your browser never contacts OpenStreetMap and your IP address is not passed on. If you search an address while pinning, our server sends the text you typed — nothing about you — to OpenStreetMap’s address service (Nominatim), and keeps the text and the answer for 30 days — without any link to who searched — so the same search is not sent twice. “Use my location” asks your browser, which asks you first; the point is used only to place the pin and is not stored unless you save the listing with it.

Photographs are re-encoded on our server, which removes the camera information they carry — including where the photo was taken. We store the IP address a listing was posted from, for abuse handling only.

A listing ends after seven days (an event, when it ends) and is deleted, with its photographs, thirty days later. We process no payments and never ask for card or bank details. If you report a listing without an account and leave an address so we can reply, we delete that address within 90 days.

Messages

Members can send each other private messages, usually about a listing. A message is stored on our server so that both of you can read it. It is not end-to-end encrypted, but nobody at EduFabTech reads your messages — the site has no screen for doing so. The one exception is a message that is reported, described below.

A message cannot be edited or taken back once it is sent. We store what you write, when you sent it, which listing the conversation is about and how far each of you has read. We do not keep a record of the IP address each message was sent from, and the other member is never shown whether or when you read their message.

When a message is shown to the person who received it, the site checks it for the signs of the most common scams — being asked to pay in advance, to share a code you were sent, or to move to another app — and shows a warning under it. The check runs only while the page is shown to the recipient; its result is not stored and nobody else sees it.

Alerts about new messages, on your device or by email, only say that a message is waiting. They never contain the message, the sender’s name, the listing or anyone’s contact details. You can turn the emails off in your message settings.

If you report a message, a moderator sees that message and up to ten messages before it in the same conversation, from both of you — nothing else. That copy is kept while the report is open and for 180 days after it is closed, then deleted. Every time a moderator opens a report, that is logged.

If you block a member, neither of you can message the other, and they can no longer see the contact details on your listings. They are not told. We store only that you blocked them, with no reason, until you unblock them or one of you closes the account.

Deleting a conversation removes it from your inbox; the other member keeps their copy. A message is erased from our server once both of you have deleted it. A first message that was never answered is erased after 30 days, and every conversation is erased twelve months after its last message. Copies can remain in our server backups for a limited time after that.

Stay records

If you and another member keep a stay record, we store which listing it is about, the listing’s title and city as they were when you confirmed, which of you is the guest and which the host, the arriving and leaving days, and when each of you proposed, confirmed, cancelled or said the stay did not happen. A stay record contains no price, no payment, no number of people and no address, and we keep no IP address for any of it.

Only the two of you can see a stay record — in your conversation and on your stays page. It is not on your profile, on the listing, in search or visible to other members, and the site has no screen for staff to look at stay records. The reviews you write after a stay are public — see Stay reviews — but the record itself is not. A moderator sees a line about a stay only if it is among the messages you share by reporting one. Each step also appears as a short line in your conversation; alerts about it only say that something is waiting — never the dates or the place.

Dates that were proposed but never confirmed are deleted 30 days after they lapsed or were withdrawn or declined; a stay that was cancelled, replaced by new dates or set aside, 30 days after that; and a confirmed stay twelve months after its leaving day — even if the conversation is deleted sooner. If a published review rests on a confirmed stay, the stay is kept for as long as that review is shown. Copies can remain in our server backups for a limited time after that.

Stay reviews

After a stay you both confirmed, the guest can review the host and the host can review the guest, for 14 days after the leaving day. We store the star rating, the text, which stay it is about and when it was written — no IP address. Reviews are blind: until both of you have written yours, or the 14 days are over, nobody can read either review — not the other member, not other members and not our staff. Then both are published together and cannot be changed or taken back.

A published review appears on the profile of the member it is about, with the reviewer’s name and the month of the stay — never the exact dates. A guest’s review of a host also appears on that listing’s page, with the listing’s title. If one of you said the stay did not happen and the other did not, that is not shown anywhere; if you both said so, neither review is shown.

Signed-in members can report a published review. Moderators then see the review, its rating, the month of the stay and the listing’s title — not the stay’s dates or your conversation. They can remove a review that breaks the rules (its author is told which rule) or set the stay aside if it appears not to have happened (both of you are told why, and neither review is shown). Alerts about reviews only say that something is waiting — never the place, the dates or a name.

Notifications

If you turn on device notifications, we store the address your browser gives us for that one browser, the two keys needed to encrypt messages to it, and the sections you picked. We do not learn your device, your phone number or your location from it, and the message itself is encrypted end to end — the push service that carries it cannot read the text. Turning it off, in the browser or on the notifications page, deletes the record.

Email

We keep a copy of each email we send you — sign-in links, alerts, the newsletter — for 30 days, so that we can see whether it was delivered, and then delete it.

A subscription stores the address, the sections you chose and how often you want it. Nothing is sent until you confirm the address; an address that is not confirmed within 7 days is deleted. When you create an account, the newsletter box is ticked for you — untick it if you do not want it, and every email carries a link that stops it in one click. Unsubscribing deletes nothing else about you.

Travel and hosting profile

If you want to host other members or travel with them, you fill in a travel and hosting profile in your account: your gender, your year of birth, what you do, the languages you speak, the city or district you live in, and a confirmation that you are 18 or older. You can also list up to 4 languages you are learning, each with your own estimate of your level from 1 to 5. That list is optional; it is shown on your friends card and on a language-partner post of yours, and it is used to find members whose languages complement yours. We ask for the city or district only — never a street or an address. If you would like to host, you can also write a home card: where a guest would sleep, who lives at home, your house rules, how many guests and nights you can manage, and whom you would like to host — and, if you want a house sitter, which pets or plants need looking after. You may add up to eight photos of your home to the card, each with a label such as “where you would sleep” or “the kitchen”; like every photo on the site, each is re-encoded on our server, which strips the camera information including where it was taken.

None of this is part of your public profile, and none of it is visible to visitors or to search engines. Signed-in members see it only where you choose to take part, and then in a reduced form: an age range (for example 25–34) instead of your year of birth, and never an address. A home card you have not opened to guests is shown to no one. We use the city you live in to show you travellers coming your way; it does not appear on a trip you announce. Moderators do not browse these profiles; they see one only when it is part of a report.

Hosting badge. While your home card is open and set to hosting or day host, signed-in members see on your profile that you host, and the city you live in — nothing else from the card. Close the card and the badge goes. Visitors never see it. Profile badges (Author, Host, Traveller and so on) are computed from counts that are already public or already shown to members; nothing new is stored for them.

Events. When you say you are going to an event, the number of people going is public, but your name is shown only to the organisers and to the other members going. Organisers see that list; staff do not read it. After the event, an organiser may mark whether you came and you may say whether it happened as described; the two answers decide trust points and are not published by name. Co-organisers an organiser invites are shown on the event once they accept. Closing your account removes you from every event list.

Trips. When you announce a trip, every signed-in member can see it: the cities or districts you are going to and the days, how many of you are travelling, what you are open to, your note, the country you are travelling from, your languages, and for each traveller the gender, an age range and what they do. Your own details come from your travel profile and cannot be different on a trip; for the people travelling with you, you give only gender, age range and what they do — no names. Visitors who are not signed in see only how many trips are announced for a city and the month, never who. Members you have blocked, and members who have blocked you, do not see your trips. You can close or delete a trip at any time; a trip is deleted 90 days after its last day. If two of your open trips cover the same nights — a connecting route, or two candidate cities — both are shown with a note that the plan may still change; we never block that, and the days you marked as not available are used only to warn you before you announce.

Radar. If you keep radar on, we tell you when something new appears within the distance you chose of the city you live in: a member announcing a trip with a stop there — the same circle as “Coming your way” — a post on Exchange, or an event. Events shown in a circle you belong to are included wherever they take place. You choose how often: at most one notification a day, every three days or once a week; never for days you marked as not available, never twice for the same thing, and never to or about a member you have blocked. The notification carries only counts, or for a single trip the city and the dates. Your radar page lists the same things, built each time from what members can already see. We keep a record of what was brought to your attention so that we do not repeat it; nobody else sees it. Set the distance and how often, or switch radar off, in your account under Travel & hosting.

Travel updates. If you keep travel update emails on, we send at most one email a day, and only when something new is waiting for you: a traveller, a post or an event near you, an offer on your trip, a plan to confirm, a question about a plan that just ended, or a reference you can write. The email carries cities, dates and counts — never a message, an offer text or another member’s name. When nothing near you is new, at most once a week it may say how many trips were announced across the site. Switch these emails off in your account under Email & alerts. Answering a trip on your radar with “I’m around” or “Away” writes those days into your calendar, exactly as if you had marked them yourself.

Offers. When you offer to host, meet or invite a traveller, only that traveller sees your offer: your name, your message and what you are offering. If you offer a place to stay, the traveller also sees your home card, which carries your gender, age range, what you do, your languages and the city you live in, together with the photos you added to the card. No other member can see who has made offers for a trip, or how many. If the traveller accepts, a conversation opens between the two of you and your message becomes its first message; if they decline, nothing opens. Moderators read an offer only when the traveller reports it. You can withdraw an offer until it is answered. An offer that was declined or withdrawn is deleted after 30 days; the others go when the trip is deleted.

Travels on your profile. Your trips, offers and plans are private, but you may open two things on your profile to everyone, including visitors who are not signed in: the places you visited and the events you attended (city, country, how many times and which month — never the exact days), and the members you met (small photo and name only). Both are built only from plans that both members confirmed happened. A member you met appears by name only if they have opened their list too; otherwise your profile shows just a count, and the same rule protects you on theirs. Both switches are off until you turn them on, in your account under Travel & hosting; we may remind you about them once every three months until you decide, and closing your account switches them off.

Calendar. Your calendar puts your trips, the offers that were accepted, your confirmed stays and your own events on one page, together with the days you mark as available or not available and the short note you may add to them. Only you can see your calendar: no other member, and no moderator, sees the days you marked or your notes. We read those days only to decide what to show and send to you — for example, to remind you on a trip page that you marked those days as taken. A day you marked is deleted 90 days after it has passed, and you can remove it at any time.

Plans, references and trust points. When an offer is accepted, either of you can propose a plan — a stay, a meeting or an event, and the days — and the other confirms it. A plan records only what and when, never an address or money. Only the two of you see it; a moderator sees a plan only if your answers to “did it happen?” differ, or if a reference from it is reported. After a plan both of you said happened, each of you may write one reference about the other: whether you would recommend them and a few sentences. Neither of you sees the other’s reference until both are written or two weeks pass; then both are shown to signed-in members on your profiles, together with how many plans you hosted, stayed at, met for or attended, and cannot be edited or deleted. References give or take trust points, which other members see as a number and a level. Cancelling a confirmed plan less than three days before it starts, or not showing up, also costs points and is noted on your profile as a count. A plan that was never confirmed is deleted two weeks after it was proposed.

You can change every part of it, close your home card or delete it at any time. Closing your account deletes all of it.

Exchange

The exchange is where members post what they offer or look for — a place to stay, something to do, company on a trip — and where members ask a host directly to stay or meet. A post stores the kind, the place (city or district, never an address), the dates, how many of you, the fixed options you ticked, your choice on costs, who may reply and a short note. It is shown only to signed-in members; visitors see counts. Your gender, age range, what you do and the languages you speak are read from your travel profile and shown on the post, the same way a trip shows them.

Replies and requests are private. A reply to a post is seen only by the member who posted it; a request to a host is seen only by that host. Nobody else sees the text or even how many replies there are, and staff do not read them unless the member who received one reports it. Accepting a reply opens a conversation between the two of you with the reply as its first message; declining opens nothing. Declined and withdrawn replies are deleted after 30 days; posts are deleted 90 days after their last day or after you close them. Before your first post you answer four short questions about the rules; we store only the moment you passed. The defaults you set for the gate (distance, costs, who may reply) are yours alone. The gate reads the sentence you type to guess the kind, the place and the dates; the sentence is not stored unless you post it as the note. Who hosts near a place is shown to members looking for a stay as a list of open home cards without photos; photos stay between the two of you. House and pet sitting works the same way and opens nothing new: a post says only what needs looking after, from a fixed list. If you ask for a sitter, your home card — photos included — is shown to the member whose reply you accept, and to nobody else; if you reply to a sitter’s post, that sitter sees your home card. A home swap stores, with the post, the city or district your home is in — taken from your travel profile, never an address — and shows it to members. It needs a home card on both sides, shown by the same two steps. Which swaps fit yours is worked out each time you open your post, from posts you could already see; it is not stored. A ride stores two places with the post — the city or district the car leaves from and the one it is going to, never an address or a pick-up point — and the day, a time if you gave one, and the number of seats. Which rides fit yours, and which seats are offered between the stops of your own trip, is worked out each time you open the page, from posts you could already see; it is not stored, and only you see it. A language-partner post stores the language and, if you are looking for a partner, the level you gave. Which posts fit yours is worked out each time you open your post — never stored, and shown only to you; where it helps, it says that a member is learning a language you speak, or speaks one you are learning, from what each of you put in your profile. A member whose reply was accepted can still open the post after it is closed or its dates have passed, until it is deleted.

Who’s going. On your own trip or post, and on a city page, we show you which members announced the same city for days that overlap yours. The list is built only from open trips and open posts that every member can already find on Trips and Exchange — never from plans, offers, replies or calendars — and a block hides it both ways. You see names because you announced your own dates; a member who has not sees only a number. Filtering by a shared interest works only between two members who have both switched on friend matching and whose preferences accept each other. The small line about students near a city or a university is a Wikidata figure about the place, not a count of members.

Community here. City, campus and university pages show a small box of counts for the area around that place: how many members said they live there, how many of them host, how many announced trips are coming, and how many open Exchange posts, upcoming events and circles there are. These are counts only, never names, and every visitor can see them. A count of members below 3 is shown as “a few”, so that a small place does not point at one person.

Circles. A circle is a country, a larger city or one interest from a fixed list. Its name, its description and the number of members are public. Who is in a circle is shown only to that circle’s own members — joining an interest circle tells its members you share that interest, joining a place circle tells them you care about that place — and a block hides the two of you from each other there too. We store that you joined, when, and whether you help run the circle; we keep no history of joining and leaving. We suggest the circles of the country and the city in your travel profile, but we never add you to one ourselves. The members who run a circle are named on it, and on their own profile, to signed-in members; they write its description and cannot remove anyone. Staff see counts, and a circle’s description when a member reports it — not who is in it. An event or a forum topic that its own organiser or author adds to a circle is shown on the circle’s page; both were public already, and the circle only gathers them. An Exchange post can be placed in one of your circles; if you tick “only members of that circle”, only they see it — on every list, in radar and in Who’s going. You can also narrow the host list and the friend search to a circle you are in. Leaving removes you at once. Closing your account removes you from every circle; a circle you started passes to its longest-serving manager, or carries on without one, and its description stays.

Tables. If you ask to be invited to tables, we store that you asked. Once a week we may then seat you with 4 or 5 other members of your city whom you have not met here. They are chosen from your friends card — the same lists and basics friend matching reads, never your free text and never your private details — and from the same preferences. For each table we store who was invited, each answer, and the evenings each member ticked. Who was invited is shown to nobody until the table is confirmed, and then only to the members seated at it; before that you see only how many were invited. A member who declined, did not answer or left sees nobody. The places seated members suggest, and their ticks, are seen only at that table. Staff see counts — never who sat where. A confirmed table appears on your own calendar. For 14 days after the evening, each seated member can say whether they were there, tick who else was, and tick “keep in touch” next to any of them. We store those ticks with the table. A “keep in touch” tick is shown to nobody unless that member ticks it for you too — not to them, not to the others at the table, not to staff; when you both ticked, a conversation opens between the two of you (and, if you both use friend matching, you are matched there). If you said you were there and enough of the others ticked you, a line “Sat at a table” with 0.5 points is added to your trust ledger; it names no table, no city and nobody else. A table and everything about it is deleted 90 days after its week. Switching invitations off stops new ones; closing your account takes you out of any table and deletes your answers, suggestions and ticks — the ones you gave and the ones about you.

Friend matching

If you switch on friend matching in your account, you build a card from fixed lists: your interests, what you are looking for, when you are usually free and how you like to meet, plus three short answers in your own words. Matching compares only the lists — never your free text — with the basics you already gave us for travel and hosting: an age range (never your year of birth), your gender, what you do, your languages and the city you live in (never an address), and, if you add it, your university. Everything here is optional, nothing is on your public profile, and your card is shown to nobody while matching is off.

Details open in steps. Your card is seen by members who are also looking for friends. Your lifestyle answers, if you choose, only after you both liked each other. What you keep for friends only — your birthday without the year, what you study, your usernames on other services, your favourites — opens when a friend request is accepted and closes again if the friendship ends. Private details — sexual orientation, religion or belief, political leaning, relationship status, addiction or recovery, mental health or accessibility needs, food allergies — are stored separately, only if you tick a box saying so, and are shown to nobody unless you open them to one person at a time; you can close them again. Staff never read them, they never appear in notifications or emails, and they are never a filter: nobody can search for them. Three of them may quietly count towards a match, but only when both members ticked “use when matching”, and never by enough to turn a weak match into a strong one. Your preferences about whom you want to meet work both ways: you see only members whose preferences fit you too, and a member whose age or gender is not on file never passes a filter on it. Members you blocked, and members who blocked you, never see your card. You can delete the private details on their own, or everything here, at any time; closing your account deletes it all.

Likes, matches and friends. When you like a card, the other member is not told. Only when you both like each other do we tell you both — that is a match — and open a conversation between you, so that you can message each other without the first-contact limits. Skipping a card hides it from you for a month; nobody is told. From a match either of you can send a friend request; the other accepts or declines, and a declined request is not announced. Nobody else can see who you matched with or who your friends are — not even a count. Ending a friendship closes again everything that was open to that friend, including any private details you had shared one by one. We keep a record of your likes, skips, matches and friendships only to run the feature; it is deleted with your account. You can report a member from their page; moderators see the report and the card, never your private details or your messages.

Profile photo

A profile photo is optional. The crop happens in your browser; we then re-encode the result as a small square image, so the original file and its hidden details (camera, date, location) are never kept. It is shown next to your name. Removing it, or closing your account, deletes the file.

Signing in with another account

You can sign in with Google, Apple, Microsoft, LinkedIn, GitHub, Discord or Facebook. When you choose one, that service tells us your name, your email address, whether it has confirmed that address, and a permanent account number it gives our site. We keep only the service's name, the account number and the email address, to recognise you next time; your name is used once to fill in your display name, which you can change. We never see your password there and we get no access to your mail, contacts, posts or files, and we post nothing on your behalf. We only accept an email address the service has confirmed. You can disconnect any of them from your account at any time, as long as you keep at least one way to sign in, and closing your account deletes every link. If you use Apple's “Hide My Email”, we only ever see the private relay address Apple creates for us, and our emails reach you through Apple.

Passkeys

A passkey lets you sign in with your fingerprint, face or screen lock. The private key and anything biometric never leave your device; we store only the public half of the key, a counter, the date it was added and a name such as “Chrome on Windows”. You can remove a passkey from your account at any time, and closing your account deletes them all.

Signing in with an email code

If you ask for a sign-in code, we email a 6-digit code to the address you typed. We keep only a scrambled copy of the code for 10 minutes, tied to the browser that asked for it, and delete the record within a day. We do not store the address you typed; if it has no account, no email is sent and the screen looks the same, so nobody can use this form to find out who is a member.

Invitations

Every member has a personal invite link. If you join through one, we record which member invited you and when, and the inviting member can see your username in their list of people who joined with their link — the sign-up page tells you this before you join. Members whose address is not yet confirmed appear only as a count. Closing your account deletes this record.

How you found us

When you create an account we note, in broad terms, how you first arrived — for example “a Google search”, “a link on X”, “an invite”, “typed the address” or the name of one of our campaign links — and the first page you opened. We do not store the full address you came from or your IP address for this. Until you create an account that note lives only in a small cookie in your browser (__Host-efb_src, listed on the cookies page) and nowhere on our server. It tells us which places bring students to the site. Closing your account deletes it. When you open one of our campaign links (the short addresses on our posters and posts, edufabtech.com/c/…), we add one to that link's click count — once per visit, robots not counted, with no IP address and nothing that says who clicked. The first 500 members also get a numbered “Founding member” badge on their public profile.

Polls

A vote stores which member voted, so that one account cannot vote twice. Published results are aggregate only — individual votes are never shown.

Your control

You can edit your name, profile photo and bio at any time from your account, and you can close your account from the same page. Closing is immediate and cannot be undone. You can edit, renew or take down your own listings whenever you like. You can mute or delete any conversation, block any member, and choose who may start a conversation with you in your message settings. You can withdraw or decline proposed stay dates at any time, and cancel a confirmed stay until the day before arrival, from your conversation or your stays page.

Closing deletes your email address, name, username, password, profile photo and bio, your travel and hosting profile, home card, trips and the offers you made, the days you marked in your calendar, plans that were not confirmed and your trust points, your exchange posts, replies and requests and the defaults you set for the gate, your place on every event list and any co-organiser role, your friend-matching card, preferences, friends-only and private details, your travel update emails, who invited you, your calculator history, saved calculations and variables, your gradebook with every term and grade, your simulation library with every saved item and its files, your game rounds, scores and challenges, your shelf with every book, rating and review, your connected accounts and passkeys, along with your notifications, saved searches, follows, newsletter subscription, your listings and their photographs, your copy of every conversation, stay dates that were never confirmed and stays that were cancelled, replaced or set aside, the members you blocked and who blocked you, our record of the emails we sent you, and any browsers you had turned notifications on in. You are signed out everywhere and the account can never be used again.

Six things deliberately stay. Forum topics and replies you posted, and comments you left under articles, remain where they are, shown as “Removed account” — removing your words from other people's conversations would take their side of the discussion with them. Your poll votes stay counted, with nothing linking them to you; published results are meant to be citable, so they must not change after the fact. Messages you sent stay in the other member’s copy of each conversation, shown as “Removed account”, until they delete it or twelve months pass without a new message — that conversation is their record as much as yours, and it may be what protects them if something went wrong. And a stay you confirmed with another member stays on their stays page — the listing’s title, the dates and when each of you confirmed — shown as “Removed account”, until twelve months after the leaving day, until they cancel it before arrival, or until it is set aside because you both said it did not happen; it is their record as much as yours, and closing an account must not undo dates you both confirmed. If they have closed their account too, it is deleted. A stay review you wrote stays on the other member’s profile — and, if you were the guest, on the listing — shown as “Removed account”, because other members may rely on it; reviews written about you are no longer shown anywhere, because your profile is gone. A plan that happened, and the reference you wrote from it, stay with the other member — shown as “Removed account” — because other members may rely on that reference; references about you are no longer shown. Messages of yours that are part of a report — the reported message and up to ten before it, including in a report you made yourself — also stay with that report until 180 days after it is closed. Your name and account are removed from all of these, but anything you wrote inside a post or a message — a phone number, for example — stays as you wrote it.

If you would rather have your email address changed than close the account, or you want something else removed, ask us.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us what we hold about you, have it corrected, have it deleted, receive a copy of what you gave us in a form you can take elsewhere, restrict or object to a particular use, and withdraw any consent you gave. Most of this you can do yourself from your account, immediately; for the rest, write to hello@edufabtech.com and we answer within one month. We may ask you to confirm the request from the email address on the account, so that nobody else can use it to read or delete your data. Exercising a right costs nothing and changes nothing about how you are treated here.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority: in Türkiye the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK); in the European Union the authority of the country you live in; in the United Kingdom the Information Commissioner's Office. We would rather hear from you first, but you do not have to.

We do not make automated decisions about you with legal or similar effect. Friend matching, tables and the radar sort and suggest; a person always decides whether to act on a suggestion, and every penalty or removal is decided by a moderator, not by code.

Changes to this notice

When this page changes in a way that matters, the date at the top changes with it. If a change would use data you have already given for a new purpose, we ask you first.

Contact

Questions about any of this: hello@edufabtech.com or get in touch.

What we store, and why