Privacy policy

With a Local introduces travellers to Locals who would enjoy spending a little time with them. Doing that means holding some information about you. This page says exactly what, why, and who ever sees it.

It is written to be read, not to be survived. If anything here is unclear, ask us and we will explain it in plainer words.

Who we are

With a Local is operated by TO CONFIRM: registered name, company number and registered address. We are the data controller for the information described here. You can reach us at withalocalclub@gmail.com.

What we collect

If you are a traveller

• Your email address and a password, which you choose.
• Your first name only. We never ask for a surname.
• Your age range, not your date of birth.
• Your gender, and you may decline to say.
• A photo of your face.
• A few sentences about yourself, if you write them.
• The city you are from, if you tell us.
• The languages you speak, what you would enjoy doing, what you like talking about, and roughly when you are free.
• For each trip: the city, your dates, how many of you there are, anything we should plan around, and any preference about who you meet.
• If anyone is travelling with you: for each adult, their first name, age range, how they are related to you, and anything you write about them. For a child, only their age range.
• Your requests to meet, the replies, and the messages between you and your Local.

If you are a Local

Everything above that applies, and also:

• Your mobile number, so we can arrange a short video call. It is never shown to travellers.
• Your city and neighbourhood, and how long you have lived there.
• What you could share with a visitor, in your own words.
• How far you would travel and how you get around.
• Notes we make while reading your application, and the outcome of your verification call.

Payment details

We never see or store your card. When a meeting is agreed, your card details are entered directly into our payment provider’s own form and go straight to them. We hold only a reference that lets us charge the fee, the card type, and the last four digits so you can tell which card it was.

TO CONFIRM: our payment provider will be Stripe, Inc. Payments are not yet connected.

While you are using the site

• Cookies that keep you signed in, and one that remembers the trip you are filling in before you have an account.
• Visitor statistics from Statcounter on our home page, which count visits and show which pages are looked at. TO CONFIRM with the lawyer: whether this needs a consent banner under French and EU rules, and whether Statcounter should be replaced with something that does not need one.

Why we hold it

• To make a sensible introduction. Languages, interests, availability and who each of you would be comfortable meeting are what the matching works on. Without them we would be guessing.
• To keep people safe. Every Local is read by a person and met on a short video call, and the photo is how we know the person on the call is the person on the card.
• To let the two of you arrange a meeting and recognise each other on the day.
• To charge the admin fee once a meeting has happened.
• To run the service and understand which cities people are asking for.

Our legal bases are performing our contract with you, our legitimate interest in verifying Locals and keeping the service safe, and your consent where consent is needed. TO CONFIRM with the lawyer.

Who sees what

This is the part most people care about, so it is specific.

A Local considering your request sees

• Your first name, your age range and your languages.
• What the two of you have in common.
• What you have asked to do, when, and any note you wrote.
• Anything you said we should plan around.
• Who is coming with you: each adult’s first name, age range and how they are related to you, anything you wrote about them, and the age range of any children.

They do not see

• Your surname, your email address or your phone number.
• Any preference you set about who you would like to meet. That is ours to match on and is never shown.
• Your photo, until the meeting is agreed by both of you. Then you each see the other’s, so you can recognise each other.

A traveller looking at Locals sees

• First name, age range, languages, neighbourhood, how long they have lived there, and what they say they could share.
• Not their photo, until a meeting is agreed. Not their contact details.

We share information with

• Supabase, which hosts our database and accounts, in the EU.
• Vercel, which serves the site.
• Resend, which sends our emails.
• Statcounter, for home page visitor statistics.
• TO CONFIRM: Stripe, once payments are connected.

We do not sell your information, and we do not share it for advertising.

Where it is held

Our database is in the European Union. Some of the companies above are based in the United States and may process data there under standard contractual clauses. TO CONFIRM with the lawyer.

How long we keep it

• While your account is open, and then as described under closing your account below.
• Records of meetings and fees for as long as we must keep financial records. TO CONFIRM: how long.
• An application we did not approve, kept so we are not asked to read the same one twice. TO CONFIRM: how long.
• If someone has made a complaint about you and you close your account, we keep the complaint, your first name and a scrambled copy of your email address. The scrambled copy cannot be read; it can only recognise the same address if it is used to join again. TO CONFIRM with the lawyer: how long.

Closing your account

You can close your account yourself, from your account page. It removes your card, your photo, your trips, your saved Locals, your requests and your conversations. Reviews you have written stay, signed “A former member”, and records of fees paid stay without your name.

One exception. If you have a meeting already agreed, your account closes on the last day of that trip rather than immediately, so the meeting can still happen and the person expecting you is not left wondering. We tell them you are leaving. Nothing new is collected in between.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of what we hold, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, object to how we use it, or ask us to limit what we do with it. Write to withalocalclub@gmail.com and we will reply within one month.

If you are not happy with our answer you can complain to your data protection authority. In France that is the CNIL.

Children

With a Local is for adults. You must be 18 or over to have an account.

If children are travelling with you, we ask only for each child’s age range, such as 6 to 10. We never ask a child’s name or anything else about them. The Local you ask to meet sees the age ranges, so they know who to expect. They are removed with your trips when you close your account.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top, and tell you if the change matters.

Our terms of use