We built SubSwap to help Atlantic Canadian students find housing safely, and to give verified landlords a direct line to those students. We take your privacy seriously and will never sell your data to anyone.
SubSwap ("we", "us", or "our") is a housing platform serving Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland & Labrador). You can reach us at hello@subswap.ca.
SubSwap has two account types:
For both account types we collect:
For student accounts we additionally collect:
For landlord accounts we additionally collect:
Some profile fields are optional and can reveal sensitive information. You may choose to add your religion and ethnicity to your profile. These fields are always optional. You can leave them blank or remove them at any time, and they appear on your profile only if you add them. We store them on our own Supabase backend and use them only to display your profile and to help students find compatible roommates. We never send your religion or ethnicity to any outside AI provider, and we never use them for advertising.
We use your information to:
Students see other verified students and verified-landlord listings in the swipe feed. Landlords see student profiles only when a student has swiped right on one of their listings (which opens a chat). Personal contact info (exact email address, business phone) is never shown to other users. You can delete your account at any time from Account Settings, which permanently removes all your data.
Photos you upload are stored securely and are only visible to other SubSwap users in the contexts described above. All photos are screened for inappropriate content by an automated moderation service, as described in Automated Processing and AI Features. You can remove photos from your profile or listings at any time.
Text messages and voice messages sent through SubSwap are stored in our database and cloud storage to deliver them to recipients. Voice message audio files are stored securely in the same manner as photos. We do not have people read or listen to your messages except where required by law or to investigate serious safety concerns. Message text, with names removed, is processed automatically by an AI provider only to gauge whether a match is going well, as described in Automated Processing and AI Features. Voice message audio is never sent to any AI provider.
To power matching and keep SubSwap safe, some of your information is processed automatically by third-party AI providers acting on our behalf. They process your data only to deliver these features and do not use it for their own purposes or for advertising:
We do not send your religion, ethnicity, email, or date of birth to any AI provider. This automated processing does not make legally significant decisions about you on its own.
To understand how people use SubSwap and to find and fix problems, we record anonymized replays of in-app activity through PostHog on recent versions of the app. These replays show how screens are used, such as taps and navigation.
We mask personal content before it leaves your device. Text you type, images and photos, and your chats and message previews are hidden in these recordings, so we cannot read your messages or see your photos in a replay. Replays are tied to a pseudonymous id, not to your name or email. To ask us to stop recording your sessions, or to delete your replay data, contact us at hello@subswap.ca.
SubSwap shows read receipts (indicating when your message was seen) and online/last-seen status to users you are matched with or in conversation with. This data is transmitted in real time and is not permanently stored on our servers.
If you enable push notifications, we store a device token to send you alerts about new messages, matches, and (for landlords) listing activity. Admins are also notified when a new landlord submits for verification. You can disable notifications at any time in your Account Settings or device settings.
If you grant the "While Using the App" location permission, SubSwap uses your approximate device location to sort listings and roommates by proximity. Location is read on-device and is not transmitted to or stored on our servers, nor shared with other users. You can revoke location permission at any time from your device settings.
You can choose to verify your identity to earn a verified badge. We use Didit (didit.me) for this. When you opt in, Didit captures and processes your ID document and selfie on its own infrastructure in the European Union. Those images are never sent to, seen by, or stored by SubSwap. When the check completes, Didit returns only the result, a reference number, and the name and date of birth read from your ID, which we use only to confirm they match your profile and to prevent one person verifying multiple accounts. You can remove your verified status at any time from your profile settings. Verification is optional and you can use SubSwap without it.
Your data is stored using Supabase. We use industry-standard security practices including encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS), row-level security on every database table, and hashed passwords. Photos, listing images, and voice message audio files are stored in Supabase Storage with the same security protections.
SubSwap relies on a small set of trusted providers to operate. Each one processes only the data it needs for its function and is not allowed to use your data for its own purposes:
Some of these providers are located outside Canada, including the United States and the European Union, so your information may be processed in those countries. We do not sell your personal data, and none of these providers use it for their own advertising.
You have the right to:
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@subswap.ca or use the Delete Account option in the app.
When you delete your account, we keep a single internal record containing only your name and email so we understand why people leave and can help with any follow-up you ask for. This record stays inside SubSwap and is never shared or used for marketing. Everything else associated with your account is deleted.
The SubSwap mobile app uses native secure storage to keep you logged in. The SubSwap website (this page) uses standard browser storage, and we do not use tracking or advertising cookies. Our website uses Vercel Web Analytics, which measures page views without cookies and does not track you across other sites.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We'll notify you of significant changes via email or an in-app notice. Continued use of SubSwap after changes means you accept the updated policy.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, reach us at hello@subswap.ca.