Privacy Policy

This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the rights you have. Lectella does not sell personal information.

1. What we collect

• Account information — name, email address, date of birth, password.
• Phone number — used to send one-time verification codes by SMS.
• Sign-in information — if you continue with Apple or Google, we receive an identity token from that provider and, where you allow it, your name and email address.
• Purchase information — purchases are processed by the Apple App Store. We receive the purchase and subscription information needed to validate transactions, provide access, restore purchases and handle support, such as product identifiers, transaction references, purchase status and subscription dates. We do not receive your full payment-card number.
• Profile information — photos, biography, preferences, and approximate location at city level.
• Messages — the content of messages you send and receive on Lectella.
• Verification and safety information — information used to confirm identity and to detect fraud or abuse, including a short selfie video captured during identity verification (see Biometric information below).
• Device and usage information — IP address, device type, app version, push-notification token, crash and performance data, log data and cookies.
• Support information — messages you send to support@lectella.com.

2. Why we collect it

To operate the platform, deliver the service you pay for, keep members safe, prevent fraud and abuse, comply with legal obligations, and improve the product.

3. Who we share it with

We share information only with:

• Apple, when you make purchases through the App Store. It processes your payment under its own terms and privacy policies.
• Hosting, email and analytics providers acting under our instructions.
• Advertising partners — Meta Platforms, Inc. and TikTok Inc., to measure how our ads perform, as described in section 4.
• Identity, fraud and trust-and-safety providers acting under our instructions.
• Law enforcement, where legally required and as described on our Information for Law Enforcement page.
• Professional advisors, where reasonably necessary, under confidentiality.
• An acquirer or successor entity in a corporate transaction.

See our public Sub-processors list for the current set of third-party service providers.

4. We do not sell your personal information

Lectella does not sell personal information for money. Our website uses the Meta Pixel and the TikTok Pixel to measure our advertising, as described in the Cookie Policy. We also send Meta and TikTok a record of key actions, such as creating an account or starting a Membership, so we can measure our ads; your email address and phone number are hashed before they are sent.

Under some US state laws this may count as sharing personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. You can opt out at any time on the Your Privacy Choices page, linked in the website footer. We treat a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser as an opt-out.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

Lectella uses strictly necessary, security and preference cookies, analytics that measure how the website is used, and advertising measurement tools. The Cookie Policy lists each technology we use. You can review your choices on the Your Privacy Choices page, linked in the website footer.

6. Retention and deletion

We keep your information only as long as needed for the purposes above and for legal obligations such as tax, billing, dispute resolution and fraud prevention. The Account Deletion page explains how to delete your account and what happens next.

7. Biometric information

Every member must pass identity verification before their profile becomes visible. Verification uses biometric information: a short selfie video that confirms you are a real, live person and that you match your profile photo. We treat this information under stricter rules than anything else we collect.

• Consent first. Your selfie is captured only after you explicitly agree on the verification screen. Verification does not start without that consent.
• Nothing is kept by default. The selfie is processed by our verification provider (Amazon Web Services' Rekognition service, acting under our instructions) to confirm liveness, and a single frame is compared to your main profile photo. The images are then deleted. We keep only the outcome of the check — pass or fail, with the associated confidence scores — not the images themselves.
• Limited hold for manual review only. If the automatic comparison cannot confirm a match, one frame from your selfie is kept for up to 24 hours so a trained reviewer can make the decision. The frame is held in access-controlled storage encrypted at rest, is accessible only for that review, and is used for nothing else. It is deleted when the review is decided, or automatically when the 24-hour period expires, whichever comes first. The product tells you when this hold applies.
• No recognition database. We do not build facial templates, do not enrol your face into any recognition index, and do not use your selfie for anything other than verifying your account.
• Never sold, never used for advertising. Biometric information is never sold and is shared only with the verification provider named above.

To ask about biometric information or to exercise your rights over it, write to support@lectella.com.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, port or restrict the use of your personal information, and to object to certain uses. To exercise these rights, write to support@lectella.com.

9. New York and other US states

Members in the United States, including New York, have the rights provided by applicable state privacy laws. New York members have additional rights described on the New York Consumer Rights page.

10. International transfers

Because Lectella Ltd is based in the United Kingdom and serves members in the United States, personal information may be processed in more than one country. We use reasonable safeguards for cross-border processing.

11. Security

We use technical and organisational measures designed to protect your information. We maintain reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information, including access controls, encryption where appropriate, monitoring and internal security procedures. No system is perfectly secure; if you suspect a problem with your account, write to support@lectella.com immediately.

12. Minors

Lectella is for adults aged 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

13. Changes

We may update this policy. Material changes will be communicated by email or in-product notice.

14. Contact

Lectella Ltd · 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom · support@lectella.com.