Delete your account

This page explains how to delete your Swem account and what happens to your information when you do. The Swem app is made by Folkone Pty Ltd (ABN 40 696 661 560).

Deleting your account is permanent. Once it is done, your profile, chats and Swem history cannot be brought back.

Delete your account in the app

1. Open the Swem app and go to the Space tab.
2. Tap your photo at the top left to open your page.
3. Tap Settings, the gear button at the top right.
4. Scroll to the bottom of Settings and tap Delete account.
5. Read what deletion means, then enter your current password.
6. Tap Delete my account, then tap Delete to confirm.

Your account stops working right away and you are signed out on every device. If the app shows Nothing was deleted, read the message that comes with it and try again later. If it keeps happening, email hello@swem.ai.

• Forgotten your password? Sign out, then on the sign-in screen tap Forgot password? and follow the steps. Sign in with your new password and delete your account as above.
• Paying for Swem Plus? Deleting your account does not cancel your App Store subscription. Cancel it in your Apple Account as explained in Subscriptions and purchases.
• Account suspended or banned? You can still delete it. The screen that explains the restriction has a Delete account link that opens the same steps. Deleting the account does not lift the restriction. A suspension continues until its original end time and a ban continues until it is overturned. Until then, the email address on the account cannot be used to create a new account.

If you cannot use the app

If you cannot delete your account in the app, email hello@swem.ai. This includes when you no longer have your phone, when you cannot sign in and when you started signing up but did not finish. Settings is only available once you have finished signing up.

• Send the email from the address on your Swem account.
• If you no longer use that address, email us from another one and tell us the address on the account.
• Tell us that you want your account deleted.
• Do not include your password.

We may need to check that the account is yours before we act on your request. Once we have, we delete your account as described on this page and email you when it is done. A person on our team reads every message. We usually reply within two business days (Sydney time).

Sections 17 and 18 of our Privacy Policy explain the extra rights you may have in the European Union, the United Kingdom, similar regions and parts of the United States. They include asking us to delete your personal information.

What is deleted and when

When you confirm, your profile, sign-in and access stop right away. Ordinary personal data is deleted from our active systems within 30 days. Copies in our backups are removed later, when those backups are overwritten. A few limited records are kept for longer, as listed under What we keep.

Deleting your account removes:

• Your sign-in details: your email address, phone number, password and signed-in sessions.
• Your profile: your profile details and photos.
• Your location: the rounded location used for searching by distance and the record of your past searches.
• Your chats: your conversations with the people you were connected with, including the messages they sent you. These conversations are also removed from the other person’s Swem app, though anything they already saved or copied stays with them.
• Your friends and introductions: your hellos, your friends, the people Swem introduced you to and your Blocked list. You no longer appear in anyone’s Friends, and Swem stops introducing you to people.
• Your Space: your posts and their photos, along with the replies and likes on them. Your replies and likes on other people’s posts are deleted too.
• Swem: your conversations with Swem and everything Swem has come to understand about you, including what Swem remembers, your quiz answers and your card. Any record that you expressed thoughts of suicide or self-harm to Swem is deleted too.
• Notifications: your notifications and the devices registered to receive them.
• Swem Plus and extra looks: your Swem Plus features end with your account, even if you have paid for the rest of the period. Extra looks (One more look) you have not used are lost and cannot be moved to another account. Refunds are requested from Apple and decided under Apple’s policies (Terms of Service section 13).

Photos and other files you uploaded are removed from our storage as well.

What we keep and for how long

We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably needed. When it is no longer needed, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it. Section 11 of our Privacy Policy explains how long we keep each kind of information. After your account is deleted, only these limited records can remain:

• A minimal record of the account: kept without identifying details so that a ban can continue to apply. If the account was suspended or banned when you deleted it, we also keep a coded form of its email address (not the address itself) so that it cannot be used for a new account while the restriction lasts. Once the restriction ends, the address can be used again, but the coded form stays with our safety records.
• Safety evidence: if your account is involved in an unresolved safety report, we may first preserve a limited evidence snapshot that is reasonably necessary to investigate or resolve it. It can include relevant messages or media from either person in the conversation. It is held separately from the live conversation with access controls. It is kept until 90 days after the report is closed and for no more than 365 days if it remains open.
• Safety, fraud and legal records: limited records where reasonably necessary for safety, fraud prevention, legal compliance, complaints, appeals or dispute handling. These include reports made by you or about you, the decisions made on them and a record of the terms and permissions you accepted or withdrew. They are kept only for as long as that purpose needs them.
• Security, audit and usage records: the records linked to your account are deleted from our database with it. Any copies in our service logs are kept for no more than 90 days. Beyond that we keep only summary statistics that do not identify anyone.
• Purchase records: for the period required by tax and accounting laws. A record of each extra look purchase is kept without a link to your account, so that the same purchase cannot be credited twice.
• Legal holds: information we must keep under a legal requirement or litigation hold is kept for the applicable period.
• Backups: deleted information may remain in backups until they are overwritten in the normal backup cycle.

What deleting your account does not do

• It does not cancel an App Store subscription. Swem Plus keeps renewing until you cancel it in your Apple Account.
• Deleting the app is not enough. Removing the Swem app from your phone does not delete your account.
• It does not lift a suspension or ban. The restriction continues as it would have if you had kept the account.
• It does not remove copies other people already have. Anything you shared that someone has already saved or copied stays with them (Terms of Service section 8).
• It cannot be reversed. Signing in with your old details will not bring the account back. Once any suspension or ban no longer applies, signing up again with the same email address starts a new, empty account.

Subscriptions and purchases

Swem Plus and extra looks are bought through the App Store and billed by Apple. You cancel a subscription in your Apple Account, not in the Swem app. You can do this before or after you delete your account.

• Cancel on your iPhone: open Settings → your name → Subscriptions → Swem and cancel. Canceling stops the next renewal.
• Avoid the next charge: Swem Plus renews automatically unless you turn off renewal at least 24 hours before the current period ends (Terms of Service section 13).
• From the app: if you are a Swem Plus member, the Delete account screen has a Manage subscriptions link that opens your App Store subscriptions.
• Refunds are handled by Apple. You can request one at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Deleting compared with other choices

Deleting your account is different from pausing Swem, clearing what Swem knows or deleting your saved location. If you want to step back from Swem or remove your saved location but keep your account, one of these may suit you better.

Pause Swem

Pausing Swem withdraws your permission for Swem to use what you share. Go to Settings and tap the Swem card at the top to open Getting to know you. Choose Pause Swem, then tap Pause Swem again to confirm.

• Swem and new introductions pause. Hellos waiting for you stay, but saying yes waits until you agree again.
• Your friends, your chats with them and your Space keep working.
• Your conversations with Swem and what Swem understands about you stay. Pausing does not delete them.
• You can turn Swem back on later from the same page. You will be asked to agree again.

Our Privacy Policy explains how Swem uses your information.

Clear what Swem knows

Go to Settings and tap the Swem card at the top to open Getting to know you. Tap Clear everything, tap Clear everything again and confirm with Face ID or your passcode. You can also start from your card in the Swem tab. To see what Swem remembers before you clear it, tap What Swem knows on the same page.

• Swem forgets what it has come to understand about you. Your conversations with Swem and your card are deleted.
• New introductions wait until you have talked with Swem again.
• Your account, friends, chats with them and Space stay.
• Records that have their own period in our Privacy Policy, such as a record that someone expressed thoughts of suicide or self-harm to Swem, are kept for that period. That record is deleted sooner if you delete your account.

Delete your saved location

Email hello@swem.ai and ask us to delete the rounded location we hold for searching by distance. Your account stays. Turning off location permission stops the app reading your location but does not delete the last one you shared (Privacy Policy section 10).

Delete your account

Your account ends. Your profile, chats, friends, Space, saved location and everything Swem knows about you are deleted as described above.

You cannot withdraw your agreement to the Terms of Service or Privacy Policy and keep using the Swem app. If you want to stop using it entirely, delete your account.

Before you delete

• Keep a summary: go to Settings → Download your data and tap Save a summary to save a summary of your profile, your friends and what Swem knows. It is not a complete copy of your account data. It leaves out your messages and your chats with Swem, Space posts, replies, likes, past connections, introduction history, uploaded files, consent records and safety records.
• Ask for a copy: to request access to personal information we hold about you, email hello@swem.ai before you delete your account. We may need to verify your identity (Privacy Policy section 13).
• Cancel Swem Plus in your Apple Account if you no longer want it.

Contact us

Email hello@swem.ai with any question about deleting your account. Email is not an emergency channel. If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number. In Australia, call 000.

The Swem app is operated by Folkone Pty Ltd (ABN 40 696 661 560), Level 1, 63–73 Ann Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia.

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