Legal

Belongi is currently a hobby project created by Bárbara Araújo da Silva Borges to help people in Berlin meet through shared activities. It is not currently operated with commercial intent.

This may change. If Belongi grows, introduces paid features, or becomes commercially operated, we will update these Terms as described in section 10 below.

Belongi helps users discover and coordinate small-group, real-life hangouts in Berlin. That's it.

Belongi does not organise, attend, supervise, guarantee, or take responsibility for any hangout, any organiser's decisions, any venue, or anything that happens during a meetup. Participation is entirely at your own discretion.

You must be at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter into agreements in your jurisdiction to use Belongi. By creating an account, you confirm that you meet both requirements.

You agree to:

• Provide accurate, truthful information when creating your account
• Keep your login credentials secure and not share access with others
• Not impersonate another person or misrepresent your identity in any way

Accounts found to be fraudulent or impersonating others will be permanently removed without warning.

By using Belongi, you agree to follow the Community Guidelines above. These guidelines are part of these Terms — violating them is a violation of this agreement.

We may update the Guidelines from time to time to reflect new situations or risks. When we do, we will notify you as described in Section 10.

Your safety

You are responsible for your own personal safety and the decisions you make on and off the app.

Safety tips — please take these seriously:

• Tell a trusted person where you're going and when you expect to return.
• Arrange your own transport and do not share personal addresses unless genuinely necessary.
• Trust your instincts. If something feels wrong, leave.
• All hangouts on Belongi are required to take place in public spaces — you will never be asked to meet somewhere private through this app.

You can cancel or leave a hangout at any time, for any reason. If you feel unsafe because of another user's behaviour, report them via Contact.

Payments

Any costs associated with a hangout — tickets, class fees, entrance, food, drinks, or anything else — are strictly between you and the organiser or venue. Belongi is not involved in any financial transaction, does not process payments, and accepts no liability for payment disputes or losses.

Chat on Belongi is for planning hangouts. That's its purpose.

Belongi may restrict or remove content that includes — but is not limited to — photos, spam, harassment, solicitation, self-promotion, or anything that violates these Terms or the Community Guidelines. There is no entitlement to send any particular type of message on Belongi.

We may warn, restrict, suspend, or permanently ban any account that violates these Terms or the Community Guidelines. Enforcement decisions are made at Belongi's sole discretion.

Serious violations may result in immediate, permanent bans without prior warning. Serious violations include stalking, harassment, intimidation, unsolicited sexual behaviour, threats, sharing private user information, fraud, or illegal activity.

We are not obligated to share the details of our investigation or the evidence considered when making an enforcement decision.

In line with applicable EU law, if your account has been restricted, suspended, or permanently banned, you have the right to submit one written complaint via Contact within 14 days of the decision.

Your complaint will be acknowledged and reviewed. We will send a written final response within 30 days.

Please note:

• Submitting a complaint does not automatically reverse or pause the enforcement action.
• Belongi is not obligated to disclose the specifics of its investigation or the identity of anyone who reported you.
• Our response following the complaint review is final. We will not enter into further correspondence on the matter after our final response has been sent.

If you remain dissatisfied, you may seek out-of-court dispute resolution through an applicable certified dispute resolution body under EU law, or pursue any legal remedies available to you under applicable law.

Your use of Belongi is governed by our Privacy Policy, which covers what we collect, why, retention, and your rights.

We do not use any user data to train, fine-tune, or improve machine learning or AI models — ours or anyone else's.

Your email is used only for account operation — sign-in, verification, password reset, and when you contact us. We do not send newsletters, marketing, or notifications about changes to Belongi, these Terms, or our policies.

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue Belongi at any time, or update these Terms and Community Guidelines.

If changes are material — meaning they meaningfully affect your rights or how we process your data — we will notify you by email or via an in-app notice before the changes take effect, and we will require your acknowledgement before you can continue using Belongi.

For minor, non-material changes (such as wording clarifications that do not affect your rights), updates will be posted on our Updates and noted with a revised date on this page. Continued use of Belongi after such changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

The data controller for personal data collected through Belongi is: Bárbara Araújo da Silva Borges (Contact)

Belongi is currently operated as a hobby project by an individual. If this changes, this section will be updated and you will be notified in line with Section 10 of the Terms of Use.

Application data (accounts, profiles, hangouts, and messages) is stored on servers located within the European Union. Belongi uses Hetzner Online GmbH (Industriestraße 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany) as its hosting provider. Hetzner operates exclusively EU-based data centres and acts as a data processor on Belongi's behalf under a Data Processing Agreement.

Transactional emails (such as verification and password-reset links) are sent through Sweego, our email delivery provider. Sweego processes your email address and message content only to deliver these emails on our instructions, under a Data Processing Agreement.

• No photos. Belongi does not allow profile photos or photo sharing. Avatars are preset illustrations only.
• No precise location tracking. We collect a Berlin postcode for hangout matching. Exact addresses may be entered by organisers and shared only with accepted participants — we do not track your device location.
• No payment data. Belongi does not process payments. Any costs associated with a hangout are handled directly between you and the organiser or venue.
• No marketing profiling. We do not use your data for advertising or sell it to third parties.
• No AI training. We do not use your data to train, fine-tune, or improve machine learning or AI models — ours or anyone else's.

We do not sell your data. We do not share it with third parties for marketing purposes.

We may share data only with the following processors and in these limited circumstances:

• Hetzner Online GmbH — hosting and database infrastructure in the EU, under a Data Processing Agreement.
• Sweego — transactional email delivery (e.g. verification and password reset), processing your email address and message content only on our instructions.
• Legal obligations — if we are required to disclose data by law, court order, or a competent authority.
• Safety — in exceptional cases where disclosure is necessary to prevent serious harm.

As a user in the EU, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access — you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification — you can ask us to correct inaccurate data.
• Erasure — you can ask us to delete your data ("right to be forgotten"), subject to legal retention requirements.
• Restriction — you can ask us to restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances.
• Portability — you can request your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection — you can object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us. We will respond within 30 days.

If you believe we have handled your data unlawfully, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.

In Germany, the relevant authority is:

The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI)
Graurheindorfer Str. 153, 53117 Bonn, Germany
www.bfdi.bund.de

You may also contact the supervisory authority in the EU member state where you live or work.

If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy — particularly changes that affect how we process your personal data — we will notify you by email or via an in-app notice before those changes take effect, as required by GDPR Article 13(3).

For minor, non-material changes, the updated policy will be posted on this page with a revised date. The latest version is always available at Updates.