GDPR Privacy Notice

Last updated: May 11, 2026

This notice supplements our general Privacy Policy and applies if you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, or Switzerland. It describes your rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the UK GDPR, and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection.

1. Data Controller

RoommateAds.com is the data controller for personal information collected through the Site.
Email: webmaster@roommateads.com

2. Lawful Bases for Processing

Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)): Necessary to perform our contract with you (the Terms of Service) — account creation, listing display, message delivery.
Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): For specific activities including ID verification and optional cookies. You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting prior lawful processing.
Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)): Fraud prevention, security, analytics, where not overridden by your rights.
Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)): To comply with applicable law.

For ID verification we rely on your explicit consent (Art. 9(2)(a)). The face-similarity descriptor we generate may qualify as biometric special-category data; we use it only for verification and delete it as soon as the verification is complete.

3. Categories of Data

Identification: display name, email, hashed password; for verification only, legal name and date of birth.
Contact: email, optional phone.
Listings: text and photos you submit.
Communications: messages sent through the Site.
Technical: IP address, browser type, device info, log data, cookies.
Verification (special category): ID image, selfie, OCR text, face descriptor — deleted upon completion.

4. Your Rights Under the GDPR

Right of access (Art. 15): Get a copy of your data.
Right to rectification (Art. 16): Correct inaccurate data.
Right to erasure (Art. 17): Have your data deleted.
Right to restriction (Art. 18): Limit how we use your data.
Right to portability (Art. 20): Get your data in a portable format.
Right to object (Art. 21): Object to legitimate-interest processing or direct marketing.
Right to withdraw consent (Art. 7(3)): Where processing is consent-based.
Rights regarding automated decisions (Art. 22): Our ID verification uses automated decisions; you may request human review.
Right to complain: File a complaint with your national DPA. EU authorities listed at edpb.europa.eu.

To exercise rights, email webmaster@roommateads.com. We respond within 30 days. We may verify your identity first.

5. International Transfers

RoommateAds is operated from the United States. Personal data is transferred to and processed in the U.S. We rely on appropriate safeguards including Standard Contractual Clauses where applicable.

6. Retention

Account data: while your account is active.
Listings: active period plus a short period afterward.
Messages: while both parties have active accounts.
ID verification images and OCR text: deleted as soon as the verification is complete.
Verification outcome records (without images): retained while your account is active.
Log data: typically 90 days.

7. Automated Decision-Making

Our optional ID verification feature involves automated decision-making under GDPR Article 22: software computes a face-similarity score and searches OCR'd ID text for the legal name and DOB you entered. Based on these results the system auto-approves, escalates to human review, or auto-rejects. You may request human review of any auto-decision by emailing webmaster@roommateads.com. The verification feature is entirely optional.

8. Children

The Site is restricted to users 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

9. Changes

We may update this Notice; the "Last updated" date will reflect the change.

10. Contact

RoommateAds.com
Email: webmaster@roommateads.com