The short version. We collect as little as we can: no name, no phone number and no GPS location. Other members never see your username, email or birthday. Application photos are private. We do not sell your information, and Apply uses no advertising or tracking tools.
The summary is here to help. The full policy below is what counts.
1. Who we are
Apply is run by Apply Labs Limited, a company incorporated in Hong Kong (“Apply Labs”, “we”, “us”). We are responsible for the personal data collected through the Apply app and this website, and we handle it in line with the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) of Hong Kong. This policy explains what we collect, why, who receives it and the choices you have.
2. What we collect when you join
To create an account we ask for your gender (Female or Male), a username, a password, your birthday and your email address. We do not ask for your name, your phone number or where you are, and there are no profiles. Your password is handled by our sign-in provider, Supabase, which stores it only in a scrambled (hashed) form.
You must give us this information to create an account. We use your birthday to make sure you are 18 or over.
3. What we collect when you use Apply
We store the posts, applications, photos and chat messages you create, the messages you send to support, and the history of your plan and payments, including the amounts charged. When you sign in, Supabase records your IP address and browser to keep your account secure. We also keep a record of any action our team takes on your account, such as a suspension. The app never reads your device's position, and we use no analytics, advertising or tracking tools.
4. Photos
Every photo you post or apply with is processed on our server: we check that it is a real image, shrink it if it is very large and remove hidden details, such as where it was taken and which camera took it. Until then, a photo you add waits in private storage that no member can open, and a photo you add but never post or send is deleted automatically.
Photos on a post are shown to every signed-in member, and anyone who has a post photo's direct link can open it. Photos in an application are stored privately: among members, only you and the poster can see them, through links that expire after 10 minutes.
5. What other members see
Other members never see your username, email or birthday. On your posts and applications they see your gender (Female or Male); a poster sees applicants as Applicant 1, 2, 3 in the order they applied, and in a chatroom the other person appears as the poster or as Applicant N.
Anything you write in a post, an application or a chat, such as a name, a phone number or a social media handle, is shown exactly as you wrote it. The app also tags each post, application and chatroom with a random ID for the account behind it, so a technically minded member could tell that two posts came from the same account.
6. What our team sees
Our team can see each member's username, email, gender, account status, plan and join date, every post with its photos and its poster's username, and the messages members send to support. Our team's tools do not show birthdays, chat messages or application photos. Chats are not end-to-end encrypted, so the people who run Apply's database can technically read everything stored in it. Only staff who need this access to run Apply have it.
7. How we use your information
We use your information to:
- create and run your account, posts, applications and chatrooms;
- apply your plan's limits and take payments;
- keep Apply safe, enforce our Terms of Service and protect members;
- answer your support messages;
- meet our legal obligations.
We do not use your personal data for direct marketing, we do not give it to anyone else for their marketing, and we do not sell it. If we ever want to use your personal data for direct marketing, we will ask for your consent first, as the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance requires.
9. Emails and notifications
Apply sends no marketing emails and no push notifications. News about your posts, applications and chatrooms appears in the bell inside the app. Apply sends only one automatic email, a password reset link when you ask for one, and our support team answers your messages by email at the address on your account.
10. Cookies and storage on your device
The Apply app uses a cookie to keep you signed in, one that is set when you ask for a password reset link, one that remembers light or dark mode and a short one, kept for at most 10 minutes, that lets the sign-in screen remove a sign in that has ended. Your device also keeps a few app settings: your language, your feed filter, which notifications you have seen, whether you have seen the welcome intro and, for the open tab only, when you last signed out. Apply uses no advertising or tracking cookies; Stripe's checkout page sets its own.
11. This website
This website sets no cookies and uses no analytics, advertising or tracking tools. If you choose a language, your browser keeps that choice on your device so the site opens in it next time; it is never sent to us. Its fonts and images come from our own server, not from other companies. Like any website, our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you asked for, to keep the site running and secure. If you email us, we use your email address and message only to reply to you.
12. What stays on Apply
Closing a post, withdrawing an application or leaving a chatroom does not erase anything: the other member can still read your chat history, and a poster can still see applications that were declined or not selected, photos included. A withdrawn application is no longer shown to the poster. When our team removes a post, its photos are deleted.
13. How long we keep it
We keep your account, posts, applications and chats while your account is open. When you delete your account, it is closed at once and we delete them 30 days later, except: payment records, which we keep for 7 years because Hong Kong tax law requires it; records of bans, kept for 12 months after your account is deleted to stop a banned member from coming back; and anything we must keep for an open complaint, a dispute or the police.
14. How we protect it
We take reasonable steps to protect your information from unauthorised or accidental access, loss or use. Members never read our database directly; the app only shows each member what they are allowed to see. Passwords are stored only in hashed form, card details never reach us, and access for our own team is limited to what each person needs. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a password you do not use anywhere else.
15. Your choices and rights
You can close your posts, withdraw pending applications, leave chatrooms and change your password at any time. Your gender, username, birthday and email cannot be changed in the app. You can delete your account in the app: open Settings, tap Delete Account and enter your password. If you cannot sign in, email us from the address on your account. Our Delete your account page explains the steps, what we delete and what we keep.
Under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, you have the right to ask whether we hold personal data about you, to ask for a copy of it, and to ask us to correct it if it is wrong. To ask for a copy, write to us from Contact support in Settings, or use the Data Access Request Form published by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data and send it to the contact in section 17. We check that the request comes from you, and we will reply to an access or correction request within 40 days; any fee we charge for a copy will not be excessive.
16. Children
Apply is only for people aged 18 and over, and we do not knowingly collect information about anyone younger. If we find that an account belongs to someone under 18, we ban it and remove its posts. Where the law requires it or a young person may be at risk, we may give information about the account to the police.
17. Changes and questions
We may update this policy as Apply changes, and the date at the top shows when it last changed. You can read the current version at any time on this website. We will not use your information for a new purpose without asking you first.
If you have a question about your privacy, or want to make a request under section 15, write to us from Contact support in Settings, or contact:
Personal Data Officer
Apply Labs Limited
A Hong Kong company
Email: support@apply-labs.com