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Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 27, 2026

The short version: we only collect what's needed to run iYabbr. No ads, no tracking, no selling your data. Ever. You can download or delete your data any time in Account Settings.

1. Who we are

iYabbr (iyabbr.com) is run from the Netherlands. We are the "controller" of your personal data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Questions about privacy? Email support@iyabbr.com.

2. What we collect

  • Account details: display name, username, email address, password (stored only as a scrambled "hash" we can't read back), date of birth, country and, if you choose, gender. For some members under 16 in the EU: a parent's email address.
  • Your profile: everything you fill in (headline, About Me, interests, details, profile song link), your mood and status, your layout, your profile picture and the pictures in your albums. When you upload a photo we remove hidden data from it, such as GPS location.
  • Things you post and send: comments, bulletins, replies, blog posts, private messages and IM chats.
  • Your connections: friends, friend requests, your Top 8 and the people you block.
  • Activity: when you last logged in and were last active (shown as "Last Login" and "Online Now!"), and profile view counts. If you switch on Who Viewed My Profile, we save which profiles you visited (and who visited yours) for 30 days. It's off unless you switch it on, and switching it off erases your visits right away.
  • Surveys & quizzes: your answers to surveys you fill out, your "How well do you know me?" quiz, and the scores of friends who took it (and your scores on theirs).
  • Friends' Activity: short notes like "added 5 pics" or "unlocked a badge", shown only to your friends and erased after 90 days. Things in private albums or "Only me" blog posts never appear there.
  • Login devices: to email you when your account logs in from a new device, we keep a random code for each browser you log in with and a label like "Chrome on Windows". We don't save your IP address for this. You can see and forget these in Account Settings › Security.
  • Safety checks: private messages, IM chats, group chats, forum posts, My Room chat and comments that involve a member under 18 (or are posted where under-18s may be) are checked automatically for risky phrases (like phone numbers, "don't tell your parents" or asking where someone lives). Nothing is blocked. When a message matches, our moderators see only that one message, never whole conversations, and the alert is erased after 90 days. We do this to protect young members (our legitimate interest in a safe service, GDPR art. 6(1)(f)).
  • More things you create: testimonials you write and receive, your friend circles (nobody can see which circles they're in), drafts and scheduled posts, time capsules (sealed until the day you picked), poll votes, the history of your profile songs, your mood ring (the mood you set each day), what you collect in seasonal events (candy, seashells, advent doors), your guestbook entries, questions you ask and answer ("Ask me"), your Pen Pals interests and note, and what you saved for later.
  • Preferences: your time zone (so quiet hours, scheduled posts and reminders happen at the right time), calm mode, dark mode and quiet hours.
  • New members' pics: the first 3 pics of an account younger than 7 days are checked by our team before others can see them.
  • For parents: if you approved a child's account, you get a monthly email with numbers only (friends, days active, blocks, reports and safety checks), never messages or posts. On the parent page you can set quiet hours or stop these emails.
  • Ban appeals: if your account is banned and you send an appeal, we keep your message and our answer.
  • Technical data: your IP address is used briefly to stop spam and password guessing (kept in memory, not saved in our database). Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs.

3. Why we use it (and our legal basis)

  • To run iYabbr for you — your account, profile, friends, messages and emails like "confirm your email" and notification emails and the weekly "what you missed" email when you've been away for a week (all of which you can switch off in Account Settings) (performing our agreement with you, GDPR art. 6(1)(b)).
  • To keep iYabbr safe — stopping spam, abuse and break-ins, and handling reports (our legitimate interest in a safe service, art. 6(1)(f)).
  • The newsletter — only if you said yes, and you can unsubscribe any time with one click (your consent, art. 6(1)(a)).
  • Parental approval — for members below their country's age of digital consent, we ask a parent to approve the account (art. 8 GDPR).
  • When the law requires it — for example if a court or authority lawfully orders us to share information (art. 6(1)(c)).

We do not use your data for advertising, we do not build profiles for marketing and we never sell or rent it.

4. Who can see what

  • Public profiles can be seen by anyone, also people without an account. You can make your profile friends-only in Edit Profile.
  • Members under 18 start with a friends-only profile and are never shown in "Cool New People". Members under 16 can't make their profile public.
  • Your email address and date of birth are never shown to other members. Only your age is shown, and you can hide it.
  • Bulletins are only visible to your friends. Blog posts can be public, friends-only or private (only you). Private messages and IM chats are only visible to you and the person you wrote to. IM only works between friends.
  • Our team only looks at content when it's reported, when a safety check on a message to or from a member under 18 matched (see above), or when needed to fix a problem.
  • Reported posts: when three different members report the same post or picture, it's hidden automatically until a moderator looks at it.
  • Age groups: members aged 13-17 and adults only see each other in friends lists, Top 8s, comments and replies when they're friends. Visitors who aren't logged in only see adults there.
  • Links to other websites that members post first show a "You're leaving iYabbr" page, so you always see where a link goes.
  • The official iYabbr account is everyone's first friend. Its friends list is never shown, and it doesn't send or read private messages.

5. Services we use

  • Namecheap hosts our website, database and email. They process data only on our instructions. If data is stored outside the European Economic Area, we rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
  • Profile song players from YouTube (Google), SoundCloud and Spotify only load after you press Play on someone's profile. From that moment, that service receives data such as your IP address under its own privacy policy.
  • App Testing Program: if you sign up to test the Android app, the email address of your Google Play account is emailed to the iYabbr team, who add it to the test list in Google Play. It is only used for that and is never shown to other members.
  • Phone notifications in the iYabbr Android app are delivered by Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging, and in browsers by the browser's own push service (for example Google, Mozilla or Apple). They receive a device code and the short notification text, only to deliver it to your phone. You can switch notifications off in your phone's settings at any time.

6. How long we keep it

  • Your account data is kept until you delete your account. Deleting your account removes it from our database right away.
  • Comments, bulletins, replies and blog posts you delete are hidden immediately and permanently erased after 90 days (we keep them this long to handle abuse reports).
  • A private message is permanently erased once both people have deleted it. IM chat messages are erased after 30 days.
  • Accounts that were never approved by a parent are erased after 14 days.
  • Notifications (the bell) are erased after 60 days. Profile visits are erased after 30 days, and away messages after 7 days.
  • Unanswered pic tags are erased after 60 days, and Pic of the Week entries and votes after 60 days.
  • My Room chat messages are erased after 1 day, and the list of who visited a room after 30 days.
  • Handled abuse reports and handled ban appeals are erased after one year.
  • Friends' Activity items are erased after 90 days, #hashtag data after one year, and login devices you haven't used for a year are forgotten.
  • We make backups of our database to protect against data loss. They are stored securely on our server (never on the website) and deleted automatically after at most 6 months, so deleted data also disappears from them over time.

7. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, correct, delete and take your data with you, to object to how we use it and to restrict it.

You can also file a complaint with a data protection authority, such as the Dutch Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens or the authority in your own country.

8. Kids and teens

You must be at least 13 to use iYabbr. In EU countries where the age of digital consent is higher (up to 16), younger members need a parent's approval before they can use their account. Parents can email us to see or delete their child's data.

9. Cookies

We use two cookies: iyabbr.sid, which keeps you logged in and protects forms against misuse, and iyabbr.dev, a random code that lets us recognise your browser so we can warn you when someone logs in to your account from a new device. Both are strictly necessary for security, so we don't need to ask for permission. We don't use tracking, advertising or analytics cookies. Profile song players may set their own cookies, but only after you press Play.

10. Security

We use an encrypted connection (HTTPS), store passwords as secure hashes and limit who can access our systems. If a data breach ever puts you at risk, we'll let you know.

11. Changes

If we change this policy in an important way, we'll tell you on iYabbr before the change takes effect.