Privacy notice

Version 1.1 · 27 October 2026 · Written for the Data Protection Act, 2024 (Botswana)

Oceanbreeze Concepts (Pty) Ltd (BW00005819590) runs Lerato and is the data controller for your personal data. Contact: [email protected].

What we collect

Account: email address, password (stored as a one-way hash), date of birth, gender.
Profile: display name, town, what you're looking for, interests, the text about you, and your photos.
Who you want to meet. This can show your sexual orientation, which the law treats as sensitive personal data. We use it only to decide whose profiles you see and who sees yours. It is never shown on your profile, never in emails, and never in reports or exports about you. We collect it only with your explicit consent, which you give when you sign up.
Activity: likes, messages, blocks, reports, when you were last active, and sign-in records (IP address and browser) for security.
Profile views: when you look at someone's profile, we record it for 30 days so Gold and Platinum members can see who viewed them. Platinum members can browse privately so their visits aren't recorded. Read receipts show Gold and Platinum members when you've read their message.
Payments: the plan, the amount, your payment reference, the transaction ID and the phone number you paid from. We never see your Orange Money or eWallet PIN.
Verification (only if you choose to get verified): photos of your document and a short video of your face. These are deleted once we've decided. Afterwards we keep only the result, the document type, the last 3 digits of the number, and a coded fingerprint of the number that stops one document verifying several accounts.

Why we use it

To run the service you signed up for: showing profiles, delivering messages, applying the free-message rule, and running memberships (contract).
To keep members safe: checking photos, handling reports and blocks (including checking the chat between the two members), stopping spam and scams, and keeping sign-in records (legitimate interest in protecting members, and legal duty).
For matching by who you want to meet (your explicit consent).
For verification (your explicit consent, given at the start of the check).
To keep accounting records the law requires (legal duty).

We don't sell your data, we don't use it for advertising, and we don't make fake profiles.

Who sees it

Other members see your profile and public photos, but only members whose search fits yours. Private photos are seen only by people you grant access to. If you choose blurred photos, they stay blurred until you accept someone.
Our staff see photos to approve them, verification material to check it, and a conversation only when one of the two members in it has blocked or reported the other. Staff then check that one chat for scams, fake profiles, threats or abuse, and use what they see only to protect members (never for advertising or anything else). To protect members from scams and fake profiles, our systems automatically look for warning signs (messages asking for money, repeated attempts to share contact details early, the same photo on several accounts, several accounts from one connection); staff may then see the flagged message or account, but not the rest of your chats. Every view of a chat, a flagged message or verification material is logged.
Service providers who host our servers and send our email, under contracts that require them to protect your data.
The police or courts, only where the law requires it or someone's life or safety is at risk.

Our servers may be outside Botswana. Where data leaves Botswana, we only use providers that protect it to the standard the Act requires.

How long we keep it

Your profile and photos: until you delete them or your account.
Rejected photos: 7 days, so you can see why.
Verification photos and video: until our decision, then deleted. Unfinished checks are deleted after a day.
When you delete your account, we delete your profile, photos and message text at once. We keep a record of your free-message counts, so they don't reset if you join again with the same email. That record is linked to a coded fingerprint of your email, not the email itself. We also keep payment records for as long as tax law requires (currently up to 7 years).
Messages that were refused because they held contact details before the 5-message unlock: 30 days. Staff see them only if our systems flag repeated attempts, and every view is logged.
Reports and moderation decisions: 2 years, to protect members from repeat abuse.
Backups: we keep nightly backups for up to 14 days, so anything you delete is gone from them within 14 days. Verification photos and video are never backed up.

Chat checks after a block or report

This is the only way anyone at Lerato can read a chat:

What starts it: one of the two members in the chat blocks or reports the other. Nothing else opens a chat: not curiosity, not a search, not a request from another member.
Who can look: only authorised Lerato staff, using an account protected by two-step verification.
What they see: that one chat between those two members, and nothing else of yours.
Why: only to protect members: to find scams, fake profiles, threats and abuse, and to warn, hide, suspend or remove someone who breaks our rules, or to help the police where the law requires it. Never for advertising, never sold, and never used to judge anyone's private life.
Every look is logged with who opened it and when. You can ask us whether staff have opened any chat you're in, and we'll tell you.
The member who was blocked or reported isn't told who did it.

Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act, 2024 you can:

ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
ask us to correct anything that's wrong;
ask us to delete your data (you can also delete your account yourself under Account → Delete account);
object to how we use your data, including the chat checks above (we'll look at it carefully, but we may still need to check a chat to protect other members);
withdraw your consent for matching or verification at any time (without matching we can't show you profiles);
complain to the Information and Data Protection Commission of Botswana if you're not happy with how we handled your data or your request.

To make a request, email us from the address on your account so we know it's really you. We'll reply as soon as we can, and always within the time the law allows. Requests are free.

If a data breach ever puts your data at risk, we'll tell you and the Commission as the law requires.

Who we are and how to contact us

Lerato is run by Oceanbreeze Concepts (Pty) Ltd, registration number BW00005819590, which is responsible for your personal data (the data controller).

Address: Plot 475, Ghanzi, Botswana
Email for anything about your data or this notice: [email protected]

Cookies

We use the cookies the site needs to work: keeping you signed in and protecting forms. If you arrive from one of our ads or links, we note which one on your account, so we know which ads work; we only ever look at the totals.

Google Analytics, only if you say yes in the cookie banner. It runs only on our public pages (the home page, about, safety, terms, the join and sign-in pages) to count visits and how people found us. It never runs inside your account: Google never sees profiles, who you look at, your messages or your payments. The one exception is a single "sign up" signal when you confirm your email, so we know which ads bring new members. Advertising features are switched off. Google LLC processes this data for us and may store it outside Botswana. You can change your choice at any time with "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page.

"New people near you"

When someone new who matches you joins in your district, we may send you a notification (at most one a day) and, at most once a week, an email with how many joined. These never name anyone. You can stop the emails with the link in them, and turn notifications off under Privacy.

Notifications

If you turn on notifications, your browser gives us an address to send them to; we store it until you turn notifications off or the browser stops accepting them. Notifications are delivered by your browser's own service (for example Google for Chrome, Apple for Safari, Mozilla for Firefox). They only say "You have a new message" or "Someone likes you": never a name or what was written.

Security

Passwords are hashed. Every photo and document is stored privately and only reaches someone after a permission check. Location data is removed from your photos when you upload them. Staff accounts must use two-step verification.