Privacy Policy
Version:
Effective 2026-10-01. We collect only what KAA needs to work, we never sell your data, and your live location is off until you turn it on. Igal Tal Merom is the controller of your personal data. Contact: privacy@kohvra.com. KAA was called KOHVRA until October 2026; the new name changes nothing about your data.
What we collect
| Data | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| First name, email, password (stored only as a hash) | Your account and sign in | Contract |
| Date of birth | Confirm you are 18 or older | Contract, legal obligation |
| Profile photo | Approval review and so members recognise you. You crop it on your phone before it is sent. We also keep the photo as you chose it (resized, without location or camera data) and where you cropped it, only so you can change the crop later; only you see it, and it is replaced when you choose a new photo and deleted with your account | Contract |
| Profile gallery photos (up to six, only if you add them) | Your profile page. Each photo is resized and its location and camera data are removed before we store it. Today only you see your gallery; we will update this policy before other members can | Consent |
| Who invited you, and who joined with your invitations | Trust in an invitation only community; make you and your inviter friends when you are approved; and suggest people you may know, with the reason shown ("Invited by the same friend", "Joined with your invitation"). A member we suggest you to can see that the same member invited you both | Legitimate interest |
| Crews you make or join: the crew's name, its cover photo if you add one, what it is for (an event, a villa party or your trip), who is in it and when they joined | Show a crew to its members, let its members see each other, and let you share your location with one crew only. A crew has one link and one QR code; anyone who has the link sees the crew's name and the first name of the member who made it | Contract |
| Introductions: that you introduced two friends to each other, or that a friend introduced you to someone, and your own answer | Suggest people to each other when a friend they share thinks they should meet. Your answer is never shown to anyone: not to the other person and not to the friend who introduced you. If both of you accept, you become friends and the three of you are told | Contract |
| Whether you turned on "Show me to people at the same events", and when | Off unless you turn it on. When it is on, after an event that you and another member both marked Going, and only if that member turned it on too, we suggest you to each other for 7 days. We count only events that end after you turned it on | Consent |
| When you ask to join, an email to our admins with your display name, @username, Instagram username, who invited you and the island. Never your photo, date of birth or email address. The email only links to your request in our admin pages, which need a staff sign-in | Tell the admins that a request is waiting, so they review it soon | Legitimate interest |
| While we review your request: we may email you once to ask for a clearer photo, your Instagram username, how you know the person who invited you, or your dates on the island; we keep a record of which checks we made, who made them and when | Review your request carefully and keep a record of the decision | Legitimate interest |
| Trip dates and destinations you add | Show overlaps with friends, and show your friends your stay on the island on your profile | Contract |
| The island you choose when you sign up | Open KAA on your island and show our team where new members are | Contract |
| The country your connection comes from, when you open the sign up form (as our hosting provider, Vercel, reports it) | Suggest your country's islands. We do not store it. If you tap "Use my location" on that screen, your phone reads your position once to find the island near you; it is not sent to us and not stored | Legitimate interest |
| Islands you ask to hear about (Notify me) | Tell you when an island you chose opens, from the island list or when you sign up; you can turn it off at any time | Consent |
| Live location, only while sharing is on and the app is open | Show you on the map to the friends you choose, for the time you choose (1 hour, until 06:00 island time, 8 hours, or until you turn it off, with a weekly reminder that it is still on). Our staff never see it | Consent |
| Your position when you tap "Show where I am" in the Emergency screen | Show you your coordinates and the nearest named place, to read to an emergency dispatcher, and sort the hospitals by distance. It is read once, on your phone only: it is not sent to us or to anyone else, it is not stored, and nobody else sees it, including our staff. It is not location sharing | Consent |
| A short bio, interests, languages, and your home city and country, only if you add them | Your profile, so members get to know you | Consent |
| Relationship status (Single or In a relationship), only if you choose one in Edit profile. The default is Prefer not to say, and then we store nothing | Shown on your profile to your friends only. Nobody can search or filter by it, and it is not shown in our admin tools. You can change or remove it at any time | Consent |
| Your Instagram username (asked when you sign up) and your Facebook username (only if you add it) | Our team opens your public Instagram profile while reviewing your application, to help confirm you are a real person. Both are shown to your friends as links to your profiles. We never sign you in with Instagram or Facebook and never read or copy anything from them | Legitimate interest (Instagram: keeping the community real), consent (Facebook) |
| Your @username, which you pick in English letters (we suggest one from your Instagram username or your name), and for 30 days after you change it, your previous one | Let members find you, and put it in your profile link and your code. Your previous username keeps leading to you for 30 days, so links you shared still work and nobody else can take it in that time; then it is deleted | Contract |
| Your position when you use Add someone next to me | Find the member standing next to you. It is kept on our server for at most one minute, deleted when you close the screen, and never added to your account | Consent |
| Your position when you open a category page (Restaurants, Coffee and so on), or the island centre when location is off | Sort our places of that kind by distance from you. It is sent to our server for that one list and we do not store it; it is not sent to Google | Contract |
| Events and places you submit, RSVPs, saved items | Run those features | Contract |
| Friends, friend requests and invitations you create, and your choice of who can send you friend requests | Run friendships and invitations; show a request with friends in common and one reason; keep a decline for 30 days so the same member cannot ask again (they are not told) | Contract |
| Place tips you write and places you mark as visited | Show them to you and to members | Contract |
| "Who's in?" plans you post on the Island tab (the activity, the place, the day and time, how many spots, who can see it, and a meeting point if you write one), and the plans you join | Show the plan to the members you chose (your friends by default; friends of friends or all members only if you choose so), let them join, tell you when someone joins and remind everyone in the plan an hour before. The meeting point is shown only to members who joined. A plan is never shown to a member you blocked or who blocked you. A plan says where you mean to be; it is not your live location, and we do not read your position for it | Contract |
| Places you add and recommendations you write with the "+" on the Island tab (for a place: its name, kind, area, how to get there, a few words, and the spot if you tap "I am there now"; for a recommendation: the text, the interest area, a photo if you add one and a place if you link one), and the recommendations you mark Helpful | Send it to our team for approval, then show it to all members: a place on the map and on the Island tab, a recommendation with your first name and photo. Tell you whether it was approved, and the reason if not. Show members how many found a recommendation helpful, never who. A recommendation is never shown to a member you blocked or who blocked you. The spot is read once, on your tap, and kept as the place's pin; it is not shared as your location. A photo is resized on your phone, and its location and camera data are removed before we store it | Contract |
| Your ratings of drivers (three scores from 1 to 5), tips you write about drivers, and drivers you suggest for the directory (the name and number you give) | Show members the average of each score, only from three ratings up and never who rated; show your tip with your first name and photo; pass your suggestion to our team, who ask the driver before anything is listed. Nobody but you and our team sees a suggestion | Contract |
| What you add when you create a villa party or an event: the photo, name, night and times, area, exact address and map pin, capacity, entry price, whether you approve guests, dress code, vibe, lineup, a link to an Instagram or event page, and a contact for guests | Show the party to members once our team approved it. The exact address, pin and contact of a villa party only to members who are in | Contract |
| A link you paste into the party form | Our server opens that page once to read its public title and description, so the form can fill them in. That site sees a request from our server, not from your phone. We keep nothing of it except the link and the text you leave in the form. Instagram and Facebook links are never opened | Contract |
| Your request to join a party whose host approves guests: that you asked, when, and the host's answer | Let the host decide. The host sees your first name and photo | Contract |
| Stars you give places (1 to 5) | Show members a place's average and how many rated it; never who gave which stars | Contract |
| Reports and blocks | Keep the community safe | Legitimate interest |
| A private note that our staff may add to your account (never shown to other members). Our staff never record a phone number for you; a WhatsApp number is kept only if you turn on quick contact (see "I'm at, quick contact and nearby") | Keep the community safe and handle questions about your account | Legitimate interest |
| The language you signed up in (English or Hebrew) | Write emails to you in that language | Contract |
| Which version of the Terms, Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines you accepted, and when | A record of what you agreed to | Contract, legal obligation |
| Your notifications: their kind, the member, event or place they are about, when you read them, and when you last opened your notifications, so the bell on every device of yours shows only what is new | Show you what happened in the app, in your language, and take you to it | Contract |
| Your notification settings | Send only the kinds of notifications you want | Contract |
| Which service messages by email we addressed to you: the message, when, and whether it was sent. We do not record whether you opened it | Send each service message once and never twice. It is in Download my data and deleted with your account | Legitimate interest |
| Decisions of our team about you or your content after a report: a warning, content hidden, brought back or removed, a suspension, with the reason and the date | Keep the community safe, tell you what we decided and notice repeat problems. You see them in the app and in Download my data, without who reported; they are deleted with your account | Legitimate interest |
| A push notification token for your phone, only in the iOS app and only if you allow notifications. If you tap "Tell me when I'm approved" at the end of sign-up, the token is kept with your request, and deleted with it or if we decline | Deliver the notifications you chose to your phone, and tell you on your phone when you are approved | Consent |
| When you last used the app, to the nearest 15 minutes | Show our staff whether an account is active, and count active members | Legitimate interest |
| When you open the app (date and time), and from that your first visit, your last visit and how many visits (coming back after 30 minutes or more counts as a new visit) | Count how many members use KAA. Our staff see the totals, and your first visit, last visit and number of visits on your account. Each open is kept 90 days; after that only daily totals without your name remain | Legitimate interest |
| Which sign-up screens were reached | See where people stop signing up. Only a number per day and screen is stored: no name, email, invitation or IP address | Legitimate interest |
| Security records: when your account and password were created, when your password last changed and how (by you, with a reset link, or as a temporary password set by an admin), your password reset requests, your sign-ins and failed sign-ins of the last 90 days, and the devices you are signed in on, each with only the kind of device (for example "Safari on iPhone"), never an IP address | Keep your account safe and help you when you are locked out. Only our admins see them, never moderators or other members; every look and every action is logged | Legitimate interest |
| When a member of our team signs in to the admin: the country and the kind of device, and the full IP address for 30 days, then the IP address is deleted. For everyone else, the admin log never shows or keeps an IP address | Protect staff accounts from sign ins that are not theirs | Legitimate interest |
| Taxi and boat drivers listed on the Island tab (they are not members): a name, a phone or WhatsApp number, a booking link and a short note, entered by our team only after the driver agreed to be listed | Let members call or book a ride. A driver can ask us to remove their details at any time at privacy@kohvra.com | Consent |
| Wrong invitation codes: how many were typed from your network (IP address) and from your browser (a random ID in a cookie) in the last 15 minutes. Right codes and invitation links are not counted | Stop people from guessing invitation codes. After too many wrong codes, every code is refused for a few minutes | Legitimate interest |
| Technical logs (IP address, device, errors) | Security, abuse prevention, fixing bugs | Legitimate interest |
| On our website, if you ask to hear when KAA opens near you: your email address, your language, the consent text you agreed to and when you confirmed. You are not a member and give nothing else | Send you one email when KAA opens near you. We first email you a link to confirm (double opt in); until you confirm we send nothing else, and an unconfirmed address is deleted after 30 days. The link in every email unsubscribes you and deletes the address | Consent |
| If you use "Your event?" on an event page: your name, the email you give for our answer, what you ask for and any words you add. If you are a member and leave the name and email empty, we use your account's | Answer your request about the event, and only that. We delete the request 90 days after we close it, or 180 days after you sent it if it is still open, and at once if you delete your account. A member's requests are in Download my data | Legitimate interest |
| While you sign up with an invitation, before you submit: the step you reached and when, your language, the invitation and who sent it, and what you typed so far (email, first name, username, date of birth, Instagram and Facebook usernames). Never your password, photo or a phone number | Hold your invitation for you for 24 hours, show our admins where sign-ups stop, and, if you gave an email and stopped for 30 minutes, send you one reminder with a single-use link back to your step that works until the 24 hours end (you type your password again), and a link to stop these emails. Our admins see only your email, who invited you, the step you reached and when; what you typed is never shown to anyone and is used only to fill the form in again if you come back. It is deleted after 30 days, or at once if you delete your account | Legitimate interest |
In the iPhone app you can lock KAA with Face ID (or Touch ID, or your phone's passcode). We offer it once, the second time you open the app after signing in, and you can turn it on or off in Settings, Security. If you had the lock before 2 October 2026, it stays on unless you switched it off. When it is on, KAA asks when it opens and after 5 minutes away. iOS does the check on your phone: KAA never receives your face or any biometric data, and stores nothing about it. Whether the lock is on, whether we have offered it, and your first name for the lock screen are saved only on your phone.
We do not collect government ID numbers. We show no tracking ads: we do not use advertising trackers, ad networks or third party analytics, we do not track you across other apps or websites, and we never sell or rent personal data.
A business may pay for a placement in KAA: a featured place, a boosted event, or a partner's perk and link on its place. Every paid placement is labelled Sponsored, and it never changes a rating, a distance or the order of a list. We choose what to show by the island and the kind of place, never by who you are. We count how often a sponsored place, event or link is opened, saved or asked for directions as a number per day, with nothing that says who it was. A partner link opens through our own address, which counts the click and sends you on to the partner without a cookie and without telling the partner which page you came from; what you do on the partner's site is under the partner's own privacy policy.
Activities
When you post an activity on the Island tab we store what you write (a title, a few words, an optional cover photo with its location and camera data removed), its day and time, its place or the point you set on the map, who leads it (you, another member you name by username, or a name you type), an optional Instagram username and an optional entry price. Members who can see it see all of this, and who else is going. When you say Going we store that, and the member who posted it is told. If another member names you as the leader, you are told and can take your name off at any time. We delete an activity 7 days after its last time, a declined one 30 days after the decision, and everything you posted or said Going to when you delete your account. A point you set on the map for a "Who's in?" plan is shown to everyone who can see the plan.
Drivers and other local contacts
The Island tab lists taxi and boat drivers. Drivers are not members of KAA. For a listed driver we hold their name, phone, WhatsApp or Line, a booking link, the areas they cover, the languages they speak, their car or boat type, a photo if they gave one, and a record of their consent: who on our team recorded it, when, and how it was given (by phone, on WhatsApp or in person). We list a driver only with the driver's own consent, and that consent is our legal basis. Members can rate a listed driver and write tips about them only when the driver agreed to that too: drivers who were listed before the directory are shown with their contact buttons only, until they agree to be rated.
When a member suggests a driver, we hold the name and number the member gave, seen only by that member and our team, in order to ask the driver. If the driver does not agree or we cannot reach them, we delete the suggestion 30 days after deciding, and at the latest 90 days after it was sent.
A driver can ask us at any time to correct their details or to be removed: write to privacy@kohvra.com. We remove a driver at once, with their photo, ratings and tips, and the reports and moderation records about them. Our records keep only that a driver was removed, with no name and no number.
I'm at, quick contact and nearby
"I'm at": when you choose, we show your friends one place you picked (one of our places, or a spot rounded to about 50 metres with its area name), until when (at most 3 hours) and to which friends. It is never your live position. Only your friends see it, never across a block, and never staff in the admin. It is deleted when it ends, when you stop it, or when you leave the island.
Quick contact: if you turn on "Friends can contact me on WhatsApp" you give us a phone number for WhatsApp. We do not verify it. It is shown only to your friends, when they tap WhatsApp or Call, and it is deleted when you turn the switch off or delete your account.
Nearby: if you and a friend both turn on "Tell me when a friend is close" and share your live location with each other, our server compares your two shared points and tells you both when you are within 300 metres. We never store the distance or a place, only the time of the last notification for the two of you, so we send at most one every 6 hours. Turning it off deletes those times.
Who sees what
Other members see your photo, name and @username, and what you choose to share (RSVPs, plans, location for your chosen audience). A friend of a friend (a member who has at least one friend in common with you whose profile is not hidden) also sees your bio, whether you are on the island now (never your dates), up to 3 of your friends in common and how many, and the crews you are both in. A friend whose profile is hidden is never shown as your friend to anyone else. Your friends can open your full profile: your bio, interests, languages and home city, your stay on the island, the places you marked as visited and the friends you have in common. Only your friends see your Instagram and Facebook, and your relationship status if you chose one. A member you blocked, or who blocked you, cannot open your profile at all, and a hidden profile opens only for your friends. Our team sees your Instagram while reviewing your application. A villa party's exact address, map pin and host contact are shown only to members confirmed as going. When the host approves guests, only to members the host approved. Your friends see the events you said Going to: on the event's card ("Noa and 3 friends are going") and under "Friends going" on People. Members who are not your friends never see your Going there. A villa party, or a party whose host approves guests, is shown this way only to its host and its guests; a member who is not invited does not see it there at all. "My plans" on your profile lists what you are going to, and only you see it. A plan you post in "Who's in?" is seen by your friends, or by the wider group you chose when you posted it, with your first name and photo. Members who join a plan are listed in it by name and photo; a member with a hidden profile is listed only to their friends and to the member who posted the plan. Members of a crew see each other's name, photo and @username in that crew, even when they are not friends. If your profile is hidden, only your friends and the member who made the crew see you there. Members you have a block with never see you in a crew, and you do not see them. A location you share with one crew is seen only by the members of that crew, and not by your other friends. People we suggest to you may include members of your crews, with the reason shown ("In your crew"). If you turn on "Show me to people at the same events", members who were Going at the same event and turned it on too see you under "People you may know" with the reason. A public event is named ("You were both at ..."). A villa party or a party with a guest list is not named ("You were at the same party"). Nobody is notified, and members who did not turn it on never see you this way. Turn it off in Settings at any time and it stops at once. A recommendation you wrote is shown to all members with your first name and photo once our team has approved it. Until then only you and our team see it. Our team sees what is needed to approve accounts, handle reports and support you.
Friend requests: you choose who can send you one in Settings, Privacy and location, Who sees what: friends of friends (the default, which also includes members in a crew with you, members who marked Going to the same event as you, the member who invited you or whom you invited, members invited by the same member who invited you, and members whose trip on the island overlaps yours), everyone on KAA, or nobody (nobody also covers your QR code). A request shows the sender's photo, name and @username, up to 3 friends in common and one reason (a crew, a friend, or an event you both marked Going). If you decline, the sender is not told. They keep seeing the request as sent, and cannot send you a new one, for 30 days. A request nobody accepts within 30 days leaves both sides. Each member can send at most 30 requests a day. If your profile is hidden, your photo is shown only to your friends and to members of a crew you are in.
Sharing an event. A member can share a link to an event. Anyone who opens the link, member or not, sees a page and a preview image. For a public event (an event at a venue or from the island's calendar) they show the event's name, kind, date and time, venue, island, description and photo, the same details our public calendar shows. For a villa party they show only the words "Villa party", the date and the island: never its name, photo, host, area, address, price or guests. The page and the image never show who hosts an event, who is going or any contact detail. They load nothing from other companies and set no cookie. When an event ends, is cancelled or is removed, its link shows "This link is no longer open". A preview that a chat app already saved stays in that chat; we cannot take it back.
Photos from Google
For places linked to Google Maps, KAA shows a photo from Google on lists, Tonight and event pages. Our server asks Google for the photo using only the place's Google ID; nothing about you is sent. Your device then loads the photo directly from Google's servers, so Google receives your device's IP address and basic browser information, as with any image loaded from a website. KAA does not store these photos or their addresses. Google's privacy policy applies: https://policies.google.com/privacy. These photos are not shown on or next to the map.
When you open the place sheet of a place linked to Google Maps, KAA shows Google's photos, rating, opening hours and reviews for that place, under the words "From Google Maps", through Google's Places UI Kit. This can show over our own map. Your device asks Google's servers for them directly and sends only the place's Google ID, so Google receives that ID, your device's IP address and basic browser information. Our server only counts how many of these panels are shown each day (a number, with nothing about you or the place). KAA does not store this content. Google's privacy policy applies: https://policies.google.com/privacy.
Service providers
We use a small number of providers to host and run KAA, listed in Third Party Services We Use. They process data only on our instructions.
Where members use KAA
KAA is used on the islands where it is open, today in Thailand. Before a destination opens in another country (for example Indonesia), we review that country's data protection law and update this policy.
International transfers
Our providers may store data outside Israel and outside your country, including in the United States and the European Union. Where required, we rely on adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses.
Retention
We keep data while your account is active and delete it on the schedule in the Account Deletion and Data Retention Policy.
Security
Passwords are hashed, connections are encrypted, access to production data is limited to named people, and the database is backed up. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects you, we will tell you and the relevant authority as the law requires.
Your rights
You can access, correct, export or delete your data, withdraw consent, and object to processing. See Your Data Rights. You may also complain to your data protection authority; in Israel that is the Privacy Protection Authority.
Age
KAA is for adults only. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we delete it.
Changes
We will tell you about material changes in the app or by email before they take effect.
Write to privacy@kohvra.com. A person reads every message.