Data Retention & Deletion
Version 2026-10-10 · Last updated 10 October 2026
This statement says how long Nova keeps each kind of data and what happens when you close your account. It is a separate document from the Privacy Policy because it is the part people most often cannot get a straight answer to.
Where it is kept
Nova Dating is operated by Viridian Dynamics. Your account data — profile, photos, messages, likes, notes and preferences — is stored on servers in Sydney, Australia, and deleting it deletes it there.
How long we keep things
| Data | Retained |
|---|---|
| Profile, photos, answers, interests, languages | Until you change or delete them, or close your account. |
| Filters | Until you change them or close your account. |
| Notes sent with a like | Stored with the like, for as long as the like exists. Changing your mind and passing on that person clears the note. Closing your account deletes every note you sent. |
| Matches, including missed ones | Until one of you unmatches, or either of you closes their account. A missed match is kept so it can be reopened — it is not deleted at the end of its 72 hours. |
| The record that a match was reopened | Kept for the life of the match. It is what enforces one reopen per person, so discarding it would discard the limit. |
| Location | Latest position only. Each update overwrites the last, so there is no location history. Cleared when you close your account. |
| Overseas-mode city | Until you turn Overseas mode off, at which point the stored coordinates are cleared immediately by the database itself. |
| Swipes | Until you close your account. Kept so that the same profile is not shown to you repeatedly, and so undo works. |
| Matches and messages | As long as the match exists. Unmatching freezes the conversation; blocking ends it. Closing your account deletes your side of it. |
| Verification selfie | Deleted as soon as it has been reviewed, whether it passed or failed. Never shown to another member, and never kept as a record. |
| Reviews | As long as both accounts exist. Deleted when either the author or the subject closes their account. |
| Reports you file | Up to 24 months, so that a pattern of behaviour across several reports can be acted on. Retained if there is an active investigation. |
| Blocks | Until you remove the block or close your account. |
| Push notification registrations | Until you turn notifications off, your browser discards the subscription, or you close your account. |
| Operational logs | Up to 90 days, then discarded by our infrastructure providers. |
| Encrypted backups | Up to 30 days on a rolling basis. Deleted data disappears from backups as they roll over; we do not restore a backup to recover a deleted account. |
Closing your account
You can do this yourself, immediately, from Profile → Settings → Close my account and delete my data. You do not need to email anyone, and there is nothing to wait for.
Deleted straight away
- Your profile, name, bio, work and every attribute you answered
- Every photo you uploaded, removed from storage, not just unlinked
- Your interests, languages and filters
- Every swipe, in both directions, and every note sent with one
- All your matches and the messages in them — including missed matches and their reopen records
- Reviews you wrote, and reviews written about you
- Your location and overseas-mode city
- Any verification selfie still awaiting review
- Your push notification registrations
- Your authentication record, including your stored phone number
What survives, and why
One row. It contains a one-way cryptographic hash of your phone number, the date the account was deleted, and how old the account was in days. It contains no name, no photo, no email, no messages, and no phone number that can be read or recovered — the hash is salted and cannot be reversed.
It exists for one reason, and only one:
If someone is removed from Nova for harassing people, the obvious next move is to delete the account and sign up again with the same number. Without this row, every ban could be shed in thirty seconds, and the people who were harassed would meet them again next week. Matching a ban against a hash is what makes removal actually mean something.
If you have never been banned, this row is a hash and a date, and it does nothing at all.
Other people's copies
Messages you sent exist in the conversation you sent them to. Deleting your account removes your account and your side of those conversations, but we cannot reach into someone's screenshots, and we cannot undo what another person has already read. This is true of every messaging service and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.
Deletion we initiate
- Banned accounts are deleted on the same terms as a self-service deletion, keeping the same single hashed row so the ban holds.
- Dormant accounts. We do not currently delete accounts for inactivity. If we introduce that, we will email you first and give you the chance to keep it.
Getting your data out
Profile → Settings → Your data → Download my data produces a JSON file containing everything we hold about you. It is generated on demand and assembled in your browser; we do not keep a copy of the export.
Reviews written about you are included without the reviewers' identities. The aggregate is anonymous, and an export should not be a way around that.
Questions
Support@viridiandynamics.com.au. If you want something deleted that this statement does not cover, ask and we will tell you plainly whether we hold it.
Nova Dating is a product of Viridian Dynamics. Data held in Sydney, Australia.