Countryness [countryness.com] handles your information both as a "Processor" and as a "Controller". In summary this means that we have a lot of responsibility for your personal data, and we take this very seriously.
Unlike many other websites, we don't try to track your browsing behaviour and we don't sell your data to anyone.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files placed on your computer by websites so that they can remember information about you. The only cookies that we place on your computer are essential ones, necessary for our website to function. Please see our cookie policy to learn more.
The information you provide that others can see
Countryness is a messaging platform and as such you are able to provide a variety of information. This helps in finding people to chat to and aims to improve your experience on our website. The information you provide that others can see includes:
- Your first name
- Your gender
- Your age bracket
- Your country
- Your time zone
- Your profile image (optional)
- Your bio (optional)
Other people can also see the date that you registered, the date you were last active and the countries you have talked to. If you enter any interview answers, upload additional photos, select the countries you have visited, the countries you want to visit, the languages you are learning, any of your interests or the type of person you are seeking to chat to, this will also be visible to others.
The information you provide that only you can see
Some of the information that you provide is not visible to others. This includes:
- Your language
- Your email address
Other information
We also store other information that helps us to keep our website secure, defeat spam and analyse any issues that you might experience. Only the admins can see this information. This includes:
- Your IP address
- The country your IP address belongs to
- The type of your device
- The first and last pages you visit
How long we keep your information for
We keep your information for the minimum amount of time necessary. For instance:
- If you register but don't verify your email address, your account will be deleted after one week.
- If you delete your account, it will be deleted immediately unlike on some other websites.
In rare situations we may be required to keep your data for longer, if for example a law has been broken.
Information you provide when contacting us
If you choose to use our contact form, we will collect the information you provide (such as your email address and message). This information is only used for the purpose of responding to your enquiry and will not be shared with others. We retain this information for as long as necessary to address your enquiry, unless legal or regulatory requirements oblige us to keep it longer.
How we secure your information
We take a number of steps to ensure your information is secure, such as:
- Using SSL to encrypt all of the data that you send on our website
- Restricting access to your information to the minimum extent necessary
- Using a secure server, which is regularly updated, to store your information
- Verifying the identity of any individual who requests access to your information
Your password
We take password security very seriously. Your password is never stored in plain text and is instead securely hashed using a strong one-way hashing algorithm. This means that even the administrators cannot see what your password is.
How you control your information
We aim to give you the maximum amount of control over your data. For example:
- You can edit your information in the settings
- The only exception is your first name and country (this helps prevent abuse)
- You can export your information to understand what is stored
- You can delete your account
External services
To operate our website securely and reliably, we make use of carefully selected third-party services that help with security, performance and fraud prevention:
- Cloudflare to provide content delivery, security and DDoS protection for our website (privacy policy)
- hCaptcha to prevent automated bots from registering (privacy policy)
- ip-api.com to check whether IP addresses are associated with VPNs, proxies or hosting providers (privacy policy)
- vpnapi.io to check whether IP addresses are associated with VPNs, proxies or hosting providers (privacy policy)
How you control your information
We aim to give you the maximum amount of control over your data. For example:
- You can edit your information in the settings
- The only exception is your first name and country (this helps prevent abuse)
- You can export your information to understand what is stored
- You can delete your account
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such websites and we encourage you to review the privacy policies of these websites, should you visit them.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO at ico.org.uk.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
Last modified: 17 June, 2026
When we make changes to our Privacy Policy we will update the 'Last Modified' date to reflect this. In cases where we make substantial changes, we will endeavor to communicate this to you using our range of channels such as email and social media.