Safety

A stranger cannot message you.

Messaging only opens once a friendship is accepted, enforced in the database, not just the screen in front of you.

Here is what Squado actually does to keep games safe, and just as important, what it does not do.

How Squado protects you

• Messaging requires a friendship.

  You cannot receive a message from someone until you have accepted them as a buddy. That rule lives in the database itself, not only in the app’s interface.

• Hosts approve who joins, by default.

  A host reviews and approves each person who asks to join their game before they are in. A host can choose to open an event to instant join instead, but approval is the starting point.

• Blocking works both ways, quietly.

  Blocking someone ends the friendship, blocks them from messaging you at the database level, and hides each of your profiles from the other. Neither of you can tell who blocked whom.

• Squado is 18 and over.

  A real date of birth is collected when you sign up, and the date picker itself will not let anyone choose a birth year that makes them under 18.

• Your birthday stays private.

  Only your age is ever shown to other people. Your actual date of birth is not.

• Women-only and men-only games are enforced, not just labelled.

  When a host restricts an event by gender, that restriction is enforced in the database, not only shown as a badge on the event.

• Your location is never stored.

  Distance to a game is calculated on your own device and then discarded. Squado does not keep a record of where you have been.

• None of this is behind a paywall.

  Every safety feature on this page is available to everyone who uses Squado, at no cost.

• You can delete your account, yourself.

  Deleting your account is permanent, and it cascades to your data with it, not just your profile.

• Reports cannot be traced back to you by the person you reported.

  A report you file is not readable by any client, including the app itself. The person you report never learns that you were the one who reported them.

If you do report someone: tell us what happened. We read everything.

Meeting someone for the first time

• Meet in public. Courts, parks, gyms, and studios are ideal, especially the first time.
• Tell a friend where you are going, and who you are meeting.
• Trust your gut. If something feels wrong, you can leave at any point.
• Keep personal details private until you know someone. There is no need to share your home address or your finances.

The honest part

What Squado does not do

• Squado does not verify identity. Nobody here is ID-checked. Treat the people you meet the way you would treat anyone you met through a friend of a friend.
• There is no automated moderation. Nothing anyone posts is scanned or filtered before it goes up. When something is reported, it goes to a person, not a queue.
• Meeting someone you only know from an app carries real risk, the same as it would anywhere else. Meet in public, and tell someone where you are going.

Where this is binding

This page explains our approach in plain language. Section 5 of the Terms of Use, on meeting other people, is what actually governs it.