Safety

Guide to Online and Offline Safety

Welcome aboard and thank you for choosing to fly with us! At Ablo, we take the safety of our passengers very seriously. Our experienced cabin crew constantly moderates all profiles, photos and language use on the platform and we keep our paper plane fleet to the highest of standards in order to safeguard your privacy and security. Flying with us is the safest way to embark on your next adventure. However, we feel it's important to remind you that online safety is also your responsibility. So fasten your seat belt and please take a moment to read the following safety instructions.

Reporting Abuse & Getting Help or Advice

If you have a negative experience, please know that it is not your fault and help is available. You can block any offenders so they can't contact you anymore. Please inform us about any violations (stalking, sexual assault, fake profiles, scam attempts...) you encounter, so we can keep them from boarding another paper plane and from harassing other passengers on Ablo. All serious cases of abuse will be passed on to the relevant authorities. If you need help, support or advice, please consider contacting one of these resources.

Online Safety

Here are some tips that can help you protect yourself from being easy prey for someone with ulterior motives.

Keep your account safe. Choose a strong password, keep it safe and make sure you don’t use it on other sites as well. We highly recommend that you periodically change your password. Never forward emails from Ablo to anyone, as the links in our emails provide direct access to your account.
Trust your gut instinct. Your instinct is a powerful tool that helps you decide when to move forward with someone and when to turn back and fly away. If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.
Protect your personal information. Don't give out any personal information like your home address, place of work or phone number straight away. Ablo will never send you an email asking for your password. Make sure you never enter your login details on a fake website that looks like Ablo. When in doubt, type https://ablo.live into your browser to get to Ablo.
Never send money or financial information. Scammers might tell you a heartbreaking story about their lives, ask for money to help them and claim they’ll pay you back soon. Or they might ask for money to come and visit you. Please don’t fall for it and report it to us immediately.
Remember your netiquette and be nice! We can’t always get along with everyone, but just because someone is not your cup of tea, it doesn't give you the right to be horrible to them. Just go your separate ways and hop on the next paper plane.

Meeting Offline

Ablo is all about connecting with new people and learning about new cultures. Nothing would make us happier than knowing we’ve succeeded in introducing new friends that want to meet and learn about each other’s lives. However, we also encourage you to safeguard your well-being, so should you ever consider meeting an online contact in person, consider a few guidelines to help you through that first encounter.

Don't rush things. Don't be in a rush to meet your new friend offline and don't let anyone rush you. Spend some time getting to know each other online before meeting offline.
Meet and stay in a public place on your first meeting. If you meet, do so in a public place where other people can see you. Tell someone where you are going and with whom. Make sure you have your cell phone charged and with you at all times. Arrange your own transportation and make sure you use it: getting into the car of a person you don't know is not a good idea.
Be on your guard when meeting an online friend offline. If you sense something is not right, leave. Do not fully rely on photos. We moderate them to our best ability but it could still be an old photo or a photo of someone else.
Protect your personal items. Carry as little cash as possible. Credit or debit cards can be blocked in the event of theft and you can report charges as fraudulent.

Police

Ablo policy on reporting to the police
Ablo collaborates closely with the Belgian Federal Computer Crime Unit. Ablo makes sure all data for further investigation is saved for another 3 months. In case of offenses that are prosecuted only upon complaints, we guide the member to the correct authority, and we make sure all data is saved in case the police need it. Below, police officers can find more information on what kind of data can be requested from Ablo and how.

Ablo policy on saving data
Types of personal data collected by Ablo:

Public information published by members:
- Information on profiles, photos...
- Messages sent to other users
- Contacts
Private information added by members:
- Email addresses
- Mobile numbers (not always available)
- Buying and spending of Coins (if any)
History and logs:
- Time, date and IP address of registration
- Time, date and IP address of logins
- Time, date and URL of all Ablo pages you visited
- Searches performed on the website/app
- Technical information regarding your browser and computer/mobile device

Types of personal data collected by Ablo:
As long as an account is active, all of the above information is available (disclaimer: due to technical issues, it is always possible that information got lost). Ablo stores data for a period of 3 months after profiles are blocked or deleted. If you wish to prolong this period, please inform Ablo of this request and the reason for your request.

How to retrieve user data from Ablo

International police forces

Unfortunately we are legally not allowed to provide you with any personal details regarding a user, as we are a Belgian company. Please use the appropriate procedure through a Commission Rogatoire Internationale (CRI) (now also known as a Letter of Request).
Meanwhile, if you pass us the email address of the account, we will already collect the data you request and one of our Community Managers will verify if the account needs action (if you prefer us not to block the account, please let us know!).

Belgian police forces

Data can be obtained by sending Ablo an official request. Your request should contain the following information:

The exact email address.
The exact information that is requested. Often this is identification information like the IP address from the last login or registration.
Motivation for the request. Please mention the articles motivating your request.

To obtain private messages, we require a search warrant. Official requests can be sent to Lien Louwagie, VP of Community:

via fax: +32 2 400 43 20
via post: Massive Media, 18 E. Braunplein, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
via email: info-en@ablo.live

You can expect an answer within 2 weeks. For urgent requests (for example missing persons), please mention the urgency clearly on the request.