Privacy Policy

What we collect

We collect your email address and name when you sign up, and your profile photo if you add one. We also store what you add to your lists:

• spots, your flames for them, visits, favorites and trips;
• chat messages, the photos you send, reactions, messages you report, the people you block, and who a list's owner removed from it (so an old invite link can't bring them back);
• your notification choices, the lists you mute, and your phone's notification address if you allow notifications;
• how many Pepper lookups, photos and new lists you've used today and this month, so we can apply your plan's allowances.

Only the people on a list can see its spots, chat and photos.

Usage

To learn which parts of Pick the Spots get used, and fix the ones that don't work, we count what happens in the app and on the website and send those counts to PostHog. Each one says only what happened, from a short list we chose:

• a screen opened, such as the chats or your spots;
• a feature used: signing in (and whether by code, password, Apple or Google), posting a link (and only which site it's from, such as Instagram or TikTok), starting a list, sharing or opening an invite, Not right, Add all, Pick for us, the map, a trip or a visit, or opening a notification;
• what Pepper made of a link or a question: saved it, already had it, offered choices, answered, found nothing, or couldn't look it up;
• which kind of phone or browser, and which version of the app.

They never include your name, email, messages, links, photos, the names of your spots or your location. They go to PostHog through our own server, so PostHog doesn't get your IP address. They're kept under a scrambled code made from your account, not your account itself; before you sign in, under a random code for the device. A visit to our front page records only the site that sent you there, if any, without a cookie or any code that follows you.

You can turn this off in Settings → Share anonymous usage. Nothing more is counted about you from then on.

How we use it

Your data is used solely to provide and improve the Pick the Spots service. We use your email for account management and, if you subscribe, billing communications. We do not sell or share your data with third parties for marketing.

Third-party services

We use these services to run Pick the Spots. Each has its own privacy policy.

• Clerk handles sign-in and stores your account (name, email, profile photo).
• Clerk Billing, with Stripe as its payment processor, handles web subscriptions. We never see or store card details.
• Cloudflare hosts the app and stores everything above, chat photos included.
• Google Gemini reads the content of a link you share (page text, captions, images and videos) to work out which place it describes. It also reads the messages you write to Pepper, with the names, kinds and towns of the spots on that list, to work out what you're asking.
• Apify fetches public Instagram posts you share, so they can be read.
• tikwm and RapidAPI fetch public TikTok videos you share, and YouTube gives the details of YouTube videos you share.
• Google Places and Google Maps look up place details and photos, and show the map.
• PostHog receives the usage counts described above, under a scrambled code, and shows our team the totals.
• Resend emails our team when someone reports a message, with the message and the names of who sent it and who reported it.
• Expo and Apple deliver notifications to your phone. A notification carries the list's name, who posted and a preview of the message.

Links you share and messages you write to Pepper are sent to these services without your name or email. Your device location, if you allow it, is used on your device to sort nearby spots and is not sent to us. If you turn on near-a-spot alerts in the iPhone app, your phone watches the spots on your lists and alerts you when you come close to one; that happens on your phone too, and your location is never sent to us. If you ask Pepper what’s near you, your location is sent with that one question so she can sort the spots by distance; it isn’t stored.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time in the app or on the website under Settings → Delete account. This immediately:

• deletes your sign-in account, name, email and profile photo;
• deletes your ratings, list memberships, the invite links you created, the reports you filed, your blocks, any record of being removed from a list, your notification choices and your usage counts;
• deletes every list only you belong to, with all its spots, chat and photos;
• cancels any paid plan.

Usage counts already sent stay with PostHog under their scrambled code, which no longer matches any account.

Spots, trips and chat messages you added to lists shared with other people stay on those lists, because they are part of the other members' lists, but are no longer linked to your name or email: your messages show as from a former member. You can delete any message you sent, with its photo, before you go. A shared list you created passes to its longest-standing member. Billing records may be kept by our payment providers as required by law.

Contact

Questions? Email us at [email protected].