Privacy Policy

Effective October 1, 2026

1. Who we are

CrowdSense is operated by Elias Caban, an individual (sole proprietor) (“we,” “us”). We are the controller of the personal information described here. Contact: crowdsense26@gmail.com.

2. Information we collect

You give us

• Account details: your email address and name. If you sign in with Google, Google shares your name, email and profile picture with us.
• Age information: you enter your date of birth once. We use it only to check eligibility, then keep only your age range (15–17 or 18+). The birth date itself is not stored.
• Consents: which version of our Terms you accepted and when, and (for ages 15–17) when you confirmed a parent or guardian's permission.
• Searches: the questions you type into Scene Finder.
• Preferences: language and light/dark theme.
• Messages you send us, such as support requests.
• Things you do in the app: saved spots, 👍/👎 votes, reports of wrong information, share links you create, and events you submit as an organizer.
• Friends and plans (optional): the friends you connect with through invite links, and events you mark “I'm going”. Friends see only your first name and your “I'm going” plans.
• Crowd check-ins (optional): when you tell us how busy a place is. Others only ever see a combined level from 2 or more check-ins, never who checked in.
• Invites: who invited you (for the invite reward).

Collected automatically

• Location (with your permission): your device shares its location with the app. Our servers use it for a single request to find your zone and calculate distances, and then discard the exact coordinates. We store only the zone identifier (an area about 7 km wide). The map itself runs on your device.
• Usage records: for example, when you search, which zone was researched, when you first opened the app from your Home Screen, which general zone you opened the app in (kept 7 days, to decide which areas get daily research), and security logs such as failed code attempts. These enforce fair-use limits and prevent abuse.
• Technical data: IP address, device and browser type, and error logs, processed by our hosting providers to deliver and secure the Service.
• Cookies and local storage: only strictly necessary ones: to keep you signed in, remember your language and theme, remember an invite link until you finish signing up, remember a city you chose to explore (Pro) and whether you've seen the intro, plus a temporary note on your device if an age check fails. No analytics or advertising cookies.
• Notifications (optional): if you turn them on, your device's push address and your general zone (not your exact location), so we can send one daily alert about what's happening near you.
• Error reports: if the app crashes, the error message, the page and your browser type. These are not linked to your account.

Payments

If you buy Pro, Stripe collects your payment details. We receive and store a Stripe customer ID and your subscription status, never your full card number.

3. How we use information

• To provide the Service: show events and places near you, answer searches, and run your account and subscription.
• To check age eligibility, record consents, and keep 21+ venues out of results for users under 18.
• To run optional features you use: friends, plans, check-ins, saved spots, sharing, notifications and invites.
• To improve results using your 👍/👎 votes and reports, and to fix crashes using error reports.
• To enforce limits and our Terms, prevent fraud and abuse, and keep the Service secure.
• To communicate with you about your account, security, purchases and changes to our terms.
• To comply with the law and protect our rights and the safety of others.

We do not use your information for targeted advertising, and we do not make decisions about you that produce legal or similarly significant effects based solely on automated processing.

4. Artificial intelligence

Scene Finder, Today's Events and the Bulletin use an AI service (Anthropic's Claude) with web search. To answer a search, we send the AI provider your question, the name of your general area and the zone's center point. We never send your name, email or exact location. Please don't include personal details in your searches. Our AI provider processes this data to give us a response and, under its commercial terms, does not use it to train its models.

5. Who we share information with

We share personal information only with service providers that help us run the Service, under contracts that limit their use of it, and as required by law:

• Supabase: database, sign-in and server functions (hosting).
• Vercel: website hosting.
• Stripe: payments and subscription management.
• Anthropic: AI processing of searches and area research (see Section 4).
• Google: if you choose Google sign-in.
• OpenFreeMap and OpenStreetMap: map tiles are loaded from OpenFreeMap by your device (which reveals your IP address and the map area you view to that provider), and we look up place names for zone centers (never your own location) from OpenStreetMap's geocoding service. When a Pro user searches for a city to explore, our server sends the typed city name (nothing else) to Photon, a geocoding service by komoot.
• Email delivery providers, for sign-in links and account messages.
• Push notification services run by your device or browser maker (for example Apple, Google or Mozilla), which deliver notifications you turned on.
• Ticketmaster (if enabled): we look up public event listings near a zone's center point. No personal information is sent.

Things you choose to make visible: your friends see your first name and “I'm going” plans; a share link shows the event you shared (never who shared it) to anyone who has the link; and events you submit as an organizer become public once approved.

We may also disclose information if required by law or legal process, to protect the rights, property or safety of us, our users or others, or as part of a business transfer (for example, if we form a company to run the Service, or it is sold), in which case this policy continues to apply.

We do not sell personal information and do not “share” it for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined under California law, and we have not done so in the past 12 months. We honor Global Privacy Control signals, although there is no sale or sharing for them to stop.

6. How long we keep information

• Account and profile information: until you delete your account.
• Search history linked to your account: automatically deleted after 90 days.
• Abuse-prevention records (research requests, code attempts): automatically deleted after 30 days.
• Cached search results and area research (not linked to you): automatically deleted after 7 days.
• Crowd check-ins: 24 hours. “I'm going” plans: 2 days after the event day. Share links: 90 days. Submitted events: 30 days after the event. Error reports: 30 days. Resolved reports: 1 year.
• Saved spots, friends and notification settings: until you remove them or delete your account.
• Payment records: kept by Stripe as required for tax and accounting law (typically up to 7 years).
• Server and security logs kept by our hosting providers: generally a few days to a few weeks.

7. Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time in Profile → Delete account. This permanently deletes your account, profile, consents and search history, and cancels any active subscription. Some records may remain for a limited time in backups or where the law requires (for example, payment records held by Stripe).

8. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live (for example, California and other U.S. states, the European Economic Area, the UK), you may have the right to:

• know and access the personal information we hold about you, and get a portable copy;
• correct inaccurate information;
• delete your information;
• object to or restrict certain processing, and withdraw consent (for example, by turning off location);
• opt out of sale, sharing or targeted advertising (we don't do these);
• appeal a decision we make about your request, and complain to your data protection authority.

To make a request, email crowdsense26@gmail.com from the address on your account. We will verify your identity and respond within the time required by law (for example, 45 days in California, one month in the EU/UK). We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. You may use an authorized agent where the law allows.

9. Legal bases (EEA and UK users)

• Contract: to provide the Service and Pro subscriptions you request.
• Consent: for location access (withdraw any time in your device settings).
• Legitimate interests: to secure the Service, prevent abuse and improve it.
• Legal obligation: for tax, accounting and legal compliance.

10. Children and teens

The Service is not for anyone under 15. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or under 15), and if we learn we have, we delete it. Users aged 15–17 must have a parent or guardian's permission. Where local law requires parental consent for people under 16 to use online services, that consent is required. A parent or guardian who believes their child is using the Service without permission can contact crowdsense26@gmail.com and we will delete the account. We keep bars, clubs and 21+ venues out of results for users under 18. Users aged 15–17 can connect only with other users aged 15–17, there is no messaging, and only a first name and “I'm going” plans are shared with friends.

11. Security

We use industry-standard safeguards, including encryption in transit, access controls and row-level database security that limits each account to its own data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a data breach affects you, we will notify you as required by law.

12. International transfers

We are based in the United States, and our providers may process data in the United States and other countries. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. For material changes, we will notify you in the app and, where required, ask for your consent again. The effective date above shows when it last changed.

14. Contact

Questions or requests: crowdsense26@gmail.com. See also our Terms of Service.