Privacy Policy

Your trust matters to us. This Privacy Policy explains, in plain language, what data we collect, why we collect it, and the choices you have when using Places.

1. About this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Places collects, uses, shares, and protects personal data when you use our services. It applies to our web platform and mobile applications, which currently follow the same product data flows unless stated otherwise.

When we use the words "Places", "we", "our", or "us", we mean the operator of Places. When we use "you", we mean users, members, visitors, organizers, and contributors who use the Places platform.

2. Data We Collect

Depending on how you use Places, we may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Account and identity data: email address, username, account status, login/session data, and verification records.
Profile data: profile photo, profile name, user type, and language preferences.
Places and events data: place names, descriptions, photos, websites, event details, dates, links, and related content you submit.
Location data: geographic coordinates and location-related metadata for places and events you add.
Community data: community memberships, roles, invitations, join requests, and moderation actions.
Communications data: support messages, account notifications, invitation messages, and transactional email logs.
Usage and technical data: analytics events, browser/device characteristics, language signals, IP-derived anti-abuse/rate-limit data, and interaction telemetry.

Your precise location may be accessed if you choose to activate this feature when adding a place to the platform. Your location data is not stored on our end or tied to your account in any way.

Your camera and photo library on your device may be accessed if you choose to activate this feature when uploading a photo to the platform (for example to your profile, a place, or an event). We do not store any of your photos except those you choose to upload to the Places platform.

3. How We Collect Data

We collect personal data in three main ways:

Directly from you when you register, sign in, update your profile, create places/events, join communities, upload media, or contact support.
Automatically through cookies and similar technologies, analytics tooling, security/rate-limiting controls, and service logs when you use Places.
From third parties such as authentication and platform integrations (for example, sign-in providers and mapping services) when you choose to use those features.

4. Why We Use Data (Purposes and Legal Bases)

We process personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and operate Places features, including accounts, profiles, places, events, communities, and collaboration workflows.
To authenticate users, maintain account security, prevent abuse, and protect the service.
To communicate with you about account verification, service activity, support requests, and product operations.
To improve product quality, usability, and performance through analytics and diagnostics.
To comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms and platform policies.

Where applicable under data protection law, we rely on one or more legal bases: performance of a contract, legitimate interests, legal obligations, and consent (including for non-essential cookies and analytics where required).

5. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Places uses cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember settings, secure sessions, and help us understand product usage.

Our analytics stack includes Google Analytics and PostHog. These services may receive usage events and technical metadata. For authenticated users, analytics may be associated with account-level identifiers to improve product insights and support.

We are implementing expanded cookie and analytics preference controls. Where required by applicable law, we will collect and honor consent choices before loading non-essential analytics technologies.

6. Sharing and Disclosure

We share personal data only when needed to operate Places and meet legal obligations. This may include:

Service providers/processors supporting analytics, authentication, maps/geocoding, infrastructure, and transactional email delivery.
Other users/community roles where content is public by design or shared through community features (for example, profile and contribution visibility, invitation/join workflows).
Authorities or legal recipients where required by law, lawful request, or to protect rights, safety, and platform integrity.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal data for as long as needed for the purposes described in this policy, including legal, security, operational, and dispute-resolution needs.

We are formalizing retention schedules by category (for example account data, support records, analytics events, invitations, and security logs) and will apply those schedules consistently across web and mobile services.

8. Account Deletion and User Rights

You can request account deletion and exercise your privacy rights by contacting us at [email protected].

You may at any time choose to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to, and port your personal data, and to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

9. Security

We use technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal data against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, and alteration. No system can be guaranteed 100 percent secure, but we continuously improve our safeguards.

10. Third-Party Links

Places may contain links to third-party websites and services. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies, and we encourage you to review them.

11. Policy Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as our services and legal requirements evolve. When we make material changes, we will post an updated version with a revised effective date.

12. Contact

If you have privacy questions or want to exercise your rights, contact us at [email protected]. We are happy to help.