01Overview

Your privacy matters to us. It is our policy to respect your privacy and to comply with any applicable law and regulation regarding any personal information we may collect about you, including through our mobile application and our website at oncrowdmap.com.

Crowdmap is a location-based discovery app that helps you find bars, pubs, restaurants, restobars, and nightclubs where the current crowd matches what you're looking for. We do this using check-ins, anonymous Fire / Okay / Bad ratings, and an area-level view of where activity is trending — built around a strong commitment to never tracking your exact whereabouts.

"Personal information" is any information that can be used to identify you, directly or in combination with other data. This includes details about you as a person, your device, and how you use the app.

Where our app or website links to third-party sites or services, those services have their own privacy policies. This policy does not cover your activity after you leave Crowdmap.

02Information we collect

The information we collect falls into two categories: information you voluntarily provide, and information that is automatically collected when you use the app.

Account information

Crowdmap uses passwordless ("magic") authentication. You sign in with a one-time code (OTP) sent to your email address and/or phone number. We do not collect or store passwords. We store the email address and/or phone number associated with your account so we can authenticate you and contact you about your account.

Profile & preferences

To power crowd-matching, you provide a small profile describing yourself and what you're looking for:

• About you: age group, gender, and ethnicity.
• Your preferences: the age group(s), gender(s), and ethnicity you'd like to find at a venue.

Some of this is sensitive information and is handled with extra care — see Section 3. You can view, edit, or remove these details at any time in the app.

Activity in the app

• Check-ins: when you choose to check in to a venue, that check-in contributes to the venue's crowd picture. It is combined with other users' check-ins and presented as aggregate statistics; we do not publish your identity alongside a check-in.
• Ratings: your anonymous Fire / Okay / Bad ratings of venues.

Approximate area (H3 cell), not exact location

To show what's trending near you, the app sends your H3 cell identifier — a hexagonal area tile (at most resolution 10, roughly a 60–70 metre cell) — to our servers. We do not send or store your precise latitude/longitude. See Section 4 for exactly how this works.

Device & log data

When you use the app, our infrastructure may automatically receive standard technical data, such as device type, operating system, app version, language settings, a device or push identifier, IP address, and timestamps. If the app encounters an error, we may collect diagnostic information about the device state and what happened so we can fix it.

Some of this data is not personally identifying on its own, but it may become identifying when combined with other information.

03Sensitive (special category) data

04How location works

Location is central to Crowdmap, so we want to be precise about what happens to it.

Finding nearby venues — handled on your device

When you look for nearby places (pubs, clubs, restobars, and similar), your device passes your current location directly to the Google Places API from the app on your device, to retrieve the list of venues around you. This precise location is used in the moment to fetch results and is not transmitted to or stored on Crowdmap's servers. You then choose which venue, if any, to check in to.

Seeing what's trending — area tile only

To rank and surface trending venues near you, the app converts your location into an H3 cell identifier (a hexagonal area tile, at most resolution 10) and sends only that tile to our servers. Because we receive the tile rather than coordinates, we can tell roughly which area you're interested in, but not where you actually are within it.

Background location

If, in a future version, we offer optional background presence detection, that logic is designed to run on your device, and would only ever be enabled with your explicit permission through your operating system's location controls. You can revoke location permission at any time in your device settings.

05Legal bases for processing

We only collect and use personal information when we have a lawful basis to do so, and only what is reasonably necessary to provide the app:

• Performance of a contract: to create your account and provide the core features you've asked for.
• Consent: for sensitive data (gender, ethnicity and related preferences), for access to your device location, and for push notifications. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests: to keep the service secure, prevent fraud and abuse, fix errors, and understand and improve how the app is used — provided these interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Legal obligation: where we must retain or disclose information to comply with applicable law.

06How we use your information

We collect, hold, use, and disclose information for the following purposes, and will not process it in a way that is incompatible with them:

• To provide the app's core features — venue discovery, crowd matching, check-ins, and ratings.
• To authenticate you and manage your account via one-time codes.
• To send you notifications you've opted into, such as activity near you.
• To keep the service safe and secure, and to prevent fraud, spam, and abuse.
• To diagnose and fix errors and to monitor the technical health of the app.
• To understand usage trends and improve the product.
• To respond to your enquiries and provide support.
• To comply with our legal obligations.

07Service providers & third parties

We use a small number of trusted third-party providers to run Crowdmap. They are given access only to the information needed to perform their function and are required to protect it. We do not sell your personal information.

• Supabase — cloud hosting, database, authentication, and backend infrastructure.
• Google Places API — venue search and details. Nearby-venue lookups are sent from your device to Google in line with Google's privacy policy.
• Sentry — error monitoring and crash diagnostics, to help us find and fix problems.
• OneSignal — delivery of push notifications you've opted into.

We may also disclose personal information: to professional advisors and contractors who help us operate the service; to law enforcement, courts, or regulators where required by law or to establish or defend legal rights; and to an acquirer in connection with a business transfer (see Section 16).

When we add paid or premium features in the future, we will use a payment processor and will update this policy to describe it before doing so.

08Security of your information

When we collect and process personal information, and while we retain it, we protect it within commercially acceptable means to prevent loss, theft, and unauthorised access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification. Authentication is passwordless, which reduces the risks associated with stored or reused passwords.

That said, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for keeping access to your email and phone number — which are used to sign in — secure.

09How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes set out in this policy — generally for the life of your account. Check-in and rating data may be retained in aggregate, de-identified form to keep venue statistics meaningful.

If you delete your account, we will delete or anonymise the personal information associated with it, except where we must retain certain data to comply with a legal, accounting, or reporting obligation.

10Age restriction (18+)

Crowdmap is intended only for adults aged 18 and over, because it relates to nightlife and licensed venues. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has provided us with personal information, please contact us at support@oncrowdmap.com and we will delete it.

11International transfers

Crowdmap is initially focused on the United Arab Emirates. The personal information we hold is currently stored and processed on infrastructure located in the United States, and may be processed wherever we or our service providers maintain facilities.

The countries where your information is processed may not have the same data-protection laws as your own. Where we transfer personal information across borders, we do so in accordance with applicable law and take steps to ensure it remains protected in line with this policy — for example, by relying on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses where required.

12Your rights & choices

Your choice. You do not have to provide personal information to us, but some of it is necessary to use the app. Sensitive fields and location/notification permissions are optional and consent-based.

Access & portability. You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, where possible in a machine-readable format.

Correction. You can edit your profile in the app, or ask us to correct information you believe is inaccurate or out of date.

Deletion. You may delete your account at any time, or ask us to delete your personal information. We will take reasonable steps to do so, subject to any legal retention requirements.

Withdraw consent. You can withdraw consent for sensitive data, location access, or notifications at any time — in the app or in your device settings. This will not affect processing that already took place.

Notifications opt-out. You can turn off push notifications in your device settings at any time.

Complaints. If you believe we have breached a data-protection law, contact us first and we will investigate. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.

13UAE Personal Data Protection Law

For users in the United Arab Emirates, we process personal data in line with the UAE's Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data (PDPL). Consistent with that law, we process personal data on a lawful basis (such as your consent or the performance of our service), limit collection to what is necessary, and honour your rights to access, correct, and delete your data and to withdraw consent. To exercise these rights, contact us at support@oncrowdmap.com.

14GDPR (EU/EEA visitors)

If you are in the European Economic Area or the UK, the General Data Protection Regulation applies to your personal data. The entity that operates Crowdmap acts as the data controller for the information described here. Our legal bases are set out in Section 5, and sensitive (special-category) data is processed only on the basis of your explicit consent, as described in Section 3.

In addition to the rights in Section 12, you have the right to restrict or object to certain processing, and the right not to be subject to solely automated decisions producing legal effects. Where we transfer data outside the EEA, we use appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. You may also lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority.

15U.S. residents

If you are a resident of a U.S. state with a comprehensive privacy law (such as California, Colorado, Virginia, Utah, or others), you may have the right to know the categories of personal information we collect, to access and delete your information, and to opt out of any "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. We do not sell your personal information. To exercise these rights, contact us at support@oncrowdmap.com. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. At this time we do not respond to browser "Do Not Track" signals.

16Business transfers

If we are acquired, merge with another company, or transfer all or substantially all of our assets, your personal information may be among the transferred assets. Any acquiring party would be required to honour the commitments in this policy, or to notify you of any material changes.

17Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements — including once our operating entity is incorporated. We will post the updated policy at this same link and revise the "Last updated" date above. If the changes are significant, we will take reasonable steps to notify you.

18Contact us

For any questions, requests, or concerns about your privacy or this policy, contact:

Crowdmap
Email: support@oncrowdmap.com
Web: oncrowdmap.com