1. Who we are
PocketOuting is an events app operated by PocketOuting (“we”, “us”). It lets people discover public events, host public or private ones, invite guests, RSVP, and organize in groups, on the web and in our iOS and Android apps. This policy covers all of them. Questions or requests go to support@pocketouting.com.
2. Information we collect
We collect only what the app needs to work. In practice that is:
- Account information. Your email address, and — if you sign in with Google — the name, email, and profile picture Google returns. We do not receive or store your Google password. Signing in by emailed magic link requires only your email address.
- Profile. Display name, username, avatar image, bio, home city, and an approximate coordinate for that city so we can sort events by distance. All of it is optional except a display name, and you choose whether your profile is public.
- Events you create. Title, description, dates and time zone, category and tags, cover image, price range, capacity, styling choices, and the venue: name, address, and coordinates, or an online meeting link.
- Participation. RSVPs and plus-ones, saved events, ticket check-ins, poll votes, questions and answers, comments, announcements, reactions, and photos you post to an event album.
- Invitations. When you invite someone, we store the email address or phone number you entered so we can deliver the invite and show you whether it arrived. If they already have an account, we store the link to it instead.
- Groups. Groups you create or join, your role in them, join requests, and group invitations.
- Notifications. Your notification preferences, the notifications we have sent you, and — if you turn push on — a browser push subscription or a mobile device push token.
- Location. Event addresses you enter, the home city on your profile, and, only if you allow it in the browser or on your device, your current location to sort nearby events. We use it for that search and do not keep a history of where you have been.
- Payments. If an event sells tickets, checkout runs on Stripe. Stripe handles the card; we receive and store the order amount, quantity, payment status, refund status, and the ticket issued. We never see or store full card numbers.
- Safety and moderation. Reports you file or that are filed about you, the reason and any notes, and administrator actions such as removing content or suspending an account.
- Technical and usage data. Log and device data from ordinary use — IP address, browser or app version, pages visited, timestamps — plus rate-limit counters that stop abuse, aggregate analytics, and crash and error reports.
3. Where the information comes from
Most of it comes from you. Some comes from other people: a host who invites you supplies your email address or phone number before you have an account, and other users’ comments, RSVPs, or reports may mention you. Some comes from services you connect, such as Google when you use it to sign in. And some is generated automatically as you use the app, such as log data.
4. How we use it
- To run the app: showing events, taking RSVPs, delivering invites, hosting discussions and groups.
- To send you the messages you asked for — invitations, RSVP and event updates, reminders — by email, SMS, or push.
- To personalize discovery, such as ranking events near your city or in categories you follow.
- To process ticket orders and issue tickets, where an event uses ticketing.
- To keep the app safe: enforcing our Terms, rate limiting, reviewing reports, and suspending accounts that break the rules.
- To fix and improve things, using error reports and aggregate usage data.
- To meet legal obligations and respond to lawful requests.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers or use it to serve you targeted ads.
Text messages. We only text you if you asked us to, by ticking the SMS consent box in Account settings or during setup — giving us a phone number is not on its own permission to text it. Every message is an automated transactional message from PocketOuting about your account or an event you are part of; they are not person-to-person texts from another member, and we never send marketing or promotional texts. Message frequency varies with how much is happening in your events. Message and data rates may apply, and consent is not a condition of any purchase. Reply STOP to any message to opt out or HELP for help, or untick the box in Account settings. We keep a dated record of your opt-in and of any opt-out. Your mobile number and your SMS consent are never shared with third parties for their own marketing.
5. Who can see what
Most of what shows up in PocketOuting is published by you to an audience you pick. It is worth knowing where each setting points:
- Public events — including the title, description, cover image, venue, host name, and any public discussion — are visible to anyone, listed in our sitemap, and can be indexed by search engines.
- Private and invite-only events are visible to the host, co-hosts, invited guests, and anyone holding a working invite link. Treat an invite link like the invitation it is.
- The guest list is shown to other guests only when the host turns that on. Hosts and co-hosts always see who has RSVP’d, along with plus-ones and ticket status.
- Exact addresses can be hidden until someone RSVPs, at the host’s choice.
- Your profile is public or private according to your setting. Your email address is never shown on your profile.
- Groups and their membership are visible according to the group’s visibility setting.
- Our administrators can access account and content data when investigating a report or maintaining the service. Those actions are logged.
6. Service providers
We share information with companies that operate parts of the service on our behalf. They may use it only to provide their service to us.
- Supabase — database, authentication, and file storage for images you upload.
- Vercel — hosting, plus privacy-friendly aggregate analytics.
- Sentry — crash and error reporting.
- Resend — sending email: sign-in links, invitations, and notifications.
- Twilio — sending SMS invitations and delivery status.
- Stripe — ticket payments, where enabled. Stripe processes card data under its own privacy policy.
- Mapbox and Google Maps Platform — maps and address autocomplete when you search for a venue.
- Google — sign-in, if you use it.
- Apple Push Notification service and Firebase Cloud Messaging — delivering push notifications to mobile devices; browser push is delivered through your browser vendor’s push service.
We may also disclose information when the law requires it, to enforce our Terms, to protect the rights and safety of users or the public, or as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets — in which case we will say so before your information becomes subject to a different policy.
8. How long we keep it
We keep your account and content while your account is open. Delete your account and we remove your login and profile; content tied to your profile — events you hosted, RSVPs, comments, invites, notifications — is removed along with it. Some records survive for a limited period where we have to keep them: transaction records for tax and accounting, moderation and suspension records to keep a banned user from simply returning, and backups, which age out on their own schedule. Content other people have already seen or saved is beyond our reach.
9. Your choices
- Edit or delete your data. Update your profile, notification settings, and content any time. You can delete your account yourself from Account settings.
- Notifications. Choose which emails and pushes you receive in Account settings, unsubscribe from the link in an email, reply STOP to an SMS, or turn push off in your browser or device settings. We will still send essential account and security messages.
- Location. Revoke location access in your browser or device settings; nearby search will simply fall back to the city on your profile.
- Access and portability. Ask us for a copy of your data, or for a correction, at support@pocketouting.com.
10. Regional rights
If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we process your information to perform our contract with you (running the app), on our legitimate interests (safety, abuse prevention, improving the service), with your consent where asked (push, precise location, marketing), and to comply with the law. You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to, and port your data, and to complain to your local supervisory authority.
If you are in California or another US state with a privacy law, you may request the categories and specific pieces of personal information we hold, request deletion or correction, and are entitled not to be discriminated against for exercising those rights. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. Contact us at the address above to make a request; we will verify it against your account before acting.
11. Children
PocketOuting is not for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, write to us and we will delete the account.
12. Security
Data is encrypted in transit, access to private events and profiles is enforced at the database level by row-level security policies, and administrative access is limited and logged. No system is perfectly secure, so use a mailbox you control for sign-in and take care with what you publish to a public event.
13. International transfers
We operate from the United States and our providers may process data there and in other countries. Where information moves out of the EEA or UK, our providers rely on approved transfer mechanisms such as the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.
14. Changes to this policy
We will update this page when our practices change and move the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we will give you notice in the app or by email before it takes effect.
15. Contact us
Email support@pocketouting.com with any privacy question or request, including a request to access or delete your data.