Legal
Privacy policy
Last updated 23 July 2026. This is a draft prepared for internal review and has not yet been checked by a lawyer.
- We never track your location in the background. There is no continuous location tracking anywhere in Gather.
- Your location is only captured once, at the moment you accept a meetup invite, so we can work out a fair place to meet.
- Friends can only see your pin while you've accepted a shared meetup, and it disappears automatically after 4 hours.
- You can delete your account and your data at any time, directly in the app.
- We don't sell your data, and we don't use it for third-party advertising.
Who we are
Gather is a service that helps friend groups find a fair place to meet. This policy explains what personal data Gather collects, why, and what rights you have over it.
Gather is provided by Freddie Heath, who is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.
You can contact us about anything to do with your data at support@letsgather.social, or by post at 22 Dockhead Wharf, London, SE1 2YT, United Kingdom.
What information we collect
Account
Your email address, display name, avatar image, and whether you've set a password.
Preferences
Your home location (as coordinates), your preferred way of getting around, whether you prefer independent venues over chains, your notification and privacy settings, and whether other users can find you by searching.
Saved locations
Any places you choose to save, such as home or work, including a label, coordinates, and postcode.
Meetups and location
Which meetups you're part of, your status in each one, the location you shared when you accepted an invite, and your calculated travel time to the venue. See "How location works" below for the detail that matters here.
Your social graph
Your friendships and group memberships within Gather.
Content you create
Venue ratings and photos you choose to upload.
Notifications
Your push notification subscription details (an endpoint and basic device information), so we can deliver notifications to the right device.
Usage data
First-party analytics events recorded within Gather itself, so we can understand which features are used and fix problems. This is not shared with third parties for advertising, and is not sold.
How location works
Gather's location model is deliberately narrow, and it's worth being specific about it because it's genuinely more limited than most people assume.
There is no continuous location tracking. Gather does not run in the background monitoring where you are. Your location is only captured once: at the moment you accept a meetup invite. That single point is used to calculate a fair midpoint for the group and to estimate everyone's travel time to candidate venues.
Once you've accepted a meetup, your pin is visible to the other people in that meetup, and only to them, for up to 4 hours after you responded. After 4 hours, your pin disappears automatically, even if the meetup is still upcoming.
Separately, you can choose to save a home location and any number of named saved locations (like "home" or "the office"). These are provided by you directly, are used to help suggest starting points and routes, and are not shown to other users unless you use them as your location when accepting a meetup.
Why we process your data
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Creating and running your account | Necessary to perform our contract with you |
| Calculating fair meetup locations and travel times | Necessary to perform our contract with you |
| Sending push notifications you've asked for | Consent (via device permission) and contract |
| Understanding and improving how Gather is used | Legitimate interests, balanced against your privacy |
| Keeping Gather secure and preventing abuse | Legitimate interests |
| Responding to support requests | Contract and legitimate interests |
Who we share your data with
Other users see a limited amount about you: your friends can see your profile (name and avatar), and anyone you share a meetup with can see your pin under the conditions described above.
We use a small number of service providers ("processors") to run Gather. Each only receives the data it needs to do its job, and none are permitted to use it for their own purposes.
| Processor | What it does |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Authentication and file storage |
| Railway | Application hosting, database, Redis, and background jobs |
| Vercel | Frontend hosting |
| Google Maps Platform | Places, directions, and geocoding |
| Mapbox | Map rendering |
| Postmark | Transactional and account-recovery email |
| Open-Meteo | Weather and seasonality data |
| Sentry | Error reporting, configured with EU data residency |
| Apple Push Notification service | Delivering push notifications on iOS |
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with third parties for their own advertising or marketing purposes.
International transfers
Some of the processors above are based outside the UK, including in the United States. Where we transfer personal data outside the UK, we rely on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) with that processor. Contact us if you'd like more detail on the safeguards in place for a specific processor.
How long we keep your data
We keep account data for as long as your account is active. We keep meetup and location history for 12 months after a meetup ends, after which it is deleted or anonymised. When you delete your account, we follow the process described in "Deleting your account" below.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you.
- Rectify data that's inaccurate or incomplete.
- Erase your data (see "Deleting your account" below for the fastest way to do this).
- Restrict how we use your data in certain circumstances.
- Port your data to another service in a structured, commonly used format.
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent (such as push notifications).
To exercise any of these rights, email support@letsgather.social. We'll respond within the timeframe required by law.
Deleting your account
You can delete your account directly in the app, without needing to contact us. It's a deliberate two-step process: you'll be asked to type "DELETE" to confirm, and then your account and associated data are removed. This cascades across your data, removes your authentication record, and anonymises historical records (such as past meetups involving other people) rather than leaving them attached to your identity. This is how Gather fulfils your right to erasure.
Cookies, local storage and analytics
This website (letsgather.social) doesn't use tracking cookies. If you request early access, your email address is sent to Formspree, a third-party form service, purely to collect it; it isn't used to track you across sites.
Within the Gather app, we don't use third-party tracking or advertising tools. We use first-party analytics, recorded directly within Gather, to understand feature usage and fix problems, as described above. If that changes, for example if we add a product analytics tool in future, we'll update this policy before we do.
Children
Gather is not intended for use by anyone under 16. If we become aware that we've collected personal data from someone younger than this without appropriate consent, we'll delete it.
How to complain
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first at support@letsgather.social so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113
ico.org.uk
Contact
Questions about this policy or your data: support@letsgather.social.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as Gather changes. If we make a material change, we'll let you know in the app before it takes effect. The date at the top of this page always reflects the latest version.