Privacy Policy
Last updated 5 October 2026 · PinDey is operated by Donald Amadi, Lagos, Nigeria ("PinDey", "we") · Contact: privacy@pindey.app
The short version
- PinDey helps you find your people at a party, festival or any crowd.
- Nobody can find you until you choose to share, and you can pause or go ghost any time.
- Your location goes only to the people you chose, and our servers delete it within 2 minutes of your last update. We keep no location history.
- Bluetooth distances between phones never leave your phone.
- No ads, no ad trackers, and we never sell your data.
- You can delete your account any time in the app (Profile › Delete account) or at pindey.app/delete-account.
1. What we collect
Your account
| Data | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Phone number | To sign you in with a one-time SMS code. Never shown to other users. | Until you delete your account |
| Display name | So your people know who you are in a Space | Until you delete your account |
| Internal user ID | To link your account to your Spaces | Until you delete your account |
| Sign-in tokens (stored only as a one-way hash) | To keep you signed in | Up to 30 days, or until you sign out |
| The date you last used PinDey | To count active users and spot abandoned accounts | Until you delete your account |
| If your account is suspended: when and why | To keep a suspended account out | Until the account is deleted |
Your avatar ("Pin Buddy") is generated from your user ID. We don't collect photos, contacts or payment details, and we only have an email address if you give one in Report a problem.
When you use Spaces
| Data | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Spaces you start or join (name, code, times, host) and the crews inside them | To run the Space | Until you delete your account |
| Your sharing choice per crew and "ghost" | To enforce who may find you | Until you delete your account |
| Notification preferences | To send only the pushes you want | Until you delete your account |
| Device push token and a random device ID | To send notifications | Until you sign out on that device or delete your account |
Only while you share (short-lived memory storage, never our database)
| Data | Who sees it | Deleted |
|---|---|---|
| Your location (latitude, longitude, accuracy; altitude, heading and speed when available) | Only people in the crews you share with | 2 minutes after your last update, and at once when you pause, go ghost, leave, or the Space ends |
| Bluetooth key that lets your people's phones recognise yours | Only people in the crews you share with | When the Space ends, or at once when you stop sharing, go ghost or leave |
| Your hint (e.g. "Table 5, near the DJ") | The same people | 30 minutes after you set it, or when you stop sharing |
| A meet point you drop | Everyone in that crew | 2 hours, or when the Space ends |
| Find sessions ("Tolu is finding you") | The two people in the search | When the search ends (found, closed, 5 minutes without a signal, or 30 minutes at most) |
| Precision mode ranging token (phones with ultra-wideband) | Only the other person in the search | Never stored: passed between the two phones and discarded |
Your phone advertises a Bluetooth ID that changes regularly and can only be recognised by people you share with.
Location in the background
While you share in a live Space, or during a search you start, PinDey can keep using your location with the app in the background. Your phone always shows it (the location indicator on iPhone, a notification with a Stop button on Android), and it stops when you stop sharing, the search ends or the Space ends. We only ask for "while using the app" permission, never "always".
Reports and support
| Data | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Report someone: who you reported, the reason, your note and your user ID. They are never told who reported them. | To keep Spaces safe (we review every report) | Until the reported account is deleted. If you delete your account, your user ID is removed from the report. |
| Report a problem: your message, the email address if you give one, and the app's recent errors (Sentry). Not linked to your account. | To fix the problem and reply to you | Up to 90 days; email us to delete it sooner |
Diagnostics and analytics
- Crash reports (Sentry): the error, device model, OS and app version. Never your location.
- Product analytics (PostHog, EU hosting): which steps you use (for example "started a Space", "found someone"), linked to your user ID. Never your location, distances, hints, Bluetooth IDs or phone number. Switch it off in Profile › Privacy.
What we never do
- No location history and no "where were you last night" replay.
- No selling or renting of personal data. No advertising SDKs or cross-app tracking.
- Bluetooth distances stay on your phone; we never learn who was near whom.
2. Why we're allowed to
Running your account, Spaces and notifications is needed to provide the service you asked for. Sharing your location, hint and Bluetooth key is based on your consent, given per crew, which you can withdraw any time by pausing, going ghost or leaving. Crash reports, security and abuse prevention rely on our legitimate interest in a safe, working service. Product analytics can be switched off in the app. (Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023; GDPR where it applies.)
3. Who processes your data for us
| Provider | What |
|---|---|
| Supabase (database, London, UK) | Account, Spaces, sharing choices, device tokens |
| Render (cloud servers) | Everything passing through our API and real-time server |
| Redis Cloud (memory store) | The short-lived "while you share" data above |
| Google Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push | Push tokens and notification text |
| Termii (Nigeria) | Your phone number and sign-in code, to send the SMS |
| Sentry (United States) | Crash reports |
| PostHog (EU) | Product analytics events |
| OpenFreeMap and FOSSGIS OSRM | Map images and walking routes for the far-away map (rounded points; no identity) |
Other users see only what you share with them: your display name, Pin Buddy, and while sharing your location estimate, hint and meet points.
4. Your rights and choices
- In the app: pause sharing, go ghost, leave a crew or Space, change your name, turn notifications and analytics off, sign out.
- Delete your account: Profile › Delete account, or on the web. We end any Space you host, stop all sharing, then delete your phone number, name, devices, memberships and preferences straight away. Nothing is kept.
- Access, correction, portability, objection: email privacy@pindey.app; we reply within 30 days.
- Complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (ndpc.gov.ng) or your local data protection authority.
5. Age
PinDey is for people aged 18 and over. If you believe someone younger has an account, email us and we'll delete it.
6. Security
Encrypted connections for everything, sign-in tokens stored hashed, locations never written to disk on our side, Bluetooth keys rotated whenever someone loses access, and every "stop sharing" takes effect before the app confirms it.
7. Changes
We'll post changes here and tell you in the app before a material change takes effect.