Privacy Policy

Information we collect

Account information

If you create an account, we collect your email address, username, account status, and sign-in session information.

Beta-testing signups

If you join the Android beta list, we collect your email address, selected platform, confirmation status, and signup timestamps. We use this information to verify your address, send testing invitations, and send occasional Hotline product updates.

Website analytics

On hotline-events.com, we count page views and taps on our App Store links. We group these counts by day, page, traffic source, and campaign tags in the link you used to arrive. When no campaign tag is present, we may use the referring website's domain. We do not use analytics cookies or store your name, email, IP address, full referring URL, or a persistent visitor identifier in these analytics counts. These numbers help us understand which outreach brings people to Hotline and whether they choose to visit the App Store. A tap does not tell us whether you installed the app.

Location

If you allow location access, Hotline uses your device location to show and rank nearby events. We may store a home locality and coordinates with your preferences. Hotline does not request background location access or continuously track you. You can deny location access and browse events across RI instead.

Preferences and app activity

We collect interests and categories you select, events you view, save, share, hide, or open at the source, cards shown in your feed, and notification choices. We use this activity to operate Your Events, improve recommendations, and prevent the same events from appearing too often.

Notifications and calendar

If you enable notifications, we store a push token, installation identifier, device platform, and your notification settings. If you choose Add to Calendar, Hotline writes that event to your device calendar. Hotline does not read the other events on your calendar.

Feedback, diagnostics, and security

Feedback you send may include your message, app version, build number, platform, and operating-system version. Hotline also uses Sentry, configured to collect limited, sanitized error diagnostics such as app version, operating-system version, error type, and code location. These Hotline error reports exclude your email, username, precise location, request contents, access tokens, screenshots, and typed text. We also process IP addresses and short-lived verification records to deliver email sign-in codes and protect the service from abuse.

Public event and organization information

We collect publicly available event and organization information from organizers, public websites and social posts, and service providers. This may include event details, organization names, public contact information, public social profiles, and source links. We use it to create and maintain event listings, attribute information to its source, and help organizers correct or remove information.

How we use information

• Provide sign-in, event discovery, saved events, sharing, calendar export, and notifications.
• Personalize and improve the event feed using your interests, location, and activity.
• Respond to feedback, diagnose failures, secure accounts, and prevent abuse.
• Display and measure advertising, limit repeated ads, and detect advertising fraud.
• Meet legal obligations and enforce our policies.

Hotline does not sell your personal information. We do not provide your email address, username, saved events, selected interests, or precise device location to Google as part of our ad requests. Advertising involves the limited data collection and sharing described below.

Advertising with Google AdMob

Ad-supported versions of Hotline use Google AdMob to display labeled banner advertisements in the Home feed. We request non-personalized ads. These ads may use context such as the app you are using and your approximate location, rather than your interests or activity across other apps and websites. Non-personalized ads still involve data processing.

Google's Mobile Ads SDK may automatically collect and share with Google IP addresses (which can indicate approximate location), device or app identifiers, information about ads shown and interactions with them, and diagnostic and performance data. Google and its advertising partners may use this information to deliver and measure ads, limit how often an ad appears, improve their services, and prevent fraud. Advertising services may use device storage, mobile identifiers, cookies, or similar technologies for these purposes, subject to applicable consent requirements and device settings.

We use Google's consent tools to present privacy messages where required and determine whether ads may be requested. Our current iPhone implementation does not request permission through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt and does not access the iPhone advertising identifier (IDFA). This does not prevent the other data processing described above. You can continue discovering events when ads are unavailable or your choices prevent an ad request.

Learn more in Google's Privacy Policy, how Google uses information from apps that use its services, and Google's explanation of non-personalized ads. Google's advertising data practices are separate from the limited Hotline error reports described above.

Service providers

We use service providers to run Hotline, including cloud hosting and database providers, Resend for sign-in email delivery, Expo and Apple Push Notification service for notifications, and Sentry for privacy-restricted error reporting. They process information on our behalf to provide those services. We also use Google AdMob as described above; Google processes advertising data under its own privacy policy. We may also disclose information when required by law or to protect the safety, rights, and security of Hotline and its users.

Retention and deletion

We keep account information and personalized activity while your account is active. Verification records, rate-limit records, and temporary feed sessions expire sooner. We retain feedback and diagnostic records only as long as reasonably needed to support and secure the service.

We retain Android beta-list information until the testing program ends or you ask us to remove it. You can leave the list or request removal by emailing support@hotline-events.com.

You can permanently delete your account in Hotline under Account → Delete account. Deletion removes your account and associated saved events, interests, notification settings, push devices, recommendation history, sessions, and account-linked feedback. We may retain limited records when required by law or reasonably necessary for fraud prevention and security.

How we protect information

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect the information we process. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Advertising data retention

Deleting your Hotline account does not automatically delete data already collected by Google or its advertising partners. Their retention and deletion practices are governed by their respective privacy policies. You can review Google's privacy controls and data-deletion options through the links above, or contact us with a privacy request.

Your choices

You can change interests and notification settings in the app. Location, notifications, and calendar access can also be changed in iOS Settings. You can use Hotline without an account, although personalized features and Your Events require one. You can request access to or deletion of other personal information, including Android beta-list information or guest feedback, by emailing support@hotline-events.com.

Ad privacy choices

When available for your region, choose Ad privacy choices on the Account screen or the guest sign-in screen to review or change your advertising consent, including withdrawing consent where applicable. You do not need a Hotline account to access this option. Device privacy settings provide additional controls, and you can review Google's ad settings. Changing these settings does not necessarily remove all ads or stop processing needed for permitted non-personalized ads, measurement, or fraud prevention.

Children

Hotline is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Hotline changes. We will post the updated policy here and revise the effective date.

Contact

Questions about privacy or a data request can be sent to support@hotline-events.com.