1Information You Provide
Account and profile data: name, username, email, phone number (optional), password, date of birth, photos, bio, interests, and optional profile attributes you choose to add (such as languages, occupation, education, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and relationship preferences). Content: posts, comments, messages, activities, spaces, trips, places and notes, reviews, and media. Reports you submit, support requests, and feedback.
2Information Collected Automatically
Device and usage data, including device identifiers, operating system and app version, IP address, log and diagnostic data, crash reports, and how you use features. Crash and error reports identify you only by an internal account number — never your name, username, email, or phone number. Our in-app ad provider, Google AdMob, may collect device identifiers — including the Android advertising ID — to deliver ads, limit how often you see them, and prevent ad fraud (see "Advertising and Affiliate Links"). We do not ask to track you across other companies’ apps and websites on iOS, and we do not use your data for cross-app tracking.
3Location Information
With your permission, we collect your device location while you are using the app (never in the background) to show nearby activities, spaces, trips, places, and people. Other users see only roughly how far away you are, to the nearest mile — never your exact location — and you can turn off location visibility in Settings. We store only a general area (a cell of a few kilometers) for nearby-people discovery. Your precise location is shared only when you choose to, for example when you send a location in a chat. If you host an activity, its location is shown as you set it, and you can choose to share the exact spot only with people who join. You can revoke location permission in your device settings at any time.
4Contacts
If you choose to find friends from your contacts, we send the phone numbers and email addresses in your address book to our servers to check which of your contacts already use Bustlely. We do not keep the contact details of people who do not use Bustlely, except as one-way cryptographic hashes used to connect a pending invitation or block once that person joins. We never message your contacts unless you choose to invite them, and invitations you send by text message are sent from your own device. We do not sell contact information.
5Camera, Photos, and Microphone
With your permission, we access your camera and photo library so you can add photos and media. Microphone access is requested only for features that need audio. Photos and videos can contain hidden information, such as where they were taken. The app rewrites photos on your device before uploading them, which removes that information, and our servers remove location information from any photo or video that still contains it, usually within seconds of upload. Videos larger than 250 MB, and documents and other files you attach, are shared exactly as you uploaded them.
6Photo Verification and Biometric Information
Photo verification is optional and requires your separate, written consent. If you choose it, we and our processor Amazon Web Services (Amazon Rekognition) compare a selfie you take with your profile photo to confirm they show the same person. This creates face geometry measurements, which some laws treat as biometric identifiers. We use them only for that comparison. The selfie is used for a single comparison and deleted immediately afterward. If processing fails, an automatic backstop deletes it within 48 hours. We keep only the result (verified or not) and the date. We never sell, lease, trade, or otherwise profit from biometric data. We do not use biometric data to identify you among other people, disclose it except to the processor named here or as required by law, or keep it after the comparison. You may withdraw consent at any time in Settings → Privacy, which removes your "Photo verified" badge. This section is our publicly available retention schedule and destruction guidelines for biometric information.
7How We Use Information
We use information to: provide and operate the Platform; create and secure your account; enable discovery, messaging, activities, spaces, and trips; recommend content and people; send notifications you have enabled; provide support; measure and improve the Platform; detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, and safety issues, including by reviewing reported content and automatically screening some text and images; enforce our Terms and Community Guidelines; and comply with legal obligations. We use information for the following purposes only if you turn them on: training machine-learning models on content you post (never your private messages), and personalizing ads and partner offers. Both are off unless you choose otherwise in Settings → Privacy.
8Sensitive Information
Some information may be considered sensitive under privacy laws — including precise location, sexuality, ethnicity, the content of your messages, biometric information, and information that may be inferred from the spaces you join (for example, faith, health, or LGBTQ+ communities). We use sensitive information only to provide the features you use, to keep the Platform safe, and as you otherwise expressly consent. We do not use it for personalized advertising and do not sell it. Optional profile fields are optional — leave them blank if you prefer.
9What Other Users Can See
Your profile (name, photos, age — not your date of birth — bio, and profile details you add) is visible to other users according to your privacy settings. Content you post is visible to the audience you choose (for example, public, connections, or members of a space, activity, or trip). Messages are visible to the people in the conversation. Reviews you leave are shown on the host’s profile and are anonymous unless you choose to show your name.
11Service Providers We Use
We currently use: Amazon Web Services (hosting, databases, file storage and delivery through Amazon CloudFront, sign-in, email delivery, search, analytics storage, and image moderation and face comparison through Amazon Rekognition); Cloudflare (storing and delivering copies of photos and videos); Expo (delivering push notifications — the text of a notification, which can include a preview of a message sent to you, passes through Expo, which hands it to Google Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android or Apple Push Notification service on iOS); Google (Google Sign-In if you use it, Google Maps Platform for maps and place search, and Google AdMob for in-app banner ads); Apple (push notifications and, on iOS, maps); Sentry (crash and error reporting, identified only by an internal account number); Kevel (serving sponsored listings — our servers send Kevel only the listing context, such as the activity category, and the approximate location of the area you are browsing, rounded to about 10 km, or about 1 km if you turn on personalized ads; we never send Kevel your name, account ID, or other account identifiers); and activity, ticketing, and retail partners — currently Viator, GetYourGuide, Ticketmaster, and Amazon — whose listings our servers look up using only search details such as keywords, dates, and the place being searched, never your name or contact details. When you open a partner’s link, that partner handles your information under its own policy. Features that are not yet available (such as calls, payments, and subscriptions) will use additional providers, which we will list here before those features launch.
12Advertising and Affiliate Links
We show some sponsored listings, affiliate links, and banner ads served by Google AdMob, which are labeled. Unless you turn on personalized ads in Settings → Privacy, we request only non-personalized ads, which are chosen from the context of what you are viewing (such as a city or activity category) rather than a profile of you; AdMob may still use device identifiers for frequency capping, measurement, and fraud prevention as described in Google’s policies. On iOS, all Google AdMob ads are non-personalized regardless of this setting, because we do not ask to track you across other companies’ apps and websites. Where the law requires it (for example, in the European Economic Area, the UK, and some US states), Google’s consent message asks for your ad choices before any ads are shown, and you can revisit them in Settings → Privacy → Ad privacy choices. When you click an affiliate link, the partner may learn that you came from Bustlely so we can be credited for the referral.
13Data Retention
We keep personal information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the Platform. The text of disappearing messages is erased when they expire, unless the law requires us to preserve it (for example, after a report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children). Our analytics records are linked only to an internal account number. They do not contain message text, your name, username, email, phone number, bio, photos, date of birth (only an age range), precise location, or sensitive profile details such as gender, sexuality, or ethnicity. They are kept for up to 2 years (records of purchases and partner referrals, for up to 7 years for accounting and tax), and they are not deleted when you delete your account; once your account is deleted they are no longer connected to your profile. Selfies for photo verification are deleted right after the comparison (within 48 hours at most). Records of your consents and agreement to our Terms, and records we must keep for legal, tax, fraud-prevention, or safety reasons, are kept as long as needed for those purposes. If we suspend an account for violating our Terms or Community Guidelines, we keep a one-way hash (a scrambled fingerprint that cannot be turned back into the original) of its email address and of the device and app-install identifiers it used (including device identifiers that stay the same when the app is reinstalled), so the same person cannot simply sign up again; a new account that signs in from the same device may be suspended automatically. We keep these hashes until the suspension is lifted. De-identified and aggregated data may be kept longer.
14Security
We use technical and organizational measures designed to protect information, including encryption in transit, access controls, and monitoring. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for safeguarding your credentials.
15Your Choices and Rights
You can update your profile, control device permissions, choose who can see your profile and location, manage notifications, and turn optional uses (AI training, personalized ads, biometric processing) on or off in Settings. You can download a copy of your data in the app: your profile, posts, comments, messages you sent, connections, activities, spaces, and trips you created or joined, reviews you wrote, reports you filed, people you blocked, a list of your uploaded media, your notifications, payments, and your consent records. Very large accounts may receive a partial copy (the file says so); contact us for the rest. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or port your personal information; to opt out of targeted advertising, "sale," "sharing," or profiling; to limit the use of sensitive personal information; and to appeal our decision on a request. To exercise these rights, use the in-app tools or contact privacy@bustlely.com; to appeal a decision, reply to our response with "Appeal" in the subject line. We will verify requests before acting on them, and an authorized agent may submit a request on your behalf with proof of authorization. Our websites do not use advertising cookies or trackers. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.
16Account and Data Deletion
You can delete your account at any time in Settings or at bustlely.com/delete-account. After a 29-day grace period (during which you can sign back in to cancel), we delete or de-identify your personal information, except records we must keep for legal, safety, fraud-prevention, or dispute purposes, records of your consents, analytics records as described in "Data Retention," and information in backups, which is deleted on our regular backup cycle. Messages you sent remain visible to the people you sent them to but are no longer attributed to your profile.
17Data Location and Transfers
The Platform is offered in the United States, and we store and process information in the United States. If you use it from elsewhere, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States.
18Children’s Privacy
The Platform is for adults 18 and older and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we will delete it and close the account. Contact safety@bustlely.com if you believe a minor is using the Platform.
19Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy. For material changes, we will notify you in the app or by email before they take effect, and where the law requires, we will ask for your consent.
20Contact Us
Bustlely LLC, 8 The Green, Ste A, Dover, DE 19901, (302) 288-0670. Privacy: privacy@bustlely.com | Support: support@bustlely.com | Legal: legal@bustlely.com | Safety: safety@bustlely.com.
Last updated: October 2, 2026 (v2.2.0). This Privacy Policy is part of the Bustlely Terms of Service.