Privacy Policy

LAST UPDATED: JANUARY 14, 2026

Sidequest Local, Inc. respects your privacy. This policy details how we collect, use, and share your information when you use the Sidequest mobile application.

1. Information We Collect

A. Information You Provide

• Identity Data: Name, username, email address, phone number (if provided), and date of birth (for age verification).
• Profile Data: Profile photos, bio descriptions, and activity interests.
• User Content: Event titles, descriptions, and chat messages.
• University Email: If you choose to verify your university affiliation, we collect and verify your .edu email address.
• Verification Data: If you submit an identity verification request, we store the evidence you provide.

B. Information Collected Automatically

• Precise Location Data (if provided): We collect GPS data to show local activities. This is required for the "Feed" functionality.
• Behavioral Data: We track interactions including event interactions (save, join), dwell time on screens, events joined, and events left. This data is used to train our recommendation algorithms. For each event shown in your feed, we log how it was scored and whether you interacted with it, to improve recommendations.
• Device Data: IP address, device model, OS version, and browser or app user agent string.
• Session Data: We generate session identifiers to group your interactions within a single app session for analytics purposes.
• Marketing Attribution: We record how you discovered Sidequest (e.g., referral source, campaign identifier) to measure the effectiveness of our outreach.

2. How We Use Your Data

• Service Delivery: To facilitate real-world meetups and geolocation services.
• Machine Learning: We use your behavioral history to personalize your feed and improve event recommendations.
• Safety: To monitor for fraud, spam, and harassment.
• Analytics: To analyze aggregate usage trends.

3. Third-Party Data Processors

We share data with specific vendors to operate the App:

• GetStream.io: Powers our chat and messaging infrastructure. Chat content is processed through their servers.
• Resend: Used for transactional emails (verification codes, reports).
• TomTom Maps: Used for map rendering and geocoding addresses.
• Firebase Authentication (Google): Used for account authentication, including phone number verification and social sign-in.
• Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google): Used to deliver push notifications to your device. Your device token is stored by Google.
• Pixabay: Used for searching stock images when creating events. Search queries are sent to their API.
• Google Analytics: Used on our website to analyze traffic and usage patterns. Google may collect cookies and device identifiers. See Google's privacy policy for details.

4. Your Rights & Account Deletion

You have full control over your data:

• In-App Deletion: You may permanently delete your account and data by navigating to Settings > Delete Account within the app.
• Manual Request: You may also request data deletion or an export of your data by emailing [email protected].

Upon deletion, your profile is removed from the active database immediately. Backup retention may persist for a limited period as required by law.

5. Children's Privacy

Sidequest is strictly for users 18+. We do not knowingly collect data from minors. If we discover such data, it will be deleted immediately.