Privacy Policy

Welcome to Actually Hangout! We built this app to help you actually connect with people you actually care about. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.

We believe in being straightforward about privacy. We're not in the business of selling your data or showing you ads – we're here to help you spend more time with your friends.

Information We Collect

Information You Provide

Account Information
When you create an account, we collect your:

• First name and last name
• Username
• Phone number
• Email address
• Date of birth (used only to verify that you meet our 18+ age requirement)

Profile Information
You can customize your profile with a profile picture and a banner image.

Device Locale
To tailor things like default time zone and language, we collect your locale, region, time zone, and country.

Hangout Profile (Optional)
If you choose to fill out your Hangout Profile, we collect self-disclosed lifestyle preferences you provide, which may include availability windows, social-energy preferences, budget, alcohol and transport preferences, dietary preferences, accessibility needs, whether you have kids (and age ranges) or a dog, and the general area of your home. This information is optional. You can skip, edit, or clear these fields at any time.

Contacts
With your permission, we access your phone's contact list (phone numbers and optional contact names) to help you find friends who are already using Actually Hangout. You can revoke this permission at any time in your device settings.

Location Data
When you use Pin Drop or create a hangout, we collect location data so we can show it on a map. You can choose to share your precise location or a general area, and you can turn on Pin Drop location masking in your settings. Location data is stored on our servers until you delete it or delete your account.

Content You Post
We store the content you create in the app, including hangouts, pindrops, moods, feelers, replies, reactions, companion tags, group posts, and content bookmarks (such as links you save from other sites). This includes photos and videos you upload and any captions or text you add.

Reports
If you report another user or content, we store the report (including the target, your optional notes, and our review notes) so our safety team can act on it.

Legal Acceptances
When you accept our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, or Community Standards, we record the version you accepted, the timestamp, and basic technical information (IP address and user agent) so we have a record of consent.

AI Feature Input
When you use our AI features – currently the AI Hangout Planner and AI Assist – we collect the text you provide. If you choose to share optional context, we may also send a coarse location or a time of day with your prompt.

Device Calendar
When you tap "Add to calendar" on a hangout, the app writes an event to your device's calendar. We do not read events from your calendar.

Information We Generate

Usage Data
We collect information about how you use Actually Hangout, such as which features you use and how often. This helps us understand what's working and what we can improve.

Push Notification Tokens and Device Info
So we can deliver push notifications to you, we store your push token along with your platform (iOS/Android) and device model.

Engagement Signals
We generate internal engagement signals (such as friend rhythm, badges, and a show-up score) from your activity to power features like reminders and stats screens.

Logs and Error Data
We keep application logs, request identifiers, and error context (including a user identifier) to operate the app, diagnose problems, and investigate abuse.

How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Provide our Services – Deliver the features you use, like creating hangouts, finding friends, and sharing your location with your friend groups.
• Improve Actually Hangout – Analyze aggregated, anonymized usage patterns to understand how people use our features and make them better.
• Keep Things Running – Monitor for errors and fix bugs to keep the app working smoothly.
• Communicate With You – Send you important updates about your account or our services.
• Keep Things Safe – Review reports, detect abuse, and enforce our Terms and Community Standards.

How We Share Your Information

With Your Friends

The whole point of Actually Hangout is connecting with friends. When you share your location via Pin Drop, create group decisions, set your mood, post a feeler, or send a reply, that information is visible to the friends, friends-of-friends, or groups you choose to share it with, based on your visibility settings.

With Service Providers

We work with trusted service providers that help us operate Actually Hangout. We describe them below by category and the type of data each category receives. We select our providers carefully and change them over time as we improve the app.

• Authentication provider – Your phone number, email, name, avatar, and session tokens, so we can sign you in and keep your account secure.
• AI model provider – For the AI Hangout Planner and AI Assist features: the text you provide, plus any optional location or time context you attach to your prompt.
• Cloud hosting and storage provider – All data stored on our behalf, hosted in the United States.
• Media analysis services – Images, videos, and audio from your uploads and saved content bookmarks, used for labeling, text detection, and transcription to power search, Explore, and safety.
• Push notification delivery provider – Your device push token and the contents of the notifications we send you.
• Product analytics provider – A user identifier and your usage events.
• Error monitoring provider – A user identifier and error context when something goes wrong in the app.
• Log aggregation provider – Application logs, which may include a user identifier and request metadata.
• Maps and geocoding providers – Place names, addresses, and coordinates that you search or that appear in AI prompts, so we can show them on a map or resolve them to a location.
• External event and place data providers – Queries by city or keyword to build the Explore feed; no personal information about you is sent.
• Webhook verification provider – Signature-verification metadata only; no additional personal data.

These providers are contractually obligated to protect your data and only use it for the purposes we specify. We may change providers from time to time; we'll notify you if a change materially affects how your data is handled.

We Do NOT

• Sell your personal information
• Share your data with advertisers
• Show you ads
• Share your data with data brokers
• Use your content to train AI models

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, such as in response to a valid legal request from law enforcement.

Your Choices and Controls

Delete Your Account
You can delete your account at any time. When you do, we delete your personal information, including your profile, location history, and contacts you've shared with us. Some data may be retained in deidentified form for safety, audit, or legal purposes.

Contact Permissions
You can revoke contact access at any time through your device settings. Note that this won't delete contacts you've already shared – to remove those, contact us or delete your account.

Location Sharing
Pin Drop location sharing is always your choice. You control when you share your location and with whom, and you can enable Pin Drop location masking in your settings.

Visibility Controls
You can control who sees what you post. In your settings you can toggle friends-of-friends sharing and friends-of-friends feed visibility, and choose per-post visibility on content you create.

Block and Report
You can block other users and report users or content. Blocking prevents the other person from seeing your content or contacting you in the app.

AI Data Handling

Our AI features (the AI Hangout Planner and AI Assist) send the text of your prompt – and any optional location or time context you attach – to our AI model provider, which generates a response. We may temporarily log prompts and responses in our internal tracing tools to debug quality and safety issues.

We do not use your prompts to train our own models, and we rely on our AI provider's API terms, which by default do not use API inputs to train their foundation models. AI features are rate-limited per user to prevent abuse.

Website Cookies and Tracking

This section applies to our marketing website at actuallyhangout.com, not to the mobile app. Our website uses a product analytics tool that stores first-party cookies and local storage to measure site usage. These are disabled by default until you click Accept on our cookie banner. See our Cookie Policy for details, including how to change your choice at any time.

Data Retention

We retain your information for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete your personal information from our primary systems, and media you uploaded is removed from cloud storage through a background job.

Some aggregated or deidentified data (which cannot identify you) may be retained for analytics, safety, audit, or legal purposes. Logs held by our service providers are retained per those providers' defaults and are not tied to your user record.

Reports submitted about users or content may be retained in deidentified form even after the related account is deleted, so we can enforce our Community Standards over time.

Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your information, including:

• Secure data transmission using encryption
• Secure storage with our cloud hosting provider
• Authentication through a secure identity provider
• Rate limiting and abuse protections on our services

However, no system is perfectly secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information.

International Data Transfers

Our servers are located in the United States. If you're using Actually Hangout from outside the US, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States.

Age Requirements

Actually Hangout is intended for users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have collected personal information from someone under 18, we will delete that information promptly.

We use your date of birth solely to verify this age requirement; we don't display your birthday to other users by default.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child under 18 has provided us with personal information, please contact us.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make significant changes, we'll notify you through the app or by other means before the changes take effect.

Contact Us

Questions about this Privacy Policy or your data? We'd love to hear from you.

Actually Hangout is committed to helping you actually connect with your friends – not monetizing your data. Thanks for trusting us with your information.