Effective date: 9 September 2026
At The Bar (“the app”) lets you share with friends you have accepted that you are out at a bar, pub or restaurant. This policy explains what the app collects, what it never collects, and what you can do about it.
Contact: cam.schriefer@gmail.com
The app asks for location permission, including background location, so that it can notice when you arrive somewhere. Here is exactly what happens:
Your latitude and longitude never leave your phone. Our database has no column that could hold them: every location field on your account is a reference to a venue in the public catalog, plus the time you arrived there. Closing the app, tapping “Go offline”, or revoking location permission stops the process entirely, and nothing is ever recorded for a venue you did not confirm.
Adding a missing venue is the one exception, and it is deliberate: when you tap “Add this place”, the point your phone is standing on becomes that venue’s place on the map, so anyone can check in there afterwards. It is stored as a venue in the public catalog, under the venue’s name and not yours, and the app asks your phone’s own maps software for the street, city and state at that point so the venue reads like the rest of the catalog. That lookup goes to Apple or Google, whoever made your phone, not to us.
The app has no access to your contacts at all. Invites are addressed by hand: you type a friend’s email, or you send them a link. We cannot tell you which of your contacts already use the app, because we never see them.
| Data | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | Sign-in, and matching invites to accounts | You; anyone who already knows your address can use it to invite you |
| Display name and profile photo | So friends recognise you | You and your accepted friends |
| Current venue and arrival time | The core feature, only while you are checked in | You and your accepted friends |
| Venues you checked into before, and when | The “frequently visited” list on your profile | You and your accepted friends |
| Friends and pending invites | Deciding who may see your status | You and the person on the other side |
| Drink photos, venue name, rating, notes | Your gallery, and the feed your friends see | You and your accepted friends, plus the accepted friends of anyone who shares the photo |
| Comments and emoji reactions you leave | Showing them under the photo, arrival or departure | You and everyone who can see that feed item |
| People you blocked, posts you reported | Moderation | You, and whoever moderates reports |
| Push notification token | Sending you the “are you here?” prompt and letting friends know you are out | Us only |
| What the app asked you and what you answered | Working out whether the app asks too often, waits long enough before asking, and whether anyone uses the buttons on a notification | Us only |
Photos are held in private storage and served through short-lived signed links; they are not publicly addressable on the internet.
The app records what it did and what you tapped: that it asked whether you were at a named venue, how long that venue had been nearby when it asked, roughly how far away you were, what you answered and how long you took, whether you opened a notification, and when a check-in you asked for found nothing. These are the only numbers we have for deciding how long the app should wait before asking and how close you have to be, and they are read in aggregate.
This is still not a record of where you have been. The distance is to a venue the app had just asked you about, rounded to the nearest 10 metres, and no coordinate is stored with it, so these rows cannot be assembled into a route or a history of anywhere you did not confirm. They are never shown to another user, are visible only to us, and are deleted after 180 days.
These providers act on our behalf and are not permitted to use your data for their own purposes.
If you are in the EEA or UK, our lawful basis for processing this data is the performance of our agreement with you (running the app you signed up for) and, in the case of location, your explicit consent, which you may withdraw at any time. If you are in California, we do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA.
At The Bar is about places that serve alcohol and is not intended for anyone under 17. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has created an account, email us and we will delete it.
Your status is transient — it exists only while you are checked in. Your profile, friendships and photos are kept until you delete them or ask us to delete your account. Unaccepted invites expire after 30 days. The records of what the app asked you and what you answered are deleted after 180 days.
If this policy changes materially, we will update the effective date above and, where the change affects how your location is used, tell you in the app before it takes effect.