Amongst It is operated by Joshua Taban Armstrong, ABN 50 041 155 776 (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what personal information the Amongst It app collects, why, who can see it, and how you can access, correct or delete it. We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
The short version: we collect what we need to show you events near you and to put you in touch with an organiser once they accept you, through chat in the app. Your email address is used to sign you in and is never shown to other users. We only send you newsletters if you ask for them. We do not sell your information or use it for advertising.
What we collect
Information you give us
- Email address. Used to sign you in with a one-time code, and to send you emails about your account (for example a sign-in code, or a notice that your address was changed). It is never shown to other users.
- Email preferences. Whether you have asked for our weekly round-up of events near you, or occasional news about Amongst It, and when and where you said yes or no. Both are off unless you turn them on.
- Mobile number (older accounts only). Accounts created before we moved to email sign-in were created with a mobile number. We keep it only until those accounts have moved to email, then delete it.
- Name. Shown to people you interact with through events.
- Date of birth. Used only to confirm you are 18 or over. It is never shown to other users.
- Home area and travel radius. The point you choose as home (for example a suburb you type in, or your current location if you allow it) and how far you are willing to travel. We use these to decide which new events to tell you about.
- Interests. The activities you pick, used to match you to events.
- Events you organise. Title, description, time, location and capacity.
- Requests to join events, and whether they were accepted, declined, withdrawn or cancelled.
- Reports and blocks. If you report a person or event, the reason and any detail you add. If you block someone, the fact that you did.
Information collected when you use the app
- Device location, only when you ask the app to use it (for example to set your home area or place an event) and only with your permission. We take a single reading at that moment. The app does not track your location in the background.
- Device and push information. A device record for keeping you signed in, your device platform (iOS or Android), an optional model name, whether you have allowed notifications, and a push token so we can send them.
- Referrals. If you join through someone’s shared link or invite code, we record which account’s link or code it was, which event link it came from (if any), and whether you went on to request a spot or post an event. On Android, a code in the Google Play link is passed to the app when it is installed. We use this to credit the person who invited you. They never see who you are — only a count of how many people joined through them.
- Technical logs. Request records, error reports and the time you were last active, used to keep the service running, secure and free of abuse.
- Product analytics. A record of actions you take in the app — for example creating an event, requesting to join one, accepting a request or blocking someone — plus errors the app runs into, linked to your account identifier. It does not include your name, email address, phone number, date of birth or location.
- Session recordings. A replay of how screens in the app looked and how you moved through them, so we can see where the app is confusing or broken. Everything you type is hidden, as are people’s names, contact numbers, exact event addresses and messages sent with a request. Maps are not recorded.
We do not use advertising identifiers or advertising networks, and we do not access your contacts, photos or camera.
How we use it
- To create and secure your account and sign you in.
- To send you the emails you have asked for, and only those. Account emails, like sign-in codes, are part of how the account works and are not marketing.
- To match new events to people whose interests and travel radius they fall within, and send those people a notification.
- To run event requests, acceptances and reminders.
- To keep people safe: enforcing the 18+ requirement, handling reports, applying blocks, and preventing spam, fraud and abuse.
- To diagnose faults and improve the app, including understanding which features are used.
- To comply with the law.
Notification previews can appear on a lock screen, so we keep people’s names out of them.
What other people can see
| Who | What they can see |
|---|---|
| Anyone viewing an event, including via a shared link | The event details, the organiser’s name, how many people are going and how many spots are left. The location is shown approximately — the pin is moved by roughly a kilometre, and distances are rounded to the nearest kilometre. Nobody else’s identity is shown, and the number of pending requests is never shown. |
| The person whose link or invite code you joined through | Nothing about you. They see only a count of how many people joined through their links and went on to use the app. |
| An organiser, when you request to join their event | Your name and your request. |
| An organiser and a joiner, once a request is accepted | A chat with each other in the app, and the event’s exact location. Neither of you sees the other’s email address or phone number. (On versions of the app from before chat, each other’s contact number, looked up live each time.) |
Your date of birth, home location and travel radius are never shown to other users. Shared event pages ask search engines not to index them. Once someone has read a message you sent, we cannot control what they do with it, so only share what you are comfortable sharing.
Service providers and overseas disclosure
We use the following providers to run Amongst It. They process information on our behalf and only for the purpose of providing their service to us.
| Provider | What for | What it receives | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neon | Database hosting | All account and event data | Australia (Sydney) |
| Cloudflare | Servers, networking, website hosting | Requests to our API and website, including IP address | Global network, including Australia and the United States |
| Resend | Sending email: sign-in codes, account notices, and the newsletters you have asked for | Your email address and the content of each email. If you subscribe to news, also your first name and that preference | United States |
| Twilio | Sending sign-in codes by SMS, for older versions of the app only | Your mobile number and the code | United States |
| Apple (APNs) and Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) | Delivering push notifications | Your push token and notification content (no names) | United States |
| LocationIQ | Turning a typed suburb or address into map coordinates, and back | The text or coordinates being looked up | Australia and other countries where it operates |
| Protomaps (OpenStreetMap data) | Map tiles shown in the app | Your IP address and the map area being viewed | Overseas (Protomaps’ hosted service) |
| Sentry | Error monitoring | Technical details of errors, which may include a request identifier | United States |
| PostHog | Product analytics and app error reports | Actions taken in the app, session recordings with personal details hidden, error details, your account identifier, and device and browser type (no name, phone number, location or IP address) | United States |
Because some of these providers are overseas, your information may be disclosed to recipients in the United States and other countries. We take reasonable steps, including contractual terms, to make sure they handle it consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.
We may also disclose information where the law requires it, to respond to a lawful request from police or a regulator, or where we reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent a serious threat to someone’s life, health or safety. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.
How long we keep it
- Your account is kept while you use Amongst It, until you delete it.
- Sign-in codes expire after ten minutes (five for SMS codes on older versions of the app) and are stored only in hashed form.
- Under-18 sign-ups. If a date of birth under 18 is entered and not corrected within 24 hours, the account and its email address are permanently deleted.
- After you delete your account, see below.
- Reports are kept as long as reasonably necessary to deal with them and to protect users from repeat behaviour.
Deleting your account
You can delete your account at any time in the app from the You tab → Delete my account. If you cannot use the app, email [email protected] from the email address on your account (or any address, and we will verify the account is yours) and we will delete it within 30 days.
When your account is deleted, straight away:
- Your email address, mobile number (if your account has one), name, date of birth, home location, travel radius and WhatsApp setting are erased, and your email preferences are deleted.
- Your address is removed from our email provider’s list. We send one last email to confirm the deletion.
- Your interests, devices, push tokens and sign-in sessions are deleted.
- Your analytics history is no longer linked to anything that identifies you, because it only ever held your account identifier.
- Any upcoming events you were organising are cancelled, so people who were going are not left waiting.
- Your contact details stop being visible to anyone you had been matched with.
We keep an anonymous record that the account existed, and the history of past events and requests linked to it, with nothing that identifies you. We use this to understand how often events go ahead. Backups containing your details are overwritten in the normal backup cycle. Your email address is freed, so signing up again with it creates a new, unrelated account.
Your choices and rights
- Access and correction. You can see and edit your profile in the app. You can also ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or to correct it, by emailing us.
- Newsletters. The weekly round-up and our news are off unless you turn them on, when you sign up or in the app under You → Emails. Every one has an unsubscribe link, which works straight away, and you can turn them off in the app at any time.
- Notifications and location. You can turn these off at any time in your device settings. The app keeps working with a typed suburb in place of location.
- Blocking. Blocking someone stops them seeing your contact details and stops each of you being matched to the other’s events.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit. Sign-in codes are stored only as hashes, sessions are short-lived and rotated, and access to production systems is restricted. No system is perfectly secure; if a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.
Age
Amongst It is only for people aged 18 and over. We check date of birth before asking for an email address. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we delete it.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will update the date above and let you know in the app before the change takes effect.
Contact and complaints
Questions, requests or privacy complaints: [email protected]. We aim to respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.