Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and share information when you use the Buzzly mobile application and the buzzlyapp.com website (together, the "App"). The App is operated by Dodo Media B.V., Amsterdam, the Netherlands (KVK 72282983) ("we", "us", "our").
By downloading, installing, or using the App, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the App.
1. Information We Collect
- Personal information. Your name, email address, and profile picture, as provided through the sign-up service you choose (Google or Apple), together with anything you add to your profile yourself.
- Gender. Optional. If you choose to add it (male, female or non-binary), we store it until you remove it. Section 3 explains who can see it.
- Location information. With your consent, we collect your device location. Section 2 describes in detail what we do with it. You can enable or disable location services through your device settings; the App is location-based and will not work as intended without them.
- Content you create. Posts, stories, shout-outs, meet-ups, messages, and the groups you join.
- Usage information. Your IP address, device type and identifier, operating system version, app version, language, the push notification token of each device you use, and how you interact with the App.
- If you use the App without an account. A random identifier created for your installation of the App, your IP address and the approximate location we derive from it, your language, device type and app version, and — if you allow notifications — a push notification token. Section 6 describes this.
- Activity about you. When another member opens your profile or views your story, we record it and show you a count of recent visitors. Section 5 describes this.
- Cookies and similar technologies on the website, to keep you signed in and for analytics.
2. Location
What we show other people
We never publish your exact position. Every position we show to anyone else — your place on the map, and the place attached to your posts, stories, shout-outs and meet-ups — is displaced by approximately 150 metres in a direction we derive for you and keep secret. That direction stays the same while you remain in the same area, so the displacement cannot be averaged away by observing you repeatedly, and it changes as you move between areas.
People who are not signed in — whether they use the App without an account or visit our website — see every position moved further still, by approximately 1.5 kilometres from the one members see, in a second direction we also keep secret. Seeing both versions reveals nothing more than the one shown to members.
What we use your real position for
Your exact position is used on our servers only to work out what is near you and who is near what you publish: which members and content to show you, how far away things are, and which nearby activity is worth notifying you about. It is not shown to other members.
Notifications based on where you are
We use the most recent position we hold for you to decide whether to notify you about activity nearby — a new post within about 25 km, a meet-up within about 15 km, or a paid shout-out within about 5 km. For posts we consider positions recorded in the last day; for meet-ups and shout-outs, in the last 30 days. You can turn these notifications off in the App's notification settings without affecting the rest of the App.
Your controls
You can stop appearing on the map at any time using the visibility setting in your profile. You can withdraw location access entirely in your device settings. Premium members may set a different city as their displayed location, in which case that city is shown instead of anything derived from your device.
3. What Is Publicly Visible
Buzzly is a public app. Your profile, your posts, your stories and gallery, your shout-outs and meet-ups, and your displaced position on the map can be seen by anyone — including people who do not have a Buzzly account, whether they use the App without signing in or reach the map through our website, and search engines that index those pages. Your public shares are visible to them too; your private shares are not, and they cannot request them.
Direct messages are private between the participants and are not public. If you would rather not appear on the map, use the visibility setting described in Section 2.
Your gender
Your gender, if you add one, is not part of your public profile. We use it so that people can filter the members and posts they see on the map and in search, both in the App and on our website, and so that searching for a gender word finds members who chose it. This means anyone who filters or searches by gender can tell that you match it.
It appears on your profile only if you turn on “Show on my profile” in the App, and even then only to members signed in to the App. It is never shown on our website or to search engines. You can turn this off, or remove your gender entirely, at any time in your profile settings.
4. How We Use Your Information
- To provide and maintain the App;
- To show you members, content and activity near you, and to make you discoverable to others;
- To send you notifications, including about activity near you;
- To personalise and improve the App;
- To keep the App safe — detecting spam, fraudulent or duplicate accounts, and abuse;
- To analyse usage trends;
- To comply with legal obligations.
5. Visits to Your Profile
When you open another member's profile or view their story, that is recorded and counted towards the visitor number shown to them, and the same is true when somebody views yours. The count reflects recent activity and is cleared when you check it.
Opening a profile or viewing a story without being signed in is not recorded, and does not count towards anyone's visitors.
6. Using the App Without an Account
You can look around the map, profiles, stories, posts, shout-outs and meet-ups without creating an account. Anything else — messaging, posting, sending gifts, reporting or blocking — asks you to sign up first.
While you do, we keep a record for your installation of the App: the information listed in Section 1 for people without an account. We use it to show you what is near your approximate location, to protect the App from abuse and automated collection of members' data, and, if you allow notifications, to tell you about activity nearby — a new post, a meet-up or a shout-out. You receive at most one such notification a day, and you can turn them off in your device settings at any time.
If you later create an account on the same installation, we connect that record to your account, including which notifications we sent to it, so that we can tell whether they helped people join.
7. Sharing Your Information
- With service providers who help us operate the App — hosting, map tiles, push notification delivery, analytics and attribution, and error reporting. Displaying the map sends the area you are looking at to our map tile provider;
- With other members and the public, as described in Section 3;
- In response to legal requests, or to protect our rights or the rights of others.
We do not sell your personal information.
8. How Long We Keep It
- Your account and the content you post — until you delete them or delete your account.
- Your presence on the map — an entry expires about 29 days after your last activity, and you stop appearing before then if you turn visibility off.
- The visitor count — up to 14 days, and cleared when you view it.
- Your most recent position — held on your account record and replaced each time it changes, for as long as your account exists. It is erased when you delete your account.
- Records of who visited your profile — up to one year.
- Notifications — 30 days.
- Messages — 90 days.
- Your devices' push notification tokens — until a token stops working or you delete your account. Signing out on a device detaches it from your account.
- The record of an installation used without an account — deleted 30 days after the App was last opened on it.
- Records of notifications sent to installations without an account — up to one year.
When you delete your account we anonymise it and remove your profile from the App, along with your stored position, stories, notes, ratings, lists and search history. We keep the city and country associated with the account. Some records — including posts you published — may be retained after that for safety, fraud-prevention and legal reasons. If you want everything erased, contact us through the App's support ticket system and we will action it.
9. Data Security
We adopt appropriate data collection, storage, and processing practices and security measures to protect against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction of your personal information and the data stored in the App. However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure.
10. Your Rights and Choices
You may choose not to provide certain information, but this may limit your ability to use parts of the App. You can edit or delete your profile and content in the App, turn off your visibility on the map, withdraw location access in your device settings, and delete your account, which removes your personal information from the App.
If you are in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you also have the right to access, correct, export, or erase your personal data, to object to or restrict how we process it, and to complain to your local data protection authority.
If you use the App without an account, deleting the App removes the identifier from your device; the record we hold for it is deleted 30 days later, as described in Section 8.
11. Children
The App is intended for users who are at least 17 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. See our CSAE Policy for how we handle child safety reports.
12. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy. We will post the new version on this page, and where the change is significant we will ask you to review it in the App.
13. Contact
For any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us through the App's support ticket system, or write to Dodo Media B.V., Amsterdam, the Netherlands.