Legal
Privacy Policy
ParkMates is a social network for theme-park fans. This policy explains, in plain language, what information we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and exactly what happens when you delete your account. If anything here is unclear, write to us at adam.pendell@parkmatesapp.com.
1. Information we collect
Account
- Your email address and a hashed password, or the identity returned by Google or Apple Sign-In if you use those.
- Your confirmation that you are 18 or older, and the dates you accepted our Terms and this policy.
Profile
- Username, display name, bio, profile photo and cover photo.
- The general location you type in (free text — we never derive it from GPS), your favourite park, movie, character and attraction, and your interests.
- Your privacy setting (private account on or off).
Things you create
- Posts, comments and photos; Clubs you create or join; Daily Question answers.
- Trips, trip days and plans, notes, checklists, lodging and saved hotels.
- Compass restaurant and hotel reviews, food wishlists and notification preferences.
- Direct messages with your Park Pals.
- Reports you file about content or accounts, appeals, and feedback you send us.
Usage and device data
- Analytics events such as “app opened”, “post created” or “message sent”, linked to your account, with limited properties (for example which conversation a message belonged to — never the message text).
- Rate-limit records (how often you perform certain actions) used to prevent abuse.
- Push tokens for devices on which you enable notifications, and a log of which Compass notification was sent for which park and date.
- Notifications we send you inside the app (likes, comments, waves, messages).
- Advertising telemetry: if sponsored content is shown to or tapped by you, we record that impression or click against your account so advertisers can be billed correctly. (Advertising is currently switched off.)
Location
Compass can read your device’s current location, on the device, to suggest food nearby. We do not store your coordinates. We do store the park or area you have opted into for Compass, and the push log described above, which together reveal which park you were at on a given day.
2. How we use information
- To run ParkMates: your profile, feed, Clubs, Park Pal suggestions, trips, messaging, Compass and notifications.
- To keep the community safe: automated and human content moderation, reports, blocking, strikes and appeals (see section 3).
- To understand what works and fix what doesn’t, using the analytics events above.
- To meet our legal obligations and enforce our Terms and Community Guidelines.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for third-party advertising profiles.
3. Content moderation
When you post text (posts, comments, reviews), it is screened automatically. When you upload a photo, a temporary link to that image (valid for about two minutes) is screened the same way. For this we use OpenAI’s moderation service: the text or temporary image link is sent to OpenAI, which returns category scores (for example harassment, sexual content, self-harm). We store those scores and the resulting decision with the item and with your account, and a ParkMates reviewer may look at flagged items. Violations can lead to strikes, restrictions, suspension or a ban; you can appeal through the Safety Center in the app.
Direct messages are not screened automatically. A reviewer may look at a message only when it is reported.
4. Who can see your content, and photos
Your profile and posts are visible to other ParkMates members; a private account limits Magical Moments and trip plans to your Park Pals. ParkMates is not indexed as a public website.
Photos are stored in a public storage bucket. Anyone who has the exact link to an image — for example because it was shared outside the app — can open it without logging in, and the link contains your account ID. Links stop working when you delete the content or your account. We are working on private, expiring image links; until then, please do not upload photos you would not want to be reachable by link.
5. Service providers
| Provider | What they do for us | Data involved |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase (United States) | Database, authentication, file storage, server functions and realtime messaging | Everything in section 1 |
| OpenAI | Automated content moderation | Post, comment and review text; temporary image links |
| Google, Apple | Optional sign-in | Your sign-in identity for that provider |
| Cloudflare | Hosts this website | Standard web server logs |
| Stripe | Payments for ParkMates for Business advertisers only (not members) | Advertiser billing details |
| RevenueCat, Apple, Google | ParkMates+ subscriptions, when they launch (not yet available) | Subscription status, store transaction identifiers |
6. How long we keep information
We keep your information for as long as your account exists. We do not currently run automatic purges of analytics events, moderation results, rate-limit records, push logs or advertising telemetry, so they persist for the life of your account. Our hosting provider keeps short-lived security and backup copies (authentication logs and database backups) that expire on their schedule.
7. Deleting your account
You can delete your account at any time from Settings & Privacy → Delete Account in the app. Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone. There is no grace period and we cannot restore a deleted account.
What is deleted
- Your login: email address, Google/Apple sign-in links, password, sessions and push tokens.
- Your profile details: bio, photos, location, favourites, interests. Your username and display name are replaced with “Deleted member”.
- Your posts, comments, likes, saved posts and collections, Daily Question answers and feedback.
- The messages you sent. Messages other people sent you stay with them, attributed to a deleted member.
- Your trips and everything in them, your Park Pal connections, follows, blocks and Club memberships. Clubs you created pass to “no owner” if they still have members, otherwise they are deleted.
- Your creator profile, episodes and collections; your Plus preferences, match alerts and entitlement.
- Your Compass reviews, wishlists, location context, notification preferences and notification history.
- Analytics and rate-limit events, in-app notifications, and every photo and file in your storage folders.
What we keep, de-identified
- Content-moderation results (category scores and decisions), strike history, moderation actions and reviewer notes, and appeals — so that someone who was removed for abuse cannot erase that history. These are linked only to a random account ID that no longer identifies you.
- Reports you filed about other people (the reporter is shown as a deleted member) and copyright/DMCA records.
- Billing evidence: advertising impressions and clicks with your account ID removed, and any advertiser or subscription financial records required for tax and accounting.
- The dates you accepted our Terms and this policy, as evidence of consent.
If deletion cannot be completed — for example because of a network problem — the app tells you so and nothing is reported as deleted. Try again, or email us and we will complete it for you. The app never reports a deletion as successful unless every step has finished and been verified.
8. Your choices
- Edit your profile, switch your account to private, block members, and control Compass notifications from inside the app.
- Delete your account as described above.
- Ask us what information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or object to how we use it, by emailing adam.pendell@parkmatesapp.com. Depending on where you live you may have additional legal rights, and we will honour them.
9. Adults only
ParkMates is an 18+ community. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18; if you believe a minor has an account, email us and we will remove it.
10. Security
Data is encrypted in transit; database access is restricted by row-level security so members can only read what they are allowed to; moderation and administration tools are limited to authorised staff. No system is perfectly secure — please use a strong, unique password.
11. Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will tell you in the app before the change takes effect and update the date at the top.
12. Contact
PARKMATES LLC, Madras, Oregon, USA · adam.pendell@parkmatesapp.com