Privacy Policy

Top Townie ("Top Townie," "we," "us," or "our") operates the Top Townie mobile app, the website at toptownie.com, and the business console at business.toptownie.com. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices you have — including how to switch off ad measurement and how to delete your account.

Top Townie is a neighborhood app that connects local residents with the businesses around them. We collect what the app needs to work, and this policy sets out exactly what that is.

If you have questions about this policy, email us at privacy@toptownie.com.

The short version

If you read nothing else, read this. Everything below is the detail behind it.

• We use your location only while the app is open and on your screen. The app has no background-location capability at all — not switched off, absent. An automated check on every release makes sure it stays that way.
• We use one advertising-measurement service to find out which of our ads brought people to Top Townie. It receives your device's advertising identifier and your Top Townie account number. California law calls this "sharing," and we describe it that way. You can switch it off, including before you make an account — though the software starts at launch, so the first contact happens before you can reach the switch.
• We show no ads in Top Townie today and we sell no ad space. If that ever changes, we will tell you before it does.
• We do not sell the personal information of Top Townie users for money, to anyone. Business listing data is a separate thing, and we explain it below.
• We do not use your personal information to train generative AI models. When you photograph an event flyer so the app can read it, that photo is sent to an AI provider to extract the text — we name that provider below.
• We never read the events already in your calendar. We read the list of your calendars so you can pick one, and we can add, change and remove only the events you ask us to create.
• You can delete your account from inside the app. A few things about businesses stay, and we say exactly which.

How we measure our own advertising

We advertise Top Townie on Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google, TikTok and Spotify. To find out whether those ads are worth the money — we are a small independent team, and this is real money — we use a measurement service called AppsFlyer.

"Measurement service" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, so here is exactly what it means.

What we send it. Your device's advertising identifier (Apple calls it the IDFA; Android calls it the Advertising ID), the internal ID number your Top Townie account has in our systems, and one event: that a sign-up happened. Those are the only three things we send.

What its software collects on its own. AppsFlyer is an SDK that runs inside our app, not simply an address we post to. Like other measurement SDKs it also collects device and network characteristics itself — things like device model, operating system, language, time zone and IP address — and on iOS its privacy manifest declares that it is used for tracking. We do not control that collection beyond choosing to include the SDK and offering you the switch below.

Our ad links are served by AppsFlyer. When you tap one of our ads, the link you follow (get.toptownie.com) is served on AppsFlyer's infrastructure rather than ours, and the advertising platform's click identifier travels with it. That means AppsFlyer sees your IP address, your browser details and that click identifier even if you never install the app.

What it does with it. It tells us "someone who saw the Instagram ad installed the app and signed up," so we can stop paying for ads that do not work. It also reports that result back to the advertising platform that showed you the ad.

What it does not do. We show no ads inside Top Townie and we sell no ad space. Nothing here is used to target advertising at you inside our app, to build an interest profile about you, or to follow you around the internet.

The honest part. This is an advertising-industry SDK, and it is built to link an identifier on your device to activity elsewhere. Once Meta, Google, TikTok or Spotify receives our measurement report, those companies may use it for their own advertising purposes, including deciding which ads to show other people. Under California law that counts as "sharing" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we describe it that way rather than calling it analytics. If "this app doesn't do ad tech" is part of why you downloaded Top Townie, that is a fair thing to be annoyed about, and the switch below takes one tap.

Two things about timing you should know. The measurement software starts when the app launches — before you create an account, and before you have had a chance to turn it off. We are not going to pretend otherwise: if you install the app and immediately opt out, a first contact has already happened. And on Android there is no equivalent of Apple's tracking prompt, so on Android this switch is the only control there is. That is why we put it on the sign-in screen, where you can reach it without making an account.

Apple's tracking prompt is not a substitute for the switch. If you deny tracking when iOS asks, your device stops handing out the advertising identifier — but our own account number still reaches AppsFlyer, and the sign-up event still reports onward. Only the switch below stops that.

The account number is worth calling out separately. Unlike your device's advertising identifier, it does not change if you reset your advertising ID in your phone's settings, and it is the same number on every device you sign in on. It is not your name or your email, but it identifies you to us specifically.

Apple's privacy-preserving measurement. On iOS we also use SKAdNetwork, a system built into the operating system. It lets Apple tell an advertising platform that an install happened without telling it anything about you — no device identifier, no account number — and Apple delays and limits those reports so they cannot be traced to one person. This runs alongside the measurement described above; it does not replace it.

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

In the app: open Me → Settings → Privacy, or tap the link on the sign-in screen before you make an account.

Turning it on stops us sending anything to our advertising-measurement provider, and stops that provider reporting onward to Meta, Google, TikTok or Spotify. Crash reports and the product analytics we use to fix bugs keep working — those are not shared with anyone for advertising.

When it takes effect. It applies right away, in the session you are already in — you do not have to restart the app. A small amount of information the measurement software had already queued on your device before you tapped may still be sent.

It applies to the device you set it on. If you use Top Townie on more than one device, set it on each one. We are working on making it account-wide; until then, if you would like it applied to every device on your account, email privacy@toptownie.com and we will do it for you.

How fast. The switch itself takes effect immediately, as described above. Anything further we do on your behalf with our measurement provider — such as asking them to stop processing data they already hold about you — happens within 15 business days.

We do not sell the personal information of Top Townie users for money, and we never have. We have shared personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, as described above, since the first public release of the app. We have never sold or shared the personal information of anyone we know to be under 16.

Your location

California law treats precise geolocation as sensitive personal information. Top Townie collects it, and it is the only category of sensitive personal information we collect.

We use it to show you businesses near you, to calculate how far away they are, to confirm you are actually at a business when you check in, and — while you have a check-in open and the app on screen — to notice when you have left so we can close the visit out. We do not use it to infer anything about you — not your habits, your health, your beliefs, or your identity — and we do not sell or share it.

We use and disclose precise geolocation only for the purposes permitted by California Civil Code §1798.121 and 11 CCR §7027(m) — performing the service you asked for. Because of that, the right to limit the use of sensitive personal information does not apply to it, and we are not required to offer a "Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information" link. If that ever changes, we will tell you first and give you the control.

Only while the app is open. We collect location only while the app is open and on your screen. The app has no background-location capability at all — it is not a setting we leave switched off, it is a permission the app does not contain and a code path that does not exist. This is checked automatically on every release, so it cannot be reintroduced by accident. If you leave a business while the app is closed, we close out the visit from a single reading the next time you open the app, or automatically after a time limit.

While a check-in is open. So the app can tell when you have left, it watches your position continuously for as long as the visit is open and the app is on your screen, noting a change roughly every 50 metres. It stops the moment you close the app or the visit ends.

What a check-in records. The business, the time, and the coordinate your device reported at that moment — and, when the visit closes, the time you left plus the coordinate and accuracy your device reported then. That record is part of your account data and is deleted when you delete your account.

If you say no. You can decline location permission, or revoke it later in your device settings. Without it you can still browse by choosing a city or ZIP code by hand; you will not be able to check in.

What this policy covers

This policy applies to:

• The Top Townie mobile app on iOS and Android.
• The website at toptownie.com and any pages served from that domain.
• Any support or account-related email exchanges with us at addresses ending in @toptownie.com.
• The business console at business.toptownie.com, used by business owners and managers.

It does not cover third-party services you may reach from Top Townie (for example, a business's own website or social media), or the privacy practices of businesses listed on Top Townie.

What we collect

What you give us

• Account details. Your email address and name when you sign up, and your profile photo if you add one. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive what that service sends us.
• Your @handle and profile. The handle you choose, your display name, and your neighborhood. Your handle is how other people find you.
• Photos you upload. Your avatar, plus any photos you attach to a business profile or a business post. You choose each photo individually; we do not read your camera roll.
• Photos of event flyers. If you photograph a flyer so the app can fill in an event for you, we send that image to an AI provider to read the text out of it. See Who else touches your data.
• Phone numbers (verification and disputes). If you claim ownership of a business, we collect the phone number you use to verify that claim. If another user disputes a claim, we collect their phone number as well. Today phone numbers are used only for verification and fraud prevention.
• What you save and who you follow. Your Townie Top 3 lists, the businesses you follow, and the events you save.
• Reports you make. If you report a business or another person, we record who reported what, the reason you gave, and when.
• Support email. What you write to us, and anything you attach.

What we record as you use Top Townie

• Check-ins. The business, the time, and the coordinates at arrival and departure. See Your location.
• Friends and invitations. Friend requests you send and accept, and invite links you create or use. Your friends list is visible according to the profile-visibility setting you choose.
• Usage and device data. Device type, operating system version, app version, a device identifier, the screens and pages you visit, your search terms exactly as you typed them, your interactions — taps, scrolls, and what you save or follow — and which location permissions you have granted.
• Crash and error reports. When the app or one of our web consoles hits an unhandled error, we collect a stack trace, the page or screen involved, and app, browser, device and OS version.
• Your calendar list. When you save an event, we read the names of the calendars you can write to and the account each one belongs to, so you can choose where it goes. We then create, update and delete only the events we put there. We never read the events already in your calendar, and we never send calendar data anywhere.
• Your IP address. Recorded by our hosting provider in request logs, and kept in our own database to enforce rate limits and prevent abuse.

What we do not collect

• Your contacts.
• Your microphone.
• Your camera roll, beyond the single photo you choose when you tap to upload one.
• The events already in your calendar.
• Your reminders. The app requests reminders access as part of the calendar permission your phone offers, but we neither read nor write reminders.

How we use it

• To run the product — sign you in, show you what is nearby, record your check-ins, keep your lists, and connect you with friends.
• To keep it working — diagnose crashes, fix bugs, and understand in aggregate which features people use.
• To keep it safe — verify business claims, resolve disputes, enforce rate limits, and prevent fraud and abuse.
• To measure our own advertising — see How we measure our own advertising.
• To contact you — service messages, and push notifications you have enabled.

We do not use your personal information to train generative AI models, and the AI provider that reads your event-flyer photos processes them only to return the text to us.

Who else touches your data

Top Townie runs on services other companies operate. Here is who they are and what each one receives, as of the date at the top of this page.

Who	What they receive	Why
Clerk — sign-in	Your email, name, profile photo, and sign-in events.	Account sign-up, sign-in, sessions and recovery.
Supabase — database	Your account and everything tied to it: lists, follows, check-ins, friends, business memberships, verification and dispute records, reports you make, and your IP address for rate limiting.	Storing the product's data.
Cloudflare — hosting, CDN and media storage	IP addresses, request logs, and any photos you upload.	Serving the app and website, storing media, and protecting against abuse.
PostHog — product analytics, in the app and on this website	Your email address and your sign-in identifier, along with your account number, device and browser information, the pages and screens you visit, your search terms as typed, your @handle where a feature involves one, which location permissions you have granted, and your interactions.	Understanding which features and pages are used, so we can improve them.
Anthropic — reading text out of photos	The event-flyer photo you choose to have read, and nothing tied to your account.	Extracting event details from a picture so you do not have to type them.
Sentry — crash reporting	Stack traces, the page or screen involved, browser, device and OS information, and app version. We do not attach your identity to error reports, and personal information is stripped before sending.	Diagnosing crashes and fixing bugs.
AppsFlyer — advertising measurement	Your device's advertising identifier, your Top Townie account number, and the fact that a sign-up happened, plus the device and network information its own software collects and the IP address and ad click identifier of anyone who taps one of our ad links. AppsFlyer reports these results onward to Meta, Google, TikTok and Spotify, where they are matched to your earlier exposure to one of our ads. This is a "share" under California law.	Measuring which of our ads brought people to Top Townie. See How we measure our own advertising.
Statsig — feature configuration	Your sign-in identifier and basic device information.	Turning features on and off, and rolling changes out gradually.
Expo — push notifications	Your device's push token and the contents of the notifications we send you.	Delivering push notifications to your phone.
Google — maps on Android	Map requests from your device, including the area you are viewing.	Drawing the map on Android.
Grafana — server monitoring	Timing and error information about requests to our servers.	Noticing when something is slow or broken.
Twilio — SMS verification	The phone number you provide when verifying a business claim.	Sending the verification code.
Resend — email	Your email address and the contents of the message.	Sending account and service email.
Google Forms — business beta applications	Whatever you enter on the application form, if you fill one in.	Collecting applications from businesses that want early access.

Each of these is engaged to process this data for us and not for their own purposes — with the exception of the onward reporting to advertising platforms described in How we measure our own advertising, which we disclose as a share rather than treat as processing on our behalf.

If we add, remove or change a provider in a way that affects what is collected about you, we will update this table, and the notice rules below apply.

Cookies and similar technologies

Our website uses first-party cookies and browser storage for analytics. They hold an identifier so we can tell how many people visited a page and which links they followed — not to build an advertising profile of you. Our analytics requests are routed through pa.toptownie.com, a subdomain we operate; the data still reaches our analytics provider, PostHog, which processes it on our instructions.

Two things about that identifier you should know. It is shared across toptownie.com and business.toptownie.com, so activity on both is joined together. And it stops being anonymous the moment you sign in to the business console, because we then attach your email address to it.

Our analytics records what you click. In addition to which pages you visit, it automatically captures interactions with the page — the links and buttons you press.

Advertising pixels. Our website's code contains the Meta, Google and Spotify advertising pixels, but they are switched off and send nothing. They can be enabled by configuration rather than by a code change, so we are stating the commitment plainly: we will not enable them without updating this policy first and giving the notice described in Changes to this policy.

The mobile app does not use cookies. It stores your sign-in token in the secure storage your phone provides for passwords, and keeps a small amount of data on the device so the app works between launches.

Your choices

• Ad measurement. Me → Settings → Privacy, or the link on the sign-in screen. See Do Not Sell or Share. This is the control that stops the sharing.
• Tracking prompt (iOS). Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. Denying it stops your device handing out the advertising identifier, but it does not stop the sharing on its own — use the switch above for that.
• Location. Grant or revoke it in your device settings at any time. Without it you can browse by city or ZIP but cannot check in.
• Who can see your profile. Me → Settings → Privacy — public, friends only, or private — and separately whether your real name is shown at all.
• Notifications. Me → Settings, or your device's notification settings.
• Calendar. Revoke calendar permission in your device settings; events we already created stay until you remove them.
• Product analytics. If you would rather we did not record how you use the app or the website, email privacy@toptownie.com and we will exclude you.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• Know what personal information we hold about you, where it came from, why we have it, and who we have shared it with.
• Correct anything inaccurate.
• Delete your account and the personal information tied to it.
• Take it with you — receive a copy in a portable format.
• Opt out of the sharing described in How we measure our own advertising.
• Object to or restrict a particular use, and withdraw any consent you have given.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights, and we do not offer any financial incentive or price difference in exchange for your personal information.

How to ask. Email privacy@toptownie.com, or delete your account directly in the app. We confirm receipt within 10 business days and respond within 45 days. If a request is complex we may take a further 45 days, and we will tell you within the first 45 if that happens. Opt-out requests are actioned within 15 business days.

How we check it is you. We verify a request by confirming it from the email address on your account. For requests about sensitive information, or where the answer would reveal a lot about you, we may ask for something further before we answer.

Someone acting for you. You can have an authorized agent make a request on your behalf. We will ask for written permission signed by you, and we may ask you to confirm directly that you gave it. If your agent has a valid power of attorney, we will skip those steps.

If we say no. We will tell you why in writing. You can appeal by replying to that email, or by writing to privacy@toptownie.com with "Appeal" in the subject line. We will respond to an appeal within 45 days. If we deny the appeal, we will tell you how to contact your state Attorney General.

Account deletion

You can delete your account from inside the app: Me → Settings → Delete account. Deletion is scheduled with a 30-day grace period so an accidental request can be undone, and you can cancel it at any time before it completes by signing back in.

If you no longer have the app, go to toptownie.com/delete-account, or email support@toptownie.com from the address you signed up with and we will verify you and start the deletion for you.

When it completes, we clear your email, name, photo and sign-in identifier from your account record, and delete your check-ins, lists, follows, friendships and the photos you uploaded.

What stays, and why. Business listings, business posts and verified edits describe a public business, not you. They remain after your account is deleted, with your name removed from them, and a business you were the only person managing simply becomes unclaimed so someone else can take it over later — the listing itself is not deleted. Verification and dispute records also remain, with your phone number erased, because we need to be able to show that a claim was properly verified. We keep an internal reference number so audit records still resolve without identifying you, plus anything we are required to keep by law.

Deletion cannot be undone. After the grace period ends, signing up again with the same email creates a brand-new account with no connection to the old one.

Full details, including what happens at each stage: toptownie.com/delete-account.

Data retention

We keep each category of personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it for, and no longer than is reasonably necessary. Where a provider holds data on our behalf, the period is set by our configuration with that provider.

Category	How long we keep it
Identifiers and account content — your profile, lists, follows, friendships, photos	While your account is active, then deleted when you delete your account, except the items listed under Account deletion.
Precise geolocation — check-in and departure coordinates	While your account is active; deleted when you delete your account. We do not keep location readings that do not result in a check-in.
Commercial and inferred information — product-analytics events	As long as we need them to understand feature use, and no longer than our analytics provider's configured retention period.
Internet and device activity — crash reports	Until the underlying bug is understood and fixed, and no longer than our error-monitoring provider's configured retention period.
Internet and device activity — server, CDN and request logs, including IP addresses	As long as needed for security, abuse prevention and debugging, and no longer than our hosting provider's configured retention period. Rate-limit records — some keyed to your IP address, some to your account — are kept for abuse prevention. We do not yet delete them automatically once the limit window ends, and building that is on our list.
Identifiers — advertising identifier and account number held by our measurement provider	That provider's configured retention period, or until we ask them to delete it.
Identifiers — business-verification and dispute phone numbers	Until the claim is resolved and the fraud-prevention need has passed. Your phone number is erased when you delete your account; the record that a claim happened remains.
Content reports	For as long as we need them to keep the community safe and to see patterns of abuse. Personal identifiers are removed when the account they belong to is deleted.
Communications — support and service email	As long as we need it to handle your request and to keep a record of what was agreed.

Advertising-measurement data. We ask our measurement provider to delete the data associated with you when you delete your account. Reports that provider has already sent to Meta, Google, TikTok or Spotify are held under those companies' own policies, and we cannot recall them. Turning on Do Not Sell or Share stops anything further being sent.

Business listings are public information

Business listings — a business's name, address, phone number, hours, and the events it publishes — describe a business, not you. We may license that information to publishers, tourism organizations and other platforms, and we may build statistics from it. The terms that govern this are in the Business data and event listings section of our Terms of Service.

That licensing never includes your name, your account, your check-ins, or anything identifying who created or edited a listing.

Where a listed business is run by one person from a home address, that contact information is personal information belonging to that person — and we do not currently have an automatic way to tell a home address from a storefront. If that is your business, email privacy@toptownie.com and we will exclude your home address and personal phone number from anything we license, and remove them from the listing entirely if you would rather.

If we ever publish statistics about how busy businesses are, they will be built only from data aggregated so that no individual visit or person can be identified, and we will never publish a figure drawn from so few visits that it could point to one person.

Security

Your sign-in token is kept in the secure storage your phone provides for passwords (iOS Keychain / Android Keystore). There is no direct client access to our database. Every write, and every read that returns anything about your account, goes through a server-side Edge Function that checks who you are and what you are allowed to see before any data is returned. A small number of endpoints return information that is already public without requiring anyone to be signed in: the business and event details described in Business listings are public information, and the parts of a profile you have chosen to make public — the handle, display name and photo shown on a shared profile page or an invitation link. What those show is governed by your profile-visibility setting.

No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach affecting your information, we will tell you and the relevant authorities within the time the law requires.

Children's privacy

Top Townie is intended for adults and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13, and we do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.

We do not currently ask your age when you create an account. If you believe someone under 13 has created an account, email privacy@toptownie.com and we will delete it.

Where we operate

Top Townie is operated from the United States and is offered only in the United States. The app is available only from the US App Store and the US Google Play store, and this policy describes rights under United States law.

Your information is processed in the United States. Where a provider we use operates elsewhere, it does so under a written agreement carrying equivalent protections.

Our website can be reached from anywhere. If you visit it from outside the United States, the analytics described in Cookies and similar technologies apply to that visit, and the rights in Your rights are available to you regardless of where you live.

Changes to this policy

We update the date at the top whenever this policy changes. Earlier versions are available on request — email privacy@toptownie.com and we will send you the version that was in force on any date you name.

When a change expands what we collect, how we use it, or who we share it with, we post a notice on this page and in the app at least 14 days before it takes effect, so you have time to read it and decide.

Changes that narrow what we collect, correct an error, or are purely editorial take effect when we post them — and we will say which kind a change was.

Occasionally a change is forced on us by a new law, a court order, or an urgent security problem on a shorter timeline. In those cases the change takes effect as required, and we tell you as soon as we can and explain why.

If we ever want to use information we already collected for a genuinely new purpose, we will tell you before we start, with the same notice as any other expansion above, so you have time to decide whether you are comfortable with it.

We review this policy at least once a year even if nothing has changed.

California categories, in the statute's own terms

California law asks us to describe our practices using its own list of categories. Everything here is already described in plainer language above; this section is the same information in the form the law asks for. We collected all of it in the last 12 months.

Category (Civ. Code §1798.140(v)(1))	What it is for us, where it comes from, why we have it, and who receives it
A. Identifiers	What: name, email, @handle, account number, sign-in identifier, device identifier, advertising identifier, IP address. Source: you; your device. Purpose: running the product; security; ad measurement. Disclosed to: sign-in, database, hosting, analytics, error-monitoring, feature-configuration, push, email and SMS providers; our ad-measurement provider and, through it, Meta, Google, TikTok and Spotify. Sold: no. Shared for advertising: yes — advertising identifier and account number only.
B. Customer records (Civ. Code §1798.80(e))	What: name, email, phone number for business verification. Source: you. Purpose: your account; verifying business claims; fraud prevention. Disclosed to: database, email and SMS providers. Sold: no. Shared for advertising: no.
C. Protected classifications	We do not collect these.
D. Commercial information	What: businesses you follow, save, check in to, and your Top 3 lists. Source: you; your use of the app. Purpose: running the product. Disclosed to: database and analytics providers. Sold: no. Shared for advertising: no.
E. Biometric information	We do not collect this.
F. Internet or network activity	What: screens and pages visited, search terms, taps and scrolls, crash reports, request logs. Source: your device. Purpose: improving the product; fixing bugs; security. Disclosed to: analytics, error-monitoring, monitoring and hosting providers. Sold: no. Shared for advertising: no.
G. Geolocation data	What: precise location while the app is open; check-in and departure coordinates. Source: your device, with your permission. Purpose: showing you what is nearby; confirming and closing check-ins. Disclosed to: database provider. Sold: no. Shared for advertising: no.
H. Sensory data	What: photos you choose to upload, including event-flyer photos. Source: you. Purpose: your profile, business listings, and reading event details out of a picture. Disclosed to: media-storage provider; our AI provider for flyer photos. Sold: no. Shared for advertising: no.
I. Professional or employment information	What: your role at a business you manage. Source: you. Purpose: business console access. Disclosed to: database provider. Sold: no. Shared for advertising: no.
J. Education information	We do not collect this.
K. Inferences	What: aggregate feature-use patterns; we draw no profile about you as an individual. Source: derived from the above. Purpose: improving the product. Disclosed to: analytics provider. Sold: no. Shared for advertising: no.
Sensitive PI — precise geolocation (§1798.140(ae)(1)(F))	What: see Your location. Source: your device, with your permission. Purpose: only to provide the service you asked for. Disclosed to: database provider. Sold: no. Shared for advertising: no.

Sold: we have never sold the personal information of Top Townie users, in any category, for money or other valuable consideration.

Shared for cross-context behavioral advertising: Category A identifiers only — your advertising identifier and your Top Townie account number — to our advertising-measurement provider and onward to Meta, Google, TikTok and Spotify. Nothing else, in any category. You can switch this off.

Disclosed for a business purpose: all categories above that we collect, to the service providers named in Who else touches your data, for the purposes set out there.

Contact us

• Privacy questions and rights requests: privacy@toptownie.com
• Support, including deletion requests if you no longer have the app: support@toptownie.com
• By post: Top Townie, Mohawk Valley, New York, USA — full address on request.