This Privacy Policy describes how Group Night ("we", "our", or "us") collects, uses, and protects your personal information when you use our mobile application and web services (collectively, the "Service").

By using our Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

Required Information:

• Email Address: We collect your email address for authentication purposes. This is required to create and access your account. Your email address is only used for login and authentication - GroupNight does not share your email address with any other users or third parties.

Optional Information:

All other information you provide through the Service is optional and provided at your discretion. This may include:

• Profile information (name, profile picture, etc.)
• Group membership information
• Event details and availability (including event locations you choose)
• Messages and communications within the app
• Any other information you choose to share
• Google Calendar information, only if you choose to use the optional calendar import feature (see Section 3)
• Device location, only if you allow it when using place search for an event location (see Section 4)

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve our Service
• Authenticate your identity and manage your account
• Enable communication and collaboration features within the app
• Send you service-related notifications (such as account verification emails)
• Respond to your inquiries and provide customer support
• If you use calendar import, derive and store your coarse availability so you and your groups can coordinate meetups (see Section 3)
• If you use place search when specifying an event location, suggest nearby or matching places and store the location you select for that event (see Section 4)

Group Night offers an optional Import your availability feature that can connect to Google Calendar. Connecting is optional and is not required to use the rest of the Service.

What we access:

• With your permission, we request the Google scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly (read-only Calendar access).
• We read event start and end times (and all-day markers) from the Google Calendar account you authorize, typically your primary calendar, only for the date range you choose to import.
• We do not request permission to create, edit, or delete Google Calendar events. Access is read-only.

How we use Google Calendar data:

• We check for the existence of events in “early” and “later” parts of each day (based on an evening start time you set) to determine when you appear free or busy.
• From that free/busy signal we may update your general availability in Group Night as coarse states only (for example: morning, evening, all day, or not available).
• We do not display, store, or share event titles, descriptions, attendees, locations, or other calendar details from Google.

Manual import and optional auto sync:

• You can run a one-time import from the app at any time.
• You may optionally enable auto sync (off, weekly, or monthly). When enabled, Group Night may periodically re-read your Google Calendar using the same read-only permission and the import settings you saved (evening time, days to pull up to six months, early/later polling, and merge mode), then update your coarse Group Night availability accordingly.
• Auto sync primarily runs on your device when you open or return to the app and a sync is due. If a device sync has not completed by the due window, Group Night may also refresh your availability on our servers using a stored Google authorization that you granted for this purpose. Server refresh uses the same read-only Calendar access, still does not write to Google Calendar, and does not store event titles or other event details.
• You can turn auto sync off at any time from the import settings, and you can revoke Google access from your Google Account.

What we store:

• We store only the resulting Group Night availability states (and related import settings you choose, such as days to import, merge preferences, and auto sync frequency), associated with your Group Night account. When server auto-sync backup is enabled, we also store an encrypted Google refresh credential on our servers solely to perform the overdue read-only Calendar refresh described above; that credential is not accessible to the app client.
• We do not retain raw Google Calendar event content or a copy of your full calendar.

Sharing of Google user data:

• We do not sell Google user data.
• We do not share Google Calendar event details with other users or third parties. Other group members may only see the coarse availability you choose to keep in Group Night (the same type of availability you can also set manually).
• Google authentication and Calendar access are provided by Google under Google’s own terms and privacy policy.

Your choices:

• You can decline Google Calendar access and still use Group Night without the import feature.
• You can revoke Group Night’s Calendar access at any time in your Google Account permissions (Google Account → Security → Third-party access / Your connections to third-party apps).
• You can change or clear availability in the app like any other manually set availability.
• You can disable auto sync at any time.

Group Night offers optional place search when you choose to specify a non-hosted event location (for example, a restaurant or venue). This feature uses Google Places. It is optional: you can still type a free-text location, and you can decline device location permission.

Device location:

• If you allow location access, we may read your device’s approximate or precise location only while you are searching for a place, to prefer suggestions near you.
• We do not request location at app launch for this purpose, continuously track your location, or use location for advertising.
• If you deny or later revoke location permission, place search still works; suggestions are simply not biased to your current position.

What is sent to Google Places:

• When you type in the place search field, your search text is sent to Google’s Places API through our servers so we can return autocomplete suggestions.
• If you have granted location permission, we may also send your current coordinates to Google solely as a bias for nearby results.
• Our Google Places API credentials remain on our servers; they are not embedded in the app for this feature.

What we store when you pick a place:

• If you select a suggested place, we may store the place name, Google place identifier, formatted address, and coordinates with that event proposal or booking.
• That location information is visible to other members of the same group in the same way as any event location you enter manually.
• If you type a free-text location without selecting a suggestion, we store the text you entered and do not attach Google place metadata.

Opening Maps:

• For non-hosted locations, the app may provide a link that opens Google Maps (or another maps app on your device) so you can navigate to the place. That handoff is subject to the maps provider’s own terms and privacy policy.

Google’s role:

• Place search and Maps features rely on Google services. Google processes the search and location-bias data described above under Google’s terms and Privacy Policy.
• We do not sell location or Places-related data.

Your choices:

• You can refuse location permission and still use place search or free-text locations.
• You can change location permission anytime in the app under Settings → Location (which may open your device’s system settings), or directly in your device settings (iOS: Settings → Group Night → Location; Android: Settings → Apps → Group Night → Permissions → Location).
• You can avoid Places entirely by typing a location without selecting a suggestion, or by using hosted-location options instead of Specify.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not use your information for third-party advertising partnerships or data monetization.

We share information only as needed to operate the Service:

• Other group members: Information you choose to share in a group (such as profile details, availability, event times/locations, and messages) is visible to members of that group.
• Service providers: We use infrastructure providers (for example, cloud hosting and authentication) to run the Service.
• Google: If you use Google Calendar import, see Section 3. If you use place search, search text and optional location bias are sent to Google Places as described in Section 4. Opening a Maps link may send the place or address to the maps app you use.
• Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court or government agency).

When you use Group Night on the web (and, where applicable, in our mobile apps), we and our infrastructure providers may store small amounts of data on your device. This includes browser cookies, local storage, IndexedDB, and similar technologies. This section explains what we use and why.

What we use today:

• Authentication and session: Firebase Authentication (and related Google sign-in flows, if you choose them) store session and security tokens on your device so you can stay signed in and use the Service securely.
• Security: We may use App Check and similar protections that place short-lived tokens or identifiers on your device to help reduce abuse and protect our backends.
• Preferences and app function: We store local preferences needed for the Service to work as you expect (for example, layout choices, notification-related flags, badge/viewed state, and similar settings). These are not used for advertising.
• Hosting / delivery: Our hosting and content-delivery providers may set strictly necessary cookies or headers related to delivering the website securely.

What we do not use today:

• We do not use advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, or social media advertising trackers.
• We do not currently use Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics, or similar third-party audience analytics products on the Group Night website.

Consent and “strictly necessary” storage:

• The storage described above is used to provide the Service you request (sign-in, security, and core app features). Under EU/UK ePrivacy rules, this kind of strictly necessary storage generally does not require a separate cookie consent banner.
• We still disclose it here so you know what is stored on your device.
• If we later introduce non-essential analytics or marketing technologies, we will update this policy and, where required, request your consent before enabling them.

Your choices:

• You can sign out of Group Night, which ends your authenticated session.
• You can clear cookies and site data for Group Night in your browser settings. Doing so may sign you out and reset local preferences until you use the Service again.
• On mobile devices, uninstalling the app removes local app storage on that device (cloud account data is handled separately; see Section 8 for deletion rights).

We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your data is stored using industry-standard cloud services with appropriate security measures in place.

You have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Update or correct your personal information through the app settings
• Delete your account and associated data
• Opt out of non-essential communications
• Revoke Google Calendar access through your Google Account settings (see Section 3)
• Deny or revoke device location permission in Settings or your device system settings and still use the Service (see Section 4)
• Clear cookies and local site data in your browser, or sign out, as described in Section 6

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the information provided at the end of this policy.

Our Service is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us, and we will take steps to delete such information.

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us: