Introduction
Stoutlands helps you find, journal and share great pints of stout. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with and the choices you have. It covers the Stoutlands app and the stoutlands.app website. If you have questions, or want to exercise any of the rights described below, email privacy@stoutlands.app.
Information We Collect
Account Information
When you create an account we collect a username (your public handle), an email address and your country. You can add an optional display name and design an avatar. If you sign in with Apple, Google or Facebook, we receive your account identifier and email address from that provider — never your password. Accounts and sign-in are managed for us by AWS Cognito.
Age Confirmation
Stoutlands is for people of legal drinking age. By completing onboarding and using the app, you confirm that you are of legal drinking age where you live.
Content You Post
Your pint posts are stored and shown with your handle: photos, star ratings, written comments, the stout, the pub, pour and glass type, the price you paid and the date of the pint. Posts are attached to the pub's location, never your device's.
Social Activity
We store your pint pal connections and invites, session plans and RSVPs, the ETAs and arrivals you choose to share with a session, your votes on session proposals, session chat messages, Sláintes, the pubs and stouts you follow, and any notification areas you save.
Progress
Your XP, badges, StoutCoin balance and transaction history, and which Compendium entries you have read.
Device and Technical Information
A random identifier created for your installation of the app (it identifies the install, not you as a person). If you enable notifications, we also store your push token along with your device's name, platform, operating system version, app version, language and time zone, and we record whether you open the notifications we send so we can automatically send fewer to people who ignore them.
Usage Analytics
The app reports usage events to our own servers — screens viewed, features used, searches that came back empty (with email addresses and phone numbers scrubbed out first) and where things went wrong. Events are linked to a random install identifier, and to your account when you are signed in. We use no third-party analytics service.
Crash Reports
If the app crashes or hits an error, a technical report is sent to Sentry, our error-monitoring provider, hosted in the EU. These reports are configured to exclude your name, email address, IP address and anything you have typed.
Contact and Venue Claims
If you send us a message through the contact form, or claim a venue as its owner, we keep the message and the contact details you provide with it so we can respond and administer the claim.
Location
With your permission, Stoutlands uses your location only while you are using the app — to find pints and pubs near you, centre the map, and suggest the pub when you post. There is no background or continuous location tracking.
Coordinates sent with a search or feed request are used to answer that request and are not stored.
Pint posts record the pub's coordinates, never your device's.
If a photo you pick contains location metadata, it is read on your device to suggest the pub, and stripped from the photo before upload.
Venue search is powered by Google Places, so your approximate coordinates are sent to Google to favour results near you.
Notification areas are places you deliberately save so we can tell you about pints posted there; they are stored until you remove them.
Because a pint post can reveal where you are, nearby users who are not your pint pals are only notified of it after a delay of several hours.
Advertising
Free accounts see ads, provided by Google AdMob. Where the law requires it you will be shown Google's consent form, and on iOS you will be asked whether to allow tracking; if you decline, you still see ads — just less tailored to you. The ad network may collect device identifiers and use them under Google's own privacy policy; we never give it your account details or your content. Watching an optional rewarded ad earns StoutCoins. Stoutlands Pro removes ads entirely.
How We Use Your Information
To run the app: feeds, maps, your journal, sessions with your pals, and the notifications you have asked for.
To award XP, badges and StoutCoins, and to maintain your Pro entitlement.
To keep the community safe: enforcing the Community Guidelines, handling reports, and applying blocks, mutes and bans.
To understand, in aggregate, how the app is used so we can improve it.
To comply with legal obligations. We do not sell your personal information and we do not use it for third-party marketing.
AI-Assisted Features
Compendium entries about pubs, stouts and breweries are researched with the help of an AI service (xAI). That research is based on the pub, stout or brewery itself and public information about it. Your posts, photos and messages are never sent to AI services. Three small features do send limited data: nickname suggestions send your current handle, session name suggestions send the handles of the pals involved, and adding a new stout to the catalogue sends its name and brewery for verification.
What Other Users and the Public Can See
Your profile — handle, display name, avatar, country, join date, post count, XP level, badges, and your chosen favourite pub and stout — is public by default. Setting your profile to private restricts your profile page to your pint pals; your handle and avatar remain visible.
Your pint posts appear in shared feeds and on pub and stout pages.
Leaderboards show your handle, avatar and pint statistics, and can be viewed without an account.
Session details — including the ETA, arrivals and chat messages you share — are visible to the other attendees of that session.
Share links you create (pint posts, session recaps, journal recaps) and session join codes are public: anyone with the link can view that page without signing in. Post share links are disabled while your profile is private.
Service Providers
We share data with providers who process it on our behalf: Amazon Web Services (sign-in, photo storage, push notification delivery and hosting), Google (venue details and opening hours via Google Places, maps on Android, advertising, and push delivery on Android), Apple (push delivery on iOS and subscription receipts), xAI (the AI research described above), Sentry (crash reporting) and Microsoft Azure (service monitoring). Each receives only what it needs for its job. We may also disclose information where required by law or to protect our users.
Payments
Stoutlands Pro subscriptions are bought through the App Store or Google Play. We never see your card or bank details. The store gives the app a receipt, which we validate with the store to confirm your subscription; we keep only your entitlement and its expiry date.
Browsing Without an Account
You can browse feeds, pubs, stouts, leaderboards and the Compendium without signing in. The app sends a random device identifier with its requests so signed-out features work — including the device coin pouch for Compendium reading — and nearby searches use your location the same way as when signed in. If you later create an account, your device's StoutCoins and Compendium unlocks are folded into it.
Data Retention
Session chat messages stay with the session recap. Posting locks 48 hours after the night ends; the thread remains readable for members. A reported message may be held for moderation for up to 90 days after a report is resolved.
Notification inbox items are deleted after 90 days.
Withdrawn venue claims are deleted after 30 days.
Encrypted database backups are kept solely for disaster recovery. They are stored in the European Economic Area (Ireland), encrypted at rest, accessible only to tightly scoped service credentials, and automatically erased within 30 days. That 30-day window is also the maximum residual period after you delete your account — we do not keep personal data in backups beyond it.
Most other data is kept for as long as your account is active.
Deleting Your Account
You can delete your account at any time in the app (Profile, then Delete Account) or by emailing privacy@stoutlands.app — see stoutlands.app/data-deletion. Deletion is immediate and permanent: your profile, posts, photos, pal connections, sessions you organised, chat messages, saved areas, device registrations, progress and coin history are removed. A small number of records survive deletion: reports (kept so moderation stays accountable), messages you sent us through the contact form, and usage analytics records, which are no longer connected to a profile. Residual copies may remain in encrypted routine backups for up to 30 days, after which they are automatically erased and cannot be restored into the live service.
Data Security
Traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted. Sign-in tokens are kept in your device's secure storage, and photos are stored privately, accessible only through short-lived signed links. Database backups are encrypted at rest in the EEA, transferred only over TLS, and isolated from the systems that store photos and send push notifications. No system is perfectly secure, so please keep your sign-in credentials safe.
Your Rights
You can update your display name, avatar, country and privacy settings in the app at any time. Depending on where you live — including under UK and EU data protection law — you also have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our processing of your personal data, and to receive a copy of it. Email privacy@stoutlands.app to exercise any of these. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
Children's Privacy
Stoutlands is for adults of legal drinking age, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone below it. If you believe someone underage is using Stoutlands, contact us and we will investigate and remove the account.
Changes to This Policy
We will post updates here with a new date at the top and highlight significant changes in the app. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Contact
Email privacy@stoutlands.app, or use the contact form in the app under More.
