Bench Spotter — Privacy Policy
Updated September 21, 2026 · applies to Bench Spotter for iOS
On your phone and in the cloud
Your saved places, check-ins and the people you follow are stored on your phone — and, once you sign in, with your account on our server, so they follow you to a new phone. Settings and profile details (birthday, social handles) are stored on your phone only. The benches, reviews and photos you publish are stored on our server, hosted by Supabase in the European Union, so that other people can see them on the map — together with the name you chose and your account identifier. Nothing is published unless you sign in and add it yourself.
What leaves the phone, and to whom
- Map tiles — the map area you look at is requested from OpenFreeMap (© OpenMapTiles, © OpenStreetMap contributors).
- Cloud forecast — your location, rounded to about one kilometer, is sent to Open-Meteo.
- Place search and place names — Apple Maps (MapKit), under Apple's privacy policy.
- Directions — when you ask for them, the bench's coordinates are handed to the maps app you chose (Apple Maps, Google Maps or Yandex Maps).
- Sharing — a link or a postcard leaves the phone only when you share it, and only to where you send it.
Signing in
Signing in is optional; without it you can look, save and check in, but not publish. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive your name, email address and an account identifier. The name and the identifier label your benches and reviews for other people; the email address stays with your account and is never shown to anyone. Sign in with Google is handled by Google's SDK under Google's privacy policy.
Location
Location is used only while the app is open: to show benches near you, the sun for your sky and the spot for a new bench. It is not stored beyond the benches you place.
Camera and photos
The camera and photo library are used only when you add a photo. Photos are checked on the phone itself — by a scene classifier that has to see a bench or a view, and by the system's sensitive-content analyzer when it is turned on in iOS Settings — before they are published. A published photo is public: anyone using the app can see it with the bench or review it belongs to.
Reports and blocks
When you report a bench, a review or a person, the report and your account identifier go to our moderation queue and are read by a person within a day; the author is not told who reported them. When you block someone, the block is stored with your account so it follows you to a new phone.
Nothing else
No analytics of our own, no advertising, no tracking, no selling of anything. Signing in with Google uses Google's SDK, which may collect device identifiers and usage data for Google's own analytics under Google's privacy policy. Notifications are scheduled on the phone itself. We do not knowingly collect anything from children.
Deleting and your rights
Delete a bench or a review from the app at any time; it disappears for everyone. Deleting your account (Settings → Delete account) removes your reviews and your account; the benches you added stay on the map without your name, like an anonymous edit to a shared map. Deleting the app deletes everything it kept on the phone. For questions, requests (including a copy or the removal of your data) or to report content, write to malyanovskysasha@gmail.com. When this policy changes, the date above changes with it.