Privacy Policy

Welcome to GigPigeon! We believe live music is best shared with friends. Respecting your privacy while helping you log gigs, discover shows, and share your music history is central to how we build our app. This Privacy Policy outlines what information we collect, how we use it, and how we protect it.

1. Information We Collect

To provide and power GigPigeon, we collect the following types of information:

• Account & Authentication Data: You can sign in with an email address and password, with Google, or with Apple. Sign-in is handled by Google Firebase Authentication:
  • If you use a password, it is stored by Firebase in encrypted (hashed) form. We never see or store it ourselves.
  • If you sign in with Google or Apple, we never receive your Google or Apple password. We receive your email address and a unique account identifier, and we don't keep your name or profile picture from those accounts. If you choose Apple's "Hide My Email", we receive Apple's private relay address instead of your real one.
  • We store your email address so we can identify your account, verify it's yours, and send you account emails (such as verification and password reset). If you change your email address in the app, we update our copy.
• Profile Picture: If you choose to upload one, we store your profile picture and show it alongside your username.
• Public Username: You choose a unique username so friends can search for and identify you on the platform.
• Gig Logs & Content: The core of GigPigeon relies on what you post, including:
  • Gigs and venues you log or check into.
  • Ratings and reviews you write.
  • Comments you leave on reviews, including anyone you @mention in them.
  • Setlists, notes, or photos you upload. Before a photo is stored we remove its hidden metadata, including any GPS location your camera recorded, and check it automatically for inappropriate content.
• Social Connections: Information about your connections on the app, including your friends list and incoming or outgoing friend requests.
• Location Data: With your explicit permission, we collect your device’s precise or approximate location to help you discover nearby gigs and venues. We use it to answer that search and don't store it against your account. You can control or disable location permissions at any time through your device settings.
• Your Photo Library (optional): If you use Import gigs from photos, and give the app permission to see your photos, the app reads the date, time and location recorded in photos from the last 12 months, and matches them on your device against the venues, festivals and shows we know about. Your photos, and their dates, times and locations, never leave your phone and are never sent to us. To do the matching, the app downloads our list of venues and festivals, your logged shows, and the past shows at places where your photos were taken. Nothing is added to your account until you choose to save a show, and only the photo you pick for it is uploaded (with its hidden metadata removed, as above).
• Newsletter Sign-up (optional): If you choose to join our newsletter — by ticking the box when you sign up, using Sign up for newsletter in the app's settings, or using the newsletter form on our website — we collect your email address and, for app users, your username. See section 4.
• Push Notification Token: If you use our mobile apps, we store an identifier for your app installation, issued by Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, so we can send notifications to your device. You can turn notifications off at any time in your device settings.
• Usage & Search Data: When you use the app, we record which features you use and when, which app and version you're using, the searches you make for artists, venues and festivals, and when you follow a link to buy tickets. See section 5.
• Technical Data: Basic operational data such as your IP address, device model, operating system, and crash logs to keep the app secure and running smoothly.

2. How We Use Your Data

We process your data to:

• Provide, operate, and maintain the GigPigeon app.
• Create and secure your account, and let you sign in with your email address, Google or Apple.
• Enable social features (finding friends, viewing friends' gig logs, reading reviews, and commenting on them).
• Recommend Artists & Shows: Analyze your gig history, ratings, and logged events to suggest upcoming shows or artists you might enjoy.
• Provide Nearby Gig Discovery: Use your location data to surface live music events happening near you.
• Find Gigs in Your Photos: Match the time and location of your photos to known shows, on your device, when you ask us to.
• Send our newsletter: Only if you've asked to receive it (see section 4).
• Improve GigPigeon: Understand which features are used, where people get stuck, and which artists, venues and festivals people look for but can't find (see section 5).
• Troubleshoot technical issues, performance bugs, and crash reports.

3. How Your Information is Shared & Visible

• Public Profile: Your username is searchable so other users can find you and send friend requests.
• Your Reviews: You choose who can see each review you write — its rating, notes and photo. Everyone (the default, which you can change in Settings) shows it on the artist's and venue's pages to anyone using GigPigeon, and in your friends' feeds; Your Friends shows it only to users you have accepted as friends; Just You keeps it visible only to you. Photos added before this choice existed stay visible only to you until you choose to share them.
• Your Comments: Only the person who wrote a review and their friends can comment on it. A comment can be seen by anyone who can see the review it's on, so a comment on a review shared with Everyone can be seen by people who aren't your friends. If you @mention someone who can see the review, we tell them, and the person who wrote the review is told about new comments on it. They can delete any comment on their review, or turn comments off for it, which hides the comments already there.
• Service Providers: We use trusted third-party infrastructure strictly to operate GigPigeon: Google Firebase for sign-in, push notifications and, in our Android app, Google Analytics for Firebase; Amazon Web Services to check uploaded photos for inappropriate content; and our web hosting provider for our servers and database. Our emails, including the newsletter, are sent through Brevo, an email service provider based in France. We never sell your personal data.
• Ticket Links: Upcoming shows link to ticket sellers such as Ticketmaster, See Tickets, Skiddle and WeGotTickets. Some of these are affiliate links, which means the seller or its affiliate network can tell that a visit came from GigPigeon, and we may earn a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. We don’t send ticket sellers your name, email address, gig history or friends. Once you follow a link you are on their site, and their privacy policy applies.

4. Newsletter

Our newsletter is entirely optional, and you won't receive it unless you ask to. Signing up or not makes no difference to how GigPigeon works for you.

• What we keep: Your email address and, if you signed up through the app, your username (which we use as your name in emails). If you change your username or email address in the app, we update it on the newsletter list too.
• Confirming your address: If you sign up in the app before verifying your email address, we only add you once it's verified. If you sign up through our website, we email you a link to confirm it first.
• Who holds it: The newsletter list is stored and sent by Brevo, our email service provider, which processes it only on our behalf.
• Our legal basis: Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Unsubscribing: Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link. You can also email us at [email protected].
• Deleting your account: We take you off the newsletter list automatically.

5. How We Measure Usage

We want to know which parts of GigPigeon people find useful, so we can improve them and fix what isn't working. We do this mostly from the requests the app already makes to our own servers.

• No cookies or advertising IDs: We don't use tracking cookies or advertising identifiers, and we don't track you across other apps or websites.
• What we record: Which features you use and when, which app and version you're using (Android, iPhone or web), the artists, venues and festivals you search for, and when you follow a link to buy tickets. We don't record the location you search from.
• Android app: Our Android app also includes Google Analytics for Firebase, which records app opens, screens viewed and basic device information against an identifier for your app installation.
• Who sees it: Only us. We use it to produce totals, such as how many people use a feature or the most popular searches. We never sell it or share it with advertisers.
• How long we keep it: Detailed usage records are kept for 90 days. After that we keep only totals that can't be linked back to you.
• Our legal basis: Our legitimate interest in understanding how GigPigeon is used so we can improve it. You can object at any time by contacting us at [email protected].

6. Data Retention & Deletion

We retain your data for as long as your account is active so your gig archive remains accessible.

• Account Deletion: You can request account deletion at any time in the app settings or by contacting us directly at [email protected].
• When your account is deleted, your profile, friend connections, logged gigs, reviews, comments, and usage records will be permanently purged from our primary servers.
• You can delete any comment you've written at any time. Deleting a check-in also deletes the comments on it.

7. Reporting content

You may report illegal or harmful content within the application. When you report a problematic show checkin or comment, it will be removed from public visibility until it has been reviewed. Our moderators will review it to see if the content is illegal or harmful, and either permanently remove it if it is deemed to be problematic, or reinstate it if not.

8. Friend management

Anyone can request to be your friend, which gives them the ability to see the shows which you check in. You do not have to accept any friend request. If you accept a friend request, you can delete it at any time, which will stop you seeing your friend's feed, and will stop them seeing yours. If you delete a friend, you may re-add them at a later date. Alternatively, you may block a friend, which will stop you seeing each other's feeds, and will prevent either of you from re-requesting to be friends.

9. Your Rights & Choices

Depending on your region (including under the UK/EU GDPR), you have the right to:

• Access & Export: Request a copy of the personal data and gig history we hold about you.
• Correct Information: Update your username or profile details.
• Revoke Location Access: Turn off location sharing at any time via your smartphone settings (the app will still work, but nearby gig detection won't be automatic).
• Revoke Photo Access: Turn off photo access at any time in your phone's settings.
• Withdraw Consent: Unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, using the link in any newsletter or by contacting us.
• Object to Usage Measurement: Ask us to stop using your usage data to measure how GigPigeon is used (see section 5).
• Delete Your Account: Request complete removal of your personal data.

10. Children's Privacy

GigPigeon is not intended for use by children under the age of 13 (or 16 in certain European jurisdictions). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as GigPigeon grows. We will notify you of any significant changes via an in-app notice.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions or requests regarding your data, please contact us at: