Privacy, in plain words
What Gather stores, who can see it and how long it stays. This page describes what the software does.
What is stored
- Events: what the organizer enters, including the place and any cover photo. Location data inside uploaded photos is removed.
- RSVPs: the name or nickname you type, your answer, an optional note for the host, and an email address only if you ask for updates.
- A cookie that keeps you signed in, or remembers this browser if you never made an account. No advertising or tracking cookies.
- Anonymous usage counts (for example “an event was published”), with no names, emails or IP addresses attached.
- No AI service is connected to this site. Drafts and similar-activity suggestions are worked out by Gather itself.
Who can see what
- Email addresses and phone numbers are never shown on an event page. Hosts cannot see guests’ email addresses.
- The organizer decides who can open the event, who sees the exact place and who sees the guest list. These rules are enforced on the server.
- Notes you add to an RSVP are visible to the hosts only.
- Payment details an organizer adds are shown only to people who are coming.
- When you describe a new activity, the app may point you to similar ones that already exist. It only ever suggests activities their organizers listed on Explore, or ones you already belong to. Unlisted and private events are never suggested to anyone.
- The examples in the “What are we getting together for?” box are worked out from your device’s clock, the town of your own latest event, and how many listed events of each kind are near it. No location is asked for or looked up. If the company hosting this site adds an approximate city to each visit (some do), that city may be used to word the examples; it is not stored.
Other services involved
- Map pictures come from OpenStreetMap, loaded by your browser. Place search goes through this site to a Photon geocoder, so the search service sees the words searched for and not who typed them. Opening directions takes you to Google Maps.
- When an organizer searches for a cover photo, the search words are sent from this site to Openverse, and the organizer’s browser loads the small previews from Openverse. The chosen photo is copied here, so guests’ browsers never contact the photo’s original host.
How long it is kept
- Guest email addresses are deleted 30 days after the event, or straight away when you unsubscribe.
- Copies of sent emails are deleted after 30 days. Expired sign-in links and sessions are removed automatically.
- An event stays until its organizer deletes it. Deleting an event deletes its guest list, updates, polls and comments.
- Deleting your account deletes your RSVPs, your comments and every event you own alone.
What does not happen
- No money is handled. Payment links open the organizer’s own payment service.
- Your live location is never requested in order to attend. The organizer may choose to use their own position once, to place a pin.
- No ads, and no selling or sharing of personal data for marketing.
Your choices
- Change or withdraw an RSVP at any time from the event page or your personal link.
- Delete your account and its data yourself under My events, Account.
Note for whoever runs this site: add your organisation’s name, contact address and legal basis here before going live. This text describes the software; it is not legal advice.