Privacy Policy

Last updated: 26 October 2026

Privacy in short

Pebble is where you recommend places you love to people you actually know. That only works if you can trust us with your information, so here is the short version:

• We don't sell your data. Not to advertisers, not to venues, not to anyone.
• No ads, no paid placements. Pebble has no advertising, so we don't build advertising profiles of you or track you across other apps and websites.
• Your name and photo are public; your network is not. People on Pebble can find you by searching your full name, unless you limit this under Profile → Privacy → Who can find me by name. Your recommendations and lists are shared with people only after you accept their follow request, or when you share a link yourself. If you join through a friend's invite link, that friend follows you straight away.
• Venues see recommendations, not you. A venue on Pebble for Business sees how many people recommend it and the public notes they write, never a list of who you are or what else you save.
• You are in control. You can change what you share, turn off permissions like location and contacts, ask us for a copy of your data or delete your account at any time.

The rest of this policy explains the details. Where we write "Pebble", "we" or "us", we mean Maarten Kaufmann, who develops and runs Pebble (see section 1).

1. Who we are and what this policy covers

Pebble is developed and run by Maarten Kaufmann, a private individual based in Denmark (Vesterhavsgade 15, 7700 Nørre Vorupør). As data controller, Maarten decides how your personal data is used and is responsible for protecting it. You can reach us at privacy@pebble.guide. If Pebble becomes a company, that company will take over this role; we'll tell you before that happens and update this policy.

This policy applies to:

• the Pebble apps for iOS and Android and the website at pebble.guide;
• pages you can open without an account, such as shared lists, request links ("ask your friends") and venue QR codes;
• Pebble for Business, the profile and dashboard for venues;
• emails and notifications we send.

It applies to everyone who uses Pebble in Europe: the EU and EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Wherever you live in Europe, you have the rights in section 9, under the GDPR, the UK GDPR or the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection. It also covers people who use Pebble without an account, for example when you answer a friend's request through a link or scan a QR code at a venue.

Pebble links to other services, such as a venue's own website or a maps app. Those services have their own privacy policies, and this one does not apply to them.

2. Information we collect

We collect only what we need to run Pebble. Most of it you give us yourself.

Information you give us

• Account details: your first and last name, email address and, if you choose one, a password (stored only in hashed form). Some accounts are created without a password, through a sign-in link sent by email.
• Profile: your profile photo and, if you add it, your city.
• What you recommend and save: places you recommend, save or mark "Not for me", the notes you write, your lists and collections, and whether each one is private or shared.
• Requests and tips: questions you ask friends ("ask for tips"), the tips you send in reply, and tips you accept or decline.
• Places you add: if you add a place that isn't on Pebble yet, the details you enter about it.
• Messages to us: what you write when you contact support or send feedback.
• Business details (Pebble for Business only): your name, role, work email, the venue you manage and billing information. Card payments are handled by our payment provider; we never see or store your full card number.

Information from your phone, only with your permission

• Location: if you allow it, your device's location while you use the app, to show places near you on Find and Map. We don't track your location in the background.
• Contacts: if you allow it, we check the email addresses in your phone's contacts against Pebble accounts so we can show you which friends are already here. We don't keep the contact details of people who aren't on Pebble. On iOS you can share only selected contacts.
• Camera and photos: only when you choose a profile photo. We receive only the photo you pick.
• Push notifications: if you allow them, a device token so we can send notifications to your phone.

You can change each of these at any time in your phone's settings or under Profile → Permissions.

Information from other people

• Friends: when friends send you a follow request, recommend a place to you or answer your request, we store that activity.
• Contact matching: if someone who has your email address in their contacts uses contact matching, we may suggest you to them. You can turn this off with "Suggest me to people who have my email" under Profile → Privacy (when contact matching is available). Your email address is never shown to them.
• Guests: someone can answer your request through a link without an account. We store the name they type and the places and notes they send.

If you use Pebble without an account

When you answer a request through a link, we store the name you type, the places and notes you send, and a cookie (pebble_guest) that lets you add more tips later from the same browser. If you then enter your email to keep your tips, we store your email and a one-time confirmation link. When you scan a venue's QR code and recommend it, the same applies.

Information collected automatically

• Device and log data: IP address, device type, operating system, app version, browser type, language, time zone, and the date and time of requests. We use the time zone to guess your city when you haven't shared your location.
• Usage data: which screens and features you use, searches you make, and errors and crashes, so we can fix problems and improve Pebble.
• Cookies and similar technology: see section 10.

3. How we use your information, and why we're allowed to

We use your information only for the purposes below. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires a legal basis for each one; the table shows which we rely on.

Where we rely on legitimate interest, we have weighed our interest against your rights, and you can object at any time (section 9). Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time; that doesn't affect what we did before.

We don't use your information for advertising, we don't sell it, and we don't use it to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you. The order in which Pebble shows places (for example, friends' recommendations first) is based on your own network, not on payment.

4. What other people can see

Pebble is built around people you know, so what others see depends on whether you follow each other.

Nothing is shared with someone until you accept their follow request. If you join through a friend's invite link, that friend follows you straight away. Places you mark as private stay visible only to you. Your email address is never shown to other users.

Guest tips: if you answer a request through a link without confirming an email, your tips are shown only to the person who asked, under the name you typed. They don't count anywhere else on Pebble until you confirm your email.

Remember that anyone who can see your content can also screenshot or share it outside Pebble.

5. Venues and Pebble for Business

Venues can claim their profile on Pebble and subscribe to Pebble for Business. Venues can't pay to change who recommends them or where they appear.

What a venue sees about its recommenders:

• how many people recommend the venue, and how that number changes over time;
• the public notes people write when they recommend the venue, shown with the author's first name;
• aggregated insights, such as the share of recommenders who live locally versus visitors. These are shown only for groups large enough that no individual can be singled out.

What a venue never sees: your email address, your contacts or friends, the other places you save or recommend, private places, or your location.

QR codes at venues: when you scan a venue's Pebble QR code, we record that the scan came from that venue's code so we can count it for the venue. If you then recommend the venue, it is handled like any other recommendation.

If you run a venue: we process your name, role, work email, venue details, subscription and payment records to provide Pebble for Business, and keep billing records as Danish bookkeeping law requires (section 8).

6. Who we share information with

We share personal data only in the situations below.

Service providers who work for us. They process data only on our instructions, under a data processing agreement, and may not use it for their own purposes.

Other users and venues, as described in sections 4 and 5, based on your choices.

App stores. When you download Pebble, Apple or Google process data under their own privacy policies.

Legal reasons. We may disclose information if the law requires it, to respond to a valid request from a court or authority, or to protect the safety and rights of our users, the public or Pebble.

Business transfers. If Pebble is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, your information may be transferred to the new owner, who must keep honouring this policy. We'll tell you before that happens.

We don't sell personal data and don't share it with advertisers or data brokers.

7. International transfers

We aim to store your data within the EU/EEA. Some providers in section 6 are based in, or may access data from, countries outside the EEA, such as the United States.

When data leaves the EEA, we make sure it stays protected by using one of these safeguards:

• a European Commission adequacy decision, including the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for certified US companies;
• the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, with extra measures such as encryption where needed.

You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards that apply (section 11).

8. How long we keep information

We keep personal data only as long as we need it, then delete it or make it anonymous.

When you delete your account, we delete your profile, recommendations, saves, lists, notes and the tips you sent to friends' requests, and sign you out on every device. Pending email confirmations, sign-in links and invite links are deleted too. Friends keep places they saved from your tips, because those are their own entries. Copies in backups are overwritten within 30 days. We keep only what the law requires, such as billing records.

9. Your rights and choices

In the app, at any time:

• Edit your name and photo under Profile → Edit profile.
• Make a place private or shared when you save it, or change it later.
• Turn off "Suggest me to people who have my email" under Profile → Privacy (when contact matching is available).
• Turn location, contacts and notifications on or off under Profile → Permissions or in your phone's settings.
• Delete your account under Profile → Account → Delete account.

Your rights under the GDPR. You have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you and get a copy;
• correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
• delete your data;
• restrict how we use your data in certain cases;
• object to processing based on our legitimate interest, and to direct marketing at any time;
• data portability: receive the data you gave us in a machine-readable format, or have it sent to another service;
• withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent.

To use these rights, email privacy@pebble.guide. We may ask you to confirm your identity first. We reply within one month, and it's free.

Complaints. If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, please contact us first. You also have the right to complain to the Danish Data Protection Agency (Datatilsynet), Carl Jacobsens Vej 35, 2500 Valby, www.datatilsynet.dk, or to the data protection authority where you live.

10. Children, security and cookies

Children

Pebble is not meant for children. You must be at least 16 to create an account. If we learn that someone under 16 has an account, we delete it. If you think this has happened, contact us.

Security

We protect your data with measures such as encryption in transit (HTTPS), hashed passwords, single-use sign-in links that expire, access limited to the people who need it, and rate limits against abuse. No service is completely secure, so please use a strong, unique password and tell us right away if you notice anything suspicious. If a breach puts your rights at risk, we will tell you and Datatilsynet as the law requires.

Cookies and similar technology

On the website we use only the cookies and local storage that Pebble needs to work:

These are strictly necessary, so they don't require consent. If we ever add analytics or other non-essential cookies, we'll ask for your consent first and update this table.

11. Changes and contact

Changes. We may update this policy as Pebble changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change matters for how we use your data, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect, and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

Contact. Questions about this policy or your data:

Maarten Kaufmann
Vesterhavsgade 15, 7700 Nørre Vorupør, Denmark
privacy@pebble.guide

Language. We may offer translations of this policy. If a translation differs from the English version, the English version applies.