Privacy policy

Effective May 22, 2026

phew (“we”, “us”) is a map of places without tip pressure — where tipping stays a voluntary thank-you. We’re built to be useful, not extractive. This page covers what data we collect, what we do with it, and what we don’t do.

What we collect

When you sign in with Google, phew receives a small set of identifying fields from your Google account — described in full in the next section, “Google sign-in data”. The only field you supply yourself in the app is the username you pick during onboarding.

When you cast a vote on a place (verified, has pressure, needs votes), we store that vote against your account. We also store any places you contribute to the map. Standard server logs (IP address, request path, user agent, timestamps) are kept by our hosting provider for short-lived operational and security purposes.

When you grant location access, phew stores your most recent coordinates and the city they resolve to on your profile. We use them to show you the right regional map and to center the map near you. We keep only the latest values — there is no location history and no movement tracking, and location is read only while you’re using the app.

Google sign-in data

phew uses Google OAuth 2.0 (through our authentication provider Supabase) to let you sign in. This section documents exactly what we access from your Google account, what we do with each field, and what we do not do.

What we request (OAuth scopes).phew requests only Google’s basic profile scopes:

openid — the standard OpenID Connect identifier.
email — your Google account email address.
profile — your Google display name and the URL of your profile picture.

phew does not request access to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive / Docs / Sheets, Google Contacts, YouTube, or any other Google product. We do not request any sensitive or restricted Google API scope.

What Google returns and what we do with each field.

Email address. Stored in our authentication database (managed by Supabase) so you can sign back in. Used to contact you only about critical account issues (e.g. a request to confirm an account deletion). We do not send marketing email.
Google account ID (the OpenID sub claim). Stored alongside the email so we can re-link your phew account on subsequent sign-ins.
Display name and profile picture URL. Received in the OAuth ID token but not displayed anywhere in phew, not stored long-term, and not shared. The username you pick during onboarding replaces your Google name everywhere in the app — your Google profile name never appears.

What we do not do with Google user data.We do not sell, rent, transfer, or share it with any third party for advertising, marketing, or profiling. We do not use it to train AI or machine-learning models. We do not use it for any purpose other than authenticating you and running phew’s core features (showing your votes, preventing duplicate votes, attributing the places you add).

How long we keep it.For as long as your phew account exists. When you delete your account in the app (Settings → Delete account), the authentication record (including the Google identity link) is removed within minutes and your votes / contributions are disassociated from your identity.

What we don’t collect

Payment information. phew has no payments — nothing to collect.
Contacts, camera, microphone, photos — we never ask the browser for these.
Cross-site tracking identifiers, advertising IDs, or anything we’d sell.

How we use what we collect

To run the service: show your votes, prevent duplicate votes, tally counts on each place.
To show you the right regional map for where you are and center it near you.
To display your username on the votes you cast (so the map is a community map, not anonymous).
To contact you if something about your account needs attention.

That’s the full list. We don’t profile you, we don’t train models on your data, we don’t sell or rent it to anyone.

Who processes your data on our behalf

We use a small set of vendors who act as data processors — they hold data on our instructions, can’t use it for their own purposes:

Supabase — database + authentication.
Vercel — hosting + server logs.
Mapbox — map rendering. They receive map tile requests but no personal data.
Google — OAuth sign-in (you choose to share your account with phew through Google’s own consent screen).

How long we keep it

We keep your account data and votes for as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, we delete the account record and disassociate your votes from your identity. Server logs are kept for at most 30 days for security and debugging.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account yourself, any time, in the app or on the web: Profile → Settings → Delete account. Deletion is immediate — it removes your sign-in record, email and profile, and disassociates your votes from your identity (they remain only as anonymous counts, so the map stays honest). If you can’t access the app, email phew@getphew.app from the address on the account and we’ll delete it within 30 days.

Your rights

You can ask us to: show you what data we hold about you, correct it, export it, or delete it. Email phew@getphew.app and we’ll respond within 30 days.

If you’re in the EU/UK, GDPR gives you these rights directly and adds the right to object to processing and to complain to your local data protection authority. If you’re in California, CCPA gives you similar rights — same email, same response.

Cookies

We set a single session cookie (HTTP-only, Secure, SameSite=Lax) to keep you signed in. That’s it — no analytics cookies, no advertising cookies, no third-party trackers.

Children

phew isn’t directed at people under 13. We don’t knowingly collect data from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has signed up, email us and we’ll delete the account.

Changes

If we make material changes to this policy, we’ll update the effective date at the top and (when it matters) notify you in the app or by email. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Questions or requests: phew@getphew.app.