← Back to home

Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective: May 13, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Locaro ("Locaro", "we", "our", "us") collects, uses, shares, and protects your information when you use the Locaro iOS application. Locaro is operated by an individual founder based in Canada. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use the app.

1. Information we collect

  • Authentication identifiers. When you sign in with Sign in with Apple or Google Sign-In, Firebase Authentication captures an account identifier and (depending on the provider) an email address. Important: your email is stored only inside Firebase Authentication — Locaro's own database does not store your email address. We only persist a stable account ID (UID) on our user record.
  • Profile content. Display name, username, bio, avatar URL, privacy level (public / friends / private), creator tier (if granted), and an admin flag (only for our moderation staff).
  • User-generated content. Posts, reviews, comments, guides, and the list of places you mark as visited or saved to your wishlist.
  • Photos. Avatar, post photos, and guide photos you upload. Before upload, the app re-encodes each image to JPEG using a graphics renderer, which strips all EXIF and GPS metadata. We never see your camera location or device metadata.
  • Device data. Firebase Cloud Messaging push token (used to deliver notifications), app version, locale, and (only if you opt into crash reporting via the OS) anonymous crash diagnostics via Firebase Crashlytics.
  • Analytics events. Anonymous usage events such as which screens you open and which place is viewed, via Firebase Analytics. These events include place IDs and place names but are not linked to your real-world identity.
  • Location. If you grant permission, the app uses your device location only while you are using Locaro (CLLocationManager "When In Use") to center the map and to bias nearby place search. We do not transmit your location to our servers and we do not store any location history. If you do not grant permission, the map falls back to a city you pick during onboarding (stored locally on your device only) or to Toronto.

2. What we do not collect

  • We do not sell your personal data. Ever.
  • We do not use advertising trackers, AdMob, or any third-party advertising network. Locaro has no ads.
  • We do not record continuous location history.
  • We do not access your phone book, contacts, calendar, microphone, or health data.
  • We do not store your email address in our own database (see Section 1).

3. How we use your information

  • Operate the core features of the app (map, profile, follows, posts, guides).
  • Send push notifications when someone interacts with your content (likes, comments, follows, new guides from creators you follow).
  • Detect and moderate abuse via community reports.
  • Diagnose crashes and fix bugs.
  • Understand which features people use via anonymous analytics.

4. Push notifications

Push notifications are delivered via Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) to Apple Push Notification service (APNs). A Cloud Function (onActivityCreated) generates notifications when another user likes, comments on, follows, or otherwise interacts with your content. Ambient activities (someone marking a place visited or wishlisted) are intentionally silent to reduce notification fatigue.

You can disable Locaro notifications at any time in iOS Settings → Notifications → Locaro.

5. Sub-processors and third-party services

Locaro relies on the following providers to operate. Your data flows through them subject to their own privacy policies, which we encourage you to read.

  • Google LLC — Firebase platform. Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Cloud Messaging (FCM), Analytics, Crashlytics, and Remote Config. Privacy: policies.google.com/privacy.
  • Google LLC — Maps SDK for iOS and Places API. Used to render the map and to look up restaurant details (name, hours, coordinates, photos, rating). Privacy: policies.google.com/privacy.
  • Apple Inc. — Sign in with Apple and Apple Push Notification service (APNs). Used as an authentication provider and to deliver push notifications. Privacy: apple.com/legal/privacy.

We do not use Mixpanel, Amplitude, Segment, Sentry, or any other analytics or tracking SDK beyond the Firebase services above.

6. Place data

Restaurant and venue data displayed in Locaro is sourced from the Google Places API. To manage cost and reduce request volume, place records are cached in our Firestore database for up to 30 days. Place lookups are quota-capped server-side (50 tile fetches per user per day; 1000 globally per day) via the writeTile Cloud Function.

7. Public content and visibility

Your account, posts, guides, and other content are public by default. You can change your visibility in Settings → Privacy:

  • Public — your profile and content appear in search and on the public map.
  • Friends only — only mutual followers see your content.
  • Private — your profile is hidden from search and your content is not surfaced to others.

Admins of Locaro (a small group of moderation staff) can review reported content. Reports themselves are not readable by other users (enforced at the database level via Firestore security rules).

8. Reports and moderation

When you report a post, review, comment, guide, or user, a record is written to our reports collection. The Cloud Function onReportCreated automatically sends a formatted notification email to support@locaroapp.com. Blocking another user is bidirectional: both sides automatically stop following each other and stop seeing each other's content.

9. Data retention

  • User content — kept until you delete it or your account.
  • Cached place data — automatically refreshed after 30 days.
  • Analytics events — retained according to Firebase Analytics defaults (currently 14 months).
  • Crash reports — retained for approximately 90 days by Firebase Crashlytics.
  • Reports — retained for moderation audit, including after the involved accounts are deleted.

10. Account deletion

You can delete your account at any time via Settings → Account → Delete Account. This triggers the deleteUserAccount Cloud Function, which removes:

  • Your user document, posts, comments, reviews, and guides.
  • Follow relationships (both directions) and activity records.
  • Your avatar, post photos, and guide photos from Firebase Storage.
  • Your Firebase Authentication identity.

Honest caveat: account deletion runs as a batched server operation. If the function fails partway through, some related records (for example, comments you left on other users' posts) may remain orphaned in our database while your Firebase Authentication identity is still removed — meaning you cannot log back in. If you suspect residual data, email support@locaroapp.com and we will manually clean it up.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have specific rights over your personal data. You can exercise any of these rights by emailing support@locaroapp.com.

Canada (PIPEDA — primary framework). You may request access to your personal information, correction of inaccuracies, and withdrawal of consent. You may also file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca).

European Economic Area and United Kingdom (GDPR / UK GDPR). You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, port, and object to the processing of your personal data. You can lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority. Our lawful bases are: contract (to provide the Service you requested), legitimate interests (to keep the Service safe and improve it), and consent (for push notifications and any optional features that ask for it).

California (CCPA / CPRA). You have the right to know what we collect, delete it, correct it, and opt out of sale or sharing. Locaro does not sell personal information and does not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We do not discriminate against users who exercise these rights.

12. Security

All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS). Data at rest in Firebase is encrypted by Google. Access to user records is enforced via Firestore security rules. We do not claim our systems are immune to breach; if a breach affects you, we will notify you as required by applicable law.

13. International data transfers

Locaro runs on Google Cloud. Cloud Functions are deployed in the us-central1 region. Firestore and Storage operate in regions chosen at project setup. Your data may therefore be processed outside your country of residence.

14. Children

Locaro is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we will delete it. If you believe a child is using Locaro, please email support@locaroapp.com.

15. Changes to this policy

We will notify users of material changes via an in-app banner or App Store release notes and update the "Effective" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the app after a change constitutes acceptance.

16. Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy, or about your data: support@locaroapp.com.