Privacy notice

What we collect, why, and what you can do about it. Version 2.16, published 23 October 2026.

The short version

1. Who we are

Whimly is the name of this service. It is run by NOMADTEC LTD, a company registered in England and Wales. The app has one name and the company behind it has another, which is ordinary and is said here once so it is not a surprise later.

Company number16981632
Registered office20 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU
Contact for anything on this pageprivacy@whimly.co.uk

We are the data controller. That means we decide what is collected and why, and we are the ones responsible for it.

If you want to report something unsafe rather than ask about your data, use reports@whimly.co.uk — a person reads both.

2. What we collect

If you do not have an account

You can browse the map, open events and follow shared links without signing in. We do not create an account for you and we do not track you across other websites.

Our hosting provider processes your IP address to serve the site, as every website does. We use a privacy-friendly analytics tool that counts page views without cookies and without identifying you.

We also count a few things people do — opening an event, opening the sign-in screen, signing in, making an event, opening a shared link, opening or using an invite link, saying whether you are going — so we can see which parts of Whimly work and which do not. This uses PostHog. Unless you say yes to being recorded (below), it stores nothing on your device, and it never knows who you are, even if you are signed in: it is not told your account, your email address, or which event or profile you were looking at. To tell one visit from another for a day, PostHog works out a code from your IP address and browser and throws the key away every 24 hours, so visits cannot be joined up after that. When you first arrive, it is also told what kind of place you came from — a search engine, a social media site, a link someone shared, our weekly email, a venue’s own website, another site, or nowhere — but never the address of the page you came from. You can say no to it — see section 12.

Only if you say yes, we also record how you move around the app — the screens you open, the events and profiles you look at, the map, and where you tap — so we can see where people get stuck. We ask first, and saying no is as easy as saying yes. A recording shows the app much as you saw it, including its text, events, pictures and the map. Everything you type is hidden, and so are other people's names, and nothing is recorded while you are looking at your friends, your invites, an invite link or your account. A recording is never linked to your name, email address or account. It is not anonymous, though, because it shows what you looked at, and that is why we ask first. To make a recording, PostHog keeps a note of the visit on your device until you close the tab. If you said yes before 10 October 2026 we will ask you again, because recordings now show more than they did.

We also keep our own count of how many times each profile and each event has been opened, and how many times an event was shown on the map — someone tapped its pin and its card came up — so the people who run them can see whether anyone is looking. All we keep is a daily total and, for openings, roughly how people arrived — from the map, from a link someone shared, or from one of our emails. There is nothing in it that says who you are, nothing that could be traced back to you, and nothing is stored on your device to do it. We keep those totals for a little over a year.

If you joined the waiting list before we opened, we keep your email address, the date you asked, which page you asked from, and a random code that makes the unsubscribe link in your email work. If you unsubscribe we note that, so we do not email you again. If we let you in early we note that too.

There is no name, no account, and nothing about what you looked at. We keep the date because it is our record that you asked, and we would need it if you ever said we had emailed you without being asked.

If you have an account

WhatWhere it comes from
Email addressYou, when you sign in. Stored separately from everything else, and no venue or organiser can ever reach it.
Display name, username, pictureYou. If you sign in with Google we take your name and picture from Google to save you typing them.
A password or passkey, if you set oneYou. We keep only a scrambled form of a password, which cannot be turned back into the password itself. For a passkey we keep only the public half: the private half never leaves your phone or computer. We also keep a name for each passkey and when it was added and last used, so you can tell your devices apart and remove one from your account settings.
A confirmation that you are 13 or overYou. We record that you confirmed and when. We do not ask for your date of birth and we do not store one.
Events you create, and profiles you runYou.
Friends, and friend requestsYou and the other person.
Events you say you are going toYou.
Invitations sent to you or by youYou and whoever invited you.
Your friend link — the link itself, so you can always see and copy it, and when you last reset it. Who asked to be your friend through it, and when. If you asked someone through their friend link, that you didYou. The person who asked, and the person they asked, each see the request.
Invite links — the one-use links you could make before 22 October 2026: when you made each one, and whether and when it was used. If you joined with someone's link, whose link it wasYou, and the other person.
Profiles and places you followYou.
Reports you make about an event or a profileYou, including anything you type in the box.
Sign-in timesAutomatically, when you sign in.

If you are named in something someone else wrote

Someone might mention you in an event description, or name you in a report. We did not collect that from you, and often we will not know how to contact you about it. If you find something about yourself on this service, tell us and we will look at it — see Your rights.

3. Why we use it, and our legal basis

What we doWhyLegal basis
Run your account, show you the map, save what you makeYou asked us toContract
Let you invite someone to Whimly with a link, and make you friends if they say yesYou asked us to, by making or using the linkContract
See how many people joined from each person's invite links or asked to be friends through their friend link, and how many of them went on to run a profile, publish an event or pay us. These are numbers for each person, never a list of whoTo find out whether invite links are workingLegitimate interests
Let friends invite you to events, and tell you when they doIt is the service you signed up toContract and our legitimate interests in a working product
Tell you when something changes about an event you said you were going toYou would want to know, and nobody should turn up to a cancelled eventLegitimate interests
Send a report to the organiser of an event you reportedTo keep the service safeLegal obligation and legitimate interests
Send you the emails you switched on — the weekly one about a place, or a profile's ownYou explicitly asked for themConsent
Email you once when Whimly opens, if you joined the waiting listYou explicitly asked us toConsent
List events run by venues and organisationsSo the map is useful on the day you arriveLegitimate interests
Keep in touch with venues and organisers about their listingsSo the people who run them can take them over, correct them or add to themLegitimate interests
Count how the app is used, in aggregateTo make it betterLegitimate interests
Record how you move around the app, showing what you see but never what you typeTo see where people get stuck. Only if you say yesConsent
Check that somebody signing in or resetting a password is a person, not an automated programPrograms that pretend to sign in can flood strangers with our emails and stop real people signing inLegitimate interests

Where the basis is consent, you can withdraw it at any time, and it is one click in any email we send. For recording, it is one tap in section 12 below. Withdrawing does not affect anything we sent before.

Where the basis is legitimate interests, we have weighed our reasons against your rights and concluded ours do not override yours. You can ask us to explain that, or object to it.

4. Emails you asked for

There are two email settings here, and both are off until you turn them on.

For both:

The waiting list is a third thing, and it is for people who do not have an account. Before Whimly opened, you could ask us to tell you when it did. If you did:

One email is not on a setting, and it is the one you would want: if you say you are going to an event, the person running it can tell you when something about it changes — a new time, a new place, or that it is cancelled. That is the point of saying you are coming rather than marketing, so there is nothing to opt in to. It stops when the event does, and each of those emails has a link to stop updates about that one event.

5. The map

The least obvious thing on this page.

The map images come from OpenFreeMap, a free map service built on OpenStreetMap data. They are fetched by your device, directly from them — not through us.

That means OpenFreeMap receives your IP address and knows which part of the map you are looking at, whenever you use the map. That happens whether or not you have an account. We have no agreement with them and we do not receive anything back.

We are telling you because it is a real disclosure to a third party and it is invisible unless somebody says so.

Until 29 August 2026 the maps came from the OpenStreetMap Foundation on the same terms. Changing supplier did not change what is disclosed — only who receives it. The only way to stop a third party seeing this at all is for us to serve the map ourselves, which we have not done yet.

6. What other people can see

Your friend list is private. Nobody can see who your friends are. There is no public follower count and no public list of who is going to an event.

You cannot be found by browsing. There is no directory of users and no search by name. Somebody can only find you if they already know your exact username, or if you already have a connection with them. This is deliberate.

If you send someone the link to one of your own events, they can see your name and picture and offer to add you as a friend. You decide whether to accept, and you can turn this off in your account settings — the link still works, it just stops introducing you. This applies only to events you created yourself, not to events run by a profile.

Your friend link. On your Friends page there is one link you can copy and send to anyone, however you like. Anyone signed in who opens it can see your name and picture, which is what knowing your username already lets them see, and can ask to be your friend. They don't become your friend unless you accept, and you see their name before you decide. Each person can ask through your link once. If your link gets out, reset it: the old one stops working at once, for everyone. Someone who opens it without signing in isn't told whose it is.

If someone sends you their friend link, opening it while signed in shows you whose it is and does nothing else. Asking sends them a friend request with your name on it.

One-use invite links, which you could make until 22 October 2026, work differently, and those already sent keep working until they run out. If you made one and sent it to someone, the person who uses it can see your name and picture, and can add you as a friend with one tap. You don't have to accept a request afterwards, because making the link was your yes. Each link:

You can see whether each of your links has been used. You cannot see who used it unless they become your friend, and if they do, we tell you straight away, by name, on your Friends page, so you can remove or block them if they are not who you meant. We never ask for the other person's email address: you send the link yourself, however you like.

If someone sends you an invite link, opening it while signed in uses it up and shows you who sent it. It does not make you their friend: you choose that with a tap. Before you can add anyone as a friend, you need a username and to confirm you are 13 or over.

Public events run by a profile can appear in search engines such as Google, with the profile's name, the place and the time. Events you make yourself, as a person, never do, and nor does anything about who is going.

There are no direct messages on this service — no private messaging, no comments, no replies. An invitation is a permission, not a message.

If you join a profile's audience or say you are going to an event, the people who run that profile or event can see your display name and picture. They can never see your email address, they cannot export a list of you, and they cannot email you directly — anything they send goes through us, and only if you turned that email on.

If you administer a profile, you can invite somebody by typing their email address. If you do, you will learn whether that address already has an account here. That is the only place anyone can learn anything about an email address, it works one address at a time, and it tells you nothing else.

If you report something, we do not tell the person you reported who reported them.

7. Listings about venues and organisers

Some listings on the map were compiled by us from public sources — a venue's own website, a council listing, a poster — rather than posted by the venue.

8. Who else sees your data

We use other companies to run the service. They act on our instructions and each is under a contract that requires that — with two exceptions, Stripe and Cloudflare, noted under the table, which also make some decisions of their own.

WhoWhat forWhere
SupabaseDatabase and sign-inData stored in Frankfurt, Germany. Supabase is a US company.
Fly.ioRuns our APIData stored in Frankfurt, Germany. Fly.io is a US company.
VercelRuns the website, and privacy-friendly analyticsUS company
ResendSends our emailsEmails handled in Ireland. Resend is a US company.
ZohoOur own mailbox — where an email to us arrives and is read — and our notes of conversations with venues and organisersMail and notes stored in the EU. Zoho is an Indian company with a European entity.
WhatsApp (Meta)Messages with venues and organisers who chose to talk to us on WhatsAppUS company
SentryTells us when something breaksData stored in Germany. Sentry is a US company.
PostHogCounts how the app is used, without knowing who you are, and records how you use it if you said yes (section 2)Data stored in the EU. PostHog is a US company.
GoogleOnly if you choose “sign in with Google”US company
CloudflareChecks that whoever is signing in or resetting a password is a person, not an automated program. It sees your IP address and some details about your browser at that moment, and never what you typeUS company, with servers around the world
StripePayments, only if you pay usUS company, with a UK entity

Stripe is different from the others on this list. As well as processing payments on our instructions, it is required by law to run its own anti-money-laundering, sanctions and fraud checks, and for those it decides for itself what to do with your data. Its own privacy policy covers that and we cannot instruct it otherwise. If you pay us says the same thing where you would actually be reading about payments.

Cloudflare is different too. As well as checking sign-ins for us, it uses what it sees to get better at spotting automated programs, and for that it decides for itself what to do. Its own privacy policy covers that and we cannot instruct it otherwise.

We never sell your data, and we never share it for anyone else's advertising.

Some of these are US companies, so your data may be handled outside the UK. Where that happens we rely on the safeguards the law requires — the UK's International Data Transfer Addendum, or an equivalent — and we keep those agreements on file. Your account data itself is stored in Germany, which UK law treats as offering equivalent protection.

We will also share information if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.

9. How long we keep things

10. If you delete your account

You can close your account yourself, from your account settings. Here is exactly what happens.

It happens straight away, and you have a week to change your mind. The moment you confirm, your account disappears — no name, no byline, no friend, no follower, nowhere. Your information is deleted for good seven days later. If you sign in again before then, the whole thing is cancelled and everything comes back. That week is there because losing an account you did not mean to lose should be an inconvenience rather than something permanent.

We remove your name, picture and username, your friends, your RSVPs, invitations to you, tickets you hold, the profiles you follow, your area alerts, your settings, the events you made that nobody else was going to, your friend link and who asked through it, and the invite links you made. If you asked someone through their friend link, the record that you did goes too. If you joined using someone else's invite link, we take your name off their link, so they can still see it was used but not by whom.

We keep, without your name, the things other people rely on: events belonging to a profile you helped run, updates you posted to them, headcounts you recorded, invitations you sent, and profiles you set up. These stop being connected to you. This is the part people are most often surprised by, so we show you the actual numbers before you confirm rather than afterwards.

If anything you put on here was reported, the summary of those reports stays too, with your name taken off it in the same way. It is a count of what was reported and when — never what anyone wrote about it, and never who wrote it. How long we keep things says what is in it.

If people were coming to something of yours, we tell them first. Any event you were running that somebody had said they were coming to, or held a ticket for, is cancelled and everyone attached to it is told — and only then is it deleted. Nobody turns up to something that is not happening.

If you are the only person running a profile, you have to hand it over to another operator or close it before you can close your account. A profile has an audience and people relying on it, and it should not simply be abandoned.

Four things we cannot delete, and it is better you know now:

11. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can:

Email privacy@whimly.co.uk and we will reply within one month. It is free.

Two honest limits, so you are not surprised:

12. Cookies and what is stored on your device

We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. The only thing we ask permission for is recording how you use the app (section 2), and nothing is recorded until you say yes.

What is stored on your device:

WhatWhy
Your sign-in sessionSo you stay signed in. Only if you sign in.
A one-time check while you sign in with GoogleSo we can tell that Google’s answer is for the sign-in you started, in this tab. Two random codes and the page to return you to. Deleted as soon as Google sends you back, and never there unless you choose Google.
A short list of shared links you have openedSo an unlisted event you were sent stays reachable. Contains no identifier.
Whether you made the map on the event form taller or shorterSo it stays the way you left it. A single yes-or-no setting about a box on a screen.
Your colour choice: light, dark or the same as your deviceSo the site looks the way you picked it.
Which “add them as a friend?” offers you have closedSo we do not ask you about the same person again. It holds the ID of that person’s account and nothing else, and it stays on your device.
Whether you said yes or no to being recordedSo we do not ask again, and so a no stays a no. Only there once you have answered.
A note of the current visit, for the recordingOnly if you said yes to being recorded. It is PostHog’s, holds a random code for this visit and nothing about who you are, and is deleted when you close the tab.
That you said no to being countedSo we keep not counting you. Only there if you say no (below). It holds that one answer and nothing else.
A note from Cloudflare’s check, on the sign-in and password pagesKept by Cloudflare inside its check, not by us, to help tell people from automated programs. It holds no name or email address. It is needed for signing in to be safe, so we do not ask first.

Our analytics does not use cookies and does not follow you to other sites. If that ever changes we will ask you first, before anything is set.

If your browser sends a “do not track” or Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a no and count nothing.

13. Children

You must be 13 or over to have an account here. We ask you to confirm that. Anyone can browse the map without an account, so we do not pretend that a checkbox keeps children off the service — it does not, and we would rather say so.

We have written this notice to be readable rather than lawyerly for that reason. We do not profile children, we do not advertise to anyone, we have no messaging, and we never use your device’s location.

If you are a parent or carer and want to know what we hold about your child, contact us.

14. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us first — we would rather fix it.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or 0303 123 1113.

14a. If you pay us

If you subscribe to a plan, or buy extra event slots:

15. Changes

If we change this notice we will publish the new version here with a new date, and keep the old one. If a change is significant we will tell account holders directly rather than quietly updating the page.


Version 2.16 — published 23 October 2026. Changed since version 2.15: our analytics now also counts opening an event on the map, and whether the person was signed in at the time, so we can see what people look at before they decide to join. It is never told which event. Section 2 says so.

Version 2.15 — published 22 October 2026. Changed since version 2.14: one-use invite links are replaced by a friend link. You have one link you can always see, copy and reset. Anyone who opens it can see your name and ask to be your friend, and you decide whether to accept. Sections 2, 3, 6, 9 and 10 say what we keep about it, for how long, and who sees it. One-use links already sent keep working until they run out.

Version 2.14 — published 21 October 2026. Changed since version 2.13: when you first arrive, our analytics is now told what kind of place you came from — a search engine, social media, a shared link, our weekly email, a venue’s website, another site, or nowhere — so we can see which of them bring people to Whimly. It is never told the address you came from, and nothing else about it has changed. Section 2 says so.

Version 2.13 — published 21 October 2026. Changed since version 2.12: the words only. What a venue, creator or club runs on Whimly is now called a “profile” (it used to be a “page”), and where this notice used to say “your profile” about your own account it now says “your account” or names what it means. What we collect, why, who sees it and how long we keep it have not changed. Older entries below use the old words.

Version 2.12 — published 20 October 2026. Changed since version 2.11: when we talk to a venue or organiser about their listing, we keep a note of who we spoke to and what was said. Section 7 says what, section 8 says where it is kept, and section 9 says for how long. Nothing else has changed.

Version 2.11 — published 15 October 2026. Changed since version 2.10: when we count how many people joined from someone's invite links, we also count how many of them went on to run a page, publish an event or pay us. Section 3 says so. These are numbers for each person who made links, counted only from when the link was used, and they never say which person did what. Nothing else has changed.

Version 2.10 — published 15 October 2026. Changed since version 2.9: you can invite someone to Whimly with a link of your own. Section 6 says what that link shows and to whom: the person who uses it can see your name and add you as a friend with one tap; each link works once, stops after 14 days, and can be cancelled; we tell you by name when someone becomes your friend through one; and we never ask for the other person's email address. Section 2 adds invite links to what we keep and what we count, section 3 adds two rows, section 9 says how long links are kept, and section 10 what happens to them when you delete your account. Section 6 also now says that public events run by a page can appear in search engines, and that events you make yourself do not. If you never make or use an invite link, nothing else has changed. There was no version 2.8.

Version 2.9 — published 14 October 2026. Changed since version 2.7: our own count now also says how many times an event was shown on the map — its pin tapped and its card opened — as well as how many times it was opened. Section 2 says so. It is the same kind of count as before: a daily total, nothing about who you are, nothing stored on your device, and kept for the same time. Nothing else has changed.

Version 2.7 — published 13 October 2026. Changed since version 2.6: signing in with Google now comes back to our own address rather than our database provider’s, so Google’s screen names Whimly. Section 12 lists the one-time check that keeps while you are away at Google. Google learns nothing it did not before, and nothing else has changed.

Version 2.6 — published 13 October 2026. Changed since version 2.5: Whimly is open to everyone, so the pass that let invited testers in is gone from section 12, and nothing replaces it. Sections 2 and 4 now talk about the waiting list in the past tense: nobody new can join it, and the people on it get the one email we promised, to say we have opened. Nothing else has changed.

Version 2.5 — published 13 October 2026. Changed since version 2.4: when you sign in or ask to reset your password, a check from Cloudflare now makes sure you are a person and not an automated program. Section 3 says why, section 8 adds Cloudflare to the companies we use, and section 12 lists the one thing its check keeps on your device. It never sees what you type. Nothing else has changed.

Version 2.4 — published 10 October 2026. Changed since version 2.3: if you say yes to being recorded, a recording now shows the app much as you saw it — its text, events, pictures and the map — instead of hiding them. What you type and other people's names are still hidden, recordings are still never linked to your account, and event and page screens are now recorded while friends, invites, invite links and your account are not. Section 2 and the recording row in section 3 say so. Everybody who said yes before is asked again. If you said no, or were never asked, nothing has changed.

Version 2.3 — published 7 October 2026. Changed since version 2.2: if you say yes, we can now record how you move around the app, with all text, typing, pictures and the map hidden. Section 2 explains it, section 3 adds it with consent as the legal basis, section 9 says recordings are deleted after 30 days, and section 12 lists the two things it stores on your device and how to change your answer. If you say no, or are never asked, nothing about how we treat you has changed.

Version 2.2 — published 7 October 2026. Changed since version 2.1: we now count a few things people do in the app, using PostHog, without cookies and without knowing who you are. Section 2 says what is counted, section 8 adds PostHog to the list of companies we use, and section 12 adds a way to say no and the one thing saying no stores on your device. Nothing else has changed.

Version 2.1 — published 7 October 2026. Changed since version 2.0: you can now report a page as well as an event, so section 2 says “reports you make about an event or a page”. A report about a page is kept and protected in exactly the same way as a report about an event. Nothing else has changed.

Version 2.0 — published 6 October 2026. Changed since version 1.9: section 13 used to say that location sharing is off unless you turn it on. Whimly has never had a location setting, because it never uses your device’s location, so that sentence now says so. Nothing about how we use your data has changed.

Version 1.9 — published 6 October 2026. Changed since version 1.8: section 12 now lists three more things kept on your device: your colour choice, which “add them as a friend?” offers you have closed, and the pass that lets invited testers in. Each was added to the site in September and should have been listed then. None of them is used for advertising or tracking. Nothing about how we use your data has changed.

Version 1.8 — published 24 September 2026. Changed since version 1.7: section 2 now lists passwords and passkeys. You have been able to set a password since 4 September, and it should have been listed then. We keep only a scrambled form of a password and only the public half of a passkey. Nothing about how we use your data has changed.

Version 1.7 — published 18 September 2026. Changed since version 1.6: if you send somebody the link to an event you created yourself, they can now see your name and offer to add you as a friend. Section 6 says so, and says you can switch it off. Nothing else changed: there is still no directory, still no search by name, and this does not apply to events run by a page.

Version 1.6 — published 16 September 2026. Changed since version 1.5: we have started keeping our own count of how many times a page or an event has been opened, so that the people who run them can see whether anyone is looking. Section 2 says what that count contains, which is a daily total and roughly how people arrived. It holds nothing that identifies anybody and nothing is stored on your device for it, so section 12 is unchanged and there is still no banner to click.

Version 1.5 — published 5 September 2026. Changed since version 1.4: the waiting list. Whimly is not open yet, and while it is not, the front page asks for an email address so we can tell you when it is. That adds something this notice had never had to describe — a person we hold data about who has no account at all — so section 2 gains what we keep for them, section 3 gains a row, section 4 explains the two emails and where the unsubscribe is, and section 9 says how long it is kept.

Version 1.4 — published 4 September 2026. Changed since version 1.3: the Fly.io row above now says where the data is — Frankfurt, Germany — rather than only that Fly is a US company. Nothing moved; the description was wrong. Every other company in that table already named a location, and Fly runs the part of the service that holds the most.

Version 1.3 — published 4 September 2026. Changed since version 1.2: Your rights now says you can withdraw consent for any email you switched on, not only the weekly one — there have been two settings since version 1.0 and that line still described one.

Version 1.2 — published 4 September 2026. Changed since version 1.1: How long we keep things and If you pay us now say what happens to the message our payment provider sends when we never manage to act on it. Both said the contents go “as soon as we have acted on it”, which was true for the ordinary case and silent about the one that goes wrong.

Version 1.1 — published 3 September 2026. Changed since version 1.0, the same day: the list in Cookies and what is stored on your device was one row short, and now names the setting that remembers how tall you made the map on the event form.

Version 1.0 — published 3 September 2026. The first published version.

Back to the map