Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 29, 2026

Beacons (“we,” “us”) helps you make spontaneous plans with people you already know. Privacy isn’t a feature we bolted on—it’s the reason the product works the way it does. This policy explains what we collect, why, and what we never do with it.

The short version

Visibility is double opt-in: people only see your beacons if you shared with them and they accepted.
Other users only ever see a coarse area for your beacon. Your precise meetup location is revealed only to friends who join it.
We store phone numbers used for contact matching as salted hashes, not as readable numbers.
We don’t sell your data, we don’t show ads, and there is no public feed.

Information we collect

Account information. Your phone number (verified by one-time SMS code) and the name you choose to display.
Location. Your approximate location, used to decide which beacons are relevant to you and who is close enough to receive yours. When you create a beacon, its meetup spot is stored so it can be shared with participants who join.
Contacts you choose to match. If you use “find friends,” the phone numbers you select are hashed on your device—the numbers themselves are never sent to our servers in any form. We store only those hashes, further protected with a server-side secret. We never message your contacts—invitations are always sent by you, from your own apps.
Content you create. Beacons (activity, time, place) and chat messages inside beacons you’ve joined.
Device information. A push notification token, platform (iOS/Android), and timezone, so notifications arrive correctly and quiet hours are respected.

How we use it

To run the service: showing beacons to the right people, sending push notifications, powering beacon chats.
To protect the service: rate limiting, abuse prevention, and enforcement of blocks between users.
We do not sell or rent your information, use it for advertising, or share it with data brokers.

What other users see

Your name, and beacons you create—only if there is an accepted connection between you.
A coarse area for a beacon before joining; the precise pin only after joining.
Your phone number is never shown to other users.

Service providers

We use a small number of infrastructure providers to run Beacons: Google Firebase (phone sign-in and push notifications), Supabase (database hosting), and Google Maps (place search when composing a beacon). Each receives only what it needs to perform its function.

Retention and deletion

Beacons are time-limited and expire on their own. Expired invites are purged on a schedule. You can request deletion of your account and associated data at any time by contacting hi@sendbeacons.com.

Children

Beacons is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If we make material changes to this policy, we’ll update this page and note the new effective date above. During the private beta, expect this document to evolve alongside the product.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email hi@sendbeacons.com.