Last updated: 15 October 2026
PubDates is a small app for telling friends you are having a drink. This policy explains what the app stores, why, and how to get rid of it. It is written to be read, not to be scrolled past.
| Data | Why | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Apple account identifier (from Sign in with Apple) | To sign you in. We never see your email or password; Sign in with Apple gives us an opaque user id. | Firebase Authentication |
| Username and nickname | So friends can find and recognise you. | Firestore users/{uid}, usernames/{name} |
| Drink logs (timestamps, cheers count, quick replies) | The feed. Each entry is deleted 24 hours after it was logged, or as soon as you log your next drink. It leaves a friend's feed two hours after they first see it; that reading position stays on their phone and is never sent to us. | Firestore beers/{beerId} |
| Photos taken in the app | Attached to a drink log. Stored for at most 24 hours. Each friend can view a photo exactly once; the server enforces this. | Firebase Storage photos/{beerId}.jpg |
| View and screenshot receipts | A view record is how the server enforces view-once: it has to know who has already looked. A screenshot record is kept alongside it. Neither is shown to anyone in the app today — you see who cheersed or replied, never who looked. Deleted with the drink. | Firestore under beers/{beerId} |
| Friend list, friend requests, blocks | To decide whose drinks you see and who can see yours. | Firestore |
| Groups you join | The Groups tab: group name, join code, your username and nickname as a member, how many drinks you and the group logged today and in total, and the time of your first drink of the day (so the group shows who is out). | Firestore groups/{groupId} |
| Push notification token | To send "X is having a beer" and "Y cheersed you" notifications. Stored in a private subcollection only you and the server can read. Removed on sign-out. | Firestore users/{uid}/private/push |
| Place on a drink | Logging a drink asks for your location. If you grant it, the street address you are at and that position rounded to about 100 metres go on the drink. If you refuse, you type where you are instead and no position is stored. Mates see the place in the feed, and a drink with a position also shows on the Map tab. If you are at a named venue its name goes in front of the address. Drinking at home with location granted therefore shares your home address. Only people whose mate request you accepted can read it, and it is deleted with the drink. Nothing is read when you are not logging. | Firestore beers/{beerId}.place and placeCoordinate, deleted with the drink |
| What you drank | The drink type you picked (pils, wine, cocktail, ...). | Firestore beers/{beerId}.drink |
| Username changes | The time of your last username change, to limit changes to once a day. | Firestore users/{uid}.usernameChangedAt |
| Reports you file | Trust and safety review. Only the reporter's id, the reported user or drink, and the reason are stored. | Firestore reports |
We do not collect your email, contacts, photo library, analytics, or advertising identifiers. Location is read only at the moment you log a drink, and only if you allow it, to name the place it goes out with. The camera is the only photo source, and only when you tap a glass to log a drink.
Settings, then Delete account. This runs a server function that removes your profile, username reservation, drinks, photos, friendships, requests, blocks, group memberships, push token and authentication record. It is immediate and cannot be undone. Reports you filed are kept without your identifier for abuse-prevention purposes.
PubDates is about drinking and is rated 17+. It is not intended for anyone under the legal drinking age in their country.
All data is transferred over TLS. Access is governed by Firebase security rules that restrict every document to its owner and accepted friends; the rules are tested in the project's automated test suite.
Questions or deletion requests: twj.jansen@gmail.com