Spark Privacy Policy

Spark treats two kinds of photo completely differently. Which one you used is labelled on every photo in the app.

Photos you take inside Spark, at a venue — these are public. When you use "Take photo" on a place, the photo is uploaded to our servers and shown on that venue's page to everyone using Spark. Along with the image we send and store:

• your location at the moment you took it, and how accurate that location was
• the time it was taken
• the distance we measured between you and the venue
• your device identifier (see below), and your account identifier if you're signed in

We use this to confirm you were actually at the place. That check is what makes a photo worth showing to a stranger. We keep this information for as long as the photo exists, including for photos that failed the check and were never published — those are stored but never shown to anyone else.

Photos you pick from your camera roll — these stay on your phone. They are never uploaded, never public, and are visible only to you on that device.

You can delete any photo you've added at any time. Deleting a public one removes it for everyone.

If you grant permission, Spark uses your location in two ways:

• To show places near you ("Spark it", nearby search). This happens on your device — the coordinate isn't sent to us.
• To verify a photo you take at a venue. This coordinate is sent to our servers and stored, as described above.

We ask for precise location because an approximate one can't tell whether you're inside a particular bar. You can decline, or turn it off later in iOS Settings; Spark still works, but photos you take won't be able to earn rewards or appear publicly.

Spark creates a random identifier for your installation. It is not your name, your Apple ID, or an advertising identifier, and it is not shared with advertisers or data brokers.

We send it with photo uploads and with reports, to enforce rate limits, stop duplicate submissions, and act on abuse. Deleting and reinstalling the app creates a new one.

Photos taken in the app are public content. Before your first upload you're asked to agree to the photo rules — no offensive or illegal content, don't photograph strangers without asking, and only post what's yours to post.

Anyone can report a photo, including people without an account. A photo reported by two or more people is hidden automatically while it's reviewed. We may remove content and block devices or accounts that repeatedly break the rules. We keep records of removed content and reports for a limited period so we can enforce these rules.

You can use Spark without an account.

If you choose to sign in:

• Sign in with Apple — we store an opaque Apple user identifier and, only if you choose to share it, your email address. Apple lets you hide your real address behind a private relay. We don't receive your name, contacts, or Apple password.
• Phone number — if you sign in with a phone number, we store that number to identify your account and send you a one-time code. We don't use it for marketing.

Signing in lets us attribute the photos you contribute, sync your saved places across devices, and support shared lists.

Unless you sign in, these live only on your phone: your saved places and folders, your notes, verdicts and what-to-order, your camera-roll photos, and your Spark Tokens and progress. Spark Tokens have no cash value and can't be bought, sold or transferred.

When you plan a night with someone in the iMessage extension, your choices are encoded into the message you send and exchanged directly between phones. We don't store the contents of your conversation.

Some venues show a short summary distilled from publicly available reviews. To produce these, the venue's name and public review text are sent to an AI provider (OpenAI or Google Gemini). No information about you is included.

Spark uses:

Our servers and providers automatically receive standard technical data such as your IP address, used to operate, secure and debug the service.

We cache venue information (availability, photos, review summaries) on our backend to keep the app fast. That cache is about venues, not about you.

We do not sell your personal information, and we don't share it with advertisers.

• Delete an individual photo any time from its place page — public photos are removed for everyone, along with the location record attached to them.
• Deleting the app removes everything stored on your device.
• To delete an account and the data associated with it, email us at peter@allspicelabs.com and we'll action it.

Spark is intended for adults planning a night out and is not directed at children.

If we make a material change to what we collect or how we use it, we'll update this page and the date at the top.

Questions, requests, or content you want removed: peter@allspicelabs.com