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Privacy Policy

Effective October 1, 2026

Place Notes (“the app”) is operated by Affinitive Partners LLC (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what information the app and the placenotes.net website collect, how it's used, and the choices you have.

1. Information we collect

Account information

When you create an account, we collect your email address and a password. Your password is stored only in encrypted (hashed) form, and we can't see it. You also choose a username, which is shown to people when you share a note with them.

Your notes

For each note, we store the text you write and the place it's attached to. That includes the place's name, address, map coordinates, and chain (for example, “Costco”) if it's a chain-wide note. We also store when the note was created and changed. If a note was shared with you, we store the username of the person who shared it. Notes are saved on your phone and synced to our servers so they're available when you sign in on another device.

Location

With your permission, the app uses your phone's location to:

• Show places near you and sort search results by distance, while the app is open.
• Remind you of your notes when you're near a place you've written about. If you turn on background alerts (“Always” location permission), this also works when the app is closed.

Deciding whether you're near a place happens on your phone. Your location and location history are not sent to or stored on our servers. The coordinates stored with a note are the place's coordinates, not yours. To find places, the app sends an approximate search area around you to the place-search services described in section 4. You can turn location access off at any time in your phone's settings. The app then can't show nearby places or send reminders.

Notes you share

When you share a note, we save a copy of it on our servers. The copy includes the place's name, address, and coordinates, the note text, your username, and any supporter badges you own. We then create a link to it. Anyone who has the link can view that note, including people who don't use Place Notes. A shared link can't be found except by someone who has it, and we don't publish or list shared notes. You can turn off any link at any time. If the person you share with adds the note to their own Place Notes, it becomes their own copy under their account.

Information collected automatically

Our service providers keep standard technical logs, such as IP address, device and browser type, and request times, when the app or website connects to them. They use these logs for security, abuse prevention, and reliability. The app and website don't use cookies for tracking. They don't include advertising or analytics software, and they don't track you across other apps or websites.

Purchases and badges

If you buy a supporter badge, Apple or Google processes the payment. We never receive your payment card details. We receive a record of the purchase: which badge, the date, and a transaction ID, linked to your account ID so your badge follows you to a new phone. To award progression badges, we keep a count of how many notes you've written and shared.

Notifications

Reminders are created on your phone as local notifications. We don't collect push notification tokens.

2. How we use information

• To provide the app: storing and syncing your notes, finding places, and sending reminders.
• To run your account: sign-in, email confirmation, and password reset.
• To show your username on notes you share.
• To keep the service secure, prevent abuse, and fix problems.
• To comply with the law.
• To create anonymized notes, as described in section 3.

We don't sell your personal information, share it for advertising, or use it to build advertising profiles.

3. Anonymized notes

We may anonymize the notes you write and then use, publish, or share them, including with other companies and for commercial purposes. For example, we might use them to improve Place Notes, to show what people say about a place, or to create reports or datasets about places. To anonymize a note, we:

• remove your email, username, account ID, and other account details;
• remove or generalize anything in the note text that identifies you or another person, such as names, phone numbers, or email addresses; and
• take reasonable steps so the note can't be linked back to you, for example by not including exact timestamps or combining it with your other notes in a way that could identify you.

We won't try to re-identify anonymized notes. We'll require anyone we share them with not to try either. The place a note is about, such as a store's name and location, isn't personal information and may stay with it. Anonymized notes aren't personal information, so they may be kept and used after you delete the original note or your account. We never use or share notes in a form that identifies you, except as this policy describes. For example, a note you share is shown with your username to people who have the link.

4. Service providers

We use these companies to run Place Notes. They process information on our behalf and only as needed to provide their service.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect the rights and safety of our users or others, or as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. In a sale, this policy continues to apply to your information.

5. How long we keep information

• Account and notes: kept until you delete them or delete your account.
• Deleted notes: when you delete a note, its text and address are erased right away. A record that the note existed (the place and dates) is kept for up to 30 days so the deletion reaches your other devices. After that, it's permanently removed.
• Shared notes: a shared link keeps working until you turn it off (Account → Notes I've shared → Stop sharing) or delete your account. Then the shared copy is removed from our servers. Deleting your own note doesn't turn off links you already shared. Copies other people added to their own notes are theirs, and stay in their accounts.
• Account deletion: deleting your account (Account → Delete account) permanently deletes your account, username, notes, and the notes you shared. Copies can remain in our providers' backups for a limited time before they're overwritten.
• Anonymized notes: may be kept indefinitely, because they can't be linked to you (see section 3).
• Signing out removes your notes from that phone. They stay in your account.

6. Your choices and rights

• Access and correction: you can see and edit your notes and username in the app.
• Deletion: you can delete individual notes, turn off shared links, or delete your whole account in the app. You can also email privacy@placenotes.net. Deletion doesn't apply to notes that were already anonymized, because they can't be linked to you.
• Location and notifications: you control these in your phone's settings.
• Other requests: depending on where you live (for example, in California, the EU, or the UK), you may have rights to get a copy of your information, restrict or object to its use, or complain to a data protection authority. To make a request, email us at the address below. We won't discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

7. Security

Information is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Database access rules make sure each account can only read and change its own notes. No system is perfectly secure, so we can't guarantee absolute security. Please use a strong, unique password.

8. Children

Place Notes isn't directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we'll delete it.

9. International users

Place Notes is operated from the United States, and your information is stored on servers in the United States. If you use the app from outside the U.S., your information will be transferred to and processed in the U.S.

10. Changes to this policy

We'll post any changes on this page and update the effective date. If we make significant changes, we'll let you know in the app or by email before they take effect.

11. Contact us

Affinitive Partners LLC
653 Augusta Drive
Moraga, CA 94556
Email: privacy@placenotes.net