The short version. Near shares your live location only with the people in your game room, only while that room is active, and seekers never receive a hider’s coordinates. Near has no data brokers. Nothing is sold. Rooms delete themselves after seven days.
What Near collects
- Location. Only your most recent GPS position, shared with your room. With Android background location on, the app shows a location notice and updates about every four seconds while you move during a round, and about once a minute between rounds.
- Your account. Your email, display name and sign-in ID from Firebase, which handles sign-in, so Near never sees your password. Apple’s Hide My Email works.
- Your game. Your nickname and team, the room’s questions, answers, border and notes, and any messages and photos you send. Optional room photos keep their original pixel dimensions, Near removes embedded location data first, and only an authenticated membership in that room can open them. Near does not scan or import your photo library.
- Searches. Place searches and the map go to Apple Maps, which receives the map area, the coordinates needed, and your IP address. Transit directions go to Google Maps, and photos of a place you select load from Wikimedia.
- Alerts. If you allow them, a device token from Apple, Firebase Cloud Messaging or your browser’s push service.
- Emails. If you sign up for launch alerts or send a bug report, your email and message are sent through Resend.
- Counts. Daily totals like games started, and the city, region and country a game was created from, based on the network address. Near never uses your GPS position for this, and none of them is linked to you.
Ads and tips
In the iPhone and Android apps, the Your Marker screen in Settings offers optional reward videos that earn Scout Points, shown only when you press Watch. They come from Google AdMob and its partners. Near asks for consent first, plus Apple’s tracking prompt on iPhone, and never sends them your location or game data. Ad partners may use device identifiers and approximate location from your IP address. Tips are paid through Apple, Google or Venmo, so Near never sees your card details.
How long data is kept
| Data | Retained until |
|---|---|
| Your latest coordinate | Cleared about 2 minutes after your device stops updating, when you leave, or when the room ends |
| Room, members, questions, maps, notes | 7 days after the room is created, or immediately when the owner ends it |
| Optional room messages and sanitized photos | Deleted with the room, no later than 8 days after upload |
| Limited question geometry (such as Radar center or Thermometer reference/start/finish) | Deleted with the room, no later than 7 days after creation |
| Question type and answer, with no coordinates | Up to seven days after the room ends |
| Room map cache (place IDs, names, categories, coordinates, public photo attribution, and short-lived search/route results) | Deleted with the room, no later than 7 days after creation |
| Shared place caches (place details, typed-place completions and public place photos, with no account, room or position) | Each expires on its own clock rather than with a room |
| Daily counts and finished-game rows (no account, room, player or coordinate) | Kept as running totals; they describe days and games, never people |
| Automatic error reports (no account, room, player, location or IP address) | 90 days after the error was last seen |
| Bug reports and feature requests | Up to 1 year |
| Scout Points, cosmetics and tip records | Until you delete your account |
| Thermometer trip snapshots | 24 hours |
| Room session and optional Android location token hashes | Deleted with the room or when you leave |
| Optional room APNs device token | Deleted when you leave, when the room ends, or after 7 days |
| Optional account APNs device token | Until account deletion, or automatically after 90 days without an update |
| Notification choices | Until you change them or delete your account |
| Optional launch-alert email | Pending signups expire after 7 days; unsubscribed entries are anonymized after 30 days; confirmed entries remain until launch notifications are complete or you unsubscribe |
| Account-deletion security marker (one-way provider-identity hash and deletion time only) | Retained as a permanent credential-replay fence; it is not an account and cannot be reversed into the provider ID |
| Account record | Until you delete it, or after a year without signing in and with no remaining room membership |
| Friends, blocks, saved games and borders | Private records are removed when you delete your account; approved community borders remain public catalog content |
| Reports | Up to 1 year. Retained if the filer deletes their account, with the filer anonymised |
Your choices and rights
Leave a room, turn off location or notifications, or delete your account in Settings, then Personal Settings, then Delete Account, or on the web account-deletion page.
James Tumino is the controller of your data. The legal bases are running your game, legitimate interests in security and the counts above, and your consent for alerts, photos and personalised ads. You can ask to access, correct, delete or export your data, object to its use, and withdraw consent at any time, or complain to your data protection authority. Near does not sell your personal information. You can opt out of targeted advertising in Google’s consent form or Apple’s tracking prompt. Cloudflare, Google and Apple may process data outside your country.
Children
Near is rated 13+ and is not directed at children under 13. Only play with people who agreed to play.
Contact
Effective October 15, 2026. Questions or requests: jamestumino2@gmail.com