Privacy policy

Gay Places is a guide to gay bars, clubs and other queer spaces. It is run by Andrew Denty. This page explains what information the site collects, why, and what you can do about it. We have tried to keep it short and in plain English.

If anything here is unclear, email hello@gayplaces.co.

The short version

• You can browse the whole site without an account.
• If you sign in, we keep your email address and the details Google gives us, so you can mark places and follow what you have suggested.
• Everything you contribute, such as places, edits, reviews and photos, is checked by a person before it appears.
• We use privacy-friendly analytics that do not use cookies.
• We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising.

Browsing without an account

When you simply read the site, we do not ask you for anything. A few things happen in the background:

• Analytics. We use Vercel Web Analytics, Vercel Speed Insights and Cloudflare Web Analytics to see which pages are popular and how quickly they load. These tools are designed to work without cookies and report overall figures, such as how many people visited a page and from which country. They do not build a profile of you.
• Venue page views. We count how many times each venue page is viewed each day, as a total. The count is not linked to you.
• Maps. Our maps load their background tiles from OpenFreeMap. As with any website you visit, their servers see your IP address when the tiles are requested. We do not send them anything else.
• "Been here" and "Recommend". If you tap these buttons on a venue without signing in, your browser stores a random identifier so the site remembers your taps. It is not linked to your name or email address. Public pages only ever show totals.

Near me

The Near me page asks your browser for your location, and only with your permission. Your coordinates are sent to our server once, to find venues close to you, and are not stored.

Signing in

You can sign in with Google, or with an email address and password.

• Google. Google tells us your name, email address and profile picture. We never see your Google password. You can review or withdraw this access at any time in your Google account settings.
• Email and password. We keep your email address and a scrambled version of your password, which cannot be turned back into the password itself.

Signing in is handled by Supabase, the service that hosts our database. To keep you signed in, it sets a cookie in your browser. The cookie is used only for signing in, and it is removed when you sign out.

Your account

When you are signed in, the site links a few things to your account:

• Venues you have marked as "Been here" or "Recommend", and any tags you have given them.
• Places you have suggested, edits you have proposed, reviews you have written and photos you have uploaded, together with where each one is in our review process.

You can see all of this on your account page. Only you and the people who run the site can see it. Public pages show totals and published contributions only.

Things you contribute

Gay Places is moderated. Everything you submit is checked by a person before it appears on the site, and published contributions appear without your name.

• Suggesting a place. We keep the place name, city, type and any links you give us. If you are not signed in, you can leave an email address so we can follow up. This is optional.
• Suggesting an edit. We keep what you tell us is wrong, your note and, if you choose to give one, your email address.
• Reviews. We keep your rating and your words, linked to your account.
• Photos. We keep the image you upload and a smaller copy of it. If you upload without signing in, your browser stores a random identifier so your uploads are grouped together. Photos can carry hidden details, such as where they were taken. If you would rather not share that, remove it before uploading.
• Claiming a venue. If you tell us you run a venue, we keep your name, email address and role so we can get in touch and check the claim.

Who we share information with

We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising. A small number of companies help us run the site, and they handle information on our behalf:

• Supabase hosts our database, our sign-in system and uploaded photos.
• Vercel hosts the website and provides analytics and performance monitoring.
• Cloudflare provides privacy-friendly analytics.
• Google handles sign-in if you choose "Continue with Google".
• OpenFreeMap provides the map tiles.

Some of these companies store information in other countries, including the United States. Each is bound by its own privacy policy and data protection terms. We will also share information if the law requires us to.

How long we keep things

• Your account, and the things linked to it, stay until you ask us to delete them.
• Suggestions, edits, claims and reviews are kept as part of our moderation records, so we can see what has been checked and why.
• Analytics figures are overall totals and do not identify you.

Your rights and choices

You can ask us to:

• tell you what information we hold about you;
• correct something that is wrong;
• delete your account and the information linked to it;
• send you a copy of your information.

To do any of these, email hello@gayplaces.co. We will reply within a month. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.

If you delete your account, contributions that have already been published, such as reviews and photos, may stay on the site. They never carried your name. Tell us if you would like them removed as well.

Age

Gay Places is written for adults. Many of the places listed are bars, clubs and saunas. Please do not create an account if you are under 18.

Security

The site is served over a secure connection, access to the database is restricted row by row, and passwords are never stored in a readable form. No website can promise perfect security, but we take reasonable care.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. If the changes are significant, we will do our best to let you know.

Contact

Gay Places is run by Andrew Denty. Email hello@gayplaces.co with any questions about privacy or this policy. Our terms of use explain the ground rules for using the site.