Privacy policy

Last updated 13 November 2026

Short version: we collect only what the app needs to work. We don’t sell your data or use it to target ads, and you can delete your account and most of your data from inside the app at any time. We keep some safety records for a set time (see How long we keep it). Businesses can pay to have an event Featured. Featured events are labelled, and organisers only see totals.

Who we are

Vesica is run by Vesica Club, a registered business name (ABN 31 542 879 665), based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Contact: hello@vesica.club.

What we collect

• Account: your email address, or your Apple ID if you use Sign in with Apple. Passwords are handled by Google Firebase; we never see them.
• Profile: your name, one profile photo, the drawn avatar you pick, an optional short bio, and your date of birth. Your photo is kept in your private profile.
• Phone number: only if you verify it to host a plan.
• Agreeing to the Terms: when you sign up, we record that you agreed to the Terms and Privacy Policy, which versions, and when.
• Activity: events you say you’re going to, plans you host or join (other members of that plan or event chat see when you joined and how many were going then), messages you send in event chats, any blocks or reports you make, your answers to our short after-event check-in (“Did you meet?”), and when you open the app: the first and most recent day, and how many days you’ve opened it (noted once a day, so we can see whether people come back).
• Notification preferences: whether you’ve turned on “What’s on” notes, and when we last sent you one (so you never get more than two a day).
• Device: a notification token so we can send you push notifications, and crash reports (via Google Firebase Crashlytics) that help us fix problems. On Android, Translate runs on your phone with Google’s ML Kit: the text you translate never leaves the phone, but ML Kit sends Google basic diagnostics (device and app details, the languages used and an install ID) to keep it working. The apps use Apple’s and Google’s app-integrity checks to block fake apps and bots. On Android, phone verification sometimes shows a Google reCAPTCHA page.
• App usage: to see what’s working and where people get stuck, we record which days you open the app and whether you’ve done a few key steps (viewed an event, tapped “I’m going” or Join, opened its chat, sent a first message, started or posted a plan, opened the share button, tapped for directions to an organiser’s event, finished sign-up), with the event or plan it was for, where you opened it from (the map, the Featured row or a shared link) and the time. For organisers’ events, we also record that the event was shown to you (once a day). It’s linked to your account and kept only in our own database. We never sell it or share it. Its one advertising use: an organiser who pays for a Featured spot sees how many people were shown their event or tapped it, as totals, never who. It’s deleted after 13 months or when you delete your account. The app doesn’t use third-party analytics, and we don’t track you across other apps or websites.
• Featured events: If an event is Featured, the app records that you saw, or tapped, it (once a day), so we can count how many people it reached. Organisers only see totals. This is deleted when you delete your account.
• Event stats for organisers: Organisers who list events see totals for each event, such as how many people saw it, opened it, joined, asked to join or shared it, built from the app records above. They never see who.

Your location

Vesica uses your location on your phone to show events near you. It is not stored on our servers. On Android, when you search for a place while hosting a plan, your approximate area passes through our server to Apple Maps so that nearby places come first; we don’t keep it.

On the Christmas lights guide on the website, if you tap “Start from my location”, your browser uses your location to order the route on your device. It isn’t sent to us.

What other people see

A host can add one optional photo to a hosted plan. It shows on the plan’s card and page for signed-in users, and on the plan’s shared link, so anyone with the link can see it. Hosts can change or remove it at any time. Before a plan photo appears, Google’s image service checks it automatically for adult, violent or racy content; a photo that fails the check isn’t used and is deleted.

You pick a drawn avatar, one of 24. People outside a plan or event, for example on the map, on cards, in the “going” faces, or looking at the host of a plan they haven’t joined, see your avatar and not your photo. Your real profile photo is shown only to people in a plan or event chat with you, and to a host when you ask to join their plan or are on their waitlist. If someone saw your photo in a plan or chat, they may still have it after you leave. If you turn on “Show my real photo to everyone” in the app (it is off by default), your photo is shown publicly instead of your avatar, and you can turn it off again at any time. Plans run by a business or organiser still show the business logo. Avatars, “Show my real photo to everyone” and plan photos come with the latest version of the app. Until you update, you may still see or be shown the way older versions work.

Signed-in people can see your first name, your avatar, your bio if you wrote one, your age range (for example “20s”, never your exact age or birthday) and whether you’ve verified your phone. Only people in the same event or chat can see your profile photo and the messages you send there. Before they join, other signed-in people can see how many are going to a plan or event, and the first name and avatar of a few of them: on a plan, the host and up to three others; on an event, up to three people. Only people in it can see the full list. There is no way to browse or search for people in Vesica. If you block someone, you’re also taken out of any plans they host, and they aren’t told why.

Shared links. Anyone in Vesica can share a link to a plan or event. If you host a plan, anyone who gets its link can open a web page showing only the plan’s title, the day and part of day (for example “Saturday 17 Oct, morning”) and the suburb, plus the plan’s photo if the host added one (that is the host’s choice). It never shows the exact place or time, who is hosting or going, anyone’s profile photo or messages; those stay in the app for signed-in members. These pages are hidden from search engines. Organiser events are different: each one has its own public page on vesica.club with its full public details, and search engines can list it (see Organisers below). When someone taps a link to get the app, we count it by day only, never by who shared it.

How we use it

• To run the app: show events, run group chats, and send notifications you’ve allowed.
• To keep people safe: to check people are 18 or older, to act on reports and blocks, and to check on people who report a safety concern.
• To learn whether Vesica works: your check-in answers tell us if people actually met up. Only we see them, never other people.
• To fix bugs and keep the app working.

We don’t sell your information or use it to target ads. Featured events are paid placements, shown the same way to everyone. We count how many people saw or tapped one and give its organiser the totals only.

Who we share it with

Only the services that run the app:

• Google Firebase (Google Cloud) stores accounts, profiles, photos and chats, sends notifications, and checks plan photos and Christmas lights photos (Cloud Vision). Some of this may be processed outside Australia.
• Apple, if you use Sign in with Apple, and to deliver notifications to iPhones. Apple Maps also finds places when you host a plan: it receives what you type and your approximate area. It also finds the address of a Christmas lights display, so we can check it’s in Greater Brisbane.
• Resend sends our emails (password resets, confirm-your-email links, Christmas lights emails and launch emails). It receives your email address and the email we send. It sends from Japan and keeps email records in the United States.
• Proton Mail hosts our inbox (hello@vesica.club). Emails you send us, report messages and our own notices about displays are kept there, on servers in Switzerland, Germany or Norway.
• Google Maps shows the map in the Android app. Google receives the map area you look at and, if you allow location, your location, under Google’s privacy policy.
• Stripe takes payments from organisers for Featured. We keep whether each Featured event was paid, free or credited, and when.
• Cloudflare hosts this website. Some of this may be processed outside Australia.
• Event photos load from where the event came from (the council’s listing service or Ticketmaster).

We may also share information if the law requires it, or to protect someone’s safety.

Launch emails

If you leave your email to hear when Vesica opens, we keep that address, the page you signed up from and the date, in our database in Australia. We only use it to email you about the launch. Resend sends those emails (see Who we share it with). We delete the list within 30 days after the launch email goes out, or by 31 December 2027 if Vesica hasn’t opened by then. A copy can stay in our backups for up to 8 weeks after that. To be taken off sooner, reply to any email from us or write to hello@vesica.club, and we’ll delete your address.

How long we keep it

We keep your information while you have an account. Photos and logos you upload but don’t end up using are deleted after 2 days. We also count how many photos you add each day, to stop misuse; the count is deleted when you delete your account. If you sign up with an email address, we email you a link to confirm it, and note when we sent it so the link can’t be asked for over and over; the note is deleted once you confirm or when you delete your account. Apart from the safety records below, when you delete your account (in the app: You → Delete account), we delete your profile, photo, phone number, activity and any plan photos you added. Plans you hosted are deleted too, with their photos and chats. If a plan has an open report, we keep it until the report is dealt with, then delete it. If someone has made a safety report about you and you delete your account, we keep the plans you hosted, their photos and chats (including what other people wrote in them), and your name, email and phone number for 12 months after the latest safety report, then delete them, unless police, a court or a legal claim needs them for longer. We only use your name, email and phone number if police or a lawyer require them. If you make a safety report, we may use your email or phone number to check on you and follow up your report. If you then delete your account, we keep the report for 12 months after the latest safety report about that person, then delete it. It no longer shows who made it, but anything you wrote in it stays. If your account has been suspended and you can’t sign in, email hello@vesica.club and we’ll delete it for you the same way. If you used the organiser pages, we also delete the events you sent us, your business page (unless someone else also manages it), and the logo and event photos you uploaded. Their pages come off vesica.club within the hour and out of our lists within a day, but search engines can take longer to drop them. Messages you sent in group chats stay in those chats so the conversation still makes sense to others, but they show as “Someone” instead of your name. Reports made about an account, and our record that our word filter flagged its name or a plan’s text (the record never includes the words), and our record that an account was blocked as under 18, are kept for safety reasons. Our servers’ logs record your internet address with each request, for the app and this website, and Google keeps them for 30 days to keep the service working and secure. A copy of anything we delete can stay in our backups for up to 8 weeks.

Age

Vesica is only for people aged 18 and over. We ask for your date of birth when you sign up. On iPhone, we also ask Apple for your age range (not your birthday). Apple only tells us whether you’re 18 or over, and we keep just that answer, how Apple knew it, and the date. If you’d rather not share it, you can still sign up. On Android, we use your date of birth only.

Your choices

• Edit your profile at any time in the app.
• Turn notifications or location off in your phone’s settings.
• Delete your account and most of your data in the app (You → Delete account). How to delete your account.
• Ask us for a copy of your information, or to correct it, by emailing hello@vesica.club. We may hold back details of a safety report if sharing them could put someone at risk or harm someone else’s privacy.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, contact us first. You can also complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Organisers (vesica.club/organisers)

The organiser pages and the Christmas lights pages (vesica.club/lights), and only those pages, load Google Firebase (to sign you in or send your details to us) and Google reCAPTCHA (to stop automated use). The organiser pages also load Apple MapKit JS for the address search. These may set cookies or similar storage needed for sign-in and fraud protection. The page that opens from a password-reset email (vesica.club/account) also loads Google Firebase, to change your password. On every page of this website, Cloudflare Web Analytics counts visits (which page, the referring site, country and device type) without cookies, local storage or anything that identifies you, and the text fonts load from Google Fonts, so your browser asks Google’s servers for them and shares your IP address with Google to do it. Council event photos on the event and guide pages load straight from Brisbane City Council’s event listing service (trumba.com), so your browser asks their servers for those images. Photos and logos of organisers’ events load from Google’s storage service, so your browser asks Google’s servers for them. Christmas lights photos load from Google’s storage service, so your browser asks Google’s servers for them. When you open a vesica.club/go link (from a poster or QR code) we count it by place and day only. Nothing about you or your device is stored.

When you sign in to the organiser pages, we check that you’ve finished signing up in the app, including its age check. If you submit an event we store your business or group name, your ABN or your group’s public page link, logo, the event details and photo, the phone number you signed in with, and which account submitted it. Once we approve an event, its title, place, time, details and photo, and your business or group name and logo, are shown in the Vesica app and on vesica.club. On the website anyone can see them, and search engines like Google can list them. This happens for every approved event. Your business or group name and logo are shown as the host, not your name or photo. If your business or group name includes your own name, that name is public too. Your ABN, group link and phone number are never shown. Please don’t put anyone’s personal phone number or home address in the details. People who join your event in the app also see your name and profile photo. If you cancel an event or delete your account, its page comes off vesica.club within the hour and out of our lists within a day. Search engines can take longer to drop it. Attendees can report an event, anyone can email hello@vesica.club about a page, and we can remove its photo.

Christmas lights displays (vesica.club/lights/add)

If you’re 18 or over, you can add your home’s Christmas lights display to our Christmas lights page on this website. You don’t need an account or the app.

• What we collect: your email address, your full address (house number, street, suburb and postcode), one photo of your display, the display’s name (optional), description and features, and the dates and hours you give. If you tick the box, we also note that you’d like a reminder next year, and when you ticked it. To stop misuse, we keep coded copies (hashes) of your email address and the address you entered, and of the codes in the links we email you, and a coded copy of your internet address, used only to limit how often the form can be used. If you report a display, we store your report with your message and any contact details you type into it, until 6 February (see Reports). Like every request to our servers, Google Cloud’s logs record your full internet address, and keep it for 30 days to keep the service running and secure.
• Why: to check your display and show it on vesica.club; to email you about it (the confirm link, a private link to change or remove your display, and whether we approved it), and to send your link again when you use “Already added a display?” on the add page; to stop spam and misuse of the form; to deal with reports; and, only if you tick the box, to remind you once next November.
• Who sees what: visitors to the website see your photo, the display’s name and description, the features you tick, the street and suburb, and the dates and hours. They see your house number only if you tick the box to show it. Without it, the location we publish is a point on your street, or an approximate point near it if we can’t find the street, not your house. Your photo and street name may still let people work out which house it is, so only add your display if you’re happy with that. Your email address and postcode are never shown. We see everything you send, including your house number and email address, so we can check it. Before it appears, Google’s image service checks your photo automatically for adult, violent or racy content, and we review every display before it goes up.
• Where it’s kept, and who helps: Google Firebase (Google Cloud) stores it in Sydney, Australia. We send your full address to Apple Maps to find it and check it’s in Greater Brisbane. Google Cloud Vision checks your photo, and Google reCAPTCHA checks the form is being used by a person, not a bot. These Google and Apple services may process data outside Australia. Resend sends our emails: it sends them from Japan and keeps email records in the United States. Emails to and from us are kept in our Proton Mail inbox (Switzerland, Germany or Norway). We never sell this information or use it for ads.
• How long: a display that isn’t confirmed from the email link within 7 days is deleted. Everything else (your details, photo and display, the coded copies, and any reports) is deleted on 6 February after the season. Our database backups are kept for up to 8 weeks, so a copy can stay in a backup for up to 8 weeks after that, and isn’t used. If you tick the reminder box, after 6 February we keep only your email address and when you ticked the box, for next November’s reminder, and we delete it within 13 months. You can ask us to delete it at any time. We delete report emails and other emails about displays from our inbox in the same 6 February clean-up, unless we need one to settle a dispute.
• Change, remove or get a copy: once your display is confirmed, the emails we send you about it include a private link (the confirm email doesn’t). Anyone with that link can see your display’s details (not your email address) and change, pause or remove it, so keep it to yourself, and ask us for a new one if it gets out (a new link replaces the old one). When you remove a display with your link, the display, its photo and its links are deleted straight away, and so is any reminder you asked for. The coded copies used to limit the form, and any reports about it, are deleted on 6 February. A copy can stay in our backups for up to 8 weeks. You can also reply to any email we’ve sent you, or email hello@vesica.club, and we’ll change or remove your display for you, or send you a copy of what we hold. If you’re unhappy with how we handled it, tell us first; you can also complain to the OAIC (oaic.gov.au).
• Reports: each display’s page has a “This is my house and I didn’t add it” button. Using it usually takes the display off vesica.club within a few minutes while we check. If we’ve had a lot of reports that day, we look at it first instead. You can add a message, and your email address if you’d like a reply. We use the report only to deal with it. We store it, with your message, until 6 February. We usually also email it to ourselves (sent through Resend, then kept in our Proton Mail inbox), and we delete those emails on 6 February too. To limit reports, we keep a coded copy of your internet address until 6 February. Our server logs also record your internet address for 30 days. If you email us instead, we see your email address and your message, and handle them the same way.

Changes

If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top, and tell you if the change is significant.