Privacy Policy

Effective September 29, 2026

This policy explains what personal data Journey Shares (“we”) collects through Journey Shares, why, and the choices and rights you have. We are the data controller. Contact us at privacy@journeyshares.app.

What we collect

Account data: your username, a securely hashed password (we never see or store the password itself), and your email only if you choose to add one.
Activity: your play-money balances and ledger history, trades, options, price alerts and price-point orders, comments and vouches, reports you make, your watchlist, listings you create, and any claim or delisting requests and the verification codes and results linked to them.
Notifications: the notifications we send you, your notification settings, and, if you turn on phone notifications, the push subscription your browser gives us (an address at your browser's push service plus encryption keys; it contains no contact details).
Messages with the mod team: messages you send the mod team and their replies, kept so we can help you, and deleted when you delete your account.
Security data: records of sign-in attempts (the username or email tried, whether it succeeded, and when) to stop password guessing.
Fair-play data: to stop one person from running several accounts, we keep a scrambled code made from your IP address and from a random ID stored in a cookie on your browser, and note when each was last used. The code can't be turned back into your IP address; it only shows us when two accounts share a device or network. It's deleted 30 days after it was last used, or when you delete your account.
Technical data: our hosting provider processes your IP address, browser type and request logs to deliver and protect the Service.
Data about people listed: the name of a public figure, links to their public accounts and websites, and short descriptions from public sources such as Wikipedia and Wikidata, and a profile photo copied from one of their public accounts (such as X) or from Wikimedia Commons. We store a small copy of the photo so that viewers' browsers don't contact those sites. Listings are limited to public figures, and anyone listed can ask us to remove their photo.
Privacy requests: the email, name and details you give us when you make a request.

Why we use it, and our legal bases

To run your account and the game, and to keep an accurate ledger: performance of our contract with you.
To keep the Service safe, prevent abuse and manipulation, moderate content and fix problems: our legitimate interests.
To measure how the Service is used with Google Analytics: our legitimate interests; in the EEA, UK and Switzerland, your consent, and we set no analytics cookies there unless you choose Allow in the cookie banner.
To send password reset emails if you add an email: performance of contract, and you can remove your email any time.
To show public-figure listings based on public information: our legitimate interests, balanced against the person's rights. Anyone listed can object or ask for removal at any time.
To respond to legal requests and keep records we're required to: legal obligation.

We don't sell or share your personal data for advertising, and we don't use it for automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.

What's public

Your username, comments and vouches are public. Unless you turn it off in Account → Privacy, your username also appears on the leaderboard, in the activity feed and in profiles' top holders, and you get a public profile page showing your play-money net worth and gain, your holdings, your recent trades, the people you vouched for and badges earned from that activity. Turning it off hides all of that. If you join through someone's invite link, we record who invited you so we can pay you both the invite bonus, and they see a count of friends who joined. If you upload a profile picture, it's shown wherever your username is public; remove it anytime in Account. Your email is never shown to other users.

Cookies

We use strictly necessary cookies: one to keep you signed in, security cookies that protect forms, and a random device ID used only for the fair-play check above. We also use Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages are used, which can set analytics cookies. In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, analytics cookies are off unless you choose Allow, and until then Google receives only cookieless, anonymous pings. Choosing No thanks turns analytics cookies off anywhere. Your choice is saved in your browser, and you can change it any time from Privacy and cookie choices on the Account page. We never use advertising cookies, and we never sell or share data for advertising.

Who processes data for us

Vercel (hosting), Neon (database), Railway (the live connection that shows other players walking in the city; it receives only an anonymous key, never your username or email), Cloudflare (DNS and email forwarding), and Resend (password reset email, only if you add an email). They process data only on our instructions.
Google (Tag Manager and Analytics) receives page visits, your browser and device type and an approximate location from your IP address, to measure how the site is used. It gets no account data.
If you turn on phone notifications, messages are delivered through your browser maker's push service (for Chrome, Google). Notification content is encrypted end to end between us and your device.
When a listing is checked, the Service requests public pages from Wikipedia, Wikidata and the linked sites; we don't send them your account data.

These providers may process data in the United States and other countries. Where required, transfers rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

How long we keep it

Account data: until you delete your account.
Ledger and trade records: kept for the life of the Service because every balance and price depends on them. When you delete your account they're detached from your identity and kept only under an anonymous id.
Sign-in attempts: 30 days. Password reset links: one hour. Privacy requests: up to 3 years, as a record of how we handled them.
Notifications and push subscriptions: until you delete them, turn notifications off, or delete your account.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (including under the EU and UK GDPR and California law), you can: access your data and get a portable copy; correct it; delete it; restrict or object to how we use it; and complain to your local data protection authority. We won't treat you differently for using these rights.

Download your data or delete your account yourself under Account → Your data.
Anything else, or if you don't have an account (for example, if you're listed): use the privacy request form or email privacy@journeyshares.app.

We reply within 30 days. We may ask you to confirm your identity before acting on a request.

Security

Passwords are hashed with bcrypt, sessions are signed, connections are encrypted, sign-in attempts are rate limited, and access to admin tools is restricted. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach affecting your data we'll notify you and the authorities as the law requires.

Children

The Service is only for people 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone younger, and we remove listings of minors.

Changes

If we change this policy in a significant way, we'll ask you to review it in the app and update the date above.

Questions: privacy@journeyshares.app · All legal pages

What we collect

Account data: your username, a securely hashed password (we never see or store the password itself), and your email only if you choose to add one.

Activity: your play-money balances and ledger history, trades, options, price alerts and price-point orders, comments and vouches, reports you make, your watchlist, listings you create, and any claim or delisting requests and the verification codes and results linked to them.

Notifications: the notifications we send you, your notification settings, and, if you turn on phone notifications, the push subscription your browser gives us (an address at your browser's push service plus encryption keys; it contains no contact details).

Messages with the mod team: messages you send the mod team and their replies, kept so we can help you, and deleted when you delete your account.

Security data: records of sign-in attempts (the username or email tried, whether it succeeded, and when) to stop password guessing.

Fair-play data: to stop one person from running several accounts, we keep a scrambled code made from your IP address and from a random ID stored in a cookie on your browser, and note when each was last used. The code can't be turned back into your IP address; it only shows us when two accounts share a device or network. It's deleted 30 days after it was last used, or when you delete your account.

Technical data: our hosting provider processes your IP address, browser type and request logs to deliver and protect the Service.

Data about people listed: the name of a public figure, links to their public accounts and websites, and short descriptions from public sources such as Wikipedia and Wikidata, and a profile photo copied from one of their public accounts (such as X) or from Wikimedia Commons. We store a small copy of the photo so that viewers' browsers don't contact those sites. Listings are limited to public figures, and anyone listed can ask us to remove their photo.

Privacy requests: the email, name and details you give us when you make a request.

Why we use it, and our legal bases

To run your account and the game, and to keep an accurate ledger: performance of our contract with you.

To keep the Service safe, prevent abuse and manipulation, moderate content and fix problems: our legitimate interests.

To measure how the Service is used with Google Analytics: our legitimate interests; in the EEA, UK and Switzerland, your consent, and we set no analytics cookies there unless you choose Allow in the cookie banner.

To send password reset emails if you add an email: performance of contract, and you can remove your email any time.

To show public-figure listings based on public information: our legitimate interests, balanced against the person's rights. Anyone listed can object or ask for removal at any time.

To respond to legal requests and keep records we're required to: legal obligation.

We don't sell or share your personal data for advertising, and we don't use it for automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.

What's public

Who processes data for us

Vercel (hosting), Neon (database), Railway (the live connection that shows other players walking in the city; it receives only an anonymous key, never your username or email), Cloudflare (DNS and email forwarding), and Resend (password reset email, only if you add an email). They process data only on our instructions.

Google (Tag Manager and Analytics) receives page visits, your browser and device type and an approximate location from your IP address, to measure how the site is used. It gets no account data.

If you turn on phone notifications, messages are delivered through your browser maker's push service (for Chrome, Google). Notification content is encrypted end to end between us and your device.

When a listing is checked, the Service requests public pages from Wikipedia, Wikidata and the linked sites; we don't send them your account data.

These providers may process data in the United States and other countries. Where required, transfers rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

How long we keep it

Account data: until you delete your account.

Ledger and trade records: kept for the life of the Service because every balance and price depends on them. When you delete your account they're detached from your identity and kept only under an anonymous id.

Sign-in attempts: 30 days. Password reset links: one hour. Privacy requests: up to 3 years, as a record of how we handled them.

Notifications and push subscriptions: until you delete them, turn notifications off, or delete your account.

Your rights

Download your data or delete your account yourself under Account → Your data.

Anything else, or if you don't have an account (for example, if you're listed): use the privacy request form or email privacy@journeyshares.app.

We reply within 30 days. We may ask you to confirm your identity before acting on a request.