Privacy

Last updated 22 September 2026

The short version

We collect what it takes to put a free thing on a doorstep and get it to a neighbor: who you are, roughly where you are, the photos of what you're giving away, and the few messages it takes to arrange a pickup. Nothing is sold. There are no ads, no trackers, and no analytics watching you use the app.

Signing in

You sign in with Apple or with Google, so we never see or store a password. They hand us your email address and, if you let them, your name. Apple can hide your real address behind a relay, and the app works exactly the same if you do. The name neighbors see is the one you type in the app, and you can change it whenever you like.

Where you are

Location is used three times, and only while the app is open. It sorts the feed by how far away a thing is. It puts you in an area, which is a box about 16 km across, to work out whether your neighborhood is open yet. And it confirms you were at the spot when you say you picked something up. A listing's pin is deliberately wrong: the map point we publish is offset 60 to 150 metres in a random direction, and the exact spot goes only to the person who staked an amber on it, only once they are close.

Photos

Item photos are taken in the app so what's in the picture is the thing that's actually out there. A profile photo can come from your library. A finder's proof of pickup is a photo only the two people on that claim can reach. Item photos and avatars are visible to people using the app, the same as the listing itself.

Your phone

The app keeps an identifier in the keychain, and asks Apple's DeviceCheck whether this hardware has already had its free ambers. That pair is how one phone counts once, for the neighborhood count and for the free ambers, without us knowing anything else about the device. If you turn notifications on, we store a push token so the server can reach that phone.

Messages

A thread belongs to one claim and is open while that claim is live. Once the item is picked up or the window runs out, the thread closes and neither of you can read it again. Messages are not scanned, not used to build anything, and not shown to anyone but the two of you.

Purchases

Apple takes the payment and tells us a purchase was valid. We record that a jar was credited to your account so it is credited once and only once. We never see your card, and we never hold it.

Reports and blocks

A report sends us the listing, your reason and anything you add. The giver is never told who reported them. A block is between the two of you: nothing is flagged, nobody reviews it, and the person you blocked is not told. You can undo one any time from Account.

Who else sees any of this

The database and file storage are hosted on Supabase. Apple handles sign-in, notifications and payments; Google handles its own sign-in. That is the whole list. No advertising network, no analytics service, no data broker, and nothing sold or shared for anyone else's marketing.

How long we keep it

Listings and claims stay while they are live and then as the record behind your finds and your street record. Delete your account and it goes dark immediately, then is purged fourteen days later: your profile, your listings, your photos, your claims and your messages. The fourteen days exist so a change of heart is possible, and you can undo it from the app in that time.

Your choices

Location, camera, photos and notifications are each asked for when they are first needed, and each can be turned off in iOS Settings. Turning location off leaves the feed with nothing to sort by, so most of the app stops being useful, but nothing is hidden about that. Your name and photo are editable, and closing the account is one screen in Account.

Children

freebie is for people 16 and over. It is not built for children and we don't knowingly collect anything from them.

Changes and questions

When this changes in a way that matters, we'll say so in the app. Questions go through Tell us what you think, in Profile, which reaches us with the build number attached.