Float helps people organize and join in-person activities with friends and communities. This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and who can see it. Float is not an anonymous app: what you do on Float is shown under your name.
Information We Collect
We collect the following when you use Float:
- Account identifiers — your phone number and/or email address, and your Apple ID if you sign in with Apple. We use these to sign you in with a one-time code and to contact you about your account.
- Profile — first name, last name, profile photo, interests, and the city you choose for your feed.
- Content you create — activities (titles, details, times, locations, photos), community pages, chat messages, direct messages, and reactions.
- Participation records — which activities you create, join, save, or are invited to, ticket purchases, and check-in times.
- Imported contacts (optional) — if you allow it, we upload and store the names, phone numbers, and email addresses from your address book (up to 1,000 entries) so we can show you which of your contacts already use Float. Entries that don't match a Float user are kept and matched if that person joins later. You can delete imported contacts in the app at any time.
- Google Calendar (optional) — if a community's owner or an admin connects a Google Calendar, we access that Google account's calendar list and the events on the calendar they choose, as described under Google Calendar below.
- Payment records — when you buy a ticket or sponsor a community, our payment provider Stripe processes the payment. We keep a record of the purchase (amounts, dates, the activity or community, and a Stripe customer reference). Card numbers are handled by Stripe and never stored by Float.
- Device and push tokens — so the mobile apps can deliver push notifications.
- Location — only while you're using the app, to show nearby activities and to set an activity's location. Float does not collect location in the background. We also derive an approximate city from your IP address.
- Technical and usage data — IP address, device and app version, crash reports, and product analytics events such as screens viewed or activities joined. When someone opens a Float share link or scans a Float QR code we record a hashed IP address, approximate city/region/country, and browser user agent.
How We Use Your Information
- Sign you in and keep your account secure
- Show activities near you and rank your feed using your interests, friends, communities, and invitations
- Run activities, communities, chat, and direct messages
- Process tickets, sponsorships, refunds, and payouts to community owners
- Send push notifications about your activities, communities, and messages
- Match you with friends who also use Float (if you import contacts)
- Understand how Float is used, fix bugs, and improve the product
- Keep Float safe: prevent abuse, investigate reports, and enforce our Terms
Who Can See Your Information
Activities are either public or private. Public activities appear in the feed and can be viewed by anyone, including people who are not signed in. Private activities are visible only to the people invited.
When you create or join an activity, your first name, last name, profile photo, and interests are visible to everyone who can see that activity. Your public profile (name, photo, interests) can also be found through search by anyone, including signed-out visitors.
Activity organizers and community owners and admins can see your name, profile photo, and interests. For ticketed activities they can also see whether you hold a paid ticket, the ticket amount, and your check-in time. They cannot see your email address or phone number.
Photos you upload are stored at public URLs. Anyone with the link can view them, including after the activity ends.
Float staff can access account records, including your email address and phone number, for support, safety, and fraud-prevention purposes.
Communities, Chat, and Direct Messages
Communities have an owner, optional admins, and followers. Owners and admins can see the follower list and manage it. Community chat is visible to the community's followers; activity chat is visible to the activity's participants. You can send direct messages to activity organizers and community owners or admins, and they can message their attendees and followers.
Messages are stored on our servers so they can be delivered and shown to participants. Float can access message content to investigate reports and keep the service safe.
Google Calendar
A community's owner or an admin can connect a Google Calendar so the community's activities stay in step with it. With their permission, Float:
- Sees the Google account's email address and its list of calendars, so they can choose which calendar to use.
- Reads the events on the chosen calendar (titles, descriptions, times, locations, and repeat rules) and adds them to the community as activities. Events marked private or confidential in Google Calendar are skipped.
- Adds, updates, and removes events on that calendar to match the community's activities in Float, including activities that followers post in the community.
Synced events appear in Float like the community's other activities: public in a public community, and visible to its followers in a private one. To set one up, its title and description are sent to TypeSafe to choose a cover photo, or its title to Google Gemini to make one, and its location is sent to Apple Maps to find the place. Activities copied to the calendar can be seen by Google and by anyone the calendar is shared with.
We store the Google account's email address, the chosen calendar's name and ID, an encrypted token that lets Float keep the calendar in sync, and which event became which activity. We use this data only to provide the sync. We don't sell it, use it for advertising, or use it to develop or train AI or machine-learning models. Float staff access it only to give support you ask for, for safety and security (such as investigating abuse), or when the law requires it.
The owner or an admin can disconnect the calendar at any time under Manage Community → Integrations → Google Calendar. Disconnecting, or deleting the community, deletes the stored token and event links and revokes Float's access to the Google account. Activities that were already synced stay in Float until they are deleted there. You can also remove Float's access from your Google Account settings.
Float's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Calendar Subscription Links
When you subscribe to a community's calendar, Float makes a private link for you that your calendar app (such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook) checks for updates. It holds the community's activities that you can see in Float, from the past month on, and your calendar provider receives them under its own terms. Anyone who has your link can see those activities, so don't share it. If you leave the community, the link shows only its public activities.
Payments
Ticket sales and community sponsorships are processed by Stripe. Stripe's handling of your payment details is governed by Stripe's privacy policy. When you sponsor a community, your name and sponsor status are visible within that community. Community owners who take payouts set up a Stripe account and share the information Stripe requires directly with Stripe.
Notifications
Your phone number is used to sign you in with a one-time code. Notifications about activities, communities, and messages are delivered as push notifications through the mobile apps, and you can turn each category on or off in notification settings. A legacy SMS delivery path exists in our systems but is not offered in the current apps. We do not send marketing SMS, and we do not send marketing email unless you opt in.
AI Features
When you create an activity, its title (and, for categorization, its details) is sent to Google's Gemini API to generate a cover image and assign categories. Community owners who use the poster generator also send their community logo and description to Gemini. Where enabled, a draft activity's title and details may be sent to Anthropic to suggest interests. Only the content needed for the feature is sent; your account identifiers are not.
Use of Your Content
Content you add to Float — activities, photos, descriptions, messages, and other material you submit ("Your Content") — may be used by us to operate, improve, and promote the service. By using Float, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, distribute, and redistribute Your Content, including to:
- Display and share it with other users across Float
- Adapt it to build and improve features
- Feature public activity content in Float's marketing, social posts, and promotional materials, including on partners' platforms
- Store and archive it for operational, legal, and historical purposes
You keep ownership of Your Content. This license covers the content you post; it does not cover your account identifiers (phone number, email address, Apple ID) or your location data, which are handled only as described in this policy. Your name and profile photo appear alongside Your Content wherever it is shown. Images generated for you by our AI tools are provided as-is and may not be unique to you. See our Terms and Conditions for the full content license.
When you delete content or your account, this license ends for that content, except for copies other users already received or shared and copies held in backups for a limited period.
Service Providers
We share information with providers that help us run Float, each under their own terms:
- Supabase — authentication, database, and file storage
- Stripe — ticket and sponsorship payments, and payouts to community owners
- Google Firebase — push notifications; on Android also Analytics, Crashlytics, and Performance Monitoring
- Google Gemini — AI cover images, posters, and activity categorization
- Google Maps and Places — maps and location search in the Android app
- Apple — Sign in with Apple, and Apple Maps in the iOS app, on the web, and for events synced from Google Calendar
- Google Calendar — syncing a community's activities with the calendar its owner or an admin connects
- TypeSafe — activity search and tagging, and choosing stock cover photos
- Twilio — legacy SMS delivery
- MaxMind GeoLite2 — approximate location from IP address
- Anthropic — interest suggestions, where enabled
We also share information when required by law, to protect the safety of users or the public, or as part of a merger or acquisition. We do not sell your personal data.
Analytics, Cookies, and Tracking
Our website uses first-party cookies for sign-in only. We don't use advertising networks, and the Android app removes the advertising identifier. We do collect per-user product analytics and crash reports (for example, screens viewed and activities joined) to understand usage and diagnose problems, and we keep the share-link and QR scan records described above.
Data Retention
We keep your data while your account is active. Activities stay in our records after they end — they simply stop appearing in upcoming views — so participants keep their history and photos. Technical logs and scan records are kept for a limited period for security and analytics.
Your Rights and Controls
- Delete your account at any time from the app (Profile → Settings). This removes your profile, activities, messages, imported contacts, and any recurring sponsorships.
- Some records survive deletion: entries other users imported from their own address books, and payment records that Stripe and we are required to keep.
- Edit your profile, interests, and city; turn notification categories on or off
- Delete imported contacts in the app
- Disconnect a community's Google Calendar (owners and admins) under Manage Community → Integrations
- Block or report other users
- Email support@floatwithfriends.com to access, correct, or delete your information, or with any privacy question
Security
We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections and access controls. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong account and report anything suspicious to support@floatwithfriends.com.
Children's Privacy
Float is for people 13 and older. Paid features (tickets and sponsorships) require you to be 18 or older, or to have a parent or guardian complete the transaction. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete it.
International Users
Float is operated from the United States and your information is processed there. By using Float you consent to this transfer.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy. When we do, we'll update the effective date above and, for significant changes, let you know in the app or on our website.
Contact Us
Questions about privacy? Email support@floatwithfriends.com.
California Privacy Rights
California residents can ask us to access or delete their personal information, or to correct it, by emailing support@floatwithfriends.com. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We will not treat you differently for exercising these rights.