Privacy policy

Last updated 23 October 2026

MappyHour helps adults find happy hours and food and drink specials at bars, pubs and restaurants. It is run from Perth, Western Australia (ABN 88 301 878 191). This page explains what information the site collects, what it is used for, who else handles it and how to have it corrected or removed. Questions go to [email protected].

The short version

• You can browse offers without an account and without giving your name.
• Your location is used to show offers near you. We don’t keep a history of where you’ve been.
• If you sign in, we keep your email address and name so you can save offers, follow venues and hear back about what you’ve suggested.
• Photos you send are read by an AI service (Anthropic’s Claude) to pick out the offer details, and may be shown on the offer’s page once a moderator approves them.
• We count visits and what people tap, anonymously, to learn whether the site is useful. You can turn that off.
• No advertising, no third-party tracking, and we don’t sell information.

What we collect and why

When you browse

• Your age confirmation. The answer to “are you 18 or older” is kept on your device only. We don’t ask for or store a date of birth.
• Your location. If you allow it, your browser tells the site where you are; otherwise you can type a place. The position is sent with each search so we can return nearby offers, and the last place you chose is remembered on your device. We don’t attach locations to an account or build a history of them.
• Improving MappyHour. We record what people do on the site so we can tell whether it helps: see How we improve MappyHour below.
• Error reports. If a page fails, the site sends us the error message and the page it happened on, so we can fix it.
• Technical logs. Like most websites, our servers keep short-lived logs of the requests they receive. These can include the map area that was searched and are used to keep the site running and secure.

When you sign in

You can sign in with Google or, where offered, with a code sent to your email address. We keep your email address, your name if Google provides it or you add it, the identifier Google uses for your account, and the time you last signed in. We never see your Google password. Your name is used to greet you on your account page and is never shown publicly; you can change or remove it there.

We use these to:

• keep you signed in and show your saved offers, followed venues and notifications;
• send a sign-in code when you ask for one;
• email you when a moderator has a question about something you suggested, with a link to answer it. You can turn these emails off from your account, or from the link at the foot of each one; sign-in codes are still sent when you ask for one.

We don’t send marketing email, and your email address isn’t shown publicly or given to venues.

When you suggest an offer or a correction

We keep what you send: the offer details, any note or link, any photo, and when it was sent. If you’re signed in it is linked to your account so you can follow what happens to it; if you’re not, it isn’t linked to you. To limit spam we keep a scrambled, one-way form of the internet address a suggestion came from. The address itself isn’t stored with it.

Photos

• Before a photo leaves your device it is reduced in size and the information embedded in it by your camera, including where it was taken, is removed. If the photo carries a location, that is read on your device to help find the venue and is not uploaded.
• Reading the photo. The photo is sent to Anthropic, a company based in the United States, whose Claude AI reads the offer details from it. We send the photo, the date and the venue’s time zone, and nothing about you. Anthropic’s published terms say it does not use this to train its AI models and deletes it within 30 days, unless it has to keep it longer for safety or legal reasons.
• Showing the photo. A moderator may show a copy of the photo, cropped to the sign or menu, on the offer’s page. Ask us and we will take it down.
• Keeping the photo. A photo you add but never send is deleted within a day. A photo you do send is kept with your suggestion as a record of where the information came from, until you ask us to delete it.

Please photograph the sign or menu, not people. If someone can be recognised in a photo, we will crop it or not show it.

When you snap an offer at a venue

The snap page asks for your location once, to work out which venue you’re at. It is not saved, except that if you add a venue we don’t know about, the spot becomes that venue’s pin on the map.

When you manage a venue

If you ask to manage a venue’s listing, we ask for your name, your role at the venue and, unless your email address is at the venue’s own website, a phone number. We use them only to check that you represent the venue, which may mean ringing the venue and asking for you by name, or ringing you. Only MappyHour’s admins see them. We keep your request, your name and role, anything else you tell us, and a note of how we checked, linked to your account. Your phone number is deleted once we have decided.

When you ask for a suburb

If you ask for a suburb to be covered, we keep the suburb, anything you add about it, and when you asked, linked to your account. Only MappyHour’s admins see who asked and how many people did. You can remove a request on the same page.

When you send feedback

We keep what you write, what it’s about, when you sent it and, if you give one, your email so we can reply; signed in, it is linked to your account instead. If you report something broken, we also keep the page you were on (its address without any location), your browser’s description of itself, and the site’s version. Only MappyHour’s admins read it.

How we improve MappyHour

To make MappyHour better, we look at how people use it, anonymously: visits, searches (the filters used, not what you type), offers opened, and taps on directions, save, share, website and call. It also counts how often each venue appears in what people are shown, so we can tell venues how they are found.

Each browser gets a random number so we can tell a returning visit from a new one. It isn’t linked to your account, your name or your email, and it never includes your location — only the suburb of the venue or the area searched. Nothing is counted before you confirm your age, on a browser that asks sites not to track (Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track), or once you turn it off below. Records are deleted after 13 months; only weekly and monthly totals are kept. The counting is ours: no other company receives it.

The same switch is on your Account page.

Cookies and what is stored on your device

The site uses one cookie, for signing you in and keeping you signed in for up to 90 days. It also keeps a few settings in your browser: your age confirmation, the last place you searched, your map preference, whether you’ve dismissed the prompt to install the app, how many times you’ve visited and whether you’ve dismissed the invitation to make an account (never sent to us), and, unless you turn counting off, the random number described under How we improve MappyHour. There are no advertising or tracking cookies.

Who else handles your information

We use these companies to run the site. Each receives only what its job needs.

• DigitalOcean hosts the site, its database and stored photos, in Sydney, Australia.
• Google provides sign-in with Google, the map and address lookups. When the map loads, your browser connects to Google directly, and Google’s privacy policy applies to what it receives. Google also provides our own mailbox.
• Anthropic reads photos, as described above, in the United States.
• Resend, an email delivery service based in the United States, sends sign-in codes and moderator questions. It receives your email address and the message.

Some of these companies store or process information outside Australia. We don’t sell personal information, and we only disclose it otherwise if the law requires it.

Keeping it safe

Connections to the site are encrypted, access to the database and stored photos is limited to the site itself and the people who run it, and changes made by moderators are recorded. No system is perfectly secure; if something goes wrong that is likely to cause you serious harm, we will tell you.

How long we keep it

• Your account, saved offers and followed venues: until you ask us to delete them.
• Suggestions and the record of what moderators decided: kept as the history of each listing. If you delete your account, your suggestions stay but are no longer linked to you.
• A request to manage a venue: your name and role are kept with the request; your phone number is deleted once we have decided.
• A suburb request: until you remove it or delete your account.
• Improving MappyHour: the records are deleted after 13 months; weekly and monthly totals, which identify no one, are kept.
• Technical logs: kept for a short period and then deleted.

Your choices

• Ask for a copy of what we hold about you, for it to be corrected, or for your account or a photo to be deleted, by emailing [email protected]. We will answer within 30 days.
• Turn location off for this site in your browser or phone settings at any time.
• Turn counting off with the switch under How we improve MappyHour or on your Account page.
• Remove MappyHour’s access to your Google account from your Google account settings.

Under 18s

MappyHour lists alcohol offers and is for people aged 18 or older. We don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Complaints

If you think we’ve handled your information badly, email [email protected] and we will look into it. If you’re not satisfied with the answer, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Changes to this policy

When the site changes how it handles information, this page is updated and the date at the top changes. See also the terms of use.