Bendr Social Privacy Policy

Bendr Social is intended for users 18 years of age and older.

You sign in with Sign in with Apple or Google Sign-In. Bendr Social never stores a password.

When you create an account you choose a username, pick an avatar emoji from a fixed set, and provide your name. Your name is shown underneath your username so people can tell who they are adding as a friend — a username alone is often not enough to recognise someone.

Your name cannot be changed once set. Please enter it carefully. If you need a correction, contact us using the address at the bottom of this page.

Your username, name, and avatar are visible to other signed-in Bendr Social users — for example in friend suggestions, friend requests, and on crawl rosters. They are not published on the public web, do not appear in search engines, and are not shared with advertisers or data brokers.

Your username can be changed, but no more than once every 14 days.

While planning a route: Bendr Social takes a single, one-time, on-device location fix to bias venue search results toward your area (e.g. "bars near me"). This fix is never sent to our servers or stored anywhere.

During a live crawl: your location is shared with the other members of that specific crawl only, so everyone can see each other on the map and confirm stop check-ins. This sharing turns on automatically when the crawl goes live and turns off automatically — and your location data is deleted — the moment the crawl ends. The first time it turns on for a crawl, Bendr Social tells you who can see you and gives you the choice to turn it off. A banner appears on the crawl screen whenever sharing is active, and iOS’s own blue status-bar indicator is shown whenever Bendr Social is using your location, including while the app is closed.

This continues in the background: while a crawl is live, location sharing keeps working when Bendr Social is closed or your phone is locked and in your pocket. That is what keeps the map accurate for your friends while you are walking between venues, and what lets Bendr Social check you in automatically when you reach the group without you having to hold your phone. iOS displays a blue indicator in your status bar the entire time this is running, so you can always tell at a glance. It starts when the crawl goes live, it stops when the crawl ends, and it never runs at any other time — Bendr Social does not use your location in the background outside a live crawl, and does not ask for “Always” location access.

You can turn it off at any time: tapping Stop switches sharing off for that crawl only. You stay in the crawl — you simply don’t appear on the map. That choice is remembered for that crawl, including if you close and reopen the app, and you can switch sharing back on whenever you want.

Your location is never shared with anyone outside a live crawl you're actively part of, never sold, and never used for advertising.

Photos you choose to add at a check-in or in the recap are uploaded to secure cloud storage and are visible to the other members of that crawl. You control if and when a photo is added — Bendr Social never accesses your camera or photo library without you initiating it.

Bendr Social is invite-only: there is no public directory or discovery of other users. Friend connections, crawl membership, check-ins, and points are visible only to the people you've connected with or the members of a shared crawl.

You can share a personal invite link so a friend can add you. The link shows only your chosen username and avatar to whoever you send it to — a person needs the link to see it; it does not appear in any search or directory, and it is never indexed by search engines. Your name is not included in the link preview.

During a live crawl, the host (or a co-host) can send a short text message to everyone checked into that crawl. These messages are visible only to the members of that crawl and are stored solely to deliver them. Anyone who receives a message can report it or block the sender directly from the message. Bendr Social has no other in-app messaging — general chat happens in your own messaging app, outside Bendr Social.

Bendr Social sends notifications about friend requests, crawl invites, and in-crawl updates. Delivery is topic-based — Bendr Social does not store a per-device push token tied to your identity.

You can edit your profile or permanently delete your account and its associated data at any time from Settings in the app. Deleting your account removes your name, username, and profile along with the rest of your data.