GhostBuzz — Privacy Policy
Effective date: October 22, 2026
Contact: ghostbuzzsupport@gmail.com
GhostBuzz ("we", "us") is an app that lets you leave short messages ("ghosts") anchored to a real place. Only people who are physically there can read them. GhostBuzz also has trails (a chain of ghosts that leads from one place to the next), memories (lasting messages tied to a place) and legendary ghosts that you can find and collect in your Fantasmario. This policy explains what data we collect, why, and how long we keep it.
1. Data we collect
Account information
- If you sign up with email: your email address and password. Passwords are handled by Google Firebase Authentication; we never see or store them in plain text.
- If you sign in with Google: Google shares your email address, name and profile photo with Firebase Authentication. We only use your email address. We never show your name or photo to anyone.
Location
- When the app is open, it reads your precise location to check whether you are near a ghost, a trail step, a memory or a legend. We need this because content can only be read in the place where it was left.
- We do not keep a location history. We store only your most recent position, which is overwritten every time and automatically deleted 1 hour after it was last updated. We use it only to detect fake or impossible movements (for example, being in two distant cities minutes apart).
- Some short-lived game data is stored together with your last position and deleted at the same time: for example, the spot where a legend is appearing near you, or the legend places you found recently (so they don't show up again right away).
- When you drop a ghost, add a trail step or create a memory, we save its location so others nearby can find it. It is deleted when that content is deleted.
- When you find a legend, its card in your Fantasmario records the date, how many times you have found it, the name of the place (for legends at fixed places) or the country (for legends that appear at random), and, for fixed places, the last time you found it there.
- The app reads your phone's country code (from your mobile network, SIM card or language settings) to show whether legends are available in your country yet. This happens only on your device and is never sent to us.
- The app does not use your location in the background or when the app is closed.
Content you create
- The text of ghosts you drop, including ghosts scheduled to appear at a later date (a Pro feature).
- Echoes (replies) you leave on ghosts and memories.
- Trails: their title, and the text and location of each step.
- Memories: their type, title, text and location. Private memories have a code you can share; we record which accounts joined with that code. We also record the candles people light on a memory (one per person per day).
- Other users never see who wrote a ghost, echo, trail or memory. They only see labels like "Author" or "Anonymous".
Usage records needed to run the app
- Which ghosts your account has opened, so each person counts only once toward a ghost's read limit.
- Your progress on the trails you play.
- Short-term counters that limit how often you can open, post, reply or report, to prevent abuse.
- Your plan type (Free or Pro).
- Moderation records: when you accepted the community rules, the accounts you blocked, and whether content you posted was hidden after reports (see section 6).
Purchases
- Pro subscriptions are sold and paid through Google Play. We never see or store your card or payment details.
- Google Play gives us a purchase token and your subscription status (for example, active, canceled or expired, and the date it ends). We use it only to turn Pro on or off for your account.
We do not access your contacts, photo gallery, files, microphone or camera, and we do not collect advertising IDs or device identifiers. We do not use analytics or advertising tools.
2. How long we keep data
- Ghosts: deleted 24 hours after they appear (3 days for Pro ghosts), or as soon as they reach their read limit, whichever comes first. Scheduled ghosts are stored from the moment you schedule them until they disappear. Their echoes and read records are deleted with them.
- Trails: unpublished drafts are deleted after 24 hours, and published trails after 7 days, together with their steps and the progress of the people who played them.
- Memories: kept until you delete them or delete your account, together with their echoes and candles.
- Your last position and short-lived game data: deleted 1 hour after they were last updated.
- Your Fantasmario: kept until you delete your account.
- Reports: deleted after 6 months, or sooner if the account that made the report, or the account whose content was reported, is deleted.
- Your account, plan and subscription records: kept until you delete your account.
- Technical server logs (errors and request details, which can include IP addresses): kept for up to 30 days by Google Cloud.
3. How we use data
Only to run GhostBuzz: sign you in, show content near you, verify that you are really there, run the legends and your Fantasmario, give Pro features to subscribers, prevent abuse, and enforce our rules. We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with advertisers.
4. Service providers
These companies process data on our behalf, under their own terms:
- Google Firebase and Google Cloud (Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Functions, Cloud Scheduler and Pub/Sub), operated by Google LLC, with servers in the United States: https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy
- Google Play, for Pro subscriptions, payments and app updates: https://policies.google.com/privacy
- Amazon Web Services (Amazon S3), with servers in the United States, which stores and serves images used in the app, such as legend card art. When your device downloads one of these images, Amazon receives standard technical information such as your IP address: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/
5. Security
- All communication between the app and our servers is encrypted (HTTPS).
- The app cannot read the database directly. Our servers check your location before showing any content.
- Purchase tokens are verified directly with Google and never leave our servers.
- Data is encrypted at rest by Google Cloud.
No system is 100% secure, but we design GhostBuzz to collect as little as possible.
6. Content moderation
- Posts are checked automatically, and phone numbers and email addresses are not allowed.
- You can report content and block other users. Content that receives several reports is hidden automatically.
- A report stores a copy of the reported text, the reason, and the accounts involved, so it can be reviewed even if the content is deleted. Reports are deleted after 6 months.
- Accounts whose content is hidden repeatedly may be temporarily blocked from posting or suspended.
- Content that breaks our rules (harassment, threats, hate, sexual content, personal information about others, illegal activity) may be reviewed and removed. We may disclose information if required by law.
7. Your rights and account deletion
- You can delete your account at any time in the app: open Account and tap "Delete account". This immediately and permanently deletes your account and everything linked to it: your ghosts, echoes, trails and trail progress, memories and candles, your Fantasmario, your last position, your subscription records, and the reports you made or that involve your content.
- Deleting your account does not cancel a Pro subscription. To stop being charged, cancel it in Google Play (Play Store > Payments & subscriptions > Subscriptions).
- You can also email ghostbuzzsupport@gmail.com from the email address linked to your account with the subject "Delete my account". We will delete your account and data within 30 days and confirm by email.
- You can ask us to access or correct your data at any time. Depending on where you live (for example, the EU/UK under GDPR or California under CCPA), you may have additional rights. Contact us to exercise them.
8. Age requirement
GhostBuzz is intended for +13.
9. Changes to this policy
we change this policy, we will update the date above and, for important changes, notify you in the app.
10. Contact
Questions or requests: ghostbuzzsupport@gmail.com