Haystack AR Privacy Policy
Effective 23 September 2026
This Privacy Policy applies to the Haystack AR mobile application ("the App"), published by BlazingNerd LLC ("BlazingNerd", "we", "us"). Haystack AR is a free augmented reality scavenger hunt played at real world events such as festivals, fairs and conferences.
Questions about this Policy: help@blazingnerd.com
1. Information you give us
To create an account and play, we ask for:
First name and last name
Email address
Password
Phone number (optional)
Company or organisation (optional, where relevant to the event)
We use your email address to confirm your account, to sign you in, and to contact you about the event you are playing, including notifying a prize winner.
2. Location
Haystack AR uses your device's precise location. It is how the App knows you are close enough to a hidden object to collect it, and how the on screen arrow points you toward it. The App cannot function without it.
Your coordinates are not transmitted to our servers. Location is evaluated on your device to decide whether an object is within range. We do not store a record of where you have been, and we do not build a location history.
You can withdraw location permission at any time in your device settings. The App will no longer be playable if you do.
3. Camera and photos
The App uses your camera to display the augmented reality view and, if you choose, to take a photo of an object you have found.
If you post a photo, it is uploaded to our servers and displayed on that event's shared social wall, alongside your name, where other players at that event can see it. Posting a photo is always optional. You are asked to agree before your first photo is posted.
Rights in photos you post. By posting a photo, you give BlazingNerd and the organiser of that event permission to use it in social media posts and other promotional material relating to that event. This permission does not extend to unrelated marketing.
You keep ownership of your photo. You can ask us to stop using it at any time by emailing help@blazingnerd.com. A photo already published in a social media post may remain in that post.
4. Gameplay information
We record which objects you have found, your score, your answers to in game trivia, and your position on the event leaderboard. Your name appears on the leaderboard for the event you are playing.
5. Information collected automatically
When your device contacts our servers we receive technical information including your IP address, device type and operating system version, and the date and time of the request. We use this to operate and secure the service.
6. Sharing with event organisers
This is important, so it is stated plainly.
When you take part in a hunt at an event, we share your information with the organiser of that event, and with personnel that organiser authorises. That information may include your name, email address, phone number, company, the objects you found, your score, your trivia answers and any photo you posted to that event's social wall.
Event organisers use this to run the event, award prizes, and communicate with attendees, including marketing.
Choosing an event and playing its hunt is what triggers this sharing. If you do not want your information shared with a particular organiser, do not join that event's hunt.
Organisers are required by contract not to sell your information.
7. We do not sell your information
BlazingNerd does not sell your personal information to anyone.
Aside from the event organiser sharing described in Section 6, we disclose personal information only:
to service providers who operate the App on our behalf, who may not use it for their own purposes;
where required by law, such as a subpoena or similar legal process;
where we believe in good faith it is necessary to protect our rights, your safety or the safety of others, to investigate fraud, or to respond to a lawful government request.
8. Sponsor content
The App may display sponsor images and messages supplied by the event organiser or its sponsors, and these may link to a sponsor's website. This is ordinary content, not advertising network tracking. The App contains no third party advertising SDK, does not build an advertising profile, and does not track you across other apps or websites.
9. Children
Haystack AR is rated 16+ and is not intended for anyone under 16. Please do not create an account or play if you are under that age.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Events using Haystack AR are often family events, so if you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has created an account, contact us at help@blazingnerd.com and we will delete the information promptly.
10. Keeping and deleting your information
Event information: deleted within 30 days. The personal information associated with an event you played, including your finds, score and trivia answers, is deleted from our servers within 30 days of that event's final day.
Your account: kept so you can play again. We keep your account so that you do not have to register again for a future event. If you do not use Haystack AR for six months, we delete your account and the personal information held in it.
Photos: kept under the permission you gave us. Photos you posted are kept for the event related marketing use described in Section 3, rather than being deleted at 30 days. You can ask us to stop using a photo and to delete it at any time by emailing help@blazingnerd.com.
To delete your account sooner, you can do it two ways:
In the App. Open your account screen and choose Delete Account. You will be asked to confirm, and your account and the personal information held in it are then permanently removed.
By email. Write to help@blazingnerd.com and we will action it within a reasonable time.
Two things to be aware of. Information already shared with an event organiser under Section 6 is held by that organiser, and you would need to contact them directly about their copy. And a photo already published in a social media post under Section 3 may remain in that post.
Uninstalling the App stops further collection, but does not by itself delete an account already created.
11. Marketing and opting out
If we email you about events or promotions, every message includes a way to unsubscribe. Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop service messages such as account confirmation or prize notification.
Marketing sent by an event organiser is governed by that organiser's own practices and its own unsubscribe mechanism.
12. Security
We use physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect the information we hold. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
13. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy. We will post the new version on this page and change the effective date above. Continued use of the App after a change means you accept the updated Policy.
14. Contact
Questions about this Policy or about your information: help@blazingnerd.com
BlazingNerd LLC, Florida, United States.