Privacy Policy

The short version

• You can use almost all of the site without telling us who you are. We don’t require an account.
• We use Google Analytics and Vercel Analytics to understand how the site is used, and we record in our own database which venues get seen, opened and acted on, and what people search for on the site — without your name, IP address or any identifier that follows you from visit to visit.
• Location features only run when you ask for them, and your precise location is never stored on our servers.
• If you send us something — a venue listing request, an event for the calendar, a photo, a correction — we keep what you sent and use it for that purpose. Nothing you submit is published until a person has reviewed it.
• We don’t sell personal information, and we don’t run advertising networks that track you across other sites.

Information collected automatically

Google Analytics 4. We use Google Analytics to measure traffic and how pages are used. It sets cookies (for example _ga) that assign a random identifier to your browser, and it collects information such as the pages you view, the links you click, your approximate location derived from your IP address, and your device and browser type. Google processes this on our behalf under its own privacy policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from running by installing Google’s browser opt-out add-on or by blocking cookies in your browser.

Vercel Analytics. Our hosting provider, Vercel, records page views in a privacy-focused way that does not use cookies or persistent identifiers.

Our own interaction records. When you see a venue on the site, open its page, or use it — view its menu, ask for directions, call, visit its website, book, order, request a ride, or tap its pin on the map — we record that interaction in our database so we can tell which venues people find useful and what the site does for them. Those records contain the venue and its city, the type of interaction, the time, the page address it happened on (without any query string) and the kind of page it is, where on the page it happened (the section, position and part of the page), the mode or list/map view you were using, and where relevant the booking or ordering service or the kind of menu; for taps on visitor photos, which photo was tapped and the time-of-day section it appeared under. If you found the venue by searching, the record also carries a random search code linking it to that search. They do not contain your name, IP address, email address, phone number, location, or the address of the site you went on to.

To tell one visit from another without knowing who you are, each record also carries two random codes created in your browser: a visit code, kept in your browser’s local storage and replaced with a new one after 30 minutes without activity (and in any case after 12 hours), and a page code for the page you were looking at. They are not derived from your IP address, device or location, are not cookies, are not shared with Google or anyone else, and cannot link one visit to the next. We remove them from our records after 90 days, together with the search codes on interaction records, so older records can no longer be linked to each other.

Searches on the site. When you search for venues, we record the search in our database: the words you searched for, reduced to lower case with extra spaces removed and cut to 80 characters, how many venues matched, whether you were looking at the list or the map, and the visit and page codes described above. If what you typed looks like an email address, a phone number or a web address, we record only that a search happened, not what you typed. Search records are deleted after 180 days, and their visit and page codes after 90. Google Analytics also receives the search, as a search event with the words reduced as described here, and — exactly as you typed it — as part of the page address, because the search is in the address bar.

Separately, our servers hold a short rolling log of recent interactions in memory, in which your IP address and browser type are combined into a temporary session identifier so we can see activity on an internal dashboard; that log is not written to disk or to our database and rolls over continuously.

Server and security logs. Like every website, our hosting provider receives your IP address and standard request information in order to serve pages and protect against abuse, and retains those logs for a limited period.

Location

The map on the Explore page has a “near me” feature. It only runs when you tap the locate button and your browser asks your permission. When you allow it, your device’s location is used in your browser to centre the map and rank nearby venues. Your precise coordinates are not sent to our servers or stored by us. We do send an approximate location, rounded to roughly one kilometre, to Google Analytics as part of a “location used” event so we can understand how often the feature is used and from where in general terms.

If you type a ZIP code or city into the map instead, that text is sent to Mapbox, our map provider, to be converted into map coordinates, and the result is saved in your own browser so the map remembers it next time. Map tiles are also loaded from Mapbox, which means Mapbox receives your IP address when the map is displayed, under its own privacy policy.

Information stored in your browser

Some features remember things for you using your browser’s local storage rather than an account: venues you save, a plan you build for tonight, a map location you chose, venues you viewed recently, and a flag that stops the map from re-scrolling after you decline location access. This information stays on your device, is not sent to us, and disappears if you clear your browser data.

For our own analytics, your browser also keeps the random visit code described above, and, for up to a minute in the current tab only, a note of the venue card you just tapped, so that the venue’s page can be counted as opened from that card. The visit code is sent to us with interaction records; the note is not sent on its own. Devices used by our team for testing carry a flag that marks their activity as internal so it can be left out of our figures; ordinary visits never set it.

Information you send us

Venue listing requests. If you ask us to list a venue, the form asks for the venue’s name, type and address, a website and Instagram handle if you have them, happy-hour details, a short note on why it should be included, your name and email address, and an optional photo of the venue. The details are delivered to us by email through our email provider, Resend, and we use them to reply to you and evaluate the request.

Event submissions. If you submit an event for the calendar, the form asks for the event’s name, category, date, times and description, the venue, optional ticket, website and Instagram links, price and age details, any food or drink special, your name and email address, an optional phone number, and an optional event image. Nothing you submit is published automatically: the details are emailed to us for review, and we use them to check the event, list it if we choose to, and contact you about it. Your name, email address and phone number are never shown on the site.

Images you attach. A venue photo or event image you attach is resized, stripped of embedded metadata such as camera location, and kept in a private storage bucket with your submission until a person reviews it. It is only shown on the site if we list the venue or event, and only where you confirmed you have permission to share it.

Abuse protection on forms. When you submit either form we keep a shortened, one-way hash of your IP address and your browser type with the submission so we can spot spam and limit repeated submissions. The address itself is not kept with the submission.

Photo submissions. If you submit a “tonight’s vibe” photo for a venue, we receive the photo, an optional caption and, if you choose to give one, your Instagram handle. Submissions are held privately, reviewed by a person, and approved photos are shown publicly on the venue’s page for about 24 hours, alongside the handle you provided. Please only submit photos you took and have the right to share, and don’t include other people in a way they wouldn’t expect.

Corrections and email. If you report outdated information or email us, we keep the message and use it to fix the listing or answer you.

How we use information

• To run the site and its features, including maps and location-based results.
• To understand which pages and venues are useful so we can improve the guide.
• To review and publish content you submit, and to respond to your messages.
• To keep the site secure and prevent abuse.

We do not use your information to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell it.

Who we share information with

We share information only with service providers who process it for us and are bound to use it only for that purpose: Google (analytics), Vercel (hosting and analytics), Mapbox (maps and geocoding), Supabase (our database and file storage) and Resend (email delivery). We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of the site, its users or others.

Some content on the site may be presented by a sponsor. Sponsors do not receive personal information about you from us.

How long we keep information

Interaction records are kept for as long as they are useful for measuring the site, and contain no personal identifiers; the random visit and page codes on them are removed after 90 days. Search records are deleted after 180 days. Google Analytics data is retained according to the retention setting in our Google Analytics account. Emails, venue listing requests and event submissions, including any image attached to them, are kept for as long as needed to handle them and for our records. Submitted vibe photos are kept for moderation and record-keeping after their public window ends. You can ask us to delete any of these at any time.

Your choices

• You can block or delete cookies in your browser, or use Google’s analytics opt-out add-on.
• You can decline location access when your browser asks, and the map will still work with a typed location or the city filters.
• You can clear saved venues, plans and locations by clearing your browser’s site data.
• You can ask us to access, correct or delete anything you have sent us by emailing hello@palmbeachhappyhour.com.

We honour these requests regardless of where you live. We do not currently respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals, because there is no agreed standard for them; the choices above work instead.

Children

This site is about bars, restaurants and happy hours and is intended for adults. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has sent us information, contact us and we will delete it.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS. Submitted photos and images are stored in a private bucket. Vibe photos are only made visible through time-limited links after review, and venue or event images are not shown unless we list the venue or event. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Changes to this policy

If we add a feature that collects information in a new way, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Significant changes will be noted on the site.

Contact

Questions or requests about privacy: hello@palmbeachhappyhour.com. See also our Terms of Use.