TheCrowd helps supporters find bars and matchday venues for their team in any city. This policy explains what data we collect when you use thecrowd.fan, why we collect it, and the third parties we rely on to run the service.
Who we are
TheCrowd is a supporter-bar and matchday discovery app. We list bars that show specific teams, surface kickoff and broadcast information, and let signed-in fans RSVP, check in, and see live crowd signals on matchday.
Account data
When you sign in, authentication is handled by Clerk on our behalf. We receive your email address, a unique user ID, and any optional profile fields you choose to provide (display name, avatar). You can sign in and use the discovery surface without ever creating a profile beyond what authentication requires.
If you choose to make your display name visible on RSVPs or check-ins, that is opt-in. The default is private — your activity contributes to aggregate counts but is not attributed to you in public lists.
Location
We ask for your device location in two situations:
- Nearby search. If you ask the app to show bars near you, we use your coordinates in-memory to query bars and sort by distance. Coordinates entered into a URL on the
/nearpage are not indexed by search engines. - Check-in proximity. When you check in at a bar on matchday, we compare your device location to the bar's location to confirm you are physically there. We store the fact that you checked in and which bar — not a continuous trail of your GPS.
You can decline the location prompt at any time. If you do, nearby search and proximity-verified check-ins are unavailable, but the rest of the app works as expected.
RSVPs and check-ins
RSVPs and check-ins are tied to your account so you can see your own history and so the venue can see expected attendance. Publicly we surface aggregate counts — for example, "42 fans heading here" — not individual identities. Your display name only appears in public lists if you have explicitly turned that on in your profile.
Aggregated crowd signals
Hot Spots and similar matchday surfaces show counts and trends — how many fans of a team are gathered at a bar, how a bar's crowd compares to other venues, which cities are heating up. These signals are aggregated. We do not expose individual users on these surfaces unless they have opted in to public visibility.
Cookies and analytics
We use a small number of essential cookies to keep you signed in and remember your settings. We use Vercel Analytics to count page views and route performance in aggregate — no cross-site tracking and no profile of your browsing outside TheCrowd.
The app also ships a PostHog product-analytics client. PostHog is dormant unless a public key is configured for the deployment; when it is enabled, it captures product events (such as which filters you used) tied to an anonymous device ID, and respects the Global Privacy Control signal and "Do Not Track" headers where supported.
Service providers we use
We rely on the following processors. Each handles a specific slice of the service on our behalf under their own contractual and security commitments:
- Clerk — authentication and account management.
- Vercel — hosting, edge network, and aggregate analytics.
- Supabase — primary database and storage.
- PostHog — product analytics (when enabled), opt-out aware.
- Mapbox — map tiles and geocoding.
- Resend — transactional email such as claim verifications.
- Upstash — rate limiting and ephemeral caching.
Your choices
- You can delete your account at any time — contact us at the email below and we will remove your account data within a reasonable window.
- You can decline location access without losing access to discovery.
- You can keep your display name private (the default).
- You can request a copy of the data we hold on you.
Children
TheCrowd is not directed to children under 13. If we learn we have collected data from a child under 13 without parental consent, we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify signed-in users by email.
Contact
Questions about this policy, data requests, or privacy concerns: privacy@thecrowd.fan.