197 App Privacy Policy

197 is a travel passport and community operated by Hostel 197. This policy explains the information used by the 197 mobile and web app.

Information we process

We process the email address used for account authentication; profile details you provide; the countries you mark in your Passport, the visits you keep of them (when you were there, the cities you went to and a note) and your travel statistics; the country of the passport you tell us you travel on, where you choose to provide it; journal entries; your Travel Kit (a trip's country and dates, its checklist, your private notes and the places you saved for it - a photo you add to a note stays on your device and is not uploaded); posts; photos; comments; likes; saves; follows; blocks and mutes; safety reports; and when you confirmed you are 13 or older and agreed to the community guidelines. The passport country is optional, can be cleared at any time in Edit profile, and is not a record of nationality or citizenship. A country, city or place is processed only when you choose to add it to your profile or content. 197 does not continuously track your device location.

How we use information

We use this information to authenticate your account, synchronize your Passport, provide private journals and social features, prevent abuse, respond to support and safety requests, and operate the service. The passport you travel on determines the cover the app opens on and the entry-requirement guidance it shows; that guidance is distributed inside the app and evaluated on your device, so requesting it transmits nothing. We do not sell personal information or use it for cross-app advertising.

Sharing and visibility

Your profile, travel count and content you intentionally publish can be visible to other signed-in travelers, who can find you by your name or @username, and among the travelers who have been to a country you marked as visited. Private journals, account details, saved posts, wish lists, favorites, blocks, mutes and safety reports are not displayed as public profile information.

Service providers and security

Supabase provides authentication, database and file-storage infrastructure for 197. Access is restricted with account-based database and storage rules. No internet service can guarantee absolute security, so only publish content you are comfortable sharing.

Retention and deletion

We keep account data while your account is active and as needed to operate the service, resolve safety reports, or meet legal obligations. When you take every mark off a country in your Passport, we keep a record that you did and when, for 90 days, so that another of your devices that was offline cannot mark it again; after 90 days the record is deleted, and until then it is in your data download under "removed". A visit you remove is kept the same way for 90 days, but its dates, cities and note are deleted at once. You can permanently delete your account inside 197 under Profile → Settings → Delete account. Deletion removes the active authentication account, associated database records and uploaded account media. Limited records may remain temporarily in protected backups or where retention is required by law.

Your data on your device

So that it keeps working without a connection, the app keeps a copy of some of your account on your device, such as your Passport, recent feeds, your conversations list, your journal and your Travel Kit. Signing out removes your account's private data from the device: those copies, the photos in your Travel Kit notes (which are kept only on your device), the device's registration for your notifications, and anything you did offline that has not reached your account yet. The app first tries to send that, and asks you before it removes anything it could not send. Your language, appearance and sound settings stay on the device.

Your choices

You can edit your profile, choose whether a journal is private or public, remove content, unfollow, mute or block travelers, report stories, comments, places, place notes and profiles, and delete your account. In the 197 app on iPhone you can also download a copy of your data at any time under Profile → Settings → Download my data: one file with your account details, profile, Passport, visits, posts, comments, likes, saves, follows, journals, messages, blocks, mutes, reports, places, Travel Kit and your agreement to the community guidelines, for you to keep or send. Contact us to ask a privacy question or request help exercising these choices.

Children

197 is not directed to children under 13. Contact us if you believe a child has provided personal information so we can review the issue.

Contact

Email: hello@197.world

We may update this policy when the app or its data practices change. The effective date above will be updated when material changes are published.