Privacy policy

Effective 17 October 2026. Last updated 17 October 2026.

Odysto is an app for keeping the trips you’ve taken and passing on the places worth it to your friends. This policy explains what Odysto collects, why, who it’s shared with, and the choices you have.

Who runs Odysto

Odysto is run by Mahmad Basha, an individual based in Ireland (“we”, “us”). We’re responsible for your personal data (the “controller” under the GDPR). For anything about your data, email privacy@odysto.com or write to Barnewalls Way, 119 Drimnagh Road, Dublin 12, Ireland.

What we collect

• Your account: your email, your password (stored only in scrambled, hashed form by our sign-in service), your name and your username. These are needed to have an account; without them we can’t provide Odysto. You choose what content to add and which optional features to use. Some technical records are collected automatically, as described below. If you sign in with Google, Google gives us your name, email address and Google account ID, and a link to your Google profile photo, which Odysto doesn’t show. If you sign in with Apple, Apple gives us an Apple account ID, your email address (or a private relay address if you choose Hide My Email) and, the first time only, your name if you share it. If you use Apple, we also keep a token from Apple only so we can remove Odysto’s access when you delete your account.
• Age check: your phone checks your birthday to confirm you’re 16 or over. We keep only “16 or over”, never the date. If you’re under 16, we request deletion of the account you started and remember the refusal on this installation until the app is reinstalled.
• Your profile: anything you choose to add: your home base (a city), a short bio, interests and a profile photo. Your profile starts private. In Settings you choose whether people can find you, whether friends can see when you’re travelling, and who can ask you for tips.
• Your trips: trips and drafts, places, days, routes, captions and the photos you pick. We upload copies of those photos only, resized, with their location data removed. To sort photos into days, the app reads the date and size of your most recent photos (up to 400 of those you’ve allowed it to see) on your phone; it never reads where they were taken.
• Picks and plans: the places you pass on and your words about them, picks links you share, “It helped” thank-yous, places you save and your notes on them, and plans with their members, checklists and ideas.
• People and conversations: friends, follows, close friends and blocks, comments and reactions, tip conversations and their attachments, and place reviews.
• Live trips: if you go live, only the city you choose, or no location at all, shown just to the audience you choose. “No location” stops sharing where you are; place names you type into an update still show to your audience.
• Location on your phone: “Use my location” on the map and in Nearby takes one location reading to centre the map and sort places near you. That reading stays on your phone. If you tap “Use my location” while putting a place on the map, then “Use this spot”, that spot is saved to Odysto like any other place you save. Odysto never uses your location in the background.
• Reports: if you report something, the reason and any note you add.
• Notifications: your device’s notification token and type (iPhone or Android), your notification settings (including quiet hours and your time zone) and the notifications we send you.
• Optional usage data: only if you choose “Share usage data”, a small set of named events, such as completing a profile, sharing a trip or verifying an email code, with a random identifier. Never your trips, photos, places, words, email, name or account ID. No screen recording or session replay; PostHog discards client IP addresses.
• Optional error reports: only if you choose “Send error reports”, a separate choice from usage data. If part of Odysto fails on your phone, it sends an error report: the type of error, where in Odysto’s code it happened, and the error message only if it’s Odysto’s own wording or a standard technical message with its details taken out. Any other message is replaced on your phone before sending, so names, places and anything you typed aren’t sent. Error reports aren’t linked to your account and use a random number that isn’t kept on your phone. You can turn them off in Settings → Privacy & sharing → Send error reports. If you test Odysto with TestFlight, Apple shares crash logs with us automatically, as described in Apple’s TestFlight privacy notice.
• Technical records: to keep Odysto secure and working, our services record technical details such as IP addresses, device and app information, the time of requests, and sign-in events. The app also times some actions on your phone to spot slow screens; that stays on your phone.

What we don’t collect: your contacts or address book, your location in the background, advertising identifiers, or usage analytics before you opt in.

How we use it, and why

• To run Odysto for you (to perform our agreement with you): your account, backing up and showing your trips, sharing them with the people you choose, picks, plans, conversations, notifications, account emails such as sign-up and password-reset codes, and the features you choose to use your photos or location for.
• To keep Odysto safe (our legitimate interests in a safe, working service): reviewing reports, stopping abuse and spam (including a filter for prohibited words), protecting accounts and fixing problems.
• To improve Odysto (your consent): optional named usage events and, as a separate choice, error reports, handled by PostHog in the EU. Refusing is as easy as agreeing. Withdraw either at any time in Settings → Privacy & sharing, with “Share usage data” or “Send error reports”. This stops future sending and drops the random identifier. Withdrawing doesn’t affect anything sent before you withdrew.
• Your phone’s permissions: Odysto can only see your photos, use your location or send notifications if you allow it in your phone’s Settings, and you can change that at any time. Turning one off stops future access; it doesn’t delete what’s already saved.
• When the law requires it (legal obligation), for example to answer a valid request from the authorities.

We never use your data for advertising, and we never sell it.

Who can see your content

• Your trips are private until you share them. For each one you choose Only me, Close friends, Friends or Public. Friends see the month and the length of a trip, never the exact dates.
• Picks go to your friends: the place, your words and the month. Anyone with a picks link you share can open it; it shows only the places you chose. We count how many times a link is opened, without keeping anything about who opened it.
• Plans and conversations are visible to their members. Your profile shows only what your settings allow.
• People you share with can take screenshots or keep copies. Blocking someone stops their future access but can’t recall copies they already have. A shared photo link can keep working for up to an hour after you change who can see it.

Services that help us run Odysto

These services help run Odysto. They handle data to provide their service, under their own terms and data agreements:

• Supabase hosts sign-in, the database and photo storage, in the EU (Ireland).
• PostHog, in the EU, receives error reports and usage analytics, each only if you choose to share them, each with a random identifier. No person profiles, session replay or screen recording; client IP addresses are discarded. We do not link your Odysto account ID.
• Brevo sends account emails, such as sign-up and password-reset codes, from the EU.
• OpenFreeMap serves the maps. Your phone asks it for map images directly, which shares your IP address and the area you’re looking at. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
• Expo, with Apple (on iPhone) or Google Firebase (on Android), delivers push notifications, once notifications are switched on. A notification says only “You have new activity” with internal reference numbers, never your content. Expo is based in the US.
• Apple and Google run Sign in with Apple and Sign in with Google, if you use them. When you delete an account that used Apple, we ask Apple to remove Odysto’s access.
• Apple: if you test Odysto with TestFlight, Apple automatically shares crash logs and information about how you use the beta with us, plus any feedback you send; these can include your name and email address. From the App Store, Apple shares crash reports with us only if you chose to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone’s Settings.
• Vercel hosts odysto.com, including the pages for shared trips and picks. Vercel is based in the US.

Where a service handles data outside the EU (for example Expo, Vercel, or Apple and Google for sign-in), we rely on the safeguards the GDPR allows, such as the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses or the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Email privacy@odysto.com for details or a copy.

How long we keep it

• When you delete your account (Settings → Delete account), what others could see is removed straight away. A cleanup then removes your photos and your account, usually within minutes; it keeps retrying until it’s done.
• Places other people saved from your picks stay with them as their own private bookmark: just the place and their note. Your name, your words and your photos are removed.
• Reports you make are deleted with your account.

Your rights

• Get a copy, and take it elsewhere (access and portability): Settings → Download all your data gives you a file with your account, profile, trips, picks, plans, conversations and more. For everything else we hold, including your photo files and the reports you’ve made, email privacy@odysto.com and we’ll send it.
• Correct: edit your profile and trips in the app.
• Delete: Settings → Delete account.
• Object, restrict or withdraw consent: email privacy@odysto.com, turn usage data or error reports off in Odysto’s Privacy & sharing settings, or turn permissions off in your iPhone’s Settings.
• Complain: you can complain to the data protection authority where you live. In Ireland, where Odysto is run, that’s the Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.ie).

We may ask you to confirm it’s really you before acting on a request, and we’ll answer within one month.

Children

Odysto is for people aged 16 and over. Your phone checks your birthday; we keep only “16 or over”, never the date. If you think someone under 16 has an account, email privacy@odysto.com and we’ll delete it.

Security

Connections are encrypted, photos are kept in private storage, and data is accessed only to run the service. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong password you don’t use anywhere else.

Changes to this policy

We’ll post any changes here. Before an important change takes effect, we’ll tell you in the app or by email.