Privacy Policy

Last updated October 24, 2026

Nearviews.com (“Nearviews”, “we”, “us”) is a microblogging site. People post short public “Views” tagged with where they are, so others nearby can find them. That only works if posts are visible, which is why what you choose to share matters. This policy explains what we collect, what other people can see, and what you can do to keep your personal information safe.

Important: protect your personal information

Nearviews is a public, location-based platform. Anything you post can be read, copied, screenshotted and shared by other people, and it may stay visible elsewhere even after you delete it here. Protecting your personal data is your responsibility first. Before you post, comment or message, stop and think about whether you would be comfortable with a stranger near you reading it.

Please never share any of the following in a View, comment, profile bio, photo or video:

Your home address, workplace, school or the places you visit on a regular schedule.
Phone numbers, personal email addresses or other contact details you do not want strangers to use.
Government ID, passport, driver's licence, tax or social security numbers.
Bank, card, e-wallet or payment details, passwords, PINs, one-time codes or security answers.
Medical, financial, legal or other sensitive information about you or anyone else.
Photos or details of children, or private information about other people without their permission.
Anything that reveals when you are away from home or exactly where you will be next.

If you share something sensitive by mistake, delete it straight away from your profile, and treat it as exposed. Deleting stops it appearing on Nearviews but cannot take back copies other people may already have made.

1. What we collect

Information you give us

Account details: your name, handle, email address and password. Passwords are stored only as a salted one-way hash (scrypt), never in readable form.
Sign in with Google: if you use it, Google gives us your name, email address, a Google account identifier and whether your email is verified. We do not receive your Google password.
Profile: your bio and the theme you choose.
Content: Views, comments, likes, re-views, follows, direct messages, and any photos or videos you upload (or YouTube links you attach).

Location

Nearviews needs your device location to work, and requires it to be switched on. While you are signed in and the app is open we use your device's GPS to:

show you Views within your chosen radius and how far each one is;
save your latest coordinates and the city they map to on your profile, and silently refresh them about every 15 minutes while you are online;
tag each View and comment you post with the coordinates and city saved on your profile at that moment.

To turn coordinates into a city name we send them to a reverse-geocoding service (see section 4). You can stop location sharing at any time in your browser or device settings, but Nearviews cannot be used without it.

Information collected automatically

Cookies and local storage: a secure session cookie that keeps you signed in, a theme cookie, and small preferences saved in your browser (such as your radius and theme). We do not use advertising cookies.
Technical data: your IP address and basic request details, used for security, rate limiting and troubleshooting. Server logs may record errors and request metadata.

2. What other people can see

Assume the following is visible to other signed-in users of Nearviews:

Your name, handle, bio, city, join date, follower and following counts, and your Views.
The city and coordinates attached to each View and comment, shown as a city name and a distance from the viewer. The coordinates behind those labels are also available to other users' browsers, so treat them as exact, not as an approximate area.
Your profile location (city and coordinates) as last refreshed from your device.
Who can see a View is limited by distance. Each View carries a privacy radius (5 km by default, or one you pick from Edit profile or the lock icon on the View). Members whose saved location is outside that radius cannot see it. You can also choose “Everyone”. This limits who sees a View on Nearviews, but it is not a guarantee: people inside the radius can still copy it.
Your photos and videos, including anything visible in them. Photos can also contain hidden metadata (EXIF) such as the place and time they were taken. We do not remove it, so strip it before uploading if you do not want it shared.

Direct messages are visible to you and the person you message. They are not end-to-end encrypted, and the recipient can copy or forward them. Do not send anything through messages that you could not afford to have seen by others.

3. How we use information

To run Nearviews: show the wall, apply your radius, deliver notifications and messages, and keep you signed in.
To keep the service safe: prevent abuse, spam and fraud, enforce our Terms & Conditions and respond to legal requests.
To maintain and improve the service, fix errors and understand usage.

We do not sell your personal information.

5. Security, and your responsibility

We use reasonable technical measures, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, access-controlled storage and rate limiting. No system is completely secure, and no method of transmission or storage is 100% safe. We cannot guarantee that your information will never be accessed, lost or disclosed.

You are responsible for:

deciding what you share and who can see it, and checking your Views and profile before and after you post;
choosing a strong, unique password, keeping it secret, and logging out on shared devices;
securing your own devices, browser and Google account, including your phone's location and lock settings;
removing sensitive metadata from photos and videos before you upload them;
telling us promptly if you think your account was accessed without permission.

6. Data loss and leaks

Nearviews.com is a microblogging site and personal data protection is a shared effort in which the user carries the primary responsibility for what they choose to publish and for protecting their own information. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Nearviews.com is not responsible or liable for any loss, deletion, corruption, unauthorised access to, disclosure or leak of information, including information you post publicly, information others copy or re-share, and information exposed through your own devices, accounts or passwords, or through the failure of third-party services.

Keep your own copy of anything important, because we do not promise that content will always be available or recoverable. Nothing in this policy limits any right you have under data protection law that cannot legally be waived (for example, the right to complain to your data protection authority).

7. How long we keep data

We keep your account and content while your account is active. If you delete a View, it is removed from the site and its comments, likes and re-views go with it; its photos or videos are removed from storage in a later clean-up. Direct messages and some records may remain in backups or logs for a limited time. Where the law requires, we keep certain records for longer. You can delete your account yourself from Settings on your profile (see section 8). Deleting an account erases your profile, picture, Views, messages, likes, follows and uploaded files, and anonymises the comments you left on other people's Views, which then read “Unknown User”. Some copies may remain in backups for a limited time.

8. Your choices and rights

Edit or delete your Views using the pencil and bin icons on your own posts, and delete your own comments with the bin icon beside them.
Update your profile (name, handle, bio, theme and profile picture) from your profile page. Profile pictures are cropped and re-encoded in your browser, which removes photo metadata.
Change your password in Settings. Other devices are signed out.
Hibernate your account in Settings to hide your profile and Views from everyone temporarily. Your comments on other people's Views show as “Unknown User” and other members cannot open your profile. Nothing is deleted, and logging in again brings the account back.
Delete your account permanently in Settings. This cannot be undone.
Control location in your browser or device settings. Note that Nearviews requires it.
Ask us for access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data, or to object to how it is used, subject to applicable law.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under local data protection laws, which we will respect.

9. Children

Nearviews is not meant for children under 13, or the minimum age required in your country. We do not knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will remove it.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Nearviews changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant we will make reasonable efforts to let you know. Continuing to use Nearviews after a change means you accept the updated policy.

11. Contact

For privacy questions or requests, email [email protected]. See also our Terms & Conditions.