Writing to us about your data
We decide how the personal data described here is used. Write to us about anything on this page; the address is on the contact page.
What we process
We list groups, not people. For each group we keep facts from public pages: its name, city and activity, when and in which area it meets, its languages, whether it says it is free, the dates of its newest and next meetings where a listing names them, and the address of a public page about it. Our list comes from the groups' own pages, public libraries, city programmes and directories, and from a research catalogue of public listings that includes event and social platforms such as Meetup.
We do not take organisers' or members' names, phone numbers, personal email addresses or chat invite links into our records, and we never publish them. We leave out groups whose name includes a person's full name, as far as our checks can tell; a library, a business or another place named after someone stays. A group's name can include a first name: we show it as the group gives it, and correct or remove it on request.
Working copies of the collections our list comes from, which also hold organisers' names and other details we did not keep, are on one of our servers and in private storage. They are not published, and we use them only to build and correct our list.
Each check of a group's page leaves a record: when we checked, the answer's status, the outcome and the date of any meeting found, with no name, no address and no text from the page. To check a page, our checker downloads it, and we keep the copy for a short time so that a wrong result can be looked into. A Meetup page, read only to see whether the group still exists, is not kept, and the checker opens no page on any other platform. Our request log records the address of each page we asked for, when, and the answer's status and headers; it is not published.
Why, and on what basis
Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR and of the GDPR). Our interest is to help people find groups they can join, with honest and dated information, to run this site, and to learn which pages are read and how people find them.
We weighed that interest against the interests of the people behind the groups. Groups put these facts on public pages so that new people can find them and join. We use only those facts, send visitors on to a public page about the group, publish no one's contact details, keep downloaded pages for a short time and out of our backups, and correct or remove a listing on request. On that basis we consider that their interests and rights do not override ours.
We weighed counting visits against the privacy of our visitors in the same way, and count in the way that tells us least about any one visitor: the counting stores nothing on your device, keeps no IP address, uses a visitor code that changes every day, and its notes are deleted after about three months.
How long we keep it
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Group facts (name, city, activity, schedule, area, languages, price, meeting dates, page address) | As long as the site runs, also for groups that stopped. On a removal request we delete the group's name, schedule, area, meeting dates and page address from the list; our request log and the history of our code repository keep older records. |
| Check records (when, status, outcome, meeting date found) | As long as the site runs. They hold no name, no address and no text from the page. |
| Copies of downloaded group pages | Deleted in hourly batches by a daily clean-up, once 30 days have passed since a check last downloaded any page of the batch. Never in a backup. |
| Request log (page address, time, status, headers) | As long as the site runs, as our record of what we fetched. |
| The city you choose in the search box or on the home page | In your browser's local storage, until you choose another, use "The city nearest me" or clear this site's data. The home page asks for that city's listings by its name, so the name is in the address of that request, like in any page address; we do not note it. |
| Your rough location, when a page asks for the city nearest you | Not kept: it is used while the request is answered and then dropped. Not logged, not cached, not in our notes of visits. On the home page the nearest city it finds is then asked for by name in a second, ordinary request, as the row above says. |
| The nearest city we found for the search box | In your browser's session storage, until you close the tab: a city we list, by its name and by the name in its page address, never your coordinates, or a note that none was near. |
| The colour you choose with the switch in the footer (Light, Dark or System) | In your browser's local storage, under the name ttj-theme, until you choose System, which removes it, or clear this site's data. It is written only after you click Light or Dark. It is never sent anywhere, not in a cookie, a header or our notes of visits. |
| Notes of visits (page, referring page, campaign tags, country, kind of device, visitor code) | About three months, kept by Cloudflare, then deleted. We keep nothing from them after that. |
| Earlier versions of the site's pages | At least 14 days, and until 48 newer versions are published, so the site can be rolled back. A batch of pages stays while any page in it is still in use, so an old page can stay longer. |
| Backups of our database | 14 daily, 8 weekly and 12 monthly copies, so data deleted from the database is gone from every backup within about 13 months. |
| Email you send us | As long as we need it to answer you and to make the change you asked for. |
| What you send through our forms (your email address, name, role, how you run a group, note) | Kept encrypted, and deleted 90 days after we have looked at your message, or 120 days after you sent it if we have not looked at it by then; gone from every backup within about 13 months after that. Cloudflare's copy is deleted three months after you send it. |
When you visit this site
The search box at the top of every page and the home page remember the city you choose in your browser's local storage, on your device: the city's name as it is written in its page address, such as "tokyo", and its name as we write it. Only the site's own scripts read or write it. It is not sent as a cookie or in a header and it stays out of our notes of visits, but the home page asks for that city's listings by the city's name, so the name is in the address of that one request (see below). To change it, choose another city; "The city nearest me" removes it, and so does clearing this site's data in your browser. This site's pages set no cookie of their own, and the site runs no advertising. The one cookie it can still set is called city and comes from /my-city, the address an earlier version of the home page used to remember a city for a year: no page links it now, and the home page does not read it. Its scripts are described below.
The search box also fills its city box. On a page you open it asks this site, at /_geo, which city we list is nearest to you, exactly as the home page does (see below); the answer is kept in your browser's session storage until you close the tab, so the tab does not ask again. If you chose a city before, it asks for nothing until you pick "The city nearest me" in its list. Nothing you type in the search box is sent to us: the box matches your words in your browser, and when you press Search your browser goes straight to the page it found, an ordinary request for that page. Where the script has not loaded or cannot run, the search is a plain form, and the words you typed are in the address of that one request, to /search. The cities and activities the box suggests from are one public file of this site, the same for everyone, which your browser fetches when you first use the box.
The home page first lists every activity for the whole world. A small script then asks this site, at /_geo, which city we list is nearest to you. Our server reads the rough location Cloudflare adds to your request (worked out from your IP address: coordinates, else the city and country) and answers with the name of the nearest city we list within 150 km, and nothing else. If there is none, or Cloudflare cannot place you, it answers with nothing. We use that location only to answer, and do not keep it, log it or cache the answer; the request is not among our notes of visits. Without the script, or with no city near you, the page stays as it is, and you can choose a city yourself.
With a city, the nearest one or the one you chose, the script asks for that city's listings, an ordinary file of this site named after the city, so the request carries the city's name like any page you open, and swaps them in for the world's. If you chose a city before, it asks for that one and not for your location. The home page's script sends no cookie, and it writes to your device only when you choose a city; the colour switch in the footer, described next, writes to your device only when you click one of its buttons. The search box's script, described above, and the script that counts page views, described below, are different ones.
The footer of every page has a switch for the page's colours: Light, Dark or System (your device's own setting, which is what you get until you choose). When you click Light or Dark, a small script on the page keeps your choice in your browser's local storage, on your device, under the name ttj-theme, and System removes it. Nothing is written before you click. Only that script reads it, to set the page's colours. It is never sent anywhere: not as a cookie, not in a header, not in the address of a request, and it stays out of our notes of visits. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes it too.
Cloudflare serves the site for us and handles your IP address and request to deliver pages and block floods of requests. We do not keep your IP address.
How we count visits
We count visits and page views from what your browser sends with every request. A small script counts each page view, sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device. It runs once the page has loaded and is shown, and it reads no cookie, file or storage on your device, the remembered city and your colour choice included. It reads the page's path, the address of the page you came from without anything after "?", the three campaign tags, and one browser setting that says whether the browser is run by automation. A browser run by automation is not counted as a page view. We note every page a browser opens, every request from a known crawler and one in ten of the other requests.
Each note says which kind of page was asked for, the answer given and how long it took. For a page a browser opens, and for the crawlers of search engines checked against their published addresses, it also says which page it was. It can also hold the address of the page you came from, if your browser sends it, without anything after "?" (only the site's name for webmail and similar private services); the campaign tags of the link you followed (utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign); your country, never your city; the kind of device (phone, tablet or computer); and a visitor code.
The visitor code is a number of 16 bits made from your IP address, your browser's user agent, the site and the date. It changes every day and is made differently for each website, so it cannot link your visits from one day to the next or from one website to another. It lets us estimate how many different visitors came in a day. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, we make no visitor code, and your page view still counts in the totals.
We never keep your IP address, the text of your browser's user agent, any cookie or anything read from your device. Your IP address and user agent are used only while your request is answered: to make the visitor code, to tell browsers from crawlers and to see the kind of device.
Cloudflare deletes these notes after about three months, and we keep nothing from them after that.
Our counts are estimates, not counts of people: some programs pass for browsers, and the number of different visitors in a day is worked out from the visitor codes, not counted.
When you send us a group or claim one
Our two forms, "Add your group" and "Claim your group", send us what you write in them: a group's name, public page, city, activity, when it meets, its languages and price; or which group you run, your name, your role in it and how we can see that you run it; your email address; and any note you add. We set no cookie and keep no IP address with them. A visit to a form's page, and the sending, are counted like any page view, as "How we count visits" above says, which names nobody.
New messages are looked at in batches, usually every few days. A group someone adds is reviewed on its public details alone: its name, address, city and activity. Your email address, your name and role, how you show that you run a group, and your note are encrypted as soon as our site receives them, and they stay sealed. Only we open them, at a terminal on our server, with our review command, and only if we need to check a claim or write back to you. Nothing of a message is published: a group's page shows only the facts we check on the group's own page.
We use your email address only to ask you about your message; the forms send no email. If a claim holds, we may use your details to ask you about the group until we delete them. We delete them 90 days after we have looked at your message, or 120 days after you sent it if we have not looked at it by then; backups of our database keep them, encrypted, until they are gone from every backup within about 13 months after that. What a message says about a group stays with our list's records. Our basis is the legitimate interest above: to keep our list complete and correct, and to know whom to ask about a group.
Your message reaches us through Cloudflare, which keeps a copy in its analytics storage for three months from the day you send it, with the details about you encrypted as above. Nobody can delete that copy sooner: if you ask us to delete your message, we delete ours at once, and Cloudflare's goes when its three months are over. What a message says about a group is not encrypted there; anyone who holds read access to our account's analytics could read it: only we, and the access tokens of our own tools, which deploy this site, watch it and count its visits.
Your rights, and how to use them
If you run a group, or a listing names you, you can ask us to correct it, remove it, tell you what we hold about you, or stop using it: write to us through thingstojoin.com/contact. We act on correction and removal requests within 7 days. A removed group disappears from every page, and if it had a page of its own, that address then says the page was removed.
You can object to our use of the data at any time, and you can complain to the data protection authority where you live. If you run a website and do not want our checker to visit it, see thingstojoin.com/bot.
Who handles the data for us
Our database and the copies of downloaded pages are on a server we rent in Germany. Backups are kept with two backup providers. Our list of groups is also kept, with its history, in our private code repository, hosted by GitHub. Cloudflare serves the pages, keeps the notes of visits for about three months, passes on what you send through our forms and keeps a copy of it for three months, and forwards the email you send to our contact address to our mailbox.
Changes
Plainer wording on where to write about your data, and on who can open what the forms send us: only we can.
The search box on every page suggests activities and cities as you type, and fills its city box with the city nearest you. It keeps the city you choose in your browser's local storage and the nearest city it found in its session storage until you close the tab, sends nothing you type to us, and reads one public list of our cities and activities when you first use it.
Every page has a switch in its footer for the colours of the page: Light, Dark or System. Your choice is kept in your browser's local storage, under the name ttj-theme, only after you click Light or Dark, and is never sent to us or anywhere else. System removes it.
The home page lists every activity for the world and then, for the city nearest you, its own links and counts: our server answers the nearest city we list within 150 km from the rough location of your request, and keeps nothing. A city you choose is remembered in your browser's local storage, not in a cookie.
The forms to add a group and to claim one: what they send us, that the details about you are encrypted and opened only by us, at a terminal on our server, and only if we need to check a claim or write back, that new messages are looked at in batches, usually every few days, that nothing of a message is published, and when its details about you are deleted.
How we count visits now describes the page-view script: a small script counts each page view, sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device, and sends only the page's path, the referring page without its query and the three campaign tags. The earlier wording about scripts is withdrawn.
How we count visits: the page, where a visit came from, country, device and a visitor code that changes every day; Cloudflare deletes the notes after about three months.
The home page shows things to do in your city: one cookie remembers a city you choose, and the rough location of your request picks one until you do, which we do not keep.
Shorter, with the same facts; requests go through the contact page, and every group we list shows from the day we list it.
Groups from a larger research catalogue, groups on platforms such as Meetup, and the dates of meetings a listing names, which a removal deletes too; Meetup pages are read for existence only and not kept.
First version.