Privacy policy

Last updated November 4, 2026

The short version

Wayfest helps you find your friends at festivals. Your location goes only to the people in your group while sharing is on, and to close friends you’ve both agreed to share with. We don’t sell your data, show ads, or track you across other apps.

What we collect

• Your email address, to sign you in.
• Your profile: the name, @username, photo, bio, pronouns, the year you started going to shows, Instagram handle, music genres and top artists you choose to add. Your friends can see it. Photos are stored at a hard-to-guess web link.
• Your wristbands: festivals you went to, with the year and wristband type (GA, GA+ or VIP). One is marked verified when your shared spot was inside that festival while it was on; we save only that it was verified and when, not where you were. If you send a photo of your wristband or ticket to get a verified badge, only you and Wayfest staff can see it, and it’s deleted once staff check it (or when you remove that wristband). When a friend adds you to a wristband, it only goes on your profile if you accept. You can add the sets you caught and your own photo from that festival to a wristband. The people who can see your profile can see your wristbands, including those sets and photos.
• Map spots you suggest (like a bathroom or water station), seen only by Wayfest admins until approved.
• Your emergency contact never leaves your phone. We don’t store it.
• Your location, while sharing is on. We keep only your latest spot, not a history. Turning sharing off deletes it.
• Your phone’s battery level, sent with your location so your friends know if your phone is about to die.
• What you do in a group: the groups you join, chat messages, lost and found alerts, whoops (with your spot), rally points, your status and the sets you star.
• Profile style you choose: banner, name style, color and Top 8.
• Your phone ID, if you add one: a description of your phone and a secret keyword. Only you and your groups can see them. Someone who finds your phone can only check whether a keyword matches; they never see it.
• Chat extras: photos (including view-once photos, which each person can open once; we record who opened them), stickers and GIFs you send, emoji reactions, which message you replied to, and chat themes. Your sticker collection stays on your phone until you send one.
• Your friends’ totem: its emblem or image, who’s carrying it, and where it was last seen.
• Festivals you follow, so we can tell you about lineup and set-time news.
• Parking reports you post, which other people at that festival can see.
• A push notification token, so your friends’ alerts can reach your phone.

What stays on your phone

Your Festival Recap (miles walked and sets you caught) and set reminders are worked out and saved only on your phone. They are never uploaded. When you invite someone from your contacts, you pick one person and their number goes straight to your Messages app. We never read or upload your contacts.

Who can see it

• Your friends: your name, location, battery, status, alerts, messages and starred sets, for the festival you share a group at. Everyone in a group is alerted when someone new joins, and the person who started the group can remove people.
• Everyone signed in at the same festival: parking reports you post (not your name).
• If you join a festival’s Community (18+): other members see your profile (name, photo, bio, pronouns, genres, top artists) and what you post there. They never see your location.
• People you message: your profile and your messages with them. Strangers can only send you one message as a request until you accept.
• Anyone who types your exact @username: your name, photo and @username, so they can send you a friend request. Nothing else, and people you block can’t find you.
• No one else. Access rules are enforced by our database, not just by the app.

Close friends

• Close friends is separate from festivals and off until you turn on “Share my spot with close friends” on Home.
• Someone only becomes a close friend when you both agree. They see your approximate spot, when it was updated and your battery level, on any day.
• We keep only your latest spot, no history. Turning sharing off deletes it right away.
• You can hide your spot for a while, stop sharing with one friend, or remove a friend at any time. They aren’t told. Blocking someone also removes them.
• Nicknames and groups you make are visible only to you.
• Photo pins you drop at a festival show on your friends’ map for 2 hours; where they were taken is deleted when the festival’s data is cleared, and the photo stays in your group chat.

Services we use

• Supabase hosts our database and sign-in.
• Expo delivers app updates and push notifications.
• Apple Maps (Google Maps on Android) draws the map on your phone.
• The US National Weather Service (weather.gov) gives forecasts and weather alerts for festival and show locations.
• Ticketmaster lists shows near the city you pick.
• OpenStreetMap provides the street map we save for offline use, and Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons provide city and festival photos.
• Apple Music and Deezer power artist search and song previews, and GIPHY powers GIF search when you use it (it sees your search words).
• AirNow (US EPA) gives air quality at festival locations.
• Sentry receives crash reports so we can fix bugs: what broke and where in the app, the app version, your phone’s OS and your Wayfest user ID. Never your messages, location or contacts.
• Uber and Lyft open in their own apps when you tap “Ride home”.

These services get only what a feature needs, like a festival’s or city’s location or your search words, never your name or group. Your phone’s internet address is visible to them, like with any website. They process data only to run these features.

Background location

If you turn on “Keep sharing when my phone is locked,” Wayfest keeps sending your spot to your friends while the app is closed. It’s off unless you turn it on, and you can turn it off in the Friends tab or in iPhone Settings at any time.

Keeping and deleting your data

3 hours after a festival ends, we delete everyone’s shared locations, rally points, parking pins, statuses and meetups for that festival, and remove the spot from any lost alerts. The app stops sharing and nothing new can be added; chats stay open. During the festival, if your shared spot moves well outside the venue, your friends get a “left the festival” alert (and “back” if you return). Old chats delete themselves: friends chats and lost alerts 60 days after the festival ends, festival community posts after 30 days, one-on-one messages after a year, and check-in timers and lost-phone reports after a week. A group’s totem spot is cleared when the festival closes. We keep the rest of your data until you delete it. To get a copy of everything we store about you, go to Settings → Download my data. Go to Friends → Delete my account to erase your account and everything tied to it right away: profile, location, messages, alerts, picks and reports. Groups you started are handed to the next member so your friends keep their friends.

Age

Wayfest is only for people 18 and older, because it shares your location. You confirm your age when you sign up. We don’t knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you think someone under 18 has an account, email us and we’ll delete it.

Reporting and contact

You can report a parking pin, a chat message or a photo by pressing and holding it. California residents can use these same tools to see, download and delete their data; we don’t sell or share personal information for advertising. For anything else, including privacy questions, email support@wayfest.app.

Changes

If this policy changes, we’ll update the date at the top and tell you in the app for any big change.