Privacy Policy

Overview

LineGuy is operated by LineGuy, LLC ("we", "us"), a Massachusetts limited liability company located at 25 Ericsson Street, Dorchester, MA 02122. LineGuy shows real time crowd and line estimates at bars and venues.

You can use LineGuy without creating an account. This policy explains what information the app handles and how.

Photos and videos you submit

When you submit a line update, the photo (or frames from your video) is uploaded to our servers and analyzed by an AI service (Anthropic Claude) to estimate the number of people in line. Video is captured without audio — LineGuy never records, receives, or stores any audio. Submitted images are stored only briefly so our moderators can review the update. Every submission is reviewed by a human moderator before it appears in the app. Submitted images are used only for that review and for generating the line count, and are never shown to other users; other users see only a number. They are never displayed publicly, sold, or used for advertising.

Submitted photos and video frames are deleted immediately when a moderator approves the update. In every other case, whether rejected or never reviewed, they are deleted automatically within 12 hours of submission. We may keep a specific submission longer only where the law requires it, such as to comply with a valid legal request.

Please do not submit images that focus on identifiable individuals, and never submit images that include anyone under 18.

Location

The location toggle in Settings is on by default, and you can turn it off at any time. While it is on, and while iOS location permission is granted, LineGuy reads your device location to show your position on the map, to pre-select the venue nearest to you, and to count anonymous venue visits as described below.

When you submit a line update, the coordinates read at that moment are sent to our servers and stored with that submission, along with the distance between you and the venue you submitted for. A moderator sees that distance while reviewing, which helps us tell a genuine report from a fabricated one.

Location never blocks a submission. If the toggle is off, permission is denied, or no location fix is available, the submission goes through without it.

LineGuy reads your location only while the app is open. It never collects your location in the background, and we do not sell your location or share it with venues or anyone else.

The map itself is Google Maps, which loads map tiles for the area shown on screen. Google's privacy policy applies to what Google collects when it serves those tiles.

Anonymous venue visit counts

While the location toggle is on, iOS location permission is granted, and the app is open, LineGuy counts visits to venues. Your phone compares its location with the list of venues and, if you stay within about 50 yards of a venue for a few minutes, sends us only which venue it was and whether you had opened that venue in LineGuy, or got directions to it, earlier that night. Your coordinates are not sent for a visit.

We add each visit to an hourly total for that venue. We do not store your location, your IP address, a device identifier, or anything else with a visit, so we cannot tell who visited, and neither can anyone we share totals with. Your phone counts each venue at most once per night. To do that, it keeps the venues you opened and the venues already counted that night on your device only, and starts over each night.

Visit counting is part of how LineGuy works and cannot be turned off on its own. It stops whenever location is off: turn off the location toggle in LineGuy's Settings, or deny location access in iOS Settings.

We may share visit totals with venues and business partners, for example to show a venue how many LineGuy users visited on a given night. Shared totals are combined per venue per night, and totals under 5 are not shown as an exact number.

Technical data

Our servers process your IP address to prevent spam and abuse, through rate limiting and blocking. The IP address stored alongside a submission is automatically purged within 24 hours.

If a submission violates our Terms of Use, we may add the IP address it came from to a blocklist so we can refuse further submissions from it. Blocklist entries are kept until we remove them — that is how a permanent ban is enforced.

Submissions are stored with a random token in your device's local storage so the app can tell you whether your update was approved or denied.

Third party services

Google Maps and Google Places display maps, venue details, photos, and opening hours. Google's privacy policy applies to those services.

Anthropic Claude processes submitted images on our behalf solely to generate the line count. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, it does not use these images to train its models, and deletes them within 30 days, except where retention is required by law or to enforce its usage policy.

We do not sell your data. We do not use third party advertising or analytics trackers.

Data retention and deletion

• Submitted photos and video frames: deleted immediately when a moderator approves the update. In every other case, whether rejected or never reviewed, deleted automatically within 12 hours of submission. We may keep a specific submission longer only where the law requires it.
• IP addresses: the IP stored with a submission is purged within 24 hours. An IP we have added to our abuse blocklist is kept until we remove it.
• Submitter location: when the location toggle is on, the coordinates sent with a submission, and the distance to the venue calculated from them, are stored with that submission record and kept for moderation and accuracy analysis. Email us to have the coordinates on a submission you made deleted.
• Line update records, meaning the count, venue, and timestamp without the image: retained for moderation and historical accuracy.
• Moderator corrections: when a moderator changes a venue's count, we keep a record of the change, including whether it was made in response to a user report. The record does not say who made the report.
• Venue visit totals: hourly totals per venue, with no information about who visited, retained for analysis and for reporting to venues.

To request deletion of a submission you made, email us with the approximate time and venue.

Your choices

• You can revoke LineGuy's access to your camera and location at any time in iOS Settings.
• You can turn the location toggle off in LineGuy's own Settings. With it off, no coordinates are read, none are sent with your submissions, and no venue visits are counted.
• You can use the app without submitting anything. Browsing does not require camera access.
• You can request deletion of a submission by emailing thelineguy@lineguy.net.

Children

LineGuy provides information about bars and nightlife venues and is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. Submissions that appear to include a minor are deleted immediately and the network address they came from is blocked.

Changes

We may update this policy over time. Material changes are posted in the app with a new effective date.

Contact

Questions or deletion requests for LineGuy, LLC: thelineguy@lineguy.net