Serendipity Privacy Policy

Effective date: August 11, 2026
Last updated: August 11, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how the Serendipity mobile application (“Serendipity,” “we,” “us”) handles information. Serendipity is an offline-first personal discovery guide for Burning Man. It is published by the independent developer of the app and is not an official Burning Man Project product.

1. Summary

• Serendipity does not require an account, email, or phone number.
• Preferences, saves, and sticker-album photos stay on your device.
• We do not sell personal information.
• We do not use advertising SDKs or third-party analytics in the app.
• With a network connection, the app may download an official-event catalog package over HTTPS.

2. Who this policy covers

This policy applies to the Serendipity apps for Android and iOS, including test builds distributed through Google Play internal testing and Apple TestFlight.

3. Information we process

3.1 Information stored only on your device

Serendipity stores the following locally on your phone (for example in on-device databases and files):

• Onboarding and preference choices (interests, filters, appearance).
• In-app decisions such as passes, keeps, saves, and related local history.
• Downloaded catalog / guide data needed for offline use.
• Optional art sticker-album photos you choose to attach (copied onto the device).
• App settings and guide version metadata.

We do not operate a Serendipity user account backend that receives this local state. Uninstalling the app, or clearing app data, removes this on-device information (subject to your operating system’s storage rules).

3.2 Photos and media library access

If you use the Album feature, Serendipity may request permission to access your photo library so you can pick an image. Selected photos are stored only on your device for that feature. Serendipity does not upload album photos to our servers (we do not run a photo upload service for this app).

3.3 Network activity

When your device has connectivity, Serendipity may:

• Check for and download guide updates from our public package distribution on GitHub (joanacastello/serendipity-packages) over HTTPS.
• Load certain catalog images from their original HTTPS URLs when you view them (if those URLs are present in the downloaded catalog).
• Open links you tap (for example an optional tip jar checkout page, or mailto: links shown for places when provided by the catalog).

Checking for guide updates may involve standard network/device signals used by the operating system and libraries to know whether the device is online. Serendipity does not use continuous background GPS tracking, and the in-app map is not designed around collecting your precise live location for a profiling profile.

3.4 Information we do not collect in the app

• No Serendipity login, password, or profile account.
• No advertising identifiers collected by Serendipity for ads.
• No third-party analytics, crash-reporting, or marketing SDKs embedded for product telemetry in the MVP.
• No sale of personal information.

4. How information is used

On-device information is used only to provide Serendipity’s features, including:

• Personalizing recommendations and filters on your device.
• Showing Discover, Now, Map, Saved, and Album experiences offline.
• Keeping your guide data up to date when you have connectivity.

5. Sharing and third parties

Serendipity does not sell personal information and does not share your local preferences or album photos with advertisers.

Third parties may process information only in these limited cases:

• GitHub / package hosting. Guide manifests and catalog files are downloaded from GitHub infrastructure. GitHub may process standard technical request logs (such as IP address, user agent, and timestamps) under GitHub’s own policies when your device fetches those files.
• Image hosts. If you view catalog media, the host serving that HTTPS image may receive a normal network request.
• Optional tip jar (Stripe Checkout). If you choose “buy me a pizza” (or similar) and complete a payment, that checkout runs on Stripe’s pages. Payment card and billing details are handled by Stripe, not by Serendipity’s on-device storage. See Stripe’s privacy documentation for that flow.
• App stores. Google Play and Apple may collect install, account, and device information under their own terms when you download or update Serendipity.

6. Data safety disclosures (Google Play)

For Google Play’s Data safety form, Serendipity’s intended disclosures are:

• No data sold.
• No account data collected by Serendipity.
• Photos/media: used for the on-device Album feature; not shared off-device by Serendipity.
• App activity / preferences: processed on-device to operate the app; not transmitted to a Serendipity account backend.
• Network: guide downloads and optional outbound links as described above.

Exact Play Console checkbox wording should follow this policy. If a store form requires a binary choice that does not fit on-device-only processing, choose the option that most accurately reflects that Serendipity does not collect that data to our servers.

7. Retention and deletion

• Local app data remains on your device until you delete it, clear app storage, or uninstall Serendipity.
• Downloaded guide packages may be replaced when a newer verified package is installed.
• We do not maintain a Serendipity cloud profile to delete on request, because we do not host one for this app.

8. Security

Guide downloads use HTTPS and on-device integrity checks (including size and checksum verification) before a package becomes active. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, especially on a lost or unlocked device.

9. Children’s privacy

Serendipity is not directed to children under 13 (and is not intended for users who cannot lawfully use Burning Man–related event content applicable to their age). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information through the app in a way that concerns you, contact us using the details below.

10. International users

The app may be used while traveling. Package hosting and optional payment pages may be operated on infrastructure located in different countries. By using Serendipity, you understand that technical processing for downloads or optional checkouts may occur outside your country of residence.

11. Your choices

• Decline photo permission if you do not want Album imports.
• Stay offline to avoid guide update checks and remote image loads.
• Clear app data or uninstall to remove local Serendipity data.
• Do not open the tip jar link if you do not want to use Stripe checkout.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top will change when we do. Continued use of Serendipity after an update means you accept the revised policy.

13. Contact

For privacy questions about Serendipity, open an issue on the public packages repository:

https://github.com/joanacastello/serendipity-packages/issues

Please do not include passwords, payment card numbers, or other sensitive secrets in issues.

14. Store listings

This page is intended to satisfy the privacy-policy URL requirement for Google Play and Apple App Store listings for Serendipity (app.serendipity.playa).