Privacy policy

Last updated October 1, 2026. Gather Hound (gather.quillhound.com and gatherhound.com) is operated by Quill Hound. Questions: support@gatherhound.com.

What we collect

• Account: your name, your email address if you sign in with email, Google or Microsoft, and passkey public keys. Guests give only a name.
• Calendar availability: for calendars you connect, the start and end time of each event, whether it shows as busy, tentative or out of office, and whether it is all-day, for today through the next 120 days.
• Event titles, stored encrypted, and event identifiers, stored only as one-way hashes. Titles are shown only to you and to circles you choose; identifiers are used only to notice when two people are in the same event.
• Things you enter: groups, circles, plans, votes, messages, photos and videos you upload, bring lists, personal availability rules, kids schedules, and an optional rough starting area (rounded to about 1 km) for travel time.
• Technical data: IP address, used only for rate limiting and security.
• Phone contacts, only if you tap “Find friends from contacts” in the app: your phone turns your contacts’ email addresses into one-way fingerprints (SHA-256) and sends only those, so we can tell you who is already on Gather Hound. We compare them in memory and keep nothing; your address book is never uploaded. You can turn off “Let people who have my email find me” in Settings.

Google and Microsoft calendar data

If you connect a Google or Microsoft calendar, Gather Hound requests read-only access to your calendar list and events (Google scopes calendar.calendarlist.readonly and calendar.events.readonly; Microsoft Graph Calendars.ReadBasic). We use it only to show your availability to people you make plans with and to suggest times that work. We never write to your calendar.

Gather Hound’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Specifically: we use this data only to provide the scheduling features you see in the app; we do not transfer it to others except as needed to provide those features, to comply with law, or with your consent; we do not use it for advertising; we do not sell it; we do not use it to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models; and people cannot read it except with your permission, for security, or to comply with law.

Who sees what

• People you share a group with see when you are busy, not what you are doing.
• Event details are shown only to circles you add to that event’s audience. Circle names and members are visible only to you.
• Kids schedules and personal rules affect suggestions but are never shown to others unless you allow a circle to see your kids schedule.
• Suggestions never explain why someone is unavailable.
• Group chat, photos and videos are visible only to the group’s current members. New members need the owner’s approval, and people who leave or are removed lose access immediately.

Service providers

• Cloudflare: hosting, database and email delivery.
• Google and Microsoft: only if you choose to connect them.
• Open-Meteo (weather), Photon/OpenStreetMap (place search) and Nager.Date (holidays): receive place names or coordinates, never your identity.
• Google Maps Routes (drive times): receives rounded coordinates only.
• GIPHY (GIFs, stickers and emoji in chat): receives your search words. GIFs load from GIPHY’s servers, which see the viewer’s IP address, not who you are or what the group says.

Retention and deletion

Calendar availability is refreshed about every 30 minutes and covers only today through 120 days ahead. Disconnecting a calendar deletes its data immediately. Deleting your account (Settings → Delete account) deletes your profile, calendars, rules, kids schedule, circles and answers; groups you own pass to the next member. You can revoke access at any time from your Google or Microsoft account settings.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). OAuth tokens and event titles are encrypted at rest. Access to production data is limited to the operator for support and security.

Children

Gather Hound is not for children under 13. Kids schedules describe time, not children, and we collect no information about children.

Changes and contact

We will update this page if our practices change and note the date above. Contact support@gatherhound.com with questions or requests, including requests to access or delete your data.