PubLens exists so a crowd can share what they shot at an event without everyone exchanging phone numbers, emails, or a shared drive account first. This page explains exactly what that requires us to collect, and — just as importantly — what it doesn't.
Joining an event never asks for your name, email, phone number, or an account of any kind. When you join or upload, we set an anonymous random identifier in a cookie on your device — that's how we recognize "you"'ve already joined this event if you come back, and how a host can see a contributor count. It isn't linked to your identity, isn't shared between events, and we have no way to connect it back to you unless you separately tell us who you are (e.g. by emailing support about a specific upload).
Hosting requires an account, which requires an email address — we use it only to send you a sign-in link (via Resend) and, if you pay by card, to receive a payment receipt from Stripe. We don't use passwords, so we never store one.
Uploaded media is stored on Cloudflare R2. The host can always see everything uploaded to their event; other attendees can only see the shared library if the host explicitly turns that on. Each photo is automatically run through an image-description service so the in-app search box can find it by what's in it ("sunset," "dance floor") — that service only describes visual content and is explicitly never used to identify, name, or recognize any person in the photo.
Retention:at this time, media stays stored for as long as the event exists in our system — we don't yet have an automatic deletion schedule. If you want a specific photo, video, or an entire event's data removed, contact us (below) and we'll delete it. We expect to add automatic time-based deletion in the future and will update this policy when we do.
On the web, payments are processed by Stripe. In the iOS app, event hosting is purchased through Apple's In-App Purchase, processed via RevenueCat. In both cases, PubLens never receives or stores your card number — we keep a record that a payment happened (amount, timestamp, a reference id from the processor) so we can activate the right event, not your payment details themselves.
We use the following services to run PubLens, each only for the purpose described:
We don't sell data to anyone, for any reason.
PubLens isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.
If how we handle data changes in a meaningful way, we'll update this page and the "last updated" date above.
Questions, or want something removed? Email support@publens.app.