This Privacy Policy explains how HobbyDex stores, uses, shares, and protects app data. Your hobby progress and quest proof text now sync to your private cloud account so your collection restores on any device, while quest proof photos stay on your device. Signing out or switching accounts clears account-scoped local cache data on that device before the next account rebuilds from its own cloud data. Account, profile, Field Team, leaderboard, cloud-backed AI Insights, purchase, ad, and app-configuration features are supported by limited third-party services.
In this Privacy Policy, “HobbyDex,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to the HobbyDex app and the person or team responsible for operating it.
HobbyDex uses:
- Your private Firebase account to sync core gameplay data so your collection restores across devices: hobby progress (captures, levels, XP, completed quests), quest proof values (proof text, checkbox state, and a flag noting that a photo exists), daily check-ins and weekly claims, your Research Board, sanitized onboarding preferences (such as trait ratings, categories, and pace/time/social/setting choices and hobby IDs), and your language and appearance settings.
- Local device storage as an offline cache and write buffer for that synced data, and as the only home for data that stays on the device: quest proof photos, field notes and their photos, your activity timeline, profile photo files and local file paths, notification and photo-compression settings, the local age eligibility record, and local Insights unlock/UI state. Account-scoped local data is cleared when you sign out, switch accounts, or delete your account; the local age eligibility record is preserved because it is device-bound.
- Firebase and Google Cloud for account authentication, including email/password sign-in and Sign in with Apple, usernames, leaderboard visibility, account-level points, account level, profile card fields, Field Team sync, public Field Team strength, profile photo storage, and profile photo moderation. Generated daily AI Insight cards, saved state, feedback, and history may be stored in Firebase after account sign-in and email verification. HobbyDex may also read non-user-specific app configuration, such as seasonal or thematic hobby picks, from Firebase.
- A global Hobby Feed, stored in Firebase, that shares your hobby capture, quest completion, and evolution milestones with other signed-in users. Feed events honor your leaderboard and profile visibility setting, so they appear anonymously when your profile is hidden.
- OpenAI for optional AI-powered hobby recommendations and insights.
- YouTube Data API Services (Google) for non-personalized helpful video recommendations on certain quests, using only app-authored quest topic search terms.
- RevenueCat, Apple, and Google for subscriptions, purchases, and purchase restoration.
- Google AdMob for ads and rewarded ads, where available.
- Expo or device notification services for local reminders, if enabled.
Data categories at a glance
The detailed sections below explain these categories in context. In general, HobbyDex may collect or process:
| Data Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Account / Authentication Data | Email address, Firebase user ID, authentication provider information, and Sign in with Apple information where used. |
| Firebase Profile Data | Username, points, account level, selected title, Field Team roster snapshot, public Field Team strength, leaderboard visibility, profile photo metadata, and legacy profile-card compatibility fields. |
| Friend Connections Data | Your friend code, the accounts you are friends with, pending friend requests you have sent or received, and the accounts you have blocked. When you view a friend, HobbyDex shows you their friend card (username, selected title, profile photo, hobby points, account level, and Field Team), and your friends see yours, even if you are hidden on the leaderboard. |
| Hobby Feed Data | Milestone events shared to the global Hobby Feed: your author user ID, event type (hobby captured, quest completed, or hobby evolved), hobby ID, optional quest ID or evolution level, timestamps, an expiration timestamp, and schema version. Events are validated server-side against your synced progress, expire automatically, and are shown with or without your identity based on your leaderboard and profile visibility setting. No quest proof photos, proof text, notes, or captions are included. |
| Notification Tokens and Preferences | Device push tokens, kept on your account so HobbyDex can send you a notification when someone sends or accepts a friend request, plus your notification preferences (daily reminder, friend request received, and friend request accepted). |
| Cloud-Synced Progress Data | Hobby progress (captures, levels, XP, completed quests), quest proof values (proof text, checkbox state, and a flag noting that a photo exists), daily check-ins, weekly claims, Research Board intents, sanitized onboarding preferences, and language/appearance settings, stored in your private Firebase account so your collection syncs across devices. Proof photos are not included. |
| Local Device Data | Quest proof photos, field notes and their photos, your activity timeline, local file paths, notification and photo-compression settings, the local age eligibility record, local Insights unlock/UI state, and an offline cache of your synced progress. Account-scoped local data is cleared on sign-out, account switching, and account deletion; the device-bound age eligibility record is preserved. |
| Profile / Photo Data | Profile photos uploaded to Firebase Storage and profile photo moderation signals used for app safety. |
| Progress Summary Data | Aggregate progress breakdowns sent to Cloud Functions to compute account-level hobby points and account level. |
| AI Feature Inputs | Redacted onboarding or app-summary information sent to OpenAI when you use optional AI recommendations or insights; in newer versions, quest proof text and downscaled proof photos (and username text or profile photos) may be sent transiently for content checks and are not stored by HobbyDex. |
| Helpful Videos Search Inputs | App-authored quest topic search terms (such as a primary search phrase, duration hint, and result limit) sent to the YouTube Data API to fetch non-personalized video recommendations. No user-linked data is sent. |
| Cloud-backed AI Insights Data | Generated daily AI Insight cards, redacted activity snapshots (high-level activity labels or counts), recommendation content, feedback rating/reason, saved or unsaved state, date key, generation mode, Pro/free status, client/server generation timestamps, schema metadata, and migration status. |
| App Configuration Data | Non-user-specific configuration such as the active seasonal or thematic hobby collection version, display copy, styling metadata, and ordered hobby IDs. This data is read by the app and is not tied to your account. |
| Purchase / Subscription Data | Purchase identifiers, subscription status, receipts, and related transaction metadata handled by app-store providers and RevenueCat. |
| Ads / Device Data | Device information, ad interactions, coarse location, and advertising identifiers where available and permitted. |
| Support Communications | Information you provide when contacting HobbyDex support. |
| Technical / Log Data | Authentication logs, Cloud Functions logs, diagnostics, IP address, device or network information, and error information. |
| Profile Reports | Reporter and reported-user identifiers, usernames, profile photo references, and selected report reason codes when a profile report is filed. |
HobbyDex does not sell your personal information.
1. Age Eligibility
HobbyDex is intended for users 13 and older. HobbyDex is not directed to children under 13, and users under 13 are not permitted to create an account or use account-based features.
The app may ask for the month and year of birth before account creation to confirm eligibility. This check helps prevent HobbyDex from knowingly collecting personal information from users under 13.
If the check indicates the user is under 13, HobbyDex blocks account creation and may store a local eligibility or blocked-status flag on the device so the app remembers that the device is not eligible. This local flag is not used for advertising or profiling.
HobbyDex does not store the user's birth month or year anywhere, either locally or in the cloud, and does not upload the birth date to Firebase or any third party. Only the derived eligibility status, the check timestamp, a blocked date if the user was blocked, and the app version at the time of the check are persisted locally.
The local age eligibility record persists on the device even if the user deletes their HobbyDex account, so that a previously ineligible user cannot bypass the check by re-registering.
If we learn we have collected personal information from a child under 13 without appropriate consent, we will take steps to delete the account and the associated personal information.
2. Account Creation and Authentication
HobbyDex requires an account to use the app. You may create or sign in to an account using email and password authentication or, where available, Sign in with Apple. There is currently no guest mode.
Local AsyncStorage and in-memory app state are treated as a cache for one signed-in account at a time. When you sign out or switch to another account on the same device, HobbyDex clears account-scoped local cache data and device-local media used by the previous account, then rebuilds the next session from that account's cloud data. This helps prevent one account's progress or onboarding state from appearing in another account.
Account creation is only available after the age eligibility check confirms eligibility.
Firebase Authentication and supported sign-in providers may process information such as:
- Email address, including an Apple private relay email address if you use Hide My Email
- Password authentication credentials, if you use email and password sign-in
- Firebase user ID
- Authentication provider information, such as whether you used email/password or Sign in with Apple
- Apple-provided user identifier and authentication credential information when you use Sign in with Apple
- Name, if provided through Sign in with Apple and used by the app
- Email verification state. Email/password accounts must verify their email address before accessing account features.
- Sign-in and session information
- Technical information needed for authentication, such as IP address and device or network information
HobbyDex uses this information to:
- Create and manage your account
- Sign you in and keep you signed in
- Support sign-in through Firebase Authentication, email/password authentication, and Sign in with Apple
- Verify account ownership
- Help protect account security
- Support password changes, email changes, sign-out, and account deletion
- Connect your account to Firebase-backed profile and leaderboard features
HobbyDex does not store your raw password in HobbyDex databases. Password authentication is handled by Firebase Authentication. If you use Sign in with Apple, HobbyDex does not receive your Apple Account password.
Sign in with Apple
If you choose Sign in with Apple, Apple may provide HobbyDex with a developer-specific identifier and the authentication information needed to sign you in. Depending on the choices you make during sign-in, Apple may also provide your name and email address.
If you choose Apple's Hide My Email option, HobbyDex may receive an Apple private relay email address instead of your real email address. Apple's private email relay forwards messages sent to that relay address according to your Apple Account settings.
You can manage or disable Sign in with Apple for HobbyDex through your Apple Account settings. Disabling Sign in with Apple through Apple may stop future Apple-based sign-ins, but it does not automatically delete your HobbyDex account or information already associated with your HobbyDex account. To delete your HobbyDex account and associated HobbyDex data, use the in-app account deletion flow.
3. Information Stored on Your Device
HobbyDex keeps a local copy of your data on your device so the app works offline and loads instantly. Some of this information also syncs to your private cloud account so it restores on your other devices (see Sections 4 and 5); the rest stays only on this device.
Synced to your cloud account and cached locally:
- Your hobby collection and captured or wild status
- Quest progress, completed quests, levels, XP, and evolutions
- Quest proof values: checkbox state and proof text, plus a flag noting that a photo exists
- Daily check-ins and check-in dates
- Research Board intents (Prime Target, In Research, Backlog)
- Sanitized onboarding preferences, such as trait ratings, categories, pace/time/social/setting choices, friction risks, and hobby IDs
- Language and appearance settings
Stored only on this device and not uploaded:
- Quest proof photos copied into HobbyDex app storage
- Field notes, their descriptions, and their photos
- Captions and local file paths
- Your local Home / Active Party curation (the public Field Team roster you publish is synced separately; see Section 4)
- Activity history and your activity timeline
- Achievement unlock and notification state (achievement ranks are recomputed from your synced progress)
- Local Insights unlock and UI state, such as rewarded-video progress, weekly regeneration usage, exploration-expanded state, experiment flags, and local migration-completed status
- Notification, photo-compression, and prompt-timing settings
- Local UI state
- Local age eligibility record (status, check date, blocked date if blocked, and app version at the time of the check)
This information is used to operate the app, show your progress, preserve your hobby collection, personalize your experience, remember local eligibility status, and keep HobbyDex functional between app sessions and offline.
Generated daily AI Insight cards, Insight feedback, and saved Insight date keys are not treated as durable local-only storage after cloud migration. After verified sign-in, they may be hydrated from Firebase into the in-memory app cache. Legacy local Insight history may remain temporarily on the device until it is successfully migrated or until local data is deleted.
Account-scoped local app data remains on your device while that account is active unless you delete it, delete the app, sign out, switch accounts, or use an in-app deletion or reset flow that removes local data. The local age eligibility record is device-bound and is preserved across sign-out, account switching, and account deletion.
4. Firebase Account, Profile, Field Team, Leaderboard, and Insights Data
Some account, profile, Field Team, leaderboard, app configuration, and daily AI Insights information is stored in or read from Firebase so HobbyDex can provide account-based and cloud-backed features.
Firebase may store:
- Firebase user ID
- Email address
- Apple private relay email address, if you use Hide My Email
- Authentication provider information
- Username
- Username reservation information
- Account-level hobby points
- Account level
- Leaderboard visibility setting
- Selected profile title
- Profile photo storage path and version
- Field Team roster snapshots, including hobby ID, level, evolution level, and current power points for each member
- Field Team Strength, which is the combined power points of your Field Team
- Legacy profile-card compatibility snapshots derived from the first Field Team members, so older app versions can continue to display profile data during migration
- Per-hobby progress documents under your account (such as accounts/{uid}/hobbies/{hobbyId}), including captured or wild status, level, evolution level, XP, completed quest IDs, and capture and update timestamps
- Quest proof values stored with each hobby: checkbox state, proof text, a flag noting that a photo exists, and a submission timestamp. Proof photo files are not uploaded
- Private app-state slices under your account (such as accounts/{uid}/state/{slice}): your Research Board, sanitized onboarding preferences, rhythm data (daily check-ins and weekly claims), language and appearance settings, and a derived achievement-rank summary
- Progress sync and app-state migration markers, such as completed time, schema version, and revision metadata
- Public profile-card projection, if your profile is visible
- Leaderboard row information
- Non-user-specific seasonal or thematic collection configuration, such as version, display copy, styling metadata, and ordered hobby IDs
- Daily AI Insights records under your account, such as accounts/{uid}/insights/{dateKey}
- Generated Insight card content
- Redacted activity snapshot included with an Insight, where present
- Insight feedback, such as rating and optional reason
- Saved or unsaved Insight state
- Insight generation mode, such as initial generation or regeneration
- Pro/free status at generation time
- Client and server generation timestamps
- Insight schema version and validation metadata
- Insights migration marker, such as completed time, migrated count, and schema version
- Best-effort Insight event telemetry for generation or regeneration events
- Your friend code and its reservation, so each code maps to one account
- Friend connections under your account (such as accounts/{uid}/friends/{friendUid}), along with sent and received friend requests and the accounts you have blocked, each with a timestamp
- Push tokens for your signed-in devices, kept on your account so friend notifications can be delivered
- Notification preferences (daily reminder, friend request received, and friend request accepted)
- Global Hobby Feed events you generate (such as feedEvents/{eventId}), including your author user ID, event type, hobby ID, optional quest ID or evolution level, timestamps, an expiration timestamp, and schema version
- Account setup and version metadata
- Timestamps related to account or profile changes, such as username cooldown timing
HobbyDex uses Firebase cloud data to:
- Keep account identity consistent
- Reserve usernames and prevent duplicates
- Show leaderboard ranking
- Let you hide or show your public leaderboard and profile identity
- Sync and display your Field Team, Field Team Strength, selected title, profile photo, hobby points, and account level where applicable
- Sync your hobby progress and quest proof values so your collection restores on any device you sign in to
- Sync your Research Board, sanitized onboarding preferences, and language and appearance settings across your devices
- Sync aggregate account-level progress
- Load non-user-specific seasonal or thematic hobby picks
- Store and hydrate cloud-backed daily AI Insights history
- Store Insight feedback, saved state, and migration status
- Let you add friends with a friend code, show each friend's card, and let you remove or block another user
- Send you a notification when someone sends or accepts a friend request, based on your notification preferences
- Share your validated hobby milestones to the global Hobby Feed and show feed events from others, resolving identity at read time so profile visibility and your blocked list are honored
- Support account management and account deletion
Cloud-backed daily AI Insights are private to your account and are not shown to other users through leaderboard or public profile features.
Field Team roster details are read by other users only through a Cloud Function that checks your profile visibility. If your profile is hidden, other users cannot open your Field Team roster. Field Team Strength is stored separately as a single public number so leaderboard views can show team power even when a profile is anonymous.
5. Hobby Progress and Quest Proof
HobbyDex syncs your hobby progress to your private Firebase account so your collection restores on any device you sign in to. For each hobby this includes its captured or wild status, level, evolution level, XP, completed quest IDs, and capture and update timestamps, along with quest proof values: your checkbox state, your proof text, a flag noting that a photo exists, and a submission timestamp. Sanitized onboarding preferences (such as trait ratings, categories, and pace/time/social/setting choices and hobby IDs) sync as well; generated onboarding narratives, recommendation copy, and profile-summary text are not uploaded.
Quest proof photos are not uploaded. Photo files stay in HobbyDex app storage on the device that took them. On another device a completed quest still shows as complete, with a note that its photo is on another device. Field notes, their descriptions and photos, captions, your activity timeline, and local file paths also stay on the device and are not uploaded.
This synced progress is stored privately under your account, is written only through Cloud Functions with server-side validation, and is not shown to other users. AI Insights use a separate, redacted, high-level summary as described in the AI Features section.
HobbyDex may also send an aggregate progress breakdown to Firebase Cloud Functions so the server can compute account-level hobby points and account level for leaderboard ranking. This does not include quest proof photos, private field notes, or captions.
6. Photos, Images, and Profile Photos
HobbyDex may ask for camera or photo library access so you can:
- Add quest proof photos
- Choose or take a profile photo
- Save or export selected images
- Use photo-related features
Quest proof photos
Quest proof photos you add to HobbyDex are copied into HobbyDex app storage on your device and used locally for quest completion and progress features.
Quest proof photos are not uploaded to Firebase as part of the current quest and progress system.
Profile photos
Profile photos are different from quest proof photos. If you choose a profile photo, HobbyDex may upload it to Firebase Storage so it can be displayed on your profile card and in the leaderboard or profile experience.
Profile photo metadata such as the storage path and version is stored in Firebase. Replacing or deleting a profile photo updates your Firebase profile state and removes the previous profile photo from Firebase Storage where possible.
When your profile visibility is hidden, your public profile card is not shown. When your profile is visible, your profile photo may be shown alongside leaderboard-related views.
Please do not upload profile photos containing private, sensitive, or identifying information you do not want visible to other signed-in users when your profile is public.
Profile photo content moderation
To help keep HobbyDex safe and appropriate for users, profile photos may be automatically reviewed before they are accepted. This review applies to profile photos uploaded to Firebase Storage and does not apply to local quest proof photos.
When you choose a profile photo, HobbyDex temporarily uploads the image to a pending location in Firebase Storage so it can be reviewed by server-side moderation tools. HobbyDex may use Google Cloud services, including Cloud Vision and Cloud Natural Language, to help detect content that may violate profile photo rules.
This automated review may check for signals such as adult or sexually explicit content, graphic or violent content, medical or gore-like imagery, manipulated or spoofed imagery, visible weapons, explosives or war machines, drug or paraphernalia imagery, hate, extremist, or other disallowed visual content categories defined by HobbyDex's profile photo rules, and harmful, hateful, threatening, profane, or violent text appearing in the image.
Google Cloud Vision may analyze profile photos for SafeSearch signals, image labels, web entities, and text within the image. If text is detected, Google Cloud Natural Language may analyze that text for harmful or sensitive categories. HobbyDex uses these signals to decide whether a profile photo can be used.
If a profile photo is rejected by moderation, HobbyDex attempts to delete the temporary uploaded image and the photo is not saved as your active profile photo. If a profile photo is approved, HobbyDex copies it to the approved profile photo location in Firebase Storage, updates your profile photo metadata in Firebase, and attempts to delete the temporary pending image.
Automated moderation is not perfect. It may incorrectly reject harmless images or fail to detect some inappropriate images. HobbyDex may adjust moderation rules over time to reduce false positives and improve safety.
7. Username, Leaderboard, Friends, and Public Profile Visibility
Your username is your account identity inside the app. Usernames are reserved in Firebase so each username belongs to one account.
By default, accounts may be hidden from public profile display.
When your profile is hidden:
- Your leaderboard row may still exist
- Your leaderboard display name appears as "Anonymous Hobbyist"
- Your profile card is not publicly available
- Public profile details (username, title, Field Team roster, profile photo) are not shown via public profile-card views
- Your Field Team Strength may still appear as a single non-identifying number in leaderboard views
When your profile is visible, other signed-in users may be able to see:
- Username
- Account level
- Hobby points
- Selected title
- Field Team roster details, such as member hobbies, level, evolution level, and member power
- Field Team Strength
- Profile photo, if set
- Leaderboard rank and row information
Leaderboard and profile visibility can be changed in account or profile settings.
Reporting profiles
Signed-in users may report another user's visible profile if they believe it violates HobbyDex's profile rules. A report may include the reporter's user ID and username, the reported user's user ID, username, profile photo reference, and the selected report reason codes. Reports are stored internally so HobbyDex can review and respond to profile safety concerns. Reports are not visible to the reported user or other users.
Friends and friend codes
Each account gets a friend code, which is a short string of letters and numbers. Share it with someone and they can add you; enter someone else's code and you send them a friend request. You can also send a request directly to a visible profile. Adding a friend is mutual, so a friendship only exists once the other person accepts.
When you and another user are friends, each of you can see the other's friend card: username, selected title, profile photo, hobby points, account level, and Field Team. Friends see this card even when you are hidden on the leaderboard, because you confirmed the friendship on both sides. If you do not want a specific person to see your friend card, remove them or block them.
HobbyDex stores your friend code, your list of friends, and any friend requests you have sent or received so the feature works across your devices. You can remove a friend at any time, which deletes the friendship for both of you. Either person can add the other again later with a friend code.
Blocking
You can block another user. Blocking removes any friendship and clears pending requests in both directions, and the blocked person cannot send you a new request while the block is in place. HobbyDex keeps a record of who you have blocked on your account so it can enforce this. You can unblock someone later, which lets the two of you send requests again.
8. Hobby Feed
HobbyDex includes a global Hobby Feed that shows recent progression milestones from across the HobbyDex community, such as when a player captures a hobby, completes a quest, or evolves a hobby. The feed is intended to surface real activity for shared motivation, not personal details.
When you capture a hobby, complete a quest, or evolve a hobby, the app may attach those milestone events to your normal progress sync. A Cloud Function validates each event against your own server-stored progress and writes only confirmed events to a shared feed collection. A feed event records:
- Your account (author) Firebase user ID
- The event type (hobby captured, quest completed, or hobby evolved)
- The hobby ID, the quest ID for a completed quest, or the evolution level for an evolution
- Creation timestamps and an automatic expiration timestamp
- A schema version
Feed events do not include your quest proof photos, quest proof text, field notes, captions, activity timeline, onboarding answers, Research Board, daily AI Insights, or other private content. Feed events expire automatically after a limited period (currently 30 days), and the shared feed collection cannot be read directly by the app; reads happen only through a Cloud Function.
Identity and visibility in the feed
The Hobby Feed uses the same leaderboard and profile visibility setting described in the previous section, and your identity is resolved each time the feed is read:
- If your profile is hidden from the leaderboard, your events appear anonymously. No username, profile photo, selected title, account level, or user ID is shown for your anonymous events.
- If your profile is visible, your events may be shown alongside your username, profile photo, selected title, and account level to other signed-in users.
Because identity is resolved at read time, switching your profile to hidden also hides your identity on events you posted earlier, and if your account is deleted, any remaining events are shown without identity. The Hobby Feed is available only to signed-in accounts with a verified email address.
When you view the feed, HobbyDex hides events authored by any account you have blocked. You can also filter the feed in the app, such as showing friends only or hiding anonymous events. Profile photos shown in the feed are delivered through short-lived signed URLs.
9. AI Features
HobbyDex uses OpenAI for certain AI-powered features, such as starter hobby recommendations and daily AI Insights.
When you generate starter hobby recommendations, HobbyDex may send OpenAI a high-level, redacted summary of your onboarding profile and recommendation inputs, such as:
- Trait ratings
- Selected hobby categories
- Pace, time, social, and setting preferences
- Response language
- Candidate hobby IDs, names, categories, traits, and average quest time
When you generate daily AI Insights, HobbyDex may send OpenAI a high-level, redacted summary of relevant app information, such as:
- Achievement progress
- Activity log summaries and activity counts
- Daily check-in status
- Hobby progress summaries and collection summaries
- Captured or wild hobby status and evolution readiness
- Eligible progress and achievement candidates
- Trait summaries and trait-growth candidates
- Subscription status
- Research Board hobby IDs and statuses
- Previous Insight context used for regeneration, where applicable
- Plan-visible hobby candidates only, including free-plan filtering where applicable
AI-generated starter recommendations may be stored locally as part of onboarding or recommendation state. Daily AI Insights outputs may be stored in Firebase under your account after generation or regeneration so you can view today's and past Insights across devices after cloud hydration. The app may also keep those Insights in memory while you are signed in and may keep limited local unlock/UI state on your device.
Cloud-backed daily AI Insights
When you generate or regenerate a daily AI Insight, HobbyDex may save the generated Insight card to Firebase. The saved record may include the generated coaching content, optional redacted activity snapshot (high-level activity labels or counts), date key, client generation time, server generation time, Pro/free status, generation mode, saved/unsaved state, feedback, and schema metadata. Daily AI Insights history is available across devices after you sign in with a verified email account and the app hydrates your Insights from Firebase.
Quest proof checks (newer app versions)
In newer versions of HobbyDex, when you submit quest proof (photos and/or notes) and proof checking is enabled, HobbyDex may send the proof text and downscaled copies of the proof photos to OpenAI transiently for two purposes: content moderation (checking for sexual, hateful, threatening, graphic, or self-harm content) and a lenient quest-match check. HobbyDex servers do not store the proof text or photos from these checks — only the check result and a daily usage counter. Downscaled photo copies are re-encoded on your device before sending, which removes camera metadata such as location. The same transient framing applies to username text when you choose a username, and to profile photos as an additional moderation layer, in newer versions. If checks are unavailable (for example, offline), quest submission proceeds without them.
Legacy Insight migration (completed)
Earlier versions of HobbyDex stored Insight history locally and migrated it to Firebase on first verified sign-in. That one-time migration is complete and current versions no longer read or transfer the old local Insight-history fields; any leftover legacy fields on a device are ignored and cleaned up by normal app storage writes.
OpenAI states that API inputs and outputs are not used to train models by default. OpenAI may retain API abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days unless a longer period is required by law. See OpenAI's data controls documentation for more information.
10. Helpful Videos and YouTube Data API
HobbyDex may show helpful video recommendations for certain quests. To provide this feature, HobbyDex uses YouTube Data API Services to search for publicly available videos based on app-authored quest topics, such as the hobby skill or practice step covered by the quest.
These recommendations are not personalized. HobbyDex does not send your email address, Firebase user ID, username, profile information, onboarding answers, trait ratings, Research Board data, quest proof photos, quest proof text, private notes, captions, progress history, activity log, daily AI Insights, or other user-linked data to YouTube for this feature. The search request is a simple keyword match based on the quest's curated video search terms (such as the quest's primary search phrase, a duration hint, and a result limit), not on you or your personal activity.
The query is tied to the quest topic or skill, not to the individual user. All users viewing the same quest receive recommendations from the same non-personalized search metadata, subject to YouTube's public search results.
The YouTube search request is made server-side from HobbyDex
Cloud Functions, which call the YouTube Data API v3 search
endpoint with parameters such as type=video,
safeSearch=strict, and the quest's curated query.
Search results returned by YouTube (video ID, title, channel
name, thumbnail URL, and publish time) are displayed in the app
so you can choose whether to open a video.
If you choose to open or play a YouTube video, you leave HobbyDex's helpful-video recommendation flow. YouTube or Google may then process information about that interaction according to their own terms and privacy policy. HobbyDex does not control or receive that interaction data.
Your use of this feature is also subject to:
11. Subscriptions and Purchases
Purchases and subscriptions may be handled by:
- Apple App Store
- Google Play
- RevenueCat
These providers may process information such as:
- Purchase history
- Product identifiers
- Subscription status
- Receipts and purchase tokens
- Transaction metadata
- App user ID or purchase identifier
- Device and technical information
HobbyDex uses this information to:
- Unlock paid features
- Restore purchases
- Manage subscription status
- Provide support
- Help prevent fraud
HobbyDex does not receive full payment card numbers.
Deleting your HobbyDex account does not automatically cancel an active subscription managed by Apple, Google, or another purchase platform. You may need to cancel through the app store account settings.
12. Ads and Rewarded Ads
HobbyDex includes ad support for some free features and requests non-personalized ads where supported.
HobbyDex may use rewarded ads for features such as free daily insights. Rewarded ads let you choose to watch or interact with an ad in exchange for an in-app reward or feature unlock.
Ad providers may process information such as:
- IP address
- Device information
- Advertising or app identifiers, where available and permitted
- Coarse location derived from technical information such as IP address
- Ad interactions
- App interactions related to ad delivery
- Video views
- Reward completion events
- Diagnostics and performance information
- Fraud-prevention and frequency-capping information
Non-personalized ads are not based on your past behavior, but they may still use contextual information, general location, device information, and technical data for ad delivery and measurement.
Where required by law or platform rules, HobbyDex or its ad partners may ask for consent before using certain identifiers or ad technologies.
13. Notifications
If you allow notifications, HobbyDex schedules local reminders on your device, such as hobby or check-in reminders, using Expo Notifications or device notification features. These reminders are built on your device and are not sent from a HobbyDex server.
HobbyDex also sends push notifications from its server for the friends feature, so you can be told when someone sends you a friend request and when someone accepts a request you sent. To deliver these, HobbyDex stores a push token for each of your signed-in devices on your account and uses Expo's push service to send the message. Tokens are capped per account, and the most recently registered devices are kept.
You control which of these you receive. In HobbyDex Settings you can turn the daily reminder, friend request notifications, and friend acceptance notifications on or off independently. Friend notifications are only sent when the recipient has that preference turned on. You can also change notification permission in your device system settings, which turns off all of these at the system level.
14. Device Permissions
HobbyDex may request device permissions only when needed for a feature you are using.
- Camera: to take quest proof photos or profile photos.
- Photo library: to choose photos, save or export images, or set a profile photo.
- Notifications: to schedule reminders.
You can deny permissions. Related features may not work without those permissions, but other features may still be available.
15. Third-Party Services
HobbyDex uses limited third-party services to provide specific app features:
- Firebase / Google Cloud: account authentication (including email/password sign-in and Sign in with Apple integration), Firestore, Cloud Functions, Firebase Storage, account and profile data, Field Team roster and strength data, leaderboard data, username reservations, non-user-specific app configuration such as seasonal or thematic hobby picks, profile photo storage and server-side moderation (using Google Cloud Vision and Natural Language), Firestore storage for cloud-backed daily AI Insights history, saved Insight state, feedback, migration markers, global Hobby Feed event storage and server-validated read access, related server-side validation/telemetry, and account deletion support.
- OpenAI: optional AI recommendations and Insights generation from redacted prompts; in newer versions, transient content moderation and quest-match checks on submitted quest proof (and username/profile-photo moderation), with no proof content stored by HobbyDex.
- YouTube Data API Services (Google): non-personalized helpful video recommendations for certain quests, based on app-authored quest topic search terms only. See the YouTube Terms of Service, the Google Privacy Policy, and the YouTube API Services Terms of Service.
- RevenueCat: subscription status, purchase validation and restoration, and entitlement management.
- Google AdMob: ads and rewarded ads.
- Apple and Google: app distribution, in-app purchases, subscriptions, refunds, device permissions, platform-level services, and, where used, authentication services such as Sign in with Apple.
- Expo and device services: local notification scheduling, delivery of friend-related push notifications through Expo's push service, and platform functionality.
These providers may process data under their own terms and privacy practices. They may process data in the United States or other countries.
HobbyDex aims to send only the information needed for the feature you choose to use.
17. Security
HobbyDex uses a data-minimizing design. Your synced hobby progress and quest proof values are stored privately under your own account, while quest proof photos and other device-only data stay on your device.
Local app data and copied media files are stored in app storage on your device and are protected by the device operating system and app sandbox. HobbyDex does not add separate app-level encryption to local AsyncStorage data or copied local media files.
Firebase services use transport security and Firebase and Google security protections for cloud-stored account, profile, leaderboard, hobby progress, quest proof values, private app-state, profile photo, and cloud-backed Insights data. Hobby progress, proof values, and app-state writes are handled through Cloud Functions with server-side validation; clients cannot write these documents directly and can read only their own.
Cloud-backed daily AI Insights are stored under the user's Firebase account. Client apps may read their own Insight documents only when signed in and email-verified, and clients cannot directly create, update, or delete Insight documents. Insight writes are handled through Cloud Functions with server-side validation.
No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, but HobbyDex aims to limit risk by limiting what is uploaded. For example, quest proof photos, field notes, and your activity timeline stay on the device rather than in the cloud.
18. Children
HobbyDex is intended for users 13 and older and is not directed to children under 13.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. To help prevent this, HobbyDex may ask for the month and year of birth before account creation and may block account creation when the check indicates the user is under 13.
If you believe a child under 13 has created an account or provided personal information through HobbyDex, contact hobbydexsupport@gmail.com so we can help delete the account and the associated personal information.
19. Data Retention
Local data
Local app data remains on your device until you delete it, delete the app, or use an in-app reset flow. This includes an offline cache of your synced progress, plus device-only data such as quest proof photos, field notes and their photos, your activity timeline, local media files, local file paths, notification and photo-compression settings, and local Insights unlock/UI state. Legacy local Insight history may remain temporarily until migration succeeds or local data is deleted.
Cloud-synced progress and app-state data
Your synced hobby progress, quest proof values, daily check-ins and weekly claims, Research Board, sanitized onboarding preferences, and language and appearance settings are stored under your account and retained while your account exists, unless deleted earlier. Deleting your account removes this data as described below.
Cloud-backed daily AI Insights
Cloud-backed daily AI Insights are retained while your account exists or until you delete individual Insights, clear applicable Insight data where available, or delete your account. Insight feedback and saved state are retained with the associated Insight document unless changed, cleared, or deleted.
Hobby Feed events
Hobby Feed events expire automatically after a limited period (currently 30 days), after which they are removed from the shared feed. When you delete your account, HobbyDex also attempts to delete your feed events. Any event that has not yet been removed is shown without your identity and is cleared on expiration.
Firebase account, profile, Field Team, and Insights data
Firebase account, profile, Field Team, leaderboard, and Insights data is retained while your account exists, unless deleted earlier. When your account is deleted, HobbyDex attempts to delete:
- The Firebase Authentication user
- The profile document
- The account document
- The leaderboard row
- The public profile card
- The Field Team roster document
- The Field Team Strength projection
- Your Hobby Feed events
- The username reservation
- The current profile photo object
- Your per-hobby progress documents
- Your private app-state slices (Research Board, onboarding preferences, rhythm, settings, and achievement-rank summary)
- Your friend connections: your friend list, sent and received requests, blocked users, and your friend code reservation
- The reciprocal copies other accounts hold, so a deleted account stops appearing as someone else's friend or pending request
- Your stored push tokens and notification preferences, which live on the account document and are removed with it
- Cloud-backed daily AI Insights records
- Insight feedback and saved state
- Insight migration marker, where applicable
Firebase Authentication may retain logged IP addresses for a limited period and may retain authentication information until the associated Firebase user is deleted, after which Firebase removes that data from live and backup systems according to its own retention practices.
If you use Sign in with Apple, Firebase Authentication may retain provider information associated with that sign-in method while your HobbyDex account exists. Apple may also retain Sign in with Apple information according to Apple's own privacy practices. Deleting your HobbyDex account through the app attempts to delete the Firebase Authentication user and associated HobbyDex account data, but you may also need to manage Sign in with Apple separately in your Apple Account settings.
Profile photos that are uploaded for moderation may be stored temporarily in a pending Firebase Storage location while moderation is performed. If a profile photo is rejected, HobbyDex attempts to delete the pending image. If approved, the image is stored as your active profile photo until you replace it, remove it, or delete your account.
Profile reports and related internal records may be retained as needed to review and respond to safety concerns, prevent abuse, enforce profile rules, support users, or comply with legal obligations.
Some deletion steps are best-effort across separate systems, and logs or error information may be retained temporarily for cleanup.
Third-party retention
Third parties may retain information for security, fraud prevention, diagnostics, transactions, legal compliance, or backups according to their own policies.
20. Account Deletion and Local Data Deletion
You can delete your HobbyDex account in the app using the deletion flow.
Account deletion may require reauthentication with your current sign-in credentials to confirm intent.
Deleting your HobbyDex account is intended to:
- Delete your Firebase Authentication account
- Remove your Firebase profile and account records
- Remove your username reservation
- Remove your leaderboard row
- Remove your public profile card
- Remove your Field Team roster and Field Team Strength projection
- Remove your Hobby Feed events where possible (any that remain are shown without identity and expire automatically)
- Remove your current Firebase profile photo where possible
- Remove your synced hobby progress, quest proof values, and private app-state slices (Research Board, onboarding preferences, rhythm, settings, and achievement-rank summary)
- Remove cloud-backed daily AI Insights history, Insight feedback, and saved Insight state where possible
- Sign you out
- Erase account-scoped local app data on this device, including your hobby collection, Field Team selection, quest progress, copied quest proof photos, field notes, activity timeline, profile photo files, local Insights unlock/UI state, legacy local Insight data if present, onboarding answers, settings, and other local app state
Some cloud deletion steps are best-effort across separate systems. If Insight cleanup fails, HobbyDex may log the error for cleanup while continuing primary account deletion.
Deleting your account does not automatically cancel app-store subscriptions.
If you used Sign in with Apple, you can also manage or disable HobbyDex's access through your Apple Account settings. Disabling Sign in with Apple through Apple does not automatically delete your HobbyDex account or local app data; use the in-app deletion flow to delete your HobbyDex account.
After deletion, HobbyDex verifies that local app data was removed and notifies you if any local data could not be cleared. In that case, deleting the HobbyDex app from your device will remove the remaining data.
If you saved or exported photos to your device photo library, those exported copies remain in your photo library after account or app deletion. You can delete those copies from your device photo library.
The local age eligibility record (status, check date, blocked date if blocked, and app version at the time of the check) is not erased when you delete your account. This record is tied to the device, not the account, and is retained so that a user previously found ineligible cannot bypass the age check by deleting and re-creating an account. To remove this local record, delete the HobbyDex app from your device.
21. Your Choices and Privacy Rights
You can:
- Create or delete your HobbyDex account
- Choose email/password sign-in or Sign in with Apple, where available
- Use Apple's Hide My Email option when signing in with Apple, where available
- Manage or disable Sign in with Apple through your Apple Account settings
- Change your email or password where supported
- Change your username, subject to rules and cooldowns
- Hide or show your leaderboard and profile identity
- Control whether your Hobby Feed milestones appear with your identity by hiding or showing your profile, and hide another user's feed events by blocking them
- Manage your Field Team
- Remove or replace your profile photo
- Choose whether to use AI-powered features
- Generate or skip daily AI Insights
- Regenerate daily AI Insights if you are a Pro user and within the weekly cap
- Save or unsave Insights
- Submit or clear Insight feedback
- Delete individual Insights where the app provides that control
- Delete cloud-backed Insight history through account deletion
- Choose whether to watch rewarded ads
- Deny camera permission
- Deny photo library permission
- Deny notification permission
- Change reminder settings
- Delete local app data via in-app controls or by deleting the app
- Manage or cancel subscriptions through the app store
- Contact support with privacy questions or deletion concerns
Privacy requests
Depending on where you live, you may have rights under applicable law to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or a copy of your personal information; to object to or restrict certain processing; to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; or to make a privacy complaint or appeal a denied request. You can make a privacy request by contacting HobbyDex at hobbydexsupport@gmail.com. HobbyDex may need to verify your identity before completing a privacy request and will respond to verifiable requests within a reasonable time.
22. App Store Privacy Information
HobbyDex's App Store privacy information is intended to summarize the data practices described in this Privacy Policy and the app's actual behavior, including data handled by third-party services used in the app.
Apple explains that developers are responsible for identifying data collected by the app and by integrated third-party partners, unless the data meets Apple's optional-disclosure criteria. Google Play's Data Safety form also asks developers to disclose collected and shared user data types and purposes. HobbyDex's store disclosures should be reviewed together with this Privacy Policy whenever app data practices change.
If HobbyDex's data practices change in a meaningful way, this Privacy Policy and the app store privacy information should be updated before or when those changes are released.
Because HobbyDex supports account creation and Sign in with Apple, the app store privacy information should reflect authentication-related data such as email address, user identifiers, authentication provider information, and other account information where collected or processed by HobbyDex or its service providers.
Because HobbyDex supports profile photos, profile photo moderation, and user-submitted profile reports, the app store privacy information should also be reviewed for user-provided photos, profile photo metadata, image or text analysis performed by service providers, report reason codes, usernames, user identifiers, and profile photo references collected when a report is filed.
Because HobbyDex syncs Field Team roster snapshots and publishes Field Team Strength for leaderboard views, the app store privacy information should also be reviewed for applicable profile, gameplay, identifiers, product interaction, or app activity categories tied to Field Team sync and display.
Because HobbyDex shares hobby capture, quest completion, and evolution milestones to a global Hobby Feed visible to other signed-in users, the app store privacy information should also be reviewed for applicable app activity, product interaction, identifiers, and user content categories, taking into account that feed events appear anonymously when a profile is hidden.
Because HobbyDex stores cloud-backed daily AI Insights history, the app store privacy information should be reviewed for any applicable categories, such as user content, app activity, product interaction, identifiers, diagnostics, and other categories that apply to Insight generation, storage, feedback, saved state, migration, and deletion.
Because HobbyDex uses RevenueCat for subscriptions and purchase management, the app store privacy information should continue to account for purchase information, purchase history, app user IDs or purchase identifiers, and related subscription data where collected or processed by RevenueCat, Apple, Google, or HobbyDex. See RevenueCat's Apple App Privacy guidance and Apple's App Privacy Details guidance for additional context.
23. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as HobbyDex changes.
When we make meaningful changes, we will update the effective date and make the revised policy available in the app or through the app store listing.
Some features described in this Privacy Policy may depend on the version of HobbyDex you are using. If you are using an older version of the app, certain account, profile, leaderboard, AI, purchase, advertising, or deletion features described here may not be available or may work differently.
24. Contact
For privacy questions, email HobbyDex support or visit the support page.