Effective 1 October 2026.
meetup.rio shows things to do in Rio, with friends: events, places, and the meetups and live statuses people start. People who live here add places, events and listings, and creators recommend them with their Instagram posts. This page explains what we collect, why, and your choices. Questions go to privacy@meetup.rio.
What we collect
- Account. When you sign in to contribute, we store your email address. If you choose "Continue with Google", Google shares your name and email with us; we do not receive your Google password.
- Contributions. The content you submit (places, meetups, listings, recommendations, and the name or Instagram handle you optionally add to be credited). Approved contributions are public and become part of the directory.
- Recommendations. A recommendation is a link to one of your Instagram posts about a place or an event, with the name and Instagram handle on your profile. Once approved and attached it shows on the place or event it is about and on your page. The post itself stays on Instagram: we show Instagram's own embed of it and keep no copy.
- Abuse prevention. When you submit something we store a hashed (non-reversible) form of your IP address and standard request logs to rate-limit spam and abuse.
- On your device. Your saved items, trips and blocked contributors are kept locally in your browser or app, on your device, not tied to your account.
- Counts for places. Opening a place's page, saving it or asking for directions adds one to that place's count for the day. To count each person once a day we keep a hashed form of your IP address, salted with that day, and delete it the next day. The place's owner sees only the daily totals.
- Payments. If you pay for a business account with Pix, we keep the name on the paying account, the amount and the payment reference, to match the payment on our statement.
- WhatsApp. If you connect WhatsApp, we keep the number or the username WhatsApp sends with your code, and the id WhatsApp gives you for us. Only the people in a meetup with you see your number or username, and only once they have connected WhatsApp too. Connecting another number replaces it, and deleting your account deletes it.
How we use it
To run and moderate the service, credit contributors, sign you in, and keep the site free of spam and abuse. We do not sell your data, show third-party ads, or run cross-site tracking.
Location and camera
If you use the map's "locate me", your device asks for location permission and uses it only to center the map: we do not store your location. The app does not use your camera.
Who processes your data
- Cloudflare hosts the site and database and serves the app.
- Google: only if you choose Google sign-in.
- Meta, which runs WhatsApp: only if you connect WhatsApp. The code you send reaches us through WhatsApp.
We use no other third-party analytics or advertising services.
Retention and your choices
Public contributions are kept as part of the directory. Your account is your email address. You can delete your account and data any time from your profile, at /delete-account, or by emailing privacy@meetup.rio.
Children
meetup.rio is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.
The app
The Android app is a wrapper around this website and follows this same policy.
Changes
We may update this policy; the effective date above will change. Material changes will be noted on this page.