Privacy policy

The short version

• No ads, no analytics, no tracking across apps or websites. You can use SippyMe without an account.
• As a guest, your favourites, visited bars and hop plans are stored only on your device.
• If you choose to become a member, we keep your email address, a scrambled (hashed) version of your password, and the bars, matcha spots, routes and daily draw counts you save, so they sync across your devices. You can delete your account and this data at any time.
• If you use “Near me” or the locate button, your location is used on your device to sort bars and centre the map. It is never sent to us or stored.
• Members who tap “Stamp 蓋印” (Stamp Book) send one location reading to our server so it can check they are within about 100 m of that spot. The coordinates are used for that check and then discarded: we only keep the stamp (spot, date, design) and the distance rounded to 10 m.
• We don't sell or share personal data.

What the app stores on your device

Favourites, visited bars, your hop list and small preferences are kept in the app's local storage (browser localStorage / sessionStorage on the website, the app's WebView storage on iOS). That covers: your bar and matcha favourites, visited lists and hop routes, the bar/matcha mode you last used, whether you've seen the intro and tips, and a cached copy of the public bar list so the app opens offline. For guests none of it identifies you and nothing is uploaded. Deleting the app (or clearing the site's data in your browser) removes it. We don't use cookies for guests, and we never use advertising or tracking cookies.

Member accounts (optional)

Membership is free and optional. It gives you more saved spots (30 favourites and 40 visited per mode), 10 saved hop routes, daily gacha / fortune draws and the GPS Stamp Book, synced across devices. 會員帳戶屬自願性質，可免費登記。

• What we collect and why. Your email address (to identify your account, confirm it's yours, and send account emails such as the confirmation link and password resets). Your password is never stored as typed: we keep only a salted PBKDF2 hash. We also store what you save as a member: favourite and visited bars / matcha spots, saved hop routes (name and stops), Stamp Book stamps (spot, date of first and latest stamp, how many times, stamp design and the distance from the spot rounded to 10 m; never your coordinates), how many gacha / fortune draws you used today, and the dates your account was created and last signed in. 我哋只收集你嘅電郵地址、經加密處理嘅密碼，以及你儲存嘅收藏、路線、印仔（只記錄地點、日期同距離，唔會記錄你嘅座標）同每日抽籤次數，用途僅限於提供會員功能。
• Cookie. When you log in we set one strictly necessary, HttpOnly security cookie (__Host-sippy_user) that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days. Logging out deletes it.
• Emails. We only send account emails you trigger (confirmation, password reset, or a note if someone tries to sign up with your email). No newsletters or marketing unless you separately agree. Emails are delivered by our email provider Resend, which processes your address only to deliver them.
• Security. Account data is stored in Cloudflare's database (Cloudflare D1) and only reachable through our own server code. Sign-in is protected by rate limits: failed attempts are counted against a one-way keyed hash of your email and IP address (never the raw IP) and deleted within 24 hours. Links in our emails work once and expire (24 hours to confirm, 1 hour to reset a password).
• Where data is held. Cloudflare and Resend may process data outside Hong Kong (for example in the United States or Asia-Pacific data centres), under their own security commitments.
• How long we keep it. For as long as you keep your account. Draw counts are kept for 7 days. If you delete your account, your email, password hash, saved spots, routes, stamps, draw counts and sessions are deleted immediately from our database.
• Deleting your account. Log in, open the account page and choose “Delete my account” (you confirm with your password). Or ask through the support contact form and we'll do it for you. Data saved on your device as a guest stays until you clear it. 你可以隨時喺帳戶頁面刪除帳戶，或喺支援頁嘅聯絡表格請我哋代為刪除。
• Sharing. We don't sell, rent or share member data with anyone for marketing. It is only disclosed to the service providers above to run SippyMe, or if required by Hong Kong law.

Location

Location is optional and only requested when you tap “Near me” or the locate button. Your browser or iOS asks for permission first (on iOS: “While Using the App”). The coordinates are used in the app to measure distances to bars and to show your position on the map, then discarded. We never store your location or share it. The only time it reaches our server is when a member taps “Stamp 蓋印”: one reading is checked against the spot's position and discarded (only the rounded distance is kept with the stamp). You can turn location off at any time in Settings > SippyMe > Location (or in your browser's site settings).

Network requests

To show current bar information and the map, the app connects to these services. Like any web server, they receive your IP address and standard request information (for example device type), which they handle under their own policies:

• sippyme.app (hosted on Cloudflare): the bar list. Cloudflare may keep short-lived technical logs for security and reliability. Cloudflare privacy policy
• Map tiles: Esri / ArcGIS Online (services.arcgisonline.com) and OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org) receive the map area being displayed, not your GPS position. Esri privacy
• Fonts: Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com, fonts.gstatic.com). Google privacy policy
• Google Maps ratings (only if this feature is switched on): when you open a bar or matcha spot, the app asks sippyme.app for its rating; our server then asks the Google Places API using only the place's ID and our own key. Your IP address, location and device details are not passed to Google by this request. Ratings are shown live and not stored. Google's use of its data is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.

Links you open (for example Google Maps directions, a bar's website or Instagram, the 50 Best lists) take you to those services, under their own privacy policies.

Sharing

When you share a bar or a hop route, iOS's share sheet sends a sippyme.app link through the app you choose. We don't see who you share with.

Children

SippyMe is a guide to bars and is meant for adults of legal drinking age (18+ in Hong Kong). It is not directed at children.

Site owner admin

The site owner can sign in to an admin page on sippyme.app to edit bar listings. That sign-in uses a strictly necessary security cookie and is not used by ordinary visitors. To stop password guessing, failed sign-ins are counted against a one-way keyed hash of the IP address (never the raw IP) and deleted within 24 hours.

Your rights (Hong Kong)

We handle personal data in line with the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) and its Data Protection Principles: we collect only what membership needs, use it only for that purpose, keep it secure and don't keep it longer than necessary. For guests we hold no personal data. Members can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold (a data access request) or ask us to correct it, using the support contact form; we'll reply within 40 days as the Ordinance requires. 你有權根據《個人資料（私隱）條例》要求查閱及改正你嘅個人資料，請用支援頁嘅聯絡表格聯絡我哋。

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the date above changes too. Questions or requests: use the support contact form. We reply to the email you enter there. 如有問題或要求，請用支援頁聯絡表格，我哋會回覆你留下嘅電郵。