Last updated: 23 June 2026
Tipline (“the app”, “we”, “us”) is an anonymous, crowdsourced app that helps people see whether a café, bar or restaurant shows a tip prompt (“tip screen”) when paying. This policy explains what data the app handles and why. It is written to be honest and minimal, because the app is designed to collect as little as possible.
Publisher note: replace the contact email below with your real support address, and add your legal entity name/address if required in your jurisdiction (e.g. under the GDPR). This page must be hosted at a public URL and that URL entered in the Google Play Console.
1. Approximate location (only if you allow it). If you grant location permission, the app uses your location to centre the map on where you are. Your precise position is used on your device for this; it is not stored on our servers as your location. When the map loads venues, the app sends only the area of the map you are currently viewing to fetch nearby places. You can use the app without granting location permission.
2. A random device identifier. The first time you open the app, it generates a random ID and stores it on your device. It is sent with your requests so we can rate-limit and deduplicate submissions, and let you edit or delete your own reports. It is not the Android Advertising ID and is not used for advertising or cross-app tracking. It contains no personal information.
3. Reports you submit. When you report a venue, we store what you chose to share — whether a tip screen appeared, the percentages or amounts shown, whether a 0% option was visible, and how much pressure you felt. Reports are aggregated and shown to other users, tied to your random device ID, not to you personally.
4. Feedback you choose to send. If you use the in-app feedback form, we store your message, and — only if you type one in — an optional email address so we can reply. Leave it blank and your feedback stays anonymous.
5. Limited technical data for abuse prevention. To protect the service from spam, our server stores a hashed (irreversible) form of the request’s IP address, plus basic details such as app version and platform. We do not store your raw IP address.
Data is transmitted over an encrypted connection (HTTPS) and stored on our server infrastructure. We keep data only as long as needed to run the service. Aggregated venue information may be retained as part of the public dataset, but it is not personal to you.
Tipline is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect data from children.
Venue locations are based in part on OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors (openstreetmap.org/copyright). Maps are displayed using Google Maps and are also subject to Google’s policies.
We may update this policy from time to time and will change the “Last updated” date above when we do.