Your privacy, plainly.
Yoink is a directory of free stuff. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and how you get it deleted.
The short version
- We collect the minimum needed to show you free items near you and to let you message people about them.
- We do not sell or share your personal information, we run no advertising, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.
- Location is used to find items near you. We never store a history of your precise coordinates.
- You can delete your account and your data at any time — see Deleting your data.
- Questions: privacy@yoinkapp.co
Contents
1. Who we are
Yoink (“Yoink”, “we”, “us”) operates the Yoink mobile app and the website at yoinkapp.co. We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. This policy applies to the Yoink app on iOS and Android and to this website.
Yoink is a directory of free items. It brings together listings for things people are giving away — some posted by Yoink users, most gathered from public listings on other platforms — and links you out to the original source to claim them. We never handle payments between users, and we never take a cut of anything.
2. Information we collect
Account information
- Guest accounts. You can use Yoink without giving us anything: we create an anonymous account identified only by a random ID. No email, no name.
- Sign-in. If you sign in, we receive an email address (email sign-in), or the identifier and email returned by Sign in with Apple or Sign in with Google. If you use Apple’s Hide My Email, we only ever see the relay address.
- Display name. A name you choose, shown to people you chat with. It defaults to “Yoinker”. We do not require your real name.
Content you create
- Listings you post: title, description, category, photos, the pickup area and note, and the coordinates you set for the item.
- Messages you send in Yoink chats, and the chat’s basic details (which listing, who is in it, timestamps).
- Saved items and preferences, most of which stay on your device.
Location
- With your permission, we use your device’s location to show items near you and how far away they are. If you decline, you can still use Yoink by choosing an area manually.
- Your coordinates are sent to our servers (and to the listing sources we search) at the time of a search, to return nearby results. We do not build or store a location history for your account.
- To keep supply fresh where people actually are, we store an association between your account and a broad search area (roughly a 30 km radius) plus the time of your most recent request. That is a wide area, not a precise position.
Usage information
- Which listings you open, so we can fetch full details for them, cache them for everyone, enforce fair-use limits, and detect abuse.
- Your “Yoinks” balance and the ledger of changes to it (welcome bonus, reaching out, giving something away, refunds).
- Basic technical data our hosting provider logs when your app talks to our servers: IP address, device type and operating system version, app version, language and region, and timestamps.
Subscription information
- If you subscribe, the purchase is made through Apple or Google. We never see or receive your card, bank or payment details.
- Our subscription provider (RevenueCat) gives us a subscriber ID, your subscription status, product and store transaction identifiers, and the country of your store account, so the app knows whether to unlock.
3. What we never collect
- We do not run advertising, ad networks, ad SDKs, or cross-app / cross-site tracking, and we do not ask for tracking permission.
- We do not sell your personal information, and we do not “share” it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are defined under California law.
- We do not collect contacts, calendars, health data, browsing history, or precise background location. Yoink only requests location while you are using the app.
- When we gather listings from other platforms, we deliberately do not store the identity of the person who posted them — no names, no profile links, no contact details.
4. How we use information
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Account and sign-in data | Create and secure your account; keep you signed in; let people you chat with see a name |
| Location | Show free items near you, sort by distance, and decide which areas to keep refreshed |
| Listings and photos | Publish your listing in the app; estimate an item’s value; show it on the map |
| Messages | Deliver your chats and let you arrange a pickup |
| Usage and technical data | Operate and debug the service, prevent abuse and spam, enforce fair-use and budget limits, improve the app |
| Subscription data | Unlock paid features, handle restores, and support you with billing questions |
| Reports and support emails | Investigate reports, moderate content, and answer you |
We do not use your personal information to make automated decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about you.
5. Legal bases (EEA / UK)
- Performance of a contract — providing the app, your account, listings, chats and subscriptions.
- Consent — location, camera and photo library access. You can withdraw consent at any time in your device settings.
- Legitimate interests — keeping the service safe and working, preventing abuse and fraud, controlling our infrastructure costs, and improving the product. We balance these against your rights.
- Legal obligation — responding to lawful requests and meeting our legal duties.
6. Device permissions
- Location (while using the app) — to show items near you and how far away they are.
- Camera — only if you choose to photograph an item you are giving away.
- Photo library — only for the photos you pick for a listing. We do not scan your library.
Each permission is optional and can be changed at any time in your device settings. Declining location only means you pick an area manually.
7. Third-party listings and links out
Most items in Yoink are listings published publicly on other platforms. We index the listing content (title, description, photos, category, town or area, and the link back to the source), always attribute the source, and send you to that source to claim the item.
- When you tap through to a source listing, you leave Yoink and that platform’s own privacy policy and terms apply to you. We have no control over what they collect.
- Some sources are searched directly from your device (for example the Trash Nothing API). Those providers therefore receive your IP address and the search coordinates directly.
- Indexed third-party listings are ephemeral: we delete them automatically after a short retention window (see Retention).
- If you posted a listing on another platform and want it removed from Yoink, email privacy@yoinkapp.co with the link.
8. Service providers
We use a small number of providers who process data on our behalf, under contract, only for the purposes below.
| Provider | Purpose | Personal data involved |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosting, database, authentication, chat, photo storage | Account data, listings, photos, messages, technical logs |
| RevenueCat | Subscription management and receipt validation | Subscriber ID, subscription status, store transaction data, device / app metadata |
| Apple / Google | App distribution, sign-in, payments for subscriptions | Sign-in identifier and email; payment data handled entirely by them |
| Google (Gemini API) | Estimating an item’s likely value from the listing | Listing title, description, town / country and the listing photo. No account identifiers are sent. Google does not use this data to train its models under our API terms. |
| Expo | App building and updates | Device and app version metadata |
| Listing sources and data vendors (e.g. Trash Nothing, our marketplace data vendor, our web-indexing vendor, OpenStreetMap / Nominatim for place names) | Finding and geocoding public free-item listings | Search coordinates or a broad area only. Where your device queries a source directly, that source also sees your IP address. |
9. When we disclose information
- To other users: your display name, and the content of any listing or message you send. Do not put anything in a listing or message you would not want a stranger to see.
- To our service providers as described above.
- For legal reasons: where we reasonably believe disclosure is required by law, or is necessary to investigate fraud or abuse, enforce our Terms, or protect the rights or safety of anyone.
- Business transfer: if Yoink is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, information may transfer, subject to this policy.
We do not sell your personal information, and we have not done so in the preceding twelve months.
10. International transfers
Our providers may process data in countries other than yours, including the United States. Where personal data is transferred out of the EEA or UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK Addendum), or on transfers to countries with an adequacy decision.
11. How long we keep things
- Account data — until you delete your account, plus up to 30 days in backups.
- Your listings — expire automatically 14 days after posting, or when you delete them.
- Chats and messages — until the related listing or account is deleted.
- Third-party listings we index — deleted automatically within 48 to 72 hours, depending on the source.
- Technical and abuse-prevention logs — typically up to 90 days.
- Records we must keep (for example, evidence relating to a serious safety report, or accounting records for subscriptions) — for as long as legally required.
12. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you have some or all of these rights:
- Access a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Correct information that is wrong or incomplete.
- Delete your information (see below).
- Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
- Object to or restrict processing based on legitimate interests.
- Withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing already carried out.
- Complain to your local data protection authority. In the UK that is the ICO (ico.org.uk).
California residents additionally have the right to know what personal information is collected, used and disclosed; the right to delete and to correct; the right to opt out of sale or sharing (we do neither); and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We do not offer financial incentives for personal information. You may use an authorised agent to make a request.
To exercise any right, email privacy@yoinkapp.co from the address on your account, or from the app if you use a guest account. We respond within 30 days (45 days for California requests, extendable where permitted). We may need to verify your identity, and we will never charge you for a first request.
13. Deleting your data
- In the app: open Profile → Delete account. This deletes your data from our servers — your account record, listings and photos, chats and messages, and your Yoinks ledger — and signs you out and clears Yoink’s data from your device. Copies in backups are purged on their normal rotation, within 30 days.
- By email: if you cannot get into the app, email privacy@yoinkapp.co with the subject “Delete my account”. We delete the same data within 30 days and confirm when it is done. Ask us here too if you would like a copy of your data before it goes.
- Deleting your account does not automatically cancel a subscription bought through Apple or Google — cancel that in your store account settings (see the Terms).
- Some anonymised or aggregated data that can no longer identify you may be retained.
14. Children
Yoink is not directed to children. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use Yoink, because using it can involve arranging to meet strangers to collect items. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has given us information, email privacy@yoinkapp.co and we will delete it promptly.
15. Security
Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS / TLS) and at rest by our hosting provider. Access to production data is limited to people who need it. Our database enforces row-level access rules so that, for example, you can only read your own chats. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password if you sign in with email, and tell us at privacy@yoinkapp.co if you spot a vulnerability.
16. Changes to this policy
If we make material changes we will update the date at the top and, where the change is significant, notify you in the app before it takes effect. Continuing to use Yoink after a change means you accept the updated policy.
17. Contact us
Access, correction or deletion of your data, plus reports and content removal.