Privacy

Last updated October 9, 2026. This is evanston.social, a small app for people who live in Evanston, Illinois, run by Scott Robbin, a neighbor. This page says what the app knows about you, who can see it, and how to remove it. Questions: hello@evanston.social.

What anyone can see

The app is built on the AT Protocol, the open network that Bluesky also uses. Your account keeps a small public record there, which any app or person on that network can read:

• your handle, such as name.evanston.social or your Bluesky handle;
• the name and photo you chose for evanston.social;
• the fact that you are a member, and when you joined.

The events calendar is public too. It is gathered from public listings and has nothing about members in it.

What people you know can see

You connect with someone by scanning their code in person, or, when you are both already members, by opening a link one of you sent the other. The app keeps which of the two it was. People you've connected with can see the events you starred, unless you chose “Close circle” or “Only me” for that star. Close circle shows it only to the people you picked; nobody is told whether they are in your close circle.

What only you can see

• what you follow, and the kinds of things you said you're into;
• who is in your close circle;
• stars you marked “Only me”;
• who you have blocked.

What we keep on our server

These are stored privately on our server and are never published:

• who you are connected with, and when you connected;
• who invited you, and who you invited;
• your stars, follows and close circle;
• blocks, and reports members send about each other;
• for evanston.social accounts, the email address you signed up with, used only for password resets and to confirm deleting your account.

Private here means private from the public and from other members. The person who runs evanston.social can read this data in order to run the service and respond to reports, and does not look at it otherwise.

What we don't do

• We don't collect your location or your contacts.
• We don't show ads, use advertising trackers, or sell or share your data.
• Adding an event to your calendar uses your phone's own screen; the app never reads your calendar.

Who helps us run it

Cloudflare hosts the app's server and database, and keeps short-lived technical logs of requests. Hetzner hosts the account server for evanston.social accounts, in Germany. Resend delivers our email. If you sign in with a Bluesky account, Bluesky hosts that account under its own policy.

Removing, blocking and reporting

You can remove a connection or block someone at any time; they aren't told. You can report someone you're connected with, and we will look at it. We may remove a member who makes others unsafe.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app, under Settings, then Account. This erases your connections, stars, follows, close circle, blocks and sign-ins, and removes your public evanston.social record.

• If your account is name.evanston.social, the whole account is deleted, including anything you posted with it in other apps such as Bluesky.
• If you signed in with an account hosted elsewhere, that account is left alone; only what evanston.social holds is erased.

Two things are kept after you delete: the record of who invited whom, and any reports about you. Both keep only your account's technical identifier, with no name or photo, so that the trail of who vouched for whom can't be erased by leaving.

Children

The app is not meant for children under 13.

Changes

If this page changes in a way that matters, we'll say so in the app before it takes effect.