Meet In The Middle
Privacy policy
Effective September 25, 2026. This is the privacy policy for the iPhone app and for this server.
What this is
Meet In The Middle helps two to ten people pick a place and a time to leave. There is no account, no email login, and no Apple ID stored here. The demo meetup stays on the phone and is not sent to the server.
What we collect
Name
The name you type in the app. People on that meetup see it. We do not collect your email address, phone number, contacts, or Apple ID.
Location during an active plan
The start pin you set is sent to our server at mitm.thistledew.app and shown to the other people on that meetup. If you turn on share progress, auto-depart, or live pace, a progress point (a position and the minutes remaining) is also sent to our server and shown to the people on that meetup, and only while the meetup is still running and that switch is on. Precise location is used for those opted-in checks. A start you typed or dropped is the coarser place the others need. Auto-depart and live pace, if you turn them on, can notice when you leave a small area or move a significant distance so this phone can update that meetup. The app does not follow you with continuous GPS in the background, and it does not use the location background mode. Location sharing stops when you arrive, when you turn it off, when you leave the meetup, when the meetup ends, or after four hours. The app does not keep tracking you after that.
Device push token
If you allow notifications, Apple gives the app a push token. We store that token so we can send a time-sensitive alert when someone leaves or when it is time to leave, and a silent update when the plan changes. Apple Push Notification service delivers those alerts. We do not use the token for anything else.
Anonymous device id
The first time you open the app it creates a random id and a random secret that stay on that install. The server stores the id and a hash of the secret. That is how it tells this phone apart from the others on a meetup. This install id is linked to that device record. The App Store privacy label marks it as linked, the same way it marks precise location, coarse location, and the name you type. It is not the advertising identifier, and it is not the identifier for vendors. It is not your Apple ID, and it is not tied to an email address or a phone number.
Why
We use this data to run the meetup: show who is coming, keep the leave-by times, tell the other phones when someone has left, and let you delete what this phone stored. People on the same meetup can see the names, the starts, the leave-by times, and a progress point while sharing is on. We do not use it to advertise.
How long we keep it
A meetup that is finished or cancelled, including the names, places, locations, and push deliveries tied to it, is deleted 48 hours after it ends. A draft is deleted 48 hours after the last change. A meetup that was started but never finished is deleted 48 hours after the time you were supposed to arrive. If that arrival is already more than 48 hours in the past when the meetup is saved, it is kept for 48 hours after that save. If it has no arrival time, it is deleted 48 hours after the last change. A phone that is no longer on any meetup, and did not start one that is still stored, is deleted 48 hours after it was last seen. On the phone, the meetup file, saved places (Home, Work, and Plant), and friends’ places are kept in Application Support, left out of the backup, and protected until the first unlock after boot. An older copy in the app defaults is removed only after that write succeeds. The device secret and meetup tokens stay in the Keychain. A failed Keychain write is retried and is not copied into the app defaults. If an older secret or token list is still in defaults, this phone keeps using it until the Keychain write succeeds, and tries the move again on the next launch. This phone deletes other people’s start pins and progress points 48 hours after the meetup ends or is cancelled, 48 hours after the arrival time, or 48 hours after the last change when the meetup is still a draft or has no arrival time. If the arrival time was already more than 48 hours ago at the last change, the 48 hours start at that change. If the server no longer has the meetup, this phone records that and deletes those pins 48 hours later. A later refresh that finds the meetup clears that record. Names stay. Names of recent co-attendees, from meetups created in the last 90 days, are kept on this device only so the app can offer to add them again. Hold a name and choose Forget to hide that person, or clear them with Delete all my data. Delete all my data, in Settings in the app, deletes the meetups, friends, and saved places on that phone immediately. The server deletes this phone’s device record, the meetups it started, its memberships, and its push token only after that request succeeds. If the server cannot be reached, the phone keeps the request and tries again.
No selling and no tracking
We do not sell personal information. We do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. We do not track you across apps or websites. We do not use a third-party analytics service. The data above is used for the meetup itself. It is tied to this install’s device record, which is why the App Store privacy label marks it as linked. It is not linked to your Apple ID, email, or phone number, and we do not use it to recognize you in other apps.
Who processes it
Meetup data is processed on our own server in the United States, at mitm.thistledew.app. We do not send it to a separate database company or an analytics vendor. Apple delivers the push notification, and maps and travel times are calculated on your phone with Apple’s map services.
Children
The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not ask for age. If you believe a child has sent data to the server, contact us and we will delete that install’s server data.
Contact
Email privacy@thistledew.app with privacy questions or a deletion request. You can also delete this phone’s server data yourself with Delete all my data in Settings.