Privacy Policy — GroupSoup

GroupSoup, a product of ProgressGuide Inc. ("we", "our", or "us"), is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use GroupSoup (the "Service"), including our website and mobile applications.

1. Information We Collect

Information You Provide

When you create an account or use GroupSoup, we may collect personal information you voluntarily provide, including:

Name, email address, and profile information
Your birthday, if you choose to add it (month and day, and optionally the year)
Event details you create (titles, descriptions, locations, dates)
RSVP responses and scheduling preferences
Comments and messages within events
Dietary preferences and allergies (when provided for events)
Profile photos and images you upload
Contact information for inviting guests
Community information: requests to join a community, any message you include, and your answers to that community's join questions
Electronic signatures: when a community asks you to sign a waiver, the name you type as your signature

Information Collected Automatically

When you access GroupSoup, we may automatically collect certain information, including:

IP address, browser type, and operating system
Device information and unique identifiers
Pages visited and features used
Approximate location (when you grant permission, used for event location suggestions and currency detection)
When you e-sign a waiver: your IP address and browser details at the moment of signing, recorded with the signature so it can be verified later

Information from Third Parties

If you sign in using a third-party service (Google, Facebook, or Microsoft), we receive basic profile information (name, email, profile picture) from that provider. If you choose to connect your calendar, we access your calendar data in read-only mode solely to detect scheduling conflicts.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

Provide, operate, and improve GroupSoup
Create and manage your account
Facilitate event creation, invitations, RSVPs, and scheduling
Send event-related notifications and reminders
Detect scheduling conflicts with your connected calendars
Display relevant location information and maps
Operate communities: process join requests, questionnaires, and waiver signatures, and keep records of signed waivers
Give community organizers tools to review members and, where you've agreed, to send you community updates
Respond to your inquiries and support requests
Comply with legal obligations
Protect against fraudulent or unauthorized activity

3. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information in the following circumstances:

With your friends: If you add a birthday and leave "Show my birthday to friends" on, your friends can see its month and day on your profile, in their friends list and on their in-app calendar. Your birth year is never shown to anyone else, and birthdays are never included in calendar feeds or downloads. You can turn sharing off at any time in your profile settings.
With event participants: Your name, profile picture, and RSVP status are visible to other participants of events you join. Event hosts can see attendee details relevant to the event (e.g., dietary preferences).
With community organizers: When you ask to join or join a community, its organizers can see the information you give that community. See "Communities" below for exactly what they see.
With service providers: We use third-party services to operate GroupSoup (hosting, email delivery, maps, payment processing). These providers only access information necessary to perform their services and are bound to protect it.
With AI providers: When you use AI-powered features, the relevant content is sent to third-party AI providers for processing. See "AI Features" below for details on which providers we use and what is shared.
For legal reasons: We may disclose information when required by law, legal process, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of GroupSoup, our users, or the public.
With your consent: We may share information for other purposes when you give us explicit consent.

4. Communities

Communities on GroupSoup are run by their organizers (an owner and any admins they appoint), not by GroupSoup.

What organizers can see

When you ask to join: your name and profile, the message you include, and your answers to their join questions.
If you sign their waiver: the signed record, which includes your typed name, your account email, the date and time, the version of the waiver you signed, and the IP address and browser details recorded when you signed.
Your membership status in their community, and, on paid plans, how you have engaged with the community (for example, events you RSVP'd to or attended).
Your history with the community: every request you have submitted with its answers and outcome, and whether you are a member, left, were removed, withdrew, or were declined. Organizers keep this for their records after your membership ends or your request is declined.

What you give one community is visible only to that community's organizers. Your answers and signatures for one community are never shared with another community.

Who else can see that you're a member

A community's page shows the profile photos and names of some of its members, to anyone who visits. You're shown by default; you can turn this off at any time with “Show me in this community's member photos” on the community's page. People you have blocked, or who have blocked you, never see you there. If the organizers choose to hide members from each other, no one but the organizers sees them. Members of a community's groups see who else is in their group.

Organizers can also switch off “Show member faces publicly” for their whole community. When it's off, people outside the community see no member photos or names anywhere: not on the community's page or on the map, and not in the guest lists, invitation-link previews, discussions, polls or photo credits and tags of its events (where other people appear as “A member”). They see only how many people are members or are going. Members still see each other as usual, and everyone taking part in an event (invited, or going) sees who else is coming, so you know who you're meeting, splitting a bill or sharing a ride with.

Where a community appears on the map

A community's pin on the Communities map shows only an approximate area, accurate to about a kilometre, never an exact address. The organizers choose the area. If they don't, the pin is placed from the community's drawn coverage area, or from the approximate area of its public events from the last 90 days and upcoming. Events for a community's groups, and private events, are never used.

Updates from communities

Members of a community receive updates from its organizers. If you ask to join and your request is waiting for review, you receive updates only if you choose to (the option is off unless you turn it on). Organizers can send text messages only to people who have separately opted in to texts. You can unsubscribe from a community's emails at any time using the link in any message from it, and reply STOP to texts.

Organizers on paid plans can export the contact details of people who have opted in to their community's updates, together with their membership status and answers to that community's join questions. Organizers are responsible for how they use information they export.

Signed waivers

A waiver you e-sign is kept as a permanent record so that it can later show exactly what you agreed to, and when. Once signed, the record is locked against editing and deletion. If a community later changes its waiver, your record stays tied to the version you actually signed. You can request a copy of any waiver you have signed by contacting us.

5. AI Features

GroupSoup does not operate its own AI models. Some features — such as parsing event details from text or links, generating suggestions and descriptions, and transcribing audio from videos you import — are powered by third-party AI providers. We currently use:

Anthropic (Claude): for text-based AI features, including interpreting event details and generating content.
OpenAI: for transcribing audio from video content you choose to import.

When you use these features, the content you submit (for example, event text, pasted links, or imported media) is sent to the applicable provider solely to perform the requested task and return a result. These providers act as service providers on our behalf and process your content in accordance with their data-processing terms. These features are intended to assist you, and are generally not used to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you. If you prefer not to share content with an AI provider, you can avoid using these optional features.

6. Data Storage and Retention

Your data is stored on servers located in the United States and Canada. We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this policy, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Community information is kept for the community's organizers after the relationship ends: if you leave, are removed, withdraw a request, or are declined, your answers, messages and history with that community remain visible to its organizers. If a community is deleted, its members' answers and application history are deleted with it (signed waivers excepted, below).

Signed waivers are the exception. We keep them as legal records for as long as they may reasonably be needed to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. They are kept even after you leave the community, after the community is deleted, and after you delete your account. A retained waiver record contains your typed name, your email address at the time of signing, the date and time, the IP address and browser details recorded when you signed, and the text of the waiver you signed.

When you delete your account, we remove your personal information from our active systems, except signed waiver records as described above and information we must keep to comply with the law. Your community history is de-identified rather than deleted: we remove your link to it, along with any free-text answers and messages you wrote (which may contain identifying details). Multiple-choice answers, dates and outcomes remain so organizers can continue to learn from them, but they are no longer connected to you. Some information may be retained in backups for a limited period.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to:

Access the personal information we hold about you
Request correction of inaccurate information
Request deletion of your personal information
Withdraw consent for data processing
Opt out of marketing communications
Request a copy of your data in a portable format

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the email address below. A request to delete your information does not extend to signed waiver records we keep for legal claims, and your community history is de-identified rather than deleted, as described in "Data Storage and Retention". You can still request a copy of them.

8. Google User Data

GroupSoup's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

When you connect your Google Calendar, we access it in read-only mode solely to check for scheduling conflicts when you create or respond to events. We do not store your calendar data beyond the duration of the conflict check. We do not use Google user data for advertising purposes or share it with third parties except as necessary to provide the Service.

9. Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies to maintain your session, remember your preferences, and understand how you use GroupSoup. You can control cookie settings through your browser. Disabling cookies may affect the functionality of certain features.

10. Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Children's Privacy

GroupSoup is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected such information, we will take steps to delete it promptly.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the updated policy on this page with a revised "Last Updated" date. Your continued use of GroupSoup after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

legal@progressguide.com