Privacy policy
Last updated: 4 November 2026
This Was. is a personal archive of the experiences that made up your life. That makes what you add personal, so this page sets out plainly what we keep, why, and how you stay in control of it.
Who is responsible
Egbert Ludema, Walperterwei 8K, Wommels, 8731CC is responsible for your data. You can reach us at hello@thiswas.app.
What we keep, and why
| What | Why | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Your account: name, username, email address, password (stored hashed), and optionally a photo and bio | To give you an account, and let friends find you | Our agreement with you |
| What you add: experiences, dates, ratings, notes, places, tickets, including what they cost, and hours played | This is the archive itself | Our agreement with you |
| Your photos, and images of tickets | To keep them with your experiences | Our agreement with you |
| The people you add, by the name you give them | To show who you were with. They are only visible to you, unless they are a friend who accepted an invite | Our agreement with you, and our legitimate interest in letting you record your own life |
| Friends, invites, likes, comments and blocks | For the parts of the app you share with others | Our agreement with you |
| Your location, only if you allow it | To show events near you. It is used for that search and not saved to your account | Your consent, which you can withdraw in your phone’s settings |
| A notification token per device, if you allow notifications | To send you notifications, such as friend requests and your yearly recap | Your consent |
| Sign-ins and security events, with IP address and device | To keep your account safe and show you your devices | Our legitimate interest in security |
| Error reports | To find and fix problems. They are set up not to include personal details by default | Our legitimate interest in a working service |
We don’t sell your data, and we don’t show ads.
Who sees what you add
Each experience is Private, Invited or Friends, and new ones are Private unless you change your default.
- Private: only you.
- Invited: you and the friends you add to it.
- Friends: all your friends.
Whoever may see an experience sees your notes, photos, rating and tickets. They never see what a ticket cost, places they may not see, or people who haven’t confirmed they were there. If you upload a picture of a ticket, friends can read what’s printed on it.
Who else is involved
We use these services to run This Was. Some of them may process data outside the European Economic Area. Where they do, we rely on the safeguards the law requires, such as standard contractual clauses.
| Service | What for | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Our hosting provider | Running the service and its database | All of the above, stored for us |
| Cloudflare (R2) | Storing photos | Your photos |
| Resend | Sending email | Your email address and the message |
| Sentry | Error reports | Technical details of what went wrong |
| Expo, Apple and Google | Delivering notifications | A device token and the notification |
| Ticketmaster | Finding events | What you search for and, for events near you, your location rounded to about 150 metres |
| Geoapify | Finding places | What you search for, and a location if you use one |
| TMDB, Google Books, Open Library, IGDB, MusicBrainz, setlist.fm and TheSportsDB | Finding films, shows, books, games, artists, concerts and matches | What you search for |
How long we keep it
- Your archive: for as long as you have an account.
- A deleted account: it can no longer be used straight away, and everything in it is permanently removed after 30 days. Until then a mistaken deletion can still be undone.
- A deleted photo: permanently removed after 30 days.
- Security records: 365 days.
- A data export: the download is removed after 7 days.
- Backups: deleted data can remain in backups until they are overwritten in the normal course.
Your rights
You can see, correct, export and delete your data, most of it yourself in the app:
- See and correct: everything you added can be edited at any time.
- Take it with you: Settings, then Export your data. You get a file with your data and your original photos.
- Delete: Settings, then Delete account. How deleting works.
- Object or restrict: email us at hello@thiswas.app.
If you’re unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to your local data protection authority. In the Netherlands, that is the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.
People you add
If someone added you to their archive by name and you want that addressed, email us and we’ll help.
Children
This Was. is for people aged 16 and over.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, we’ll tell you in the app or by email. The date at the top shows when it last changed.