Last updated: October 5, 2026
This Privacy Policy describes how Nittany Nights ("we," "us," or "our") handles information when you visit nittanynights.com or use the Nittany Nights mobile app (collectively, the "Service"). The mobile app is a companion to the website: it displays the same event listings and adds optional notifications and offline access.
We do not have user accounts, sign-ups, or login. We do not ask for or collect your name, email address, phone number, precise location, contacts, photos, or any other personally identifying information. The exceptions are the approximate, anonymous location described under "Sort by Distance" below, the location the map uses on your phone to show where you are (see "Map" below), which is never stored or sent, and the venue, busyness level, platform, time, and short-lived scrambled network key described in that same section for live busyness reports. We do not use advertising or advertising identifiers.
The website and apps can sort venues by how close they are to you. The website asks for location when the page opens; you can say no and everything else still works. The apps ask once, on first launch, and you can decline or turn it off later in Settings. When venues are sorted by distance, we record your position rounded to about half a kilometer (the nearest 0.005 degrees, roughly a few city blocks), together with the hour, roughly how accurate your phone or browser said that position was (for example, within 50 meters, or only within a few kilometers), and whether it came from a phone browser, a computer browser, or the app. Nothing else: no IP address, no device identifier, no cookie. We use these anonymous points to see which areas people use the site from and to improve the experience for those areas. They are kept for four months in a form that cannot identify you.
If you have allowed location, Nittany Nights can tell when you are at a venue and ask how busy it is. That check happens on your phone; for this check your location is never sent. A report stores only the venue, the level you picked, whether you used the website or the app (and, in the app, iPhone or Android), and the time. To stop repeat voting we also keep a scrambled key made from your network address and your screen size (so two phones on the same Wi-Fi count as two people); neither is stored as it is, the key is deleted within the hour, and the secret used to make it is deleted every morning. We also keep a running total of how many reports came in that night, with nothing about who sent them, so the site can show it. Your device keeps its own count of how many reports you have made tonight and this month, to show you; those counts stay on your device and are never sent.
The map opens with or without location. While the map is open and location is allowed, your phone's location is used on your phone only to show a blue dot where you are on the map. It is never stored or sent anywhere, and the map stops using it when you close the map.
The map remembers where you last left it (the centre and zoom) on your device only, and this is never sent anywhere. The first time you open it, it starts at your current location if you are in the area, so the remembered spot can be near where you were until you move the map.
When you open the map, the page loads the map library from cdnjs (run by Cloudflare), which receives your IP address and standard browser request information, and map images from OpenStreetMap (run by the OpenStreetMap Foundation), which receives your IP address, standard browser request information, and the area of the map you are viewing. Nothing is loaded from them until you open the map.
If you choose to turn on notifications (for example, the weekly live-music and happy-hour alerts), Google Firebase Cloud Messaging issues a notification token for your device or browser. This token is a random identifier used solely to deliver the notifications you opted into; it is not linked to your identity and we do not use it to track you. Notification delivery is handled by Google Firebase Cloud Messaging and is subject to Google's Firebase Privacy and Security and Google's Privacy Policy. You can turn notifications off at any time from the in-app Settings page or in your device's notification settings, which removes the token from the relevant topics.
We use analytics to understand aggregate usage of the Service, such as page views and which sections are popular.
One of our analytics tools, Umami, is privacy-friendly and cookieless. It does not set cookies, does not build advertising profiles, and does not track you across other websites. It records non-identifying technical information such as approximate region (derived from IP address but not stored as a full IP), browser type, and the referring page.
The app also sends Umami one short summary a day of how its Settings page is set: which notification types and days are on or off, whether notifications and location are allowed, the light theme, and the busy check-in interval. It carries no identifier and nothing else about you, only those on and off values, and we use it to count how many people keep each setting on.
We also use Google Analytics, which sets first-party cookies (names beginning with _ga) to distinguish visits and measure aggregate traffic. We use it for site measurement only: we do not use Google Analytics advertising features, do not show ads, and do not sell or share analytics data. Google's handling of this data is described in Google's Privacy Policy. You can opt out with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on or by blocking cookies for this site in your browser.
So the app works offline and loads quickly, it stores a copy of the current event listings, and your notification preferences, locally on your device. The listings and your preferences stay on your device; the only thing sent about your settings is the anonymous daily summary described under Analytics. Removing or clearing the app deletes them.
We do not set any advertising cookies. The only cookies on the Service are the first-party Google Analytics measurement cookies (_ga and similar) described above; Umami is cookieless. You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings.
The Service contains links to venue websites, ticketing platforms, social media, and Google Maps. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to review their privacy policies.
Nittany Nights lists bar, restaurant, and nightlife events and is intended for a general adult audience. It is not directed to children.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at nittanynights@gmail.com.
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