Privacy Policy
Last updated 16 June 2026
This explains what data guidely handles and why. guidely is a digital guidebook that accommodation hosts build for their guests. Using guidely means agreeing to this policy. Questions? zarkza@gmail.com.
Who uses guidely
Two kinds of people. Owners are the hosts who build a guide, and they have an account. Guests are the people who open a finished guide on their phone. Guests don't sign up for anything.
What guidely collects
- Sign-in details. When you sign in as an owner (Google or an email link), guidely receives your name and email from whoever you signed in with. Nothing more from the sign-in itself.
- What you put in your guides. The text, settings, contact details and images you add.
- Payments. Polar handles these. Your card never touches guidely's servers and is never seen. Polar reports which plan you're on and whether it's active.
- Guest activity, counted not tracked. When a guest opens a guide, guidely tallies a few plain numbers: how many opens, which language they picked, and how often the Directions button gets tapped on each place. No names, no accounts, no following anyone around the web, no precise location.
- Request basics. The usual things every website sees, like IP address and browser, needed to keep guidely running and to block abuse.
What guidely does with it
- Run the service: store your guide, serve it to your guests, and show you the basic numbers.
- Handle your subscription and plan.
- Translate a guide into whatever language a guest chooses.
- Keep guidely secure, stop abuse, and answer support requests.
Who else touches your data
guidely relies on a handful of well-known services to run. Each one only gets what it needs to do its job:
- Google Firebase for sign-in and the database.
- Google Cloud for image storage, Maps and Places (the guest map and place details), and Cloud Translation.
- Polar for subscription payments, as merchant of record.
- Appzi for the feedback widget, which only loads on guidely's own admin and marketing pages, never on a guest guide.
guidely does not sell your data.
Cookies
Barely any. One keeps an owner signed in, one remembers a guest's chosen language, and the feedback widget uses one on guidely's own pages. The guest guide itself sets only the language one.
How long data is kept
guidely holds your account and guides for as long as your account is around. Delete a guide or your account and the content goes with it. The anonymous counts, which aren't tied to any person, may stay.
Security
Everything sits on Google Cloud and Firebase, which are about as solid as infrastructure gets, and access is handled with care. No system online is completely bulletproof, but your data is not treated carelessly.
Your control
You can see, fix or delete your account data yourself from the dashboard, or email zarkza@gmail.com to have it done. Depending on where you live, you may have extra rights (POPIA in South Africa, GDPR in the EU, and the like). Email to exercise them.
Where your data lives
Some of these providers run servers in other countries, so your data may be processed outside your own. Using guidely means you're okay with that.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, the date at the top moves.