Privacy
Potluck keeps track of who paid what in a group, without accounts. Here is everything it keeps, who can see it, and how to get rid of it.
What Potluck stores
- Your potlucks: each one's name, emoji, color, currency and settings; the names of the people in it (and an emoji or color for each); every expense (what it was for, the amount, who paid, how it was split, the date and any note) and every payment between people.
- The history of changes: every change to a potluck, who made it (by the name they picked) and when, so anyone in it can see what happened and undo it.
- Payment usernames, if you add them: your Venmo, PayPal or Cash App username, so friends can pay you back. Only you can change yours.
- Your devices: a random code in a cookie identifies this browser (we keep only a scrambled copy of it), with which potlucks it's in, who you picked in each, when it was first and last used, and a name like "Safari on iPhone" taken from the browser. When you link two devices, a scrambled copy of the code is kept for about a day, and wrong tries are kept for up to a day with a scrambled copy of the network address they came from, to stop guessing.
- A preview picture of each potluck (its name, emoji and people's initials), shown when its link is pasted in a chat.
- Counts with no names attached: how many potlucks were started, expenses added, payments recorded and devices linked each day.
- To stop abuse: when a potluck is started, a scrambled copy of the network address it came from, for up to two days, so one script can't start thousands. Starting a potluck also passes Cloudflare Turnstile, a check that you're a person, run by Cloudflare.
- Error reports: when something breaks, what went wrong in the code and on which page, without names, amounts or anything you typed. They go to Sentry, which we use to fix bugs.
Who can see it
Anyone with a potluck's link can open it, see everything in it and change it, and so can anyone already in it. That's how your friends get in without accounts, so share the link only with them. If it gets out, anyone in the potluck can reset the link in its settings; the old one stops working for anyone who isn't already in. Invite links are never shown in search engines.
We can see what's in a potluck too, to keep Potluck running and to stop abuse. We never share it.
Potluck runs on Cloudflare, which handles every request (including your network address) to deliver the site and keep it safe.
What Potluck doesn't collect
- No accounts, passwords, email addresses or phone numbers.
- No contacts, location or photos.
- No tracking or advertising cookies. The one cookie,
pl_device, only keeps your potlucks on this browser; it lasts 400 days and is renewed when you visit. - Visits are counted with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and doesn't follow you across sites.
We don't sell your data.
On your device
Your browser keeps a copy of the potlucks you opened, so they open fast and can be read offline, the app's own files, and a few notes like which tips you've closed. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes them.
How long it's kept
A potluck is kept while it's used. One that nobody opens or changes is cleaned up: after 30 days if it never had an expense or a payment, after 12 months otherwise. For its last 14 or 30 days its card says so, and opening it keeps it.
A deleted or cleaned-up potluck goes to "Recently deleted" on everyone's list, and anyone who was in it can restore it for 30 days. After that it's erased, with its history and preview picture.
A device nobody has used for 400 days is deleted, and so is its list of potlucks if no other device shares it.
Backups, kept so a mistake or a breakdown loses nothing, hold erased data for a while longer: up to 30 days for what's inside a potluck, and up to 12 weeks for the list of who's in which potluck. Then they're gone too.
How to delete it
- A whole potluck: open it, then Settings, then Delete. It goes for everyone in it.
- Just from your list: leave the potluck. Nothing in it changes for the others.
- Someone in it: remove them in Members once they're settled up.
- A device: remove it under "Use Potluck on another device", or clear this site's cookies in your browser.