Beer Vault

Privacy policy

Last updated 19 October 2026.

Beer Vault is made by Pikeworks, a sole trader in Northern Ireland. This is what the app keeps, what leaves your phone, and why. The short version: your log and your photos live on your phone, and if you sign in to a Pikeworks account, a private copy of them is kept with it so you can get them back. A Pikeworks account and friends are optional and off until you choose them, and nothing you share with friends says how much you drank or how strong it was.

What stays on your phone

Your beers, check-ins, ratings, tasting notes, venues, photos, flavour tags, your ranking, your want to try list, badges and settings are kept in the app's private storage on your phone. Without an account none of it is sent anywhere. Signed in, a private copy is kept with your account for you to bring back, as described under Cloud backup below; it never goes to friends.

A backup file or a CSV export is only made when you tap to make one, and it goes wherever you choose to send it. Importing an Untappd export reads the file on your phone.

Looking things up

When you scan a barcode or search for a beer, the barcode or the words you typed are sent to Open Food Facts to find the product. When you type a brewery name, it's sent to Open Brewery DB to suggest a match. Both are free public databases. They receive what you searched for and, like any website, your IP address. Nothing else is sent with it.

Your Pikeworks account, if you make one

You don't need an account to use Beer Vault. Without one, everything stays on your phone and the app works fully. A Pikeworks account is one sign-in for every Vault app, and you choose whether to make one, in Settings.

If you make one, the Pikeworks account service keeps:

• the email address you sign in with, if you use one, stored encrypted, with a scrambled copy so it can be found when you sign in;
• if you sign in with Google or Apple, the account number they give me, and with Apple a token I keep only so I can tell Apple when you delete your account. If you use Apple's Hide My Email, I only ever see the hidden address;
• your password, if you set one, scrambled so it can't be read back, not even by me;
• the public half of any passkey you make (the private half never leaves your phone);
• which phones and apps are signed in: the app, the kind of phone, and when each was last used;
• a short security log of sign-ins and changes to the account, which for 30 days also holds a scrambled tag made from your internet address, to slow down anyone guessing passwords.

I use these only to run the account you asked for and to keep it secure. Keeping it secure is a legitimate interest; running it is what you asked me to do. I never sell any of it, never use it for marketing, and never send you anything but sign-in codes and notices about your own account, such as a new way in being added.

Who handles it for me: Cloudflare runs the service and stores it in the European Union. Sign-in codes and notices are sent by Resend, which keeps the messages it sends in the United States under its data processing agreement, protected by the standard contractual clauses and the UK's addendum to them, and by Cloudflare's own email service. Cloudflare and Resend are companies in the United States.

How long I keep it: for as long as you have the account. A phone that hasn't used it for 18 months is signed out. If nobody signs in to the account for 24 months, I email you once, and delete it 30 days later unless you sign in. The security log is kept for 12 months. When you delete the account, everything above goes at once, and it is gone from my backups within 30 days.

Deleting it: in any Vault app, open Settings, then Pikeworks account, then Delete account. You can also do it on the web, from pikeworks.co.uk/delete-account, or by emailing beervault@pikeworks.co.uk. Your entries on your phone stay where they are.

Your rights: you can ask for a copy of what the account holds, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, or object to how it's used, by emailing beervault@pikeworks.co.uk. Where the account has an email address, the copy is sent to that address as a file, so it only reaches you. I reply within a month. If you want to complain about how I handle your information, write to the same address: I'll say within 30 days that I have it, and what happens next. If you're still unhappy, you can go to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

The account isn't for anyone under 13.

Cloud backup, while you're signed in

While you're signed in to your Pikeworks account, Beer Vault keeps a copy of everything you've logged in it with your account, so you can get it back on a new phone or have it on another one. The copy is the same as Beer Vault's own backup file: everything you've logged, with any photos. It's saved by itself a minute or so after you change something, and only while you're signed in. Signed out, nothing is saved.

Only you can reach it: the copy is read only by Beer Vault, signed in to your account. I don't look at it or use it for anything else, and it never goes to friends. Cloudflare stores it for me in the European Union, in storage that isn't public. Cloudflare is a company in the United States.

One copy is kept, the newest. On a new phone, Beer Vault offers to bring it back when you sign in; what's on that phone stays, and the copy is added to it. If you use two phones, each adds the other's entries before it saves.

Deleting it: in Beer Vault, open Settings and use Delete the cloud copy. Everything on your phone stays. Deleting your Pikeworks account deletes every app's copy at once. Either way it's gone straight away; I keep no other copy of it.

Friends, if you turn them on

Friends is optional, and it's off until you turn it on. It needs a Pikeworks account. With it on, you can add people you know by their handle, a link or a QR code, see what they choose to share, and react and comment. Nobody can search for you, nothing suggests you to anyone, there are no public profiles, and nothing can be reshared. You can have up to 200 friends.

Every app starts private. Nothing from Beer Vault reaches anyone until you say so in Beer Vault, and then only the entries you switch sharing on for when you save them. A note starts switched off every time, and so does anything that says where you were.

If you turn friends on, the friends service keeps:

• your handle, and a display name if you add one. Your picture is drawn from a random pattern; you can't upload one;
• your invite code, which version of the community rules you agreed to, for each app whether it's shared with friends or private and whether you want a notice when a friend posts, and which app gets notices about friend requests;
• your friends, the friend requests you've sent and received, and the people you've blocked;
• the posts you share: what the share screen showed for that entry, such as its name and your rating, and only if you switched them on, a note, a photo or where it was;
• the comments and reactions you add;
• notices for you, such as a friend accepting your request or commenting on your post;
• in apps with friends tables, a few numbers for this year worked out from your log, such as how many different things you've logged, and for some tables the name of your top entry. The log itself never leaves your phone for this;
• for each phone that gets friends notifications: an identifier that Google's Firebase, or Apple, gives that phone for Beer Vault, whether it's Android or iPhone, and the phone's time zone, so notices arrive quietly at night;
• photos you share. Your phone makes a copy 1,080 pixels across and takes out everything the camera recorded, such as where and when it was taken, and the service turns away any photo that still has those details;
• any report you make, and if someone reports something of yours, a copy of what they reported, kept so that deleting it doesn't destroy the evidence;
• a record of anything I do about a report, such as taking something down or switching friends off for an account. If an account is barred from friends for good, I also keep the Google or Apple account number it signed in with and a scrambled fingerprint of its email address (never the address itself), so the same sign-in can't come back to friends on a new account.

Beer Vault also keeps a copy of what you've seen in friends on your phone, so it works without signal. That copy is kept apart from your log, isn't included in your phone's backup or the app's backup file, and is wiped when you sign out.

Who sees what: your friends see your posts from Beer Vault, and where you come in Beer Vault's tables, while Beer Vault is shared with friends and neither of you has blocked the other. Set Beer Vault back to private and they stop seeing them, without anything being deleted. Comments and reactions are seen with the post they're on, by the person whose post it is and by their friends who can see it. Some of them may not be your friends, so they see your handle, your display name and what you added. Someone you send a friend request to sees your handle and display name. Anyone with your invite link or QR code can send you a request; the link carries a code, not your handle, and making a new link stops the old one working. Handles, display names, posts and comments are checked automatically against a list of words that aren't allowed, and a display name can't hold a web address. Nothing else is read unless it is reported, and then I read it myself.

I use all this to run friends, which you asked for when you turned it on, and to keep it safe, which is a legitimate interest. When the law requires me to report something, as it does for anything that puts a child at risk, I do so because of that legal duty. I never sell any of it and never use it for marketing.

Who handles it for me: Cloudflare runs the friends service and stores what it holds, photos included, in the European Union. Notifications go through Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging and, for iPhones, Apple's push service. Each one carries the app's name and one plain line saying who did what, with the title of the post it is about cut to 40 characters, such as "Sam commented on your Neck Oil": never a note, a comment, anything else anyone wrote, or a photo. Where Firebase is used on your phone, it starts only when you turn friends on, with its analytics off. When something is reported, a private Discord channel gets a one-line alert with the kind of report, the app, the reason and a reference number, never a handle or what was written. Cloudflare, Google, Apple and Discord are companies in the United States. Friends never sends email, so Resend, which sends the account's sign-in codes, handles none of it. If something shared puts a child at risk, I report it to the National Crime Agency, as UK law requires, with the details of the account that shared it.

How long I keep it: for as long as you have the account, except where it says otherwise here.

• A photo on a post is deleted after 90 days, and the post stays, saying the photo is no longer shared. A photo that isn't added to a post within a day is deleted.
• Notices are kept for 60 days, and only this year's table numbers are kept.
• A friend request nobody answers lapses after 30 days.
• A phone's notification identifier goes when you sign out on that phone, or when the phone hasn't refreshed it for 30 days.
• When you change your handle, the old one is held for you for 30 days.
• Something taken down for breaking the rules is deleted 30 days later, and its photo straight away.
• Something reported is kept, where nobody in the app can see it, until the report is dealt with, even if it is deleted or its 90 days pass. A report is kept for a year after it is closed, and the record of what I did about it for a year.
• Anything reported because it may put a child at risk is kept until I have looked at it, even if it is deleted. If it is child abuse, I report it to the National Crime Agency, as the law requires, and it is kept for a year from the day I send that report, with what the law calls relevant data about the account that shared it: its posts, comments, photos, fish handed over, sessions and friend connections from the two weeks before. Then it is deleted unless the Agency asks me to keep it longer. The Agency's reference number for my report is kept for five years. If it is not child abuse, it is let go that night.
• A bar from friends for good is kept after the account is deleted, because that is its purpose.

Whatever is deleted is gone from my backups within 30 days.

Block and Report: every post, comment, friend and friend request has Block and Report, and so does everything else friends lets someone send you. Blocking someone works in every Vault at once. It ends the friendship, cancels your requests to them, and hides your posts, comments, reactions, notices and table rows from each other. They aren't told, and a request from them never reaches you. You can unblock someone under Blocked in Friends; that doesn't bring the friendship back. I read every report myself and aim to do it within a day, and the person you report is never told who reported them. Anything reported as putting a child at risk is hidden straight away, and anything three people report is hidden until I've looked at it. Breaking the rules can mean what you shared is taken down, and friends switched off for your account for 7 days, 30 days or for good; your own log and backups aren't touched.

Deleting it: you can delete any post or comment of yours, and any comment on your own posts, at any time. Deleting your Pikeworks account, as above, deletes everything friends holds about you too: your profile, friends, requests, blocks, posts, comments, reactions, notices, numbers and photos. Reports about you are closed and their copies deleted, apart from anything held because it may put a child at risk. Reports you made stay open, with your account taken off them, so what you reported is still looked at. Your handle is freed 30 days later.

Your rights: the rights described for the account cover friends too. Email beervault@pikeworks.co.uk to ask for a copy of what friends holds about you, to have it corrected or deleted, or to object to how it's used.

Friends isn't for anyone under 13, or under 18 in an app that is for adults.

What a check-in shared with friends carries

A check-in only goes to friends when you switch Tell friends on as you save it, and that switch starts off every time. It carries the beer's name, the brewery, its style, your stars and the product picture from Open Food Facts if there is one. Your note, your first photo and the name of the venue you typed go only if you switch each one on for that check-in. Never how much you drank, its strength or how it was served, and never your flavour tags, detailed marks or other photos: the app doesn't even read them to make a post, and the service drops anything of the kind a post could carry. A venue is the name you typed, never a location.

Beer Vault's tables show the number of different beers each of you has had this year, and each person's best-rated beer this year, with its name. Your phone works those out from your log and sends only those numbers and the name. There is never a table of how much anyone drank.

The old Vault Social, which has closed

Earlier versions of Beer Vault ran friends on Vault Social, an older service I ran on a server in the United Kingdom, with an account made from a handle rather than an email address. Friends now run on your Pikeworks account instead, and nothing is moved across from an old Vault Social account: not its handle, its friends or its posts.

Until it was deleted on 19 October 2026, the old service held what it kept for anyone who turned it on in an earlier version:

• a handle, made up for you and changeable, and a display name or short bio if you add one;
• a sign-in key for each phone, stored only in a scrambled form that can't be turned back into the key, with the phone's operating system version and the date it last signed in;
• a scrambled copy of your recovery phrase, if you make one;
• for each new check-in: the beer's name, the brewery, its style, strength and how it was served, your rating, the product picture from Open Food Facts if there is one, and two things only if you switched them on for that check-in: your note and the name of the venue you typed (photos were never stored there);
• the list of beers you've rated, with your rating, so friends can compare;
• your friends, requests and blocks, and the reactions and comments you add;
• any report you make, and, if someone reports you, a copy of what was reported until it has been dealt with;
• whether you've bought Beer Vault Pro, so friends see a small ring on your picture;
• if you signed in with Google or Apple, the account number it gave the service, and with Apple a sealed token used only to end that link;
• a notification address for each phone, from Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android or Apple's Push Notification service on iPhone, used only to tell you when a friend reacts, comments or adds you. It is removed when you sign out or delete the account.

Your internet address was used there to stop abuse, such as mass sign-ups, and kept for two days.

It was switched off on 10 October 2026. On 19 October 2026 every account on it and everything in them was deleted, its backups included. There's nothing you need to do: see an old Vault Social account.

Feedback you send

If you write to me from the "Tell me what you think" box in Settings, what you type is sent to the Pikeworks server along with the app version, whether you are on Android or iPhone, and the model of phone, so I do not have to ask. If you leave its "Send this picture of the screen" switch on, it also carries a picture of the screen as it was when you opened the feedback box, so I can see what you saw; turn the switch off and no picture goes. That is all that goes: not your account, no identifier, and nothing from your log.

The email address is optional and is only there so I can write back. If you leave it out I have no way of knowing who sent it. It goes to the Pikeworks feedback service, which runs on Cloudflare and keeps what you send in the European Union; Cloudflare is a company in the United States. Your IP address is used to stop abuse and is never stored. A copy of the message is posted to a private Discord channel that only I can read, so I see it on my phone straight away; Discord is a company in the United States. Feedback is kept until it has been dealt with, and deleted within six months after that, Discord copy included. You can ask for yours to be deleted sooner using the address below.

Purchases

Beer Vault Pro and each of the app's looks are one-off purchases through Google Play or the App Store. RevenueCat checks the purchase. It isn't told about your Pikeworks account. It receives an anonymous app user ID and the purchase receipt, along with basic details such as the app's version, so it can confirm what you bought and restore it on another phone. It also shows me totals of what has been bought. I never see your name, email address or payment details. RevenueCat's policy is at revenuecat.com/privacy.

Permissions

Beer Vault asks for the camera to scan barcodes and take photos of your beer, and only when you tap to do that. Photos stay on your phone and in your private cloud copy if you're signed in, and go to friends only when you switch on sharing one for a check-in. It doesn't ask for your location or contacts, and it doesn't ask to show notifications.

On Android, scanning a barcode or a friend's code uses Google's ML Kit, which reads the code on the phone and doesn't send what you scan. When the scanner is used, ML Kit sends Google some technical details: the phone's model and Android version, the app's name and version, a random number for this installation, and how well the scanner worked. Google uses them to keep ML Kit working and to measure how it's used. On iPhone, the phone's own scanner is used.

Age

Beer Vault is about alcohol and is for adults. It isn't aimed at children, and friends in Beer Vault aren't for anyone under 18.

Deleting your information

Uninstalling Beer Vault deletes everything it stored on your phone, including your photos. Deleting your Pikeworks account deletes the account, its cloud copy and everything friends holds about you, as described above, and it's gone from my backups within 30 days. Do it in More, then Pikeworks account, then Delete account, or on the web from pikeworks.co.uk/delete-account, without installing anything. Deleting the account doesn't touch your log on your phone. For an old Vault Social account, see the section above.

Your rights

For your Pikeworks account, its cloud copy, friends and anything you've sent me, you can ask for a copy, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, or object to how it's used, by emailing the address below, and complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes and the new version replaces this one.

Contact

Email me at beervault@pikeworks.co.uk.