Last updated: September 2026
This Privacy Policy explains what Onlooker (“we”, “us”) collects when you use the Onlooker app and website, why we collect it, who it is shared with, and the control you have over it. Onlooker is a peer-to-peer platform where people post paid requests for live photos and video and other people fulfil them. Using the app means you accept this policy and our Terms of Service.
When you create an account we collect your email address, an encrypted authentication credential (password hash) or a Google sign-in identifier, your chosen display name, and an optional profile photo. We also store your account creation date, sign-in timestamps and the device/browser type used, for security and fraud prevention.
If you earn or spend money on the platform we store wallet balances, bounty amounts, boost contributions, payout requests and transaction history. Card details are never stored by Onlooker; card payments are processed by our payment provider under its own privacy terms.
Onlooker is not intended for children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country) and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
What we collect. With your permission, the app reads your device’s precise location (GPS) to show the map centred on you, to list nearby bounty requests by distance, to place the pin for a request you post, and to verify that a fulfiller is physically at the requested location when they submit media (geofence check).
When we collect it. Location is read only while the app is open and in use. Onlooker does not track your location in the background and does not build a continuous movement history of you.
What is shared. The location attached to a request or an uploaded capture is visible to the other party in that transaction and can appear as an approximate area or place name in the public feed. Your live position is never shown to other users.
Your control. You may refuse or revoke the location permission at any time in your device settings. The app remains usable, but map centring, distance sorting and geofence-verified submissions will not work.
Fulfilling a bounty requires camera access, and video capture requires microphone access. Media is captured only when you actively start a capture; the app does not record silently or in the background.
Photos and videos you submit are uploaded to our secure cloud storage together with the request they belong to, your user ID, the capture time, an auto-generated thumbnail image and the associated bounty amount. Media files are stored in a private bucket and are served only through short-lived signed links to people entitled to view them, or to anyone you deliberately send a share link to.
You keep ownership of your media. You grant us the licence described in the Terms of Service purely so we can store, process and display it inside the platform. We may review content reported as unlawful or unsafe and remove it.
We use the data above to operate accounts and sign-in, match requests with nearby fulfillers, verify that captures were taken at the right place, process bounties, boosts and payouts, calculate ratings and the Top Reporters ranking, provide customer support, detect abuse and fraud, and meet our legal obligations. We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use your location or media for advertising or third-party profiling.
We share only what is necessary with service providers that run the platform on our behalf: our cloud database, authentication and storage provider; our payment processor for top-ups and payouts; and error/analytics tooling that receives technical diagnostics. These providers are bound to use the data only to deliver their service to us.
We may disclose data where legally required by valid legal process, or where necessary to protect the rights, safety or property of users or the public. If Onlooker is acquired or merged, account data may transfer to the successor entity under this policy.
Account and transaction records are kept for as long as your account exists and afterwards only as required for tax, accounting, dispute or legal purposes. Bounty media is retained indefinitely so you and the requester can replay past captures, unless you delete it. Once deleted, a video, its thumbnail and its database record are removed from active storage and purged from backups on our normal backup cycle.
Data is transmitted over encrypted HTTPS connections and stored with encryption at rest. Access rules at the database level restrict every record to the users entitled to it, and media is kept in a private bucket reachable only via expiring signed links. No system can be guaranteed perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password.
You can view and edit your name and profile photo, delete individual bounty videos, and delete your entire account from your profile settings. Deleting your account removes your profile, uploaded media and location records associated with you, other than records we must retain by law.
Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR or the CCPA/CPRA) you may also request a copy of your data, ask us to correct or erase it, object to or restrict certain processing, and lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. We do not sell or share personal information as those laws define the terms. Contact us to exercise any of these rights.
Location (precise, while in use) — map centring, nearby request distances, pin placement, geofence verification of captures.
Camera — capturing the photo or video that fulfils a bounty request.
Microphone — recording audio as part of a bounty video.
Photos / storage — saving or selecting a profile photo where you choose to.
Each permission is requested at the moment it is needed and can be declined or later revoked in your device settings.
We will update this policy when our practices change and will revise the date at the top. Material changes will be announced in the app. Questions or privacy requests can be sent to our support address listed on the app store listing.
See also our Terms of Service.