Delete Your Account & Data

Last updated: June 8, 2026

We respect your right to control your personal data. This page explains how to delete your Gather account and what happens to your data.

About Gather accounts: Gather supports several ways to sign in. Your account is tied to whichever method(s) you used:

Email + password — your account is tied to the email address you registered with.
Sign in with Apple — your account is tied to an Apple-issued user ID. If you chose "Hide my email" during sign-in, the email we have on file is a private relay address ending in @privaterelay.appleid.com, not your real email.
Sign in with Google — your account is tied to your Google account (the email you used to sign in).
Guest — if you tapped "Continue as guest," your account has no email or password and is tied to a device-local credential. We can't look it up by email.

One account can have multiple sign-in methods linked together (for example, both Apple and email/password on the same uid). Deleting the account removes all of them at once.

How to Delete Your Account

Method 1: Delete from the App (Recommended)

Open the Gather app.
From the trips list, tap your profile avatar in the top right to open Settings.
Scroll to the bottom of Settings, to the Danger Zone section.
Tap Delete Account.
For accounts signed in with email/password or a social provider, you may be asked to confirm your identity (re-enter your password, or re-sign-in with Apple/Google) before the deletion can proceed. This protects against accidental or unauthorized deletion.
Read the warning in the dialog, then type DELETE in the confirmation field.
Tap Delete.
Your account and personal data are removed immediately, and you're signed out.

Method 2: Request Deletion via Email

If you've already uninstalled the app, email us at hello.gatherapp@outlook.com with:

Subject line: "Account Deletion Request"
Confirmation that you want to permanently delete your data
Enough information for us to find your account — see below

What we need to locate your account, by sign-in method:

Email + password: the email address you registered with.
Sign in with Google: the Google account email you used.
Sign in with Apple (real email shared): the email address you used.
Sign in with Apple ("Hide my email"): the private relay address (*@privaterelay.appleid.com) that received Gather emails — check your "Sign in with Apple" settings on your Apple device for the relay address. If you can't recover it, give us your approximate sign-up date plus the display name you used and we'll do our best to locate the account manually.
Guest account: we can't look it up by email — please include the display name you used, approximate trip creation date, and/or the shared link of a trip you joined.

We'll process requests within 30 days and reply with a confirmation. Requests that don't include enough information for us to identify your account will receive a follow-up asking for more context.

What Gets Deleted

When you tap Delete Account in the app, the following is removed immediately:

Your profile: display name, profile picture / avatar, payment handles, ETA and RSVP preferences
Your authentication record(s): the credentials for each sign-in method linked to your account — email/password, Sign in with Apple, Sign in with Google, or anonymous/guest — are deleted on the Firebase Auth side and on Gather's side. The deleted identity cannot be re-authenticated.
Your membership in trips: you are removed from the participant list of every trip you joined

If you used Sign in with Apple or Sign in with Google, your Apple ID or Google account itself is of course not affected — only the link between that account and Gather is severed. To stop Gather from appearing in the list of apps you've used those identities with, you can revoke access on Apple's or Google's account-management page after deletion completes.

What Remains (Anonymized)

Important: To keep trip records coherent for the other people you shared trips with, some of the content you created stays — but your identity is stripped from it.

The following remain in trips you participated in, labeled as "Deleted user" instead of your name, with a neutral grey avatar:

Bring list items: items you added or claimed
Expenses: payments you logged remain for accurate settlement between the other participants
Trip updates: messages you posted in the Updates feed
Organizer slot: if you created a trip, the trip stays available to the other participants with the organizer role shown as "Deleted user"

This ensures that:

Expense tracking remains accurate for other participants
Trip history and coordination records stay intact
Other users' data isn't affected by your deletion

Because all deleted accounts collapse to the same anonymous label, it is not possible to reconstruct which records belonged to you once deletion completes.

Trips You Organized

If you created trips:

The trip remains available to the other participants, with your organizer role shown as "Deleted user".
If you were the only participant, the trip becomes inactive — no one has access to it anymore.
We do not automatically reassign organizer status to another participant.

Deletion Timeline

Here's what happens when you tap Delete Account:

Immediate: your profile document, participant memberships, and authentication record(s) (for all linked sign-in methods) are deleted from the active database; the app signs you out and returns to the welcome screen.
Immediate: your content in shared trips (bring list, expenses, updates, organizer role) is anonymized to "Deleted user".
Within ~30 days: any copies in Firebase's automatic database backups expire per Google Cloud's retention policy and are no longer recoverable.

Data We May Retain

We may retain the following, all stripped of any personal identifiers:

Anonymized operational logs used to diagnose crashes or abuse
Aggregate, non-identifying usage counts (e.g., total trips created across all users)
Records we are legally required to keep, if any

Reactivation

Account deletion is permanent. You cannot undo it or recover your data. Signing in again with the same email, the same Apple ID, or the same Google account creates a fresh, separate account — your previous trips, profile, and content will not be associated with it.

If you want to use Gather again after deletion, you can sign in with any supported method — including the same email or social account you used before — and a new account will be created. Your old trips and content will not be accessible from it.

Questions or Issues?

If you have questions about account deletion or encounter any issues:

Email: hello.gatherapp@outlook.com

Response time: we typically respond within 2-3 business days

Your Rights

Under privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA, you have the right to:

Ask questions about how your data is used
Request deletion of your data (this page explains how)
File a complaint with a data protection authority

For more information about your privacy rights, see our Privacy Policy.