Privacy notice

Version 2026-10-29. Last updated October 29, 2026.

1. Who we are

PocketShare is operated by Parker Throneberry, an individual doing business as PocketShare (“we”). This notice explains what we collect when you create an account, rent phones or host phones, and what we do with it. Contact us at [email protected].

2. Visiting the websites and the waitlist

Visiting pocketshare.io or getpocketshare.com and joining the waitlist are described in our website privacy notice: Cloudflare connection data and its cookie-free analytics, waitlist records deleted 12 months after signup, abuse prevention counters, and the export kept from the former private pilot until October 2027.

Anyone can create an account: a sign-in email sent to an address without an account creates the account when its link or code is used (Google sign-in creates it at once). Nothing is kept for an unused sign-in email beyond the sign-in record described in section 3. While sign-up is invite-only (an operator setting), asking for a sign-in email without an account or an invitation instead adds your address to developer early access, as the sign-in page tells you before you send it; that record is kept like a waitlist signup (12 months).

3. What we collect when you use PocketShare

Your account

Email address, optional display name, your roles (renter, host) and account limits.
How you sign in: for Google sign-in, Google’s identifier for your account (not your Google password or profile). For email sign-in, a record of each sign-in email we send, holding your address and scrambled (hashed) forms of the link and code, deleted 24 hours after the link or code is used or expires. A link in an invitation email lasts as long as the invitation (up to 90 days), so that record is kept until 24 hours after the link is used or replaced or the invitation’s expiry date passes, even if the invitation is withdrawn.
Abuse prevention counters for the sign-in page and signing in, signing in the command-line tool, enrolling a hub and unsubscribing from emails. Each is stored under a scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address, or for sign-in emails your email address, with a count and a time. They aren’t linked to your account, but someone who already knows an IP or email address can check whether it was counted. Each is deleted about 25 hours after its counting period starts, so it lasts longer while that address keeps returning at least once a day.
A device check for the sign-up credit: when you create an account, your browser sends a scrambled (hashed) summary of its settings (browser version, language, time zone, screen size and similar). We combine it with the first part of your IP address and store only a second scrambled form, kept with your account, so we can give the $1 sign-up credit to at most three accounts per device. Neither the settings nor your IP address are stored, and the record isn’t used for anything else.
Signed-in sessions and API keys, stored only in hashed form, with the names you give keys. When you sign in the command-line tool, its request also holds a scrambled (hashed) form of the network it came from, so the approval page can warn you about a code started elsewhere; it is deleted a day after the request expires.
Which version of our terms you accepted, and when.
Apps you connect to your account through MCP sign-in (for example an AI assistant): the app’s name, website and the permissions you gave it, when you connected it and last used it, and hashed forms of its access tokens. Disconnecting an app revokes it; its record is deleted 12 months after you disconnect it or it was last used.
Your settings: email preferences, spending limits, AI agent limits.
Optional business details for receipts: business name, tax ID and address.

When you rent

Each rental: the phone, its host’s hub, start and end times, the price, how it ended and what it cost; how many bytes went through our relay each minute.
Your credit: purchases, charges, refunds, credits and payment disputes, with Stripe’s reference numbers. Card details are collected and held by Stripe, not by us.
Model requests (with any note you add) and “tell me when available” alerts.
A short record of what cleanup found on the phone after your rental: which apps and settings differed from the phone’s starting state. It can include your apps’ package names (for example com.example.myapp), never their data.

When you host

Your hubs: the name you give each, its platform, version, public key and when it was last seen; recent health reports (battery, temperature, charging, storage, connectivity).
Your phones: model, manufacturer, Android version, build and security patch level, a hashed form of the serial number (the serial never leaves your hub), setup check results, the apps and settings present when the phone was set up, prices and listing state, and their rental history.
Earnings and payouts, and your Stripe Connect account’s identifier and status. Stripe collects your identity, bank and tax details; we see only the account’s status.
A diagnostics bundle from your hub, only if you choose to send one. It contains no renter data.

Records of actions

An audit trail of important actions (for example a rental starting, a refund, an operator suspending an account), naming accounts by random identifier, not by email.

What we don’t collect

What renters do on phones. Apps, files, screenshots, screen video and logs pass through our relay while a rental runs and are never stored by us. They stay on the phone until cleanup removes them.
Readable IP addresses. Our servers’ logs record events, not who you are, and our database stores no IP address as such; the only IP-based records are the hashed abuse prevention counters and the hashed sign-up device check above. Our edge providers process connection data (section 6).
The rented phone’s own internet traffic (section 5).

4. How we use it

To run the Service: sign you in, rent and connect phones, run cleanup, bill, credit and pay out, and send the emails the Service needs (sign-in, receipts, rental and host notices). You can turn off the emails that aren’t required in account settings or with the unsubscribe link in each.
To keep it safe: limit new accounts, prevent fraud and abuse, investigate reports, and enforce our terms.
To support you and answer your requests.
To plan supply: model requests and demand counts help us recruit hosts with the phones developers need.
To improve the Service from aggregate measurements (counts, durations, error rates) that don’t identify you.
To meet legal obligations, such as keeping financial records.

We don’t sell personal data, and we don’t use it for advertising.

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, our legal bases are: contract (running the Service for you), legitimate interests (security, abuse prevention and improving the Service), legal obligation (financial records) and consent (where we ask for it).

5. What hosts and renters can see

Renters’ identities are not shared with hosts, and hosts’ identities are not shared with renters. Hosts see the rentals of their phones (times, minutes, earnings, cleanup results), not who rented.
Hosts can physically see their phones. A rented phone’s screen is visible to anyone near it. Use test data and test accounts only.
During the beta, apps on a rented phone reach the internet through the host’s network. The host’s internet provider and network can observe that traffic like any other device on the host’s network. PocketShare doesn’t carry or record it.
Cleanup removes what a renter added after each rental. It is designed for test use, not forensic erasure.

Service providers that process data for us: Stripe (payments, payouts, tax), Resend (email delivery: your address and whether the email was delivered), Google (if you sign in with Google), Cloudflare (website delivery and protection, which involves your IP address and the pages you request).
Authorities, when the law requires it and only with valid legal process, except in an emergency involving risk of death or serious injury. We tell affected users unless the law or the emergency prevents it.
A successor, if PocketShare’s business is transferred, under this notice’s protections.
Anyone else only with your permission.

7. How long we keep it

Data	Kept
Your account and settings	While your account exists
Sign-in emails and codes	Up to 24 hours after use or expiry
Signed-in sessions	Until 30 days after they expire or are revoked
Revoked or expired API keys	12 months
Connected apps (MCP sign-in)	12 months after you disconnect them or they were last used
Rentals, charges, credit, purchases, refunds, disputes, payouts	7 years (financial records)
Per-minute relay byte counts	24 months after the rental
Cleanup records naming renter apps	30 days; 12 months if cleanup failed and the phone is reviewed
Audit trail	24 months; 7 years for money and account deletion events
Model requests	24 months
Availability alerts	30 days after sent or cancelled
Emails we sent (our record, without your address)	90 days
Hub and phone health reports	The latest one, cleared after 30 days
Server logs	30 days
Hub diagnostics bundles	30 days after the support case closes
Backups	30 days

8. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in account settings, or ask us at [email protected]. You get a warning listing what will be removed, and 14 days to change your mind. Then we refund unused credit you bought by card, revoke all access, delete your sign-in methods, API keys, hubs, settings, requests and alerts, and replace your email address with a random identifier.

We keep the records the law or our books require (rentals, charges, payments, payouts and audit records), linked only to that random identifier. Inside PocketShare it no longer leads to you, but Stripe still holds the payment records it is required to keep. Backups age out within 30 days, and a restored backup has deletions reapplied before it is used.

9. Your choices and rights

See and download your data: account settings → Export gives you your account, rentals, credit, purchases, settings and, for hosts, hubs, phones, their rentals and payouts, as JSON.
Correct it: change your details in account settings, or ask us.
Delete it: section 8.
Email: turn off optional emails in settings or with the link in each email.
Other rights. Depending on where you live (for example in the EU, the UK or some U.S. states), you may have rights to access, correct, delete or port your data, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to appeal our answer. Email [email protected]; we answer within 30 days and may ask you to confirm the request from the email address on your account. You can also complain to your data protection authority.

10. Security

Sign-in links and codes, sessions, API keys and hub credentials are stored only in hashed form; hubs sign every request with their own key; access to phones lasts only for a rental and ends within seconds; connections are encrypted in transit. No system is perfectly secure. Tell us at [email protected] if you find a problem.

11. Cookies and browser storage

We use two cookies, both needed for the Service: __Host-pocketshare-v2 keeps you signed in, and __Host-pocketshare-v2-login ties a sign-in code to the browser that asked for it. The web app keeps a few settings in your browser’s storage (theme, live view quality, and a one-time sign-up message). We don’t use advertising or third-party tracking cookies.

12. Children

PocketShare is for people aged 18 and over. We don’t knowingly collect data from children.

13. Where data is processed

Our servers are in the United States (Texas). Our providers may process data in other countries under their own safeguards.

14. Changes

We’ll update this notice when our data handling changes and show the version date above. We’ll tell account holders about material changes by email before they apply.