Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 5, 2026

This policy describes how MyTeaPal LLC (“MyTeaPal”, “we”, “us”) collects and uses personal information for:

the MyTeaPal website (myteapal.com)
the MyTeaPal app for iPhone and Android (App Store and Google Play)
MyTeaPal Club, the tea subscription billed on the website and used in the app
the tea directory on the website: teahouses, tea festivals, the tea towns and farms on Tea Origins, and what you save, review, and plan there
tea events on the website: MyTeaPal's own events, online and in person, such as Tea Club tastings and tea meetups, that you can RSVP to

MyTeaPal LLC is a North Carolina limited liability company. Questions and privacy requests: hello@myteapal.com.

The app is a tea companion: a private library of teas and teaware, brew logs and a brewing timer, statistics, and a community (friends, a feed, Daily Tea, and Club). You can browse some public community surfaces as a guest without an account. Saving a library, posting, and Club membership require an account. One Firebase account is shared across the app and the website.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not create an account.

Information we collect

Account

When you register we collect name, email address, password, handle (MyTeaPal ID), and optional profile photo and bio. We store preferences you set in the app (units, language, water type, review and infusion templates, streak counters). Email verification and password reset go through Firebase Auth.

Personal library (app)

Your teas, teaware, vendors, ingredients, saved brewing styles, collections, quantities, ratings, notes, steeping notes, photos, and related metadata live in your account. Brew logs (infusions, leaf weight, water, teaware used, tags, reviews) are private unless you choose to publish a post from a log. Club members can export tea, teaware, and log data as CSV from the app, and may use extra library features (collections, multiple photos, editing a log’s date).

Community

Posts, photos, comments, likes, friend requests, friends lists, and block lists. A post can be private (only you), TeaPals (friends), Daily Tea (a public community surface, including to guests and on the website), or linked to a Club tea (shown with that tea on the website). Author name and avatar on a post are a snapshot from when it was written. Other members can find your profile by searching your exact handle.

Tea directory (website)

The directory lists teahouses and tea festivals. Their details are business information from public sources and from the businesses themselves. Tea Origins lists the tea towns and farms teas come from, from public sources. When you use them signed in, we store:

Saved places (teahouses, and tea towns and farms on Tea Origins), and the places you follow. Only you see these.
Places you check in at: a private visit history, one entry per check-in with its date, or the month you give for a past visit, and, at a tea town, the part of it you name if you choose one. Nobody else sees it. Each teahouse, tea town and farm shows only how many people have been, never who or when. We don't ask for your location, and a check-in is your word. You can remove a visit, or all your visits to a place, at any time.
Reviews of teahouses and festivals. A teahouse review is one per place, with your star rating (an overall rating, and any details you chose to rate), text, teas, tags, and the month you visited. A festival review is one per festival for each year you went, with your star rating (an overall rating, and any of the lineup, environment, learning, and value you chose to rate) and text; you can write one only after marking that you went that year, and after confirming that you are 18 or older. A published review is public, shown with your name and avatar as they were when you last wrote or edited it, and a festival review also shows the year you went. The owner of a claimed teahouse can reply. If a review is reported, we may hide it: it is then no longer public, and while it is hidden you cannot edit or delete it yourself (email us). We can restore it. When a review is deleted, by you or with your account, the star ratings shown for that teahouse or festival are recalculated without it.
Festival "Going" and "Interested": the festivals you mark as going or interested, the days you plan to go if you pick them, an optional note, and who may see it (only you, your TeaPals, or everyone signed in). Each festival shows a public count of how many people are going and interested; who they are is shown only as described here. To be seen by everyone signed in you confirm that you are 18 or older; you are then shown to every signed-in user who has a verified email, whether or not they are going themselves or have answered that question. Visitors who are not signed in see only the counts. Your TeaPals see you either way if you choose them. Blocks and reports of other attendees are stored too. Earlier choices of "other attendees" now work as "everyone signed in".
Festivals you went to ("I went"): each festival year you mark as attended and, if you pick them, the days you went. Only you see this record. Each festival shows a public count of how many people went, never who. If you also choose who may see that you went (only you, your TeaPals, or everyone signed in), that choice is kept with your Going record and works as described above. You can change the days or remove the mark at any time; removing it does not remove a review you wrote.
What you send us: suggestions, corrections, closure reports, claims of a listing (with your role and any contact you give us to confirm it), reports of a review, and feedback from the "Something wrong? Tell us" link, which includes the address of the page you were on. We review each one; it is linked to your account. If we approve a claim, your account is recorded as that listing's owner.

During a preview, the directory may sit behind a shared password; your browser then keeps a cookie that only records that the password was entered.

Tea events (website)

Tea events are run by MyTeaPal: Tea Club tastings, tea meetups and other tea events, online or in person. When you RSVP to one, we store:

Your RSVP: Going or Interested, when you answered, and who may see that you are going (only you, your TeaPals, or everyone signed in). For an event that needs the host's approval, we also store an optional one-line note to the host and whether the host approved you. After the event, the host may mark whether you came. A host may also write down the names of people who came without a MyTeaPal account; only the host and the MyTeaPal team see those names, and they are used only for the event's attendance.
Your answer that you are 18 or older, for in-person events and to be seen by everyone signed in. It is the same answer festival Going uses, so you give it once.

What the host sees. The host of an event sees your name, @handle, avatar, your answer and your note. The host never sees your email address.

Who else sees you. Everyone sees how many people are going and, once the host records it, how many went. Only confirmed guests are listed (Going, and approved by the host when the event needs approval), and you choose who else sees that you're going: your TeaPals, everyone signed in, or only you. To be seen by everyone signed in you confirm that you are 18 or older; you are then shown to every signed-in user who has a verified email, whether or not they are going to the event. If the host keeps the exact address private, a first answer starts at Just my TeaPals and the exact address goes only to confirmed guests. Visitors who are not signed in see only the counts. They see your name, @handle, avatar and profile bio, never your note to the host or your email address. Guests can see each other for 30 days after the event. Blocks and reports of other guests are stored too.

If an event is full. You can join its waitlist. We store when you joined, to keep your place in line. Only the host and the MyTeaPal team see the waitlist; when a spot opens, the next person moves up to Going automatically and we email them.

If you came without an RSVP. After an event, the host may record that you came even if you didn't RSVP. We then keep that record on your account, and your TeaPals can see that you went in the event's "Who went" list for 30 days. You can change that to only you on the event page at any time during those 30 days.

Emails about the event. We email you a reminder 24 hours and 1 hour before an event you are going to, and again if the event's time, place or meeting link changes or the event is canceled. If the host has to approve guests, we also email you their decision. These emails are part of the RSVP; to stop them, remove your RSVP.

Weekly reminders for a Tea Club series. If you choose "Remind me every week" on a series page, we store that you follow the series and private codes for the links in its emails. The day before each tasting you aren't already going to, we email you with a link to say you're going, which shows you only to yourself in Who's going unless you change it. Following isn't an RSVP: it puts you on no guest list and in no count. Every email has a link to stop, and deleting your account deletes your follows.

Meeting links and hidden addresses. An online event's meeting link, and the exact address of an in-person event whose host chose to hide it, are shown only to guests whose RSVP is confirmed: Going, and approved by the host when the event needs approval. They are not on the public event page or in calendar files.

Reports. If you report an event, we store the report and link it to your account so we can review it.

Club and checkout (website, used by the app)

Plan, shipping address, phone when a carrier requires it, and payment processed by Stripe. We do not store full card numbers. Club membership also unlocks some app features described above.

Trip inquiries (website)

If you ask us to help plan a tea trip to China, the form emails us your name, email address, passport country, where and when you'd like to go, how long, your group size, what you tell us about the trip and any optional details you add. We use it to reply with suggestions and, if you book a call, to plan your trip with you. We keep it in our email. Our database keeps a record of the trip itself, without your name, email address or anything you wrote: your passport country, where and when you'd like to go, how long, your group size, budget band and interests, which of our pages you came from, whether you ticked the box for tea travel emails, and, if you're signed in, your account. We use that record to see which trips people plan, and when. With your consent on the form, we may contact local hosts in China about availability, sharing only your travel dates and group size. Your name and contact details go to a host only when we introduce you, and the hosts are independent of MyTeaPal. The form also asks, optionally, how you heard about us (and who referred you, so we can thank them), and notes which of our pages you came from and any campaign tags in the page address. If you tick the box for our tea travel emails, which is unticked to start with and optional, we add your email address to a Brevo list used only for tea travel emails; you can unsubscribe from them at any time. Ask us at hello@myteapal.com to delete your inquiry.

Marketing email

Emails captured on Club coupon forms, plus unsubscribe state. Creating an app account can also add you to our email list (Brevo); you can unsubscribe from those messages.

Device permissions (app, optional)

The app asks only when you use the feature:

Camera and photo library — pictures of tea or teaware, and post images.
Contacts — to invite people from your address book. Matching happens on your device. We do not upload your address book to our servers.
Notifications — an optional local daily brewing reminder. The reminder time and on/off state are stored on the device. We use your timezone to schedule it.
Microphone — the system prompt exists because the timer plays audio; we do not record your voice.

You can refuse any of these; the rest of the app still works.

Diagnostics and usage

App crashes and non-fatal errors go to Firebase Crashlytics (we attach your user id after you sign in so we can debug). Website errors go to Sentry. Both the app and website send Firebase Analytics / GA4 events (for example sign-in, and whether you allowed contacts during onboarding). The website also uses Vercel Analytics. We may see device and browser type, app version, OS, coarse location from IP, screens or pages viewed, and similar diagnostics. The brewing timer may keep the screen awake while it runs; that stays on the device.

Guest use still hits our servers for public Daily Tea and similar reads; we do not create a full account until you register.

How we use it

We use this information to run the app, website, and Club: keep your library and brew logs, operate the timer and statistics, fan posts out to friends’ feeds, show Daily Tea and Club-tea posts, process Club subscriptions and ship boxes, answer trip inquiries, send transactional email (security, tracking), send marketing email you can unsubscribe from, moderate community surfaces, diagnose crashes, and understand how the product is used so we can improve it. Remote Config is used for things like Club whitelist membership and minimum app version.

Processors we use

We share personal information with companies that help us operate, only as needed for their role:

Google Firebase — authentication, Firestore, Storage, Cloud Functions, Analytics (GA4), Crashlytics, and Remote Config. Firebase privacy
Stripe — Club checkout, subscriptions, and the billing portal. Stripe privacy
Brevo — transactional and marketing email. Deleting your user document removes the linked Brevo contact. Brevo privacy
Vercel — website hosting and analytics. Vercel privacy
Sentry — website error monitoring. Sentry privacy
Tidio — optional on-site chat when that widget is enabled. Tidio privacy
Apple and Google — if you download the app from the App Store or Google Play, those stores process install and account data under their own policies.
Carriers and customs brokers — name, shipping address, phone, and parcel details so we can deliver Club boxes (including fulfillment from China and EU routing via the Netherlands).

We do not sell personal information.

Cookies and on-device storage

The website asks before anything beyond strictly necessary storage runs. Necessary covers what keeps you signed in (Firebase Auth), remembers that you dismissed the coupon offer, and, while the tea directory is in preview, remembers that you entered its password — this can't be turned off. Analytics (Firebase Analytics / GA4) and Chat & Support (Tidio, when enabled) only load after you opt in. Once you accept Analytics, Firebase Analytics links the website's events to your account id (not your name or email) while you are signed in. Vercel Analytics is cookieless and runs regardless of your choice. Change your choice any time from the "Cookie preferences" link in the site footer. The app stores local preferences (for example reminder time, units) with the OS. The site does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Retention and deletion

We keep account and library data while your account is open, and billing and shipping records as long as tax, accounting, or dispute rules require. If you unsubscribe from marketing email, we keep the address on a suppression list so we do not email you again.

You can delete your account in the app settings. That removes Firebase Auth access to the account, and with it your tea directory data: saved places, follows, visit history, the festivals you went to, your teahouse and festival reviews, Going and Interested, any listing ownership, and the suggestions, corrections, claims, review reports, and feedback you sent through the directory. Changes we already made to listings or festival lineups from your suggestions stay. Your event RSVPs and notes to hosts are removed too. If you host MyTeaPal events, your host profile is removed, and your upcoming events pass to the MyTeaPal team and go ahead without your name on them. Reports you make about another festival attendee or about an event, or that others make about you, are kept for moderation. Posts you already made public, shared with friends, or linked to Club teas may remain as they appeared (name and avatar frozen at the time). If you need a library export before deleting, use the app’s export while you still have Club access, or email us.

Your choices

In the app you can edit profile, change password, manage friends and blocks, set post visibility, turn the daily reminder off, and delete the account. On the website you can manage Club billing through Stripe’s portal. Unsubscribe from marketing email via the link in those messages. To request access or deletion of personal information, email hello@myteapal.com. We will respond to a verifiable request as required by applicable law, including for California residents.

International transfers

We are based in the United States. Your information is processed in the US and in other countries where our processors and fulfillment partners operate, including China (warehouse and dispatch) and the Netherlands (EU parcel routing). Those laws may differ from the laws where you live.

Changes

We will post updates on this page and change the “Last updated” date. If a change is material, we will also email the address on your account when we can.

Contact

MyTeaPal LLC, North Carolina, United States
hello@myteapal.com