Meetup is an events/groups platform now owned by Bending Spoons, a private Italian holding company, which its own website states it acquired in January 2024 (the App Store listing's copyright line independently confirms "Bending Spoons US Inc."). Meetup's own privacy policy (effective May 12, 2023) discloses routine account and automatic collection (device, log, and consent-based geolocation data) plus a notable caveat: because membership in a group is itself information, the policy states this can imply a member's beliefs, political views, health conditions, or sexual identity. The same policy discloses cookies, pixel tags, and a named third-party ad partner (Freestar) used for analytics and targeted advertising on and off the platform, and Meetup's Apple App Store privacy label independently confirms Location, Identifiers, and Usage Data are used to track users across other companies' apps and websites. Meetup's CCPA section states it does not characterize this sharing as a "sale" under California law, and users can opt out of the targeted-advertising sharing. No FTC action, state-AG order, or breach disclosure involving Meetup was found in this research; the one concrete operational artifact found is the policy's stated 7-day organizer-deletion safeguard.
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Meetup's Apple App Store privacy label discloses that data linked to the user's identity spans Location, Contact Info, User Content, Search History, Identifiers, Device ID, and Usage Data, collected for purposes including third-party advertising and analytics.
Meetup's privacy policy states that beyond routine account/profile data, information it collects automatically includes log data, device identifiers, and (with consent) geolocation, and separately notes that a member's choice of group can itself imply sensitive-category information about the member.
Meetup's Apple App Store listing carries the copyright attribution "Bending Spoons US Inc.," self-disclosing the current corporate owner of the Meetup app.
Bending Spoons' own corporate website lists Meetup among its portfolio of acquired apps, stating it was acquired in January 2024, corroborating the ownership disclosed on Meetup's App Store listing.
Meetup's privacy policy states in its own summary that it shares information with third parties for analytics and to deliver targeted advertising both on and off the Meetup platform, subject to a user opt-out described elsewhere in the policy.
Meetup's privacy policy describes a specific operational safeguard around account deletion for group organizers: a deletion request is held for a few days and will be withdrawn if the organizer creates an event or RSVPs within 7 days of submitting it. No regulator action, breach, or settlement involving Meetup was found in this research.
Meetup's Apple App Store privacy label discloses Location, Identifiers, and Usage Data as categories of data used to track the user across apps and websites owned by other companies, an explicit cross-app ad-tracking admission.
Meetup's privacy policy states that its platform is affiliated with the third-party ad exchange Freestar, which collects and uses data for advertising purposes, alongside Meetup's own use of cookies and pixel tags.