Privacy Policy
This page publishes the Privacy Policy for The Community Closet in full, exactly as it appears in the mobile app. It covers this website and the app together: both are the "Platform" referred to throughout.
Browsing this website does not create an account and does not require you to provide any personal information. The collection described below applies when you use the app or contact us directly.
The short version
This summary is here to help. The full policy below is the actual policy.
- We collect your name, school email, phone number, school, and what you list, claim, and pick up.
- We use it to run the service, nothing else.
- We do not sell your information. We never sell or share your phone number.
- Other students can see your first name and the items you list, not your contact details.
- You can ask us to delete your account and your data at any time.
- If you are under 18, your parent or guardian can ask us to delete it too.
1. About this policy
This Privacy Policy explains what information The Community Closet collects, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and what control you have. It applies to our app, our website, our text messages, and our support assistant.
Because our users are mostly minors, we try to collect as little as possible and to explain it plainly.
2. What we collect
Information you give us:
- Identity and contact: your name, email address (usually your school account), phone number, and the school you select.
- Profile: language preference and settings you choose.
- Content: item listings, descriptions, and photos you upload; messages you send through the Platform; questions you ask the support assistant.
- Support: anything you tell us when you contact us or report a problem.
Information created as you use the Platform:
- Activity: items you list, claim, pick up, or cancel; scheduling; buttons earned and rewards redeemed; verification status.
- Moderation and safety: records of reports, warnings, restrictions, and removals.
- Technical: device type, operating system, app version, general log and diagnostic data, and IP address.
We do not knowingly collect government identifiers, financial account numbers, precise geolocation, or health information. Please do not send us any of those.
3. Why we use it
We use information only to run this service:
- to create and secure your account and verify you belong to a participating school;
- to show you your school's catalog and to operate listings, claims, scheduling, pickups, and rewards;
- to verify your phone number and send the service messages described below;
- to provide support, including through the AI assistant;
- to keep the Platform safe by preventing fraud, abuse, hoarding, impersonation, and misuse, and by enforcing our Terms;
- to fix problems and improve how the Platform works;
- to comply with law and to protect the rights and safety of users, schools, and the public.
We do not use your information for behavioral advertising, and we do not sell it.
4. What other users can see
Other students at your school can see the items you list, their photos and descriptions, and the first name associated with the listing.
Volunteers and administrators at your school can additionally see information needed to run pickups, for example your name, the items you claimed, your scheduling status, and, where necessary to coordinate a handoff, your phone number.
Administrators can only see users and activity for the school they are responsible for. Your email address, phone number, and account settings are not shown to other students.
Please remember that anything you put in a listing photo or description is visible to other students. Do not include your address, phone number, social media handles, or images of people.
5. Text messages
If you verify a phone number, we use it to send verification codes and service messages about your claims, pickups, and schedule changes.
We do not sell, rent, or share your phone number or your SMS consent with anyone for marketing. We share it with our messaging provider only to deliver our own messages to you.
Reply STOP to any message to opt out, or HELP for help. Opting out may prevent features that depend on messaging from working.
6. The AI support assistant
When you use the support assistant, the messages you type are sent to a third-party AI provider that generates a response on our behalf. Limited account context may be included so the answer is useful.
We may retain these conversations to operate and improve support, to train our own help content, and to investigate misuse. Our AI provider processes the messages under contract to provide the service to us.
Do not enter sensitive personal information, passwords, or anything you would not want stored. Never use the assistant to report an emergency.
8. Students, minors, and parents
The Platform is used by minors, and we treat that seriously.
The Platform is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If we learn that a user is under 13, we will delete the account and its data. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, contact us and we will remove it.
If you are under 18, you should only use the Platform with your parent or guardian's permission, as required by our Terms of Use.
Parents and legal guardians may, for their own minor student, request to review the personal information we hold, request that we correct or delete it, and withdraw consent to further collection or to text messages. Contact us at the email below and we will verify the request before acting on it.
If you are a student in California and are under 18, you may request removal of content you posted on the Platform. We will remove it from public view, though residual copies may remain in backups as described below.
Some information may also be governed by your school's own policies and by student-privacy laws. Where our practices and a school agreement differ, we work with the school to follow the stricter protection.
9. How long we keep information
We keep information only as long as we reasonably need it:
- Account information: while your account is active, and for up to 12 months after it is closed, so we can handle disputes and prevent ban evasion.
- Listing, claim, and pickup records: up to 24 months, so the program can be reported on and audited.
- Text message logs and verification records: up to 12 months.
- Support and AI assistant conversations: up to 12 months.
- Safety, moderation, and removal records: up to 24 months, or longer where needed to keep a removed user off the Platform.
After those periods we delete the information or remove the identifying parts so it can no longer be linked to you. Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis, normally within 90 days. We may keep information longer where the law requires it or where it is needed for an ongoing safety matter or legal claim.
10. Deleting your account and data
You can ask us to delete your account at any time by emailing us from the address on your account, or by asking a school administrator to pass the request along. A parent or guardian may make this request for their own minor student.
When we delete your account we remove your profile, your listings, your uploaded photos, and your message history from the Platform, and we unlink your phone number.
Some records are kept even after deletion, and you should know that: anonymized or aggregate program statistics; records we must keep by law; and limited safety and moderation records where an account was removed for misconduct, so that the removal can be enforced. These are kept for the periods in Section 9.
We will confirm when the deletion is done. Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.
11. Your other choices
You can:
- view and update your profile information in the app;
- change your language at any time;
- opt out of text messages by replying STOP;
- decline optional features that require additional information;
- ask us what personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it.
We will not discriminate against you for exercising these choices, though some features may stop working without the information they depend on.
12. How we protect information
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards: encrypted connections, authenticated access, server-side permission rules that limit each administrator to their own school, and restricted access for volunteers on a need-to-know basis.
No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify affected users and, where required, the appropriate authorities.
Protect yourself too: keep your school account secure and never share your login.
13. Where information is stored
Information is stored on cloud infrastructure operated by our service providers, primarily in the United States. If you use the Platform from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be processed there.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy. When we make material changes we will publish a new version with a new effective date and version number and ask you to review and accept it again in the app. The version you accepted is recorded so we know which one applies to you.
15. How to reach us
For privacy questions, access or deletion requests, or parental requests:
The Community Closet
Email: thecommunitycloset.team@gmail.com
Please tell us the account email involved and what you are asking for, so we can verify the request. We will respond within a reasonable time, and within any period required by law.