Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

• Your account: your name, your email address and a password (stored only as a one-way hash, never in a form anyone can read).
• Your profile and address: your home address, so that we can find your neighborhood watch, and optionally a phone number. We also keep the map position the address resolves to.
• What you post: reports, descriptions, the general place you describe, an exact map pin if you add one, and up to 5 photos per report.
• Your activity and roles: which watch you belong to, requests to participate, the roles you hold, your email alert settings, and a record (an audit log) of important actions such as publishing or removing a report.
• Invitations: if you invite someone, the email address you enter. If someone asks not to be invited again we keep their address so that we do not email them. Invitations expire after 14 days.
• Technical information: when you sign in, your network address and browser type are stored with your session; and short-lived counters help us limit abuse. Our hosting provider also keeps ordinary server logs.
• Your agreement: which version of the Terms of Service you accepted, and when.
• Removal requests: what you write if you send one (section 11), and a scrambled, one-way code derived from your network address to help us recognize repeated abuse.

2. How we use it

To run the App: to sign you in, to match you with your watch, to show and moderate reports, to send the emails you ask for (verification, password reset, alerts, invitations) and decisions on your requests, to keep the App secure and prevent abuse, and to meet legal obligations. We do not use your information for advertising and we do not build profiles of you.

3. Who can see what

• Your home address is visible to you and to the administrators who need it to assign watches or review a request to participate. It is never shown on a map, in an email or to other residents.
• Other residents see a shortened version of your name (“Riley R.”), and the general place a report describes. They never see an exact pin, a phone number or an email address.
• Exact map pins are visible only to the person who made the report and to the moderators of the watch it belongs to.
• Administrators and moderators are volunteers. They can see more (for example full names and contact details of the people in their watch) because they need it to do the job, and are asked to keep it private.
• Photos have their location and camera information removed before they are stored, and are never public: they are shown only to signed-in residents through short-lived links.

4. Who we share it with

We do not sell your information. We share it only with the companies that help us run the App, and only what each needs:

• web hosting and photo storage (currently Vercel) and the database (currently Neon);
• email delivery (currently Resend), which receives the address and content of each email we send;
• address lookup (currently MapTiler), which receives the address you enter so that it can be placed on the map, and the first part of it as you type, so that it can suggest complete addresses (nothing you type there is saved until you save the form);
• map tiles (an open map provider), which sees your network address when your browser loads a map.

We may also disclose information when the law requires it, to respond to a lawful request from the authorities, or when needed to protect someone's safety or rights. These providers have their own privacy policies, and they may change over time.

5. Cookies and similar technology

The App uses one cookie, the sign-in cookie, which is needed to keep you signed in and expires after two weeks. Your light or dark theme choice is saved in your browser. We do not use advertising or analytics cookies, or trackers.

6. How long we keep it

We keep your account information while your account exists. A report that is removed from public view may still be kept in our records, with its moderation history, for as long as needed to run the App, settle disputes and meet legal obligations. Sign-in sessions end after two weeks, and the short-lived abuse counters are cleared automatically. When an account is deleted we delete the account and everything it posted: its reports and photos, profile, address, memberships, alert settings and the invitations it sent. We keep a record that a deletion took place, and the log of administrative actions, which holds only an anonymous identifier, not your name or contact details. A removal request you sent is kept as a record of that request.

7. How we protect it

Connections to the App are encrypted. Passwords and invitation links are stored only as one-way hashes. Access is limited by role, and photos are stored privately. No system is completely secure, though, and we cannot promise that information will never be exposed.

8. Your choices

• Change your name, phone number or address under Settings → Profile, and your email alerts under Settings → Email alerts.
• You can stop using the App at any time.
• To have content removed, to correct information about you, or to have your account and information deleted, send a removal request (section 11). That works whether or not you have an account.

9. Children

The App is for adults. You must be at least 18 to have an account, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone younger.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the App changes. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If a change is significant we will ask you to accept the updated Terms of Service, which include this policy.