Privacy Policy
Buzzin is a neighbourhood friendship app. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have. We don't sell your personal information, and we don't use it for advertising.
What we collect
| Data | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Email and password (hashed), or the account id and email Apple or Google gives us if you sign in with them (with Sign in with Apple you can hide your real email; if you share your first name, we use it to fill in your profile) | Your account and sign-in | Only us |
| Date of birth | Confirming you're 18+; showing your age | Neighbours see your age, never your birthday |
| First name, bio, interests, "always down for" | Your profile | Neighbours in your community |
| Profile photos (at least 3) | Your profile | Neighbours in your community, once checked; our moderators |
| Instagram handle | Shown on your profile so neighbours can find you there | Neighbours in your community (or only connections, depending on settings) |
| Home building | Placing you in the right community | Only you and us — never other members |
| Location readings while the app is open | Confirming you're near home | Nobody. Readings are checked and discarded — we keep only the dates you checked in, when your current access pass expires, and when we last confirmed you near home |
| When we last confirmed you near home, and whether your membership is paused | If your phone hasn't been confirmed near home for 30 days, your membership is paused (you stop appearing to neighbours, your existing chats keep working) until you're back or set a new home | Only you and us. Neighbours are never told you're paused |
| Verification selfie | Confirming your photos are you (see "Biometric information") | Our review team; optionally an automated face-comparison service |
| Posts, plans, messages, connection requests | The features you use | The people you share them with in your community |
| Borrow & favors (short asks and offers) and who replied to them | Asking neighbours for a hand or giving things away | Favors: verified neighbours in your community for 48 hours. Who replied: only the person who posted it (through the usual hello or chat) |
| Plans at your place: the address details you add (for example street, apartment and buzzer) and who asked to join | Letting the neighbours you approve find your place | Details: only you and the guests you approve, while the plan is on. Never on the plan itself, in the feed or in notifications. Who asked: only you, the host |
| Urgent asks, and how many urgent alerts you've received | One generic alert to neighbours who want urgent alerts ("A neighbour on your block needs a quick hand", never what you asked), at most 3 a day each | The ask: verified neighbours in your community for 2 hours. The alert count: only us |
| Your building chat, if you join it | A chat for neighbours who live in your building (opens once 5 are on Buzzin; notifications start off) | Only members of your building who joined it. Your address is never shown in it |
| Interest groups you join | Opening a group chat once 4 neighbours are in | Before a group opens, only a count is shown, never who. Once it opens, the people in its group chat |
| Buzzin+ waitlist (whether you joined, and when) | Telling you when Buzzin+ is ready | Only you and us (moderators see a count, never who) |
| Buzzin+ subscription, if you buy one: which plan, Apple's transaction ids, purchase, renewal and expiry dates, renewal status, refunds, and whether it was a sandbox (test) purchase. Apple sends us these signed records when you buy, restore or renew. We never receive your card or payment details | Turning Buzzin+ on for your account and keeping it in step with renewals, cancellations and refunds | Only us (moderators see counts, never who) |
| Gender, if you choose to add it (woman, man, non-binary or prefer not to say). It's self-declared: we don't check it | Letting you see, join and host women-only plans | Nobody. Never on your profile, never shown to neighbours or in notifications |
| "Hang again?" answers after a plan (yes or not now, for each person you met there) | Telling two people when both would like to meet again, and suggesting another plan with someone you've met twice | Nobody sees your answers. If you both said yes, you both see that it's mutual. A "not now", or whether you answered at all, is never shown. Moderators see totals only |
| "Running late" and "can't make it" notes, and weekly plans you follow | Letting a plan's group know, and reminding you before each week of a plan you follow | Notes: the people in that plan's chat. Following: only you and us (the host sees how many follow) |
| Reports and blocks | Safety and moderation | Our moderators (blocks are private) |
| Push notification token | Sending notifications (which never contain message text) | Only us and the notification service |
Photos are re-encoded on your phone before upload, which removes embedded location and camera data.
Biometric information
When you verify, we compare a live selfie with your profile photos to confirm they show the same person. A moderator compares them by eye. If automated checking is enabled, the selfie and photos are also sent to Amazon Web Services Rekognition, which calculates a face-similarity score and does not store the images. We ask for your explicit consent before you take the selfie, and record when you gave it.
Retention and destruction: the selfie is deleted as soon as a decision is made, and at the latest 30 days after you submit it. We don't create or store face templates or faceprints. We keep only the outcome (approved or not, when, and the reason shown to you). We never sell, lease or trade biometric information, and we don't disclose it except to the processor named above or where required by law.
Who we share data with
Service providers that process data on our behalf: Supabase (database, storage and authentication; hosted in the United States on Amazon Web Services, US East), Expo (push notification delivery), Apple (if you buy Buzzin+: Apple processes the payment and tells us its outcome), and — if automated verification is enabled — Amazon Web Services. We may disclose information if required by law or to protect someone's safety. If Buzzin is involved in a merger or acquisition, data may transfer under this policy.
How long we keep it
We keep your account data while your account exists. Location readings are never stored. Expired access passes are deleted within an hour; rate-limit records after 2 days. Favors close 48 hours after you post them (2 hours for an urgent ask, or when you mark them done) and are deleted a week later; urgent alert counts after 2 days. Plan chats close a day after the plan ends; 30 days after that the chat and its messages are deleted. Direct, group and building chats stay until you delete your account. The address details of a plan at your place are hidden as soon as the plan ends or is cancelled and deleted within minutes after that; requests to join are deleted a week after the plan. Showing a neighbour perk at the counter isn't recorded. "Hang again?" answers are deleted 60 days after you give them, and running-late notes' records after 30 days (the chat line itself goes with the plan chat). A record of which day you last got a non-urgent notification is kept for 3 days. Moving home deletes your previous check-in dates. Buzzin+ purchase records are kept while your account exists so renewals and refunds work; deleting your account deletes them (Apple keeps its own purchase records, and deleting your account doesn't cancel the subscription: cancel it in Settings › Apple ID › Subscriptions). When you delete your account, we delete your profile, photos, Instagram handle, date of birth, home building, check-ins, plans you host, your messages, favors, group memberships, requests, blocks, verification records and push tokens. Reports you filed are kept without your name; reports about you are kept for up to 180 days after review so we can act on abuse.
Your choices and rights
You can edit your profile, hide yourself from People, choose notifications, block people, and delete your account at any time in Settings → Delete account. Depending on where you live (for example California, Colorado, Virginia or the EU/UK), you may have rights to access, correct, delete or port your data, and to appeal our decisions. Contact support@joinbuzzin.com; we'll respond within 30 days (45 for California requests).
Children
Buzzin is only for people 18 and older. We delete accounts we learn belong to anyone younger.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit. Access is restricted by row-level security so members can only read what they're allowed to see, and only while near home. No system is perfectly secure; tell us at support@joinbuzzin.com if you find a problem.
Limits of location checks
Location checks show that a phone was repeatedly near a building. They don't prove where someone lives, and phone location can be faked.
Changes
We'll post updates here and ask you to review important changes in the app.
Contact
Buzzin (joinbuzzin.com) · support@joinbuzzin.com