Vecindad, Inc. ("vecindad," "we," "us," or "our") provides a private, trust-based recommendation platform. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and share information about you when you use our mobile application, website, and related services (collectively, the "Service").
By using the Service, you agree to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
1. Who we are
Vecindad, Inc. is a Delaware corporation. Our mailing address is:
Vecindad, Inc. 4000 W Montrose Ave #2467, Chicago, IL 60641
In this policy:
- "vecindad," "we," "us," and "our" mean Vecindad, Inc.
- "you" and "member" mean an individual using the Service.
We are an early-stage company. We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. We collect what we need to operate a trust-based recommendation service and nothing designed for third-party advertising or data resale.
2. What this policy covers
This Privacy Policy describes:
- What information we collect about you
- How we use that information
- How and with whom we share it
- Your choices and privacy rights
- How we protect and retain your information
- How to contact us
This Privacy Policy applies to:
- The vecindad mobile application
- The vecindad website at askvecindad.com
- Any other products or services that link to this Privacy Policy
If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy or to how we use your information, we will provide notice in the app and on our website before the changes take effect and, where required, request your consent.
3. How vecindad works
vecindad is built around your trust circle, which is the set of people you explicitly connect with in the app. By default, your asks and recommendations are visible only to members of your trust circle (your direct connections), not to the general public.
In some future cohorts, we may offer optional city-scoped broadcast:
- If your trust circle does not respond to an ask within a set time, you may be able to choose to broadcast that ask to other vecindad members in the same city.
- City-scoped broadcast is opt-in and will be clearly explained in the product, and you can change this preference at any time in Settings.
This design shapes what we collect and what we do not collect: we collect only what is reasonably necessary to provide trust-circle recommendations and attribution, not to create third-party advertising profiles.
4. Information we collect
4.1 Information you provide to us
We collect information you choose to provide, including:
- Account details: name (display name or handle), date of birth (to confirm you are 18 or older), phone number (for verification and required notifications), and email address.
- Profile information (optional): profile photo, city, neighborhood preference, and any "about me" text you choose to share.
- Trust connections: the connections you send or accept and the connections you ignore or decline.
- Asks, responses, and content: asks you post, responses you give, any photos you upload, and the businesses or places referenced.
- Saves and feedback: recommendations you save and whether you went and liked them.
- Communications with us: support requests, feedback submitted in-app, and emails you send to us.
4.2 Information we collect automatically
When you use the Service we automatically collect:
- Device and technical information: device type, operating system, app version, and a device or app identifier used to deliver push notifications if you enable them.
- Approximate location: the city or neighborhood you select or confirm in the app. We do not currently collect precise GPS location. If we introduce a feature requiring precise location, we will first present a clear, separate opt-in.
- Usage and diagnostics (narrowly scoped): via crash reporting and analytics tools, we collect an internal user ID, which screen you were on, and crash/error details. We do not collect your name, email, IP address, or session recordings via these tools.
4.3 Information we do not collect
We intentionally do not:
- Collect precise GPS-level location (unless we add an explicit opt-in later).
- Access your phone's contact list or address book.
- Collect SMS content, call logs, or photos from your device except what you explicitly upload.
- Send your queries to Google Places or Google Maps for location. Instead we use an open-source stack and self-operated infrastructure for geocoding and places.
5. How we use your information
We use the information we collect to:
- Provide and maintain the Service: create and manage your account; show asks to the right trust-circle members (and, if you opt in, to your city); show responses, saves, and validation prompts.
- Communicate with you: send necessary service messages (such as security alerts, policy updates, responses) and optional notifications you enable (such as "You have a new response").
- Improve the Service: diagnose crashes, understand feature usage in aggregate, and develop or refine features.
- Protect integrity and prevent fraud: detect and respond to abuse, fraud, and violations of our Terms or Community Guidelines.
- Comply with law: meet legal obligations and respond to lawful requests, and enforce our agreements.
We do not use your personal information to sell to data brokers, run third-party targeted advertising, or train unrelated third-party models.
6. Validation and attribution
When you mark a recommendation as "I went" or "I liked it," that signal is visible to the person who made the recommendation and helps your trust circle understand which recommendations led to real visits.
In future cohorts, participating businesses may receive attribution data that indicates vecindad-related visits, for example when both you and the business confirm a visit ("two-sided validation").
By default:
- Businesses receive attribution information in aggregated and anonymized form (for example, "10 vecindad-attributed visits this month"), not a list of identified individuals.
- If a feature requires sharing your identity with a business (for example, to issue a reward), we will clearly explain it and obtain your consent where required before sharing.
Attribution data is separate from your asks, recommendations, and trust connections, which remain scoped to relevant trust circles unless you choose broader visibility.
7. How we share information (and what we do not sell)
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers for their own marketing or "cross-context behavioral advertising."
We share information only in these situations:
- With your trust circle: your asks, responses, profile details, and saves are visible to your trust-circle connections (and, if you opt into city broadcast, to relevant city-level audiences).
- With participating businesses (attribution): participating businesses may receive aggregated, anonymized attribution reports showing vecindad-related visits. Any more granular sharing that identifies you will be clearly explained and, where required, subject to your consent.
- With service providers: we use third-party vendors (such as hosting, database, authentication, crash reporting, analytics, and map infrastructure) that process data for us under contracts that restrict their use of your information to our documented purposes.
- For legal or safety reasons: we may disclose information where we believe in good faith it is reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights or safety, prevent fraud or abuse, or enforce our agreements.
- Business transfers: if vecindad is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred, subject to obligations that preserve privacy protections or provide notice and choices consistent with applicable law.
8. California residents
If you are a California resident, the CCPA/CPRA gives you specific rights over your personal information and requires certain disclosures.
8.1 Our role
vecindad generally acts as a business toward members and as a service provider toward participating businesses that receive attribution data.
- We do not "sell" or "share" your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
- Our contracts with service providers and participating businesses limit their use of personal information to specified purposes and prohibit resale or unrelated use.
8.2 Your California rights
California residents have the right to:
- Know the categories of personal information we collect, the sources, the purposes of use, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
- Access specific pieces of personal information we hold about you.
- Delete personal information we collected from you, subject to statutory exceptions.
- Correct inaccurate personal information.
- Opt out of "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. vecindad does not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
- Not be discriminated against for exercising these rights.
You can exercise these rights as described in Section 10 below.
9. Texas residents
If you are a Texas resident, the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA) provides rights to access, correct, delete, and obtain a copy of your personal data, and to opt out of certain processing.
vecindad does not:
- Engage in targeted advertising.
- Sell personal data, including sensitive personal data.
- Use profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
Any disclosure of attribution information to participating businesses is made to facilitate the product or service you requested (trust-based recommendations and optional attribution) and is governed by contracts that limit use of the data.
You can exercise your Texas privacy rights as described in Section 10.
10. Your rights and choices
10.1 In-app privacy controls
You can manage many privacy settings under Settings → Privacy, including:
- Managing your profile information.
- Turning optional notifications on or off.
- Enabling or disabling city-scoped broadcast (if available).
- Managing business attribution settings where that feature is available.
- Initiating account deletion.
10.2 Access, correction, and deletion requests
You may request:
- Access to personal information we hold about you.
- Correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
- Deletion of personal information, subject to reasonable exceptions such as legal obligations or fraud prevention.
You can submit requests:
- Through the app, where we provide in-product flows, or
- By emailing support@askvecindad.com with enough information to identify your account and your request.
We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request, and we aim to respond within legally required timeframes (typically 30 to 45 days, with permitted extensions).
11. How we protect your information
We use reasonable and appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including:
- Authentication: email and password sign-in. Passwords are never stored in plaintext; our authentication provider keeps them only as salted, hashed values. We do not store biometric data.
- Access controls: role-based access and row-level security, so users can only access their own data and what their trust circle has shared.
- Encryption: TLS for data in transit and encryption at rest at the database or storage layer.
- Notification privacy: push notifications summarize events without including full content of asks or responses.
- Telemetry minimization: crash and analytics tools are configured to collect only the minimal diagnostic data needed. Session replay is disabled.
No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a security incident affecting your personal information, we will investigate and notify you and regulators as required by law.
12. How long we keep your information
We retain information only as long as reasonably necessary to provide the Service, meet legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
In general:
- Account information: kept while your account is active; deleted or anonymized within about 30 days after account deletion, subject to legal and security retention needs.
- Asks, responses, and saves: kept while your account is active; typically removed or anonymized within about 30 days after account deletion.
- Validation and attribution records: typically retained for up to 24 months for fraud detection, quality assurance, and aggregate reporting.
- Crash and error logs: typically retained up to 90 days.
- Support communications: typically retained up to 36 months for record-keeping and compliance.
We may retain de-identified or aggregated data (which cannot reasonably be used to identify you) for longer periods.
13. Children's privacy
The Service is intended for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to use vecindad.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn we have collected information from a minor, we will delete it. If you believe a minor has provided information to us, please contact support@askvecindad.com.
14. International users
The Service is currently intended for use in the United States. If you access the Service from outside the U.S., your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the U.S. (and potentially other countries where we or our providers operate), which may have different data-protection laws than your country.
By using the Service, you consent to these transfers and processing. We are not presently structured for full GDPR or other non-U.S. data-regime compliance and will reassess as we expand internationally.
15. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will:
- Post the updated policy at askvecindad.com/privacy.
- Update the "Last Updated" date at the top.
- Provide notice in the app or by other appropriate means.
If a change materially expands what we collect or how we use or share your information, we will seek your consent where required by law before applying it to you.
Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you acknowledge the updated Privacy Policy.
16. How to contact us
If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, or if you wish to exercise your rights, you can contact us at:
- Email: support@askvecindad.com
- Mail: Vecindad, Inc. 4000 W Montrose Ave #2467, Chicago, IL 60641
You may also have the right to contact your state attorney general, the Federal Trade Commission, or another appropriate authority if you believe your privacy rights have been violated.