Privacy Policy

1. What data we collect

We collect only what is needed to connect you with your neighbors.

Required information

• Email address -- used for authentication and account recovery
• Display name -- the name your neighbors will see
• Community -- used to scope your board to your local community

Optional information

• Phone number -- for account verification and optional SMS notifications
• Skills and interests -- to help match you with relevant needs and offers
• Bio -- a short description visible to your neighbors
• Photos -- profile photo and post images to help your neighbors recognize you and your requests

Automatically collected data

• Basic usage analytics (page views, feature usage) -- no fingerprinting, no cross-site tracking
• Device type and browser for compatibility -- never used for advertising

2. How we use your data

• Matching -- connecting your needs and offers with relevant neighbors in your community
• Community features -- displaying your posts, profile, and reputation within your community board
• Notifications -- alerting you to relevant matches, messages, and community activity (configurable)
• Platform improvement -- understanding aggregate usage patterns to make the platform better for everyone

We never sell your data. We never use your data for advertising. We never share your personal information with data brokers.

3. AI processing disclosure

CivicForge uses artificial intelligence to help match needs with offers and to assist with post creation. Here is exactly how that works:

• AI provider -- We use Anthropic's Claude for AI processing
• Structured data only -- The AI processes structured metadata (categories, skills, availability, location) to generate matches. Your raw text is not stored or used in the matching pipeline
• Post assistance -- When you use the AI writing assistant, your draft text is sent to Anthropic for processing. Anthropic does not use this data to train their models (per our data processing agreement)
• Human review -- You always review and approve AI-generated content before it is posted or shared
• No profiling -- AI is never used to build behavioral profiles or predict personal attributes beyond what you explicitly share

4. Third-party processors

We share data with the following service providers, solely to operate CivicForge:

5. Data retention

• Active accounts -- Your data is retained for as long as your account is active
• Account deletion -- When you request deletion, we begin a 30-day deletion pipeline. During this period, your account is immediately deactivated (hidden from neighbors) and your data is queued for permanent removal
• Cancellation window -- You may cancel a deletion request within the 30-day window by contacting us
• Post content -- When your account is deleted, your posts are anonymized (author attribution removed) rather than deleted, to preserve community context. You may request full post deletion separately
• Backups -- Encrypted backups may retain data for up to 90 days after deletion before being purged

6. Your rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access -- View all personal data we hold about you, available through your account settings
• Export -- Download a machine-readable copy of your data at any time from your account settings
• Deletion -- Request complete deletion of your account and personal data
• Correction -- Update or correct any personal information through your profile
• Consent management -- Adjust your privacy preferences, notification settings, and data sharing choices at any time
• Withdraw consent -- You may withdraw consent for optional data processing at any time without affecting the core service

7. Global Privacy Control

We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal. If your browser sends a GPC signal, we treat it as a valid opt-out of any non-essential data processing. Since CivicForge does not sell data or serve targeted advertising, the GPC signal primarily affects optional analytics.

8. Age requirement

CivicForge is intended for users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have collected data from a person under 18, we will delete that information promptly.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on the platform at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of CivicForge after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

10. Contact us

If you have questions about this privacy policy or your personal data, contact us at:

privacy@civicforge.org

Wicks LLC
Operating CivicForge