Privacy Policy

Effective date: March 2, 2026 | Last updated: March 2, 2026

BorrowStuff ("we," "us," or "our") is a peer-to-peer item lending app that lets friends share things with each other. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and your rights regarding that data.

We do not sell your personal data. We do not show you ads. We do not use your data for targeted advertising.

1. Information We Collect

Information you provide

Account information: Phone number, email address, display name, profile photo, and city/location.
Item listings: Item names, descriptions, photos, category, status (lending, giveaway, for sale), and price (if applicable).
Borrow requests and loans: Request messages, pickup and return dates, and loan status.
Community content: Community names, descriptions, cover photos, and membership information.
Communications: Messages you send through borrow requests and any emails you send to our support address.
Device contacts (phone numbers only, with your permission): We store an encrypted copy of your contacts' phone numbers to improve friend suggestions. The encrypted data is not queryable and can only be decrypted by our server. Individual invite records (name and phone number) are stored when you choose to invite a specific contact.

Information collected automatically

Device and usage data: Device type, operating system, app version, screen views, and feature usage (collected via analytics — see Section 5).
Error and crash data: Technical error details and your user ID when the app crashes or encounters an error.

Location data

Approximate location: When you set your city in the app, we store your city name and approximate coordinates (rounded to ~1 km precision) to show you items available nearby. This data comes from your city selection, not from your device's GPS. See Section 3 for details.

2. How We Use Your Information

We process your personal data for the following purposes:

Providing the service: Creating your account, displaying your profile and items to other users, facilitating borrow requests and loans, and managing communities. Your name, photo, and city may be shown to non-friends through friend recommendations (for example, friends of your friends or members of your communities).
Authentication and security: Verifying your identity via phone and email, preventing fraud, enforcing rate limits, and protecting against abuse.
Nearby item discovery: Using your approximate location (city and rounded coordinates) to show you items available near you.
Automatic item categorization: Sending item names, descriptions, and photos to an AI service (Google Gemini) to automatically generate tags and categories for your listings. See Section 4 for details.
Notifications: Sending you push notifications and emails about borrow requests, friend activity, and other service-related events.
Analytics: Understanding how people use the app so we can improve it (with your ability to opt out). See Section 5 for details.
Error monitoring: Identifying and fixing bugs and crashes.
Book search: Looking up book information when you search by ISBN or title to help you create item listings.

3. Location Data

BorrowStuff uses your approximate location to show you items available for borrowing nearby. When you set your city in the app, we look up the city using OpenStreetMap's geocoding service and store the city name along with coordinates rounded to approximately 1 kilometer precision. This is not precise geolocation — we do not use your device's GPS, and the stored coordinates are not accurate enough to identify a specific address.

Your city name is visible to other authenticated users on your profile. The approximate coordinates are used to calculate distances for the "nearby" feature but are not displayed directly to other users.

You can change or remove your city at any time in your profile settings. If you remove your city, the stored coordinates are also removed. You can also contact us at support@borrowstuff.app to request deletion of your stored location data.

4. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to operate BorrowStuff. Each receives only the data necessary for its function.

Service	Data Shared	Purpose
Firebase Authentication (Google)	Phone number, email address	Account creation and sign-in. Phone numbers provided for authentication are sent to and stored by Google to improve spam and abuse prevention across Google services, including but not limited to Firebase. See Google Privacy Policy.
Cloud Firestore (Google)	All user, item, loan, and community data	Primary database for storing app data.
Firebase Storage (Google)	Profile photos, item photos, community photos	File storage for user-uploaded images.
Google Gemini (Google)	Item names, descriptions, and photos	Automatic tagging and categorization of item listings. We send only item details (name, description, photo) — not your name or personal information. See Gemini API Terms.
PostHog	Analytics events, display name, email, platform	Product analytics to understand app usage. Session replay is disabled. You can opt out of analytics entirely in Settings. See Section 5. See PostHog Privacy Policy.
Sentry	Error stack traces, user ID	Error monitoring and crash reporting. Crash reporting is always active and cannot be disabled, as it is necessary to keep the app working reliably. We do not send your name, email, or phone number to Sentry — only your user ID and technical error details. See Sentry Privacy Policy.
Resend	Email address, notification content	Transactional emails (borrow request notifications, friend request notifications, etc.).
Expo Push Notification Service	Push tokens, notification content	Delivering push notifications to your device. Notification content (such as names and item details) may be visible on your device's lock screen depending on your device notification settings.
Open Library (Internet Archive)	Search queries (ISBN, title, author)	Book information lookup for item listings. No personally identifiable information is sent.
OpenStreetMap Nominatim	City search queries	Geocoding for city/location lookup. No personally identifiable information is sent.

We do not share your personal data with any other third parties, and none of the services listed above use your data for advertising purposes.

5. Analytics and Your Choices

We use PostHog to collect analytics about how people use BorrowStuff. This helps us understand which features are used, identify problems, and improve the app. Analytics data includes events like screen views, button taps, and feature usage, along with basic user traits (display name, email, platform).

You can opt out of analytics at any time in the app's Settings screen. When you opt out, we stop collecting analytics data from your device entirely.

We do not use session replay or screen recording.

6. How We Respond to Do Not Track Signals

We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal. If your browser sends a GPC signal and you have not set an explicit analytics preference, we automatically disable analytics data collection and save that preference. You can override this choice in the app's Settings screen at any time.

We do not currently respond to other Do Not Track (DNT) browser signals, as there is no industry-standard way to process them. However, you can always opt out of analytics manually in Settings regardless of your browser's DNT setting.

The third-party services listed in Section 4 (such as PostHog and Sentry) may collect information about your activity within BorrowStuff, but we do not allow third parties to track your activity across other websites or apps through our service. We do not use third-party advertising or tracking networks.

7. Cookies and Local Storage

On the web version of BorrowStuff, we use browser storage (localStorage and IndexedDB) to keep you signed in and to save your preferences, such as your analytics opt-out setting. PostHog and reCAPTCHA may also set cookies for analytics and bot protection. We do not use cookies for advertising or cross-site tracking.

The mobile apps (iOS and Android) do not use cookies.

8. Data Retention

We keep your personal data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account (available in Settings), we permanently delete all of your data, including your profile, items, photos, borrow requests, loans, friendships, community memberships, notifications, invite links, encrypted contact data, and contact invite records.

Some data may persist in our third-party service providers' systems according to their own retention policies (for example, error logs in Sentry or analytics data in PostHog) but will no longer be linked to your account.

9. Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your personal data, including access controls, encryption, identity verification at signup, and abuse prevention. Sensitive information like your phone number and email address is stored separately from your public profile and is not visible to other users.

No method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at support@borrowstuff.app.

10. Your Privacy Rights

You have the right to:

Access your personal data — view your profile, items, and activity in the app.
Correct your data — edit your profile, items, and other content at any time.
Delete your data — delete your account and all associated data from Settings.
Get a portable copy of your data — contact us and we will provide your data in a usable format.
Opt out of analytics — disable analytics data collection in Settings.
Control your location — change or remove your city in your profile settings.
Control push notifications — manage per-category notification preferences in Settings.

To exercise any of these rights, you can use the controls in the app or contact us at support@borrowstuff.app. We will respond within 45 days.

Right to appeal: If we decline a request, you may appeal by emailing us with the subject line "Privacy Rights Appeal." We will respond within 45 days. If we deny your appeal, you may file a complaint with your state attorney general. Texas residents can file directly with the Texas Attorney General.

11. Children's Privacy

BorrowStuff is intended for users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. During signup, users must confirm they are 18 or older. If we learn that we have collected personal data from a person under 18, we will delete that data promptly. If you believe a child under 18 has provided us with personal data, please contact us at support@borrowstuff.app.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. If we make material changes that affect how we handle your personal data, we will notify you through the app or by email before the changes take effect.

We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise your privacy rights, or have a concern about how we handle your data, contact us at:

Email: support@borrowstuff.app