Privacy Policy

Shopping Circle ("Shopping Circle", "we", "our", or "us") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal information you provide when using the Shopping Circle mobile application and related services.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, how we protect it, and the choices available to you.

1. Information We Collect

Depending on how you use Shopping Circle, we may collect the following information:

Account and Authentication Information

When you create or sign in to an account, we may collect information required to authenticate your account, including:

• Mobile phone number when you use phone-number authentication.
• Email address when provided through Google Sign-In or another supported authentication method.
• Google account information necessary to authenticate your account.
• A unique user/account identifier associated with your account.

Profile Information

You may provide information for your Shopping Circle profile, such as your name, state, city, preferences, or other information that you choose to provide through the application.

Location and Place Information

Shopping Circle may allow you to search for and select shopping, dining, sports, entertainment, or other places.

When you search for or select a place, we may process information such as:

• Place name.
• Address.
• City and state.
• Geographic coordinates associated with the selected place.
• Google Place ID or similar place identifier.

Shopping Circle does not require access to your device's GPS location for ordinary location search functionality unless a future feature specifically requests and obtains your permission.

Device and Technical Information

We may automatically receive certain technical information necessary to operate, secure, and troubleshoot the application, such as application version, operating system information, device-related technical information, network information, crash information, and diagnostic information, to the extent provided by the services and SDKs used by the application.

2. Mobile Phone Numbers

Your mobile phone number is used for account authentication and related account functions.

We do not make your mobile phone number publicly visible to other users.

Your mobile number may be processed by authentication and service providers as necessary to provide authentication and security services.

3. How We Use Your Information

We may use collected information to:

• Create and manage your account.
• Authenticate your identity.
• Provide Shopping Circle features and services.
• Display your profile information according to the application's functionality.
• Help you discover relevant shopping, dining, sports, and other places.
• Provide search and location-related functionality.
• Communicate with you about your account or important service matters.
• Prevent fraud, abuse, unauthorized access, and other security issues.
• Maintain, troubleshoot, and improve the application.
• Comply with applicable legal obligations.

We use information only for legitimate purposes related to operating, securing, improving, and providing Shopping Circle services.

4. Information Shared With Service Providers

We may use third-party service providers to operate parts of Shopping Circle.

Firebase / Google Services

We may use Firebase and related Google services for functions such as authentication, database/storage services, application infrastructure, security, and other services required to operate the application.

Google Sign-In

If you choose to sign in using Google, Google may provide authentication information necessary for the sign-in process.

Google Maps Platform / Places

We may use Google Maps Platform and Google Places services to provide place search, place information, mapping, and related functionality.

When you use these features, relevant search or place information may be sent to Google to provide the requested service.

Third-party providers may process information according to their own privacy policies and terms.

We do not authorize third-party service providers to use your personal information for purposes unrelated to providing services to Shopping Circle, except where required or permitted by law.

5. Sharing With Other Shopping Circle Users

Some information that you choose to provide in your profile or through features of Shopping Circle may be visible to other users, depending on the functionality of the application.

For example, information intentionally designed as public profile information may be shown to other users.

We do not intentionally publish your private authentication information, passwords, authentication credentials, or mobile phone number to other users.

6. Information We Do Not Sell

We do not sell your personal information to third parties for monetary consideration.

We may use service providers to help us operate the application and provide requested functionality.

7. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure.

However, no internet transmission or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

You are responsible for keeping your account credentials and access to your device secure.

8. Data Retention

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide Shopping Circle services, maintain account functionality, meet legitimate business requirements, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, prevent fraud and abuse, comply with legal obligations, and otherwise fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

When information is no longer required for these purposes, we may delete, anonymize, or otherwise dispose of it in accordance with applicable law.

9. Account and Data Deletion

You may request deletion of your Shopping Circle account and associated personal information.

To request account and data deletion, contact us at:

Please include enough information for us to identify your account and process the request securely.

When an account deletion request is valid and applicable, we will take reasonable steps to delete the personal information associated with the account, subject to information that we are legally required or permitted to retain.

Gender and height: We collect these details to apply compatibility rules when displaying shopping plans to users. For example, the service may limit plan visibility to users of the opposite gender and apply height compatibility rules.

Certain information may need to be retained for a limited period where required for legal, security, fraud-prevention, dispute-resolution, or other legitimate purposes.

10. Your Choices and Rights

Depending on applicable law, you may have rights concerning your personal information, including rights to:

• Request access to information we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate information.
• Request deletion of your personal information.
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
• Raise questions or complaints regarding our handling of personal information.

To make a privacy-related request, contact:

We may need to verify your identity before processing certain requests.

11. Children's Privacy

Shopping Circle is not intended to knowingly collect personal information from children in circumstances where such collection is prohibited by applicable law.

If you believe that a child has provided personal information to us inappropriately, please contact us at:

12. Third-Party Services and Links

Shopping Circle may use third-party services and may, in some circumstances, provide links or access to services operated by third parties.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party services. We encourage users to review the privacy policies of those services.

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the application, our services, applicable laws, or our data practices.

When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You should periodically review this page for the latest information about our privacy practices.

14. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, requests, or complaints about privacy or the handling of your personal information, contact us at:

We will review and respond to privacy-related requests within a reasonable period and in accordance with applicable requirements.

15. Consent

By using Shopping Circle, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and that your information may be handled as described above, subject to applicable law and the choices available to you.