Privacy Policy for Boards

Last updated: June 25, 2026

Boards ("Boards," "we," "us," or "our") values your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use the Boards mobile application (the "App") on iOS and Android.

By using Boards, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

1. Information We Collect

A. Information You Provide Directly

When you create an account or use the App, we may collect:

• Account Information: email address, username, display name, profile photo
• Sign-in Provider Information: if you choose to sign in with Google or Apple, we receive basic account information from that provider (your name and email address) to create and authenticate your account. If you use Apple's private email-relay option, we receive only the relayed address Apple provides.
• Phone Number: if you choose to enable contact matching, your phone number is collected, cryptographically hashed (one-way, non-reversible), and stored only in hashed form. Your plaintext phone number is not retained.
• Device Contacts: if you grant permission, we access your device contacts to find friends on Boards. Contact phone numbers are hashed locally on your device and matched against hashed values on our servers. We do not store your contacts.
• User-Generated Content: photos, captions, comments, boards, and posts
• Social Information: friends, likes on posts, comments and associated metadata

B. Automatically Collected Information

We may automatically collect:

• Device type and operating system
• App version
• IP address
• Date and time of access
• Crash and error reports: captured via Firebase Crashlytics, including stack traces, device state at time of crash, and your user ID so we can correlate errors with affected accounts.
• Usage analytics: captured via Firebase Analytics — events such as post creation, board joins, decoration use, likes, comments, friend requests, and similar in-app actions, associated with your user ID. We use this to understand which features are used and to improve the App. We do not use this data for advertising.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Create and manage user accounts
• Authenticate users via email and password, or via Sign in with Google or Sign in with Apple
• Enable social features such as posts, comments, likes, and friends
• Store and display user-uploaded photos
• Deliver functional push notifications (comments, likes, friend activity)
• Send authentication-related emails (verification, password resets)
• Detect, prevent, and address misuse, abuse, or harmful content
• Improve the safety and reliability of the App
• Measure feature usage and diagnose errors to improve the App
• Power the social graph (friends, followers, blocks) and the decoration catalog via Firebase Data Connect
• Enable music discovery and 30-second preview playback in boards via the Apple iTunes Search API
• Enforce our Terms & Conditions

3. Automated Content Moderation

Boards uses automated content analysis to help maintain a safe environment.

• Uploaded photos may be analyzed using Google Cloud Vision
• Content may be flagged or removed if it violates community standards
• Automated decisions may be used to enforce platform rules

4. Push Notifications & Emails

Push Notifications:

• Functional notifications only
• No marketing or promotional notifications
• Can be disabled in device settings

Emails:

• Authentication-related emails only
• Sent via Firebase
• Required for account access and security

5. Data Storage & Security

Boards uses Google Firebase, Google Cloud Platform, and Cloudflare services, including:

• Firebase Authentication
• Firestore
• Firebase Cloud Storage
• Cloud Functions
• Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)
• Firebase App Check
• Firebase Analytics
• Firebase Crashlytics
• Firebase Data Connect (a managed PostgreSQL service used for the social graph and decoration catalog)
• Cloudflare CDN (content delivery for images)

Reasonable security measures are used to protect your information, but no system is completely secure.

6. Sharing of Information

We do not sell your personal data.

Information may be shared:

• With service providers (Google/Firebase) to operate the App
• To comply with legal obligations
• To protect rights, safety, and prevent abuse or fraud

Apple (iTunes): when you search for music to add to a board, your search query is sent to Apple's iTunes Search API (itunes.apple.com). We do not send your name, email, account ID, or contact data to Apple. Apple may log the request IP address per their own policies. Album art and 30-second preview audio are streamed directly from Apple's content delivery network and are not stored by us.

Sign in with Google / Apple: if you choose to sign in with Google or Apple, authentication is handled by that provider under their own privacy policy. Boards receives only the basic profile information described in Section 1 (your name and email address) to create and authenticate your account.

7. Public vs. Private Content

• Users can choose whether posts are public or friends-only
• Public posts may be visible beyond your friend network
• Friends-only posts are restricted to approved friends within the App. However, images are delivered via content delivery networks and may be technically accessible if a direct URL is known. We are actively working to strengthen image-level access controls.

8. Data Retention & Deletion

• Users can delete accounts, posts, boards, and content at any time
• Deletions are processed immediately
• Some data may be temporarily retained for legal or security reasons

9. Children's Privacy

Boards is intended for users 13 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13.

10. Your Rights

You may have the right to:

• Access your data
• Correct inaccurate information
• Delete your data

Most controls are available directly in the App.

11. Geographic Scope

Boards is currently intended for users in the United States only.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date will reflect changes.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, contact us with the 'contact us' option on boards.social