Privacy Policy

Top Townie ("Top Townie," "we," "us," or "our") operates the Top Townie mobile app, the website at toptownie.com, and the business console at business.toptownie.com. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices you have — including how to delete your account.

Top Townie is a neighborhood app that connects local residents with the businesses around them. We try to collect as little personal data as possible, and we never sell it.

If you have questions about this policy, email us at privacy@toptownie.com.

Introduction

This policy applies to:

• The Top Townie mobile app on iOS and Android.
• The website at toptownie.com and any pages served from that domain.
• Any support or account-related email exchanges with us at addresses ending in @toptownie.com.
• The business console at business.toptownie.com, used by business owners and managers.

It does not cover third-party services you may reach from Top Townie (for example, a business's own website or social media), or the privacy practices of businesses listed on Top Townie.

Top Townie's services are intended for adults living in or visiting the communities we serve. See Children's privacy below.

What we collect

We collect three categories of information.

1. Information you give us

• Account information. When you sign up, we collect your email address, first and last name, and (optionally) a profile photo you upload. Authentication is handled by our identity provider (see Third parties).
• Content you create. Likes, bookmarks, follows, and any business profiles, posts, photos, or edits you contribute as a business owner.
• Photos you upload. Your avatar, plus any photos you attach to a business profile or a business post, are stored with our media-storage provider (see Third parties).
• Phone numbers (verification and disputes). If you claim ownership of a business, we collect the phone number you use to verify that claim. If another user disputes a claim, we collect their phone number as well. Today phone numbers are used only for verification and fraud prevention; we may also use them in the future for account-management functions such as SMS recovery or two-factor authentication, if we add those features.
• Content reports. If you report a post, photo, business profile, or another user as objectionable or abusive, we collect the content identifier, your reason (if you provide one), and the timestamp.
• Support communications. If you email us at support@toptownie.com or another @toptownie.com address, we keep the content of that email and any attachments you send.

2. Information collected automatically

• Usage and device data. We log basic technical information when you use the app — device type, operating system version, app version, a device identifier, anonymized session identifiers, the screens you visit, your in-app search terms, and your interactions (taps, scrolls, content you save or follow). This data is processed by our product-analytics provider (see Third parties) and is used to understand how the product is used in aggregate.
• Precise location. When you grant location permission, we use your device's location to show businesses and posts near you, to compute distances, and to record check-ins. Browsing nearby businesses uses your location only at request time. When you check in to a business, we save a check-in record — the business, the time, and the device coordinate reported at that moment — as part of your account data. You can revoke location permission at any time in your device settings; without it, you can still browse by selecting a city or ZIP code manually, and you will not be able to check in.
• Visit duration. While the app is open, Top Townie may notice that you have left a business you checked in to, so the visit's duration is recorded accurately. This happens only while the app is open and on screen; nothing is recorded once you close it or switch away. If you leave while the app is closed, the visit is reconciled from a single location reading the next time you open it, or closed automatically after a time limit.
• Crash and error reports. When the app crashes or hits an unhandled error, we collect a stack trace, app/device/OS version, and an anonymized user identifier so the error can be attributed without exposing your identity. This data is processed by our error-monitoring provider (see Third parties).
• Network logs. Our hosting and CDN provider retains standard network logs, including IP addresses, for fraud and abuse prevention.

3. Information we do not collect

To be explicit about what we avoid:

• We do not collect your contacts, calendar, microphone, or camera (beyond one-time media picker access when you upload a photo, with your permission).
• We do not track you across other apps or websites. We do not access your advertising identifier (IDFA on iOS, AAID on Android).
• We do not buy or sell personal information from or to data brokers.
• We do not run advertising on Top Townie and do not include third-party ad SDKs.

How we use it

We use the information above to:

• Provide the core product — show you businesses in your community, let you follow and engage with them, and surface their posts in your feed.
• Record check-ins you make to local businesses, at your initiative, and maintain your check-in history.
• Record how long a visit lasted, using your location only while the app is open and on screen.
• Use your location, when granted, to show businesses near you and compute distances.
• Authenticate you and keep your account secure.
• Enable business owners to claim and manage their business profile.
• Investigate and resolve ownership disputes and fraud attempts.
• Investigate and act on user reports of objectionable content or abusive behavior.
• Diagnose crashes and fix bugs.
• Understand which features are used and which aren't, in aggregate.
• Respond to your support requests.
• Comply with applicable law, enforce our Terms of Service, and protect the safety of our users and the public.

We do not use your personal information to train generative AI models, to build profiles for advertising, or to share with data brokers.

Business information is different from personal information. Businesses listed on Top Townie are public entities, and their public-facing details — name, address, phone number, and the events they publish — are business information, not personal information about you. Top Townie may distribute or license that business information to third parties such as publishers, tourism organizations, and other platforms, and may create statistics and benchmarks from it. This is not a sale of personal information: it never includes your name, your account, who created or edited a listing, or any other information about an individual. Our commitment not to sell personal information is unchanged. The terms that govern this are in the Business data and event listings section of our Terms of Service.

Third parties

To run Top Townie, we rely on a small number of service providers — described below by the role they play, rather than by brand. This lets us swap a vendor for a more privacy-respecting one without having to revise this policy. The current named list of subprocessors is available on request from privacy@toptownie.com and is updated whenever we add, change, or remove a provider.

Role	What they receive	Why
Identity & authentication provider	Your email, name, profile photo, and authentication events (sign-in times, device).	Account sign-up, sign-in, session management, and account recovery.
Product analytics provider	An anonymized session identifier, device type, OS and app version, screen names, in-app search terms, and event names. Analytics are disabled in development environments.	Understanding which features are used in aggregate so we can improve the product.
Error-monitoring provider	Stack traces, device and OS information, app version, and an anonymized user identifier attached to errors.	Diagnosing crashes and fixing bugs.
Hosting, CDN & media storage	IP addresses, request logs, and any media (avatar, business and post photos) you upload.	Serving the app and the website, storing media, and providing network-level protection against abuse.
Database & backend infrastructure	All application data not covered by one of the roles above — likes, bookmarks, follows, check-in records, business memberships, verification and dispute records, and business content.	Storing your account and the content tied to it.

We choose providers that operate under privacy-respecting terms. Each is bound by a Data Processing Agreement that restricts them to processing data on our behalf. We do not share your personal information with advertising networks, analytics resellers, or data brokers.

Future integrations — for example, a payments processor if we add paid business features — will be reflected in the named subprocessor list before they go live, and called out in this policy if they introduce a new category of data sharing.

Data retention

We keep different categories of data for different lengths of time.

• Active account data. Your account and the content tied to it (likes, follows, memberships, business content you contribute) are kept as long as your account is active.
• Check-in records. Check-ins you create are kept as long as your account is active and are removed when you delete your account.
• Visit-departure records. The departure events that verify your check-ins are kept alongside your check-in history and removed when you delete your account.
• Verification and dispute records. Verification phone numbers and dispute claimant phone numbers are kept for fraud prevention. When you delete your account, the underlying row is retained but your personal identifiers (phone numbers) are removed — see Account deletion.
• Business content. Business profiles, posts, photos, verified edits, and category assignments describe public-facing businesses. This content is retained even after the user who created it deletes their account; attribution is anonymized, and sole-owner businesses become unclaimed. See Account deletion for the full explanation.
• Analytics and crash reports. Event history and error reports are retained by our analytics and error-monitoring providers per their default retention windows. When you delete your account, we request deletion of your event history from the analytics provider and notify the error-monitoring provider.
• Content reports. Reports of objectionable content or abusive behavior, and the audit record of how each was resolved, are retained for the lifetime of the related account plus 90 days, for safety and abuse-pattern analysis. Personal identifiers in resolved reports are scrubbed when the reporter's or reported user's account is deleted.
• Support emails. Support threads are kept for up to 3 years, then deleted.
• Network logs. Retained by our hosting and CDN provider per their standard retention policy.

Your rights

Regardless of where you live, you have the right to:

• Access your account data. Email privacy@toptownie.com to request a copy of the personal data we have about you.
• Correct inaccurate data. Most profile fields are editable in the app; for fields you can't edit yourself, email us.
• Delete your account and associated personal data. See Account deletion.
• Withdraw consent for optional processing (for example, opting out of product analytics). Contact us and we'll walk you through the options available on your platform.

If you are a resident of California (CCPA/CPRA), the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with similar laws, you also have the right to:

• Know what categories of personal information we collect and why.
• Obtain a portable copy of your personal information.
• Object to or restrict certain processing activities.
• Lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@toptownie.com. We respond within 30 days. We do not discriminate against users who exercise their privacy rights.

We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined under California law.

Account deletion

You can delete your Top Townie account at any time. There are two paths:

In the app

Open Top Townie → Settings → Delete Account. You'll see a confirmation screen that summarizes what is deleted, what is retained, and how the process works. After you confirm, you are signed out, and your account is scheduled for deletion.

Without the app

If you no longer have the app installed (or can't access it), visit toptownie.com/delete-account or email support@toptownie.com from the address you used to sign up. Support will verify your identity and initiate deletion on your behalf.

How deletion works

Deletion runs in two phases:

1. Phase 1 — Request (immediate). Your account is marked as scheduled for deletion, you are signed out, and further app writes from your account are rejected. This starts a 30-day grace period during which you can sign back in and cancel the deletion.
2. Phase 2 — Finalization (30 days after request). If you have not cancelled, a scheduled job runs that:
   • Deletes your likes, bookmarks, follows, and business memberships.
   • Deletes your check-in history.
   • Deletes your visit-departure records.
   • Removes your personal identifiers (for example, verification and dispute phone numbers) from records that are retained for fraud prevention.
   • Anonymizes your user record in place — your email, name, profile photo, and authentication identifier are cleared — so that audit references to content you authored continue to resolve without exposing your identity.
   • Deletes your account at our identity & authentication provider via their API.
   • Requests deletion of your event history from our analytics provider and notifies our error-monitoring provider.
   • Deletes any user-scoped media stored with our media-storage provider.

What is kept, and why

Three statements describe what happens to non-user data when you delete your account:

1. "Businesses you manage are public entity data and will remain, unclaimed, after your account is deleted."
2. "Verification and dispute records are retained for fraud prevention; your personal identifiers are removed."
3. "Deletion cannot be undone. Re-registering creates a new account — your old account cannot be restored."

If something goes wrong

If a step of Phase 2 fails (for example, a transient error from our identity provider's API), the deletion job retries. The database mutations are atomic — either they all succeed or they all roll back — so your account is never left in a half-deleted state. The 30-day grace period always finishes first.

Every deletion request, cancellation, and execution is recorded in an internal audit log so we can investigate any issue.

Children's privacy

Top Townie is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided personal information to Top Townie, email privacy@toptownie.com and we will delete the account.

For users aged 13–17, we recommend using Top Townie under the guidance of a parent or guardian.

Security

We apply reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information. Authentication tokens are stored in the platform's secure storage (iOS Keychain / Android Keystore via expo-secure-store). Database access is restricted by default — Row-Level Security is enabled on every table, and no direct client access is permitted; every write goes through a server-side Edge Function with explicit authorization checks.

No system is perfectly secure. If we become aware of a breach affecting your information, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities within the timeframes required by applicable law.

International users

Top Townie is operated from the United States. By using Top Townie, you understand that your information may be processed in the United States or in another country where our processors operate. We rely on Standard Contractual Clauses and equivalent mechanisms with our processors where required.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make a material change, we will:

• Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
• Post a notice in the app and on toptownie.com/privacy at least 14 days before the change takes effect.
• For significant changes that expand how we use your information, ask for renewed consent where required by law.

Earlier versions of this policy are available on request by emailing privacy@toptownie.com.

Contact us

For any privacy question, request, or concern:

• Email: privacy@toptownie.com
• Support (including deletion requests from users who no longer have the app): support@toptownie.com
• Mailing: Top Townie, Mohawk Valley, New York, USA — exact address available on request.

We aim to respond to all privacy inquiries within 30 days.