1. What We Collect
Account information. When you register, we collect your email address, a username you choose, and your password — your password itself is never stored by us; it's handled entirely by Firebase Authentication, which stores only a securely hashed version.
Location information. With your permission, we collect your device's location to center the map and show nearby shops and events. Sellers may also save a business address, a general community/neighbourhood name, or their current location so buyers can find them — entirely optional and seller-controlled.
Photos and content you upload. Profile photos, shop logos and cover photos, item listing photos, and event photos are uploaded to our storage and linked to your account.
Messages. If you message another user, we store the conversation and its messages so both people can see their chat history.
Marketplace activity. The listings, events, and reviews you create; the appointments (bookings) you request or receive; the order requests you make or receive, including the quantity, how you chose to get the item, and any note you add; the payment methods and instructions a seller chooses to show on their shop; the shops/items/events you favourite; and any users you choose to block.
Trip itineraries. If you use Itinerary Mode, we store the itineraries you build — the dates of your trip, the towns you plan to be in each day, the stops you choose, and any planned times, notes, or stops of your own that you add — so you can open and edit them on any device you sign in on.
Seller plan purchases. If you buy a Paid or Premium seller plan, Apple takes the payment — we never see or store your card or billing details. Apple tells us which plan you bought, when it renews or ends, and a transaction ID for the subscription, and we keep that against your shop so the right plan stays switched on.
Reports and support requests. If you report content, another user, or a bug, we store what you submitted so our moderators can review it.
Usage and device information. We collect basic usage events tagged with a session ID, your app version, and platform, and — if signed in — your account ID. These events record actions such as viewing a shop or listing, tapping a seller's contact details, starting a conversation, or running a search — and when you run a search, the words you typed are stored as part of that event. We also use Google Analytics for Firebase for standard app-usage analytics. A device push-notification token is stored so we can deliver notifications; you can turn individual notification types off in the app at any time.
2. How We Use It
To run the marketplace — show listings and events on the map, connect buyers and sellers, and handle bookings and order requests. To enable messaging between users. To send notifications based on your preferences. To keep the platform safe — review reports, enforce blocks, and take moderation action when needed. To understand and improve the app through aggregate usage analytics. And to verify requests are genuine, using Firebase App Check to confirm requests come from a real, unmodified copy of the app rather than a bot or tampered client.
4. Where It's Stored
Our primary database is hosted in Google Cloud's Toronto, Canada region. Some backend processing — including authentication and certain automated functions — runs on Google's broader global infrastructure, which can include servers in the United States, handled under Google's own data-protection commitments as our service provider.
5. How Long We Keep Information
We keep your information for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account: your profile, shop, listings, events, saved locations, favourites, notification settings, uploaded photos, and username reservation are deleted. Bookings, order requests, and conversations you were part of are kept — with your name replaced by "Deleted user" — because the other party has a legitimate reason to keep their booking, order, or chat history. Reviews you wrote about others are kept as part of the platform's public record. Reports are handled under the retention schedule in section 5a. Usage analytics events have your account ID removed from them rather than being deleted outright, so we keep aggregate insight without it being tied to you; the events themselves are then deleted on the ordinary schedule described below. This cleanup starts automatically as soon as your account is deleted and usually completes within minutes.
Usage analytics, specifically. Individual usage events — including any search terms they contain — are automatically deleted 90 days after they are recorded. Before that happens, each day is summarised into daily totals: for example, how many people viewed a particular shop, and the most common search terms across everyone who searched. Those daily summaries contain no account IDs and are kept indefinitely, which is what lets a seller see long-term trends for their own shop without us keeping a record of who did what.
Trip itineraries, specifically. Once the last day of a trip has passed, the itinerary moves to your archive and is automatically deleted 3 months later. You can delete an itinerary yourself at any time, and all of your itineraries are deleted when you delete your account.
5a. Reported Content and Our Retention Schedule
When someone reports a shop, listing, event or conversation for being abusive, illegal, fraudulent or otherwise against our Terms, we take a copy of the reported content at the moment it is reported, including its text, its details, and any photos attached to it.
We do this for one reason: so that the person who posted something cannot erase the evidence simply by deleting it. Without a copy, deleting a listing would also delete our ability to look into a complaint about it.
Deleting still works the way you expect. If you delete a listing, an event, your shop or your whole account, it stops being visible in the app immediately. The retained copy is never public: it is not shown to other users, and only our moderation team can open it.
We keep that copy for up to one year from the date the report was made. After one year we automatically and permanently destroy the personal information attached to the report: the copy of the content, the retained photos, who made the report, who it was about, and any notes they wrote. What remains is an anonymous record of what kind of report it was and how it was resolved. That record contains no personal information and helps us see patterns of misuse over time.
If a report becomes part of an ongoing legal or law enforcement matter, we may need to keep the related information for longer, and only for as long as that matter requires.
6. Deleting Your Account
You can delete your account from within the app at any time. Doing so permanently removes your login and triggers the cleanup described above — this cannot be undone. If you'd rather just stop using the app without deleting anything, you can simply sign out; nothing is deleted unless you choose to delete your account.
In the app: open LocaLify, go to Settings > Account > Delete Account, enter your password to confirm, and tap Delete.
Without the app: if you no longer have LocaLify installed, email localecalgary@gmail.com from the email address on your account, with the subject "Delete my LocaLify account". We will confirm the request and delete the account within 30 days, with the same cleanup and the same exceptions described in section 5.
7. Your Choices
You can access and correct most of your profile and content directly in the app. You can control location sharing at any time in your device settings, and sellers can independently turn off their shop's visible location. You can manage each notification type individually in the app's settings. You can delete your account at any time (see section 6). For anything not covered by an in-app control — for example, requesting a copy of your data — contact us using the details in section 12; we aim to respond within 30 days.
8. Children's Privacy
LocaLify is not directed at children and is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 16. We set this age deliberately, in line with Canada's proposed federal legislation restricting social media access for users under 16 — LocaLify includes messaging and public user-generated content, so we're applying the same standard even ahead of any law requiring it.
We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16, and an account found to belong to someone under 16 will be closed. If a minor under 16 wants to sell items, offer a service, or run a shop on LocaLify, that must be done through an account created and controlled by a parent or legal guardian — see our Terms & Conditions for what that means. If you believe someone under 16 has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will take steps to delete it.
9. Security
Data in transit between the app and our servers is encrypted (HTTPS/TLS), and data at rest in our database and file storage is encrypted by Google Cloud by default. Access to your private data is enforced by server-side rules — your email address and moderation status, for example, are readable only by you and by administrators, never by other users. We also use Firebase App Check to help block automated or tampered clients from accessing our backend. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security, but we take reasonable, industry-standard steps to protect your information.
10. International Data Transfers
Our core database is stored in Canada. Because we rely on Google's global cloud infrastructure for authentication and some backend processing, your information may be processed on servers located outside Canada, including in the United States, subject to Google's own data-protection safeguards as our service provider.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy as the app changes. If we make a material change, we'll update the "last updated" date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.
12. Contact Us
Questions about this policy, or requests about your personal information, can be sent to:
LocaLify
Email: localecalgary@gmail.com