Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us. Here's how we protect and use your information.

Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect your name, university email address, and campus information. This helps us verify you're a student and connect you with others on your campus.

Listing Information

When you list books for sale, we collect the book details, photos, descriptions, and pricing information you provide. This information is displayed publicly to help other students find your books.

Communication Data

We store messages sent through our platform to facilitate communication between buyers and sellers. Messages are only visible to the participants in each conversation.

Usage Information

We collect information about how you use BookYard, including pages visited, features used, and interactions with listings. This helps us improve our service.

How We Use Your Information

Provide Our Service

We use your information to operate BookYard, including displaying your listings, facilitating communication, and processing transactions.

Improve Our Platform

We analyze usage patterns to enhance features, fix bugs, and develop new functionality that better serves our student community.

Safety and Security

We use your information to detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and other harmful activities to keep our community safe.

Communication

We may send you important updates about your account, transactions, or changes to our service. You can opt out of non-essential communications.

Information Sharing

What We Share

We only share your information in limited circumstances:

Your public profile information (name, campus, ratings) is visible to other users
Book listings and associated information are publicly visible
We may share aggregated, anonymized data for research or business purposes
We may disclose information if required by law or to protect our users' safety

What We Don't Share

Your email address or contact information
Private messages between users
Personal information with advertisers or marketers
Your data with third parties for their own marketing purposes

Data Security

We take data security seriously and implement industry-standard measures to protect your information:

All data is encrypted in transit and at rest
We use secure, reputable cloud infrastructure providers
Access to personal data is limited to authorized personnel only
We regularly review and update our security practices
We conduct security audits and vulnerability assessments

Your Rights and Choices

Account Control

You can update your profile information, privacy settings, and communication preferences at any time through your account settings.

Data Access and Deletion

You can request a copy of your personal data or ask us to delete your account and associated information. Some information may be retained for legal or safety purposes.

Communication Preferences

You can opt out of non-essential emails and notifications. However, we may still send important account-related communications.