Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

VoteFlip ("we", "our", or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our social polling platform (the "Service").

This policy describes our data practices and the choices available to you. Some optional processing, such as advertising cookies, only happens with your consent.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide

• Account data: Email address, username, display name, authentication provider, and password credentials handled by Supabase Auth
• Profile data: Bio, website, country, avatar/banner images, and optionally gender and age group
• Content: Polls you create, votes you cast, comments you post, and other interactions
• Messages and support: Direct messages, reports, contact form submissions, and support correspondence
• Preferences: Theme, language, cookie consent, and notification settings
• Payment data: Subscription tier and Stripe customer/subscription identifiers. Full card details are processed by Stripe and are not stored by VoteFlip

2.2 Information from Third-Party Sign-In

If you sign in using a third-party provider such as Google, we receive basic profile information such as your name, email address, and profile picture from the provider. We do not receive your password from these services.

2.3 Automatically Collected Information

• Usage data: Pages visited, features used, polls viewed, actions taken, and product analytics events
• Device and log data: IP address, browser type, operating system, screen size, request logs, and security events

We use this data to operate the Service, protect it from abuse, understand performance, and improve the product.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve the Service
• Create and manage your account
• Display your profile and content to other users
• Send notifications about activity on your polls (if enabled)
• Calculate reputation scores, streaks, and achievements
• Display leaderboards and community statistics
• Personalize your experience (language, theme)
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and violations of our Terms
• Respond to your inquiries and support requests

4. Cookies & Local Storage

We use the following cookies and browser storage:

The first four items above are strictly necessary or functional and do not require consent.

Advertising cookies (Google AdSense): If you are a free-tier user, we may show ads powered by Google AdSense. Google uses cookies and similar technologies to serve ads. These advertising cookies are only loaded after you explicitly consent via our cookie banner. If you decline, no ads are shown. Paid subscribers (Pro and Creator Pro) never see ads regardless of consent.

For more information about how Google uses data, visit Google's partner policy. You can also opt out of personalised ads at Google Ads Settings.

5. Data Sharing & Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information. We may share information in the following cases:

• Public content: Your username, display name, avatar, public profile fields, public polls, comments, and aggregate vote results are visible to other users based on your visibility settings
• Service providers: We use vendors that help operate the Service, including Supabase for database, storage, and authentication; Vercel for hosting and analytics; Stripe for payments; Resend for transactional email; Cloudflare Turnstile for bot protection; Google AdSense for advertising when consented; and MyMemory for optional translation
• Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by law, regulation, or legal process
• Safety: We may share information to protect the rights, safety, or property of VoteFlip, our users, or the public

6. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), secure password hashing, and access controls. However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Data Retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal obligations. Anonymized or aggregated data (such as total vote counts on polls) may be retained indefinitely.

8. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Correction: Update or correct inaccurate personal data via your Settings page
• Deletion: Delete your account from Settings or request deletion of associated personal data
• Portability: Download your data in JSON format from Settings
• Objection: Object to processing of your data for certain purposes
• Withdraw consent: Withdraw consent for optional data processing at any time

You can export or delete your account data in Settings. To exercise rights that are not available directly in the product, contact us at privacy@voteflip.com. We will respond within 30 days.

For EU/EEA Users (GDPR)

Our legal basis for processing your data includes: performance of a contract (providing the Service), legitimate interests (improving the Service, preventing abuse), and consent (optional data like demographics). You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

For California Users (CCPA)

California residents have the right to know what personal information is collected, request deletion, and opt out of the sale of personal information. We do not sell personal information.

9. Children's Privacy

VoteFlip is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected information from a child under 13, we will promptly delete it. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at privacy@voteflip.com.

10. International Data Transfers

Your data may be processed in countries other than your country of residence. We ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for any international transfers, including standard contractual clauses where applicable.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting the new policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

• Email: privacy@voteflip.com