Privacy Policy

Last Updated: August 10, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how TradeBound LLC (“TradeBound,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, and protects your personal information when you use our mobile application, website, and related services (the “Service”).

1. Information We Collect

Information You Provide

• Account information: email address, password, and phone number (held in our authentication system), plus your first name, zip code, profile photo, bio, and what you're here to do (buy, sell, or trade)
• Consent records: when you accepted these terms and, if you opted in, when you agreed to receive our newsletter
• Listing content: photos of items, descriptions, prices, and card details
• Messages: text and photos shared in conversations with other users
• Ratings and deal reports: star ratings, written comments, and reports that a deal did not happen
• Safety actions: reports you file about listings or other users, and the list of users you have blocked
• Communications: emails or messages you send to us, and information you submit through forms on our website
• Purchases: if you buy an optional paid feature, we receive a record that a purchase was made (such as the item, date, and a transaction identifier from the app store). Payment card details are entered with and processed by Apple or Google — we never see or store your card number.

Information Collected Automatically

• Infrastructure logs: our service providers (see below) automatically log technical data such as IP addresses and access times as part of operating their systems
• Usage and analytics data: to understand how the app is used and to improve it, we collect app-activity data such as screens viewed, features used, session length, actions like creating a listing or sending a message, and general device and app information (device type, operating system version, app version, and a non-identifying app-install identifier). This is aggregate, behavioral data — not the contents of your messages.
• Crash and diagnostic data: if the app crashes or errors, we collect diagnostic information (such as the error, device model, operating system, and app version) so we can fix problems.
• Push notification token: if you enable notifications, your device provides a push token so we can deliver alerts (such as a new message). You can turn notifications off at any time in your device settings.
• Location: the zip code you provide, which we keep private — it is never displayed in the app or shared with other users, and is used only to show approximate distance. We do not collect or track your precise GPS location.

Information We Do NOT Collect

• Precise GPS location (we use zip code only)
• Payment or card numbers — any purchases are handled entirely by the Apple App Store or Google Play; your card details never pass through or reach TradeBound
• Government-issued identification
• Last names (we only collect first names)
• Advertising identifiers — we do not use advertising trackers or share data with advertisers

2. 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 listings to other users
• Facilitate communication between users
• Calculate and display user ratings
• Show you listings and safe meetup spots near your zip code
• Send you push notifications about activity relevant to you, such as a new message (only if you enable them)
• Understand how the app is used, measure performance, and improve features (usage and analytics data)
• Diagnose crashes and fix bugs (crash and diagnostic data)
• Process and deliver optional paid features you choose to buy
• Send you newsletters and updates (only if you opted in; you can opt out at any time)
• Detect, prevent, and address fraud, abuse, and safety issues
• Enforce our Terms of Service

3. How We Share Your Information

Information Displayed to Other Users

• Your first name, profile photo, and bio
• Your star rating, number of ratings, and completed deals count
• A “no-shows reported” indicator, only when multiple different users have reported no-shows recently
• Your member-since date and verification status
• Your active and sold listings
• When you like a listing, the seller of that listing can see that you liked it (your first name and rating). Other users cannot see what you have liked, and your full list of liked listings is never shown to anyone.
• An approximate distance between you and a listing. Your zip code is kept private — it is never displayed in the app and never shared with or shown to other users. Only a coarse, approximate area based on it is used to calculate distance.

Information We Never Display

• Your email address and phone number — these are held in our authentication system and are not part of your public profile
• Your exact location

Third-Party Service Providers

We share information with service providers who operate the Service's infrastructure:

• Google Firebase — authentication (including SMS delivery for phone verification), database, file storage, and server functions. Data is hosted in the United States.
• Analytics and crash reporting — we use analytics and crash-reporting tools (such as a third-party product-analytics service and a crash-reporting service) to understand usage and diagnose errors.
• Push notification services — Expo and the Apple and Google push notification systems deliver notifications to your device.
• App stores — if you buy an optional paid feature, the Apple App Store or Google Play (and our purchase-management provider, such as RevenueCat) process the payment and send us a record of the purchase. Your card details are handled by the app store, not by us.
• Netlify — hosts our website and receives what you submit through its forms (such as the launch-notification signup)

These providers process data on our behalf and may only use it to provide services to us.

Legal and Safety Disclosures

We may disclose information when we believe in good faith it is necessary to comply with a law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request; to enforce our Terms of Service; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of TradeBound, our users, or the public.

We Do Not Sell Your Data

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party. We do not share your data with advertisers. We do not use your data for third-party targeted advertising. This is a firm commitment, not a marketing claim.

4. Photo Privacy and Safety

To protect your privacy and safety, all photos uploaded to TradeBound — listing photos, profile photos, and photos shared in messages — are processed on your device before upload:

• Location and camera metadata (EXIF data) is stripped. Photos you upload carry no embedded GPS coordinates or camera information that could reveal your location or identity.
• Photos are resized and compressed to reduce storage and bandwidth usage.

We strongly advise users not to include personal information (addresses, phone numbers, license plates) in photos.

5. Data Retention and Account Deletion

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active. You can delete your account at any time from your Profile in the app. When you delete your account, the following are deleted immediately:

• Your profile (name, zip code, photo, bio) and your sign-in account (email and phone number)
• All of your listings and their photos
• Your saved listings and block list

Some information persists after account deletion:

• Messages you sent (including photos) remain in your conversation partners’ inboxes, no longer linked to an active account
• Star ratings you gave and received remain, displayed as from or about a “Deleted User,” to preserve the integrity of other users’ rating histories
• If your account was flagged for abuse (such as no-show reports) before deletion, a one-way, irreversible scrambled form of your phone number is kept for up to 90 days, used solely to detect and prevent ban evasion. It cannot be reversed to your phone number or used to identify or contact you, and it is deleted automatically after 90 days.

We may retain anonymized, aggregated data that cannot be used to identify you.

6. Your Rights and Choices

• Access: you can view your profile information in the app at any time
• Correction: you can update your profile through Edit Profile (name and photo changes may be limited in frequency to protect reputation integrity)
• Deletion: you can delete your account from your Profile. Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.
• Newsletter opt-out: unsubscribe using the link in any newsletter email, or email us and we will remove you

If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, or another state with consumer privacy laws, you may have additional rights. Contact us at support@tradebound.app to exercise these rights.

7. Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information, including:

• Encryption of data in transit and at rest
• Phone number verification to prevent fake accounts
• Automatic removal of photo metadata (EXIF stripping) before upload
• Server-side access rules restricting who can read and write user data

However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of your data.

8. Children’s Privacy

TradeBound is not intended for users under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a user under 18, we will delete that information and terminate the associated account immediately. If you believe a user is under 18, please report them to support@tradebound.app.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by updating the date at the top of this policy and, where appropriate, through in-app notifications. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, please contact us at:

Email: support@tradebound.app
Website: tradebound.app