Village Privacy Policy

Effective October 2, 2026

Village is an iPhone app for organization of individual and group (“villages”) activities: threads, calendars, tasks, and messages. It is made by Christopher Chodaczek (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what information Village collects, why, who can see it, and the choices you have.

1. Information you give us

Your account

• Email address and password. Used to sign you in and to send account emails (confirming your address and resetting your password). Passwords are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form; we can't read them.
• Name and profile photo, if you add them. Your name is shown to the people you share villages and chats with.
• Vouching. New accounts are approved (“vouched for”) by an existing member, so we keep a record of who asked and who vouched.

What you create and share

• Villages you create or join, and the invitations and connection requests you send or receive.
• Threads, replies, and Small Talk chat messages, including any photos and audio messages you attach.
• Calendar events (title, time, notes, an optional photo, and a place if you add one) and your RSVP answers. If you answer for someone else, such as your child, the name you type is stored with that answer.
• Tasks, including due dates and who is doing them.
• Your personal settings for each village: pins, categories, and labels.
• Reports you make about posts or people, and the people you block.

2. Information collected automatically

• Notification token. If you allow notifications, Apple gives your iPhone a token that we store so we can send you notifications about new threads, replies, messages, and invitations.
• Read markers. We note which threads and chats you have opened, so the app can show what's new.
• Basic technical records. Our hosting provider keeps short-term server logs (such as the time of a request) to keep the service running and secure.

We do not collect your location, your contacts, or your browsing activity, and Village contains no advertising or analytics software.

3. Permissions on your iPhone

Village asks for these only when you use the feature that needs them. You can change them any time in the iPhone Settings app.

• Photos and Camera: to attach photos you choose, or take one.
• Microphone: to record audio messages. Recording only happens while you're recording a message.
• Notifications: to tell you about new activity and event reminders.
• Siri & Shortcuts: if you ask Siri to add a task, event, or thread, Siri (run by Apple) handles what you say and passes the details to Village. See Apple's privacy policy for how Siri works.

When you search for a place for an event, your search text is sent to Apple Maps to suggest places.

4. How we use your information

• To run Village: sign you in, show your villages, and share what you post with the right people.
• To send notifications and account emails.
• To keep Village safe: approve new accounts, handle reports, and honor blocks.
• To answer you when you contact us, including messages sent through “Suggestions? Let us know!”.

We don't use your information for advertising, and we don't sell or rent it to anyone.

5. Who can see what

• Village members see that village's threads, replies, photos, audio messages, events, RSVPs, tasks, and member list. Someone who joins a village sees threads posted after they joined, plus the village's events and tasks.
• Chat members see that chat's messages. Someone added to a chat sees messages sent after they were added.
• “Just me” is your private village: only you can see it.
• Reports are seen by the village's leader (for posts in that village) and by us.
• Your email address is not shown to other members. If someone invites you by typing your email, Village only confirms that a matching account exists.

6. Service providers

We use a small number of companies to run Village. They handle your information only to provide their service to us:

• Supabase: stores your account, posts, photos, and audio, and runs the server code that sends notifications.
• Resend: sends account emails (confirmations and password resets).
• Apple: delivers push notifications and provides Maps place search and Siri.

We may also share information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our users.

7. Keeping and deleting your information

We keep your information while your account exists. You can delete things you posted at any time, and you can delete your whole account in the app: Account → Delete Account.

When you delete your account:

• Your account, profile, threads, replies, chat messages, events, tasks you added, RSVPs, and personal settings are deleted, along with the photos and audio messages you uploaded.
• Villages you lead are handed to their longest-standing member, so the other members don't lose them. A village with no other members is deleted.
• A village or chat icon you set stays, if other people are still in that village or chat.
• Copies in our providers' backups are removed as those backups expire.

You can also ask us to delete your information by emailing privacy@takesthevillage.com.

8. Security

Information travels between the app and our servers encrypted (HTTPS). Access rules on our servers make sure only the right people can read each village, chat, photo, and audio message. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information.

9. Children

Village is meant for adults. We do not knowingly allow children under 18 to create accounts. Parents may type their children's first names, for example when answering an RSVP for them; please share only what your village needs. If you believe a child has created an account, email us and we will delete it.

10. Your choices and rights

You can see and change your profile in the app, edit or delete what you've posted, leave villages and chats, block people, and turn notifications off. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to request a copy of your information, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to how it is used. To make a request, email privacy@takesthevillage.com. We will respond within 60 days.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll post the new version here and update the date at the top. If the changes are significant, we'll also let you know in the app.

12. Contact

Questions about privacy or this policy: privacy@takesthevillage.com