Privacy Policy

Information you provide

Account details: your name, email address, and (optionally) phone number.

Community content: the communities you join, your role, profiles, care requests, meal sign-ups, messages, resources, and notes you choose to add.

Family care details: when authorized members add information about a family they support (such as needs, dietary restrictions, or prayer requests). aVillage never requires a child's name — the name field on a household or placement card is optional, and a first name or initials is all we ever suggest. Please do not enter sensitive legal, medical, or case-file details.

Payment information: if you make a donation, our payment processor (Stripe) collects your payment details directly. We receive only limited transaction data — such as the amount, date, and status — and never your full card number.

Phone number and messaging consent: if you opt in to text messages, we store your phone number and your consent so we can send the messages you asked for.

Information collected automatically

Basic device and app information (device type, operating system, app version) and diagnostic/log data used to keep the app working and secure.

Simple usage counts: we record which days you open the app in each of your communities, as a per-day number. This tells us and your community's leaders how many people are engaging — it is never a record of which screens you visit or what you do, and only totals are ever shown.

We do not use third-party advertising trackers, and we do not sell your information.

Camera

On mobile, the app uses your camera only when you choose to scan a community invite QR code. Scanned images are processed on your device and are not stored or uploaded.

How we use information

To provide and operate aVillage — authentication, your communities, care coordination, and notifications.

To keep the service safe and secure, prevent abuse, and comply with law.

To communicate with you about your account and important updates.

AI-assisted features

aVillage may offer optional AI-assisted features (for example, helping draft a message or care request). These are clearly labeled where available.

When you use an AI feature, the text you provide for that task is sent to our AI provider (Anthropic) to generate a suggestion. We do not send your data to AI providers except when you actively use an AI feature.

AI output is a draft only — it can be inaccurate or incomplete, is not professional (legal, medical, or child-welfare) advice, and should be reviewed by a person before it is used or sent.

We do not permit our AI provider to use your content to train their models.

Payments and donations

Donations and church contributions are processed by Stripe, our third-party payment processor. Your card or bank details go directly to Stripe and are handled under Stripe's privacy policy; aVillage never sees or stores your full payment-card number.

We keep a record of each payment's amount, date, status, whether you chose to cover the processing fee, and whether it was a gift to a community, a gift to aVillage, or a church's contribution, so we can show giving history, provide receipts, and meet our legal and accounting obligations.

When you donate to a community, the community's leaders can see that a donation was made to them and its amount.

Text messages (SMS)

Text messaging is optional and off until you opt in. If you opt in, we use your phone number to send the messages you requested (such as care-need alerts and reminders) through our SMS provider, Twilio.

Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. You can opt out at any time by replying STOP, or get help by replying HELP; you can also turn texts off in the app.

We do not sell or share your phone number for others' marketing, and we use it only to operate the messaging you opted in to. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes, and text-messaging opt-in data and consent will not be shared with any third parties.

How we share information

Within your community: content is visible to others in the same community according to your role and the app's visibility controls (for example, leader-only notes stay with leaders).

Service providers: we use Supabase for our database, authentication, and hosting, Anthropic for AI features, Stripe to process payments and donations, and Twilio to deliver text messages. They process data on our behalf under their own security and privacy commitments, and their handling of payment and phone data is also governed by their own privacy policies.

Legal and safety: we may disclose information if required by law or to protect the rights, safety, or property of users, the public, or aVillage.

Mailing list export: a community's leaders can export a list of confirmed email addresses to use in their own email tool (such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact), so they can send updates outside the app. This never includes anyone who has opted out of that community's newsletter emails, or an address we have not confirmed.

We do not sell your personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Your choices and rights

You can view and update your profile in Settings at any time.

You can delete your account from Settings → Delete account, which removes your account and personal data, subject to limited records we must keep for legal or security reasons.

Depending on where you live (for example, California, Colorado, the EU, or the UK), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or port your data, and to appeal a decision. Contact us to exercise these rights.

Data retention

We keep your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the service. When you delete your account, we delete or de-identify your personal data within a reasonable period, except where we must retain it to comply with law or resolve disputes.

Beyond that, specific things expire automatically on a nightly schedule: in-app notifications after 180 days; closed content reports (which may quote the reported content) after 12 months; text-message delivery logs after 13 months; per-day app-open counts after 13 months; a family-connect questionnaire after 12 months once it has been matched or withdrawn; and a join request after 12 months once it has been decided. Anything still open — an unresolved report, a family still waiting, a pending request — is never expired out from under the people relying on it.

When community staff delete shared coordination content (a care need, meal train, event, drive, or resource), a recovery copy is kept for 14 days so a mistaken deletion can be restored by staff, then it is permanently deleted. Content removed by moderators for violating community standards is deleted immediately, with no recovery copy.

Two things we deliberately keep. Donation and contribution records are retained as financial records (de-identified rather than deleted when an account is removed), and records of consent to receive text messages are retained so we can show when and how consent was given.

One thing we deliberately never expire: a family's own household roster, including children who have moved on. That is the family's history, not our data to clean up — they can delete any part of it themselves, and deleting their account removes it with them.

Security

Access to community data is enforced with database row-level security, and data is encrypted in transit. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and limit access to what each role needs.

Children's privacy

aVillage accounts are for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to create one — the same minimum the Terms of Service state — and we confirm it at sign-up. aVillage is not directed to children, children do not have aVillage accounts, and we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from a child. If we learn that someone under 18 has created an account, we delete it and the information associated with it.

A foster, adoptive, or kinship family may keep a private household roster in their own account, which can include a child's first name or initials, birthday, and photo. That information is provided by the parent or caregiver — never collected from a child, who has no account and no way to use aVillage. The roster is visible ONLY to the family's own account: not to church staff, not to other members, and not to other communities, enforced in the database rather than hidden in the app. Every field is optional, including the child's name; the family can delete any card at any time; and we never age it out on our own, because it is their record to keep.

aVillage is a coordination tool, not a case-management system. Please keep case numbers, legal filings, and medical records out of the app entirely.

International users

aVillage is operated from the United States. If you use the app from outside the U.S., you understand your information will be processed in the U.S. and other countries where our providers operate.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.

Contact us

Questions about privacy? Email privacy@avillage.app.