Privacy Policy

This explains what Zippalo collects, why, and the choices you have. We don’t sell your personal information and we don’t run third-party ads.

What we collect

• Account: email, display name, home town, and your confirmation that you’re 18+. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name and verified email.
• Mobile number: if you verify it. We check its carrier line type to block internet/VoIP numbers. It is never shown to other members.
• Listings, photos and videos: what you post. Photos are resized and their hidden metadata — including the GPS location phones embed — is removed before they’re stored.
• Messages, offers, bids and reviews you send through Zippalo.
• Location during Meetup Lock: only while a trade’s payment is held, the buyer’s phone shares its location with our server, and the seller’s phone shares it once at the moment of the QR scan, to confirm you’re within about 100 feet. We never show your location to the other person and don’t use it for anything else.
• Payments: handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number. Sellers’ identity and bank details go directly to Stripe.
• Device and usage: a cookie that keeps you signed in, a device cookie for free-scan limits, and basic server logs.

How we use it

• To run the marketplace, process Meetup Lock payments, and deliver messages and notifications.
• To keep people safe: automated scans block explicit images, scams, off-platform contact info, and prohibited items; reports are reviewed by our team.
• To show public profile info: your display name, town, member-since date, ratings, reviews and listings.

Service providers

We share only what’s needed with: Stripe (payments and payouts), Google Cloud (photo and video safety scanning; Google sign-in if you choose it), Anthropic (AI Camera Scan and the Zip assistant — only the photo or question you send), Twilio (phone verification), Resend (email), and our hosting provider. Each processes data on our behalf under its own privacy terms.

Your choices

• Edit your profile and choose which emails you get in Account settings.
• Block members so they can’t message you.
• Delete your account anytime in Account settings — your listings come down and open trades are cancelled with holds released. Some records (completed payments, safety reports) are kept as required by law.

Security

Sign-in codes and session tokens are stored only as one-way hashes, all traffic is encrypted (HTTPS), and access to member data is limited to staff who need it.

Contact

Privacy questions or requests: privacy@zippalo.net.