Campus Polls Privacy Policy

1. What We Collect

1.1. Account Information

To access Campus Polls, you must verify your @uga.edu email.

We never store your real email. Instead, we store:

• A hashed version of your email using SHA-256
• A verification record containing a temporary code (automatically deleted after expiration)

You may optionally add:

• Major
• Year
• Other non-identifying profile info

These fields are always stored anonymously and used only for aggregate insights (for example, "business majors are split on this poll").

1.2. Polls and Votes

When you create a poll or vote on a poll, we store:

• The poll text and options
• Your anonymous vote
• An anonymous, hashed user ID to enforce "one vote per person"

We do not store voter identities.

1.3. Device & Usage Information

Standard app analytics through Firebase:

• App version
• Device type
• Anonymous event logs (e.g., poll viewed, poll created, vote cast)

No device-level identifiers (e.g., IMEI, advertising ID) are collected.

1.4. Generated Content

AI services (OpenAI / Azure OpenAI) may process:

• Poll text
• Poll options
• Caption text for posts
• Trend summaries

Polls are processed anonymously. No user-identifying information is sent to AI models.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use collected data solely to:

• Verify that you are a UGA student
• Prevent duplicate accounts
• Moderate and improve poll quality
• Power app features (feeds, trending, notifications)
• Generate anonymous trend summaries
• Create automated content for social media (poll recaps, memes)
• Keep the platform safe and prevent abuse

We do not use personal data for marketing.
We do not run third-party ads.
We do not sell any data to anyone.

3. How We Keep Data Anonymous

Campus Polls is designed from the ground up to protect student identity:

• No raw emails are ever stored
• Email hashing prevents reverse lookup
• Votes never contain identifying information
• Poll creators are labeled by anonymous IDs
• Moderator logs contain no personal data
• AI content generation receives only poll text, not user data
• Verification codes automatically expire and are deleted
• Sensitive records (like verification attempts) are cleaned regularly

Even internally, we cannot determine who voted on or created a specific poll.

4. How Long We Keep Information

• Verification codes: deleted automatically after expiration
• Polls and votes: kept indefinitely for historical analytics
• Usage logs: kept according to Firebase's default retention windows
• Templates, posts, archives: kept for internal analytics and content history

You can request deletion of your account data at any time (see Section 8).

5. Sharing of Information

We only share data with:

5.1. Service Providers

• Firebase (authentication, database, analytics)
• OpenAI / Azure OpenAI (poll moderation, tagging, trend/caption generation)
• Cloudinary (image hosting)
• Instagram, TikTok, X APIs (only when posting Campus Polls content, never your data)

All providers process your data solely to enable app features.

5.2. Compliance with Law

If required by law, we may disclose information.
We do not share data voluntarily with third parties.

6. Data Security

We apply multiple layers of protection:

• Firestore security rules
• Encrypted connections
• Hashed email verification
• Role-based access for admin tools
• Automatic cleanup jobs for sensitive data
• No plaintext personal identifiers stored anywhere

No system is perfectly secure, but we take student privacy extremely seriously.

7. Children's Privacy

Campus Polls is intended for UGA students (typically 18+).
We do not knowingly collect data from minors.

8. Your Choices & Rights

You can:

• Request deletion of your hashed account identifier
• Request deletion of optional profile information
• Request removal of polls you created
• Request removal of content you believe violates your privacy

To make a request, contact us at:

[Insert support email]

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as Campus Polls evolves.
Continued use of the app means you accept the latest version.

10. Contact Information

If you have questions or concerns, reach out:

Email: [Insert support email]
Developer: Campus Polls Team (UGA student-run project)