Privacy Policy

When you create an account, we collect:

• Username.A handle you choose, 3–30 characters long. It does not need to be (and we recommend it not be) your real name.
• Password. Sent over an encrypted connection and stored only as a secure cryptographic hash by our authentication provider — we never store or see your actual password.
• An internal account identifier. Our authentication provider requires an email-shaped identifier for every account, so we generate a synthetic one from your username (in the form username@users.greensteam.internal). It is a technical label, not a real mailbox: you never provide a real email address, no mail is ever sent to it, and it cannot receive mail.
• Account creation date. Recorded automatically when you sign up.

As you use the Service, we also collect:

• Connections. The food sources and donation programs you choose to connect with, and when you connected, so we can show them on your My Connections page.
• Entries. The records you keep of your own food-rescue work: your notes (up to 5,000 characters), the outcome you select (contacted, picked up, delivered, or declined), an estimated amount in pounds, the date the activity happened, and a snapshot of the name of any listing you link the entry to (kept so your record stays readable even if the listing later changes or is removed).
• Photos and videos.Any media you attach to an entry. Files are stored in a private storage bucket and served only to you through short-lived, signed links. Uploads are capped at 15 MB per image, 100 MB per video, 10 files per entry, 500 MB per entry, and 2 GB per account. Entries and media are private to you— we do not share them with the listed organizations or anyone else. Note that photos and videos can carry embedded metadata such as the time or location they were taken; we store files as you upload them, so strip that metadata first if you'd rather not keep it.
• A personal impact goal. An optional pounds target you can set on your impact page. It is stored with your account so it persists across sign-ins, and you can change or clear it at any time.
• Listing suggestions.If you suggest a place for the directory, we store what you submit: the place's name and type, its city and state, an optional map pin (the latitude and longitude of the place you searched for or pinned — not your own location), whether you said you represent the place, pickup days (for food sources), a website, the venue's public contact email or phone, and your notes. Suggestions are linked to your account and reviewed by hand before anything appears in the directory. They are deleted when you delete your account.
• Technical and log information. Like nearly every website, our infrastructure providers automatically process basic request data — such as IP address, browser type, and pages requested — to serve the site, keep sessions working, and protect against abuse. We also use your IP address briefly in memory to rate-limit requests (for example, to stop automated signup attempts); these rate-limit counters are not written to our database.

• No email address, real name, or phone number for your account. (Suggesting a listing is optional and asks only for a venue's public contact details, not yours.)
• No payment information — the Service is free.
• No advertising identifiers or cross-site tracking.
• No third-party analytics or behavioral profiles.
• No messages. The Service has no in-app messaging: reaching out to a listing opens your own email or phone app, and GreenSteam never transmits, receives, or stores what you send.
• No background or continuous location tracking. The optional "Near me" feature uses your device's location only at the moment you ask, and it is never saved to your account — see the Location section below for exactly how location works.

• To operate the Service: signing you in, keeping you signed in, showing your saved connections, and displaying your entries, media, goal, and impact figures back to you.
• To review listing suggestions and, if approved, publish the place's public details in the directory.
• To maintain safety and security, including rate limiting, preventing abuse, fraud, and unauthorized access.
• To fix problems and understand aggregate, non-identifying usage (for example, how many programs are in the directory).
• To comply with law.

Because we do not collect your email address, we will never send you marketing email — we have no way to email you at all. We never use your information for advertising, and we never sell it.

We use only essential cookies: the session cookies our authentication provider sets so you stay signed in. They are marked httpOnly (so scripts on the page cannot read them) and there are no advertising or analytics cookies. If you block cookies, you can still browse public pages, but signing in will not work.

The Service also keeps a few small pieces of data in your browser's local storage, on your device only:

• A suggestion draft (gs.suggestDraft) — so the Suggest a listing form does not lose your work if you navigate away before submitting.
• Onboarding flags (gs.visitedDirectory, gs.checklistDismissed) — so we can show first-visit tips once and remember when you dismiss the getting-started checklist.

This data stays on that device and browser, is never synced to our servers, and is removed if you clear your browser data.

We want to be precise about location, because it works differently in different parts of the Service:

• "Near me" sorting is optional and temporary. If you tap "Near me" in the directory, your browser asks for permission and, if you grant it, shares your device's coordinates with the page so we can sort listings by distance. Those coordinates are used for that sorting and are not saved to your account or stored in our database. You can decline the permission prompt and use the directory normally.
• Coordinates can appear in the page address.So that a sorted view can be reloaded or shared, the directory may place the active coordinates or place name in the URL's query parameters (lat, lng, place). Anyone you share that link with can see them, and like any page address they may appear in standard server logs. They are still not attached to your account.
• Place-name search uses a third party.When you search for a place by name, your browser sends the text you typed directly to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim geocoding service to look up matching locations. Nominatim sees your IP address and your search text, but not your account information.
• A suggested listing's map pin is stored. If you include an optional map pin when suggesting a listing, we store that latitude and longitude as part of your suggestion. That pin describes where the place is — it is data about the venue, not tracking of you.

We never collect your location in the background, and we never build a location history.

We use a small number of infrastructure providers to run the Service. Each receives only what is necessary to do its job:

• Supabase — hosts our database, authentication, and file storage (your username, hashed password, internal account identifier, connections, entries, media, goal, and any listing suggestions), stored in the United States. Uploaded files live in a private storage bucket and are served only to you through short-lived, signed links.
• Vercel — hosts and serves the website, including standard server logs, and runs our scheduled cleanup jobs (such as clearing abandoned draft entries).
• OpenFreeMap and OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) — when you use the directory map or search for a place, your browser requests map tiles and place lookups directly from these services, so they can see your IP address and the place text you searched. We do not send them your account information, and your searches are not saved to your account.
• Have I Been Pwned— when you set a password, our authentication provider checks it against Have I Been Pwned's database of known-breached passwords using a privacy-preserving technique (only a partial hash is shared, never your password itself). This protects your account from passwords attackers already know.
• Google Maps— directions links on listing pages open Google Maps in a new tab. That happens on Google's site under Google's privacy policy; we send them nothing about you.

Listings may also link to a partner organization's own website, signup page, or Instagram, and the reach-out buttons open your own email or phone app. Once you leave greensteam.app or use your own apps, this policy no longer applies — the destination's practices do.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your information, and we do not share it with anyone for marketing. We share information only:

• with the service providers listed above, to run the Service;
• if we approve a listing suggestion, in which case the place's public details (name, type, location, pickup days, website, venue contact info) may appear in the directory — never your username or account details;
• if required by law, subpoena, or other legal process, or where necessary to protect the rights, safety, or property of GreenSteam, our users, or the public;
• in connection with a reorganization of the nonprofit programs that operate the Service, in which case this policy will continue to apply to your information.

Important: when you click through to a listing's own signup page or contact a food source or donation program directly, you are dealing with that organization directly. Anything you share with them is governed by their privacy practices, not this policy.

We keep your account information for as long as your account exists. You are always in control:

• Individual deletion. You can delete any entry (and its uploaded files) or any single photo or video at any time, and remove connections whenever you like.
• Whole-account deletion. From the Account page, you can permanently delete your account by typing DELETE to confirm. This removes your sign-in credentials, your saved connections, every entry, every uploaded file, your goal, and your listing suggestions.
• Automatic cleanup. Draft entries you start but never publish are deleted automatically after 24 hours by a scheduled cleanup job, along with any files attached to them.

After deletion, copies may persist briefly in provider backups and logs, which are purged in the normal course of operations.

Note that the Service has no password-recovery mechanism (we have no email address to send a reset link to). While signed in, you can change your password or username from the Account page. If you lose your password, contact us, or create a new account.

Passwords are hashed with an industry-standard algorithm and checked against known-breach databases when you set them; traffic is encrypted with HTTPS; database access is restricted with row-level security so each account can only read its own data; uploaded files sit in a private bucket reachable only through short-lived, signed links; and rate limiting protects sign-in and signup from automated abuse. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we design the Service to hold as little sensitive information as possible — the best protection is that there is very little to lose.

The Service is intended for students age 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and we deliberately avoid collecting the identifiers (real name, email, phone) that most services ask for. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us at the address below and we will delete the account and its information promptly.

Users under 18 must use the Service with the knowledge and permission of a parent or guardian — signup includes an attestation to this — and should involve them in any volunteering, food collection, or donation arrangements. GreenSteam does not supervise or chaperone any collection, transport, or drop-off, or the minors who take part; a parent or guardian who permits this accepts responsibility for it (see the assumption-of-risk section of our Terms). Parents and guardians can review a student's data by having the student sign in, and can request deletion at any time using the account tools or by contacting us.

• Access: your username and connections are on your Account and My Connections pages; your entries, uploaded media, and goal are on your My Impact page.
• Export: you can generate a printable record of your connections and entries from the export page under My Impact. It is a copy of your own self-reported records, formatted for printing or saving as a PDF.
• Deletion: delete any entry (and its files) from My Impact, or delete your whole account from the Account page. Listing suggestions can be removed by deleting your account or by contacting us.
• Correction: you can change your username or password and remove connections at any time from the Account and My Connections pages; contact us for anything else.

If you use the Service from outside the United States — including the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland — you may have additional rights under local law, such as the rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to the processing of your information, the right to data portability, and the right to complain to your local data-protection authority. We process account information because it is necessary to provide the Service you signed up for, and other information described in this policy based on our legitimate interests in running a secure, free nonprofit service. Because we collect so little, most requests can be satisfied with the built-in tools above; for anything else, contact us and we will respond within a reasonable time. We have not appointed a representative in the EU or UK.

The Service is operated from the United States and your information is stored in the United States, whose privacy laws may differ from those where you live. If you use the Service from elsewhere, you understand and agree that your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States as described in this policy. We protect it the same way wherever you are: encryption in transit, hashed passwords, row-level security, and minimal collection.

If we change this policy, we will post the updated version here with a new effective date. Material changes will be flagged on the site. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.