Effective 9 August 2026
The short version: Homestead collects only what it needs to let neighbours find and trade with each other. There is no advertising, no analytics, no tracking, and nothing is ever sold or shared for marketing. Other users never see where you live — the map shows only a rough area. If you agree to a trade, you choose whether to meet at your place or somewhere public.
Homestead is a hyperlocal barter and trading app for homesteaders. This policy explains what the app collects, why, and who can see it.
Homestead is operated by an independent developer ("we", "us").
Contact: homestead@riversrevival.org — for any privacy question, data request, or account deletion.
Account information. Your email address and password, to create your account and sign you in. Passwords are handled by our authentication provider and stored only as a cryptographic hash — we never see or store your actual password. Your display name, and optionally a homestead name, short bio and state/region, shown to others so they know who they are trading with. We also store the date you acknowledged how location works — a single timestamp, recorded when you accept the explanation shown the first time you sign in, so we do not show it again.
Listing information. The title, description, category and photos of items you offer or want. Photos may be chosen from your gallery or taken with your camera, if you grant permission — the app uses the camera only when you ask it to take a listing photo, and does not record video or audio. When you create a listing, the app uses your device's location (with your permission) to attach a location to that listing.
Homestead stores two forms of a listing's location:
Whether your precise location is ever shared is your choice, made separately for every trade. When someone proposes a trade and you accept, you choose where to meet:
Your place — the other party then sees the listing's precise location and can get directions to it. Choose this only if you are willing to share it.
A public spot — you type where to meet, for example a shop car park. The other party sees only that text. Your precise location is never revealed.
Until you accept a trade and make that choice, no other user can obtain a listing's precise point. This is enforced by database access rules, not merely by the app, so a bug in the app cannot expose your home address.
The app requests location only while you are using it. It does not track your location in the background.
We store your trades (which listing, the two people involved and the current status), the meeting arrangement you chose — which of the two options above, and where a public spot was chosen, the text describing it — the messages you exchange with the other party, and any review (1–5 rating and optional comment) you leave after a trade.
Messages are stored so both parties can read the conversation. They are not end-to-end encrypted: as the operator of the service we are technically able to access them, and may do so only where necessary to investigate abuse, resolve a dispute, or comply with the law.
Reports. If you report a listing, message or person, we store who filed the report, what was reported, the reason you selected and any note you wrote. Only you and we can see your reports, and the person reported is not told who reported them.
Blocks. If you block someone, we store that you did. Blocking is symmetric: neither of you will see the other's listings and neither can message the other. The person blocked is not notified.
We store a push notification token for your device so we can tell you about new messages and trade activity. It identifies your device installation, not you personally.
No advertising identifiers. No analytics or usage tracking. No contacts, call logs, SMS, browsing history, or health data. No payment or financial information — listings may be marked barter, for sale or free, but the app never processes a payment — no fees, no in-app purchases, no card or bank details, ever. Where money changes hands it is arranged directly between the two people and passes outside the app entirely. The app contains no third-party advertising or analytics software of any kind.
We use a small number of service providers purely to run the app. They process data on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
| Provider | What it does | What it can see |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosts the database, accounts and photo storage | All stored app data, as our hosting provider |
| MapTiler | Supplies the map images | Your device's IP address and which map area is requested — not your identity or your listings |
| Expo / Google Firebase Cloud Messaging | Delivers push notifications | Your device push token and the notification content |
| Brevo | Sends account emails (e.g. confirm your address) | Your email address and the message sent |
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. We may disclose information if we are legally required to, or where necessary to protect someone's safety.
Your display name, homestead name, bio, region, your listings and their photos, your reviews, and the approximate map area of your listings.
Once you agree to a trade, that one person can also exchange messages with you and sees the meeting arrangement you chose — either the precise location of your listing, if you chose to meet at your place, or only the public spot you typed. Nobody else sees either.
We keep your information while your account exists.
You can delete your account at any time, from inside the app: open the Profile tab and choose Delete my account. You will be asked to confirm twice, and the second confirmation names exactly what is about to be destroyed. Deletion removes your profile, listings and their photos, trades, messages and reviews. See how to delete your account.
Some information may persist briefly in encrypted backups before being overwritten in the normal course of business.
Data is transmitted over encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS) and stored by our hosting provider with encryption at rest. Access to the precise location of listings is restricted by database rules as described above. No system is perfectly secure, but privacy is a design constraint of this app rather than an afterthought.
Homestead is not directed to children and is not intended for anyone under 13 (or the minimum age in your country). We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will remove it.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal information, and to object to certain processing. You can exercise all of these by contacting us at the address in section 1. You may also edit your profile and remove your listings directly in the app.
If this policy changes materially, we will update the effective date above and, where the change is significant, notify you in the app.