Privacy Policy

When you use Borrowiz, we collect information that you provide directly and information that is generated through your use of the service.

Account information. Your name, email address, community (building), flat number, phone number, whether that phone number is available on WhatsApp, and a password (stored only as a secure hash).

Profile information. A profile photo, short bio, reading interests, favourite genres, and any settings you choose.

Activity information. Books and puzzles you browse, borrow, lend, donate, or add to your wishlist, along with borrow requests, returns, messages, and reviews.

Usage information. Basic usage data such as the pages you visit and how you interact with the service, collected to keep the service running and to improve it.

We use your information to operate the service and to connect you with your community, including to:

• Create and manage your account and community membership.
• Facilitate lending and borrowing between members, including sharing your contact details with other members when needed to coordinate a pickup or return.
• Manage donations and library inventory.
• Calculate reputation and trust scores, and personalise recommendations.
• Send you notifications about borrows, lending requests, donations, and messages.
• Provide support, keep the service secure, and comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only in the following situations:

• Within your community. Your name, flat number, and phone number may be visible to other members of your community (and to the library staff who serve it) so that lending and borrowing can happen in person.
• Library staff. Admins and librarians of your community can see the details needed to manage the library, including your lending history and donations.
• Service providers. We use hosting, email delivery, and analytics providers who process information on our behalf under our instruction.
• Legal requirements. When required by law, or when necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of the service, its users, or the public.

When you search for a book by title, author, or ISBN, we send that search to external catalog services (such as Open Library and Google Books) to find book metadata like covers, publishers, and descriptions. Those services may record the searches you make.

We never share your name, email, or other account details with these catalog services.

We use a session cookie to keep you signed in, and local storage to remember preferences such as your theme and to support offline access to the app. These are essential to the functioning of the service. We do not use advertising cookies or cross-site tracking cookies.

We keep your account information for as long as your account is active. If you ask us to delete your account, we remove or anonymise the information that identifies you, while retaining limited records where required by law or for legitimate record-keeping (such as audit trails).

We use industry-standard measures to protect your data, including HTTPS encryption in transit, hashed passwords, and access controls. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

• You can review and update your profile details, including your flat number and phone number, at any time from your profile.
• You can control which notifications you receive.
• Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, or delete your personal information. To exercise these rights, contact us using the details below.

The service is intended for adults and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will take steps to remove it.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you. Your continued use of the service after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, you can reach us at support@borrowiz.com.