Privacy Policy
CrownChain is an app where students give each other “Crowns” — compliments like Funniest or Kindest, from a list our team picks — and watch them spread across their campus. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies to the CrownChain apps for iOS and Android and to this website.
In this policy, “CrownChain”, “we” and “us” mean the team behind CrownChain. Questions? Email kwesi.buabeng@gmail.com.
1. What we collect
Information you give us
- Account: a username, display name, and a password (stored only as a one-way hash) — or, if you continue with Apple or Google, an identifier from them and the name and email they share.
- Email or phone number, if you add one.
- Profile: your school, your academic session (e.g. 2026–27), and, optionally, a profile photo and your dorm.
- What you do in the app: Crowns you give and receive, any message you attach to a Crown, Crown Chains you start or pass on, Challenges you take part in, theme suggestions, campus and organization requests, and reports or blocks you make.
- Purchases: which plan or Credit pack you bought and when. Card details go to Stripe, our payment processor; we never see or store them.
Information collected when you use certain features
- Contacts (optional, only if you tap “Sync contacts”): your address book never leaves your phone. The app turns each phone number and email into a one-way fingerprint (a hash) on your device and sends only those, so we can tell you which friends are already on CrownChain.
- Location (optional, only if you tap “Find schools near me”): your approximate location is used once to list nearby schools and is not stored. If you submit a school that is missing, we keep the location of that school.
Information collected automatically
- Basic device and usage information: app version, device type, the days you were active, and technical logs (such as IP address and errors) that keep the service running and secure.
- Advertising information when you choose to watch a rewarded video — see Ads.
2. Who Crowned you
When someone Crowns you, you see “Someone thinks you’re the Funniest” — the theme they picked for you — but their name is not shown. You can choose to reveal who Crowned you, which costs Credits (or is included with some plans). Please know:
- If you reveal who Crowned you, the person who Crowned you is told that you revealed it.
- If you start a Crown Chain, you are told when it is passed on, including the name of the person who passed it on — but never who Crowned you.
- People you Crown, and people on your campus, can see your display name, username, profile photo and school on leaderboards and your profile — but not which Crowns you gave, unless they reveal them.
3. How we use information
- To run CrownChain: your account, Crowns, Chains, Challenges, campus and leaderboards.
- To process purchases and subscriptions, and to grant Credits you earn.
- To send notifications you have allowed (for example, “You got Crowned”).
- To keep CrownChain safe: preventing fraud, spam and abuse, and acting on reports.
- To understand and improve the app, in aggregate.
- To comply with the law.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use your contacts for anything but finding your friends on CrownChain.
4. Who we share it with
We share information only with service providers who help us run CrownChain, under contracts that limit how they can use it:
- DigitalOcean — hosts our servers and database.
- Supabase — handles sign-in with Apple and Google.
- Stripe — processes payments and subscriptions.
- Google AdMob and its mediation partners, including AppLovin — serve rewarded video ads.
We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect the safety of our users or the public, or as part of a merger or acquisition (in which case this policy continues to apply).
5. Ads
CrownChain shows ads only when you choose to watch a rewarded video to earn Credits. Our ad partners may collect device information and an advertising identifier to deliver and measure those ads. Because many of our users are teens, we request only non-personalised ads, rated for teens, which are not targeted based on your activity in other apps.
- On iOS, we ask permission before any app-tracking identifier is used; you can change this in Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.
- If you are in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, you will be asked for consent first, and can change it any time from Profile › Ad privacy choices.
6. Teens and children
You must be at least 13 to use CrownChain. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us at kwesi.buabeng@gmail.com and we will delete it.
If you are under 18, please review this policy with a parent or guardian. Where local law sets a higher age of digital consent, you must meet it or have your parent’s consent.
7. Your choices and rights
- Delete your account any time in the app: Profile › Delete account. We delete your profile, contact details, friends, notifications and personal history, and cancel any subscription. Crowns you gave remain with the people who received them, shown as from a deleted user.
- Update your profile in the app, and remove your photo.
- Notifications, contacts and location can be turned off in your phone’s settings.
- Depending on where you live (including the EU/UK under the GDPR and California under the CCPA/CPRA), you may have the right to access, correct, delete or port your information, or to object to or restrict certain uses. Email kwesi.buabeng@gmail.com; we respond within 30 days. You may also complain to your local data protection authority.
Where the GDPR applies, we rely on performing our contract with you (running the app), our legitimate interests (safety and improvement), your consent (ads, notifications, contacts, location), and legal obligations.
8. How long we keep it
We keep your information while your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete your personal information right away, except what we must keep for legal, tax or fraud-prevention reasons (such as purchase records). Database backups, which may still contain it, are overwritten within 14 days.
9. Security and where data is stored
We use encryption in transit, hashed passwords, access controls and regular backups. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information. Our servers are located in the United States (New York); if you use CrownChain from elsewhere, your information is transferred there.
10. Changes
If we make significant changes, we will tell you in the app or by other means before they take effect. The date at the top shows when this policy last changed.
11. Contact
Email kwesi.buabeng@gmail.com