LinkNesta is a community book-sharing app: you list books you own, discover books your
friends and trusted people nearby are sharing, and arrange to borrow and lend them. This policy explains what
information LinkNesta collects, how it is used, and the choices you have. We keep it short
and in plain language, because that is how we would want to read it ourselves.
The short version: we collect only what the app needs to work —
your account details, the neighborhood location you set, and the content you create (books,
borrow requests, messages, reviews). Other users never see your exact location. We do not run
ads, we do not use third-party analytics or trackers, and we never sell your data.
1. Information we collect
Account information
Email address and password. Used to create and sign in to your account.
Passwords are stored only in hashed form by our authentication provider; we never see them.
Display name and profile photo (optional). Shown to other users alongside
your books, messages, and reviews.
Location
During setup you place a pin for your home neighborhood and choose a discovery
radius. This is how the app shows you books near you and shows your books to people within
your selected sharing range.
If you grant the location permission, your device location is used only to help you place
that pin. LinkNesta never tracks your location in the background.
Other users never see your exact coordinates. Public discovery uses one stable,
privacy-protected approximate area for each book owner. The displayed area is derived from a
grid point within 300 metres of the stored location. Exact coordinates stay protected on the
server and are never returned to other users.
Content you create
Book listings (title, author, category, condition, cover photo, visibility setting).
Borrow requests and borrow history (request, approval, return dates, cancellations).
Chat messages — direct messages and borrowing messages with the same person are shown together
in one contact conversation.
Reviews and tags you leave after a borrow.
Clubs you create or join, friendships, block lists, and reports you submit.
Notifications
If you enable push notifications, we store a push token issued for your device
and your notification preferences, so we can notify you about borrow requests, messages,
friend requests, and due-date reminders. You can turn these off at any time in the app or
in your device settings.
What we do not collect
No advertising identifiers, no third-party analytics, no trackers.
No contact list or address book access.
No background or continuous location tracking.
2. How we use your information
To run the service: showing nearby books, handling borrows and returns,
delivering messages and notifications, and computing community stats such as your
on-time-return rate and reputation.
To keep the community safe: handling reports, enforcing blocks, and limiting
abusive behavior.
Nothing else. We do not use your data for advertising, we do not profile you,
and we never sell or rent your information to anyone.
3. What other users can see
Your display name, profile photo, and community stats (books shared, on-time-return rate, reputation).
Your book listings, according to the visibility you choose per book — Anyone nearby,
Friends only, or Private (visible only to you).
The privacy-protected approximate area of your listed books on the map — never your exact
location. Any distance shown in discovery is calculated from that approximate area.
Reviews you write, and messages you send to the specific person you are borrowing from or lending to.
4. Service providers
LinkNesta stores data with a small number of providers that act on our behalf:
Supabase — database, authentication, and file storage. Data is hosted on
Amazon Web Services in Canada (ca-central-1 region).
Expo / Apple / Google — push notification delivery. Your push token passes
through Expo's push service and Apple (APNs) or Google (FCM) to reach your device.
These providers process data only to provide their service to us. We may also disclose
information if required by law or to protect the safety of our users.
5. Data retention and deletion
We keep your data for as long as your account is active.
You can delete your account at any time inside the app
(Profile → Delete account). This permanently removes your account, profile, books,
borrow history, messages, reviews, friendships, push tokens, and uploaded photos.
Deletion cannot be undone.
If you cannot access the app, email us (address below) and we will delete your account for you.
6. Security
All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit (TLS). Access to data on
the server is restricted with row-level security rules, so each user can only read and write
what the app's sharing rules allow. Your exact location is additionally locked down so that it
is never readable by other users, even in approximate queries.
7. Children
LinkNesta is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal
information from children under 13. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us
and we will delete it.
8. Your rights
You can view and update your profile, location, books, and notification preferences directly
in the app, and delete your account as described above. Depending on where you live (including
Canada and US states with privacy laws), you may also have rights to request access to or
deletion of your personal information — email us and we will honor those requests.
9. Changes to this policy
If we make material changes to this policy, we will update the effective date above and
notify you in the app before the changes take effect.