The Loop is a private beta for Bouldin Creek residents. We do not sell personal information. We do not run ads or use personal information for targeted advertising.

Your display name, profile photo, posts, replies, and public group activity are visible to signed-in members who can access the relevant space. A private message is visible only to you and the other participant. Your optional profile note is saved with your account. Your email address and home address are not shown to other members.

We collect only the information needed to operate and protect the neighborhood service.

We ask for your address and your statement that you live in Bouldin Creek. The beta does not require documents or another hard verification step.

We encrypt the address separately from ordinary profile data. It is not public and is not shown to other members. The site administrator can unlock an exact address only for neighborhood administration and must provide a reason. The access is recorded in an audit log.

When you use address suggestions, the partial address you type is sent to the City of Austin Open Data portal so we can return matching Austin address points. The Loop does not separately keep those suggestion searches.

We send the resident-entered address to the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder to derive a coarse growth-map cell. The address is transferred in a protected request body, not in a URL. We discard the Census matched address and exact coordinates after deriving the coarse cell. We store only the encrypted address you entered and the coarse cell. A failed match does not block signup.

The ordinary growth view uses coarse groups and suppresses groups with fewer than 3 members. It does not show a member's exact point. This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

A profile photo is optional. We process uploaded photos to remove embedded location metadata, resize them, and store the processed copy in private storage. Signed-in members can see the processed photo where your profile appears.

You can exchange private messages with another active member of your neighborhood. The Loop stores the message text, participants, delivery time, read state, and deletion state so both participants can open and search the conversation. Other members cannot access that conversation.

A people or message search sends the search terms to The Loop so it can return matching members or messages you are allowed to see. Request and security logs can include limited search request metadata.

Blocking is private. When either participant blocks the other, neither person can send a new private message to the other. Existing messages can remain in the participants' conversation history unless a message or account is deleted under the rules below.

Private message text is not sent to the post classifier or included in push notification text. A push alert says only that a neighbor sent a private message and opens the app after you unlock the device.

The Loop uses an AI provider, such as OpenAI or Anthropic, to classify the topic of posts and replies and to identify possible politics, contention, threats, personal attacks, private information, or spam. These labels support member feed controls and the moderator review queue.

Before text is sent, an automated scrubber tries to remove common patterns such as email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, coordinates, payment card numbers, and access tokens. Automated scrubbing can miss information. Do not put sensitive personal information in a post.

The classifier request does not include your account identity, profile, or private home address. Automated labels can be wrong. AI labels do not impose an account penalty. A human administrator makes moderation decisions.

We ask for separate permission before sending your post and reply text to an AI provider. Because classification is part of the beta's feed and safety system, withdrawing that permission means you must stop posting. You can withdraw permission by deleting your account or contacting us.

We share information with service providers only to operate, secure, and support The Loop.

We keep account and member information while your account is active and as needed to operate the beta. Posts, replies, and private messages remain until they are removed or you delete your account. We disable an iPhone push token when you turn push off, sign out, or the app detects that your session expired.

You can delete a private message you sent. The conversation then shows a deletion marker instead of its text. When you delete your account, private messages you sent are replaced with a deletion marker in active systems. Messages another participant sent remain part of that participant's records, subject to their own deletion choices.

When you request account deletion, we target deletion of active account data and account-associated content within 30 days. Limited encrypted backups and security logs may remain for up to 90 days. We may keep a narrower record longer when needed to investigate abuse, protect another person, or comply with law.

Resolved moderation records are normally kept for up to 12 months so decisions can be reviewed and repeated abuse can be identified. We keep exact-address access audit records for up to 12 months. We will shorten these periods when the record is no longer needed.

We keep alpha volunteer records and test feedback only while they are useful for running and improving the alpha. You can ask us to remove your signup or feedback by emailing the privacy contact below.

You can edit your profile, feed controls, blocks, and notification choices in the app. You can request an account export and start account deletion from Account data. The account export includes your profile, feed settings, posts, replies, mutes, reports, and the private-message conversation records you are authorized to view. Private home addresses are not included. You can replace an incorrect address through the address flow when that feature is available.

You can also ask to access, correct, export, or delete personal information by emailing hello@neighborhoodloop.org. If we deny a privacy request, you can appeal by replying to that decision. We will explain the result and available complaint options.

We use access controls, encryption in transit, encrypted storage, and extra encryption for home addresses. No system is perfectly secure. Please report a suspected account or data problem to us promptly.

The Loop is for people age 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Contact us if you believe a person under 18 has created an account.

We may update this policy as the beta changes. We will show a new effective date and ask for fresh consent when a material change affects how we use sensitive information or AI. Questions and privacy requests can be sent to hello@neighborhoodloop.org.