Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Yap is a school-locked social app operated by Loud Apps ("Yap," "we," "us"). Yap is intended for Jr. High and High School students and is only available at schools that have reached our sign-up threshold for that region.

2. Information We Collect

Account & school information: the school and grade you select, a username you choose (no real name is required or displayed), and an email address used solely for account verification and recovery.

Content you create: posts, chat messages, poll ("The Chal") votes, and your picks in The Toss-up. This content is shown to other verified students at your school, but never attributed to your real identity.

Aura: your in-app Aura balance and activity (earned or spent) — a virtual point system with no cash value, tracked to operate features like The Toss-up and the leaderboard.

Purchases: a record of any purchases you make (e.g. Aura top-ups, subscriptions) and their status. Purchases are processed by Apple, Google, or our subscription billing partner (RevenueCat) — Yap does not receive or store your payment card details.

Location: a coarse, one-time location check is used to confirm your device is near the school you select. This is used only for eligibility and is never shown to other users or used to track you.

Device & usage data: standard diagnostic and crash data, and general engagement metrics, used to keep the app working and improve it.

3. How We Use Information

• To operate core features (Chat, Post, The Chal, The Toss-up, and Aura)
• To verify school/age eligibility and enforce feature-unlock thresholds
• To detect abuse, enforce our Terms of Service, and act on reports/blocks
• To process purchases and maintain accurate Aura balances
• To fix bugs and improve reliability and performance

4. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information. We share limited data only with service providers who help us run Yap — including our cloud infrastructure and database provider (Google Firebase), our email delivery provider (Postmark), our subscription billing provider (RevenueCat), and Apple/Google for purchases made through their app stores — each bound to use that 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. Anonymity & Moderation

Yap does not display real names or profile pictures anywhere in the app. Anonymity does not mean unmoderated: users can block one another, report content, and violations of our Terms of Service (harassment, threats, and other prohibited conduct) can result in content removal or account termination, regardless of the anonymous display name involved.

6. Data Retention & Deletion

We retain account data for as long as your account is active. You can delete your account and associated data at any time in the app under Profile, or by contacting us at the address below. Posts, comments, and chat messages you created remain visible with your username replaced by "[deleted]", and some records may be retained where required for legal, security, or fraud-prevention purposes. See Delete Your Account for the steps and details.

7. Children's Privacy

Yap is intended for users 13 years of age and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and accounts that fail our age verification are deleted. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, contact us at the address below and we will delete it.

8. Your Choices

You can edit or delete your content, block other users, and delete your account at any time. Contact us using the details below if you need help with these choices.

9. Security

We use industry-standard safeguards (including Firebase Authentication and Firestore Security Rules) to protect your information, but no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the "Effective" date above.

11. Contact Us

Questions about this policy or your data? Contact us at privacy@yap-social.app.