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🔒 Privacy Policy
Last updated: April 20, 2026 — Version 2.0
Welcome to DonTroc, the community app for donations and bartering between individuals. We are committed to protecting your privacy and personal data. This policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information.
1. Information We Collect
📧 Account Information
- Email: To create your account and authenticate you
- Name/Username: To identify you to other users
- Profile picture (optional): To personalize your profile
- Notification token (FCM Token): To send you push notifications
📷 Photos (CAMERA permission)
Why we use the camera:
- Allow users to take photos of items they wish to donate or swap
- Camera access is requested only when you tap the "Take a photo" button
- You can deny this permission and use photos from your gallery instead
📍 Location (LOCATION permissions)
Why we use location:
- Show items available near you
- Allow other users to see the approximate area of your listings
- Proximity notifications: alert you when a new listing is published within a radius you define (1 to 50 km)
- Calculate distances between you and available listings
- Precise location is NEVER shared publicly — only the city/neighborhood is visible
- Your position is securely stored and used only for distance calculations and proximity notifications
- You can disable proximity notifications at any time in your profile settings
- You can fully disable location services in your device settings
💬 Messages
- Messages exchanged between users to organize donations/swaps
- Typing indicators to enhance the chat experience
- Messages are securely stored on Firebase
🎮 Gamification Data
- Experience points (XP), level, badges, and completed challenges
- Usage statistics (number of listings, successful trades, etc.)
- This data is stored locally on your device and serves only to enhance your experience
🤝 Social Data
- Generated and used referral codes
- History of listings shared on social networks
- Friends list and social activities
📊 Interaction Data
- User actions (listing views, favorites, etc.) to improve recommendations
- Reports of inappropriate content
- Transaction history (donations and swaps)
2. How We Use Your Data
- ✅ Enable the app to function (listings, messages, transactions)
- ✅ Improve your user experience (recommendations, gamification)
- ✅ Send you notifications about your listings, messages, and nearby items
- ✅ Ensure the safety of the platform (moderation, reporting)
- ✅ Display ads to fund the free service
- ✅ Compute anonymous usage statistics
- ❌ We NEVER sell your data to third parties
3. Advertising and Monetization
⚠️ Important information about ads:
DonTroc is a free app funded by advertising. We use Google AdMob with mediation to display ads. Mediation lets several partner ad networks bid in real time to deliver the most relevant ads and optimize app monetization.
🎯 Advertising Networks
DonTroc uses Google AdMob (Google LLC) as its mediation platform. Through this mediation, the following partner networks may serve ads in the app:
🛡️ GDPR Consent (CMP / UMP — IAB TCF v2.2)
If you reside in the EEA, UK, Switzerland, or Brazil:
- On first launch, an official Google UMP (User Messaging Platform) consent form, certified IAB TCF v2.2, is shown
- You can accept, reject, or customize your consent per purpose (Purposes 1 to 10) and per vendor
- Refusing does not affect your usage: you will simply see non-personalized ads
- You can change or withdraw your consent at any time via: Profile → 🛡️ Ad Privacy (Article 7.3 GDPR)
- Your preferences are stored locally and transmitted to partners as a TCF string (TC String)
- DonTroc does not request your consent for TCF "Special Features" 1 and 2 (precise geolocation and active device fingerprinting) — intentionally disabled to respect your privacy
📊 Google Analytics & Consent Mode v2
DonTroc uses Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics to measure audience and fix bugs (pages visited, session duration, key events, crash reports, technical performance).
Consent Mode v2: in EEA/UK/CH, when you reject analytics cookies via the UMP form, Google Analytics operates in cookieless modeling mode — it statistically estimates certain aggregated metrics without identifying you. Your TCF signals (Purpose 1) are automatically transmitted to Google Analytics in compliance with European requirements.
📋 Types of Ads Displayed
- Banners: Small ads displayed at the bottom of certain screens
- Interstitials: Full-screen ads shown during transitions between certain pages (with frequency capping)
- Rewarded videos: Optional video ads you can choose to watch in exchange for rewards (bonus points, listing boosts, etc.)
🔄 How Mediation Works
How mediation works:
When an ad slot is available, Google AdMob sends a simultaneous request to several partner networks. Each network participates in a real-time auction and the network with the best bid serves its ad. This process is fully automated and transparent for the user.
🔐 Data Collected by Ad Networks
Partner ad networks may automatically collect the following information via their SDKs integrated in the app:
- Advertising ID (GAID/IDFA): anonymous device identifier
- Device information: model, OS, version, screen size, language
- Network information: connection type (Wi-Fi/mobile), carrier
- Ad performance data: impressions, clicks, video views
- Approximate location: country and region (derived from IP address)
- Interaction data: viewing time, ad interactions
⚠️ Each partner ad network is responsible for its own data collection practices. We invite you to review the privacy policies of each network (links in the table above) to understand how they handle your data.
🛡️ Your choices regarding ads:
- You can reset your advertising ID in your device settings
- You can disable ad personalization (Android Settings > Google > Ads)
- On iOS, you can limit ad tracking (Settings > Privacy > Tracking)
- Rewarded videos are always optional — you are never required to watch them
- Disabling personalization does not prevent ads from being shown but they will be less targeted
3 bis. Voluntary Donations (PayPal & Ko-fi)
DonTroc offers a voluntary donation feature to support development. Donations are handled by external third-party platforms — DonTroc never processes your payments and never has access to your banking information.
- Donations are 100% optional and provide no exclusive advantage in the app
- When you tap "PayPal" or "Ko-fi", you are redirected to the official corresponding website (external browser or native app)
- PayPal (PayPal Holdings, Inc.) — PayPal Privacy Policy
- Ko-fi (Ko-fi Labs Ltd.) — Ko-fi Privacy Policy
- Once redirected, your data (name, email, payment information) is collected and processed solely by PayPal or Ko-fi under their own terms
- DonTroc receives no notification, user identifier, or transaction information from these platforms
- No payment information is stored by DonTroc
- To cancel or get a refund for a donation, contact PayPal or Ko-fi support directly
3 ter. Push Notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging)
DonTroc sends several categories of notifications via Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM):
- Transactional: new message, barter proposal, rating received
- Proximity: new listing in your area (configurable radius 1-50 km)
- Retention: periodic reminders to re-engage inactive users
- Smart: personalized suggestions based on your interests and history
- Gamification: new badge, challenge, level-up, leaderboard rank
- Tips & tricks: to make the most of the app
You can disable each notification category from your profile or your device settings. The FCM token is revocable and removed upon uninstall.
3 quater. In-App Updates (Google Play In-App Update)
DonTroc uses the Google Play In-App Update API to offer new versions without leaving the app:
- No personal data is collected by this feature
- Only the installed version number is compared with the one available on Google Play
- Downloads are performed directly by Google Play, not by DonTroc
- Two modes: flexible (background download) and immediate (blocking critical update)
3 quinquies. Extended Gamification (Quiz, Leaderboard, Ratings)
- Eco quizzes: anonymized answers, used only to compute your rewards and improve educational content
- Leaderboard: your username and score are publicly visible by default — you can disable this in your profile
- Rating system: ratings (1-5 stars) and comments given/received are visible on public profiles
- Trust badges: automatically computed (account age, successful transactions, average rating)
- Personalized recommendations: local algorithm based on your viewing history and favorites
4. Sharing Data with Third Parties
Your data is shared with the following third-party services, only to the extent necessary for the app to function:
- Firebase / Google Cloud: Authentication, real-time database, push notifications
- Cloudinary: Secure hosting for listing and profile photos
- Google AdMob: Ad mediation platform funding the free app
- Meta Audience Network: Partner ad network (via AdMob mediation)
- Unity Ads: Partner ad network (via AdMob mediation)
- Pangle (ByteDance): Partner ad network (via AdMob mediation)
- Liftoff Monetize / Vungle: Partner ad network (via AdMob mediation)
- IronSource / LevelPlay: Partner ad network (via AdMob mediation)
- Other users: Only the information you choose to make public (listings, username, approximate city)
5. Data Security
- 🔐 All communications are encrypted (HTTPS/TLS)
- 🔐 Passwords are hashed and never stored in plain text
- 🔐 Authentication is handled by Firebase Authentication (Google)
- 🔐 Data is stored on secure Google Cloud servers
- 🔐 Image uploads use a secure signature (Cloudinary)
- 🔐 Firebase access rules are strictly defined (each user can only modify their own data)
6. Your Rights
In accordance with GDPR and applicable regulations, you have the right to:
- Access your personal data
- Rectify your information
- Delete your account and all your data
- Export your data
- Withdraw your consent at any time
- Disable ad personalization via your device settings
- Disable proximity notifications in your profile settings
To exercise these rights, contact us at the address below or use the account management options in the app.
7. Data Retention
- Your data is kept as long as your account is active
- When your account is deleted, all your data is removed within 30 days
- Expired listings are automatically deleted after 90 days
- Gamification data is deleted with your account
- Anonymized advertising data may be kept by partner ad networks (Google AdMob, Meta, Unity, Pangle, Liftoff, IronSource, InMobi) according to their own retention policies
- Donation transactions are handled entirely by PayPal and Ko-fi. DonTroc keeps no record; applicable retention periods are those of these third-party platforms (typically 5 to 10 years for their own accounting and tax obligations)
- Technical logs (Firebase Crashlytics crashes) are kept for 90 days then automatically deleted
- The FCM token (push notifications) is removed immediately upon app uninstall
8. Cookies and Similar Technologies
DonTroc does not use web cookies. However, the advertising SDKs integrated in the app (Google AdMob, Meta Audience Network, Unity Ads, Pangle, Liftoff/Vungle, IronSource) may use similar technologies (advertising identifiers, local storage, device fingerprinting) for ad serving and performance measurement. See the respective privacy policies of each network (see Section 3) for more details.
9. International Data Transfers
Your data may be transferred and stored on servers located outside your country of residence, including:
- United States: Google (Firebase, AdMob), Meta (Audience Network), Unity Technologies, Liftoff/Vungle
- European Union: Firebase Realtime Database (European servers)
- China / Singapore: ByteDance (Pangle)
- Israel: ironSource (LevelPlay)
- India / Singapore: InMobi
These transfers are governed by standard contractual clauses or other protection mechanisms compliant with applicable regulations (GDPR, EU Commission's standard contractual clauses).
10. Minors
DonTroc is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. Ads displayed are configured to not target minors.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy at any time. Significant changes will be notified in the app. The last update date is shown at the top of this document.
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