Privacy Policy v1

FriendsWithTools ("we," "our," or "us") provides a private, invite-only platform that helps people coordinate the sharing of tools with people they already know in real life.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices available to you when you use our website and mobile application (the "Service").

2.1 Information You Provide

We collect the following information when you create an account or use the Service:

• Email address (required)

• Full name (optional)

• Profile photo or avatar (optional)

• Group and tool information, including:

  • Tool names, descriptions, and categories
  • Tool photos
  • Group names and descriptions

• Borrow request messages exchanged within private groups

• Tool Ownership and Brand Preference Data. We collect information about tools you list on the platform, including brand name, model, battery platform, condition, and category. Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), this is classified as "commercial information" — records of personal property. We collect this information to facilitate tool-sharing matches between users in your trusted groups.

All interactions occur only within private, invite-only groups.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

We may collect limited technical information necessary to operate the Service, including:

• Internet Protocol (IP) address (via our infrastructure providers)
• Authentication tokens and session identifiers

We do not collect device identifiers, location data, contacts, analytics data, or advertising identifiers.

2.3 Information We Do Not Collect

We do not collect:

• Precise or approximate location data
• Phone numbers
• Physical addresses
• Contact lists
• Financial or payment information
• Health information
• Browsing or search history
• Crash reports or usage analytics
• Advertising or tracking identifiers

We use the information we collect solely to:

• Provide and operate the Service
• Enable private group functionality and tool sharing coordination
• Authenticate users and secure accounts
• Display user-generated content to authorized group members
• Maintain the safety, integrity, and security of the Service
• Comply with legal obligations

We do not sell personal data and do not share personal data for advertising purposes.

FriendsWithTools enables coordination between users who already know each other. All exchanges, meetups, and tool sharing occur offline, outside the Service.

We are not a party to any agreements or exchanges between users and do not mediate disputes.

We use a limited number of trusted service providers to operate the Service:

• Supabase — authentication, database, and file storage
• Infisical — secrets management (no user content)

These providers process data only as necessary to provide their services to us.

Tool Manufacturers. We do not sell, share, or disclose your tool ownership data or brand preferences to tool manufacturers, brand owners, or their representatives. Brand names appear on the platform solely because users list tools made by those manufacturers.

Your data is stored in the United States. We may expand data storage to other regions, including the European Union, in the future. If we do, this Privacy Policy will be updated before any change takes effect.

You may request deletion of your account and associated data.

When an account is deleted:

• Associated data is removed from active systems
• Certain data may be retained for up to 30 days for legal, security, or operational purposes
• Data may be retained longer if required by law or ongoing legal obligations

Tool Listing Data. We retain your tool ownership and brand preference data for the duration of your active account. Upon account deletion, we will delete or anonymize this data within 30 days.

Depending on your location, you may have rights to:

• Access your personal data
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Request deletion of your account and data

We respond to valid requests as required by applicable law.

FriendsWithTools is intended for users 16 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16.

We may disclose information when required to do so by law or valid legal process. Where legally permitted, we will notify affected users before responding to such requests.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last Updated" date at the top indicates when changes were made. Continued use of the Service after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

For questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, contact us through the app or at:

support@friendswithtools.io

Our tool comparison and review pages use a first-party cookie called fwt_cid to attribute purchases you make through our affiliate links. Here is how it works:

• What it stores: A randomly generated anonymous identifier (UUIDv7). It does not contain your name, email, or any personally identifiable information.
• Duration: 2 years from your first visit to a tool comparison page.
• Domain: .friendswithtools.io (first-party only — never shared with third parties).
• Purpose: When you click an affiliate link to a retailer (Amazon, Home Depot, Lowe's), this identifier lets us know which of our pages referred the purchase so we can track commission accuracy. Retailers see only the anonymous ID, not your FriendsWithTools account information.
• How to delete it: Clear your browser cookies for friendswithtools.io, or use your browser's cookie management settings to remove fwt_cid specifically.
• Legal basis: Legitimate interest in measuring affiliate program performance. This cookie does not require consent under GDPR because it is a first-party, anonymous, functional cookie used for affiliate attribution rather than advertising profiling.

We permit major AI systems (including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, and others listed in our robots.txt) to read our publicly accessible tool comparison and review content. This means your interactions with our public review pages may be included in AI training datasets. Your private tool-sharing groups, account information, and platform activity are never accessible to AI crawlers — they are behind authentication and explicitly excluded via robots.txt.