Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

CommonRoom ("we", "us") provides the CommonRoom app, CommonRoom Web and related services. We are the data controller for the personal data described here. For anything about your privacy, contact us at support@commonroom.space.

Groups also decide how their own spaces are used. For records a group keeps about its members (for example a treasurer's money records), the group's officers are responsible for what they enter, and we process it on the group's behalf.

2. What we collect

Information you give us

• Account: mobile number, name, username, optional photo, bio and the details you choose for your Common ID profile, language, and your confirmation that you are 18 or older.
• Content: messages, voice notes, photos, files, documents, polls and votes, tasks, meetings, and money-group entries you create or that are recorded about you.
• Reports and support: what you tell us when you report something or contact us.

Information others give us

• A group's managers may add you to a money group by name and phone number before you join. When you join that space with the same number, the records are linked to your account so you can see your own statement.
• People may invite you, mention you, or report content involving you.

Information collected automatically

• Device and app: device model, operating system, app version, language, and a push notification token.
• Usage and security: sign-in times, IP address, approximate location derived from it, and logs we need to keep the Service secure and working. Logs are kept for a limited time and mask phone numbers, codes and message contents.

We do not access your contacts, precise location, camera or microphone unless you choose a feature that needs them (for example sending a photo or joining a live meeting), and only while you use it.

3. How we use it

• to create and secure your account, including sending sign-in codes;
• to run your groups: deliver messages and notifications, hold meetings, keep records and show each person what their role allows;
• to keep people safe: prevent fraud and abuse, review reports and enforce our Terms and Community Standards;
• to support you and tell you about important changes to the Service;
• to understand and improve the Service using aggregated, non-identifying statistics;
• to meet legal obligations.

Our legal bases are: performing our contract with you (the Terms), our legitimate interests in running a safe and reliable service, your consent where we ask for it (you can withdraw it at any time), and compliance with the law.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for advertising. Push notifications never contain the content of your messages or money records.

4. Who can see your information

• Other members of a space see your name, photo and what you post there, according to the space's settings. They do not see your phone number.
• Your group's officers (owners, administrators and others the group allows) can view members' phone numbers to run the group. Every view is recorded in an audit log.
• Money group records: managers see the group's books; each member sees their own statement and the group summaries the group shares.
• Anyone with the link can see your public Common ID page, showing only what you chose to make public.
• Service providers who process data for us under contract and only on our instructions: cloud hosting and storage, SMS and email delivery, push notifications (Google Firebase), and live meeting infrastructure.
• Amani AI list reading (powered by Anthropic's Claude): when a fundraiser organiser pastes, speaks, photographs or uploads a list of contributions, it may be read by Claude so that names and amounts can be filled in for the organiser to check. Phone numbers in typed or spoken text are removed before it is sent; a photo or document is sent as it is. Nothing is added to the fundraiser until the organiser reviews the rows and taps Add, and Anthropic does not use this data to train its models. The list as read (without phone numbers) and the organiser's changes are kept, encrypted, with that import in the fundraiser's history, so the people receiving the money can check it later; a list that is not added is deleted when the review is closed, or after 7 days.
• Authorities, when the law requires it or to protect someone's safety. We check that requests are lawful.
• A successor, if CommonRoom is reorganised, merged or sold, subject to this policy.

End-to-end encrypted chats

The CommonRoom app sets up chat encryption by itself. Once everyone in a chat has it, the messages, photos, files, voice notes, polls, votes, reactions and link previews in that chat are encrypted on the sender's device and can only be opened on the devices of the people in the chat. CommonRoom stores and delivers scrambled copies and holds no key that opens them, so neither our staff nor anyone who gets hold of our servers can read them, and we cannot hand their content to anyone. We still see who is in a chat, who sent a message and when, its size, and which people a message mentions (to notify them). Lines the service writes itself (for example "Wanjiru joined") are not encrypted.

• Your keys stay on your phone and on browsers your phone has approved. If you lose your phone, your earlier encrypted messages can only be brought back with your recovery key, which we never see; without it they cannot be recovered. The app keeps the key on your phone and shows it in Privacy after a one-time code, so you can write it down.
• New members can read earlier encrypted messages only if their group chose to share them, and only as far back as it chose.
• Reports: if you report a message from an encrypted chat, your device sends us that message so moderators can review it. We check it cryptographically against what the sender sent, so it cannot be altered.
• Messages from before a chat was encrypted are re-encrypted by a member's device and their readable copies are removed from our servers on a date we announce in the app; photos and files sent before then are removed on that date.

5. Where your data is stored

Our servers and storage providers may be outside Kenya. When data leaves Kenya, we use providers that offer appropriate safeguards as required by the Data Protection Act, such as contractual protections and strong security.

6. How long we keep it

• Your account information, for as long as your account exists.
• Group content, for as long as the group keeps it. Deleted messages and items are removed from view straight away and erased from our systems after a short recovery period.
• Delivery and security logs, for up to 90 days, unless needed longer to investigate abuse.
• Records we must keep by law, or that are subject to a legal hold, for as long as required.

When you delete your account, it is closed after a 30-day grace period. We then delete your profile and contact details. Messages you sent to groups remain part of those groups' records, shown as from a "Former member". Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis.

7. Security

We use encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS), end-to-end encryption for chats where everyone has turned it on (see section 4), encryption at rest for sensitive settings and device tokens, private storage with short-lived links, malware scanning of uploads where enabled, role-based access checked on our servers, audit logs, and two-factor sign-in for our staff. On your device, data stored for offline use is encrypted, and you can add an app lock. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we will notify you and the Data Commissioner as the law requires.

8. Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act you have the right to:

• be informed about how your data is used (this policy);
• access your data: download a copy from the app (Me → Privacy, data & help → Your data → Export my data);
• correct inaccurate data: edit your profile in the app, or ask a group's officers to correct their records;
• delete your data: delete your account from the app, or request deletion on our website;
• object to, or ask us to restrict, certain processing, and withdraw consent;
• data portability: the download is in a common, machine-readable format.

For anything you cannot do in the app, write to support@commonroom.space. We will reply within the time the law requires. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) of Kenya.

9. Children

CommonRoom is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has an account, contact us and we will remove it.

10. Changes to this policy

We will tell you in the app before significant changes take effect. The date at the top shows when this policy last changed.