Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how Citizenly ("we," "us," or "our"), available at citizenly.app, collects, uses, and protects your personal information when you use our Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this policy.

Citizenly is independently operated and is NOT affiliated with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Department of Homeland Security, or any government agency.

Information You Provide

When you create an account, we may collect:

• Email address — used for account creation, login, and essential communications about your account.
• Name — if you choose to provide one during account setup.
• Language preference — the language you select for studying.
• Citizenship rule selection — the exemption rule you indicate during onboarding (50/20, 55/15, 65/20, or unsure). This is stored to personalize your study experience.
• State and congressional district — used to personalize civics questions that ask about your local representatives. This information is stored in your account and is not shared with any third party.
• PIN — used as your account credential. Your PIN is stored securely in our database.

Information Generated by Your Use of the Service

As you use Citizenly, we automatically collect:

• Study activity data — questions practiced, answers given, accuracy rates, topics studied, and study streaks.
• Mistake tracking data — questions you answered incorrectly, stored so you can review and practice them.

Information Collected Automatically

When you visit citizenly.app, we may automatically collect:

• Device information — browser type, operating system, and device type.
• Log data — IP address, pages visited, time spent on pages, and referring URL.
• Cookies — we use essential cookies for authentication and session management. We do not use advertising cookies or tracking cookies from third-party advertisers.

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide and maintain the Service, including personalized study content based on your language, location, and exemption rule.
• Track your study progress, accuracy, and mistakes so you can monitor your improvement.
• Authenticate your account and maintain your session.
• Communicate with you about your account or changes to the Service, if necessary.
• Improve the Service based on aggregated, anonymized usage patterns.

We do NOT use your information to:

• Serve advertisements.
• Sell or rent your personal information to third parties.
• Share your personal information with government agencies, including USCIS, DHS, or any immigration enforcement agency.
• Make any report or disclosure to any government agency about your immigration status, citizenship application status, or any related matter.

We do not sell, rent, trade, or share your personal information with third parties for their marketing purposes.

We may share limited information with the following service providers who help us operate the Service:

• Supabase — our database and authentication provider. Your account data and study progress are stored in Supabase's infrastructure. Supabase's privacy policy is available at supabase.com/privacy.
• Vercel — our hosting provider. Vercel may process server logs including IP addresses. Vercel's privacy policy is available at vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy.

These service providers are contractually obligated to protect your information and may only use it to provide services to us.

We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to a valid legal process (such as a court order or subpoena). In such cases, we will attempt to notify you unless prohibited by law.

We retain your account information and study data for as long as your account is active. If you request deletion of your account, we will delete your personal information within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.

Aggregated, anonymized data that cannot be used to identify you may be retained indefinitely for the purpose of improving the Service.

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include:

• Encryption of data in transit using HTTPS/TLS (enforced by the .app domain).
• Use of Supabase Row Level Security (RLS) to prevent unauthorized access to other users' data.
• Secure environment variable management for API keys and secrets.

However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of your information.

Citizenly does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. The Service is intended for use by adults, primarily elderly immigrants and their adult family members. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take steps to delete that information promptly.

If you are between 13 and 18 years of age, you may use the Service with the consent of a parent or legal guardian.

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Access — You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction — You may request that we correct any inaccurate information.
• Deletion — You may request that we delete your account and personal information.
• Data portability — You may request a copy of your data in a portable format.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at getcitizenly@gmail.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

California Residents (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

• The right to know what personal information we collect, use, and disclose.
• The right to request deletion of your personal information.
• The right to opt out of the sale of your personal information. Note: we do not sell personal information.
• The right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights.

European Residents (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

We use only essential cookies necessary for the functioning of the Service:

• Session cookies — to maintain your login session and authentication state.
• Preference cookies — to remember your language selection and study settings.

We do NOT use:

• Advertising or targeting cookies.
• Third-party analytics cookies.
• Social media tracking cookies.

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. However, disabling essential cookies may prevent you from using certain features of the Service.

The Service may contain links to third-party websites, including uscis.gov and other government resources. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these external sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.

The Service is hosted in the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States. By using the Service, you consent to this transfer.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last Updated" date at the top of this page indicates when the policy was last revised. We encourage you to review this page periodically. Your continued use of the Service after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

Email: getcitizenly@gmail.com