Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

ShelfVerse ("we," "our," or "us") operates the ShelfVerse mobile application and website. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use our services.

ShelfVerse is an independent shopping companion app. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Costco Wholesale Corporation.

2. Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect your email address, display name, and profile photo through Firebase Authentication. You may sign in with Google, Apple, or email/password.

Costco Account Data

If you choose to link your Costco account, we access your Costco purchase history, membership details (tier, expiration date), and warehouse preferences. This data is fetched using session credentials you provide and is stored securely on our servers to power price tracking, deal alerts, and spending insights.

Costco sign-in credentials. If you opt in to the "remember me" option on the Costco sign-in screen, your Costco email and password are stored only on your device inside the platform-encrypted secure storage (Android Keystore on Android, Keychain on iOS) so the app can silently refresh your Costco session in the background without prompting you to sign in again. We never transmit your Costco password to our servers and never log it in plaintext. If you don't opt in, no Costco password is persisted — you'll be asked to sign in again when the session expires. You can remove the stored credentials at any time by unlinking your Costco account in Settings.

Purchase & Inventory Data

We store your synced purchase history, inventory items, shopping lists, and price match claims. This data is used to provide personalized deal recommendations, spending analytics, and price drop alerts.

Camera & Scanning

The camera is used for on-device barcode and price label scanning. Image processing (YOLO object detection, OCR) runs entirely on your device. Images are not uploaded to our servers unless you explicitly opt into the training data contribution program in Settings.

Location Data

With your permission, we collect approximate and precise location to determine your nearest Costco warehouse for deal relevance. Location data is processed locally and is not stored on our servers beyond your selected home warehouse.

Background Location

If you opt in to warehouse price-match alerts, ShelfVerse uses background location to detect when you arrive at or leave a Costco warehouse — even when the app is closed. Geofence triggers are evaluated entirely on your device; we do not stream your location to our servers. Background location is used solely to fire local notifications about deals and price-match opportunities near you, and you can revoke it at any time in your device's location settings.

Financial Information

When you link your Costco account, we sync purchase line items (item name, price, quantity, discount, warehouse, date) to power spending analytics and price-match claims. We do not collect, store, or transmit payment card numbers, bank account information, or credit data. Payment-method display strings (e.g., "Card ending in 1234") that may appear on your Costco receipts are parsed on-device only and are never sent to our servers. If you buy credits or a subscription in the app, Apple or Google processes the payment. Through our provider RevenueCat we receive a record of the purchase (product, price, time, and the store's transaction ID). We never receive your card or bank details.

Credits & Purchases

ShelfVerse has a credits balance. We keep a ledger of your credits: what you earned (rewarded videos, a one-time bonus for connecting a Costco membership), bought, and spent (Ad-Free passes, price-match alerts). Points in the app are only for badges and levels; they are not credits and cannot be spent. If you use a referral code, or a friend joins with yours, we record the referral (the code, both account IDs, and whether the bonus was paid) to credit you both and to prevent abuse. A referral bonus is paid once per Costco membership, checked with the same one-way membership fingerprint.

To make the one-time connection bonus work once per Costco membership, we store a one-way hashed fingerprint of your Costco membership number. It cannot be reversed into the number. We keep it even after you delete your account, so the bonus cannot be claimed again by deleting and re-creating an account.

Device & Usage Data

We collect usage analytics through Firebase Analytics: the screens you visit, the features you use, and engagement events, and, in app versions that support it, the search terms you enter and the products you view. Firebase Analytics data is associated with a random app-instance identifier rather than your name or email. Some usage events, such as ad and purchase activity, are also stored on our own servers linked to your account. We use this data to understand which features are used and to improve search, recommendations, and the app. We also collect crash reports through Sentry (stack traces, device model, OS version) to improve app stability. You can turn analytics off at any time in Settings.

Push Notifications

If you enable notifications, we store your Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) token to deliver deal alerts, price drop notifications, and inventory reminders. You can disable notifications at any time in your device settings. Price-match push alerts are free for the first 5 new matches each month; after that, each new match uses 1 credit.

Advertising

ShelfVerse displays ads through Google AdMob to help keep the app free. To serve and measure these ads, the Google Mobile Ads SDK may access your device's advertising identifier (IDFA on iOS, Advertising ID on Android), along with coarse, IP-derived approximate location and general device information. On iOS this only occurs if you allow tracking when prompted (App Tracking Transparency); in the EU/UK you are shown a consent form. We never share your Costco purchase history, receipts, or account data with advertisers, and we do not use that data to target ads. You can reset or limit the advertising identifier in your device settings, and an Ad-Free pass (bought with credits) or an active ShelfVerse Pro subscription removes ads while it lasts. If you choose to watch a rewarded video ad to earn credits, we send your ShelfVerse account ID to Google AdMob so Google can confirm the reward to our servers (server-side verification). This lets us credit you and helps prevent fraud. See Google's Advertising Privacy & Terms for details on how Google uses this data.

3. How We Use Your Information

• Provide personalized deal recommendations and price tracking
• Send price drop alerts and deal notifications (price-match push alerts beyond a monthly free allowance use credits)
• Generate spending analytics and membership ROI insights
• Compute anonymized community price statistics, such as the ShelfVerse Staples Index, from the median price many members paid for the same item. An item is only included once at least five members have bought it, and no individual member's purchases are ever shown
• Power share groups and household shopping collaboration
• Improve app stability through crash reporting
• Analyze aggregated usage patterns to improve features
• Run the credits system: record your credit balance, earnings, spending, and credit purchases
• Prevent fraud and abuse, such as duplicate rewards, and keep records needed for refunds, tax, and legal compliance

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your Costco purchase history, receipts, or account data with advertisers or data brokers, and we never use it to target ads.

ShelfVerse shows ads through Google AdMob to help keep the app free. AdMob may use your device's advertising identifier to personalize and measure ads, subject to your consent choices (the App Tracking Transparency prompt on iOS and Google's consent options). You can reset or limit the advertising identifier in your device settings, and an Ad-Free pass (bought with credits) or an active ShelfVerse Pro subscription removes ads while it lasts.

4. Data Sharing

We share data only in these limited circumstances:

• Share Groups: If you join a share group, your display name, shopping lists, and deal shares are visible to other group members you have invited or accepted.
• Service Providers: We use Firebase (Google) for authentication and messaging, Railway for hosting, Sentry for error monitoring, RevenueCat for processing in-app purchase records, and Apple (App Store) and Google (Play) for billing. These providers process data on our behalf under their respective privacy policies.
• Advertising (Google AdMob): To show ads that keep ShelfVerse free, we share your device's advertising identifier and coarse, IP-derived location with Google to serve and measure ads, subject to your tracking/consent choices. If you watch a rewarded video ad, we also send your ShelfVerse account ID to Google AdMob for server-side reward verification. We never share your Costco purchase history or account data with advertisers.
• Legal Requirements: We may disclose information if required by law or to protect our rights.

5. Data Storage & Security

Your data is stored on servers hosted by Railway (US region) with PostgreSQL encryption at rest. Authentication is managed by Firebase with industry-standard security practices. API communication is encrypted via HTTPS/TLS. Session tokens and credentials are stored encrypted and are never logged.

6. Your Rights & Choices

• Access & Export: You can view all your data within the app (purchases, inventory, analytics).
• Deletion: You can request account deletion by contacting us. We will delete your account and associated data within 30 days. Your credit balance is deleted with the account, and unused credits are forfeited. We keep a few things where needed: the hashed Costco membership fingerprint (to prevent duplicate bonuses, including referral bonuses); referral records with your account identifier removed (for fraud prevention); purchase and transaction records (for refunds, tax, and fraud prevention); a minimal deletion record (your account identifier and deletion date, so a sign-in token issued before deletion cannot recreate the account); ad and usage events with your account identifier removed, used only in aggregate; and an internal log of administrative actions on your account (such as moderation flags and credit adjustments), kept for fraud prevention and accountability. See Delete Your Data.
• Costco Unlinking: You can unlink your Costco account at any time in Settings, which removes stored session credentials.
• Notifications: Disable push notifications in your device settings or in the app's notification preferences.
• Location: Revoke location permission in your device settings at any time.

7. Children's Privacy

ShelfVerse is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a child, please contact us and we will promptly delete it.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes through the app or by updating the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of ShelfVerse after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

9. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact us at privacy@shelfverse.com