PRIVACY NOTICE
Your information should help you decide, not become the product.
This notice explains how Common Ground uses information for community discovery, planning, support, and paid community listings. Contact us through Help & support with privacy questions or requests.
What is stored
Common Ground stores the account identifier, verified email, and available name associated with Google or email-link sign-in, profiles, self-reported skills and contribution details, optional profile media, private matching coordinates when a person chooses to add them, community listings and evidence records, community event details and RSVPs, in-app alerts and their delivery preferences, private messages and conversation history, forming-circle records, stewardship history, and safety cases. A legacy saved-search record may remain for an account that used the retired feature; it is inactive and can still be exported or erased. Matching answers can reveal sensitive lifestyle preferences.
Signing in with Google or email
You can sign in with Google or request a one-time link sent to your email address. Google provides a verified email and account identifier, and may provide your name. Email sign-in verifies that you can access that inbox; Common Ground does not ask you to create a password. A link expires after 15 minutes and works once. We store a protected representation of the link while it is valid, temporary request limits to prevent abuse, and a session record so you can stay signed in. Cloudflare handles sign-in email delivery. Sign-ins using the same verified email connect to the same Common Ground account. Never forward a sign-in link, including to support.
Who can see it
Profiles are visible to their owner and site administrators by default. People can separately opt into compatibility matching, the signed-in member directory, and the public directory. People who can view a profile can also read its questionnaire answers, shared-living experience, budget, and labor limits. Answers do not have a separate visibility setting. A profile also shows the approximate number of hours since its owner last used the site while signed in. We record page visits and submitted actions for this, at most once every five minutes. Emails and precise addresses stay private. Accepting a message request opens an in-site conversation; it does not reveal either account's email.
Public information
Community listings and profiles whose owners turn on public visibility can be viewed without signing in. A public profile includes its name, broad location, description, self-reported contribution details, personal links, and any photos and short video its owner adds. Full questionnaire answers, shared-living experience, budget, and labor limits are part of the profile and visible to everyone who can view it. Owners can edit or leave answers blank and control the visibility of the whole profile in Profile → Visibility. Media follows the profile's visibility setting; a private or member-only person profile does not make its media public. Uploaded photos are reprocessed to remove embedded metadata. Videos are stored as uploaded and may retain file metadata, so review them before sharing. Emails and precise addresses remain private; contact requires sign-in and mutual acceptance. Community listings may also show owner-added media, community arrangements, availability, evidence summaries, linked governance documents, and event dates with only an approximate place or “Online.” An exact event address, arrival instructions, or private meeting link is shown only to organizers and confirmed attendees, and is hidden again after withdrawal or cancellation. Upload only people who agreed to appear, and do not publish private member information or precise residential details that create safety risk.
Circle voice chat
Voice chat is available to active members of a private Circle. Joining starts with your microphone muted; unmuting asks for browser microphone permission. Active Circle members can see who is in the call and whether each microphone is on or muted. Your Circle identity and live connection information are used to connect the room. WebRTC encrypts audio in transit, and Cloudflare relays it so other participants do not receive your direct IP address. Cloudflare necessarily handles network information to provide that connection. Common Ground does not record or transcribe calls, or save audio in written chat. Live connection and mute information are separate from the Circle’s message history; temporary connection controls help prevent abuse. Leaving stops your microphone tracks. You can revoke microphone permission in your browser. Other participants may be able to record audio on their own devices, so agree with them before sharing sensitive information.
Location choices
A saved matching location is optional. Using it privately for straight-line distance matching and showing a rounded public map marker are separate choices, and both can be turned off. Without private location consent, matching falls back to the broad city or region written in the profile.
Control, export, and erasure
Members can download a complete ZIP containing their structured Site records and available profile photos, covers, collages, short videos, hosted events, and event RSVPs. People can leave an RSVP or waitlist at any time, which removes access to attendee-only details. The account-wide Site-data erasure flow first shows an account-specific preview, then requires exact confirmation. It removes owned profiles, listings, events, RSVPs, media, legacy saved-search records, alerts, and other account data; withdraws contact; and closes circles the member facilitated rather than silently giving control to someone else. Media or events added by a co-steward to a community owned by someone else stay with that community, while the former contributor's identity is removed. A small pseudonymized safety-case history may be retained to preserve moderation accountability, and that exception is shown before erasure. This erases Common Ground Site data; it does not delete the person's Google account or email inbox. Administrators can export a portable backup for migration and recovery.
FAQ help and contacting the team
The AI assistant sends your question and up to six recent chat messages (your questions and its replies, subject to a size limit) to Cloudflare Workers AI to generate conversational answers grounded in the published FAQ. Chat history is held in the current page session, not saved as a support ticket. Do not include sensitive personal information. It does not receive your private profile or member conversations. AI questions are not automatically submitted to administrators. When you explicitly send a support message, the site stores that message, your contact email, and the team’s reply in the private admin support inbox. Signed-out visitors use a secure, HttpOnly support cookie lasting up to 30 days to retrieve their own replies in the same browser. The email supplied by a guest is not verified. Signed-in support requests are associated with the account and included in its existing data controls. Contact the Common Ground team through Help & support about guest messages or deletion requests. We’ll reply as soon as we can.
Payments and billing data
When you purchase a paid community listing, Stripe collects and processes the payment details you enter in the secure payment form on Common Ground or in Stripe's billing portal. Common Ground does not store full card numbers or card security codes. We store the payer's account identifier and email, the listing connected to the purchase, Stripe customer and transaction references, billing status, paid-through and grace dates, cancellation and refund status, billing notices, and a limited history needed to administer the subscription or resolve disputes. Signed Stripe event notifications update publication access. Only the payer can open the Stripe payment-method portal. Authorized site administrators can review billing records and payment issues. Other listing managers may see whether the listing is eligible to be public, not the payer's card or invoices.
Billing use and retention
Billing records are used to provide paid publication, prevent duplicate charges, process cancellations and refunds, send transaction notices, answer support requests, and address fraud, disputes, or accounting obligations. Payment amounts do not change compatibility scores or buy paid ranking. Site-data export includes available billing references and status, not full card details held by Stripe. After account erasure or listing deletion, we first stop future collection; minimum transaction and dispute records may be retained where required by law or for an open issue. Stripe may retain its own records under its privacy notice.
Business model
Paid promotion must never change compatibility scores. The current product does not sell personal profiles or optimize for addictive engagement.