1Who we are
BlockTalk (“BlockTalk,” “we,” “us”) is an anonymous, hyperlocal social app for New York City neighborhoods. You can read neighborhood conversations from anywhere, but you can only post in the neighborhood you’re physically in. This policy explains what we collect, why, and your choices. Questions: hello@blocktalk.nyc.
2The short version
- You are anonymous to other users — we don’t show your real name. You are not anonymous to us or to the law — we hold limited account and technical data and must disclose it when legally compelled.
- We collect the minimum we need to run the app safely, and we delete on a schedule.
- We don’t sell your personal information to data brokers or share it for third-party advertising.
- We use a small number of service providers to host the app, keep it safe, and understand product usage.
3Information we collect
Account & identity. Your Sign in with Apple identifier (we don’t receive your Apple password, and receive your email only if Apple relays it — often a private relay address); your chosen username and assigned user number; and your selected home neighborhood.
Content you create. Posts, replies, votes, reports, and photos you upload. Photos are stored in our media storage and served to other users as part of your public posts.
Location. To enforce presence-based posting, we check your approximate location to determine which neighborhood you’re in, and to attach a neighborhood or corner to street comments (see §7).
Device & technical. A push notification token (if enabled), IP address, device and OS type, timestamps, and basic diagnostic and log data.
Usage analytics. Event-level product analytics tied to a pseudonymous identifier, used to improve the product (see §9).
We do not intentionally collect your real name, precise home address, contacts, or sensitive categories of personal data.
4How we use your information
- Operate core features (post, read, reply, vote, notify).
- Enforce presence-based posting and attach neighborhood context.
- Keep the community safe: spam prevention, rate limiting, content moderation, and responding to reports.
- Detect and report illegal content, including our legal obligation to report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to NCMEC.
- Send notifications you’ve opted into, understand usage, improve BlockTalk, and comply with law.
5How we share information
We share personal data only with service providers acting on our behalf — Supabase (hosting, database, authentication, media storage), PostHog (analytics), and Apple (Sign in with Apple; Apple Push Notification service); for safety and legal reasons — with NCMEC for CSAM, and with law enforcement when required by law or to prevent imminent harm (§13); and in a business transfer — subject to this policy.
We don’t sell your personal information to data brokers or share it with third parties for their own advertising. In the future we may show advertising within BlockTalk (for example, from local businesses) and may license aggregated or de-identified information that doesn’t identify you — consistent with this policy and applicable law, and we’ll update this policy before doing so.
6Anonymity — what it means, and what it doesn’t
BlockTalk is anonymous to other users: your posts are not labeled with your real name. But your content is not anonymous to us — we can associate posts with your account — and it is not anonymous to a court. Because content is tied to real places and times, we may receive legal requests. We tell you this plainly so you never mistake “anonymous to your neighbors” for “untraceable.”
7Location
We use location only to determine your neighborhood for presence-based posting and to place street comments. Where possible we work at the neighborhood level rather than storing a precise, permanent location trail, and any recent-presence data is coarse and expires on a schedule. You can deny location permission — you’ll still be able to read and reply, but posting and pinning may be limited.
8Photos and user content
Photos and posts you create are public to other BlockTalk users. Please don’t upload anything you wouldn’t want shared. All uploaded images are subject to automated and human moderation, including scanning for illegal content.
9Analytics
We use PostHog to collect event-level usage data associated with a pseudonymous identifier, to improve the product. We don’t use analytics to identify you to third parties or to sell your data.
10Data retention and minimization
We keep personal data only as long as we need it, then delete or de-identify it on a schedule. Some data is kept longer where required for legal, safety, or security reasons. When you delete your account, we delete or de-identify your account data and content, except records we’re legally required to retain.
11Security
We use industry-standard safeguards (encryption in transit, access controls). No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and to minimize what we hold.
12Your choices and rights
- Account deletion: you can delete your account at any time in the app (Settings → Profile → Delete Account), which removes your posts, replies, and votes. You can also contact hello@blocktalk.nyc.
- Notifications and location: control in the app or your device settings.
- Region-specific rights: depending on where you live (for example, California), you may have rights to access, delete, correct, or restrict use of your data. We don’t sell your personal information to data brokers; if that ever changes, we’ll provide a clear opt-out as required by law.
13Law enforcement and legal requests
We may disclose information when we believe in good faith it’s required by law, to comply with valid legal process (e.g., a subpoena or court order), to enforce our Terms, to address fraud or security, or to prevent imminent harm. We aim to disclose only what we’re legally required to disclose. We report CSAM to NCMEC as required by law.
14Children
BlockTalk is intended for users 18 and older. We don’t knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If we learn we’ve collected data from someone under 18, we’ll delete it.
15Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the product and law evolve. If we make material changes, we’ll update the “Last updated” date and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.
16Contact
hello@blocktalk.nyc · blocktalk.nyc ↑ Top