Privacy Policy

1. Who this policy covers

This policy explains what personal data LinkToGroups collects, why, and what you can do about it. The data controller is [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], [REGISTERED ADDRESS]. For any privacy question, write to [email protected].

It covers this website and our API. It does not cover the third-party communities you reach through us: once you join a group on another platform, that platform and the community's operators handle your data under their own policies.

2. Data you give us

• Account — display name, email address, your password (stored only as a cryptographic hash) and your interface language. If you sign in with Google, we receive your Google account identifier, name and email address.
• Listings — everything you enter about a community, and any image you upload.
• Contact form — your name, email address and message.
• Payments — wallet top-ups are handled by our payment provider. We receive a transaction reference and the amount. We never receive or store your full card number.

3. Data we collect automatically

• Technical data — IP address, browser user-agent and a session identifier, recorded to keep you signed in and to detect and prevent abuse.
• Usage data — which listings are viewed and clicked, and the country a request came from, recorded against a random visitor identifier rather than your name.
• Search terms — what visitors type into our search box, aggregated per term so we can see what people want and cannot find. Please do not type personal information into the search box.
• Broken-link reports — these can be filed without an account. When one is filed we record the IP address, user-agent and visitor identifier, so the reporting system cannot be abused to suppress listings.

4. Data we obtain from platforms

Where a platform makes it available, we read publicly visible information about a listed community — title, description, avatar, member count — to keep listings accurate. We do not collect information about the members of those communities.

5. Why we use it, and our legal bases

• To provide the service — accounts, publishing listings, wallet top-ups and promotions. Basis: performance of our contract with you.
• To keep the directory trustworthy — moderation, link verification, fraud and abuse prevention, rate limiting. Basis: our legitimate interests and those of other users.
• To send transactional email — verification codes, password resets, moderation outcomes. Basis: performance of our contract.
• To measure and improve — aggregate analytics and search demand. Basis: legitimate interests.
• To meet legal obligations — where the law requires it.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it to build advertising profiles.

6. Automated decisions

Some moderation is automated. A listing that attracts reports beyond a threshold, or that repeatedly fails link verification, can be flagged, hidden or disabled before a person has reviewed it, and an owner's trust level is recalculated automatically. These decisions concern listings rather than people, they are reversible, and you can ask for human review by contacting us.

7. Machine translation

Editorial content — blog posts, these policies, and category and platform labels — is written in English and translated automatically into the other languages we offer. To do that, we send that text to a third-party AI provider. Only this editorial content is sent: your account details, your listings and your messages are not.

8. Cookies

See our Cookie Policy for what we set and why.

9. Who we share data with

We share data only with providers who help us run the service, under contract and only for that purpose: hosting and object storage; email delivery; payment processing; bot protection on public forms; AI translation as described above; and error monitoring.

We may also disclose data where the law requires it, or to establish or defend legal claims. If the business is ever sold or reorganised, data may transfer as part of it, subject to this policy.

10. International transfers

We operate globally and some providers process data outside your country. Where data leaves a region that restricts transfers, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.

11. How long we keep it

• Account data — while your account is open, and briefly afterwards to resolve disputes and meet legal obligations.
• Listings — while published; removed listings are retained for a limited period so a moderation decision can be reviewed or appealed.
• Raw usage events — pruned after seven days. Only aggregated daily totals are kept beyond that.
• Reports — kept while the listing exists and for a period afterwards, so repeat abuse can be identified.
• Payment records — kept for as long as tax and accounting rules require.

12. Your rights

Depending on where you live — including under the EU and UK GDPR and the Nigeria Data Protection Act — you may have the right to obtain a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, receive it in a portable form, and withdraw consent where we relied on it.

You can update or delete most of your data from your account settings. For anything else, email [email protected]; we aim to respond within one month. You also have the right to complain to your data protection authority.

Please note that anonymous reports are recorded against an IP address rather than an account, so we may be unable to connect such a record to you without further information.

13. Children

LinkToGroups is not intended for children. You must be at least 16 to hold an account, and 18 to view listings marked for adults. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

14. Security

Passwords are stored hashed, traffic is encrypted in transit, administrative actions are logged, and access to production data is limited to staff who need it. No service can promise perfect security, but we take this seriously and will notify you and the relevant authority of a breach where the law requires.

15. Changes

We may update this policy. The date it was last updated is shown alongside it, and material changes will be signposted on the site.