Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Town Circle (“Town Circle,” “we,” “us,” “our”) collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you use our websites, applications, and services (collectively, the “Service”), described in our Terms of Service.

We've tried to write this in plain language. If anything is unclear, email us at hello@towncircle.co.

1. Who this applies to

This policy covers two kinds of users:

Merchants — independent businesses with Town Circle accounts.
Consumers — people who join a merchant's member list by submitting a phone number on a Town Circle membership page.

The Service is intended for users in the United States. We do not offer it to residents of the European Union or other regions with materially different privacy regimes.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you provide as a merchant

Account info: business name, slug, owner name, email address.
Storefront content: business description, hours, address, hero image, offer details, member benefits.
Billing info: handled by our payment processor (we don't store full card numbers ourselves), plus your subscription plan and billing history.
Messages you send through the Service.

2.2 Information you provide as a consumer

Phone number, normalized to E.164 format.
Name (when provided on the join form).
Consent records: a timestamped record of your opt-in to receive messages from a specific merchant, along with the IP address and message preview shown at the moment you joined.
Reply messages you send back to a merchant's number.

2.3 Information collected automatically

Usage and device information: IP address, browser type, operating system, pages visited, referrer URL, and approximate location derived from your IP.
Cookies and similar technologies. We use a small number of purpose-built cookies — for example, to remember that you're signed in (merchants), to remember that you're an impersonating administrator (admins), and to remember the device you joined a merchant from so we can recognize you on return visits without making you re-enter your phone (consumers). We do not use third-party advertising cookies.
SMS delivery metadata from our SMS provider: timestamps, delivery status, segment counts, error codes.

3. How we use information

To operate the Service: create accounts, process payments, send membership SMS messages, surface customer lists in merchant dashboards, render storefront pages.
To communicate with you: service announcements, billing notifications, security alerts, replies to your support requests. We don't send marketing email to consumers.
To improve and develop Town Circle: analyze usage patterns, debug issues, design new features. See Section 4 for the rules around new products and the marketplace.
To enforce our Terms: investigate suspected abuse, prevent fraud, comply with legal requests.
For aggregated analytics: we may compute anonymized, aggregated statistics (e.g., “average redemption rate across all coffee shops”) and use them publicly. Aggregated statistics never identify any individual merchant or consumer.

4. Future products and the marketplace

Town Circle expects to introduce new products and features over time. These may include, without limitation, a cross-merchant marketplace, consumer-facing discovery and recommendation features, loyalty integrations, and analytics products.

Information we collect under this Policy may be used to design, build, operate, and improve those new products. For example, we may use aggregate redemption data to power a “trending in your neighborhood” feed, or use a consumer's membership history to suggest other local businesses they may enjoy.

Where a new product or feature would use your information in a way that materially differs from the uses described in this Policy, we will notify you and, where required by applicable law, give you an opportunity to opt out before that new use takes effect. We will never:

sell your personal information to third parties (as “sale” is defined under applicable U.S. state privacy laws);
enroll you in another merchant's SMS program without your separate, explicit consent;
share a merchant's member list with another merchant.

5. SMS messaging — TCPA disclosures

When you join a merchant's member list on Town Circle, you consent to receive recurring automated SMS messages from Town Circle on behalf of that merchant. The volume and content of messages varies by merchant — most send between two and ten messages per month.

Standard message and data rates apply. You can opt out at any time by replying STOP to a message you receive from a Town Circle number. Reply HELP for help. STOP and HELP are processed automatically and immediately. Opting out of one merchant's messages does not opt you out of messages from other merchants you've separately joined.

We retain consent records (including the timestamp, IP address, and message preview shown at the moment you opted in) to demonstrate compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and CTIA guidelines.

With merchants you've joined. Your name, phone number, opt-in status, and redemption history are visible to the merchant whose member list you joined. Merchants may not export or share your information outside of the Service except to fulfill an offer you've redeemed.
With service providers. We use third parties to run the Service — for example, our SMS provider (currently Twilio), our payments processor (currently Stripe), our hosting provider (currently Vercel), and our database host. These providers have access only to the information they need to perform their function and are bound by confidentiality obligations.
For legal reasons. We may disclose information if required by law, subpoena, or court order, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Town Circle, our users, or the public.
In a corporate transaction. If we're involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. The successor will be bound by the commitments in this Policy unless you are notified and given an opportunity to opt out.
In aggregated, de-identified form. We may share information that does not personally identify you for industry analysis, marketing, or research.

7. Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies that are essential to providing the Service:

Authentication cookies for signed-in merchants and admins (set by our auth provider).
Consumer device-recognition cookie (hub_consumer): a signed token that lets a returning consumer skip the join form on a device they've already joined from.
Impersonation cookie (hub_impersonate): a signed token used by Town Circle operators when assisting a merchant with their dashboard.

We do not use third-party advertising cookies, cross-site tracking pixels, or social-media tracking beacons.

8. Your rights and choices

You can:

Stop receiving SMS from a merchant by replying STOP to any of their messages.
Request a copy of the personal information we have about you.
Request correction of inaccurate information.
Request deletion of your information, subject to our need to retain certain records for legal, security, or fraud-prevention purposes (for example, we retain consent records for at least four years to demonstrate TCPA compliance).

To exercise these rights, email hello@towncircle.co. We'll respond within 30 days.

8.1 California residents

If you're a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), including the right to know what personal information we collect, the right to delete it, the right to correct it, and the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA. You can exercise your CCPA rights using the contact information above.

9. Data retention

We retain your information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the Service. After you delete your account or unsubscribe, we may retain certain information for limited purposes:

Consent records and STOP requests: retained for at least four years to demonstrate compliance.
Billing and tax records: retained for at least seven years where required by tax law.
Backups: deleted information may persist in encrypted backups for up to 90 days.

10. Data security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit, encryption at rest, role-based access controls, and audit logging. No system is perfectly secure, however, and we can't guarantee that information transmitted to or from the Service will always remain confidential.

11. Children's privacy

The Service is not directed to children under 13 (or under 16 in certain jurisdictions). We don't knowingly collect information from children. If we learn that we have, we'll delete it.

12. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. If a change is material, we will give you notice (by email for merchants, by SMS or a banner on the membership page for consumers) at least thirty days before it takes effect. The “last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.

13. Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices? Email hello@towncircle.co.