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Privacy Policy

Effective: July 6, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how Relay (“Relay”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, stores, and protects information when you use our website, our mobile application (listed on the Apple App Store and Google Play as “Relay Marketplace”), and related services (collectively, the “Service”). If you have any questions about this policy, you can reach us at contact@therelay.app.

Relay is a peer-to-peer marketplace. We connect buyers and sellers in the same area so they can list, discover, negotiate, and transact local goods. To do that we have to handle some information about you. We try to handle it carefully, collect only what we need, and tell you plainly what we do with it.

1. Information we collect

1.1 Information you provide directly

1.2 Location information

With your permission, the app collects your approximate (coarse) location from your device so we can show you nearby listings and so other users can see the rough distance to your listings. We use coarse location only, never GPS-precise location, and the default search radius is 25 miles.

You can deny or revoke location permission at any time in your device settings. If you do, you can still use Relay by setting a search location manually; some proximity features (e.g., distance-to-listing on the explore feed) will be unavailable or estimated.

1.3 Device information

1.4 Identity verification (optional)

Relay offers an optional identity verification feature. If you choose to verify, you are briefly redirected to our identity-verification partner, Persona, where you upload a government-issued photo ID and (depending on the flow) take a selfie. Persona processes the document and biometric data on its own platform and returns a pass/fail result to Relay.

Relay never receives, stores, or has access to your ID document, your selfie, or any biometric data. From a verification, Relay only stores:

Persona is the data controller for the underlying ID and biometric data submitted during verification. Their handling of that data is governed by Persona's Privacy Policy; we recommend reviewing it before verifying. You can use Relay without verifying.

1.5 AI-assisted listing creation

When you publish a listing, you can use Relay's “scan” feature, which uses an AI model to draft the title, description, and category from the photos you upload. To do this, we send your listing photos and a small prompt to a third-party model provider over an encrypted connection. The provider returns suggested text; you can accept, edit, or discard it before publishing.

We also use AI to help keep the marketplace safe. Listing photos and text you submit are screened by an automated moderation model before publishing to detect prohibited content (for example weapons, drugs, or sexual content), and photos may be analyzed to assess whether an item appears to be a genuine physical item rather than a screenshot or reused image. These checks can affect whether a listing is published and may contribute to account-safety signals.

We do not allow our model providers to train their general-purpose models on your photos or the text generated for you, and we do not use your data to train any AI or machine-learning models ourselves.

1.6 Purchases and subscriptions

Pro subscriptions, AI scan packs, and the annual Verified Seller subscription are sold as in-app purchases through the Apple App Store and Google Play, and the billing relationship is governed by their terms. Payment instruments (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay) are handled by Apple or Google. Relay does not receive or store your payment-card information. We do receive an entitlement signal (e.g., “Pro active until X”, “5 scans remaining”) from our subscription infrastructure provider, RevenueCat, so the app can unlock the right features for your account.

For waitlist signups on the marketing website, we collect only the email address you provide and store it in a private Notion database we control.

1.7 Usage and analytics data

To understand how Relay is used and to improve it, we collect analytics about product usage — for example, events such as signing up, running a scan, publishing a listing, making an offer, or completing a sale, along with screen views and taps. These analytics are associated with your account or a device identifier and consist of identifiers, categories, and numbers; they do not include the contents of your messages.

Business and monetization events are stored in our own systems (Google Cloud Firestore) and exported to Google BigQuery, which we use as a private analytics warehouse. Screen-level behavioral events are sent to Google Analytics for Firebase (GA4). We use this data only for our own product analytics and to keep the Service reliable and safe. We do not use it for cross-app behavioral advertising, and we do not sell it.

2. How we use your information

We use the information described above to:

We do not use your information for cross-app behavioral advertising. We do not sell your personal data to advertisers, data brokers, or any third party.

3. What we store

Account data, listings, offers, messages, verification status, watchlists, blocks, and reports are stored in Google Cloud Firestore. Server-side code runs on Vercel. Listing photos are stored in Google Cloud Storage. Push tokens are held by Firebase Cloud Messaging.

Subscription and entitlement state is stored with RevenueCat. Identity-verification status records reference an opaque Persona inquiry id; the underlying ID and biometric data are held by Persona, not Relay.

Product-analytics events are stored in Firestore and exported to Google BigQuery; screen-level behavioral analytics are sent to Google Analytics for Firebase (GA4).

Reports submitted via the in-app “Report” flow are written to a private Notion database used as our moderation queue. Waitlist emails are stored in a separate private Notion database.

4. How we share information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share limited information in the following situations:

5. Data retention, revocation, and deletion

You have full control over the data we hold:

After account deletion we retain a minimal record of the deletion event (timestamp, device identifier, country) for fraud prevention and to comply with legal obligations. Backups are rotated within 30 days. ID documents and biometric data held by Persona are retained or deleted per their retention policy, which you can manage directly with them.

6. Security

We store data in Google Cloud Firestore with encryption at rest, and all data in transit is protected by TLS. Access to production systems is restricted to a small set of Relay team members and is gated by multi-factor authentication. We do not log payment-card information and we do not log Persona biometric responses. While we take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your data, no online service can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, port, or delete the personal information we hold about you, and to object to or restrict certain processing. Most of these rights can be exercised directly from the app. Account Settings supports editing your profile, revoking device permissions, and deleting your account. For any request we can't fulfill through the app, including a copy of your data, a list of information we hold about you, or a complaint about how we handle your data, email us at contact@therelay.app. We will respond within a reasonable timeframe and within any deadlines required by applicable law.

California residents have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), including the right to know what personal information we collect about you and the right to opt out of any “sale” or “sharing” of personal information. Relay does not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under California law.

8. Minors

Relay is intended only for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service, and the Service is not directed to anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at contact@therelay.app and we will promptly delete it.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you through the app, by email (if we have one on file for you), or by updating the effective date at the top of this page. Your continued use of the Service after the updated policy takes effect constitutes acceptance of the changes.

10. Contact

Questions, concerns, or requests about this Privacy Policy or your data can be sent to contact@therelay.app.