YardHo!YardHo!

YardHo! Privacy Policy

Last Updated: June 6, 2026 (rev. 10 — added Meta Pixel disclosure for website ad measurement and retargeting.)

YardHo! ("we," "us," or "our") is a mobile application that helps people find, post, and plan routes to local sales (including garage sales, yard sales, estate sales, moving sales, and similar events). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. By using YardHo!, you agree to the practices described here.

1. Who This Policy Applies To

This policy applies to anyone who uses the YardHo! mobile application or visits the YardHo! website at yardho.com, including:

  • People who browse sales without creating an account ("anonymous users")
  • People who create an account to post sales, receive notifications, or use other account-based features ("registered users")
  • People who submit the "Apply to Beta Test" form on the YardHo! website to request early access to the app prior to public launch ("beta tester applicants")

YardHo! is a United States product, intended for users 13 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If we learn that a child under 13 has provided personal information, we will delete it.

2. Information We Collect

Anonymous browsing: If you use YardHo! without signing in, we collect very little. The app fetches sale listings and standard technical data (such as device type and IP address as part of normal internet traffic), but does not link any of this to you personally.

When you create an account:

  • Email address (for email/password accounts) or basic profile information from Google (name, email, Google account ID — only if you choose Google Sign-In)
  • Email verification status (we ask you to verify your email before posting sales)
  • An automatically-assigned nickname (e.g., "YardHo1," "YardHo2"), which you can change
  • Authentication tokens used to keep you signed in

When you post a sale:

  • The address of the sale. For normal sales this is the precise street address you chose, publicly visible to all users. For "cloaked" sales, until the reveal time you choose, the displayed address is reduced to the ZIP code level (e.g., "City, State 73703") and the map pin is moved to a randomly-offset location approximately 0.3 to 0.6 miles from your real address. This is precise enough that buyers can see the general neighborhood the sale is in, but vague enough that nobody can identify the exact house. At the reveal time, the precise address and exact map pin become visible to everyone.
  • The dates, start times, and end times of the sale
  • A description you provide
  • A title — either auto-generated from your description by an AI service (see Section 5) or one you write yourself
  • Up to five photos you upload
  • Tags you select from a predefined list to categorize the sale (e.g., "Estate Sale," "Tools," "Baby items," "Furniture") — up to five tags per sale, all publicly visible on the listing
  • Your nickname (publicly visible on the sale listing)

When you enable notifications:

  • A home ZIP code that you provide. We use the approximate geographic center of the ZIP code, not your exact address.
  • Your notification preferences (radius in miles, daily reminder time, on/off)
  • A device push notification token issued by Google Firebase Cloud Messaging
  • A log of notifications we have delivered to you, viewable in the app. You can mark these read, delete individual entries, or clear the entire history.

When you use location-based features: You may grant the app permission to access your device's location while the app is in use. We use this location only at the moment of the request and do not save or transmit it back to our servers.

When you report a sale: We collect the sale being reported, the reason category, any additional details you write, your user ID, and your nickname. (Your email address is not attached to the report itself; it stays in Firebase Authentication.) This is used only for moderation and is not shared with the user being reported.

When you submit a feature request: We collect the text of your request, your user ID, and your nickname. (Your email address is not attached to the request itself; it stays in Firebase Authentication.) This is used only to understand what users want from YardHo!, to plan future features, and to follow up with you if we have a question about your suggestion. Feature requests are not shared with other users.

When you apply to be a beta tester on the YardHo! website: The "Apply to Beta Test" form at yardho.com collects the following information so we can grant you access to the pre-release app through Google Play's tester program:

  • Your name (used to address you personally in tester communications)
  • Your contact email (used to send you the tester invitation, installation instructions, and follow-up communication)
  • Your Google Play email — the Google account signed in to your Android device's Play Store (this is required by Google Play Console to grant tester access; without it, we cannot add you to the closed-testing track)
  • Any optional message you choose to include about your interest in testing (e.g., whether you're a regular garage-sale shopper, seller, or both)

We use beta tester application data solely to: add you to the Google Play Console tester list, send you the tester invitation and onboarding instructions, follow up with questions or notify you when the app is publicly released, and keep records of tester participation in case Google Play requires verification of our tester pool. We do not sell or share beta tester application data with any third party, and we do not use it for advertising or marketing purposes unrelated to the beta testing program. We retain beta tester application data for the duration of the testing program plus up to twelve (12) months after the app's public release so we can continue to communicate with our earliest supporters. You can request deletion of your beta tester application data at any time by contacting Privacy@YardHo.com.

When you submit a bug report: We collect the text of your description, your user ID, your nickname, and a small set of device and app details captured automatically at the moment you tap "Send report": your app version (e.g. 1.0.0+1), your Android version (e.g. Android 14 (SDK 34)), and your device model (e.g. Google Pixel 8). These details are attached so the administrator can actually reproduce the bug without having to ask follow-up questions. They are not collected at any other time, are not shared with other users, and are not sent to any third party other than for the moderation safety check described in Section 5. (Your email address is not attached to the report itself; it stays in Firebase Authentication.)

When you submit a store ("Add Your Store") through the YardHo! mobile app or the YardHo! website (yardho.com/shops/submit): Anyone can suggest a thrift store, antique shop, consignment, vintage, flea market, farmer's market, estate company, or pawn shop for inclusion in our directory. When you submit a store, we collect:

  • The store information you provide on the form: business name, street address, optional brief description, optional phone number, optional website URL, optional category selections, optional weekly opening hours, and up to three (3) optional photos of the storefront or interior.
  • For submissions made through the mobile app: your YardHo! user ID and nickname, so we can follow up with you if a review question arises.
  • For submissions made through the website: no account is required. Submissions are anonymous — we do not collect your name, email address, or any identifier other than the standard web request data described elsewhere in this section (IP address, browser headers) and a randomly-generated submission ID that has no link to you.
  • The text of the description is automatically screened for prohibited material before review (see Section 7).
  • Submitted photos are stored in Cloud Storage with a randomly-generated download token; only the YardHo! administrator and people you choose to share the token-bearing URL with can view them. If your submission is rejected, the photos remain in storage for a short retention window before being deleted along with the submission record.

We use submitted store information solely to evaluate whether the store qualifies for the YardHo! directory, to publish an approved listing, and (in the app's case) to contact you about the submission. Submitted store information is not shared with other users, advertisers, or any third party other than the moderation safety check described in Section 7 and the hosting providers described in Section 5. You can request withdrawal of a pending submission by emailing Admin@YardHo.com; approved submissions become part of the public directory under the Shop listing rules described in our Terms of Service.

When you use PLUNDR (Beta) — AI-powered item valuation: PLUNDR is an experimental in-app feature that lets a signed-in YardHo! user take or upload a photo of an item to get an AI-assisted identification and estimated garage-sale value range. When you use PLUNDR, we handle data as follows:

  • The photo you submit is sent to OpenAI for image identification and valuation analysis. The photo is held in our server memory only for the duration of the OpenAI round trip; it is not persisted to Firebase Storage, archived, or stored in any scan history. By the time the analysis returns, the only copy of the photo is the one on your device.
  • We do not keep a history of your past scans, the items they identified, or the value estimates we returned. There is no scan archive, no "previous scans" list, and no way for you (or anyone) to look up what you scanned yesterday.
  • We do maintain a per-user rate-limiting counter in Firestore that holds only the timestamps of your recent scan attempts (no image data, no item names, no values). This counter exists solely to enforce the beta usage limits (3 successful scans per rolling 24-hour window, plus a secondary abuse cap).
  • If you choose to submit feedback on a scan result (👍 Accurate / 😐 Somewhat Accurate / 👎 Not Accurate, plus an optional comment), we store the rating, an opaque scan ID that has no link back to the photo or item, your YardHo! user ID, the timestamp, and any optional comment text you chose to write. We use this to measure beta accuracy and decide whether PLUNDR graduates from Beta. Feedback is not shared with other users.
  • For backend cost monitoring and beta-promotion decisions, we also record a per-scan operational metadata row containing: an opaque scan ID (no link to the photo or item), your YardHo! user ID, the OpenAI model used, the token counts returned by OpenAI (prompt, completion, total), our calculated estimated cost in USD, whether the scan succeeded or failed (and the failure category if applicable), and the AI-emitted confidence floats (identification confidence and valuation confidence) and PLUNDR Score. We do NOT record the item identification, the price estimate, the description text, the photo, or anything else about the item itself. We also maintain a per-user-per-day rollup of scan counts and total cost so we can produce aggregate analytics without scanning the raw row collection. Both collections are accessible only to YardHo!'s administrator(s) via the Firebase Console; clients (the app, the website, other users) cannot read them. We use this data solely to monitor OpenAI usage costs while PLUNDR is in Beta and to inform decisions about future pricing, scan limits, or paid tiers.
  • Standard authentication, rate-limit, and analytics signals apply (your YardHo! user ID is associated with quota counters; aggregate event names like "plundr_scan_completed" fire to Firebase Analytics without any image or item content). No photo content, item identification, or value estimate is ever sent to analytics.

PLUNDR estimates are AI-generated and are informational only. They are not appraisals and may be wrong, especially for rare collectibles or items where condition or variant heavily affect value. The PLUNDR result screen displays a prominent disclaimer to this effect. By using PLUNDR you accept that you will independently verify high-value items before making purchase or sale decisions.

When you visit the YardHo! website (yardho.com):

  • Standard web request data. Like virtually every website, our hosting provider receives the standard information your web browser sends with every request, including your IP address, your browser's user-agent string (which identifies your browser and operating system), the page you came from, and timestamps. This data is used to operate, secure, and troubleshoot the website. We do not use this data for advertising, do not sell it, and do not combine it with the data collected through the YardHo! mobile app.
  • Cookies, analytics, and advertising. The YardHo! website uses a small number of first-party cookies for functional purposes: keeping you logged into administrative views (if applicable), remembering preferences you set while browsing, and protecting forms against cross-site request forgery. The website also uses Google Analytics 4 to measure aggregate visitor activity (page views, session duration, the general region a visit originated from, the device category, the referring website) so we can understand which pages are useful and which need improvement. Google Analytics sets cookies and uses your IP address to derive an approximate location (we configure GA so it does not store full IP addresses on its servers). The website additionally serves display advertising through Google AdSense to help cover the cost of running YardHo!. As part of serving ads, Google and its advertising partners may set their own cookies and use device identifiers (such as your advertising ID), your IP address, your approximate location derived from that IP, your browser and device characteristics, and your interactions with ads to deliver, measure, and (where permitted by law) personalize ads. We do not control these cookies directly — Google does. You can manage how Google personalizes ads to you at adssettings.google.com, opt out of Google Analytics measurement entirely with the official browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout, and learn more about Google's ad practices at policies.google.com/technologies/ads. You can also opt out of personalized advertising by many advertisers at once at optout.aboutads.info (US) or youronlinechoices.eu (EU). The website also uses the Meta Pixel to measure our Facebook and Instagram ad performance and to show YardHo! ads to past visitors; see the "Meta Pixel" entry in Section 5 for what it collects and how to opt out. You can clear or block all of these cookies in your browser settings; doing so may break some interactive features (e.g., form submissions) and will prevent ads from being personalized, but will not prevent you from viewing sale listings.
  • Map tile providers (OpenStreetMap). When the website displays the sales map, your browser fetches map tile images from OpenStreetMap's public tile servers. As part of those requests, your IP address and standard browser headers are visible to OpenStreetMap, the same way they are when you visit any other website that displays OSM-based maps. OpenStreetMap's privacy policy at openstreetmap.org governs how they handle that data.
  • Browser geolocation (optional, on the Sales page). The "Nearest me" sort option on yardho.com/sales asks your web browser for your approximate location. The browser shows you its standard permission prompt before sharing anything — you can deny it without losing access to the page. If you allow it, your coordinates are used only in your browser, on the page, to sort the visible sales list by distance. The coordinates are NOT sent to our servers, NOT stored, and NOT shared with any third party. They are forgotten as soon as you close the browser tab.
  • YardHo! Navigator chat (the website chat bubble). When you open the Navigator chat bubble on yardho.com and send a typed message, that message is sent to OpenAI (the same "gpt-4o-mini" service used by the in-app Navigator) so the bot can answer your question about YardHo! and the website. The Navigator on the website is open to anonymous visitors, so we track the number of chats per IP address per day in a private Firestore counter and limit each visitor to a small daily allowance (currently five chats per day). The counter stores only your IP address, the date, the count, and a "last seen" timestamp — no message content, no identifiers. The counter resets daily. Your chat messages are not stored after the response is returned, and OpenAI's API terms prohibit using the data for model training. The Navigator is not given access to your sales data, your account information, or other users' content.

Automatically collected information: Standard app diagnostic data when the app crashes (crash reports forwarded to Firebase Crashlytics if a crash occurs). Device model, Android version, and app version are NOT collected continuously — they are only collected at the moment you tap "Send report" on a bug report (see above).

Curated shops: YardHo! also lists permanent retail businesses (thrift stores, antique shops, consignment, flea markets, farmer's markets, estate sale companies, etc.) alongside garage sales. These listings are admin-reviewed: every shop that appears in YardHo! has been approved by YardHo!'s administrator(s) before being published, whether the entry was originally created by the administrator or submitted by a user through "Add Your Store" in the mobile app or website. The data we display about a shop is limited to facts the shop has already published about itself — business name, street address, phone number, website, weekly opening hours, brief "about" description, category, and (where provided) storefront or interior photos. We do not collect or display information about the shop's customers, transactions, employees, or finances. If a shop owner wants their listing updated, removed, or corrected, they can email Admin@YardHo.com. For details on what data we collect when you submit a store, see "When you submit a store" earlier in this Section.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information described above to:

  • Operate and maintain the YardHo! service
  • Show you sales relevant to your area
  • Send you the notifications you have opted into, including weekend weather forecasts and rain warnings for your scheduled sales
  • Compute approximate distances from your home ZIP to sales
  • Generate AI-assisted titles and (when you choose) AI-assisted descriptions for your sale listings (see Section 5)
  • Show weather forecasts on sale detail pages so buyers and sellers can plan around weather
  • Automatically screen photos and text content for prohibited material (see Section 7)
  • Let you post, edit, and delete your own sales
  • Review reports of inappropriate or fraudulent listings
  • Review and act on user-submitted feature requests and feedback
  • Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and violations of our terms — including detecting attempts to bypass per-account limits by deleting and recreating accounts (see Section 8)
  • Improve the app, diagnose problems, and develop new features
  • Compute internal aggregate metrics (such as total registered users and the count of active sale listings) to understand how YardHo! is growing. These metrics are counts only; they do not identify individual users and are not shared with any third party.
  • Comply with applicable laws and respond to legal requests

We do not sell your personal information. We do not use your data to serve advertising to you outside of YardHo!. We do not share your contact information with third parties for marketing purposes.

4. Information You Share With Other Users

Publicly visible to any YardHo! user when you post a sale:

  • Your nickname
  • The sale's title, dates, times, description, and tags
  • For a normal (non-cloaked) sale: the precise street address and an exact map pin
  • For a cloaked sale before the reveal time: a ZIP-level address (e.g., "City, State 73703") and a map pin offset approximately 0.3 to 0.6 miles from the real location. The precise address and exact pin become visible to everyone at the reveal time you choose.
  • Photos you upload — unless you choose the optional "Also cloak photos" setting on a cloaked sale, in which case the photos are hidden from other users until the reveal time

Also publicly visible on the YardHo! website (yardho.com): the same publicly visible sale information described above is also displayed on the YardHo! website at yardho.com/sales and on the homepage preview. This means your sale's nickname, title, description, dates, tags, photos, and (for non-cloaked sales) precise address and map pin are visible to anyone visiting the website from a web browser — not only to people who have installed the YardHo! mobile app. The website data is the same Firestore data used inside the app; the cloak feature works identically on the website (cloaked sales display the ZIP-level placeholder address and the jittered map pin until the reveal time). Because the website is on the open internet, sale listings may be indexed by search engines, archived by third-party crawlers, and otherwise become discoverable outside YardHo!. If you would prefer your sale not to be indexed by search engines, post it with the cloak feature enabled — search engines that respect the listing's structured data will not have your precise address to index.

Never visible to other users:

  • Your email address
  • Your home ZIP code (the one you provide for notification distance calculations is a separate field that is not shared with anyone — see the note below about home addresses on sale listings)
  • Your notification preferences
  • Your location (current or otherwise)
  • Your account password
  • Any reports you submit
  • Any feature requests you submit
  • Photos that were removed by automated moderation
  • The cryptographic fingerprint we retain after account deletion (see Section 8)

Important note on sales hosted at your home: If you choose to post a sale at your own home address, that address becomes publicly visible as part of the sale listing — like any sale address. This is your choice and is independent of the separate "home ZIP code" field you may have provided for notifications. If you want to keep your real address private until shortly before your sale starts, use the cloak feature when posting: it displays a ZIP-level address and a randomized map pin offset 0.3 to 0.6 miles from your real location, until the reveal time you select.

5. Service Providers and Third Parties

We rely on the following third-party services to operate YardHo!. Each processes only the data needed for their specific function:

  • Google Firebase — authentication, database, cloud storage, serverless functions, and push notifications
  • Firebase Analytics (Google Analytics 4) — measures aggregate YardHo! app usage so we can understand which features are useful and which need attention. Collected automatically: app opens, screen views, session counts and durations, country and region (derived from IP, with full IP addresses NOT stored on Google's servers), device model, Android version, app version, language. We do NOT log your sale content, your home ZIP code, your nickname, your email address, or any other identifier you've shared with the app — only aggregate behavior. Collection is OFF by default and only enabled after you accept this Privacy Policy on first launch; we re-apply the off state on every cold start as a defense in depth. To opt out at any time, uninstall the app or clear app data. Firebase Analytics is also used on the YardHo! website (yardho.com); the data from both surfaces lands in the same Google Analytics property under separate streams (Web / Android) and is used only for product analytics, never for advertising
  • Google Sign-In — optional, only if you choose this sign-in method
  • Google Maps / Google Play Services — used when you tap "Get directions" or open a sale's location for navigation
  • Google Cloud Vision (SafeSearch) — automatically screens sale photos for adult content, violence, or other prohibited material. Photos are sent to Cloud Vision only for this safety check; results are not used for any other purpose.
  • OpenAI (Moderation API) — automatically screens sale descriptions, titles, nicknames, feature request text, report details, bug report descriptions, YardHo! Navigator messages, and Quick Fill ad copy for content that violates community standards (hate speech, harassment, sexual content, violence, etc.). Text content is sent to OpenAI only for this safety check. OpenAI's API terms prohibit using the data for model training.
  • OpenAI (Vision API for PLUNDR Beta) — when you submit a photo through PLUNDR (the experimental AI valuation feature, see Section 2), the photo is sent to OpenAI's vision-capable chat completion endpoint (currently gpt-4o) for item identification and estimated value. The photo is not retained by us beyond the duration of the API call, and OpenAI's API terms prohibit using the data for model training. See the "When you use PLUNDR" subsection in Section 2 for full details on data flow and retention.
  • OpenAI (Chat Completions, "gpt-4o-mini") — generates short titles for your sale listings from your description, and optionally polishes or generates descriptions when you tap the "Improve with AI" button. The text you provide (description and tags) is sent to OpenAI only for this generation. When you tap "Improve with AI" with photos attached to your sale, up to three compressed thumbnails (approximately 400 pixels on the longest side) of those photos are also sent to OpenAI so the AI can reference what it sees in writing the description. OpenAI's API terms prohibit using the data for model training.
  • OpenAI (YardHo! Navigator chat, "gpt-4o-mini") — when you tap the YardHo! Navigator button (the explore icon at the bottom-left of the home screen) and type a question, the message you type is sent to OpenAI so the Navigator can interpret your request and either set up a search filter or answer a how-to question about the app. The Navigator has no memory between messages — each question is sent independently — and the Navigator is not given access to your sales data, your account information, or other users' content. Limited to ten (10) requests per user per day. OpenAI's API terms prohibit using the data for model training.
  • OpenAI (Quick Fill ad extractor, "gpt-4o-mini") — when you tap "Quick Fill from your ad" on the Post Sale screen and paste ad copy or upload a photo of an ad (paper flyer, FB-post screenshot, yard sign), the text and/or compressed photo (~600 pixels on the longest side) are sent to OpenAI so the AI can extract structured sale fields (address, dates, times, description, tags). The extracted result is returned to your phone for you to review before posting; OpenAI does not retain it. Phone numbers, email addresses, and URLs are stripped from the extracted description automatically. Photos used for Quick Fill are NOT attached to the resulting sale — they are OCR fodder only, discarded after extraction. Limited to five (5) requests per user per day. OpenAI's API terms prohibit using the data for model training.
  • Open-Meteo — provides weather forecasts displayed on sale detail pages. We send approximate coordinates (jittered ~0.5 mile from the real location for cloaked sales) so we never send a precise home address to a third-party weather service.
  • Mapbox (Geocoding API) — used to suggest addresses while you type and to look up ZIP code centers. When you type into an address field, the partial text you've typed is sent to Mapbox so it can return matching street addresses. When you enter a ZIP code, the five-digit ZIP is sent to Mapbox to look up its approximate geographic center. Mapbox is not given your account email, your nickname, or any other identifier — only the address text or ZIP. Per Mapbox's terms, geocoding queries may be retained briefly for service operation and abuse detection. Mapbox is also used to display map tiles inside the app where applicable.
  • Geniuslink (geni.us) — a link-management and affiliate-attribution service used for the outbound store links on the in-app "Plan Your Sale" page. When you tap one of those links, Geniuslink routes you to the destination retailer (for example, Amazon) and may set cookies and process your IP address, device/browser details, and referral information to attribute any resulting purchase to YardHo!. Geniuslink is invoked only when you actively tap an affiliate link; it is not given your YardHo! account information, email, or nickname. See the affiliate-links note below.
  • OpenAI (Shop extraction, "gpt-4o-mini") — used only by YardHo!'s administrator when adding a curated shop to the app. When the admin pastes the text of a Google Business listing or uploads a screenshot of one (or of the shop's website, signage, etc.), that text and/or compressed photo (~600 pixels on the longest side) is sent to OpenAI so the AI can parse out structured fields (name, address, hours, description). The extracted result is returned to the admin's device for review before being saved. No regular user data is involved in this flow — it runs only on admin-supplied source content about businesses. OpenAI's API terms prohibit using the data for model training.
  • Google AdSense — used to serve display advertising on the YardHo! website (yardho.com). When you visit a page that contains an ad slot, Google's AdSense system receives the request and decides which ad to show. Google may use cookies, device identifiers, your IP address, your approximate location, and your interactions with the ad to deliver, measure, and (where permitted by law) personalize advertising. Google may also share this data with its advertising partners for the same purposes. AdSense is used only on the YardHo! website; the YardHo! mobile app does not serve third-party network advertising. (The app does include affiliate links on the "Plan Your Sale" page, which are disclosed separately below.) We do not give Google AdSense access to your YardHo! account information, your sale listings, your in-app activity, or any other identifier we hold about you. For details on Google's data practices in the context of advertising, see policies.google.com/technologies/ads, and to manage personalization see adssettings.google.com.
  • Google Analytics 4 — used to measure aggregate visitor activity on the YardHo! website (page views, sessions, the general region a visit originated from, device category, time on page, referring website). Google Analytics sets cookies and processes your IP address to derive an approximate location; we configure Google Analytics so it does not store full IP addresses on its servers. Google Analytics is used only on the YardHo! website; the YardHo! mobile app does not use Google Analytics. We do not give Google Analytics access to your YardHo! account information, your sale listings, your in-app activity, or any other identifier we hold about you. The data is used solely to understand how the website is used in aggregate, so we can improve it. To opt out of Google Analytics measurement entirely, install Google's official browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout, or clear/block third-party cookies in your browser settings.
  • Meta Pixel (Facebook / Meta) — used on the YardHo! website to measure the performance of our Facebook and Instagram advertising and to show YardHo! ads to people who have already visited the site (retargeting). The pixel is a small piece of code that loads on each page and reports page views and similar events to Meta. To do this, Meta may set cookies and receive your IP address, browser and device details, the pages you view on yardho.com, and — if you are logged in to Facebook or Instagram — a Meta-assigned identifier. Meta Pixel is used only on the YardHo! website; the YardHo! mobile app does not use Meta Pixel. We do not give Meta access to your YardHo! account information, your sale listings, or your in-app activity. You can control how Meta uses your information for ads in your Facebook or Instagram ad settings, limit cross-site/app activity in your Meta account settings, and block these cookies in your browser. See Meta's privacy policy at facebook.com/privacy/policy.

Affiliate links and outbound stores ("Plan Your Sale"). The in-app "Plan Your Sale" page contains affiliate links to third-party retailers and storefronts (for example, Amazon, routed through the Geniuslink service described above). When you tap one of these links, you leave YardHo! and are taken to a third-party website governed by its own privacy policy and terms, not ours. Those third parties may use cookies and similar technologies and may collect information — such as your IP address, device and browser details, and the fact that you arrived from YardHo! — to operate the link and attribute any resulting purchase. This collection happens on the third party's side as a result of your visit to their site; YardHo! does not itself transmit your account information, email, nickname, or other personal identifiers to them through this feature. If you make a purchase after following one of these links, YardHo! may earn a commission, at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We do not control, and are not responsible for, the content or privacy practices of these third-party sites; we encourage you to review the privacy policy of any site you visit through them.

We do not allow these providers to use your information for their own marketing purposes (other than Google AdSense, whose stated purpose is to deliver and measure advertising, and Google Analytics, whose stated purpose is to measure aggregate website activity, as described above).

6. In-App Purchases

YardHo! offers optional in-app purchases through the Google Play Store so that registered users can post more sales after using their two free posts for the calendar year.

What is sold. A single product, "Single Sale Post," is offered for a one-time price of $4.99 per credit (subject to Google Play's currency conversion in non-US locales). Each credit allows you to post one additional sale with the same features as a free post. Credits are consumed one-per-sale and have no expiration.

How payment is handled. Payment is processed entirely by Google Play. We do not see, store, or transmit your credit card number, billing address, or any other payment instrument data. The only thing we receive from Google Play is a one-time purchase token that identifies a successful purchase.

Server-side verification. When the Google Play Store reports a successful purchase, the YardHo! app sends the purchase token to a YardHo! server function which calls Google Play's Developer API to confirm the purchase is real. Only after this server-side confirmation do we credit your account. We record the purchase token, your user ID, the order ID Google issued, and a server timestamp in a private ledger so the same purchase cannot be credited twice. This ledger is never shared with other users.

What we update on your account after a successful purchase. The number of paid post credits available, your lifetime count of paid sale posts, and your lifetime total spent on YardHo! (in US cents). These three fields are visible to you in your Profile screen and to YardHo!'s administrator, but are not visible to other users.

Refunds. Refund requests for in-app purchases are handled by Google Play under Google's standard refund policy. If a refund is granted by Google after the credit has been used to post a sale, we may remove the corresponding sale and adjust your account accordingly.

7. Automated Content Moderation

To keep YardHo! safe and family-friendly, all user-generated content is screened automatically when you submit it:

  • Photos are checked by Google Cloud Vision's SafeSearch service. If a photo is flagged for adult content, violence, or similar categories, it is removed from the public listing and moved to a private quarantine area where you can review what was removed and request a manual review by appealing to our admin team. Quarantined photos are automatically deleted after seven (7) days.
  • Sale descriptions, titles, nicknames, feature request text, report details, bug report descriptions, and YardHo! Navigator messages are checked by OpenAI's Moderation API. Content flagged as hate speech, harassment, sexual content, violence, or other prohibited categories is removed or replaced with a placeholder. You are notified in-app when this happens and given a chance to revise your wording. Navigator messages that fail moderation are rejected before reaching the AI — you get an error in the chat asking you to rephrase. Bug reports whose descriptions trip moderation are silently deleted along with a private audit-log entry.
  • A summary of every moderation action (what type of content was flagged, when, and by which service) is kept in a private audit log that only YardHo!'s administrator can read. The audit log helps us evaluate moderation accuracy and respond to appeals. It does not contain your email address.

YardHo! also provides an in-app "Report this sale" feature so registered users can flag content that appears to be spam, scams, inappropriate, or otherwise violates community standards.

  • Reports are reviewed by YardHo!'s administrator(s)
  • The user who is reported is not informed of who reported them
  • We may remove sales, suspend accounts, or take other action based on reports
  • Submitting false reports may itself be grounds for account suspension

YardHo! also provides an in-app "Suggest a feature" option so registered users can send us feature requests.

  • Feature requests are reviewed by YardHo!'s administrator(s)
  • We may use your request to plan new features, prioritize improvements, or contact you for clarification
  • Other users cannot see who submitted a feature request or what it said

YardHo! also provides an in-app "Report a bug" option so registered users can tell us when something isn't working right.

  • Bug reports are reviewed by YardHo!'s administrator(s)

  • Each bug report automatically attaches your app version, Android version, and device model so the administrator can reproduce the issue

  • We may use your report to fix the bug, prioritize related improvements, or contact you for clarification

  • Other users cannot see who submitted a bug report or what it said

  • Feedback license. By submitting a feature request, bug report, or other feedback, you grant YardHo! a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use, modify, implement, share, and commercialize that feedback for any purpose, with no obligation to compensate, credit, or notify you. You agree that any feature, idea, or improvement YardHo! builds based on feedback is owned solely by YardHo! and that you waive any claim of intellectual property (including copyright, trademark, patent, or trade secret) in the feedback itself or in anything we build based on it.

8. Data Retention

  • Sale listings: Automatically deleted seven (7) days after the sale's last scheduled day. Sale photos are deleted at the same time.
  • Quarantined photos (photos flagged by automated moderation): Kept for seven (7) days so you can review what was removed and appeal, then automatically deleted.
  • Notification log: Kept until you delete individual entries or clear your full notification history, or until you delete your account.
  • User accounts: Kept until you delete your account via the in-app "Delete Account" feature.
  • Reports: Kept for moderation purposes as long as the administrator deems necessary, then deleted.
  • Feature requests: Kept as long as the administrator deems useful for product planning, then deleted. You can request deletion of a specific request at any time by contacting us.
  • Bug reports: Kept until the administrator marks the bug as resolved (typically once the underlying issue is fixed), then deleted. The attached device + app version data is treated the same way — it lives only on the bug report doc itself and is removed when the report is. You can request deletion of a specific bug report at any time by contacting us.
  • Beta tester applications (submitted via the yardho.com "Apply to Beta Test" form): Kept for the duration of the beta testing program plus up to twelve (12) months after the app's public release, so we can continue to communicate with our early supporters about updates and new features. Earlier deletion can be requested at any time by contacting us.
  • Backups and logs: Standard backup retention (typically 30 days) for operational purposes.

Account deletion and our anti-abuse fingerprint. When you delete your account, we delete your profile, your sales, your sale photos, your notification preferences, and your notification log. We do, however, retain one piece of information: a cryptographic one-way fingerprint (a salted SHA-256 hash) of your email address, along with a count of how many free sale posts the email has used in the current calendar year and a count of how many times that email has signed up for YardHo!.

  • The fingerprint is mathematically irreversible. Even with full database access, no one can recover your email from the fingerprint.
  • The fingerprint is generated using a private server-side secret salt. Without that secret, no one can pre-compute fingerprints to match yours.
  • We use the fingerprint only to enforce per-email annual free-post limits and detect abuse patterns (such as repeatedly creating and deleting accounts to bypass quotas).
  • The fingerprint is never shared with other users, partners, or third parties.
  • If you sign up again with the same email later, the fingerprint allows your free-post quota to be remembered across the gap so abuse-prevention works as intended; it does not link your new account to any other personal data from your old account.
  • You can request deletion of your fingerprint by contacting us (see Section 12). We honor reasonable deletion requests.

Some derived, anonymized, or legally-required records may persist (for example, financial records of completed in-app purchases).

9. Your Rights and Choices

You can manage your information through the YardHo! app:

  • View your profile information in the Profile screen
  • Change your nickname at any time
  • Update or remove your home ZIP code in Notification Settings
  • Turn notifications on or off in Notification Settings
  • Adjust your notification radius and daily reminder time
  • View, mark read, and delete entries from your notification log
  • Edit or delete sales you've posted, including photos
  • Edit the title and description of an existing sale at any time
  • Delete your account through the Profile screen
  • Browse anonymously by signing out — no account is required to view sales
  • Request appeal of an automatically-moderated photo or description by contacting us

If you reside in a state with specific privacy rights (such as California's CCPA or similar laws), you may have additional rights including the right to know what information we have about you, the right to deletion (including the cryptographic fingerprint described in Section 8), and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising your rights. To make such a request, contact us at the address below.

10. Security

We use industry-standard security practices to protect your data, including encryption in transit, secure authentication via Firebase Authentication, and access controls on our database. Specifically:

  • Email addresses are stored in Firebase Authentication (Google's managed identity service) and not in our application database
  • User profile documents are readable only by the account owner and the YardHo! administrator
  • Cloaked sale addresses are stored in a separate access-controlled collection that even an account owner can only read for sales they posted themselves
  • Third-party API keys (OpenAI, etc.) are stored in Google Secret Manager, never in source code

No internet-based service can guarantee absolute security. If you become aware of a security issue, please contact us immediately.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will:

  • Update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy
  • Notify users through the app (such as via an in-app message or notification)
  • For significant changes, give reasonable notice before the changes take effect

Continued use of YardHo! after a policy update means you accept the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise your rights, or need to report a privacy concern, contact us at:

Privacy@YardHo.com

For general inquiries unrelated to privacy, you can reach us at Admin@YardHo.com.

We will respond to legitimate privacy inquiries within a reasonable timeframe.

13. International Users

YardHo! is intended for users located in the United States. If you access the app from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, which may have data protection laws different from those in your country.