Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Voltz is run by Voltz Global Foundation, established in Curaçao ("Voltz", "we", "us"). This policy explains what personal data we collect when you use the Voltz app or voltz.global, why we use it, who we share it with and the choices you have.

Questions or requests about your data: privacy@voltz.global.

2. What we collect

Information you give us:

• Account details: your name, email address, password, and your phone number if you add one. If you sign in with Google, Apple or Facebook, we receive your name and email address from them.
• Profile details you choose to add: photo, cover photo, bio, date of birth, gender, district, interests, skills and the causes you care about.
• Volunteering: the events you register for, your check-ins and check-outs, the hours organisations approve, the Voltz and badges you earn, and the deals you use.
• What you share: posts, photos, comments, stories, messages and reports.
• Your settings, including your notification choices and whether you want news by email.
• Answers to optional questions we ask in the app after you sign up, such as your age group, what you do most days and how you heard about Voltz. You can skip them and change your answers in Settings.

Information collected when you use Voltz:

• Location: only while the app is open and only if you allow it. We use it when you check in or out, to confirm you are at the event, and to show events near you. Voltz does not track your location in the background.
• Device and usage information: device type, operating system, app version, IP address, the pages and screens you use, and crash reports.
• A push notification token if you allow notifications.

Information from organisations: organisations you volunteer with record your attendance and approve or decline your hours.

Organisations that register on Voltz give us their name, Chamber of Commerce registration number, registration certificate, contact person, email address and, if they choose, tax number, address and CSR policy.

3. How we use it

• To run your account and show your profile.
• To connect volunteers with organisations and events, and to show events that match your interests and location.
• To record and verify volunteer hours, and to issue Voltz, badges and your Voltz Passport.
• To send the messages the service needs: verification codes, password resets, event reminders, registration updates and approvals.
• To send news and volunteering opportunities by email, only if you said yes. You can switch this off in settings at any time.
• To keep Voltz safe: checking posts and photos, handling reports, preventing fraud and misuse, and securing accounts.
• To understand how Voltz is used and improve it.
• To produce anonymous statistics about volunteering in Aruba, for example hours given by district, cause and age group, for government, organisations and the public. These statistics never name or identify anyone, and groups of fewer than 10 people are not shown.
• To meet legal obligations.

We use your data because we need it to provide the service you signed up for, because we have a legitimate interest in keeping Voltz safe and working well, because you gave consent (for example for location and news emails), or because the law requires it.

4. What others can see

• Organisations see the details they need for events you register for: your name, photo, contact details and attendance.
• Other users can see your public profile, your posts and comments, and your place on leaderboards. You can limit your profile in the privacy settings of the app.
• You decide who can see your Voltz Passport: nobody, only people you share its link or QR code with, or everyone. You can create a new link at any time, which stops the old one working.

5. Checking posts and photos

To keep sexual, violent and hateful content off Voltz, text is checked against a word list and by an automated tool, and photos are checked by an automated image service before they are posted. Content that breaks the rules is not published. Users can report posts and comments; a post reported by several people is hidden until our team reviews it.

6. Who we share data with

We never sell your personal data, and we never share it with political parties. We share it only with:

• Organisations you volunteer with or use deals from, as described above.
• Service providers that run parts of Voltz for us, under contracts that require them to protect your data: Amazon Web Services (hosting, storage and content checks), Twilio SendGrid (email), Google Firebase (push notifications and sign-in) and Sentry (app crash reports). If you sign in with Google, Apple or Facebook, that company also processes your sign-in.
• Government partners and the public: only the anonymous statistics described above, never your personal data.
• Authorities, when the law requires it or to protect the safety of people.
• A successor organisation if Voltz is merged or transferred, with the same protections.

7. Where your data is stored

Voltz data is stored with Amazon Web Services in the United States. Some service providers may process data in other countries. Where the law requires it, we use safeguards such as standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.

8. How long we keep it

We keep your data while you have an account. When you delete your account, see below. Records of approved volunteer hours are kept by the organisation that approved them, and we keep limited records longer only where the law requires it or to deal with fraud or disputes. Database backups are kept for 7 days and then overwritten.

9. Deleting your account

In the app, go to Settings and choose Delete account. If you use the website only, email us and we will delete it for you.

When your account is deleted, we remove your name, email address, phone number, password, photos, bio, date of birth, address and social links, sign you out on every device, switch off your Passport link, and remove your posts, comments and stories. Approved hours stay in the organisation's records without your name. This cannot be undone.

10. Your rights

You can ask us to:

• Give you a copy of your data. You can also download it in the app settings.
• Correct data that is wrong. Most of it you can change in your profile.
• Delete your data.
• Stop or limit how we use your data, or object to it.
• Send your data to you or another service in a common format.

Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time, for example by switching off location or news emails. Email privacy@voltz.global and we will respond within 30 days. If you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to the data protection authority where you live.

11. Children

You must be 16 or older to use Voltz on your own. Young people aged 13 to 15 may use Voltz with permission from a parent or guardian. Voltz is not for children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, email us and we will delete it.

12. Security

We protect your data with encrypted connections, encrypted storage, hashed passwords and restricted staff access. No system is completely secure, so use a strong password and keep it to yourself.

13. EU and UK users (GDPR)

If you are in the European Union or the United Kingdom, the General Data Protection Regulation gives you the rights listed above. Voltz Global Foundation is the controller of your personal data. The legal bases we rely on are described under "How we use it" and the safeguards for transfers under "Where your data is stored".

14. Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top. If a change is significant we will tell you in the app or by email before it applies.