Privacy Notice

1. Information we collect

• Account and school information: school email, user ID, email-verification status, school/domain association, profile name, username, profile fields, and account settings.
• Age-screen and policy records: whether you declared that you are 13–17 or 18+, a guardian-permission affirmation for users who declare they are under 18, policy version numbers, and the server time of acceptance. The birth date entered during registration is evaluated in your browser and is not sent to or stored by Empeerium as part of that registration flow.
• Marketplace content: listings, descriptions, prices, photos, categories, listing status, public-campus meetup labels, favorites, searches, and content you choose to share.
• Communications and safety information: marketplace messages, reports, support requests, moderation records, and evidence submitted for transaction, fraud, or safety reviews.
• Transaction information: buyer and seller IDs, listing and transaction IDs, amount, status, confirmations, timestamps, and Stripe payment, charge, transfer, and connected-account IDs. Stripe—not Empeerium—collects and processes full payment-card, bank-account, identity-verification, tax, and any Stripe-required guardian information under Stripe's own terms and privacy notice.
• Technical and security information: request and error records, authentication and security events, approximate information derived from network requests, and device/browser information ordinarily sent when a web service is used. Our limited marketplace-health analytics intentionally exclude email addresses, phone numbers, messages, payment fields, precise locations, raw search text, stored IP addresses, and device fingerprints.

2. How we use information

• create and secure accounts, verify supported school domains, and keep school communities separated;
• publish listings, support search and messaging, and coordinate in-person handoffs;
• authorize, capture, transfer, reconcile, refund, or investigate payments through Stripe;
• prevent fraud, enforce marketplace rules, respond to reports, and protect users and the service;
• provide support, send service communications, and maintain legal and accounting records;
• measure reliability and marketplace health and improve Empeerium; and
• comply with law and enforce our Terms of Use.

3. Public and school-community visibility

Listing titles, descriptions, prices, photos, seller display information, and general meetup labels may be visible to users in the applicable school community. Public share and preview links may expose limited listing information outside that community. Do not put phone numbers, home addresses, exact dorm rooms, schedules, or other sensitive information in a listing or public profile.

Messages and payment details are not intended to be public. Other users may still copy or share content they can lawfully view, so do not send information that is unnecessary for the transaction.

4. When we disclose information

• Other users: information needed to display listings, profiles, messages, and transaction status within the marketplace.
• Service providers: Supabase for authentication, database, and storage; Stripe for payments and seller onboarding; hosting, email, monitoring, and support providers that help operate the service.
• Safety and compliance: schools, parents or guardians, payment providers, law enforcement, courts, regulators, or other appropriate parties when we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to protect someone, investigate misconduct, comply with law, or resolve a transaction.
• Business changes: a potential or actual investor, financing source, purchaser, or successor, subject to appropriate confidentiality and applicable law.

Empeerium does not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not use student personal information for targeted advertising.

5. Retention

We keep information only for as long as reasonably needed for the purposes described here. The criteria include whether an account or transaction is active, whether another user needs the information to complete a transaction, safety and fraud risks, backup cycles, accounting and tax obligations, payment dispute windows, school or legal requirements, and applicable limitation periods.

Account closure or content deletion does not necessarily erase transaction, payment, moderation, security, backup, or legal records immediately. We may retain a limited record when needed to prevent a banned user from evading enforcement or to document a transaction or legal obligation.

6. Your choices and requests

Product controls may let you edit profile information and delete or manage certain listings and messages. To request access, correction, account closure, or deletion of eligible information, contact info@empeerium.com from your account email. Settings does not currently include an account-deletion control. We may need to verify the request and may deny or limit it where retention is required or permitted by law.

California users under 18 may ask us to remove content they posted. Removal is not guaranteed to be complete—for example, another user may have copied it, a legal exception may apply, or a limited record may be required for a transaction, safety review, or legal obligation. Contact info@empeerium.com and identify the account and content.

7. Children and teenagers

Empeerium is not intended for children under 13, and account registration asks for a neutral birth date solely to determine an age band. If we learn that we collected personal information from a child under 13 through an account, we will investigate, restrict the account, and delete the information as required by applicable law. A parent or guardian may contact info@empeerium.com.

Users who declare they are 13–17 must confirm they have parent or legal-guardian permission. That confirmation does not replace any separate guardian process required by Stripe, a school, or applicable law.

8. Security

We use administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect information, including authentication, access controls, school scoping, database policies, encrypted network transport, and limited service-role access. No service can guarantee absolute security. Keep your password confidential and notify us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised.

9. Changes to this Notice

We may update this Notice as the product or law changes. We will post the current version and provide reasonable notice of material changes. Where appropriate or legally required, we will ask account holders to acknowledge the revised Notice.

10. Contact

Empeerium LLC
Privacy, safety, and account requests: info@empeerium.com