Bulletin is an app for finding out what is actually happening on campus. This page explains what we collect, why, and what we never do with it.
We do not sell your data, we do not run ads, we do not track you across other apps or websites, and your location stays on your phone unless you choose to share your spot with friends.
What we collect
Your account
To sign in, we collect your email address and a password you choose, and we confirm the address with a one-time code. Your password is never stored in a readable form. It is kept only as a scrambled hash that cannot be turned back into the original, so nobody at Bulletin can see what you picked. You can also sign in with an emailed code instead of your password any time. When you set up your profile you also give us a username, a display name, and optionally a profile photo.
What you tell us during setup
Onboarding asks which interests and clubs you care about. We use this only to decide which events to show you first. You can change or clear these at any time in the app.
When you swipe through events in the match deck, we save which ones you saved and which you skipped, along with each event's category and tags, so the match percentages you see fit you. Only you can read your swipes, nobody else ever sees them, and they go when you delete your account.
If you tell us you are faculty or staff, we store the department you type and the fact that you asked; someone on our team approves it and the label shows on your profile. If a business applies through this website, we store the application (name, category, contact email, and the optional phone, Instagram handle and description) and, once we promote it onto an account, the business name and category on that account with a verified mark.
What you create and post
- Events you post: title, time, place, description, and any cover image you choose or upload.
- RSVPs and saved events: your answer (going, maybe, or a request to join an approval-only event), how many people you are bringing if the host allows plus-ones, and any invitation you send or receive. The host of an event, and any cohost they add, sees every answer on their event, requests included. Other guests who are going or maybe see the going and maybe list only when the host leaves it on, and never see requests or declines.
- Going and Interested on campus events: when you tap Going or Interested on a public campus event, only your friends on Bulletin (people you follow who follow you back) can see your name on that event's going list. Everyone else only sees how many are going. You can keep your name off every going list in Settings, under Show me on going lists, and you still count toward the number. The event pages on our website only ever show the numbers, never a name. Someone you have blocked never sees you on a going list, and you never see them.
- Event mutuals: after an event ends, the people who were really there (the ones who scanned in at the door, or the guests an approval-only host let in) become each other's mutuals. An RSVP alone never does. We compute this from your check-ins and RSVPs; only you can see your mutuals, and only a mutual or a friend can see the events you shared. Nobody else can tell whether two people were at the same event.
- Social links you add: the handles you type for Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn and Snapchat, shown on your profile as tappable icons. Bulletin never connects to those accounts.
- Messages you send in direct messages, event chats, and club chats, including any photos or GIFs you attach.
- Your social graph: who you follow, who follows you, and anyone you have blocked.
- Invite codes: your handle works as your invite code. Any account can type one friend's code in the app, once. When someone types yours, you both get the gator hat, they send you a friend request (you are friends once you accept) and you get one notification saying they used your code. Who invited whom is never shown to anyone else.
- Poster codes and skins: when you type or scan a code from a Bulletin poster, we save which skin it unlocked on your account and whether your buddy is wearing it. The skin your buddy is wearing shows wherever your buddy does (your card, your profile, and the map for friends you share your spot with). What you have collected is never shown to anyone, a code that did not work is not kept, and it all goes when you delete your account. The poster's web page does not look the code up or record anything.
- Reports you file about content or people.
Notifications
If you turn on notifications, we store a push token for your device so we can deliver them. It identifies the device, not you personally, and turning notifications off removes it.
Product analytics
We record which screens you open, how long you stay on them, and which of about sixteen named buttons you tap. If the app hits an error or crashes, we also record what broke and where in the app, so we can fix it. That is the entire list. Not what you type, not what you read, not who you message.
We do this to learn which parts of Bulletin are worth building on. We do not sell it, there are no ads in Bulletin, and none of it follows you into other apps or websites.
It goes to two places. The first is our own database, where your account ID is never stored. We keep a scrambled stand-in instead. It stays the same for you over time so we can tell whether people come back, which means it is still connected to you, and we declare it that way on our App Store privacy label rather than call it anonymous.
The second is an outside analytics provider that processes this for us under contract and is not permitted to use it for its own purposes. It never receives your name, your email, or your account ID. What it sees is a different, random identifier created on your device, along with your device model, operating system, and app version. We have switched its location lookup off and told it to discard IP addresses, so it cannot work out where you are either.
You can turn all of this off any time in Settings under Share usage data, which stops both copies at once. Deleting your account erases our own copy. The provider's copy carries no link to your account at all, which is deliberate, and it also means we cannot pick your records out of it to delete them, and neither can they.
What we do not collect
- Your location history. Bulletin may ask for location access to put your buddy on the campus map and draw your walk to events; that stays on your phone. If you choose to share with friends, we keep one entry: the campus landmark you are near (or, only for friends you pick, your position on the campus map, rounded to about 30 feet), overwritten as you move and deleted three hours after your last update. The friends you share with also see roughly how fresh it is (within the last hour, two hours or three), never a time. Never a history, never in the background, never your GPS coordinates on our servers. If you opt in to anonymous trends, the app adds one count to a landmark's hourly total, with no identifier. Event pins are the coordinates of the venue, not of you.
- Advertising or cross-app tracking identifiers. There are no ad networks in Bulletin, and nothing we collect follows you into other apps or websites.
- Your contacts, calendar reads, microphone, or browsing activity. If you save an event to your calendar, we write that one entry and read nothing back.
How we use what we collect
- To sign you in and keep your account working.
- To show you events, clubs, and people relevant to your campus and your interests.
- To deliver your messages and, if you enable them, your notifications.
- To keep the app safe: reviewing reports, enforcing blocks, and screening uploaded images and typed text.
That is the whole list. We do not use your content to build advertising profiles, and we do not share it with data brokers.
Who else touches your data
We use a small number of service providers to run the app. They process data only on our behalf, are not permitted to use it for their own purposes, and must protect it at least as carefully as this policy describes. These are the kinds of providers we use and what each receives:
- Hosting and storage: sign-in, the database, and file storage. Your account, posts, and messages live here. Our website is hosted the same way.
- Email delivery: sends your sign-in and confirmation codes. It receives your email address and the code, nothing else.
- Security: helps tell real people from automated sign-ups and abuse. It sees the kind of technical information any website sees, such as your IP address and browser details.
- Safety screening by third-party AI: every image you upload is checked for unsafe content before it appears, and so is the text you type (messages, event and club descriptions, names, and feedback). The screening services receive only the image or the text, never your name, email, or account ID with it. They return a safety result and nothing else, and they do not use what they screen to train their models.
- GIF search: when you search for a GIF, that search text goes to our GIF provider. Your messages do not.
- Product analytics: the screen and button records and the error reports described above, with a random per-device identifier, never your name, email, or account ID.
- Fonts: a few screens in the app load their typefaces from a font service, which sees your device's IP address the way any website you visit would.
- Notification delivery: delivers push notifications to your device, if you turn them on.
- App distribution: the app store you downloaded Bulletin from.
We will also disclose information if the law genuinely requires it, or if we need to address a real threat to someone's safety.
Do Not Track
Bulletin does not track you across other apps or websites, and it does not let any other company do so through Bulletin. Because nothing like that happens, a browser's Do Not Track signal has nothing to switch off; we treat every visitor as if it were on.
Public campus events
Some events in Bulletin are not posted by users. They are gathered from publicly available University of Florida sources. That is public institutional information about events, and it contains no personal data about you.
Safety and moderation
Every image uploaded to the app is screened automatically before it becomes visible, and so is every piece of text you type: messages, event and club descriptions, names, and feedback. Screening is done automatically by the third-party AI services described above and is used only to catch unsafe content, never to profile you. You can report any message, event, or person, and you can block anyone, which immediately stops them from contacting you. Reports are reviewed by a human. We keep records of reports and enforcement actions so repeat behavior does not get a clean slate.
Keeping and deleting your data
We keep your information for as long as your account exists.
You can delete your account at any time from Settings in the app. Deletion works like this:
- When you confirm, your account is scheduled for deletion and you are signed out immediately.
- You have 24 hours to change your mind. Signing back in during that window cancels the deletion entirely.
- After 24 hours, your account and its content are permanently deleted, including your uploaded photos and files. This is not reversible.
Messages you sent to other people may remain visible in their copy of a conversation, the same way a text message you sent still sits on someone else's phone. Reports and safety records may be kept longer where we need them to protect other people.
Your choices
- See and change your information from your profile and Settings.
- Delete your account from Settings, as described above.
- Control notifications in Settings, or in your device settings.
- Turn off product analytics in Settings, under Share usage data.
- Block or report anyone, from their profile or from any message, and unblock from Settings under Blocked accounts.
- Choose what guests see on the events you host: the guest list and the going count are your switches, per event.
- Keep your name off going lists in Settings, under Show me on going lists.
- Choose who sees your buddy on the map in Settings, under Location: just you, your friends, or only the friends you add. Anonymous trends is its own switch right below it, and it is off until you turn it on. Turning off location access in your device settings stops all of it.
- Add, change or remove social links in Settings at any time.
If you want a copy of your data or need help with any of this, email us and we will take care of it.
Age
Bulletin is built for university students and is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, email us and we will remove it.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and access to it is restricted at the database level so one account cannot read another's private information. No system is perfect, but we do not cut corners here.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that meaningfully affects you, we will update the date at the top and let you know in the app before the change takes effect.
Contact
Questions about privacy, or want your data removed? Email privacy@downloadbulletin.com.
