Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

We collect information to provide and improve WinterStores. The types of information we collect include:

• Account information: When you sign in with Google OAuth, we receive your name, email address, and profile picture from Google. We store this in your WinterStores profile.
• Reviews and contributions: Content you submit, including store reviews, ratings, and store suggestions.
• Usage data: We use Vercel Analytics to collect anonymized page view data and Web Vitals performance metrics. This data does not personally identify you.
• Favorites: Your saved favorite stores are stored locally in your browser (localStorage) and are not sent to our servers.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To display your reviews and profile information
• To improve our directory and search results
• To aggregate ratings from multiple platforms (Google, Facebook, Foursquare)
• To analyze usage patterns and improve site performance
• To respond to your inquiries and store suggestions

3. Third-Party Services

WinterStores integrates with the following services:

• Supabase: Authentication and database hosting. See Supabase Privacy Policy.
• Google OAuth: For sign-in functionality. See Google Privacy Policy.
• Vercel: Hosting and analytics. See Vercel Privacy Policy.
• Google Places, Facebook, Foursquare APIs: We fetch publicly available store ratings and review counts from these platforms. We do not share your personal data with them.

4. Cookies & Consent

When you first visit WinterStores, we show a cookie consent banner where you can accept or reject non-essential cookies. Your preferences are stored in your browser and can be changed at any time by clearing your browser's local storage. We use the following categories of cookies:

• Essential: Required for authentication (Supabase session tokens) and core site functionality. These cannot be disabled.
• Analytics: We use Vercel Analytics which collects anonymized page view data and performance metrics without personally identifying you. Enabled only with your consent.
• Marketing: If advertising is enabled on the site, ad providers may use cookies for personalized ads. These are only loaded with your explicit consent.

5. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access your data: View your profile and reviews at any time from your profile page.
• Update your data: Edit your display name and language preferences in profile settings.
• Delete your account: You can permanently delete your account from your profile settings. This anonymizes your reviews and removes your personal data.
• Request data export: Contact us to request an export of your data.

6. Data Security

We use industry-standard security measures including encrypted connections (HTTPS), secure authentication via OAuth 2.0, and database-level access controls through Supabase. However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure.

7. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify users of significant changes by updating the “Last updated” date at the top of this page.

8. Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy, please contact us.