Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 9, 2026

Root ("we", "our", or "us") operates the Root mobile application. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your information when you use our app.

Information We Collect

Account Information: When you create an account, we collect your email address and a username you choose. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive your name and email from those services. We do not store your Apple or Google password.

Responses and Content: We collect the responses you submit to questions, including your agree/disagree stance and the reasoning you provide. We also collect messages you send in breakout rooms, sources you share, and reactions you give to other messages.

Usage Data: We collect information about how you interact with the app, including which questions you view, your drill-down activity, and breakout rooms you join. This helps us improve the experience and surface relevant content.

Device Information: If you enable push notifications, we collect your device's push notification token to send you alerts. We do not collect device identifiers for advertising purposes.

How We Use Your Information

Core Functionality: Your responses are used to calculate consensus data (agree/disagree percentages) displayed to all users. Your response text may be processed by AI to identify common themes and cluster similar reasoning — this is done to help all users understand the range of perspectives on a topic. Individual responses are not displayed with your identity to other users in the main question view.

Breakout Rooms: Messages you send in breakout rooms are visible to other participants in that room. Your username and stance are displayed alongside your messages. An AI moderator reads messages in the room to provide facilitation — this AI does not store conversation data beyond what is already saved in the room.

AI Processing: We use third-party AI services (Anthropic's Claude) to cluster responses into common themes and to power the breakout room moderator. Your response text and breakout room messages are sent to these services for processing. These AI services do not use your data to train their models.

Notifications: We use your push token to send you notifications about activity relevant to you, such as new weekly questions, breakout room updates, and milestones.

Analytics: We use aggregated, anonymized data to understand usage patterns and improve the app. We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

Data Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share data only in these circumstances:

With Other Users: Your username and stance are visible to other participants in breakout rooms. Your individual responses contribute to aggregated consensus data visible to all users, but your identity is not attached to individual responses in the main question view.

AI Service Providers: Response text and breakout messages are processed by Anthropic's Claude API for clustering and moderation. This data is transmitted securely and is not used for model training.

Infrastructure Providers: We use Supabase for database and authentication services, and Expo for push notification delivery. These providers process data on our behalf under their respective privacy policies.

Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required by law, legal process, or government request.

Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored on secure servers provided by Supabase. We use row-level security policies to ensure users can only access data they are authorized to see. All data is transmitted using HTTPS encryption. Authentication tokens are stored securely on your device.

Your Rights and Choices

Account Deletion: You can delete your account at any time from the Settings menu in the app. This permanently removes your profile, responses, messages, sources, and all associated data. This action cannot be undone.

Data Access: You can view your responses, sources, and breakout room history from your Profile screen in the app.

Push Notifications: You can disable push notifications from the Settings menu or from your device's notification settings at any time.

Topic Preferences: You can update your selected topics at any time from your Profile screen.

Children's Privacy

Root is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes through the app or by updating the "Last updated" date above. Your continued use of Root after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact us at tryroot.app@gmail.com.