Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 16, 2026. This policy explains what information Merge Campus collects, how we use it, and the choices you have.

1. Overview

Merge Campus ("Merge Campus," "we," "us," or "our") operates the Merge service, including our website and mobile application (together, the "Service"). We believe privacy should be the default. This policy describes how we handle information when you use the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the practices described here.

2. Information we collect

We aim to collect only what we need to make campus coordination work.

Information you provide

Account details such as your name, university email (used for passwordless, magic-link sign-in and to verify student status), bio, avatar, and role.
Activity and ride content such as the activities and rides you post or join — titles, descriptions, locations, dates, group sizes, routes, seats, and optional price.
Messages you send in activity group chats.
Social and trust signals such as connection and close-friend relationships, the ratings you give and receive, and reports you submit.
Communications you send us, such as support or safety requests.

Information collected automatically

Device and usage data such as app version, device type, and basic interaction logs that help us keep the Service reliable.
Approximate location only as needed to show relevant activities and rides, and only with your permission where required by your device.

3. How we use information

To operate the Service and let you discover, post, join, and coordinate activities and rides.
To verify university eligibility and maintain a trusted, student-only community.
To calculate and display trust scores and ratings, and to power features such as group chats and Trending.
To keep the community safe, including reviewing reports and preventing misuse.
To respond to your questions and provide support.
To improve the Service and develop new features.
To comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information.

We share information only in limited ways:

With other users, you share the profile, activity, and ride details needed to coordinate — subject to the audience you choose for each post (everyone, friends, or close friends). Group-chat messages are shared with the members of that activity.
With service providers who help us run the Service (for example, hosting and infrastructure), under obligations to protect your information.
For legal and safety reasons, when we believe disclosure is necessary to comply with law or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our users or the public.
In a business transfer, such as a merger or acquisition, subject to this policy.

5. AI features (Merge Assistant)

Merge includes an optional AI assistant (the mascot) that can answer questions about your plans and shared expenses. When you use the assistant, some information is sent to our AI provider, Google (via Google Cloud Vertex AI, which runs Google's Gemini models), so it can generate a response:

Your plans and balances are sent in a de-identified form. We replace names and identifiers with temporary, meaningless labels and send only broad categories and coarse ranges — for example, an activity's type and rough timing, and whether you owe or are owed money within a broad band (such as "$50–100"). We do not send names, email addresses, exact dollar amounts, street addresses, or account identifiers as part of this structured information.
Any exact amounts you see in the assistant's answers are calculated on your device from your own data — they are not sent to, or returned by, the AI provider.
Anything you type to the assistant is sent as written. Your questions and follow-ups are sent to the AI provider as you wrote them, so please avoid typing sensitive personal information you don't want shared.
Your data is not used to train AI models. Under our agreement with Google, your prompts and the assistant's responses are not used to train or fine-tune any AI/ML models.
Limited abuse monitoring. Google may retain your prompts (and, for some models, the responses) for a short period to detect and prevent misuse, as described in Google Cloud's terms. Access is restricted, and this data is not used to train models.
Your chat history stays on your device. The assistant's conversation history is stored only on your device (for up to 14 days) and is not stored on Merge's servers.
It's optional. These AI features run only when you choose to use the assistant.

Processing location: requests may be processed by Google in any region where it operates ("global").

6. Your choices and rights

You can review and update much of your profile information within the Service.
You can control device-level permissions such as location at any time in your settings.
You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information by contacting us. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under applicable law.

To make a request, email privacy@mergecampus.com.

7. Data security and retention

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect your information. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. We retain information for as long as needed to provide the Service and for legitimate legal, safety, and business purposes, after which we delete or de-identify it.

8. Eligibility

The Service is intended for students and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us information, please contact us so we can take appropriate action.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice.

10. Contact us

If you have questions about this policy or our privacy practices, contact us at privacy@mergecampus.com or through our contact page.