Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how ALCÔVE collects, uses, shares, and protects your information when you use myalcove.me.

Information We Collect

We collect information you provide directly: your name, username, email address, phone number, profile photo, bio, and the items you add including photos, descriptions, and any purchase prices you enter. We collect information about your activity: searches you perform, items you view and request, connections you make, and invitations you send. We collect technical information: device type, browser, IP address, and usage patterns.

How We Use Your Information

We use your information to operate the platform, facilitate connections and exchanges between you and your trusted network, send transactional emails and notifications, improve the service, understand usage patterns, and develop new features. Purchase prices you enter are private and never shown to other members — they are used only for your personal savings tracking and in aggregate, anonymised form for our internal analytics.

Aggregated and Anonymised Data

We may analyse usage patterns, search trends, and item data in aggregated and anonymised form. This aggregated data — which does not identify you individually — may be used to understand fashion and sharing trends and may be shared with or sold to third parties such as brands, researchers, or partners. This helps us keep ALCÔVE running. Aggregated data never includes your name, contact information, or any detail that could identify you personally.

Advertising

ALCÔVE may in future show sponsored content or advertising within the app. If we introduce advertising, it may be informed by your activity and interests on the platform. You will be able to control your advertising preferences in your settings. We will never sell your individual identifiable personal information to advertisers.

Information We Share

We share your name, username, and profile with members you connect with. We share your closet items with your connected members according to the privacy settings you choose — private items are never shared with anyone. We use third-party service providers to operate the platform including hosting, email delivery, SMS delivery, payment processing, image hosting, and analytics. These providers access your information only to perform services for us. We may disclose information if required by law.

Third-Party Services

ALCÔVE uses the following categories of third-party services that may process your data: cloud hosting and database services, email delivery services, payment processing services, image hosting and optimisation services, and analytics services (PostHog). Each operates under their own privacy policies.

The ALCÔVE Stylist and AI

When a member uses the ALCÔVE Stylist, details of their own closet — item names, brands, categories, sizes, occasions, care notes, closet locations, and any personal notes they've added — are sent together with their message to our AI provider (OpenAI) through our private gateway, solely to generate their styling suggestions and packing lists. This information is used only to answer the member's own session and is never shared with other members. The Stylist can only ever see the requesting member's own items — it has no access to anyone else's closet, and no member's items are ever used to answer another member's questions. We do not permit the AI provider to use this content to train their models. Members can review these terms before their first message and can stop using the Stylist at any time.

Cookies, Analytics and Consent

We use a small number of strictly-necessary cookies to keep you signed in and remember your preferences. With your consent we also use PostHog analytics to understand how visitors and members use the app — including page views, traffic sources, UTM parameters, device and browser, approximate location (country/region from IP), and in-app actions such as items added, invites sent, searches performed, and exchanges completed. Sensitive form fields (passwords, email and phone inputs) are masked in any session recordings. You'll see a consent banner the first time you visit; you can change your choice at any time using the Cookie preferences panel below or by contacting hello@myalcove.me. We honour the Do Not Track signal where your browser sends one — PostHog will not load at all on devices that send DNT.

Your Choices and Rights

You can edit or delete your profile information at any time, control which items are shared or kept private, manage your notification preferences, control your advertising preferences, and delete your account. Depending on your location you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict the use of your personal data, and to opt out of the sale of your data. To exercise these rights contact hello@myalcove.me. California residents have specific rights under the CCPA including the right to know what personal information is collected and the right to opt out of its sale.

Data Retention

We retain your information while your account is active. When you delete your account we remove your personal information, though some anonymised aggregated data may be retained.

Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your information but no system is completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential.

Children

ALCÔVE is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect information from minors.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy. We will notify you of material changes.

Contact

Privacy questions can be directed to hello@myalcove.me.