How we handle your information.

This one policy covers the whole platform, in every community it serves. BetweenUS Forum is the name this community knows the service by; the service is operated by Comity Works, Inc., a Delaware public benefit corporation (“we”) — an independent operator, not your sponsor organization.

The short version

We collect what it takes to match you well and run your conversations — nothing more, and we never sell it.
Your political viewpoint is optional, used only to create balanced matches, and is never shown to your match, your community’s organizers, or your sponsor organization.
Conversations are not recorded or transcribed. Ever.
Your sponsor organization sees aggregate participation numbers only — never your individual answers.
You can access, correct, export, or delete your data, or pause matching, whenever you like — wherever you live. Email privacy@betweenusforum.org.

What we collect, and why

Everything below is collected directly from you (or generated by your use of the service). We use it to run the service you signed up for: matching you with another member, scheduling the conversation, and improving how matches are made.

Name and email — your account, sign-in links, and match notifications.
City / location and age range — matching inputs (time zones, life-stage context).
Political viewpoint — an optional matching input, treated as sensitive data (see the next section).
Topics you care about and your free-text intro — used to pair you on a topic you both chose.
Conversation feedback — your private post-conversation answers, used to improve future pairings.
Calendar free/busy — only if you choose to connect a calendar, and only availability (never event contents), to suggest times that work.
Attendance and technical data — whether a scheduled conversation happened, plus routine technical logs (IP address, browser type, errors) to keep the service secure and working.

Your political viewpoint (sensitive data)

The service exists to create conversations across difference, so we ask where you sit politically. We treat that answer as sensitive personal data and handle it under explicit consent: by choosing to place yourself on the scale at signup (or on your profile), you consent to our using that answer for the single purpose described here.

It is used solely as a matching input to create balanced conversations between people who see things differently.
It is never displayed to your conversation partner, your community’s organizers, or your sponsor organization — and never on any profile. Within the platform, only the operator’s matching screen can see it, solely to construct balanced rounds.
Reporting to sponsor organizations is aggregate-only, with small-group suppression so no individual can be inferred from a small count.
Providing it is optional. You can leave it blank (“prefer not to say”) and still use the service, and you can change or clear it at any time.

No recording

Conversations are not recorded, transcribed, or analyzed. The video call exists for the two of you, and what is said there stays between you. If that ever changes for an optional feature, it would happen only with fresh, specific consent from both participants — never by default.

Who processes data for us (sub-processors)

We use a small set of service providers to run the platform. Each processes data only to provide its service to us:

Provider	What it does
Vercel	Hosts the application and serves these pages.
Neon	Runs the Postgres database where member records are stored.
Daily.co	Provides the video rooms where conversations happen.
Resend	Sends the product's emails (sign-in links, match notices).
Nylas	Reads calendar free/busy to suggest times, only if you connect a calendar.
Sentry	Captures application errors so we can fix problems.

What your sponsor organization sees

Sponsor organizations make the service available to their members; they do not operate it. Your community’s organizers administer membership and matching rounds, so they can see membership basics — your name, email, topics, and scheduling status — but never your political viewpoint and never your individual feedback. The organization’s reporting is aggregate participation numbers (for example, how many members joined or completed conversations), with small groups suppressed. We do not sell personal information to anyone.

How long we keep it

We keep your information for as long as your membership is active. When you ask us to delete your account (and we have verified the request came from you), we delete it.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can exercise all of the following — we apply the same standard to every member regardless of country:

Access a copy of the information we hold about you.
Correct anything that is wrong (most of it you can edit yourself on your profile).
Delete your account and data.
Export your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
Object to or restrict processing — in particular, pausing matching from your preferences is exactly that: an objection to matching-based profiling, honored immediately and reversible whenever you like.
Withdraw consent for anything consent-based (such as your political viewpoint or a connected calendar) at any time.

To exercise any of these, email privacy@betweenusforum.org. We will verify it is you before acting, and respond within a reasonable time.

Where data is processed

The service is operated from the United States, and the providers above process data in the US. If you use the service from outside the US, your information is transferred to and processed in the United States.

Age

The service is for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account.

Changes to this policy

If we make a material change, we will post the updated policy here with a new effective date and tell active members by email before it takes effect. Minor clarifications may be posted without notice.

Contact

The data controller for the platform is Comity Works, Inc. Questions, requests, or complaints: privacy@betweenusforum.org. You also have the right to complain to your local data-protection authority.

BetweenUS Forum is an independent, member-built platform operated by Comity Works, Inc. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by any sponsor organization (including YPO). YPO Democracy Group is a sponsoring organization — it hosts its community on the platform but does not operate the service. Views expressed in conversations are the participants’ own.