Flock Spot Privacy Policy

Effective Date: October 1, 2026

Flock Spot is a community parking alert application provided as part of the HobbyPlus Community platform. This Privacy Policy explains how information is collected, used, stored, and shared when users access or use the Flock Spot application.

1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Depending on how you use Flock Spot, we may process information including:

Account Information: Information associated with your HobbyPlus account, such as your member number, email address, display name, city, and account-related access status, used for authentication and access to Flock Spot.

Location Information: When you use location-based features, Flock Spot may access your device’s approximate and/or precise location (latitude, longitude, and location accuracy). Precise location is required to report or confirm parking alerts. Location may also be used to center the map, search nearby places, reverse-geocode a street label, and report community or transit alerts.

Parking Alert Information: When you submit a parking alert, we may process the reported location, GPS accuracy, time of the report, street label where available, claim/confirm status, and information necessary to display the alert to other authenticated Flock Spot users.

Community and Transit Posts: If you submit a community post or transit alert, we may process the text you enter, the associated location, your member identifier, and the time of the post.

Technical and Session Information: We may process limited technical and session information necessary for operation, security, troubleshooting, and improvement of the application, including app session identifiers and device-stored authentication tokens.

2. HOW WE USE INFORMATION

We may use information to:

Operate Flock Spot.
Authenticate HobbyPlus members.
Provide location-based parking features.
Display community parking, transit, and community alerts to other eligible users.
Maintain security and prevent misuse.
Troubleshoot technical problems.
Improve the functionality and reliability of the service.

3. LOCATION DATA

Location information is used to provide the core location-based functionality of Flock Spot.

Flock Spot requests location access while you are using the app (foreground / “when in use”). It does not request continuous always-on background location permission. While you have an open parking alert that you created, the app may briefly continue reading location updates so it can detect that you have moved away from the reported spot.

Users can control location permissions through their device settings. Certain Flock Spot features may not function properly if location access is disabled.

Flock Spot does not claim ownership of public parking spaces and does not guarantee that a reported parking space will remain available.

Parking alerts are community-generated informational alerts.

4. SHARING OF INFORMATION

Information may be processed by service providers that support the operation of Flock Spot. As of the effective date, these include:

HobbyPlus / hobbyplus.io — member authentication and account services.
Google Firebase — Realtime Database, Cloud Functions, and Hosting for app backend and infrastructure.
Google Maps Platform — map display and place search.
OpenStreetMap Nominatim — reverse geocoding of street labels on the device.
Public NYC open-data / geocoding services — street-cleaning context for reported locations (server-side).

Flock Spot does not currently integrate separate third-party analytics, crash-reporting, or push-notification SDKs beyond the infrastructure listed above.

We do not sell users’ personal information.

Community parking alerts and their associated locations may be displayed to other authorized Flock Spot users as necessary to provide the service. Community and transit posts similarly include location and related content so other users can see them on the map.

5. DATA SECURITY

We use reasonable administrative and technical measures designed to protect information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or alteration.

However, no electronic system or method of transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

6. DATA RETENTION

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the service, comply with applicable legal obligations, resolve disputes, maintain security, and enforce our agreements.

In the current implementation:

Active parking alerts are short-lived (on the order of a few minutes) and are removed after they expire or are completed/cancelled.
Transit and community posts are treated as temporary (hours, not permanent public records) and are hidden from the app after their expiry time.
App login sessions expire after a limited period (currently up to 30 days) and are deleted when you sign out.
Member profile, reliability, and related service records associated with your HobbyPlus member identifier may be retained while your account remains eligible for the service, unless a deletion request is completed.

7. ACCOUNT AND DATA DELETION

Users may request deletion of their Flock Spot-associated personal information, subject to information that must be retained for legitimate legal or security purposes.

Signing out of the app clears local login tokens and ends the active Flock Spot session.

You may permanently delete your HobbyPlus account from the My Account page on hobbyplus.io (password and typing DELETE required), or through the HobbyPlus delete-account API when signed in from Flock Spot. Flock Spot app data on Firebase may require separate cleanup in the app after HobbyPlus deletion.

For help or deletion requests you cannot complete in the app, email discoverytop7@gmail.com with your HobbyPlus member number and account email.

8. CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

Flock Spot is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Access requires a HobbyPlus account.

9. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.

When changes are made, the updated policy and effective date will be posted on this page.

10. CONTACT US

For questions, privacy requests, or requests concerning personal information, please contact:

HobbyPlus Community / Flock Spot

Website: https://hobbyplus.io

Email: discoverytop7@gmail.com

Effective Date: October 1, 2026