CampusTrade Privacy Policy
Effective Date: 12 October 2026
Last Updated: 12 October 2026
1. Introduction and Scope
CampusTrade ("we", "our", or "the platform") is committed to protecting the privacy of students and campus community members who use our marketplace. This policy describes how we collect, store, utilize, and protect your information when accessing our web services.
2. Information We Collect
- Account Information: Full name, institutional or personal email address, college or university name, department/course, academic year, and hashed account credentials.
- Contact Information: Optional mobile phone or WhatsApp number, along with user-specified preferences regarding public display.
- Listing Content: Product titles, descriptions, pricing, condition, campus pickup location, and uploaded product photographs.
- Technical & Session Logs: IP address, user-agent string, session identifiers, timestamps, and authentication access attempts necessary for system security and rate limiting.
3. No Storage of Buyer-Seller WhatsApp Communications
CampusTrade contains no internal chat system and does not host, monitor, record, or store private conversations between buyers and sellers. When a buyer initiates contact via WhatsApp, the interaction transitions immediately to the third-party WhatsApp service governed by WhatsApp's own privacy terms. We hold zero logs of message contents exchanged during negotiations.
4. Purpose of Data Processing
We process collected data exclusively to: provide secure user authentication; display campus marketplace listings; facilitate buyer discovery; enforce platform terms against malicious actors; and analyze aggregate server performance.
5. Public vs. Private Information
- Publicly Visible: Your display name, college, department, academic year, active listings, and WhatsApp contact link (only if you have enabled public WhatsApp contact in your profile).
- Strictly Confidential: Your hashed password, login attempts, IP address audit records, admin communications, and unlisted email address.
6. Third-Party Services
CampusTrade does not sell, lease, or monetize user data with third-party advertisers. We link to WhatsApp (Meta Platforms, Inc.) strictly via standard URI click-to-chat protocols.
7. Data Retention & Account Deletion
Account records and listings are retained for as long as your account remains active. Users may submit an account deletion request through their User Dashboard. Upon processing, your profile data and active listings are permanently purged from the active database, subject only to necessary administrative security audit logs retained for fraud prevention.
8. Security Measures and Limitations
We employ modern security safeguards including bcrypt password hashing, prepared database statements, CSRF tokens, session regeneration, and file upload validation. However, no internet transmission can be guaranteed 100% impenetrable; students are urged to protect their passwords and avoid sharing sensitive personal details.
9. Cookies and Local Sessions
CampusTrade uses strictly necessary HTTP session cookies for user login state and CSRF validation, and local browser storage strictly for light/dark theme preference. We do not employ third-party tracking or cross-site behavioral cookies.
10. Contacting Us
For questions or privacy concerns, contact our designated privacy handler at privacy@campustrade.local.