BAYLINK

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 6, 2026

BAYLINK is a Bay Area local community and lifestyle information platform. This Privacy Policy explains how BAYLINK collects, uses, and protects information when users access baylink.us, create an account, publish posts, send messages, use service bookings or BayBay AI features, or verify their phone number.

Policy highlights

These notes explain how different information is used and who can see it. See the full policy below for details.

  • Account details, public posts, and public profiles may be visible to other users or visitors. Do not put phone numbers, home addresses, or identity document details you want to keep private in public post text.
  • The phone number used for SMS verification serves a different purpose from the phone, WeChat, or email you enter in Contact Settings. Completing verification does not automatically display that phone number on posts or your profile.
  • 预约双方可以查看该预约的时间、状态和顾客填写的备注。请不要在备注中填写密码、证件号码或无需提供的信息。提供者发布的可申请时段与服务设置会用于预约展示。
  • 手机验证与预约短信同意分开。服务提供者可单独开启预约业务短信；当前不向顾客发送预约短信。短信开关不影响站内预约记录与通知。
  • You can choose to use private messages first, send contact details automatically on request, or approve each request. Recipients can save contact details they receive, so check both the information and the recipient before sending.
  • When you use BayBay AI, the text you enter may be processed to generate suggestions and drafts. Do not enter ID numbers, account passwords, or other highly sensitive information.
  • After signing in, open My profile → Privacy and security to download your data, sign out all sessions, or confirm permanent account deletion. Each sensitive operation requires current credentials. For larger exports, inaccessible accounts or requests requiring manual verification, contact the email below. We do not promise a fixed processing deadline or immediate erasure of external caches.

Account export, deletion and two-step verification

Account export uses explicit ownership and field limits: your profile, posts, authored text messages and private plans. It excludes received private messages, other people’s shared contact details, security secrets, password hashes and login tokens. The downloaded file contains private information; store it safely.

Permanent deletion requires your current password, an authenticator or recovery code when enabled, and an explicit confirmation phrase. After success, online account data, your contacts, authored messages, private plans, stored contact snapshots and token associations are removed or anonymized; your posts are removed and hosted groups are cancelled. Other people’s content in shared records remains subject to its purpose. Administrators must safely hand over their role first. Deletion is irreversible; pending related writes or failed cleanup prevent a success confirmation.

Optional administrator authenticator setup is available only after a separate server encryption key is configured. Secrets are encrypted and recovery codes are stored as hashes. Activation requires saved recovery codes and confirmation of a first code. Sign-in requires a password and additional code; disabling it or replacing recovery codes requires fresh credential confirmation. Accounts that have not enabled it remain usable when this configuration is absent.

Recipients may retain their own copies; deletion cannot withdraw content they independently saved. Non-private safety audit records retain anonymized cases and action times. Hosting logs, backups, third-party image storage and caches have separate retention and cleanup processes and are not guaranteed to disappear with the online account. Contact the email below for requests needing manual handling. We do not delete third-party assets based solely on a submitted image URL without trusted upload ownership evidence.

Service providers and notification choices

BAYLINK uses Vercel for the website, Render for the API, MongoDB Atlas for account and service records, and Cloudinary for uploaded images. These services process requests, relevant records or uploads for those purposes and may retain service logs, backups or caches.

When you choose AI features, OpenAI processes the input selected for that feature; web retrieval may process search terms. When route estimates are enabled, Google Routes processes public places, travel mode and requested date/time. Interactive maps load OpenFreeMap tiles. Avoid entering private home addresses in map or route requests. We do not claim these providers instantly erase their logs when your account is deleted.

When configured email delivery is needed, Resend processes the destination address and message. When configured SMS delivery is needed, Twilio processes the phone number and SMS. Email verification, account recovery and phone verification follow their separate flows. Optional message, contact-request or group notifications require explicit channel and topic choices; email requires verification and SMS requires a verified number. Notifications default to off and depend on server delivery being enabled. Withdrawing notification consent does not disable sign-in or in-site messages.

To prevent duplicate notifications and verify responses within 24 hours of a real first request, the service stores minimal account, conversation and post references and timestamps, without copying private message text into metrics. Notification queues store purpose, channel, consent revision and delivery status; account-linked records expire under their model rules or are cleared on account deletion. Product reporting uses anonymous daily totals and does not identify active-user counts or individual retention.

Small-group visibility / 小队信息可见范围

发布后，小队标题、介绍、日期时段、城市、公共集合点、费用说明、人数和队长公开昵称可被其他人看到。请勿填写家庭住址、电话或证件信息。申请备注提供给队长；确认成员可以查看成员名单和队内讨论。退出或被移除后，不能继续访问讨论。举报会将相关内容提供给管理员处理；退出小队不会撤回别人已经看到的信息，也不会自动删除举报记录。

Published outing details and the host’s public nickname are visible to other users and visitors. Request notes are shown to the host, while confirmed members can access the group roster and discussion. Leaving or removal ends discussion access. We store membership status, consent timestamps, changes, messages and report evidence to operate groups and handle abuse. Reports are available to administrators. Using the optional AI draft tool sends the idea you submit and any linked public event context to the AI provider; private profiles or group conversations are not included by this tool. Outing notifications use the site, not SMS.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect the following information:

  • Account information such as email address, nickname, password hash, avatar, profile description, area, city, profile tags, interests, website, and social links.
  • Contact and verification information such as phone number when a user chooses to complete phone verification.
  • Contact details such as WeChat ID, phone number, email address, and contact-sharing preferences that a user chooses to provide for contact requests.
  • User-generated content such as posts, comments, messages, listings, service descriptions, images, and profile content.
  • Event IDs, interest and public buddy-list choices, and timestamps when signed-in users choose Interested or Go together.
  • Provider booking settings and availability; booking participant references, selected times, status, customer notes, status changes and related in-site messages.
  • Optional provider booking-SMS preferences, consent version and time, the verified phone number covered by consent, and notification submission or failure records.
  • Technical information such as IP address, device information, browser type, log data, and usage activity.
  • AI feature input when users choose to use BayBay AI Guide or AI post-assist features.

Anonymous product counters / 匿名功能统计

Client feature counters count page views, coarse entry-source categories, recommendations, saves, shares, favorites, map opens and official-link clicks by day and interface language. Source categories are direct, search, WeChat, social, card, Opus or other; the source URL is not sent. These requests contain no account/session identifier, IP address, question text, page URL or precise location. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control stop these client counter requests. Aggregate records expire after 180 days and do not represent active-user counts, individual retention or response percentages.

The server separately counts completed registrations and real message requests/replies as anonymous daily totals, without copying account identifiers, contacts or message text into the aggregate. Client counter preferences do not stop these operational totals. Minimal account-linked references and timestamps needed to verify replies follow the cleanup boundaries above. Hosting and security logs are also separate from client anonymous counters.

2. How We Use Information

BAYLINK uses information to:

  • Provide account login, registration, password reset, and user profile features.
  • Allow users to publish local posts, listings, service offers, requests, and community content.
  • Support messaging, safety features, reporting, moderation, and account trust.
  • Send account-related emails such as password reset emails.
  • Send one-time SMS verification codes when users request phone verification.
  • Publish provider availability, process booking requests and confirmations, prevent overlapping bookings, and notify participants of booking changes through the site.
  • Send optional transactional booking SMS to service providers who separately enable them and meet the phone-verification and SMS-service requirements.
  • Improve BAYLINK features, user experience, safety, and reliability.
  • Prevent spam, abuse, fraud, fake accounts, and unsafe activity.

3. Phone Numbers and SMS Consent

BAYLINK may collect your mobile phone number when you choose to complete phone verification for account security and community trust purposes. We use it to send requested verification codes and help protect the community from spam, fraud, and abuse. If you are a service provider and separately enable booking SMS, we also use your verified number for those transactional notices. Verification or booking-SMS consent does not publicly display that number. Contact details you separately provide for contact requests follow the sharing preferences you select.

BAYLINK does not share, sell, rent, or disclose mobile phone numbers, SMS opt-in data, or SMS consent records with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.

Verification messages follow your requests for a code. Provider booking SMS requires separate consent and an available, configured SMS service; it covers new booking requests, instant bookings and cancellations by customers. It does not send booking SMS to customers, marketing messages, or scheduled appointment reminders. Frequency varies with verification requests or booking activity, and message and data rates may apply.

For optional provider booking SMS, we record the consent version and time, enabled preference, and verified number covered by the choice. A changed verified number requires fresh consent. You can turn booking SMS off in booking notification settings. Follow the sending service's STOP / HELP instructions to manage sender-level opt-out; this does not cancel bookings, and enabling the site setting does not override that opt-out. SMS submission is not proof of delivery. Failed SMS does not remove a booking or its in-site record.

验证手机号用于你主动请求的验证码与账号安全；服务提供者单独开启预约短信后，也用于相应业务通知。系统保存短信同意版本、时间、开关状态与同意对应的已验证号码；更换号码须重新同意。验证或开启通知不会公开号码，另行填写的联系信息仍按你的分享设置处理。可在预约通知设置中关闭业务短信，也可按短信发送方说明退订。短信发送请求被接受不等于送达，失败不影响已保存的预约和站内消息。BAYLINK 不会出于营销或推广目的分享、出售、出租或披露手机号码及短信同意数据。

Service Bookings / 服务预约信息

Provider availability and published booking settings help customers choose a time to request. A booking's provider and customer can access its selected time, status and customer notes. These appointment details are not a public booking list. BAYLINK processes the records to manage requests, confirmations, cancellations, declines, completion and expiry, and to save related in-site notifications. SMS delivery providers receive the recipient number and message content when an eligible provider has opted in. BAYLINK does not collect service payments through this booking feature.

提供者发布的时段和预约设置用于让顾客选择申请时间。预约时间、状态及顾客备注可由该预约双方查看，不作为公开预约名单展示。系统处理申请、确认、取消、拒绝、完成与到期状态，并保存相应站内通知；服务提供者选择接收短信后，短信服务商会处理接收号码和消息内容。本预约功能不收取服务款项。

Canceling a booking, allowing a request to expire, or disabling future availability changes its status or future availability; it does not automatically erase historical booking records or messages. Account-related access, correction or deletion requests can be sent to the contact below. Share only information needed to arrange the service, and avoid credentials, identity-document numbers or unnecessary sensitive details in booking notes.

取消、申请到期或关闭未来可预约时段不等于删除历史预约和消息。可通过页末联系方式提出访问、更正或删除申请。备注请只填写安排服务所需的信息，避免密码、证件号码和不必要的敏感内容。

4. SMS Data Sharing

Mobile phone numbers, SMS opt-in data, and SMS consent are not shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.

BAYLINK does not sell, rent, or share SMS opt-in data, SMS consent records, or mobile phone numbers with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. SMS opt-in information and phone numbers are used only to provide BAYLINK account verification, security, and related transactional service messages.

5. Emails

BAYLINK may send account-related emails, including password reset emails and important account notices. Users may contact BAYLINK if they have questions about account emails.

6. User Content

Event interest is stored with your account and contributes to public aggregate counts. Selecting Interested alone does not publish your identity. If you explicitly join Go together, your nickname, avatar and city are displayed in that event's public buddy list, and members may contact you through site messaging. You may leave the list or cancel your interest at any time. Cancellation updates the stored choice; it does not automatically delete historical database records. Account data deletion requests can be made through the contact below.

Event interest is saved with your account and contributes to public counts. Interested alone does not publish your identity. Joining Go together publicly displays your nickname, avatar and city on that event’s buddy list, and other users can contact you through site messages. You may leave or cancel interest at any time. Cancellation updates the saved choice; it does not automatically delete historical database records. Contact the address below for account-data deletion requests.

Users are responsible for the content they post on BAYLINK. Public posts, public profile information, and public listing details may be visible to other users or visitors. Users should not post sensitive personal information that they do not want to share publicly.

If you choose to provide contact details for contact requests, those details may be sent to a requesting user automatically or after your confirmation, depending on your selected sharing mode. Recipients may retain information they have already received. Prefer in-platform messaging when you do not want to share contact details.

7. AI Features

Quick search searches the published editorial catalog in your browser and may send search keywords to BAYLINK to retrieve public community posts. Opening BayBay and submitting a question may send that question, the current page path, recognized city/date filters, city/date requirements you stated earlier in this chat and up to four recent question-and-answer pairs to our AI service provider. When available, Smart search may use web search for current or additional information; Web search explicitly requests it. Search terms may then be processed by the provider's web-search service. Site only disables external web retrieval, but may still use the AI service to explain site material. Each reply identifies its retrieval scope and any available sources.

快速搜索在浏览器中查找已发布的内容目录，也可能将搜索关键词发送给 BAYLINK 查询公开邻里帖子。向 BayBay 提问时，问题、当前页面路径、已识别的城市与日期筛选、你在本次对话中说明的城市与日期条件，以及最近最多四轮问答可能发送给 AI 服务提供商。服务可用时，「智能检索」会按需要联网补充信息，「联网查」会主动请求联网；搜索词可能由提供商的联网检索服务处理。「仅站内」关闭站外检索，但仍可能使用 AI 整理站内资料。每条回复会说明实际检索范围并提供可用来源。

BayBay AI features may process user-provided text to generate suggestions, post drafts, guide responses, safety tips, or related content. Users should avoid submitting highly sensitive personal information to AI features.

When you request a BayBay outing suggestion, your submitted text and filters may be sent to our AI service provider to interpret your request. Saved plan titles and account libraries are not included in that request. Suggested places and dates are checked against our published catalog.

When you choose to read an event screenshot, the selected image is sent to our AI service provider. BAYLINK saves the event text only after you review and confirm it; the source image is not added to your saved event. Imported events stay in this browser for guests or privately in the signed-in account. You can edit or remove them in My Week.

Message translation sends only the selected text message to our AI service provider. Reply assistance uses your stated intent and, if selected, one message for context. It does not send the whole conversation. AI replies remain drafts until you choose to send them.

识别活动截图时，所选图片会发送给 AI 服务提供商；你核对并确认后，BAYLINK 只保存活动文字，不把原图加入活动记录。访客活动保存在此浏览器，登录后的活动私密保存在账号中，可在「我的这周」修改或移除。私信翻译只处理所选文字消息，回复助手只处理你填写的意思和选中的一条消息，不发送整段聊天记录；回复由你决定是否发送。

Outing Plans, Favorites and Maps

Guest plans and favorites stay in browser storage. When signed in, plans, favorites and selected regions, interests and travel preferences are stored with your account for access on other devices. Importing guest content is optional and requires a separate action. These account records are private. Public plan links contain selected public place or event IDs and a date, without your account ID or private plan title. Anyone receiving a link can view or forward those public selections.

Guest plans and favorites stay in this browser. Plans, favorites, regions, interests and travel preferences saved while signed in are associated with your account for other devices. Importing guest content is your choice. Account plans are private; share links include only public place IDs and dates, without account IDs or private titles. Recipients can view and forward those public selections.

Opening the interactive map loads tiles from OpenFreeMap, which receives the network request and the map areas requested. This feature does not request your device location. You can remove saved plans and favorites in My Week; account-related privacy requests can be sent to the contact below.

8. Information Sharing

BAYLINK may share limited information:

  • With service providers that help operate BAYLINK, such as hosting, database, image storage, email delivery, SMS delivery, analytics, or infrastructure providers.
  • When required by law, legal process, or government request.
  • To protect BAYLINK, users, property, safety, and legal rights.
  • In connection with a business transfer, merger, acquisition, or reorganization.

BAYLINK does not sell personal information.

This excludes mobile phone numbers, SMS opt-in data, and SMS consent, which will not be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.

9. Data Security

BAYLINK uses reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect user information, including password hashing, token-based authentication, limited public profile fields, and restricted access to sensitive information. However, no online service can guarantee complete security.

10. Data Retention

Online account deletion and the anonymization described above are separate confirmable operations. Other records are retained for service, safety and necessary verification purposes. We have not published one fixed duration for every hosting-log, backup or historical third-party-media category and do not promise immediate erasure. Contact the address below for manually verified access, correction or further cleanup.

11. Children

BAYLINK is not intended for children under 13. Users should not use BAYLINK if they are under 13 years old.

12. California Users

California users may have rights under applicable privacy laws, including rights to request access, deletion, or correction of certain personal information, subject to legal limitations.

13. Changes to This Policy

BAYLINK may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Updated versions will be posted on this page with a new “Last updated” date.

14. Contact

For privacy questions, contact: Baylink.us@gmail.com