Privacy & Disclaimer
What we collect, why we collect it, and the honest limits of what a small site like this can promise. Last updated July 2026.
🔍 The Short Version
Book Swap Squad is a small, independently-run project. We collect the information needed to run a school book-swap safely (your name, school, contact info, and the books you list), we never sell your data, and the only outside services involved are a free map/school-lookup service and our email provider. Details are below — this page is meant to be genuinely readable, not buried in legal language.
📝 Information We Collect
When you create an account: your name, email address, password (stored securely hashed — we never see or store your actual password), home address, city, state, ZIP code, a parent or guardian's phone number, your school, and your grade.
When you publish a book: the book's title, author, and (optionally) ISBN, genre, and a written review, plus a required photo of the book next to your unique ID code, and any optional extra photos you add.
When you use messaging: the content of messages you send to other users.
Automatically: basic technical information like your session (so you can stay logged in) and, where available, standard web server logs.
We don't ask for or store payment information of any kind — Book Swap Squad and BSC coins are entirely free, with no purchases anywhere on the site.
👀 What Other Users Can See
Other kids using the site can see: your name, your school, your city (for distance sorting), your public rating and review count, the books you've published (including their photos), and any reviews you've written. They can also see messages you send them directly.
Other users cannot see your exact home address, your parent/guardian's phone number, your email address, or your password.
Site administrators (a small number of trusted people, including the site's creator) can see everything in your account, including messages, for the purpose of moderation, safety review, and fixing problems.
🎯 How We Use Your Information
To create and secure your account, verify your email, connect you with nearby book listings, let you message other users, run the BSC point system, keep the community family-friendly (through automated content filtering and human moderation), enforce our Terms of Service, and improve the site over time.
We do not sell your information to anyone, and we don't use it for advertising — there are no ads on Book Swap Squad.
🌐 Outside Services We Use
We try to keep the number of outside services as small as possible. Here's everything that's currently involved:
School lookup (OpenStreetMap): when you search for your school during sign-up, your browser sends the address you typed to OpenStreetMap's free, public Nominatim and Overpass services to find nearby schools. This happens directly from your browser and is only used to help you fill in the school field.
Email delivery: we send verification codes and password-reset links through our web host's standard email system.
Book photo checks: the photo you take of your book and ID code is stored on our server and may be reviewed by an admin, and we may also use automated image-analysis tools (potentially including third-party AI vision services) to help confirm a photo matches your ID code. We only use this for ownership verification — not for anything else.
We don't use ad networks, tracking pixels, or analytics services that build profiles about you.
👨👩👧👦 A Note for Kids and Parents
Book Swap Squad is built for school-age kids, and we take that seriously. That's exactly why we ask for a parent or guardian's phone number at sign-up — so a trusted adult is in the loop, not so we can contact you for anything else. We'd rather a parent or guardian help set up and keep an eye on the account than have a kid using it with no adult awareness at all.
If you're a parent or guardian and you want to see what information we have about your child, want it corrected, or want the account and its data deleted, just contact us (see below) — we will act on that request. We collect the minimum information we reasonably need to run the book-swap safely, and nothing more.
🔒 How We Protect Your Information
Passwords are hashed (not stored as readable text), all form submissions are checked against cross-site request forgery, and sensitive files are blocked from direct web access. We take reasonable, standard precautions for a site of this size.
That said, we're honest that no website can guarantee perfect security — especially one built and run by an individual rather than a large company. Please use a password you don't reuse elsewhere, and let us know right away at admin@bookswapsquad.com if you ever notice anything that looks like unauthorized account activity.
🍪 Cookies & Sessions
We use one essential cookie to keep you logged in while you use the site (a "session cookie"). It's required for the site to work and isn't used for advertising or tracking you elsewhere on the web. It's automatically cleared when you log out or after your session expires.
🗑️ Keeping & Deleting Your Data
We keep your account information for as long as your account is active, so the site can function (search, messaging, ratings, BSC history, etc.). If you'd like your account and personal data deleted, email us and we'll remove it, other than records we're required to keep briefly for basic safety and abuse-prevention purposes (like a log that an account existed and was removed).
⚠️ Disclaimer
Book Swap Squad is a free, independently-run project — not a company with a legal or support team behind it. We built it carefully and with real safety features (content filtering, moderated messaging, email verification, ownership photos), but we can't guarantee the identity, intentions, or behavior of any user, the condition or safe return of any book, or the safety of any in-person meetup arranged through the site.
Book swaps happen in person, in the real world. A parent or guardian should be aware of, and ideally involved in, any meetup. Always meet in safe, public, well-supervised places. Book Swap Squad and its creator are not responsible for anything that happens during or as a result of an in-person exchange.
Lost, damaged, or torn books are between the two users, not the platform. Book Swap Squad has no commercial or financial responsibility for a book's condition, value, or return — we don't insure, reimburse, or replace books, and the BSC late-return penalty is not a deposit or compensation. See "Lost, Damaged, or Torn Books" in our Terms of Service for details.
The site, its content, and its BSC point system are provided "as is," without warranties of any kind, to the fullest extent allowed by law.
🔄 Changes to This Policy
If we make a meaningful change to how we handle your information, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continuing to use Book Swap Squad after a change means you accept the updated policy.
✉️ Contact
Questions about your data, a request to see or delete what we have on file, or anything else privacy-related? Reach out to admin@bookswapsquad.com.
See also: Terms of Service · About Book Swap Squad