FARU · Legal

FARU Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 13, 2026
Operator: Shot Call'a Games, LLC d/b/a ImproveStu (“FARU,” “we,” “us”)

1. Overview

FARU is a campus message-board app that helps students post and find ride listings, Designated Driver requests, club notices, and related safety features (including optional live location sharing with emergency contacts). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.

FARU hosts listings and messages; we do not provide transportation, employ drivers, or process payments between users for rides.

2. Information we collect

Depending on how you use FARU, we may collect:

Account & contact info: name, email address, phone number (if provided), campus/school affiliation, and emergency-contact details you enter.
Profile & verification: profile photo and student ID images submitted for verification.
User content: ride posts, seat requests, messages/chat, Designated Driver requests, club content, tips/payment handles you choose to share, and ratings/feedback.
Location: precise location when you opt in to share during an active trip (for emergency contacts and related safety alerts). Pickup/destination text you enter may also appear on listings.
Identifiers: account/user IDs and device identifiers used for push notifications, account security, and (where ads are shown) advertising.
Purchases: FARU+ subscription status and related store purchase records (payment card details are handled by Apple or Google; we do not receive your full payment card number).
Advertising & usage (free tier): advertising identifiers and ad interaction data via Google AdMob when ads are shown to non‑premium users.
Usage for suggestions: app activity such as viewing, favoriting, searching, and requesting rides (from free and FARU+ accounts) may be used to improve personalized “For you” suggestions shown to FARU+ members. We do not sell this activity data.
Safety operations: listing, request, report, no-show, SOS, and Designated Driver availability signals may be used to prioritize campus admin review, tune non-emergency family alerts, and show campus-level coverage or seat-tightness hints. SOS alerts are always sent immediately. We do not publish a public “trust score.”
Diagnostics: limited technical logs needed to operate the service (for example, authentication and push delivery).

3. How we use information

Provide core app features (accounts, listings, messaging, safety alerts, verification).
Authenticate users, prevent abuse/fraud, and enforce our Terms of Use.
Send transactional notifications (email and/or push) about rides, messages, and safety events.
Process FARU+ entitlements and restore purchases.
Show third-party ads to free-tier users (AdMob).
Improve reliability and support campus/admin operations for the pilot.
Personalize FARU+ “For you” ride suggestions using account activity (including activity while on the free tier), at the individual and aggregated campus level.
Operate Class Rides matching using schedule, building-proximity votes, and pickup preferences (campus vs home radius) so FARU+ students can discover complementary class carpools; scoring thresholds and match matrices are proprietary company trade secrets.
Operate After Class matching so FARU+ students can discover hometown rides that fit after their classes; schedule-to-ride windows, ordering, and eligibility rules are proprietary company trade secrets.
Build and keep de-identified campus and corridor ranking priors (counts by campus, hour of week, and rounded origin/destination bins, with no user identifier) so ranking still works after accounts are deleted and so FARU can operate, improve, and transfer that company data in a sale of the business.
Support campus safety operations (admin review priority, non-emergency alert relevance, Designated Driver coverage and seat-tightness hints) using aggregated and account-level activity already collected to operate the board.

4. Sharing

We share information only as needed to operate FARU:

Other users: profile details and content you post or send (for example, ride listings and chat) are visible to relevant users on your campus network. Emergency contacts you link may receive trip alerts and, when you opt in, your live location during a trip.
Service providers: infrastructure and tools that process data on our behalf, including Supabase (backend/database/auth), Firebase Cloud Messaging (push), Apple/Google (app stores and in‑app purchases), and Google AdMob (ads on the free tier).
Legal / safety: if required by law, or to protect users, the public, or FARU from harm, fraud, or abuse.

We do not sell your personal information, location data, or identified For you activity logs to data brokers or advertisers. A merger, acquisition, or sale of Shot Call'a Games, LLC / the FARU business is not that kind of sale: the buyer receives the platform, trade secrets, model coefficients, and de-identified ranking priors so they can keep operating FARU, and must honor this Policy or give you notice of material changes.

5. Tracking & advertising

Free-tier experiences may include Google AdMob ads, which can use device advertising identifiers and related data for Third-Party Advertising. FARU+ subscribers do not see these ads. On iOS, tracking that requires App Tracking Transparency will only occur if you grant permission when prompted.

6. Location

Live location is optional and controlled by you. When enabled during a trip, location may be shared with your linked emergency contacts for safety. You can turn sharing off. Location is not required merely to browse campus listings.

7. Data retention

We retain account, listing, message, verification, and safety-related records for as long as needed to provide the service, comply with law, resolve disputes, and enforce our Terms. Identified For you interaction logs (tied to your user id) are deleted when you delete your account. De-identified campus and corridor ranking priors — counts only, with no user identifier — are kept indefinitely as FARU company data. You may request account deletion by contacting us or using our account deletion instructions; some records may be retained where legally required or needed for security/fraud prevention.

8. Children’s privacy

FARU is intended for college/university students and related emergency contacts. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

9. Your choices

Update profile, emergency contacts, and sharing preferences in the app.
Disable location sharing for a trip at any time.
Delete your account in the app (Profile → settings gear → Delete my account) or by emailing us.
Upgrade to FARU+ to remove ads (where offered).
Control notification permissions in device settings.
Request access, correction, or deletion by emailing us (below).

10. Security

We use industry-standard safeguards appropriate to a cloud-hosted mobile app (encrypted transport, access controls, and authenticated accounts). No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure.

11. Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The effective date above will change when we do. Continued use of FARU after an update means you accept the revised policy.

12. Contact

Questions about privacy:
improvestu@gmail.com
Shot Call'a Games, LLC d/b/a ImproveStu