Privacy Policy

Overview

This Privacy Policy covers the Smart Sort website and the Smart Sort iOS app. Based on the current project implementation, Smart Sort combines on-device trash classification with optional backend-powered features such as authentication, Arena, community activity, leaderboards, friend matching, bug reports, and feedback submission.

What We Collect

Depending on which features you use, Smart Sort may collect the following categories of data:

• Website waitlist email addresses submitted through this site.
• Account information used for app authentication, including email address, password-based auth state, phone number, SMS OTP verification, or anonymous guest sessions.
• Profile and gameplay data stored through Supabase-backed features such as credits, achievements, Arena participation, leaderboard state, community membership, and event registration.
• Contact data, if you grant access to your address book so Smart Sort can find friends already using the app.
• Location data, if you grant when-in-use location access so the app can find your nearest city and distance-based nearby events.
• Feedback submissions, including the image you choose to send, the predicted trash label/category, and your correction.
• Bug report data, including the report title, description, device model, OS version, app version, and optional app logs.
• Operational request and storage metadata handled by infrastructure providers used to run the website and app backend.

How Classification Works

The core trash-recognition flow is designed to run on-device using CoreML and MobileCLIP. In other words, the app's primary classification step does not require sending every camera frame to the server. Data is only sent to backend services when you use online features such as accounts, leaderboards, communities, feedback upload, or bug reporting.

How We Use Data

We use collected data to:

• Operate the website waitlist and notify interested users about launch updates.
• Create and maintain app accounts, including anonymous, email, and phone-based sign-in flows.
• Run gameplay and community features such as Arena, leaderboards, achievements, community membership, and event registration.
• Match contacts to existing Smart Sort users when you explicitly choose to sync contacts.
• Find nearby communities or events when you explicitly grant location permission.
• Review user corrections and improve the project through feedback images and reports.
• Diagnose bugs, monitor service health, and secure the platform.

Sharing and Processors

We do not describe this project as selling personal data. However, data may be processed by service providers used to operate Smart Sort, including Supabase services for Auth, Postgres, Realtime, and Storage, and by website hosting or delivery infrastructure used for this site.

Optional Permissions

Several data categories are optional and feature-dependent. For example, you can use some parts of Smart Sort without syncing contacts or sharing location, and the app supports anonymous guest sessions before you bind an email or phone number.

Retention

We retain data for as long as reasonably necessary to operate the website and app, maintain user accounts and gameplay history, review feedback and bug reports, communicate launch or product updates, and comply with legal or operational obligations. Specific retention periods may change as the project evolves.

User Logs and Reports

Smart Sort includes a bug-report flow with optional log upload. The in-app bug report UI states that logs are intended to help diagnose issues and are not expected to contain passwords or personal data, but you should still only submit reports and descriptions you are comfortable sharing.

Project License

The project's published materials are currently described as being provided under CC BY-SA 4.0. That license governs reuse of eligible project materials; it does not replace this Privacy Policy or determine how personal data is processed.

Contact

For privacy questions, account-related requests, or takedown/removal concerns, contact the project maintainer through the Smart Sort GitHub repository: github.com/AlbertHuangT/Smart-Sort.git.