Privacy Policy
The short version: we collect what we need to run BaitKast and take payments, we don't sell your information or show ads, payments are handled by Stripe, and you can delete your account in the app. When you do, your profile, posts and personal data are removed. We keep payment records for as long as tax law requires, and we keep a small set of records when we need them for safety or legal reasons.
1. Who we are and what this covers
This policy covers the BaitKast iPhone app, baitkast.com, public Pro pages on our website, and BaitKast Support. BaitKast is a marketplace where Anglers follow and subscribe to fishing Pros, and Pros publish fishing information.
- Who can use BaitKast: adults 18 or older who live in the United States. The service isn't offered outside the US.
- Who is responsible for your information: THE HARD WAY COMPANY, LLC, P.O. Box 128, Galesville, MD 20765. Contact: support@baitkast.com.
- Pros are separate businesses. When you subscribe, you pay the Pro directly through Stripe. A Pro who receives your information (for example, your name as a subscriber) handles it as an independent business, not on our behalf.
THE HARD WAY COMPANY, LLC also has a company-wide privacy policy at thehardwaycompany.com/privacy-policy that covers its brands, including BaitKast. This policy adds the details specific to BaitKast; where the two differ for BaitKast, this policy applies.
2. Information we collect
We collect what you give us, what's created when you use BaitKast, and a small amount from our payment and device providers. We don't use GPS location, advertising IDs or tracking tools.
| What | Examples | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Email, password (stored only by Google's sign-in service, never readable by us), your typed name for agreements, confirmation that you're 18+ and in the US | You |
| Profile | Name, username, photo, banner, bio, the area you type (like "Lake Erie, OH"), specialties, BaitKast ID | You |
| Content | Pro posts and photos, likes, follows, blocks, BaitKaster game scores | You |
| Messages | Messages between Anglers and Pros | You and the other person |
| Support and safety | Support tickets, reports you send or that are sent about you, and the messages you choose to attach | You and other users |
| Payments | What you bought, from whom, amounts, dates, refunds, refund requests, and payment status (paid, declined) | Stripe |
| Pro payouts | Whether your Stripe account can take payments and pay out (Stripe collects your identity, tax and bank details directly) | Stripe |
| Agreements | Which Terms and Privacy versions you accepted, and when | You |
| Device and activity | Push notification token, the days you open the app, last active time | Your device |
Not collected: your card number (you type it on Stripe's page), precise location, contacts, and anything for advertising.
Waitlist: if you join the waitlist at baitkast.com, we collect your name, email, city and state, what you fish for, and (for Pros) how you'd describe yourself and a link you choose to share. We use it only to tell you about BaitKast's launch, and we keep it until you join the app or ask us to remove you, and at most 2 years.
3. How we use your information
We use your information only to run BaitKast, keep it safe and meet our legal duties.
- Run the service: accounts, profiles, feeds, search, follows, likes, messages, and the game.
- Payments: start Stripe checkout, confirm payments, give and end subscription access, handle refunds and declined cards, and show Pros their earnings.
- Notifications: in-app and push notifications about messages, subscriptions, payments, refunds, Support replies and reviews of your posts. You can turn push off in iPhone Settings.
- Safety: review reports, hold posts that contain hate slurs, enforce our Terms and Community Rules, and prevent spam, fraud and abuse (for example, limits on how often an action can be repeated).
- Support: answer your questions and requests.
- Running the business: count active users, subscriptions and revenue, and keep the accounting and tax records the law requires.
- Legal: comply with the law, respond to valid legal requests, and protect the rights and safety of users, Pros and BaitKast.
We don't sell your information, use it for advertising, or share it with data brokers.
4. Who sees or receives your information
Your profile and public posts are public; your email, payments and messages are not.
| Who | What they get |
|---|---|
| Other BaitKast users | Your name, username, photo, bio and area. Pros' free posts and public Pro pages on baitkast.com can be seen by anyone. Usernames appear on game leaderboards. |
| Subscribers | A Pro's paid posts, for the tier they pay for |
| Pros you subscribe to | Your name, BaitKast ID, tier, payments, refund requests, and your messages to them |
| People you message | Your messages, name and photo |
| Our service providers | Google Firebase (accounts, database, photo storage, servers, push), Stripe (payments and Pro payouts), Apple (push delivery and the App Store). They process data only to provide their service to us. |
| BaitKast admins | Whatever is needed to run Support, review reports and fix payment problems. Admins read private messages only when they are attached to a report or needed to investigate a safety or legal issue. |
| Legal and safety | Authorities or others when the law requires it (for example a valid subpoena), or to prevent fraud, protect someone's safety or defend legal claims |
| A new owner | If BaitKast is sold or merged, your information would move with it under this policy |
Your email address is never shown to other users.
5. Payments and Stripe
Stripe handles every payment; BaitKast never sees or stores your full card number.
- Subscriptions are paid on Stripe's secure page directly to the Pro's own Stripe account. BaitKast receives a 10% fee and the payment details it needs (amounts, dates, status, refunds).
- The $20 yearly Pro membership is paid to BaitKast through Stripe.
- Updating a card happens on Stripe's secure page, opened from the app.
- Pros give their identity, tax and bank details to Stripe directly when they set up payouts. BaitKast only learns whether the account can take payments and pay out.
- Stripe's own records: Stripe keeps payment data under its own privacy policy and legal duties: stripe.com/privacy.
6. How long we keep information
We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the reason we collected it, then delete it or remove what identifies you. Financial records are kept for 7 years because tax law requires it, and some records are kept longer only while a legal matter needs them.
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Profile, photos, posts, likes, follows, blocks, game scores | Until you delete them or close your account |
| Private email, push token, daily activity | Until you close your account (daily activity: at most 2 years) |
| Messages | While the conversation exists. If you close your account, the other person keeps their copy with your name replaced by "Deleted account." |
| Read notifications | 90 days |
| Payments, refunds, invoices, Pro earnings and membership records | 7 years after the end of the tax year they belong to, with your name removed once your account is closed |
| Terms and Privacy acceptance records | 7 years after your account closes |
| Support tickets and reports | 3 years after they're resolved |
| Admin safety actions (suspensions, removed posts) | 7 years |
| Waitlist signups | Until you join the app or ask to be removed, at most 2 years |
| Backups | Daily backups for 7 days and weekly backups for 14 weeks; deleted items leave photo backups within 120 days |
Legal holds. If there is a dispute, chargeback, fraud or safety investigation, a valid legal request, or a lawsuit we reasonably expect, we keep the related records until it is resolved, and only as long as the law allows. Records under a hold are restricted to the people who need them.
Stripe keeps its own payment records under its own legal duties.
7. Deleting your account
You can delete your account anytime in the app: Account → Delete Account. We finish within 30 days, except that a Pro's account closes after their subscribers' paid month ends.
- Right away: your subscriptions and Pro membership stop renewing, and no one new can subscribe to you. The people affected are told.
- Wind-down (Pros only, up to about 30 days): your current subscribers keep what they already paid for. Nobody is charged again.
- Closing: your sign-in is deleted; your Pro membership ends (no refund for the unused part); your profile becomes "Deleted account" with no photo, bio or area; and your posts, photos, likes, follows, blocks, game scores, notifications, private email, push token and activity are deleted.
- What stays, without your name: payment and refund records, agreement records, Support tickets and reports, and the other person's copy of your conversations, for the periods in section 6.
Copies in backups expire on the schedule in section 6 and are never restored into active use.
8. Your choices and privacy rights
Every BaitKast user, in any state, can ask to see, correct or delete their information. We answer within 45 days.
- In the app: edit your profile (Account → Edit Profile), delete posts, unfollow, block, turn push notifications off in iPhone Settings, and delete your account.
- By request: email support@baitkast.com or open a Support ticket to ask for a copy of your information, a correction or deletion. We confirm it's you before acting (usually through your signed-in account).
- Limits: we may keep information listed in section 6 that the law requires us to keep or that is needed for a legal hold, and we'll tell you what we kept and why.
- State privacy laws: residents of Maryland, California, Virginia, Colorado and other states with privacy laws have these rights, and may use an authorized agent. If we deny a request, you can appeal by replying to our answer. We will not treat you differently for using your rights.
- No sale, sharing for ads, or profiling: we don't sell personal information, share it for cross-context advertising, or use it for decisions with legal effects about you.
- Do Not Track: we don't track you across other sites or apps, so we have nothing to change for browser Do Not Track signals.
9. Security, age limit, changes and contact
- Security: data is encrypted in transit and stored with Google Firebase; access is limited by account and role, and admin actions are logged. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we'll notify you as the law requires.
- Adults only: BaitKast is for people 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone younger; if we learn we have, we delete it.
- United States only: your information is stored and processed in the United States.
- Changes: when this policy changes in a meaningful way, the app asks you to review and accept the new version, and the date at the top changes. Earlier versions you accepted stay readable in Account → Agreements.
- Contact: support@baitkast.com, or Account → Support in the app. Mail: THE HARD WAY COMPANY, LLC, P.O. Box 128, Galesville, MD 20765.