Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 27, 2026 · Effective date: June 27, 2026

Roost is a member directory run by Holdfast Community LLC. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you use Roost at roost.directory or through any related applications. By using our services, you agree to the practices described here.

Organizations, which may include but are not limited to PTOs, PTAs, HOAs, foundations, and potentially school districts (“Subscribing Organization”) — license Roost to run a directory for their community. That means:

  • Your organization decides what data is collected and who can see it (the "data controller").
  • We hold and protect that data on their behalf (the "data processor"). We don't sell it, share it with advertisers, or use it for anything besides running Roost.
  • You stay in control of your own visibility. Whatever your organization decides, you choose what other members see about you.

1. Information We Collect

Information Your Organization Provides

When a Subscribing Organization sets up Roost, they give us member info like names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, household relationships, and group affiliations (a student's classroom, a player's team). They confirm they have the right to share it before we accept it.

How visible you are by default depends on your Subscribing Organization:

  • Opt-in (the default): you're not visible to other members until you sign in and choose to be.
  • FERPA directory information (used by some schools): the school has designated certain information as shareable, so you may be visible by default. You can always change this — and you may also opt out at the school level (see Section 6).

Either way, you control what's shown about you — see Section 4.

Information You Provide Directly

When you sign in and use the service, you may provide:

  • Your name and email address (confirmed via a sign-in link we send you).
  • Contact details such as your phone number and mailing address (optional).
  • Visibility preferences — who can see your profile and which fields are shown.
  • Trusted Help listings, if you use that module (see Section 5).

Information Collected Automatically

When you use the service, we automatically collect limited technical information:

  • Authentication data: your IP address, browser/device type, and sign-in timestamps (used to protect your account).
  • Server logs: standard web request data used for security and operations.
  • Error telemetry: technical details of application errors to help us fix bugs. We configure our error tracking to exclude personal information.
  • Email delivery data: whether sign-in and notification emails were delivered and opened (used to diagnose delivery problems).
  • Push notification data: if you use our mobile app and turn on notifications, a push token issued by your device's operating system (Apple or Google), used only to deliver the notifications you've chosen to receive.
  • Aggregate, anonymous page-visit statistics — cookieless and not linked to you individually.
  • A session cookie to keep you signed in. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

We do not use Google Analytics, Meta/Facebook pixels, or any third-party advertising or behavioral tracking tools. We do not build behavioral profiles or collect device fingerprints.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information only to:

  • Run the directory — show you other members, let you search, and enforce everyone's visibility settings.
  • Sign you in — by sending a magic link, so there's no password to manage.
  • Operate and improve the service — fix bugs, monitor performance, and look at aggregate usage.
  • Communicate with you — sign-in links, notifications you've opted into, and important service updates.

We never use your information for advertising, or derive or sell it (or individual behavior profiles) to data brokers

Sponsored links may appear; however, Roost does not curate or endorse them, and such links have their own terms.

Volunteer Matching (Optional)

Roost includes an optional volunteer-matching feature that helps your organization's leaders find people to help with clubs, committees, and events — and helps you find opportunities that fit. It is off until you turn it on, and you can turn it off or delete your answers at any time from your account.

If you turn it on, suggestions are based on the short volunteer questions you fill out — the kinds of activities you're interested in, your general availability, and whether you'd rather give time or donate — together with the grade and classroom of your own children, so opportunities relevant to your family surface first.

When you opt in, your organization's leaders may see you suggested as a possible match for an opportunity they run, along with the reasons you're a good fit (such as a shared interest or your child's grade or class). They do not see your contact information through matching — only your name and those reasons. Leaders can reach out to you about an opportunity through Roost without your email or phone being shared with them, and anyone you've blocked is never shown you as a match.

Matching only ever produces a suggestion — never an automatic sign-up or any obligation. If you do choose to sign up for a volunteer role, job, or shift, your name is shown to the organizer and to others helping with that same thing, so everyone can see who's pitching in. Saying yes is always your choice, and you can withdraw at any time.

3. How We Share Your Information

With Other Members

Roost exists so members can find each other. Other signed-in members of your Subscribing Organization can see your info — but only what your visibility settings allow. You choose which fields are shown and to whom, and changes take effect immediately.

With Your Organization Administrators

Organization Administrators (as defined in the Terms of Service) may have elevated access to maintain the directory, approve new members, and correct data quality issues. They cannot download bulk exports of member data, except for legitimate organization administration, data portability when a member requests its data, and lawful legal process.

With Service Providers

We rely on a small number of third-party providers, all located in the United States, to operate the service. These include providers for database hosting and authentication, application hosting, email delivery, and error tracking (our error-tracking provider is configured to exclude personal information). We do not share your data with anyone other than these service providers.

  • Supabase, Inc. — database hosting, authentication, file storage
  • Vercel, Inc. — application hosting and content delivery
  • Resend, Inc. — transactional and broadcast email delivery
  • Apple, Inc. — push notification delivery to our iOS app (Apple Push Notification service)
  • Sentry, Inc. — application error tracking
  • Stripe, Inc. — payment processing

These providers may only use your data to provide their services to us. They are contractually prohibited from using it for their own purposes.

We never use your personal information to train third-party AI models, sell AI-derived insights, or otherwise commercialize machine-learning artifacts derived from member data. We may use aggregated, de-identified usage statistics for product improvement.

For Legal Reasons

We may share your information if the law requires it, in response to a valid legal request, or to protect the safety or rights of our users or others. If we're legally allowed to, we'll tell you before disclosing your data.

In a Business Transaction

If Holdfast is part of a merger, acquisition, or sale, your data may be transferred. We'll tell you before your data becomes subject to a different privacy policy, and give you a chance to delete your data before any transfer takes effect.

Payment Processing

If your organization collects payments through the service, we use a third-party payment processor. Your payment account information never passes through our servers — it is sent directly to the payment processor and protected by their systems, which comply with payment card industry regulations. We receive only a token confirming payment status.

Cross-organization sharing

Your data may be shared with other organizations under contract, where the Organization Administrators have enabled it; however, you have the right to opt-out.

Shared Circles (Connecting Across Schools)

Roost lets you create a Shared Circle — a private group you control to stay connected with specific people, including parents at other schools in your community or people whose school isn't on Roost yet. A Shared Circle is separate from your school directory: someone only appears in it after they accept an invitation, and joining is their consent to be visible to that circle's other members.

Within a Shared Circle, members see each other's name and school. Each member separately chooses whether to also share their email, phone, and the first name and grade of their children — and can change or hide any of it at any time. Nothing in a Shared Circle is visible to anyone who hasn't joined it.

If you're invited to a Shared Circle but don't belong to an organization on Roost, you can join with a limited, circle-only account. That account exists only within the circles you join — it has no access to any school directory — and you can leave a circle or delete your account at any time.

4. Your Choices and Rights

You have these rights over your information, no matter how your organization set you up:

  • Access: Sign in to view all information we hold about you.
  • Correction: Update your information at any time from your profile page.
  • Visibility control: Change who can see your profile and which fields are shared — or opt out of being visible entirely. Changes take effect immediately.
  • Deletion: Request deletion of your account and personal information by contacting your organization's administrator or emailing us at privacy@roost.directory. Requests are processed within 30 days.
  • Opt-out of email: You can opt out of all non-essential communications. Sign-in link emails cannot be opted out of since they are required to access your account.

The access, correction, deletion, and email opt-out rights described above are available to all users, regardless of where you live. If your state's privacy law gives you additional rights, we honor those rights for residents of that state, within the timeframes the law requires. Contact privacy@roost.directory to exercise any of these rights.

5. Trusted Help Module

Roost includes a Trusted Help module where members can list, recommend, or find help for services such as babysitting, tutoring, mentoring, coaching, and similar family help — including but not limited to those — within their school community. Because this module involves additional types of data — including data about minors — the following additional practices apply.

Types of Listings

There are three types of listings:

  • Self-listed adult: An adult creates a listing for themselves, choosing what services to offer, what contact information to share, and which schools the listing appears at.
  • Parent-listed minor: A guardian creates a listing on behalf of a minor (ages 13–21). The guardian must confirm they are the legal guardian and have permission to list the minor. All inquiries route through the guardian's contact information — the minor's contact information is never collected or displayed. The minor's name may be displayed as first name + last initial only, or anonymously.
  • Recommended adult: A member recommends another adult as a sitter or tutor. The recommended person receives a confirmation email and decides whether to let the listing go live. If they do not respond within seven days, the listing is automatically deleted.

Protections for Minor Listings

  • We never collect, store, or display a minor's email address, phone number, or mailing address.
  • Guardian attestation is required and enforced at the database level.
  • Anonymous display is supported at the guardian's choice.
  • Minor listings are stored in a separate database table with structural protections, not just application-level rules.

No Vetting

Roost does not vet, verify, screen, or background-check listed people. Every listing is either self-submitted, recommended by another parent, or listed by a guardian on behalf of a minor. You are responsible for your own due diligence when contacting or working with anyone you find on the service.

6. Information About Children

Roost is designed for use by adults. Children do not have accounts and cannot sign in.

We never collect a child's email, phone, address, date of birth, health info, photos, biometrics, or government IDs. A child's info is never visible outside their organization, and we never use it for anything beyond helping adults in the same organization community connect.

If you believe your child's information has been improperly included, contact us at privacy@roost.directory and we will respond within 5 business days.

FERPA and School Directory Information

Many of our school clients are subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA"). The member information a school provides to Roost is limited to what the school has designated as "directory information" under FERPA — the categories of student and household information a school may share without prior written consent (typically items like name, grade level, and contact details). We do not receive or process protected education records.

  • The school decides what directory information is shared with Roost and who within the community can see it.
  • Parents and eligible students have the right under FERPA to opt out of having their directory information shared. That opt-out is exercised through the school, not through Roost — once the school updates its designation, the information is removed from the directory.
  • Roost only displays directory information consistent with (a) what the school has designated and (b) the member's own visibility settings under Section 4 — whichever is more restrictive. We do not use directory information for any purpose other than operating the directory for the school's community.
  • We do not disclose directory information to third parties other than the service providers listed in Section 3, except at the school's direction or as required by law.
  • We will delete directory information at the school's written request, subject to applicable legal retention requirements.

If you have questions about how your school designates directory information, or want to opt out, contact your school directly. For questions about how Roost handles the information once we receive it, contact us at privacy@roost.directory.

7. Security

We built security in from the start:

  • Magic-link authentication — no passwords to be stolen or phished.
  • Database-level access control — visibility rules are enforced at the database layer so application bugs cannot accidentally expose hidden data.
  • Encryption in transit — all connections use TLS.
  • Encryption at rest — all data is encrypted by our database provider.
  • Minimal data collection — we collect only what we need and do not retain data we no longer need.
  • Limited administrative access — access to production data is restricted to authorized personnel and is logged.

No system is perfect. If you spot a security issue, please report it to security@roost.directory — we appreciate it.

8. Data Retention

We keep your information only as long as we need it for what's described here:

  • Active accounts are retained while you remain a member of an organization using the service.
  • Deleted accounts: personal information is deleted within 30 days of your request. Some operational data (such as authentication logs) may be retained briefly for security purposes.
  • Trusted Help listings are deleted immediately when removed.
  • If your organization stops using the service, all associated data is deleted within 90 days, unless retention is required by law.
  • If you have not signed in for two years, we may contact you to confirm whether you want to remain in the directory.

9. International Data Transfers

Roost is intended for use only within the United States. It is hosted in the United States and all data is stored on U.S. servers. We do not offer or direct the service to users outside the United States. By using Roost, you confirm that you are accessing it from within the United States.

Roost may link to other websites or let you connect to outside platforms (like social media). We're not responsible for how those services handle your data, and this policy doesn't cover what you do there. Read their privacy policies before sharing information with them.

11. Changes to This Policy

If we make material changes — like adding a data category, adding a service provider, expanding default visibility, or launching a new module — we'll ask for your consent again before they take effect. You'll see a notice the next time you sign in.

For smaller changes (clarifications, address updates), we'll email you at least 30 days in advance.

The "Last updated" date at the top shows when this policy was last revised. We keep a record of which version you accepted and when.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your information, please contact us:

Holdfast Community LLC

5441 S. Macadam Ave., Suite 5022, Portland OR 97239

privacy@roost.directory

For privacy-related inquiries, we aim to respond within 5 business days after receipt.

© Holdfast Community LLC • roost.directory

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