Privacy Policy

01Scope

This Privacy Policy explains how The MCA Room collects, uses, discloses, and protects personal information when you use The MCA Room mobile application, legal website, community, directory, messaging, moderation, and support services.

The MCA Room is an independent professional community. It is not a lender, broker, credit bureau, financial institution, or provider of merchant underwriting services. This policy does not govern information that members exchange outside The MCA Room.

02Information you provide

Depending on how you use the service, we collect:

• Account information, including your email address, Firebase user identifier, password credential handled by Firebase Authentication, verification status, and session information;
• Profile information, including your display name, avatar emoji, role, biography, follows, blocks, and notification preferences;
• Community content, including posts, replies, Break Room photos, votes, reports, moderation details, and timestamps;
• Direct messages and conversation metadata;
• Directory information, including business nominations, websites, funding ranges, industries, positions, company contacts, representative claims, business email addresses, phone numbers, relationships, and private verification notes; and
• Communications you send to support, privacy, safety, or legal contacts.

03Information collected automatically

Our service providers may automatically process IP addresses, user-agent information, device and operating-system details, app version, Firebase installation identifiers, authentication and security events, request timestamps, error and service logs, and push-notification registration tokens. We use this information to authenticate users, deliver the service, prevent abuse, secure accounts, troubleshoot failures, and send requested notifications.

The MCA Room does not currently use third-party advertising SDKs, does not track users across other companies’ apps or websites, and does not use Firebase Analytics or advertising identifiers in the current app release.

04How we use information

We use information to:

• create, verify, secure, and support accounts;
• operate profiles, forums, photos, voting, follows, messaging, notifications, and the funder directory;
• review nominations and representative claims and maintain accurate business listings;
• filter content, investigate reports, block abuse, enforce community rules, and protect members;
• respond to support, privacy, correction, deletion, safety, and legal requests;
• maintain reliability, diagnose errors, prevent fraud, and improve service functionality; and
• comply with law, preserve evidence, and establish or defend legal claims.

05What other members can see

Public forum posts, replies, attached photos, display names, avatars, roles, and votes as reflected in scores may be visible to anyone, including visitors who do not create or sign in to an account. Your account email is not displayed publicly.

Profile biographies, follower relationships where shown, selected profile activity, and approved business-directory contacts are limited to verified members. Direct messages are visible to their participants. Reported content and related account information may be visible to authorized moderators; private nominations, claim evidence, and admin-review notes are not public.

06Service providers and disclosures

We use Google Firebase and Google Cloud services for authentication, database storage, photo storage, server functions, security, and cloud messaging. We use Apple Push Notification service to deliver iPhone notifications. These providers process information for us under their applicable agreements and security commitments.

We may disclose information when required by law or legal process; to protect the rights, safety, and security of members, The MCA Room, or others; to investigate fraud or abuse; in connection with a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets; or with your direction or consent.

We do not sell personal information and do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising.

07Push notifications

If you grant notification permission, we associate a Firebase Cloud Messaging token and an app-specific device identifier with your account to send alerts about follows, messages, and upvotes. You can change notification categories inside the app and can disable all alerts in iPhone Settings. Signing out removes the current device token from the signed-in account.

08Retention and deletion

We generally retain account and service information while your account is active and as needed to provide the service. We may retain reports, safety records, transaction logs, and limited evidence for a reasonable period when needed to prevent abuse, comply with law, resolve disputes, or enforce our agreements. Public business-directory information may remain after a member deletes an account, but personal representative information can be corrected or removed by contacting us.

You can permanently delete your account from the profile settings in the app. The deletion process removes your authentication account and associated profile, posts, replies, photos, votes, follows, messages and conversations, device registrations, directory submissions, and other account data from The MCA Room’s active systems, except information we must retain by law or for legitimate safety and enforcement purposes. Service-provider backups and security logs may persist for limited periods before deletion or de-identification.

Firebase states that authentication information is removed from live and backup systems within 180 days after the associated user is deleted and that certain logged IP addresses are retained for a few weeks. Provider retention periods may change under their terms.

09Your choices and privacy rights

You may update your profile, control push categories, block members, remove content where the app provides that option, sign out, or delete your account. You may also email support@mcaworld.net to request access, correction, deletion, or a copy of personal information, or to raise a privacy concern. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request.

Depending on where you live and subject to applicable exceptions, you may have rights to know, access, correct, delete, or obtain a portable copy of personal information; opt out of certain sales, sharing, targeted advertising, or profiling; limit certain uses of sensitive information; and appeal a denied request. We will not discriminate against you for exercising applicable privacy rights. Because The MCA Room does not sell personal information or use it for targeted advertising, no sale or targeted-advertising opt-out is currently necessary.

10Security

We use measures designed to protect information, including email verification, access controls, Firebase security rules, encrypted transport, provider encryption at rest, content reporting, blocking, and restricted administrative review. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access or loss will never occur. Use a unique password and do not send sensitive merchant records through The MCA Room.

11Processing locations

The MCA Room and its service providers may process information in the United States and other locations where they operate. Firebase Authentication processes data in the United States; other Firebase services may use global Google infrastructure, subject to available regional settings and provider terms.

12Children

The MCA Room is intended only for adults age 18 and older and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact support@mcaworld.net so we can investigate and delete it.

13Changes and contact

We may update this policy as the service, providers, or law changes. We will update the effective date and provide additional notice when reasonably appropriate.

For privacy questions or requests, account or directory corrections, and deletion assistance, contact support@mcaworld.net.