ShipShape helps roommates run a shared home: who does which chores, a house calendar, a group chat, a study helper, Safe Harbor safety alerts, and an optional house map. It is built and run by Swan Solutions, LLC ("we", "us"). This policy covers the ShipShape iOS app, the Android app, and the website at shipshape.figk-12.com.
The short version: we collect only what the app needs to work for your house. We don't sell your information, we don't show ads, and we don't track you across other apps or websites. Your location is used only when you send a safety alert, or if you choose to turn on location sharing for the house map.
Who ShipShape is for
ShipShape is for college students and other adults who share a home. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you are under 18, use ShipShape with a parent's or guardian's permission.
What we collect
- Your account: your first name, email address and password. We store the password only as a secure hash, so we can't read it.
- Your house ("ship"): the house name, who is aboard and their roles, duties and the house calendar, completed tasks and Pearl points, guests and stay-over notices, and the activity log.
- House chat: messages you post on the Mess Deck. Everyone aboard your house can read them.
- Contacts you choose to add: your own cell number, and an emergency contact (their name, how they're related to you, and their phone number). Everyone aboard your house can see these, so they can reach you or your family if something happens. Only add an emergency contact who is OK with this.
- Location for Safe Harbor: when you send a safety alert ("Here's where I am", "I need a ride", or "I don't feel safe"), the app reads your phone's location and shares it with your house. While a ride or "I don't feel safe" alert is open, your location keeps updating until you tap "I'm safe now", or for up to 12 hours.
- Location for the house map (only if you turn it on): location sharing is off until you turn it on for a house on the Map tab. While it's on, the app collects your phone's location, including in the background when ShipShape is closed, along with your phone's battery level, and shares them with that house. Your housemates see where you are, how long you've been there, the places you arrive at and leave, and your trail for the last 7 days. You can pause or stop sharing at any time. On Android, a notification shows whenever sharing is on. On the website, your location is shared only while the Map page is open.
- Study Mate: notes you upload (such as class notes or a syllabus) and the questions you ask. These are private to you; your housemates can't see them.
- Notifications: if you allow notifications, we store a notification token for each of your devices so we can send you alerts and reminders.
- Basic technical logs: such as the time of a request and any errors, kept to run the service and keep it secure.
We do not collect your contacts list, photos, advertising identifiers or browsing history. We do not use third-party analytics or advertising tools.
How we use it
- To sign you in and show you the houses you're aboard.
- To run your house: duties, the calendar, points, chat and reminders.
- To deliver Safe Harbor alerts with your location to the people in your house, by push notification and email.
- If you turn on location sharing, to show your location, trail and battery on your house's map, and to notify your house when you arrive at or leave a place they've named.
- To answer your Study Mate questions using your own notes.
- To send the notifications and emails you've chosen (you can change these on the Crew page).
- To help you when you contact us, and to fix problems and keep the service secure.
We never sell or rent personal information, and we never use it for advertising.
Who can see what
- Your housemates (everyone aboard the same house) see the house's duties, calendar, chat, guests, the cell numbers and emergency contacts people have added, any safety alert you send, including its location, and, if you turn on sharing, your location, trail, battery and arrivals and departures on the house map.
- The site administrator at Swan Solutions can see house information to run the service and help when something goes wrong.
- No one else. We share information outside these people only if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.
Service providers
We use a small number of providers to run ShipShape. They process information only for us:
- Microsoft Azure (United States): our servers and database.
- AI language models through our own gateway, including Microsoft Azure OpenAI: these answer Study Mate questions. Your notes and questions are sent to answer you, and are not used to train the providers' models.
- Apple Push Notification service and Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google): these deliver notifications to iPhones and Android phones.
- Our email service (Amazon Simple Email Service): this sends reminders, invites and safety alerts by email.
When you or a housemate open the map link in a safety alert, it opens in a maps app (such as Google Maps or Apple Maps), which then handles the location under its own privacy policy.
How long we keep it
- Safety alerts and their locations: deleted automatically after 30 days.
- House map location history (your trail, battery readings and arrive/leave events): deleted automatically after 7 days. When you stop sharing, your house can no longer see your location.
- Your account and house information: kept while you use ShipShape. When you delete your account, we delete it right away, along with your sessions, notification tokens, Study Mate notes and your safety alerts.
- Things you shared with your house, such as chat messages and completed tasks, stay in that house's history under your first name, so the house's records still make sense. Ask us and we'll remove them.
- Technical logs: kept for up to 90 days.
Your choices
- Location: you decide when to share it: by sending an alert, or by turning on sharing for the house map, which you can pause or stop on the Map tab at any time. You can also turn off location access for ShipShape in your phone's settings; alerts will still send, just without a location.
- Notifications and email: change them on the Crew page or in your phone's settings. Safety alerts from your housemates are always sent, because they may be urgent.
- Your information: you can change your name, cell number and emergency contact at any time in the app.
- Delete your account: in the app, go to Crew, then Delete account. Or email us. See Delete your account.
Security
All information travels over encrypted (HTTPS) connections. Passwords are hashed, sign-in attempts are rate-limited, and each house can be seen only by the people aboard it. No system is perfectly secure, but we work hard to protect your information, and we'll tell you promptly if we learn of a breach that affects you.
Safe Harbor is not an emergency service
Safe Harbor alerts your housemates. It does not contact the police, 911 or any emergency service, and it depends on your phone having signal. If you are in danger, call 911.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app or by email first.
Contact
Swan Solutions, LLC
Email: dusty@swank12.com