Privacy Policy

What we collect

Park Bench collects the minimum information needed to provide a family calendar experience:

• Account information — your email address and name, used to sign you in and identify your account.
• Family information — children's first names, ages, and schools you provide during setup. This is used to personalize recommendations and join relevant community circles.
• Calendar data — if you connect Google Calendar, we sync event titles, times, and locations to show your schedule. Events you create in Park Bench can sync back to your calendar.
• Chat messages — conversations with the Park Bench assistant are stored to provide continuity across sessions.
• Usage data — basic analytics (pages visited, features used) to improve the product. We use PostHog for this.

How we use your data

The purposes below describe how Park Bench uses data generally. Google user data accessed via the Google Calendar API is governed separately by the “Google user data” section below, which lists the only purposes for which Park Bench accesses, uses, or retains it.

• To provide and personalize the Park Bench service — showing relevant events, recommendations, and community content.
• To sync your calendar across devices and with connected calendar services.
• To inform the AI assistant that helps you manage your family's schedule.
• To improve the product based on aggregate app usage data (page views, feature usage, errors) collected by our analytics and error-monitoring providers. This does not include Google user data.

Third-party services

We rely on trusted service providers to operate Park Bench. They process data only on our behalf and under contract:

• Authentication (Clerk) — to sign you in and manage your session.
• Google — if you connect Google Calendar (for calendar sync), and when you use AI assistant features.
• Infrastructure providers — for database, hosting, and server operations.
• Analytics and error monitoring — aggregate usage and diagnostics, to keep the product working and improving.

Google user data

If you connect your Google account, Park Bench accesses Google user data through the Google Calendar API to provide our calendar sync feature.

What we access:

• The list of calendars on your Google account — read once, at connection time, so we can auto-detect your primary calendar instead of asking you to paste a calendar ID.
• Events on the single calendar you choose to sync — titles, times, locations, descriptions, and attendees.

How we use it:

• To display your events in the shared Park Bench family calendar view, alongside events created in Park Bench.
• To create, update, and delete events on your behalf when you make changes inside Park Bench.
• To keep Park Bench in sync with changes you make directly on Google Calendar.
• Schedule-aware recommendations (Discover tab): to detect conflicts between your existing events and events suggested by Park Bench, so we don't recommend things that clash with your schedule.
• Interest signals for recommendations (Discover tab): event titles and times from your calendar help inform which events Park Bench suggests for your family. Attendee lists and free-form descriptions are not used for this purpose.
• AI assistant (Chat tab): when you ask the assistant about your schedule or ask it to make a change, the contents of relevant calendar events are sent to a large language model (Google Gemini) to generate the response. The AI provider does not train its models on this data.

Each of these uses powers a specific, user-visible feature inside Park Bench. We do not use Google user data for any purpose outside these features.

What we do NOT do with Google user data:

• We do not use it to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models, including our own.
• We do not sell it.
• We do not transfer it to third parties for advertising, retargeting, credit assessment, data brokering, or marketing.
• We do not access calendars you have not chosen to connect.
• We do not share it with other Park Bench users.
• We do not use it for general analytics, telemetry, or aggregate product metrics.
• We do not send it to analytics or error-monitoring services (such as PostHog or Sentry).
• We do not retain it after you disconnect Google Calendar or delete your account.

Storage and revocation: Google OAuth tokens and synced event data are encrypted at rest. You can disconnect Google Calendar at any time from Park Bench Settings, or revoke access directly at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Park Bench's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Children's privacy

Park Bench is for parents and legal guardians only (18+). Accounts are not available to children. By creating an account, you confirm that you are the parent or legal guardian of any minors whose information you add to the app.

When you add a child to your family, we store the information you choose to provide about that child — typically a first name (or nickname), age or birth year, and school or grade level. You are never required to provide a child's full name, date of birth, address, or photograph, and we recommend against it.

This child information is used solely to:

• Personalize event recommendations for your family
• Help our AI assistant understand context (e.g., “book something for Sam this weekend”)
• Show relevant community circles (like your child's school)

We do not knowingly collect information directly from children under 13. We do not use children's information for advertising. We never sell children's information to third parties. We do not share children's information with other Park Bench users, except where you explicitly opt in — for example, by sharing an event to a community circle, or by choosing to appear by name rather than anonymously in a circle you've joined.

You can review, edit, or delete any child's information at any time from the Settings page, or delete your entire family account. Questions about children's data? Reach us at hello@parkbench.nyc.

Community circles

When you join community circles (school groups, neighborhood groups), you can choose to be visible or anonymous. Anonymous members are not shown to other circle members. Event sharing to circles is always opt-in — nothing is shared without your explicit action.

Data retention and deletion

You can request deletion of your account and all associated data at any time from the Settings page. When you delete your account, we remove your personal information, family data, calendar connections, and chat history. Some anonymized, aggregate data may be retained for product improvement.

Data security

We use industry-standard security practices including encrypted connections (HTTPS), secure authentication via Clerk, and access controls on our database. Calendar OAuth tokens are stored encrypted and can be revoked at any time by disconnecting your calendar.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make significant changes, we'll notify you through the app. Continued use of Park Bench after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Reach us at hello@parkbench.nyc.

Gehr Tech, P.O. Box 940041, Rockaway Park, NY 11694