Privacy and your data

This guide sums up our Privacy Policy in plain words and explains exactly what other people can and can't see about you. The Privacy Policy is the official version. Questions? Email support@undergroundaquarium.com.

What can anyone see about me?

These are public, even to people who aren't signed in:

• Your public profile at /u/your-username: display name, @username, photo, bio, location, website, the month you joined, your bubbles and tier, and your follower, following and trophy counts. See Your public profile.
• Who follows you and who you follow.
• Your trophies, course certificates and certified breeder species.
• Society details, if you're a member: your member number, title, points and the year you joined.
• Feed posts and comments you make.
• Tanks you've shared (marked Posted). Private tanks stay private.
• Your live classified ads, including the area you chose, and any email or phone number you chose to show on them.
• Forum threads and replies.
• Store reviews you write, with your name.
• Events you post.

What stays private?

Only you (and our team, where needed to run the site) can see:

• Your email address. It's shown to you on Your profile and Account & data, and never on your public profile or your ads unless you tick Show my email on the listing.
• Your messages. Only you and the other person in the conversation can read them.
• Private tanks.
• Your notifications and notification settings.
• Your blocked list. The people you block aren't told.
• Reports you send. The person you reported isn't told who reported them.

Who else can see some of my details?

• Society officers can see the contact details you give when you join The Society (like your name, email and phone) so they can manage the roster and your award entries.
• Shop owners see counts of views, calls, directions and website taps on their shop page, not who made them.
• Our service providers process data only to run the site: Supabase (database, accounts and storage), Resend (email delivery), Vercel (hosting), OpenStreetMap's Nominatim (turning addresses into approximate map locations), and Stripe (only for Society dues payments).

We don't sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Is my email shown on my listings?

No, not unless you choose to. When you post a classified ad, buyers message you on the site and your email stays hidden. The post form has two optional extras:

• Show my email on the listing: the form warns "Anyone can see it, scrapers included."
• Phone number (optional, shown publicly)

Leave both empty to keep contact on the site. See Posting a classified ad.

What information do you collect?

From the Privacy Policy:

• What you give us: your email, username and password (passwords are stored in hashed form by our sign-in provider), profile details, and everything you create: listings and photos, tanks, reviews, Society records, forum posts and messages.
• Listing details: title, description, photos, price, the metro area you chose, and any contact details you chose to show.
• Location: addresses you provide (for example for events and stores) are turned into approximate coordinates to power "near me" features.
• Technical data: device and browser type, IP address and basic usage logs, which we and our hosting providers receive automatically.

Do you use cookies or tracking?

We use cookies that are needed to sign you in and keep you signed in. We don't use advertising cookies. The site also counts page visits so we can see which pages are popular.

Do you handle my payment details?

We don't process payments for classified ads and never see your card details. Deals are settled directly between the two people involved. Society dues are handled by Stripe, and we don't store your full card number.

Can people find me on Google?

Your public profile can appear in search engines once it has something worth finding: a bio of about 40 characters or more, a shared tank, a live classified ad, or a forum thread. Mostly empty profiles are kept out. Follower and following lists are always kept out.

Search results and link previews use your display name and @username as the title, the start of your bio as the description, and may use your profile photo. Listings, forum threads, tanks and other public pages can also appear in search engines.

To stay out of search, keep your bio short, keep tanks private, and don't use your real name as your Full name.

Is my location shown?

Only what you choose to show:

• The Location field on your profile is free text. Leave it blank or keep it general, like a region.
• Classified ads show the area you pick, not your address. See Choosing your area.
• Photos you submit to the species library have hidden location data removed when we convert them.

How do I download a copy of my data?

1. Go to Account & data.
2. Under Download your data, click Download my data.

Your browser saves a file named like underground-aquarium-data-xxxxxxxx.json. It's a text file in JSON format that any text editor can open. It includes:

• your account (email, username, when you joined, and when you accepted the terms)
• your profile details
• your tanks, shops you own, classified ads, feed posts and forum posts
• messages you've sent
• water test logs, store reviews and course completions
• club and Society memberships, spawn logs, certificates and trophies

It doesn't include messages other people sent you, comments, likes, follows or notifications. If you need something that isn't in the file, email support@undergroundaquarium.com.

How do I ask you to correct or delete my data?

• Correct: most details you can change yourself on Your profile. See Editing your profile.
• Delete: delete your account from Account & data. See Deleting your account.
• Anything else (access, correction, deletion or a copy under laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act): email support@undergroundaquarium.com. We'll verify your request and respond as the law requires.

How long do you keep my information?

As long as your account is active and as needed to run the site. Some records, like Society dues records, may be kept longer for legal, tax, accounting or fraud-prevention reasons. When you delete your account, your personal data is permanently deleted after a 30-day grace period. See Deleting your account.

Who can use the site?

Underground Aquarium is for people 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18, and if we learn we have, we delete it.

Common problems

The download button gives me an error or an empty file. Make sure you're signed in, then try again. On a phone, the file may land in your Downloads or Files app. If it still fails, email support@undergroundaquarium.com.

I can't open the downloaded file. It's a .json text file. Open it with any text editor, or drag it into a web browser window to read it.

I want my email hidden on an ad I already posted. Edit the ad and untick Show my email on the listing, or clear the phone number. See Editing, renewing and expiry.

I want my profile out of Google. Shorten your bio, set your tanks to private, and remove your real name. Search engines can take a while to drop a page after it changes.

Someone posted my personal information. Report it with the Report link on the post or profile and choose Offensive or inappropriate or Other. See Reporting content. For urgent cases, email support@undergroundaquarium.com.

I don't want someone seeing my posts. Block them. See Blocking people. Your public profile page itself can still be opened by anyone with the link.