Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Ginseng Swap Limited, doing business as BothCups ("BothCups," "we," "us," or "our"), collects, uses, discloses, and safeguards personal information in connection with BothCups — a coffee connector that introduces students to each other for a coffee between classes — including the chat at bothcups.com/chat, the campus map at bothcups.com/campus, the website at bothcups.com, and the emails we send (collectively, the "Service").

The Service is currently a pilot running only at Seneca Polytechnic's Newnham campus (1750 Finch Ave E, Toronto, Ontario). We design for the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) as our baseline, and honour additional rights that apply in your jurisdiction.

Registered office: Ginseng Swap Limited, Room 1006, 10/F, Haleson Building, 1 Jubilee Street, Central, Hong Kong.

• Members — Newnham students who have verified a Seneca email address and can be matched with other students.
• Account holders — anyone who signs in at bothcups.com/chat, including people who have not (yet) verified a Seneca email and so cannot be matched.
• Website visitors & people who contact us — people who browse bothcups.com, view the public campus map, or email us.

3.1 Account & verification

• Email address: you sign in with an email address, using either a password or a one-time code we email you. Passwords are handled by our authentication provider and are not stored in readable form.
• Seneca email verification: to be matched you verify a Seneca email address (@myseneca.ca; staff addresses at @senecapolytechnic.ca are also accepted). If you signed in with that address it is verified automatically; otherwise we email a 6-digit code to it. We record the verified address and when it was verified.

3.2 Profile

• your first name (required);
• an optional one-line bio and an optional photo;
• the walker (avatar style) you choose;
• whether this is your first semester.

3.3 Your timetable

You can upload your class schedule as a PDF or a screenshot. A PDF is read exactly as written, without AI. A screenshot is read by a third-party AI vision model (see Section 6). From either, we extract your weekly class times, course codes, and class room codes. We then keep:

• Free gaps between your classes — used to find times when you and a match are both free;
• Course codes — used only if you opt in, to prefer classmates who share a course with you. Only a course you both share is ever mentioned to either of you;
• Class rooms — private to you, and used to pick the café nearest both people's classes and to show you walking directions.

The uploaded file itself is not stored. Bare room codes (for example "B2030") are added to a public campus room directory — never who has a class there, or when.

3.4 Matching & meeting activity

• your answers to intros (yes or pass), the times and cafés you lock in, and whether you have marked yourself free right now;
• Coffee Tuesday sign-ups and the coffee runs you start or join;
• your walker's position on the stylised campus map and any bumps with other walkers in the walker game;
• your private check-ins after a planned coffee ("we met," "not yet," "they didn't show," "I couldn't make it"), any no-show strikes that result, and any disputes you raise.

3.5 Chat messages

• the messages you and your match send in your shared chat thread;
• the connector's replies in that thread, and AI-generated summaries of older messages;
• private "only you see this" notes the connector sends to you alone (for example, how far the café is from your class).

3.6 Google Calendar (optional)

If you connect Google Calendar, we request permission to see your free/busy times and to create events, so we can check your availability and add a booked coffee to your calendar. We do not read event details beyond whether you are busy. You can disconnect at any time.

3.7 Reports, support & moderation

• reports you make about a chat or a person, and the thread they relate to;
• records of moderation actions taken by our admins;
• anything you include when you email us.

3.8 Information collected automatically

• Usage data: website pages viewed, device type, browser, approximate location (country/region), and timestamps. We use Vercel Web Analytics, a privacy-friendly provider that does not use cookies or cross-site identifiers.
• Log data: IP address, user agent, request paths, email delivery metadata, error traces, and security events, kept for operational and security purposes.
• Cookies & local storage: a small number of first-party items strictly required for sign-in, sessions, and security. See Section 9.

3.9 What we deliberately do not collect

• Precise location: we do not track your GPS location. Your walker moves on a stylised map; it does not follow you.
• Home addresses or phone numbers: the Service runs on your email and public campus cafés; we do not ask for either.
• Contact-list uploads: we do not import your address book.

We use personal information to:

• confirm that you are a Seneca student at Newnham — only verified Newnham students can be matched;
• propose intros, form Coffee Tuesday pairs, run coffee runs, the "free right now" list, and the walker game;
• suggest meeting times from both people's free gaps, pick the café nearest both people's classes, and show you walking directions;
• prefer classmates in a shared course, if you opt in;
• run the connector in your chat thread (see Section 6);
• send you intro, booking (with a calendar invite), reminder, check-in, unread-message, and verification emails, and — if you connect it — check your Google Calendar availability and add the coffee to it;
• keep the community safe — handling check-ins and no-show strikes, pausing matching where needed, reviewing reports and disputes, and preventing spam, fraud, and abuse;
• show anonymous, aggregate activity on the public live campus map (see Section 5);
• provide, operate, maintain, secure, and improve the Service;
• comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service.

We do not use your information for third-party advertising, and we do not build advertising profiles from your messages.

Privacy between students is a core design constraint of the Service:

• When you are proposed as a match, the other person sees your first name and your walker, and why the connector suggested you (for example, a shared course or being free at the same time).
• Your photo and bio are shown to a match only after you have both said yes to the intro.
• Intros are blind double opt-in: if either person passes, nobody learns who passed.
• A match never sees your email address, timetable, free times, courses, or class rooms. Only a course you both share is ever mentioned.
• Messages in a chat thread are seen by both people in that thread. Private "only you see this" notes go only to their recipient.
• Check-ins and no-show strikes are private. Nothing about them is shown publicly or to other students.
• Public campus map: walker positions are shown anonymously (no names) on the public live campus map, together with anonymous counts (for example, how many students are free right now). The public campus room directory lists bare room codes only.

• Timetable screenshots are sent to a third-party AI vision model to read your class times, course codes, and rooms. PDF timetables are read without AI.
• The connector is an AI assistant in each match's chat thread. When someone mentions it, a third-party AI model reads the shared thread — recent messages plus a summary of older ones — to reply. It can suggest or confirm a time, or change the café when both people agree, and it may run a web search for café information such as opening hours.
• Conversation summaries: older messages in a thread are periodically summarized by a third-party AI model so the connector has context.
• Private notes are never given to the AI and never shown to the other person.
• Matching is automated, but no intro goes ahead without both people saying yes, and no coffee is booked until you lock it in.

We use AI providers under data-processing terms and, where such commitments are available, terms that prohibit them from using your content to train their models.

We share personal information only with:

• Service providers (sub-processors) that run parts of the Service for us, bound by confidentiality and data-processing terms:
  • Supabase — database, authentication, and file storage;
  • Vercel — website hosting and privacy-friendly analytics;
  • a transactional email provider — to deliver the emails described in Section 8;
  • third-party AI model providers — to read timetable screenshots, run the in-chat connector, summarize conversations, and search the web for café information;
  • Google — only if you connect Google Calendar.
  The current list of providers is available on request.
• Other students — only what is described in Section 5.
• Legal & safety recipients — if required by law, to enforce our Terms, to protect the rights or safety of members or the public, or to respond to lawful requests.
• Corporate transactions — in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, subject to this Policy.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it with advertising platforms.

• Consent: creating an account, verifying your Seneca email, uploading a timetable, and connecting Google Calendar are each your choice. You can withdraw consent at any time (see Sections 12 and 13), though some features stop working without the information they rely on.
• Service emails: we send intro, booking (with a calendar invite file), reminder, check-in, unread-message, and verification emails through a transactional email provider. These relate to things you have done or asked for in the Service.
• CASL: any commercial electronic messages we send (for example, news about the Service) are sent only with consent, identify us as the sender, and include a working unsubscribe mechanism, as required by Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation.

We use a minimal set of strictly necessary first-party cookies and browser storage (sign-in, session, security) and no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Vercel Web Analytics, our website analytics provider, does not set cookies or use cross-site identifiers.

• The 3D campus map at bothcups.com/campus is built from OpenStreetMap building footprints (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), plus room numbers and landmark facts noted by our team. Interiors are illustrative sketches.
• To build 3D views, the BothCups team may record video of campus spaces, with permission and when the spaces are empty. Those recordings are stored privately and reviewed by our team only. If you believe you appear in one, contact us.

BothCups is operated by a Hong Kong company and uses infrastructure and service providers located in Canada, the United States, and other jurisdictions. Your information may be processed outside the province or country where you live, where it may be subject to local law. We use contractual and technical safeguards with our providers regardless of where they operate, and where EEA/UK data is involved we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent mechanisms.

12.1 What you can do yourself

• clear your timetable data;
• edit your profile, including removing your bio or photo;
• end any chat;
• disconnect Google Calendar.

12.2 Deleting your account

To delete your account and data, email tony.lau@pulse520.ai from the address you sign in with. We will delete it within 30 days, except where we must keep records — for example, safety reports and the moderation records tied to them, or where the law requires us to keep something.

12.3 How long we keep things

• Uploaded timetable files — not stored; only the extracted details described in Section 3.3.
• Account, profile, and timetable data — while your account is active, or until you clear or delete it.
• Chat messages and summaries — while needed to provide the Service and for safety investigations.
• Safety records (reports, strikes, disputes, moderation actions) — kept longer as needed to keep the community safe.
• Campus recordings — kept privately for as long as they are needed to build the campus views.
• Operational logs — kept for a limited period for security and troubleshooting.

13.1 Canada (PIPEDA and provincial law)

• access the personal information we hold about you and ask how it is used and disclosed;
• correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• withdraw consent (subject to legal or contractual restrictions);
• ask us to delete your account and associated personal information (Section 12.2);
• complain to our Privacy Officer (Section 17), and if unsatisfied, to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

13.2 Other jurisdictions

If you are in the EEA/UK (GDPR), California (CCPA/CPRA), or another jurisdiction with its own privacy law, you may have equivalent or additional rights — including access, erasure, portability, objection, and non-discrimination. Contact us using the details in Section 17 and we will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law.

We implement administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information, including encryption in transit (TLS), access controls that keep each student's private data (such as class rooms and courses) readable only by them and the systems that need it, private storage for campus recordings, least-privilege access for our team, and logging of admin actions. No system is perfectly secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security.

You must be 18 or older to use the Service, as set out in our Terms of Service. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

We may update this Policy from time to time — including after counsel review and before a wider launch. Material changes will be notified via the Service or by email. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the latest version.

For privacy questions, to exercise your rights, or to reach our Privacy Officer, contact: