Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

DebtShield helps consumers review debt collection letters for possible FDCPA, FCRA, and related consumer-protection issue patterns. DebtShield is not a law firm, does not provide legal advice, and does not decide whether a collector violated the law.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect the following categories of information when you use DebtShield:

• Account information such as your email address and authentication identifiers from Clerk, our authentication provider.
• Mobile letter images and documents such as photos or PDFs of debt collection letters you submit through the native mobile app.
• OCR and AI-assisted analysis outputs generated from your submitted letters, including extracted text, possible issue patterns, confidence scores, and scan metadata.
• Contact and consent information such as your name, email, phone number, state, ZIP code, consent choices, IP address, user agent, and consent timestamps when you request attorney review or contact us.
• Usage and device data such as pages viewed, app events, device type, browser type, IP address, diagnostics, and security logs.
• Communications you send to us, including privacy, support, deletion, export, or legal-review requests.

3. How We Use Information

We use information to operate and protect DebtShield, including to:

• Authenticate users and protect accounts through Clerk.
• Upload, store, OCR, and analyze debt collection letters.
• Provide informational scan results and explain potential issue patterns.
• Route your information to an independent attorney only after your explicit consent.
• Record, manage, and honor consent, revocation, deletion, and export requests.
• Improve reliability, security, and product quality without placing raw letter text or personal information in normal analytics events.
• Comply with legal, security, audit, and fraud-prevention obligations.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not sell mobile letter images, OCR text, scan results, contact information, or consent records.

4. Attorney Referral and Sharing Choices

DebtShield does not share your contact information, uploaded letters, OCR text, or AI-assisted analysis with an attorney merely because you scan a letter. If you choose to request attorney review, we may share your relevant contact information, letter materials, scan results, consent record, and case context with an independent attorney or law firm only after your explicit consent.

Independent attorneys are not employees of DebtShield. Their review, advice, engagement terms, and attorney-client relationship are governed by their own agreement with you, if any.

5. Retention, Deletion, and Export

We retain information only as long as reasonably needed to provide the service, maintain security, support attorney referral workflows you request, satisfy audit obligations, and comply with applicable law. Letter images, OCR text, AI-assisted analysis, account records, and lead/referral records may have different retention periods.

You may request deletion or export of your personal information by contacting privacy@debtshield.app. We will evaluate and respond to deletion and export requests within a reasonable period, subject to identity verification and legal, audit, fraud-prevention, consent-history, and dispute-retention requirements. Append-only consent history may be retained where legally or operationally required.

6. Security

We use TLS/HTTPS for data in transit and storage controls for uploaded documents and related data. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please do not submit documents unless you are authorized to do so.

7. Cookies and Analytics

We may use cookies, device identifiers, and analytics tools to operate, secure, and improve the service. Analytics events should not include raw OCR text, full letter content, signed URLs, phone numbers, email addresses, or raw AI output.

8. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, export, restrict, or object to certain processing of your personal information. California residents may have rights under California privacy laws, including the right to know, delete, correct, and opt out of sale or sharing where applicable.

To exercise privacy rights, contact privacy@debtshield.app. For legal notices about these terms or the service, contact legal@debtshield.app.

9. Children's Privacy

DebtShield is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child provided personal information, contact us at privacy@debtshield.app.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If changes are material, we will update this page and revise the effective date.

11. Contact Us

Contact DebtShield about privacy, data, deletion, or export requests at: