Privacy Policy
Effective Date: January 17, 2026 | Last Updated: January 17, 2026
1. Introduction
The Shade Tree Fund ("we," "our," "us") operates Project Radford, a personalized investment education podcast service powered by artificial intelligence. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use your information, how we protect your data, and your privacy rights.
By using Project Radford, you consent to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Account Information
When you create an account, we collect:
- Email address (required for account management)
- Name (if provided via Firebase authentication)
- Firebase UID (unique identifier for authentication)
- Profile photo (if you sign in with Google)
2.2 Portfolio Information (Optional)
If you choose to personalize your podcasts, you may provide:
- Investment holdings (stock tickers, asset allocation)
- Investment goals (retirement, education, wealth building)
- Sectors of interest (technology, healthcare, etc.)
- Investment knowledge level (beginner, intermediate, advanced)
Important: You are NOT required to provide portfolio information. Portfolio data is used ONLY to personalize podcast content and is NEVER shared with third parties for marketing.
2.3 Payment Information
We use Stripe, Inc. to process payments. Stripe collects credit/debit card information, billing address, and payment history. We do NOT store your payment card details on our servers. All payment data is handled securely by Stripe in compliance with PCI-DSS standards.
2.4 Usage Information
We automatically collect:
- Log data (IP address, browser type, device information)
- Podcast listening history (which podcasts you listened to)
- Subscription status and tier
- Feature usage (which parts of the app you use)
3. How We Use Your Information
- Authenticate your identity (Firebase JWT tokens)
- Generate personalized podcasts (based on your portfolio and preferences)
- Deliver podcast audio files (via Google Cloud Storage)
- Process payments (via Stripe)
- Send service emails (account confirmations, billing receipts)
- Improve our service (analyze usage patterns, fix bugs)
4. How We Share Your Information
We share limited data with these service providers:
- Google Cloud Platform: Infrastructure, database, podcast storage
- Firebase (Google): Authentication, hosting
- Stripe, Inc.: Payment processing
- Google Gemini API: AI content generation (NO personally identifiable information is shared)
What We DO NOT Do:
- Sell your personal information to third parties
- Share your portfolio data for marketing purposes
- Provide your data to advertisers
- Share data with data brokers
5. Data Security
We protect your data with:
- Encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS for all connections)
- Encryption at rest (Google Cloud SQL encrypted storage)
- Firebase authentication (industry-standard JWT tokens)
- Private VPC networking (database isolated from public internet)
- Automated backups (7-day retention for disaster recovery)
6. Data Retention
We retain your data as long as your account is active. When you delete your account:
- Immediate deletion: Account credentials, preferences, portfolio data
- 30-day grace period: Podcast files (recoverable if you change your mind)
- 90-day retention: Logs and backups (for security and debugging)
- Permanent retention: Anonymized analytics data
7. Your Privacy Rights
You have the right to:
- Access your data - View and download your account data
- Correct your data - Update profile and portfolio information
- Delete your data - Request complete account deletion
- Data portability - Download your data in a machine-readable format
- Opt-out of marketing - Unsubscribe from marketing emails
To exercise these rights, email support@theshadetreefund.com.
8. Children's Privacy
Project Radford is NOT intended for users under 18 years old. We do NOT knowingly collect data from children under 18. If we discover a child's account, we will delete it immediately.
9. International Users
Your data is stored in the United States (Google Cloud Platform, us-east1 region). If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have additional rights under GDPR including the right to be forgotten, right to restrict processing, and right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be effective immediately for new users and 30 days after notification for existing users. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.
11. Contact Us
For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, email support@theshadetreefund.com with "Privacy Policy Inquiry" in the subject line.