Last updated: September 2026. This is a community-run project; this policy may be updated as features evolve.
1. What we collect
We only collect what's needed to run a trusted, resident-only neighbourhood tool. Specifically:
- Account info. First name, last name and email address at sign-up. Your password is managed by our authentication provider and is never stored in plain text by us.
- Home address. A pinned home location is used only to confirm you live inside Swieqi (our geofence check) and to send you nearby-incident alerts within a radius you choose. It is never shown publicly on the map or feed.
- Incident reports. Description, category, location coordinates, and any optional photo you upload when creating a report.
- Comments, upvotes & confirmations. What you write on reports, and records of which reports you have upvoted or confirmed as still active.
- Moderator & admin actions. Records of status changes, internal notes, hide actions, flags and role updates carried out by moderators and administrators.
2. How we use it
- To match you to Swieqi — confirming residency so membership stays a trusted, neighbour-only space.
- To display your reports on the shared map and in the filterable feed, showing only your first name and last initial.
- To send you in-app “near-me” alerts when a new incident is reported close to your home, based on the radius you set.
- To generate PDF exports of incident summaries for the local council or police, helping authorities act on verified, time-stamped reports.
- For moderation — reviewing, hiding, changing status of, or noting reports, and handling flags for spam or inappropriate content.
3. Who can see what
Your identity is protected by design, not just hidden in the interface:
Other residents see only your first name and last initial (for example, “David C.”). Your full name, email address and home location are never shown to other members and are never returned by the app to other residents.
Trusted moderators and administrators can view your full name, email and home location — but only to verify reports and manage the community. This is enforced at the database level through Row-Level Security (RLS), so it cannot be bypassed from the app interface.
4. Retention & deletion
Incident reports, comments and moderation history are kept for as long as they remain relevant to the community record and any council or police follow-up. Account details are kept while your membership is active.
You can request deletion of your account and associated personal data at any time. Email contact@communitywatch.example and we will remove your personal information. Please note that anonymised or aggregated incident records may be retained for community reporting, and that individual report content may need to be preserved where it relates to an active report or formal follow-up.
5. Cookies & advertising
Community Watch uses essential cookies to keep you signed in and the app working. In addition, this site may show Google AdSense ads and/or use analytics in the future.
As a standard AdSense disclosure: Google and its partners use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. Users in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom and Switzerland will be shown a consent choice before personalised ads load. You can learn how Google uses data by visiting How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
Ad personalisation is optional. You can review and manage your ad personalisation settings at any time via Google's Ad Settings. Advertising — if shown — never affects how reports are handled, and the platform remains free for every Swieqi resident.
6. Data controller
Community Watch is a resident-run community initiative, not an official arm of Swieqi Local Council. The person(s) currently responsible for the platform and the data it holds are named below — this will be kept up to date as the project's organisation evolves.
Data controller details to be added here. In the meantime, use the contact address in Section 10 for any privacy query, including who is currently responsible for your data.
7. Legal basis for processing
We process account details and your home address on the basis of consent — given when you create an account and again if you change your home address, and withdrawable at any time by deleting your account (see Section 8).
We process incident reports, comments and confirmations on the basis of legitimate interest: maintaining an accurate, shared community safety record that residents and moderators can act on. Where advertising is shown, personalised ads rely on your consent via the cookie banner described in Section 5.
8. Your rights
- Rectification — correct your name, email or home address any time from My Profile.
- Portability — download a copy of your profile and submitted reports as a file, also from My Profile.
- Erasure — permanently delete your account, home address and everything you've submitted, from My Profile or by contacting us (Section 10).
- Object or restrict — contact us (Section 10) if you want to object to or restrict a particular use of your data.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled a request, you have the right to lodge a complaint with Malta's supervisory authority, the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC).
9. Who else processes your data
We use a small number of processors to run the service, each only for what's needed to make it work:
- Supabase — hosts our database, authentication and file storage (photos/videos you attach to reports).
- CARTO & Esri — provide the map tiles (street map and satellite imagery) shown on the map.
- OpenStreetMap Nominatim — powers the map's address search and turns coordinates into street names.
- Google — provides optional sign-in (Google OAuth) and, where enabled, advertising (Section 5).
10. Contact
For privacy questions or data-deletion requests, contact the team at contact@communitywatch.example. This is a placeholder address that will be updated once the real domain is set up.