Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 1, 2026

1. Who is responsible for your data

HelpBLESS is the controller of the personal information described here. You can reach us about privacy at support@helpbless.com.

2. What we collect

Information you give us

• Account details: name, email address, password (stored only as a one-way hash), country, and optionally state or province, city, ZIP or postal code, a short bio and a photo.
• Posts and activity: needs you post, updates, comments, questions, offers of help, reports, saved posts and messages you write on the site.
• Verification documents: if you choose to verify, the photo, passport, driver licence, national ID, address document or organization certificate you upload.
• Payout details: a PayPal email or bank account details if you want to receive payouts.
• Legal and tax details (only if you receive money): your legal name, date of birth, address, phone, and a tax form (W-9 or W-8BEN) including your tax identification number. Tax numbers are encrypted and only the last four digits are ever shown.
• Donation details: amount, the post you gave to, whether you want to be anonymous, an optional message, and the email you give for a receipt.

Information we collect automatically

• IP address, browser and device type, pages visited and times, used for security, rate limiting and fraud prevention.
• A sign-in cookie that keeps you logged in. See our cookie policy.

Information from others

• Our payment processor (Stripe) tells us whether a payment succeeded, its fee, the card country and whether it was refunded or disputed by the bank. We do not receive your full card number.

3. Why we use it, and our legal basis

• To run the service (contract): create accounts, show posts, take donations, pay out money, send receipts and notifications.
• To keep people safe (legitimate interests, legal obligation): review posts, verify identity when you ask us to, stop spam and fraud, handle reports and disputes, keep records for audit.
• To improve the site (legitimate interests): understand what works and fix problems.
• To follow the law (legal obligation): tax reporting, accounting, anti-money-laundering, sanctions screening and responding to lawful requests. We may share information with tax authorities such as the IRS and the California Franchise Tax Board when the law requires.
• Safety checks (legitimate interests): we compare payment and network signals to spot fraud, such as many gifts from one network or gifts between the same two people. These checks only hold payouts for a person to review.
• With your consent where we ask for it, for example optional verification documents. You can withdraw consent at any time.

4. Who sees what

• Public: your name, city and country (as you set them), badges, your posts, your comments, your public donations (unless you chose anonymous), your public profile page. Your email address is never shown on the site.
• Our reviewers: verification documents are seen only by authorized reviewers, and each view is logged. The public sees only the badge.
• The person you help or who helps you: contact details are shared by email only after the person who posted accepts an offer of help.
• Service providers: Google Translate (only if you choose to translate pages), Stripe (payments), PayPal and banks (payouts), hosting and email providers, and fraud-prevention tools. They may only use data to provide their service to us.
• Authorities: when the law requires it, or to protect people from harm or fraud.
• Business transfers: if HelpBLESS is sold or merged, your data may move to the new owner, which must honor this policy.

We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for advertising. We do not use third-party advertising trackers.

5. International transfers

HelpBLESS serves people around the world, so your information may be processed in countries other than yours, including countries whose data protection laws differ. Where required we use appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.

6. How long we keep it

• Account and profile data: while your account is open, and for a short period after closure.
• Verification documents: until the review is complete and for up to 12 months after, unless the law or a fraud investigation needs us to keep them longer. You can ask us to delete them sooner.
• Donation, payout, tax form and payment records: at least 7 years, or longer if the law requires, for tax, accounting and audit.
• Security logs and rate-limit data: up to 12 months, and shorter for routine rate-limit records.
• Emails sent by the site: up to 12 months.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU and UK, or the CCPA/CPRA in California) you may have the right to:

• know what we hold about you and get a copy;
• correct information that is wrong;
• delete your information, except what we must keep by law;
• object to or limit some uses, and withdraw consent;
• move your data to another service;
• not be treated unfairly for using these rights; and
• complain to your data protection authority.

To use a right, email support@helpbless.com from the address on your account. We may ask you to prove who you are. We aim to reply within 30 days. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of in that respect.

8. Children

HelpBLESS is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you think a child has given us information, write to us and we will delete it. Posts for the benefit of a child must be made by a parent or guardian.

9. Security

We protect your data with encrypted connections, hashed passwords, private storage for documents, access limits for staff, and logging. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects you, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

10. Public content

What you post publicly can be seen, copied and shared by anyone and may appear in search engines. Please do not post sensitive details you do not want public, such as health details of other people without their permission.

11. Changes

We may update this policy. If the change is important we will tell you on the site or by email. The date at the top shows the latest version.

12. Contact

Questions or requests: support@helpbless.com.