Last updated: March 16, 2026
At Giving Profiles, we take your privacy seriously and are committed to being transparent about how we handle your data.
Account information. When you register, we collect your name, email address, and a password (which is stored only in hashed form — we never see or store your actual password). You may optionally add a location and profile photo.
Donation records. You enter donation details (organization, amount, and date) either manually or by uploading a receipt. Donation amounts are used only for internal calculations such as cause proportions and badge eligibility — they are never displayed publicly on your profile or shared with other users.
Receipt uploads. When you upload a receipt image or PDF, it is sent to a third-party AI service (Anthropic) for text extraction. The receipt file is processed in memory and immediately discarded — it is never stored in our database or on our servers. Only the extracted text fields (organization name, amount, and date) are retained.
Tax form uploads (1040). To verify income for income-based badges, you may upload a 1040 tax form. The document is sent to Anthropic for extraction of only two fields: the tax year and Adjusted Gross Income (line 11). The document is processed in memory and immediately discarded — it is never stored. No personally identifiable information from the form (SSN, name, address, employer) is extracted or retained. Only the tax year and AGI amount are saved. Your income is only used to determine eligibility for badges — it is never displayed on your profile or shared with other users.
Gmail scanning. If you choose to connect your Gmail account, we search your inbox for donation confirmation emails. Email bodies are sent to Anthropic for parsing and immediately discarded — they are never stored in our database. Only the email subject and sender address are retained (for accuracy analysis). We request read-only access to your Gmail — we cannot send, delete, or modify your emails. You can disconnect Gmail at any time from Settings.
Social connections. If you choose to follow other users, we store these connections.
Usage data. We use standard web hosting infrastructure (Vercel) which may collect basic server logs (IP addresses, request timestamps). We do not use third-party analytics or tracking services.
To operate the platform. Your data is used to display your giving profile, compute badges, power search and recommendations, and show relevant activity in your newsfeed.
For research. Giving Profiles conducts research on how to motivate people to give more — and more thoughtfully. We may analyze platform data to study giving patterns, the impact of certain features, and other questions related to charitable behavior. Any data released alongside academic publications will be fully anonymized so that no individual user can be identified.
You control who can see your donations through four privacy levels:
You can set a default privacy level for new donations and adjust privacy per organization in your Settings. Badges (achievements based on your giving) are always visible on your profile, but they do not reveal specific donation amounts.
We use the following services to operate the platform:
We do not share your data with these services beyond what is necessary to provide the platform's functionality.
You can delete your account at any time from the Settings page. When you delete your account, your profile is deactivated and no longer visible to other users. Your data is retained in our database for research purposes but is not displayed or accessible on the platform. If you would like your data fully removed, please contact us.
We may update this policy from time to time. Significant changes will be communicated through the platform. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision.
If you have questions about this privacy policy or how your data is handled, please reach out to us at eyoeli@mit.edu.