Last updated June 6th, 2024

Welcome to Spark Rice’s Privacy Policy

This Policy explains the control you have over your information, the information we use, and how to get in contact with us.

Spark Rice is currently only available to Rice students with valid Rice emails, which means that the only people who can view Rice campus parties and friends are other current Rice students, as old Rice emails deactivate after an alum graduates.

Control Over Your Information

We want you to control your information, and choose what you feel comfortable sharing. Here are the ways to manage information that’s shared:

Information We Collect

This section provides you with details on what information we collect. When you use Spark Rice, we temporarily collect information to generate necessary functions within our app.

Information You Provide

While setting up your account, you provide us with details like name and Rice email address. You also provide us with information about your friends, the events you post, and the events you like. These are used to populate the app for yourself and your network of friends. Information about your friends is not available to any other app users. Information about the events you like are not available to any other app users except your approved friends.

Information We Obtain When You Use Our Services, With Your Permission

When you use our Services, we collect information about your location, the events you like, and the events you post on the app. This information is used to populate the app for you and your friends. Once an event is completed, any records of the events you like or post are gone in the app. Once you leave a location, any records of the location you were in prior are gone.

How We Use Information

This portion details how we use the information from the Spark Rice app.

As mentioned above, all information provided to Spark Rice is solely used for you and your network of friends. None of the information is saved or utilized in any meaningful way.

Research

We do not save user location. Once a user leaves a location, the location they were in prior is removed from our database. For example, if you are at the Rice Recreational Center, and leave to go to the Duncan Residential College, your visit to the Rice Recreational Center is not saved.

While the records of an event that is posted, and the ‘likes’ on that event, are removed from the app after the event completes, we do save the events that are posted and the likes in our database. The purpose of this is to better understand user interests and trends, to ultimately create a better and more relevant user experience for Rice students. This information helps us understand how Spark is used by Rice University students, and ultimately helps guide us to create better iterations of the app for our users.

Enhance the Safety & Security of Our Services

We use your email to enhance the safety of the Spark Rice community. By verifying accounts with a Rice netID, we ensure that non-Rice students cannot enter our app.

Contacting You

If anything about the app notably changes, we will inform you through an in-app notification. We will also update this privacy policy if need be.

Our Audience

Our Services are directed to Rice Students.

Spark Rice is only available for Rice Students, and you must confirm that you are a Rice Student to enter the app. If we have knowledge that you are not a Rice Student, we will delete your account.

Updates to the Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy, and we will make sure to let you know. If the changes are insignificant (grammar, changes to verbiage, minor tweaks, etc.), we will simply revise the date at the top of the Privacy Policy. If the changes are significant, we will provide a notice to you through an in-app notification.

Contact Us

Any questions? Contact us over email at rs182@rice.edu or kb74@rice.edu.