Privacy & data controls
Your words stay yours.
Youth Buddy is a free, volunteer-run community. We only keep what we need to answer you, and you can ask us to delete it at any time. This page explains, in plain language, what happens to anything you send us.
What we collect, and why
Questions you send privately
Your question and topic, plus your name and email only if you choose to give them. You can leave both blank and stay completely anonymous — we then reply through your tracking code. Only the Youth Buddy team can read private questions.
Session bookings
Your name, email, topic, preferred date/time and any notes. We use these solely to arrange your free 1:1 session and to send you the time details.
Community posts and replies
Anything you post in the community is intended to be public once our team approves it. Your display name is shown unless you tick “post anonymously”, in which case readers see “Anonymous” and only the moderation team can link the post to your account.
Your account
If you sign in, we store your email and a display name so you can post and see your own submissions. We never sell data, and we do not run advertising.
Reports
If you report content, we store the reason, any details you add and — when you are signed in — your account reference, so we can follow up. Reports are never shown to the person who was reported.
Who can see it
- Private questions, bookings, reports and data requests: the small Youth Buddy team only.
- Community posts and public replies: anyone visiting the site, after team review.
- Private team replies: only you and the team.
- We do not share your details with schools, employers, parents or anyone else without your permission — unless we believe someone is at serious risk of harm.
How long we keep it
Answered questions and completed bookings are kept while they are useful for follow-up, and removed on request. Community content stays up until you or the team remove it. Reports are kept as a safeguarding record. If you ask us to delete something, we act on it and confirm back to you.
Your controls
Stay anonymous
Ask without a name or email, or post anonymously in the community.
See your own data
Track a private question with your code, or ask us for a copy.
Delete it
Ask us to remove a question, booking, post or your whole account.
You can also delete your own community posts at any time while signed in, and contact us if anything here is unclear.