Dala Privacy Policy

Effective 6 October 2026

Dala helps savings circles (tontines) and community associations keep track of members, contributions and meetings. This page explains what Dala collects, why, and who can see it.

Dala is operated by Laawol Digital LLC, a New York limited liability company. Contact: support@dalacommunity.com.

What we collect

• Account details — your name, and your phone number or email, used to sign you in and to match you to an association that invited you.
• Profile details — date of birth, sex and marital status (required by associations for their rules and census), and optionally how many spouses and children are in your household, and a profile photo.
• Membership and money — which circles and associations you belong to, your dues, contributions, payments and receipts, and any credit you have paid ahead.
• Meetings — your RSVPs and attendance. When you mark yourself present at an in-person meeting, your location is read once, at that moment, only to confirm you are at the meeting place. Dala never tracks your location in the background.
• Shared location in chat — if you choose to share your location in a chat, that location is sent to the people in that chat.
• Notifications — a device token so we can send you payment reminders and association updates. You control these in Profile.
• Messages — the messages, photos, videos, files and voice messages you send in a chat inside the app.

Payments

Payments are processed by Stripe. Your card or bank details are entered directly with Stripe and never touch Dala's servers. Dala records the amount, date and status of each payment so your association's books stay correct.

Bank connections

An association may connect its own bank account so that dues a member has sent by Zelle or transfer can be matched to the money arriving, instead of the treasurer checking by hand. This is set up through Plaid, which collects the bank login in its own screen — the credentials never reach Dala. The connection is read-only: Dala can read the account's transactions and cannot move money. Plaid is only used for the association's own account. An officer can disconnect it at any time in the app.

Separately, a member can choose to link their own bank account to pay dues by bank debit. That link is made through Stripe, as described under Payments.

Who can see your information

• Officers of your association (head, treasurer, secretary, auditor) can see your dues standing and payment history for that association, as they would in a paper ledger. Amounts owed are shown to officers only.
• Other members can see your name and whether you are up to date, never your amounts.
• The community census shows totals only (for example how many families), never who.
• If you contribute through a public pay link, the amount and the name you choose to give are recorded for that collection.

Elections

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When your association runs an election in Dala, this is what is stored and who can see it.

What is stored for an election

• The voters list — each member's name, whether they are eligible to vote and, if not, the reason (for example suspended, too new, or no verified phone number), and whether they have voted and how: on their own phone, or helped at a meeting by a commissioner, whose name is recorded.
• Sealed ballots — your choices are stored in a ballot box with no name attached. Each ballot has a random identifier and an integrity code, so that any change to it can be detected.
• The sealed link — a locked note that ties a ballot to the member who cast it. It can be unlocked only with a key that Dala's administrator holds, protected by a personal passphrase that only that person knows. The passphrase and the unlocked key are never stored on Dala's servers.
• Your receipt — when you vote you are shown a receipt code once. We keep only a one-way fingerprint of it, which lets us confirm that a ballot was recorded and never reveals the choice.
• The election record — dates, the commission, decisions about candidates, corrections to the voters list (with their written reasons), results, disputes and the actions taken on them. Candidates' names, photos and statements are shown to the association.

Phone verification. To vote you confirm your phone number again at the moment of voting, with a code sent to it by text message through Google Firebase. This is how we check that the person voting is the member whose verified number is on the account, and it is why one phone number counts for one vote.

Who can see what

• Every member can see the voters list before voting (including whether they are on it and why not) and, while voting is open, how many members have voted. Nobody sees who has voted while voting is open, and nobody sees running results.
• After voting closes, the election commission can see the list of who voted, but never how.
• Results go to the commission first, then to every member once certified, or automatically after 24 hours.
• Dala's administrators can recount the sealed ballots and check whether a receipt code is in the box. Neither shows a name next to a choice.
• Only Dala's administrator who holds the key can open sealed ballots.

When ballots can be opened. Only after a formal dispute over published results, and only as the last of three steps: a recount, then a check that a vote was counted, then opening. It needs a written reason. Every opening is written to a permanent log and to the association's election record, and every member of the association is notified that ballots were opened (not what was seen). Sealed is not the same as impossible to trace: the link exists, locked, until it is destroyed.

How long it is kept. 90 days after a result is final, Dala permanently destroys the link between each voter and their ballot, and it is never destroyed while a dispute is open. The same applies to an election that was cancelled after voting opened or that was set aside after a dispute. The totals and the list of who voted are kept as part of the association's records.

Services we rely on

Google Firebase (sign-in, database, hosting, notifications), Stripe (payments), Plaid (read-only bank connections for associations that choose to connect one), Expo (push notifications), Twilio (text-message invites and reminders), Cloudflare (meeting audio and video) and Gmail (email delivery). Each processes data only to provide its service to Dala. When you upload a payment receipt, its image is read automatically by Google's Gemini AI to check the amount and date, so an officer can confirm it faster. The image is sent to Google only for that check.

What we don't do

We do not sell your information, show advertising, or track you across other apps or websites.

Your choices

• Edit your profile and notification settings any time in Profile.
• Turn off location for Dala in your phone settings; you can still be marked present by an officer.
• To delete your account, open Profile in the app and tap Delete account, or email support@dalacommunity.com. Your association's financial records are kept as required for its books, with your personal details removed.

Children

Dala is for adults (18+) managing community finances and is not directed at children.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the date above will be updated. Questions: write to support@dalacommunity.com.

Laawol Digital LLC, Bronx, New York, USA.