Last updated 3 September 2026
Ocala Go is a community app for Ocala and Marion County, Florida. This page describes what the app collects, what it deliberately does not, and who else ever sees it. It was written from what the code actually does, and we keep it that way.
When you first open Ocala Go, your phone is given an anonymous session. That is enough to read the feed, browse the directory, look at the map, post, comment and RSVP. We do not ask for your name until your first post, and we never ask for a phone number.
Signing in with an email address is optional. Its only purpose is letting you get back to the same account on a second phone, or after reinstalling. If you never sign in, we never have your email address.
| What | Why we have it |
|---|---|
| The name you type | So your neighbors know who posted. Most people use a first name. It is free text and we do not verify it. |
| The neighborhood you pick | Chosen from a list, so your posts reach the right part of the county. This is an area you select, not a location we measure. |
| What you post | Posts, comments, events you submit, and questions you send to a listed business. |
| Photos you add | To show them with your post or as your profile picture. |
| Your email address | Only if you choose to sign in, and only to send you a sign-in link. |
| An account number | A random identifier for your session, so the app knows which posts are yours. It is not tied to your name unless you give one. |
We also count taps on the Call button in the business directory, so a business that pays for a listing can see whether it did anything. That record is a listing, a timestamp and whether the call looked like it connected. It has no user column — the record is not attached to you, and cannot be traced back to you.
The Map tab can ask for your location. If you allow it, it is used for three things: showing a blue dot for where you are, re-centring the map on you, and working out how far away a place is.
All three happen on your phone. No coordinate is ever sent to us, written down, attached to a post, or used to work out which neighborhood you live in. We only ask when you tap the button that needs it, never when the app starts, and the app works fine if you say no. There is no background location: the app cannot see where you are when you are not using it.
A photo taken on a phone usually carries the exact spot it was taken and the camera that took it. Before any photo you add leaves your phone, Ocala Go removes that information and resizes the picture. Our server then removes it a second time, because we would rather check twice than trust one step.
Photos attached to posts are visible to other people using the app.
We will also hand over information if the law requires it.
You can ask a listed business a question from its page. That question is private — it is not published, and it is not a review.
A person at Ocala Go reads it. Businesses cannot sign in to Ocala Go yet, so we pass your question along ourselves and type the answer back. That means our staff sees your question and the reply. The app tells you this on the screen where you ask, and answers are labelled as passed on by us.
When businesses can sign in and answer directly, we will change this page and the label will disappear.
In the app: Profile → Your data → Delete account.
That deletes, from our servers and not just from your phone: your profile, your name and neighborhood, your posts and comments, the photos you uploaded, your likes, your Going list, and the questions you sent to businesses. Your account is removed, not deactivated, and we cannot restore it afterwards.
A photo can still be served from a cache for a short while after it is deleted, if someone kept the exact link to it. It is gone from our storage immediately; that copy expires on its own.
Two things survive on purpose:
Posts, comments and events stay until you delete them or we remove them under the Community Guidelines. Moderation records are kept so we can be consistent about repeat problems. We are a new and very small operation, and we would rather tell you plainly that we have not yet set fixed retention periods than publish a schedule we do not follow.
Ocala Go is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has given us information, email support@ocalago.com and we will remove it.
Traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted. Sign-in tokens are kept in your phone's keychain rather than ordinary app storage. Which rows a person can read and write is enforced on the server, not just hidden in the app.
No service can promise perfect security, and we will not pretend otherwise.
You can edit or delete your posts and comments, change or clear your display name and neighborhood, turn location off in iOS Settings at any time, and delete your account. To ask what we hold about you, or to have it removed, email support@ocalago.com.
If we change how the app handles your information, we will change this page and the date at the top. We will not quietly broaden what we collect.