Shield Privacy Notice

Shield is an app for Root communities that checks members aren't using a VPN, a proxy, Tor, or an automated browser before they get access. This notice explains what Shield and its verification service collect, who can see it, and how long it's kept.

Shield is run by Bit ("we" or "us"). Shield is an independent app, not affiliated with Root in any way.

How a check works

When you ask Shield for a link, you get a one-time address at shield.rootapp.dev. When you open it in your browser and press Verify, Cloudflare Turnstile first checks that you're a person. Then our verification service looks at a few technical details your browser shares, to spot automated browsers, sees the IP address your browser connects from, compares it with public lists of VPN, proxy, Tor, and hosting networks, and tells Shield the result. The browser details are used for that check only and aren't stored. Requests to shield.rootapp.dev pass through Cloudflare, which processes them under its own terms.

What the verification service stores

• A scrambled fingerprint of your IP address, and of its network (the block of addresses it belongs to). These are keyed one-way hashes. We use them only to tell whether two members of the same community checked from the same address or network. We don't store the address itself.
• The result: whether it looked like a VPN, proxy, Tor, iCloud Private Relay, a hosting network, or an automated browser, the name of the network when it's known (for example "NordVPN") or the reason the browser check didn't pass, and the country.
• Which community the check was for, and a random reference Shield makes for you. We don't receive your Root user ID, username, or nickname.

What Shield stores in the community's app database on Root

• Your Root user ID and community nickname, the random reference above, whether you're verified, blocked, or waiting, your last result and country, when you checked, how many links you asked for, and the link that's open right now.
• Other members of the same community who checked from the same address or network.
• A short history: links you asked for, results, and which leader approved or reset you.
• The community's Shield settings.

Shield keeps your community nickname so leaders can search and sort members by name. It refreshes it from Root about once a week, never sends it to the verification service, and deletes it with the rest of your record. Your profile picture isn't stored; Shield shows it from Root.

How we use it

Only to run the check, give or hold back the role the community chose, and show leaders who checked from the same network. No ads, no tracking across communities or sites, no selling, and no training AI models.

Who can see it

• You see your own status and result in Shield.
• The community owner, and the roles and members they pick under "Who can manage Shield", see every member's status, result, network name, country, check times, history, and same-network matches. They never see IP addresses.
• Other members see nothing about you.
• We can access the verification service's data to run and fix it.

Matches are only made within one community. Shield doesn't tell a community that you checked from the same network as someone in a different community.

How long we keep it

• Fingerprints and results at the verification service: up to 180 days after the check.
• In the community's database: history, and members who never passed, for 180 days after their last activity. Verified members stay verified until a leader resets or forgets them. If the database nears Root's size limit, the oldest history goes first.
• Uninstalling Shield from a community lets Root remove its database. Ask us to remove that community's data from the verification service too.

Your choices

• You don't have to check. A community leader can approve you without one, or you can choose not to join communities that use Shield.
• Ask the community's leaders to forget you in Shield. That deletes your data in their database and at the verification service, and removes the verified role, so you'd have to check again to get it back.
• Ask us in Shield support on Root for a copy of your data, to fix something, or to have it deleted.

Changes to this notice

If we change this notice, we'll update the effective date at the top and post about it in Shield support on Root.

Contact

Bit
Support: Shield support on Root

For questions about your Root account, contact Root Support.