Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

Information you provide

Depending on how you use the Services, you may provide:

• Your name, email address, profile information, and account preferences.
• Membership, group, project, event, task, volunteer, and interest information.
• Makerspace certifications, equipment checkouts and returns, deposit or fee records, and related notes.
• Project proposals, descriptions, images, milestones, funding requests, and other content you submit.
• Tool, inventory, location, plant, maintenance, and QR-label information.
• Messages, support requests, photographs, files, and other material you submit.

Please do not submit sensitive personal information unless it is necessary for a specific Community Ventures activity and you have been asked to provide it.

Information received when you sign in

You may sign in through Community Ventures' identity service or a supported third-party account provider, such as Google, Apple, GitHub, or Discord. Depending on the provider and permissions you approve, we may receive a provider-specific identifier, your name or username, email address and verification status, and limited profile information such as a profile image. We use it to authenticate you, create or link your account, prevent duplicates, and apply access permissions. We do not receive your third-party account password.

Information collected automatically

Our systems and service providers may process your IP address, browser and device information, requested pages or features, access dates and times, referring URLs, and authentication, security, diagnostic, and error logs. Necessary cookies and browser storage maintain sessions, remember limited preferences, protect accounts, and operate the Services. We do not use third-party account information for targeted advertising.

2. How we use information

We use personal information to:

• Provide, maintain, improve, authenticate, secure, and administer the Services.
• Manage memberships, permissions, projects, events, tasks, interests, certifications, and makerspace activities.
• Administer equipment, inventory, checkouts, returns, deposits, maintenance, safety, and accountability records.
• Display content that you intentionally submit or mark as public.
• Communicate about your account, participation, requests, and service changes.
• Prevent fraud, abuse, unauthorized access, and safety incidents.
• Diagnose technical problems and monitor reliability.
• Meet applicable legal, financial, insurance, safety, and recordkeeping obligations.
• Enforce policies and protect Community Ventures, our members, and the public.

3. Google user data

If you choose Google to sign in, Community Ventures uses Google user data only to provide and secure account authentication and account linking. We do not use Google user data for advertising, sell it, or allow it to be used for purposes unrelated to providing the Services.

Community Ventures' use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

4. When we share information

At your direction or as part of a community feature

Content you intentionally publish, such as a public project title, description, image, or event, may be visible to the public. Other participation information may be visible to authenticated members, group or project participants, leaders, or authorized staff according to the feature's visibility and permissions.

Service providers and connected systems

Hosting, identity, communications, publishing, inventory, storage, security, and monitoring providers may process information as needed to operate their services. Connected systems currently include services based on Authentik, Ghost, InvenTree, and the third-party sign-in provider you select.

Safety, legal, and organizational reasons

We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with valid legal process, protect rights or safety, investigate fraud, abuse, security incidents or unsafe activity, or support an organizational transfer subject to appropriate protection of personal information.

We do not sell personal information.

5. Data retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the Services and fulfill the purposes described in this policy. Retention varies according to account activity; operational, membership, inventory, checkout, certification, safety, audit, and financial needs; dispute resolution; backup and security; and applicable legal, insurance, tax, or recordkeeping obligations.

Account deletion does not necessarily remove records that must be retained for safety, financial, inventory, audit, dispute, or legal purposes. We may de-identify information that no longer needs to identify you.

6. Your choices and requests

You may ask us to:

• Provide access to personal information associated with you.
• Correct inaccurate information.
• Delete information we are not required or permitted to retain.
• Explain how particular information is used.
• Disconnect a third-party sign-in provider from your account.

We may verify your identity before completing a request. Requests may be limited where records must be retained for security, safety, financial, inventory, audit, contractual, or legal reasons. Revoking access through a sign-in provider may stop that sign-in method but does not automatically delete your Community Ventures account or records.

7. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards, including access controls, authenticated services, restricted administrative permissions, transport encryption where supported, and operational security monitoring. No system or transmission method is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Children's privacy

The Services are not intended for children to create accounts or submit personal information independently where parental, guardian, school, provider, or other legally required authorization is necessary. If you believe a child provided personal information without appropriate authorization, contact us so we can review the situation.

9. External sites and services

The Services may link to or integrate with third-party services whose practices are governed by their own privacy policies. Choosing a third-party sign-in provider authorizes that provider to process the request and share the information shown on its consent screen.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the Services, our practices, or legal requirements change. We will post the revised policy with a new effective date and may provide additional notice for material changes.

11. Contact us

For privacy questions or requests, contact Community Ventures through the support contact shown in the service, account area, or sign-in consent screen through which you access the Services. Describe your request and the Community Ventures service or account involved. Do not send passwords, private keys, or other authentication secrets.