Privacy and California Rights

Overview

Humboldt Friends is designed to help local adults form safer, more accountable community connections. Registration and verification are required before members can access the community app. Sensitive features may require an in-person Friend Interview with valid California ID.

Humboldt Friends is a small, disability-led community project. It is operated in good faith around privacy, accessibility, community safety, and member dignity. This policy is not legal advice and may be updated as the project, law, or platform features change.

No Sale of Data

Humboldt Friends does not sell, rent, or trade member personal information. Humboldt Friends does not use cross-context behavioral advertising in the current build.

Mobile phone numbers, SMS opt-in data, SMS consent records, and text messaging status are not shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Service providers may process this information only as needed to operate, secure, support, or deliver Humboldt Friends services.

Information We Collect

• Account information, including phone number, display name, signup name, password/session records, account identifiers, verification status, SMS subscription status, and support request identifiers.
• Phone verification information, including SMS consent, account phone-check call metadata, keypad confirmation results, line-type/carrier lookup results, and storage/audit records.
• Profile and community content, including avatars, profile details, posts, comments, likes, reports, PenPal letters, chats, meet-up records, and support messages.
• Safety and moderation information, including reports, review status, staff actions, account restrictions, and factual audit logs.
• Device and app information needed for security, abuse prevention, debugging, accessibility, and performance, such as IP address, user agent, viewport, app section, and basic request logs.

Information We Do Not Want

• Do not send Social Security numbers, Medi-Cal numbers, Medicaid paperwork, diagnosis records, medical records, full ID images, ID barcode data, or payment card numbers.
• Humboldt Friends does not collect precise geolocation in the current build. Site permissions block geolocation by default.
• For in-person ID checks, staff should record only the minimum required ID facts, such as legal name, date of birth, ID type, expiration date, and last four of ID number where required. Full ID numbers should not be stored by default.

Notice at Collection

Humboldt Friends may collect identifiers, account records, phone and SMS records, account phone-check records, in-person ID review facts, profile content, user-generated posts, chat content, support messages, safety reports, and app usage or diagnostic records.

These categories are used for authentication, community features, account-status messages, member safety, moderation, support, security, debugging, legal compliance, accessibility, and service improvement.

Records are retained while needed to operate the app, preserve member history, resolve safety issues, prevent abuse, support accounts, and meet legal obligations.

How We Use Information

• Create, verify, and manage member accounts.
• Confirm members are adults and reduce fake, spam, duplicate, or abusive accounts.
• Operate posts, comments, profiles, chats, PenPal letters, meet-ups, support, and safety review features.
• Communicate account setup, account status, support replies, Friend Interview updates, and safety-related account notices by SMS or voice where allowed.
• Investigate reports, support requests, policy violations, fraud, harassment, exploitation, or serious safety concerns.
• Improve accessibility, reliability, and security using minimized operational records.

Service Providers

Humboldt Friends may use trusted providers for hosting, database storage, security, communication delivery, phone verification, SMS delivery, support, and infrastructure. These providers may process personal information only as needed for Humboldt Friends operations and are not allowed to sell or reuse member data for unrelated purposes under our agreements with them.

Retention

Account, profile, community content, SMS consent, account phone-check, support, report, safety, and audit records are retained while needed to operate the app, preserve member history, resolve safety issues, prevent abuse, support accounts, and meet legal obligations. De-identified or aggregated information may be retained for public-interest reporting, safety analysis, and accessibility improvement.

Your Choices and California Rights

• You may request access, correction, deletion, or privacy support through Settings or Support after signing in.
• California residents may request information about categories of personal information collected, used, retained, or disclosed.
• You may opt out of sale or sharing if those practices are introduced. Humboldt Friends does not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising in the current build.
• You may ask to limit use of sensitive personal information where required by law and where the request does not prevent account safety features from working.
• You may opt out of SMS by replying STOP. Reply HELP for help. Reply START or UNSTOP to resubscribe where supported.
• SMS opt-in is required before feed access and the account phone check so Humboldt Friends can confirm control of the account phone number before posting opens.
• Some requests may be limited by safety, legal, account-integrity, or operational retention needs.

Contact

Humboldt Friends Privacy Coordinator: [email protected]

Text or call: +1 (833) 435-4442

Mailing address: 1935 H St 7A, Arcata, CA 95521.