1. Scope

This Privacy Policy explains how theFocusOnLife.org ("TFOL," "we," "us," or "the website"), privately operated by Geoff Stevens, collects, uses, displays, retains, and shares information. It applies to TFOL and its subject-oriented and community websites unless a particular project or activity provides a supplemental privacy or consent notice.

2. Information TFOL Collects

Account and profile information

TFOL may collect and store:

  • Name, email address, account identifiers, associated website or community, and profile photograph;
  • A one-way password hash rather than a readable password;
  • Account role, status, preferences, visibility choices, and public-leaderboard choice;
  • Email-verification status and date;
  • Terms acceptance, accepted policy version, and acceptance date when those records are implemented;
  • Join date, failed-login count, last failed-login time, and temporary account-lock information; and
  • Other operational account settings used to display or administer the website.

Member, club, and guardian information

When a person applies for or administers community membership, TFOL may collect:

  • Name, email address, telephone number, address, membership status, and account association;
  • Date of birth or age category where required for an existing membership process;
  • Parent or guardian name and contact information;
  • Emergency-contact name, telephone number, and relationship;
  • Parental-authorization status and acceptance date; and
  • Creation, update, approval, and administrative records.

Stories, photographs, comments, and other submissions

TFOL may store:

  • Story titles, summaries, full text, author identity, publication settings, dates, and website or menu associations;
  • Profile pictures, story images, full-size originals, captions, alternative text, and filenames;
  • Comments, commenter identity, dates, and associated story;
  • Like records associating a member with a story, even when only the total count is displayed;
  • Community announcements, schedules, notes, external links, descriptions, and submitted text; and
  • Interview recordings, transcripts, drafts, photographs, or releases when provided for a project such as Stories Worth Saving.

Messages and requests

TFOL messaging and request records may include:

  • Sender and recipient identifiers and stored copies of their names;
  • Message or request text;
  • Website or family associations;
  • Request, response, read, or permission status;
  • Sent and reply dates; and
  • Separate sender and recipient deletion indicators.

Cycling and activity information

When members submit cycling information, TFOL may store:

  • Member identity, ride date, title, type, starting-location description, and geographic community;
  • Distance, elapsed time, elevation, speed, power, heart rate, notes, and publication status;
  • Exact start time, start and end coordinates, GPX files, and related upload information;
  • Monthly aggregate mileage, elevation, ride count, and public-leaderboard choice; and
  • External activity service, direct activity URL, title, notes, and publication settings.

Heart-rate information, precise coordinates, exact times, and GPX routes can be sensitive because they may reveal health, routines, movement, or a home or frequently used starting location.

Contact and support information

If you contact TFOL, we may receive your name, email address, subject, message, page or website of origin, and related correspondence. Information collected by the contact process will be described according to the final verified form and email-storage behavior before this draft is published.

Technical and security information

TFOL and its service providers may process:

  • IP address or a shortened IP-address prefix;
  • Browser and device information, including a security hash derived from the browser user-agent;
  • Session creation and last-activity times;
  • Requested pages, referring pages, access dates and times, and server errors;
  • Login, email-verification, password-recovery, and account-security records; and
  • reCAPTCHA interaction and anti-abuse signals.

3. How Information Is Used

TFOL uses information to:

  • Create, verify, authenticate, secure, and administer accounts;
  • Operate member, messaging, membership, community, publishing, and activity features;
  • Publish material and public information authorized or selected for display;
  • Deliver messages, requests, notifications, and account communications;
  • Process membership applications and support community administration;
  • Display public leaderboard totals when the applicable public-display setting permits it;
  • Respond to questions, support requests, and reports;
  • Moderate content and investigate suspected misuse;
  • Prevent spam, automated abuse, fraud, and unauthorized access;
  • Maintain backups, diagnose errors, and improve site operation; and
  • Comply with legal obligations and protect TFOL, its members, and others.

TFOL does not sell personal information.

4. Public, Member, and Administrative Visibility

Visibility depends on the feature and publication setting.

Public information

Public visitors may be able to see:

  • Published stories, summaries, comments, photographs, author names, commenter names, and profile pictures;
  • Full-size or original files linked from published material;
  • Community announcements, schedules, meeting or event information, links, and contributor names;
  • Published cycling reports and information selected for public display; and
  • Names and aggregate monthly statistics of members whose leaderboard setting permits public display.

Changing profile visibility does not automatically unpublish material that was separately published. Public material and directly accessible files may remain in caches, backups, search results, or copies made by other people after removal from TFOL.

Member-visible information

Logged-in members may be able to see:

  • Names and website numbers in the member message-recipient directory;
  • Member-only pages and community information for which they have access; and
  • External activity links or other material restricted to a particular community.

Owner and administrative information

Members can ordinarily view or edit their own account and submitted information according to the feature. Authorized website administrators or the Uber Administrator may access membership, emergency-contact, activity, publication, account, or technical information as reasonably necessary for their assigned responsibilities. Administrative access is not the same as public or ordinary member access.

5. Private Member Messages

Ordinary application access to a private message is restricted to its sender and recipient. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted, and authorized technical access may occur at the database or system level for maintenance, security, abuse investigation, protection of users, or legal compliance.

Deleting a message from an Inbox or Sent folder hides it from that member's displayed folder. The underlying record may remain while it is available to the other participant and may remain in the database or backups after both participants remove it.

6. Minors and Youth Participation

TFOL accounts are available only to individuals who are at least 18 years old.

TFOL relies on the age information supplied during registration and does not independently verify every registrant's age. Email verification confirms control of an email address; it does not establish adulthood.

A minor may participate in an eligible community activity only through a parent or legal guardian and without an independent TFOL account or private-messaging access. Youth information will be limited to what is reasonably needed for participation and will be restricted to the parent or guardian and authorized administrators, except when the guardian separately authorizes publication of a photograph, story, result, or other information.

If TFOL learns that an account belongs to a minor, TFOL may suspend the account, contact a parent or guardian when appropriate, and delete, restrict, or preserve information as reasonably necessary for privacy, security, legal, and recordkeeping purposes. A parent or guardian may contact TFOL to request review, correction, or deletion of a minor's information.

7. Cookies and Sessions

TFOL uses cookies or similar browser storage needed for sessions, login, security, form protection, and user preferences. These may remember authentication state or choices such as a community view. Disabling essential cookies may prevent login and other account features from working.

Third-party security services such as reCAPTCHA may use their own cookies or identifiers.

8. Google reCAPTCHA

TFOL uses Google reCAPTCHA on certain forms, including forms used for login, registration, password recovery, email changes, verification, contact, or support. reCAPTCHA helps distinguish legitimate requests from spam, automated abuse, and unauthorized-access attempts.

Google may process information such as IP address, browser and device characteristics, interaction information, and behavioral or security signals. Google's processing is governed by its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

9. Hosting, Logs, and Analytics

TFOL does not currently use Google Analytics. TFOL's hosting provider may maintain server access logs, error logs, security records, and server-based traffic statistics containing IP address, browser or device information, requested pages, referring pages, and access dates and times. These records support hosting, security, troubleshooting, performance, and abuse prevention.

10. When Information Is Shared

TFOL may disclose or make information available:

  • To the public when you submit or approve material for public publication;
  • To other members when necessary to provide a member or community feature;
  • To authorized community or website administrators for their assigned responsibilities;
  • To A2 Hosting and related infrastructure providers as needed to host and secure the website;
  • To Titan or another configured email provider as needed to deliver email;
  • To Google when reCAPTCHA processes a protected form;
  • To technical contractors or service providers when reasonably necessary to support TFOL;
  • When required by law, legal process, or a valid government request;
  • To investigate misuse, enforce the Terms, or protect the rights, safety, and security of TFOL or others; or
  • As part of a future transfer of TFOL's operation or assets, subject to appropriate privacy protections.

Service providers process information according to their services, contracts, and privacy terms.

11. Security

TFOL uses reasonable administrative, technical, and operational measures appropriate to a small website, including password hashing, email verification, login protections, HTTPS, access restrictions, spam and abuse controls, backups, and maintenance practices. No website, transmission, or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure.

TFOL does not intend to collect payment-card information. Members should not submit unnecessary highly sensitive information through profiles, messages, comments, community notes, or other free-form fields.

Production information may exist in staging, local development, exported database backups, copied upload directories, and routine hosting backups used for maintenance and recovery.

12. Retention

TFOL retains information according to its purpose and operational need:

  • Account information is generally retained while the account remains active and for a reasonable period afterward;
  • Published stories, photographs, comments, and community material remain until unpublished, removed, or otherwise addressed;
  • Messages may remain while available to either participant and may remain after being removed from displayed folders;
  • Membership, guardian, consent, and emergency information is retained while reasonably needed for administration, safety, or documentation;
  • Ride and activity information is retained while needed to provide the feature or until appropriately deleted or archived;
  • Contact correspondence is retained while needed to respond and for reasonable operational follow-up;
  • Security and technical records are retained for reasonable security, troubleshooting, and abuse-prevention periods; and
  • Backup copies remain until overwritten or removed through the normal backup cycle.

Some information may be retained longer when reasonably necessary for security, dispute resolution, enforcement, legal compliance, preservation of an authorized publication, or protection of TFOL and its users.

13. Your Choices and Requests

Subject to technical, legal, security, and publication limitations, you may ask TFOL to:

  • Provide information about personal information associated with your account;
  • Correct inaccurate account information;
  • Close or disable your account;
  • Remove or unpublish certain submissions;
  • Provide a copy of certain information in a reasonably available form;
  • Change an optional public-display or leaderboard choice; or
  • Answer questions about retention or disclosure.

Account closure does not automatically remove separately published material, messages retained for another participant, necessary security records, or temporary backup copies. TFOL may need to verify identity before fulfilling a request.

14. External Websites and Services

TFOL contains links to services and websites operated by others. Their privacy practices apply when you visit them. External activity links may reveal additional information according to the privacy settings you selected on services such as Strava, Garmin Connect, Ride with GPS, Chess.com, Lichess, or another platform.

15. United States Processing

TFOL is intended primarily for users in the United States. Information may be stored and processed in the United States. If you access TFOL from another country, applicable privacy protections may differ from those in your location.

16. Changes to This Policy

TFOL may revise this Privacy Policy as its features and practices change. The effective date identifies the current version. TFOL will provide reasonable notice of material changes and may require members to acknowledge a revised version before continuing to use account features.

17. Contact

Privacy questions and requests may be sent to contact@thefocusonlife.org.