Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

LiveLocal, Inc. ("LiveLocal," "we," "our," or "us") operates the website located at livelocal.org and related digital platforms (collectively, the "Services"). We are a community-focused organization dedicated to amplifying local voices and civic participation. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, store, share, and protect information about individuals ("you" or "users") who access or use our Services.

This Policy applies to all users of our website, newsletter subscribers, campaign participants, content contributors, donors, and anyone else who interacts with LiveLocal. Please read this Policy carefully. By using our Services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

For residents of California, the European Economic Area (EEA), and the United Kingdom — additional rights and disclosures apply. Please refer to the relevant sections below.

2. Scope of This Policy

This Privacy Policy covers:

• Information collected through our website and web-based tools
• Information collected through email correspondence and newsletter subscriptions
• Information collected through advocacy campaigns, petitions, or civic events
• Information provided when submitting stories, essays, photographs, or multimedia content
• Information collected through donation or payment processing workflows
• Information collected through social media interactions or third-party integrations

This Policy does not apply to third-party websites, applications, or services that may be linked from our Services. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third parties whose services you access via our website.

3. Information We Collect

3.1 Information You Provide Directly

We collect information that you actively provide when using our Services:

• Account Registration (via Auth0): Full name, email address, username, and optional profile information such as city or neighborhood. User authentication is managed through Auth0, our identity provider.
• Content Submissions: Stories, essays, photographs, videos, captions, and any supporting metadata you submit through our platform.
• Advocacy Participation: Name, email, zip code, and any optional message text when you sign a petition, join a campaign, or contact an elected representative through our tools.
• Donations and Payments (via Stripe): Billing name, email, and billing address. Payment card details are processed directly and securely by Stripe, Inc. and are never stored on LiveLocal servers.
• Newsletter Signup: Email address and optional preferences such as topics of interest or geographic area.
• Contact Forms: Name, email address, subject, and the content of your message.
• Event Registration: Name, email, phone number (optional), and event-specific responses where applicable.

3.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you access or interact with our Services, we and our service providers automatically collect certain technical and behavioral information. Our website is hosted on Vercel and we use Google Analytics to understand site usage:

• Log Data: IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring URL, pages visited, time of visit, and error logs.
• Device Information: Device type (desktop, mobile, tablet) and screen resolution where applicable.
• Usage Data: Interaction patterns such as clicks, scroll depth, content viewed, links followed, and session duration.
• Location Data: General geographic location derived from IP address (country, state, city). We do not collect precise GPS-level location data.
• Cookies and Tracking Technologies: Persistent and session cookies, pixel tags, and local storage identifiers. See Section 7 for more detail.

3.3 Information from Third Parties

We may receive information about you from third-party sources, including:

• Social Media Platforms: If you connect your social media account to sign in or share content, we may receive your public profile name, profile image, and email address, subject to your privacy settings on that platform.
• Analytics Providers: Aggregated and anonymized behavioral data from Google Analytics.
• Partner Organizations: If referred to LiveLocal by a partner civic organization, we may receive your contact information to connect you with relevant campaigns, with your prior consent.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (EEA and UK Users)

If you are located in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom, we process your personal data only where we have a valid legal basis under applicable data protection law, including GDPR or UK GDPR. The legal bases we rely on include:

• Contractual Necessity: Processing necessary to fulfill a service you have requested, such as account creation or content publishing.
• Legitimate Interests: Processing for our legitimate organizational interests, such as improving our platform, preventing fraud, and understanding our audience.
• Consent: Processing based on your freely given, specific, and informed consent, such as for marketing emails or non-essential cookies. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Legal Obligation: Processing required to comply with applicable law or regulatory requirements.

5. How We Use Your Information

We use collected information strictly for the following purposes:

5.1 Service Delivery

• Creating and managing your user account (powered by Auth0)
• Publishing and distributing your submitted content
• Processing your donations and issuing receipts (powered by Stripe)
• Facilitating advocacy actions such as petition signatures and representative contact submissions
• Sending transactional communications (e.g., account confirmation, donation receipts, password resets)

5.2 Communications and Outreach

• Sending newsletters, editorial updates, and civic alerts (with your consent or as permitted by law)
• Notifying you of campaigns, events, or initiatives relevant to your stated interests or geographic location
• Responding to your inquiries, feedback, and support requests

5.3 Platform Improvement

• Analyzing usage patterns via Google Analytics to improve site navigation and content discoverability
• Conducting internal research and reporting on audience engagement (in aggregate, anonymized form)
• Diagnosing technical issues and maintaining platform stability on Vercel

5.4 Legal and Security Purposes

• Detecting, investigating, and preventing fraudulent activity, spam, or abuse
• Enforcing our Terms of Use and other applicable policies
• Complying with applicable law, court orders, or government requests
• Protecting the rights, property, and safety of LiveLocal, our users, and the public

We will not use your personal information for any purpose materially different from those described above without first obtaining your consent or providing you with advance notice and an opportunity to opt out.

6. Information Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information. We do not rent, trade, or monetize your data with advertisers or data brokers. We may share your information in the limited circumstances below:

6.1 Service Providers

We work with trusted third-party vendors who process data on our behalf. The specific providers we use are:

• Vercel: Cloud hosting and website infrastructure
• Stripe, Inc.: Secure donation and payment processing
• Google Analytics: Anonymized website traffic and performance analytics
• Auth0: User identity management and authentication

All service providers are bound by contractual obligations to process data only on our instructions, maintain appropriate security standards, and not use your data for their own purposes.

6.2 Partner Organizations

If you take an action co-sponsored by a partner organization (such as signing a joint petition), we may share your name, email, and action details with that partner for the stated purpose of that campaign. We will always disclose this sharing at the point of collection, and participation is voluntary.

6.3 Legal and Regulatory Disclosures

We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) comply with a legal obligation or valid legal process; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of LiveLocal; (c) prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing; or (d) protect the personal safety of users or the public.

6.4 Business Transfers

In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email or a prominent notice on our website before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

7. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to operate and improve our Services. The types of cookies we use are:

You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings. Note that disabling certain cookies may impair some features of the Services. For more information, visit allaboutcookies.org.

8. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy. Our general retention practices are:

• Account Data (Auth0): Retained for the lifetime of your account. Upon account deletion, personal data is purged within 30 days, except where retention is required for legal or tax compliance.
• Submitted Content: Content you contribute may remain on the platform after account deletion if it was publicly published, unless you specifically request its removal.
• Donation Records (Stripe): Retained for a minimum of 7 years to comply with financial recordkeeping requirements.
• Email Subscriber Data: Retained until you unsubscribe. Unsubscribe records are maintained indefinitely to honor your opt-out preference.
• Analytics Data (Google Analytics): Retained per Google Analytics data retention settings (up to 14 months by default), then aggregated for long-term trend analysis.

9. Data Security

We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect it from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. These measures include:

• Encryption of data in transit using TLS/HTTPS across all Services (enforced by Vercel)
• Encryption of sensitive data at rest in our databases
• Role-based access controls limiting internal data access to authorized personnel only
• Secure third-party payment processing via Stripe — LiveLocal never stores raw payment card data
• Multi-factor authentication requirements for administrative access via Auth0
• Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments of our infrastructure

Despite these measures, no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of your information. In the event of a data breach likely to result in high risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and relevant authorities as required by applicable law.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials. Please notify us immediately at security@livelocal.org if you suspect unauthorized access to your account.

10. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information. We honor these rights for all users to the extent practicable, regardless of location.

• Right to Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, along with information about how it is used and shared.
• Right to Correction: Request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data in our records.
• Right to Deletion: Request that we delete your personal data, subject to certain legal exceptions (e.g., financial record obligations).
• Right to Restrict Processing: Request that we limit how we use your data while a dispute is resolved.
• Right to Data Portability: Receive a copy of your data in a structured, machine-readable format for transfer to another service.
• Right to Object: Object to certain processing activities, including direct marketing and processing based on legitimate interests.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on consent as the legal basis for processing, you may withdraw consent at any time.
• Right to Opt Out of Marketing: Unsubscribe from newsletters and marketing emails at any time via the "Unsubscribe" link in our emails or by contacting us directly.

If you are an EEA or UK resident and believe we have not handled your personal data in accordance with applicable law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority (e.g., the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, or your national data protection authority within the EEA).

11. California Privacy Rights (CCPA / CPRA)

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), grants you specific rights. In addition to the rights described in Section 10, California residents may:

• Request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information collected about you
• Request disclosure of the categories of sources from which we collected your information
• Request disclosure of our business or commercial purpose for collecting your information
• Request disclosure of the categories of third parties with whom we share your information
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information (note: LiveLocal does not sell personal information)
• Limit the use of sensitive personal information to specified purposes
• Not be discriminated against for exercising your CCPA/CPRA rights

To submit a California-specific privacy request, contact us at privacy@livelocal.org. We will verify your identity and respond within 45 days, with one possible 45-day extension, as required by California law.

12. International Data Transfers

LiveLocal, Inc. is based in the United States. Our website is hosted on Vercel infrastructure, which may process data in the U.S. If you access our Services from outside the United States, please be aware that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the U.S., where data protection laws may differ from those in your country.

For users in the EEA or UK, we ensure that any transfer of personal data to countries outside these regions is subject to appropriate safeguards, including Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission or equivalent mechanisms recognized under UK law.

13. Children's Privacy

Our Services are intended for general audiences and are not directed at children under the age of 13 (or 16 in certain jurisdictions). We do not knowingly collect, solicit, or retain personal information from children under these age thresholds without verifiable parental or guardian consent.

If we discover that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child below the relevant age threshold, we will promptly delete it from our records. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has submitted personal data to us without your consent, please contact us immediately at privacy@livelocal.org.

14. Third-Party Links and Services

Our website may contain links to external websites, social media platforms, partner organization pages, or embedded third-party content. These third-party sites and services operate independently of LiveLocal and are not covered by this Privacy Policy. We have no control over how third parties collect, use, or share your information, and we are not responsible for their privacy practices.

We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any external services you access through links on our website, particularly before providing any personal information to them.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update or modify this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect changes in our data practices, applicable law, or organizational structure. When we make changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this Policy.

For material changes — those that significantly affect how we collect, use, or share your personal data — we will provide advance notice by: (a) sending an email to the address associated with your account; (b) displaying a prominent notice on our website or in the Services; or (c) both. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date of any updated Policy constitutes your acceptance of the changes.

16. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests related to this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact our privacy team using any of the following methods:

We aim to respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 5 business days. For formal rights requests, we will provide a substantive response within the timeframe required by applicable law.