Outdoorithm Collective Privacy Policy

Effective Date: November 2024 · Minors, teen accounts, and tracking disclosures updated September 2026

1. Introduction

Welcome to Outdoorithm Collective. We are committed to protecting your privacy and the privacy of your family members. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website, use our member platform, or participate in our camping trips and programs.

Outdoorithm Collective is a California-based nonprofit organization that helps urban families—especially those historically excluded from outdoor spaces—reconnect with nature through community camping experiences and a digital platform for ongoing connection.

By using our services, you consent to the practices described in this policy.

One exception: a person aged 13 to 17 using a Supervised Teen Account does not consent to anything by using the platform. Their parent or legal guardian does, from their own account. Section 6.2 explains how Teen Accounts work.

2. Contact Information

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

Outdoorithm Collective

4200 Park Blvd, #115

Oakland, CA 94602

Email: info@outdoorithmcollective.org

Phone: 510-833-6114

3. Information We Collect

3.1 Information You Provide Directly

We collect information you voluntarily provide when you register for membership, sign up for trips, or interact with our platform:

Contact Information:

  • Names of parents/guardians and family members
  • Email addresses and phone numbers
  • Mailing address
  • Emergency contact information

Demographic Information:

We collect demographic information to get to know your family and to share our impact with funders. This includes:

  • Race/ethnicity (for each family member)
  • Household income range
  • Age and gender
  • Location (city and state)

This information is optional where indicated and is shared with funders only in anonymized or aggregated form.

Children's Information:

  • Names and ages of children
  • Demographic information (race/ethnicity, gender)
  • Photos and videos (with parental consent)

Health and Safety Information:

We keep this on file for trip planning and safety. Only trip leaders who need this information will have access. You can update it anytime.

  • Medical conditions and medications
  • Allergies (food, environmental, medication)
  • Dietary restrictions
  • Accessibility needs

Membership and Participation Information:

  • Responses to values and community questions
  • Referral source (how you heard about us and who referred you)
  • Camping experience level
  • OC Impact Fund contributions
  • Skills and interests you wish to share with the community

Photos and Videos:

  • Images you upload to the platform
  • Photos and videos taken during trips

3.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit our website or use our platform, we automatically collect:

  • Device information (browser type, operating system)
  • IP address and general location
  • Pages visited and time spent
  • Referring website

The services that collect this for us are named in section 11: Google Ads for advertising measurement on our public pages, PostHog for product analytics, and Sentry for error monitoring. We do not use Google Analytics. None of the first two runs inside a Teen Account.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

Provide Our Services:

  • Process membership applications and manage your account
  • Plan and coordinate camping trips safely
  • Facilitate connections between families on our platform
  • Respond to emergencies during trips

Communicate With You:

  • Send trip information, reminders, and updates
  • Share newsletters and community stories
  • Notify you about platform activity
  • Request feedback and testimonials

Understand and Improve:

  • Get to know the families in our community
  • Track and report our impact to funders (using anonymized data)
  • Improve our programs and platform
  • Ensure we are reaching families across income levels and backgrounds

5. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only in the following circumstances:

5.1 With Other Members

When you join our platform, other members can see your profile information and content you share. Photos and stories you post may be visible to the community. You control what you share publicly.

5.2 With Service Providers

We work with trusted service providers who help us operate our organization, including our platform hosting provider (Supabase/AWS), payment processor (Stripe), and email service. These providers are contractually obligated to protect your information and use it only for the services they provide to us.

5.3 With Funders and for Impact Reporting

We share anonymized and aggregated data with funders to demonstrate our impact. This includes statistics like "X% of participating families are BIPOC" or "average household income range of participants." We never share individual family information with funders.

5.4 For Legal Reasons

We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or government request, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Outdoorithm Collective, our members, or others.

5.5 With Your Consent

We may share your information in other ways if you give us specific consent, such as featuring your family's story in our marketing materials.

6. Children's Privacy (COPPA Compliance)

Protecting children's privacy is especially important to us. Here's how we handle children's information:

6.1 Children Under 13

Children under 13 do not have their own accounts. Parents/guardians manage all information about their children through their own accounts. We collect children's information (names, ages, photos, medical information) only with verifiable parental consent.

6.2 Teen Accounts (13-17)

Who can have an account. Outdoorithm Collective accounts are for adults, except for Teen Accounts. A Teen Account is for a person who is at least 13 and under 18, whose household resides in California, and whose parent or legal guardian is an Outdoorithm Collective member and created the account. We do not knowingly create accounts for anyone under 13. If we learn that a person under 13 has an account, we close it immediately and delete the information we hold about them within 30 days, apart from records we are required to keep, such as trip waivers and safety records. Closure is automatic; the deletion is done by a member of our staff.

How a Teen Account is created. A parent or legal guardian creates a Teen Account from their own signed-in account. We do not accept a teen's statement that a parent or guardian has agreed as that parent's or guardian's consent. See California Civil Code section 1568.5.

What we collect about a teen. Name; date of birth; the household the teen belongs to and who their guardian is; the email address used for the account; the trips and events the teen is part of; badges and progress in the app; and the basic technical information needed to keep the account working and secure. If a guardian has given us medical notes or dietary restrictions for trip safety, we hold those too.

What we do not collect about a teen. We do not collect precise location. We do not collect contacts, biometric information, or advertising identifiers. We do not build advertising or behavioral profiles.

How we use it. Only to run the account and the programs the household signed up for: showing the teen their trips, trip guides, and badges; keeping people safe on trips; and communicating with the household. We do not use a teen's information for research and development, and we do not use it for marketing.

We do not advertise to teens. We do not load third-party advertising or marketing tags inside a Teen Account, and we do not send a teen's information to advertising platforms. We do not include teens in marketing lists or advertising audiences. We do not market or advertise to minors any of the products restricted by California Business and Professions Code section 22580, including alcohol, tobacco, electronic cigarettes, cannabis, firearms, ammunition, fireworks, lottery products, tattoos, or obscene material.

We do not sell or share a teen's personal information. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We have never done so.

Who can see a teen's information. The teen's household administrator, who is their parent or legal guardian. Outdoorithm Collective staff and trip organizers who need it to run a trip or support the account. Service providers who help us operate the platform under contract. We do not otherwise disclose it, except where the law requires it or where someone's safety is at risk.

What the guardian can do. A household administrator may view the teen's information, correct it, pause or close the account, or ask us to delete the teen's information, at any time, from household settings or by writing to safety@outdoorithmcollective.org. We act on deletion requests within 30 days.

How long we keep it. We keep a teen's account information while the account is open. Closing a Teen Account ends the teen's access immediately. It does not by itself erase the household record, which stays the way it does for any child in a household who has no login. To have a teen's information deleted, ask us and we will do it within 30 days. A household administrator can ask from household settings or by email. Some records survive a deletion request because we are required to keep them: trip waivers and safety records for as long as our insurer and California law require, and the audit log of who changed the account and when. When a teen turns 18 and accepts our Terms in their own name, their information continues under the adult terms of this policy.

Removing content a teen posted. See section 6.5.

Where teens can be. Teen Accounts are currently offered only to households in California. If we expand to other states, we will update this policy and give affected households notice before we do.

6.3 Parental Rights

Parents have the right to:

  • Review their child's personal information
  • Request deletion of their child's information
  • Refuse further collection of their child's information
  • Withdraw consent for photos/videos

6.4 Parental Responsibility

Parents are responsible for supervising their children's activities on the platform and during trips. Outdoorithm Collective, its staff, board members, and volunteers are not responsible for how children engage on the platform or for children's behavior during trips—children must always be under parental supervision.

6.5 Removing Content You Posted, If You Are Under 18

This is our notice under California Business and Professions Code sections 22580 to 22582, the California minor eraser law.

If you are a registered user under 18 and you have posted something on Outdoorithm Collective, you can remove it. Use the removal control in your account settings, or email safety@outdoorithmcollective.org and tell us what you want removed. We will take it down, or hide it, so other people using the platform can no longer see it. There is no charge.

Removal may be incomplete. Taking something down here does not make it disappear from everywhere, and does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content from the internet. We cannot reach copies that other people already saved, downloaded, screenshotted, shared, or reposted somewhere else. We may also have to keep a copy where the law requires it.

A few things we may not be able to remove: content someone else posted, even if it is about you or shows you; content we have already anonymized so it no longer identifies you; content another user has stored or reposted; and content the law requires us to keep. If someone else posted something about you that you want taken down, write to us anyway and we will look at it.

Teen Accounts cannot post anything today. This is how removal works if that changes, and it applies now to any registered user under 18.

We do not market or advertise to a registered user we know to be under 18 any product a minor cannot legally buy in California, including the categories listed in section 22580, and we do not use, disclose, or compile a minor's personal information for that purpose or knowingly permit anyone else to.

7. Photo and Video Consent

7.1 Platform Sharing

Photos and videos you share on the platform are visible to other members. By uploading content, you grant Outdoorithm Collective permission to display it within the platform.

7.2 Marketing and Promotional Use

We request separate consent to use your photos, videos, or testimonials in marketing materials, on our website, or on social media. You can grant or withdraw this consent at any time by contacting us.

For anyone under 18, a parent or legal guardian signs. We will not use an image in which a member of your household who is under 18 is identifiable in advertising, fundraising, promotional, or membership-recruitment materials unless a parent or legal guardian has signed our Media Release for that person and checked the box permitting promotional use. A minor cannot give that permission for themselves. See California Civil Code section 3344.

7.3 Trip Photography

During trips, we or other families may take photos and videos. We share these with trip participants through the platform. If you do not want your family photographed, please let us know before the trip.

8. Data Security

We take the security of your information seriously and implement appropriate safeguards:

8.1 Technical Safeguards

  • Encryption of sensitive data at rest and in transit
  • Secure hosting on Supabase/AWS with industry-standard protections
  • Role-based access controls limiting who can view sensitive information
  • Regular security reviews and updates
  • Payment processing through Stripe (we never store credit card information)

8.2 Medical Information Protection

Medical information receives our highest level of protection. It is encrypted, accessible only to the Executive Director and designated trip leaders who need it for safety, and stored securely with strict access controls.

8.3 Your Responsibility

You can help protect your information by:

  • Choosing a strong, unique password
  • Not sharing your login credentials
  • Logging out of shared devices
  • Notifying us immediately if you suspect unauthorized access

8.4 Data Breach Notification

In the event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you within 72 hours via email with details about what happened, steps we're taking, and actions you can take to protect yourself.

9. Data Retention

We retain your information for as long as necessary to provide our services and comply with legal obligations:

  • Account information: As long as your membership is active, plus 3 years
  • Trip waivers and medical forms: at least 7 years for an adult participant. For a participant who was under 18 at the time, we keep them longer, because the period for bringing a claim does not begin to run while a person is a minor. We follow the schedule our insurer sets rather than a single fixed number.
  • Photos and videos: Until you request deletion or withdraw consent
  • Donation records: 7 years (IRS requirements)

After retention periods expire, we securely delete or anonymize the information.

10. Your Rights Under California Law (CCPA)

As a California resident, you have the following rights regarding your personal information:

10.1 Right to Know

You can request what personal information we have collected about you, where we got it, why we collected it, and who we shared it with.

10.2 Right to Delete

You can request that we delete your personal information, subject to certain exceptions (such as legal retention requirements for waivers and medical forms).

10.3 Right to Opt Out

We do not sell your personal information. You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by clicking "unsubscribe" in our emails or contacting us.

10.4 Right to Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights.

10.5 How to Exercise Your Rights

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@outdoorithmcollective.org or 510-833-6114. We will respond within 45 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

11. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services that may collect information:

  • Supabase and Amazon Web Services: platform hosting, database, and file storage
  • Vercel: web application hosting and delivery
  • Stripe: payment processing for donations and membership contributions
  • Google Ads (gtag.js): advertising measurement on our public pages. This is the only third party that collects information about your browsing on our site for advertising purposes. It is not loaded inside a Teen Account, and if it was already loaded before a teen signed in on the same device, it is switched off and records nothing from the teen's session. Anything it had already recorded from the previous session may still be delivered; none of it is the teen's.
  • PostHog: product analytics, so we can see which features people use. It is not loaded inside a Teen Account, and if it was already loaded before a teen signed in on the same device, it stops recording and captures nothing from the teen's session.
  • Sentry: error and crash monitoring. Sentry runs for every account, including Teen Accounts, because an account whose crashes nobody sees is worse for the person using it. On an adult account it also samples a small share of performance traces and records a replay of the session when an error occurs. Neither of those runs on a Teen Account: performance sampling is switched off and session replay is stopped as soon as we know the session is a teen's.
  • Resend and SendGrid: email delivery for notifications, trip communications, and newsletters
  • Expo: mobile app delivery and push notifications

Each service has its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review them. We do not allow any third party to collect personally identifiable information about a Teen Account holder's online activities over time and across different websites.

12. Cookies and Tracking

Our website uses cookies—small files stored on your device—to improve your experience and analyze site usage. You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect some website functionality.

12.1 Do Not Track

Some browsers send a “Do Not Track” signal. There is no industry standard for how a website should respond to one, and we do not currently change our behavior in response to it. We tell you this because California law requires us to disclose how we treat that signal, whichever way we treat it. What we do instead is narrower and does not depend on your browser: we do not sell personal information, we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not load advertising or product-analytics tags at all inside a Teen Account.

12.2 Third-Party Tracking

The third parties named in section 11 that observe your use of our site are Google Ads, PostHog, and Sentry. Google Ads is the only one of them used for advertising. Inside a Teen Account, Google Ads and PostHog do not load, and where one was already loaded by an adult using the same device it is switched off and records nothing from the teen's session. Sentry runs in error-reporting mode only, with performance sampling and session replay switched off. None of them tracks a teen's browsing across other websites.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by email and by posting a notice on our website. Your continued use of our services after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact us:

Outdoorithm Collective

4200 Park Blvd, #115

Oakland, CA 94602

Email: info@outdoorithmcollective.org

Phone: 510-833-6114

Thank you for trusting Outdoorithm Collective with your family's information.