Privacy

What we hold,
and why

Written to be read, not to be survived. If anything here is unclear, that's a fault worth telling us about.

Last updated 18 August 2026 · Version [1.1]

TEMPLATE — NOT YET LEGAL ADVICE.
This describes what the NBWC system actually does, so a lawyer can work from something real rather than boilerplate. Before publishing: fill every [BRACKET], confirm the retention periods are what you actually intend, and have a New York attorney review the whole thing. Delete this box when it's signed off.

1. Who we are

The North Brooklyn Women's Collective ("NBWC", "we") operates this site and the member directory it hosts. We are [LEGAL ENTITY NAME AND STATUS — e.g. an unincorporated association / a New York not-for-profit corporation].

The person responsible for privacy questions is [NAME AND ROLE], reachable at [PRIVACY EMAIL ADDRESS].

2. What we collect

When you apply

  • Your name and email address
  • Your neighbourhood — the area only. We never ask for or store a home address.
  • Your profession, and your business name, website, or social handle if you give them
  • A short bio, your reasons for applying, and what you'd contribute
  • How you heard about us, and the names of any referring members

If you become a member

  • Everything above, plus anything you add to your profile
  • A profile photograph, if you upload one. Location metadata is stripped from every image on upload.
  • Your visibility settings — which fields appear in the directory, and whether you appear at all
  • Sign-in records: the date of your last sign-in, and nothing about what you looked at

If you write to us

  • Your name, email, and message, through the contact or partnership forms

If you subscribe to the newsletter

  • Your email address. No newsletter platform is connected yet, so for now it is held with the other form submissions and nothing is sent to you

Whichever form you use

  • The IP address the submission arrived from, stored beside it. It is kept so an automated flood can be told apart from real people writing in. Nothing is derived from it, no profile is built, and it goes when the submission goes.

3. Why we hold it

To decide on applications, to run the directory, to organise events, and to answer you when you write. That's the whole list. We do not profile members, we do not score anyone, and we do not sell, rent, or share member information with anyone for any purpose.

[IF GDPR APPLIES] If you have members or applicants in the UK or EU, this section needs a lawful basis for each purpose — likely consent for the newsletter and legitimate interests for the directory. Ask your attorney whether NBWC is in scope at all.

4. Who can see it

  • Your application is read by the review team and nobody else. It is never shown to other members, including anyone you named as a referrer.
  • Your public profile is visible to anyone who visits the public directory, but only the fields you explicitly approve for sharing appear there. Public listing is optional.
  • Your email address is never displayed to anyone. Members contact each other through a form that passes the message along without revealing the address.
  • Administrators can see member records in order to run the Collective. Every export of member data is logged.

The public directory is intentionally accessible without a sign-in. The current site-wide server setting asks search engines not to index NBWC pages, but that setting is separate from public access and may change at launch. We will update this policy before changing it.

5. The directory, specifically

The public directory exists so people can discover members and make genuine community connections. It is not a mailing list, and using it for bulk outreach, cold pitching, or adding people to anything is a breach of the code of conduct that costs membership.

You control whether you appear and which public fields are shared. To change or remove a listing, use the contact page. Your membership and event access are not affected, and your email address is never published.

6. How long we keep it

  • Member records — for as long as you're a member.
  • After you leave — your profile disappears from the directory immediately. The underlying record is deleted or anonymised within [RETENTION PERIOD, e.g. 90 days] unless you ask us to delete it sooner, which we'll do.
  • Declined applications — kept for [PERIOD, e.g. 12 months] so we can recognise a reapplication, then deleted.
  • Contact and partnership messages — kept for [PERIOD, e.g. 24 months].
  • Event photographs — kept indefinitely unless you ask for removal, which we honour without needing a reason.

7. Your rights

You can, at any time and without giving a reason:

  • See everything we hold about you
  • Correct anything that's wrong — most of it you can edit yourself
  • Hide yourself from the directory
  • Have a photograph taken down
  • Leave, and have your record deleted

Write to [PRIVACY EMAIL ADDRESS] and we'll act within [RESPONSE PERIOD, e.g. 30 days]. There's no form and no process to navigate.

[JURISDICTION CHECK] New York has no general consumer privacy statute as of writing, but the SHIELD Act imposes data security obligations and breach notification duties that likely apply. Confirm current requirements and add a breach notification commitment if your attorney advises it.

8. Third-party tools

We use a small number of outside services to run the site. Each holds only what it needs to do its job.

  • Hostinger — rents NBWC the server the site runs on. What you send through the application, contact, partnership and newsletter forms is stored on that server, in a file only NBWC can read. It is not passed to any form-handling service.
  • No notification email is sent when a form is submitted — NBWC reads submissions from the server itself. No email provider is connected yet; when one is, it will be named here.
  • No newsletter platform is connected yet. Until one is, a newsletter sign-up is held with the other form submissions and nothing is sent to you.
  • No analytics. No analytics service runs on this site — no cookies are set, no profile is built, and nothing about your visit is sent to an advertising network.
  • Google Fonts and the Pexels image CDN serve the typefaces and photographs. Loading a page requests files from them, which means they see your IP address, as any server you fetch a file from does.

9. Cookies

We set one cookie, and only once you sign in: it keeps you signed in. It isn't used for tracking and it isn't shared. There are no advertising cookies on this site and no third-party trackers.

10. Changes to this policy

If we change something that affects you materially, we'll email members rather than quietly updating the date at the top. The version number and date at the head of this page always reflect the current text.

11. Asking us anything

Write to [PRIVACY EMAIL ADDRESS] or use the contact form. A person answers.