Privacy Policy - The Park Community

The Park's Privacy Policy

Effective Date: May 8, 2024
Last Updated: April 2, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how our website(s) and mobile application(s) collect, use, store, protect, and share your personal information. It is important that you read this entire policy, but here is a summary to get you started:

Privacy is our top priority. We are committed to creating spaces where the adoption community can connect and share online. Respecting user privacy is a key part of this mission.
We do not and will never sell your personal information to anyone and we do not partner with or have special relationships with any ad server companies.
We limit what information is required. We require the information that enables us to create your account, provide and maintain our services, meet our commitments to our users, and satisfy our legal requirements. Everything else is optional.
We care deeply about safety. Our dedicated administrative team works hard to keep this online community safe. We reserve the right at all times to monitor, review, retain, and/or disclose any information as necessary. Any actions in violation of common on-line community conduct, decency and propriety will be regulated and subject to legal process and law enforcement.
We give you control. You have full control over your privacy on The Park.

Introduction

By using our websites (ccaifamily.org and theparkcommunity.org) and our mobile applications (My Heritage Tour, Adopteen VibeCheck (beta), CCAI Family Circle(beta)), you are agreeing to the terms of our Privacy Policy as set out below. We reserve the right to modify this policy as our needs require and will keep this page updated on our site. We are particularly sensitive to privacy issues on the internet and provide this Privacy Policy so you can know about our online information practices and understand how we treat the information we receive about you from the internet and our mobile applications.

CCAI is the sole owner of the information collected on this site and through our mobile applications, and we will not sell, share, or rent personally identifiable information to others in any way. We do not collect any personally identifiable information from you (e.g., name, street address, e-mail address) unless you voluntarily choose to disclose such information. We only ask for the information needed to provide the service you have requested. Presently, such requests include: submitting an application, question, comment, or concern to us; requesting an Adoption Information Packet or Sponsorship Prospectus; making a donation; booking a field trip; registering for a Parenting Training class, a The Park community workshop, in-person class, or on-line class; booking a Heritage Tour, registering for a camp or retreat; signing up for an account with CCAI or The Park; and purchasing an item from the CCAI/The Park online store; and signing in to the My Heritage Tour, Adopteen VibeCheck, and CCAI Family Circle applications. Any information collected is used only to process such applications or requests. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit this information. If you have provided us your personal information and do not wish to receive further information from CCAI, you may send us an e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected] to notify us and we will remove you from all future communications.

From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy policy. If our information practices change at some time in the future, we will contact you before we use your data for these new purposes to notify you of the policy change and to provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses, and/or we will post the policy changes to our Web site(s) to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our Web site periodically.

Upon request we offer visitors the ability to have inaccuracies corrected in contact information. Customer can have this information corrected by sending us e-mail at the above addresses.

Connect, Build, Flourish

The Park was built to challenge the landscape of post-adoption support; to provide accessible adoption engagement opportunities and effective support systems for the adoption community. The mission is to provide lifelong resources that help empower and nurture adopted individuals and their families to grow and thrive. The Park’s online community portal and mobile application(s) help us support this mission.

For each visitor to our site or App, our web server automatically recognizes only that information which the user provides willingly. CCAI will never require you to provide any verifiable identification information without consent.

As explained in our Terms of Service, we allow users to add content in a number of different ways, including via direct messages and in smaller and larger spaces. If you share content within larger spaces, that content may be accessed by many people, including people you do not know. For example, the Activity Feed is a public feed that can be viewed by all registered users. However, no content within the community portal can be shared outside of The Park’s website.

We will always try to let you know the type privacy a space is set to. You should take all of this into account when you are using our services, and choose the spaces, features, and settings that are most appropriate for your engagement.

My Heritage Tour Mobile Application

In addition to our websites, CCAI operates the My Heritage Tour mobile application (“the App”), a trip companion tool for travelers participating in Park Community heritage tours. This section describes the additional data practices specific to the App.

Information We Collect Through the App

When you use the App, we may collect the following information:

Account information. Your email address, first name, last name, and date of birth, which are used to create your traveler account and match you to your booked trip(s).
Trip and itinerary data. Information about your booked heritage tour(s), including day-by-day itineraries, accommodations, and tour contact details. This information is provided by The Park’s tour administrators.
Journal entries. If you choose to use the journaling feature, the text, mood selections, and optional photos you submit as part of your trip journal are stored anonymously.
Location data. If you use the Memory Map feature to pin a journal entry to a specific location, we collect the latitude and longitude coordinates you select. Location data is only collected when you actively choose to drop a pin or journal an activity with a mapped location. We do not track your location in the background.
Device storage. The App stores a traveler identifier and saved trip references in your device’s local browser storage (localStorage) to keep you signed in between sessions. This data remains on your device and is not transmitted to third parties.

How We Use App Information

We use the information collected through the App for the following purposes:

To authenticate your identity and connect you to your booked trip(s)
To display your personalized day-by-day itinerary, accommodations, and tour contacts
To deliver real-time updates, advisories, and alerts from your tour guide
To enable you to create and view journal entries and Memory Map pins associated with your trip
To allow tour administrators to manage trip logistics and communicate with travelers

Data Sharing and Third-Party Services (App)

The App is built on the Base44 platform, which provides hosting, database, and authentication services. Information you provide through the App is stored on Base44’s servers. We do not sell, rent, or share your App data with any other third parties for marketing or advertising purposes.

If you use the Memory Map feature, the App may make requests to OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim service to convert your selected coordinates into a human-readable location name (reverse geocoding). This request includes only the latitude and longitude of the pin you placed and does not include any personal identifying information.

Data Retention and Deletion (App)

Your traveler account and associated trip data are retained for as long as necessary to support your participation in heritage tours. Journal entries and Memory Map pins are retained until you delete them or request their removal. You may clear your local device data at any time by signing out of the App, which removes your stored traveler identifier and saved trip references from your device. To request deletion of your account and all associated data from our servers, contact us at [email protected].

Children’s Privacy (App)

The App is intended for use by heritage tour travelers of all ages, including families traveling with minors. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. If a child under 13 will be using the App, a parent or guardian should create and manage the account on the child’s behalf. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child under 13 without appropriate consent, please contact us at [email protected] and we will promptly delete such information.

Third Party Services

CCAI is very careful about this site’s and the App’s third-party affiliates and makes sure that no personally identifiable information is shared with them unless the site or App user affirmatively chooses to submit that information to them. Our third-party affiliations are as follows:

Authorize.Net
Authorize.Net is used to process secure online credit card transactions. Personally identifiable information provided to this company while on its servers is NOT bound by this Privacy Policy. Please consult the privacy policies of Authorize.Net (https://www.authorize.net/about-us/dpa.html) to learn more about its practices in handling personally identifiable information.
Gravitar
Gravatar is used as a spam detector. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/.
Base44 — Base44 provides hosting, database, and authentication infrastructure for the My Heritage Tour mobile application. Information submitted through the App is stored on Base44’s servers. Please consult Base44’s privacy policy for details on their data handling practices.
OpenStreetMap / Nominatim — The My Heritage Tour app’s Memory Map feature uses OpenStreetMap tiles for map display and Nominatim for reverse geocoding. Only geographic coordinates are sent to these services; no personal information is transmitted. OpenStreetMap’s privacy policy is available at: https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy.

Cookies

We use cookies to record session information, such as events users register for, to record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, and/or to customize Web page content based on visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends. All cookies are based on voluntary user login.

If a user leaves a comment on our site, they may opt-in to saving their credentials in cookies. These are for convenience, but are optional. These cookies will last for one year.

If a user visits our login page, the sire will set a temporary cookie to determine if their browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when they close their browser. When the user logs in, the site will set up cookies to save login credentials and screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year.

If the user selects “Remember Me”, their login will persist for two weeks. If the user logs out of their account, the login cookies will be removed.

The My Heritage Tour mobile application does not use cookies. Instead, it uses your device’s local storage (localStorage) to maintain your signed-in session and remember your saved trips. This data stays on your device and is cleared when you sign out.

Users who supply us with their telephone numbers will only receive phone contact from us with information regarding relevant items they have voluntarily connected with or indicated interest in.

Security

We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities and in the cloud to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site(s) and through the App. For example, we use Transport Layer Security (“TLS”) to encrypt text and images in transit. We also enforce technical and administrative access controls to limit which of our employees and contractors have access to nonpublic personal information. The App uses email-based verification to authenticate traveler accounts and restrict access to trip data to authorized travelers and administrators.

CCAI has no obligation to monitor the site, the App, or the use thereof or to retain the content of any user session. However, CCAI reserves the right at all times to monitor, review, retain, and/or disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request or to cooperate with law enforcement and other authorities in investigating a claim of illegal activity. CCAI may use IP addresses to identify a user when we believe it is necessary to enforce compliance with the terms governing use of our site(s) and App or to protect our service, site(s), families, users, or others. Any actions in violation of common on-line community conduct, decency and propriety will be regulated and may be subject to legal process and law enforcement.

Spam Detection

Comments – When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media Sharing

If users upload images or videos to the Web site, they should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the site can download and extract any location data from images on the website if location data is embedded.

When using the My Heritage Tour app’s journal feature, photos you upload are stored on Base44’s servers and are associated with your traveler account. These photos are only visible to you and to tour administrators.

Changes to the Policy

We will update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We always indicate the date the last changes were published, and if changes are significant, we’ll provide a more prominent notice as required by law, such as by emailing you or highlighting the changes within the services.

Outside Links

Our site(s) and App contain links to other websites and services not operated by CCAI, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those sites. If you choose to access any of them, we suggest that you exercise your best judgment when sharing personal information on these Web sites. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, CCAI cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or any information provided by our on-line products or services, or mobile application, and you do so at your own risk. CCAI will not be liable for disclosures of your personal information due to errors in transmission or unauthorized acts of third parties. However, once we receive your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.

Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site or the App, your dealings with our services, or would like to provide comments or edits on this Privacy Policy, you can send us an e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected]