1. Introduction
Lost & Found Birds ("we", "us", "our") is operated by Bird Sitting Toronto. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website at lost-found.birdsittingtoronto.ca (the "Portal"). We are committed to complying with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy legislation.
2. Information We Collect
Information You Provide
- Post submissions: Name, phone number (optional), email (optional), location, bird description, and photos.
- Alert subscriptions: Email address, bird type preference, location preference.
- Contact form: Name, email, subject, and message.
- Sighting reports: Name, email (optional), message, location, and date.
- Success stories: Title, story text, and optional photo.
Automatically Collected Information
- IP address: Used solely for rate limiting to prevent abuse. Not stored permanently.
- Analytics: We use Vercel Analytics, Vercel Speed Insights and PostHog to collect usage data (page views, performance). We do not create user profiles for anonymous visitors, and private links such as post management tokens are stripped before any URL is recorded.
- Error reporting: We use Sentry to capture errors and a small sample of session replays so we can fix faults. Management tokens are scrubbed before anything is sent.
3. How We Use Your Information
- To display your lost/found bird listing on the Portal.
- To send email alerts when matching birds are posted (if you subscribed).
- To notify you of updates to posts you are watching.
- To respond to contact form inquiries.
- To send you a management link for your post.
- To prevent spam and abuse through rate limiting.
- To geocode locations for map display (using OpenStreetMap Nominatim).
4. Third-Party Services
We use the following third-party services:
- Supabase: Database hosting and file storage (servers in US/Canada).
- Vercel: Website hosting, analytics and performance monitoring.
- Resend: Email delivery for alerts, notifications, and contact form messages. If Resend is unavailable we fall back to Gmail SMTP.
- PostHog: Product analytics (page views and navigation).
- Sentry: Error and performance monitoring.
- OpenStreetMap Nominatim: Location geocoding (only location text is sent, no personal data).
5. Data Retention
- Post data: Retained until you delete it via your management token, or until we remove inactive listings.
- Alert subscriptions: Retained until you unsubscribe via the link in any alert email.
- Contact form messages: Delivered via email and not stored on the Portal.
- Rate limit data: Automatically purged every 5 minutes.
6. Your Rights
Under PIPEDA, you have the right to:
- Access: Request a copy of your personal information.
- Correction: Update or correct your information via your management link.
- Deletion: Delete your post via your management link, or unsubscribe from alerts at any time.
- Withdraw consent: Stop receiving alerts by unsubscribing.
To exercise any of these rights, visit our Contact page.
7. Security
We implement reasonable security measures including encrypted connections (HTTPS), secure authentication for admin access, rate limiting, and honeypot spam detection. However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure.
8. Children's Privacy
The Portal is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have collected information from a child, please contact us.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date.
10. Data Breach Notification
If a breach of security safeguards creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as soon as feasible, as required under PIPEDA, and keep a record of the breach.
11. Contact Us
Lost & Found Birds is operated by Bird Sitting Toronto. Our Privacy Officer is accountable for the personal information under our control and for our compliance with this policy.
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, want to access or correct your information, or wish to make a complaint, email birdsittingtoronto@gmail.com or visit our Contact page.