Beacon policies

Privacy Notice

Effective June 18, 2026

Beacon is designed to collect as little personal information as reasonably possible. Adding a location, leaving a note, and requesting email updates are optional.

1. Who is responsible for your information

Beacon Project operates Beacon and is responsible for the personal information described in this Notice. Privacy questions and requests may be sent to privacy@beaconinspiration.com.

2. Information collected when a Beacon is tapped

When a public Beacon page loads, the service may receive and record:

• the Beacon’s technical identifier and the inspirational message delivered;
• date and time of the visit;
• a salted hash derived from the connecting IP address, used for security and repeat-visit analysis;
• approximate country, region, city, postal area, time zone, latitude, and longitude provided by the hosting network;
• browser language, selected language, device category, user-agent information, referrer, landing page, viewport, and basic performance information; and
• security and diagnostic information needed to operate and protect the service.

Network-derived locations are approximate and may be wrong. They are not presented publicly as exact locations.

3. Information you may choose to provide

Journey map location

You may allow your device to provide a location or manually move a map pin. Before saving, you can review and adjust the pin. Public journey coordinates are rounded or generalized. Administrative records may retain the submitted coordinates and reported accuracy so the journey can be operated and audited.

Optional project note

You may submit a name or nickname, profession, home country or region, and message to the next person. Please do not include sensitive information or information about another person without permission.

Beacon journey updates

You may provide an email address and consent to occasional updates about one named Beacon. We store the address, the Beacon followed, consent wording and time, chosen language, subscription status, and related delivery information. The initial collection form does not enroll the address in unrelated advertising.

4. Why we use information

Depending on the information and applicable law, we process data with your consent, to provide a service you requested, and for legitimate interests such as operating the journey, preventing abuse, maintaining security, understanding performance, and improving Beacon. We use information to:

• deliver changing inspirational messages;
• record and display generalized Beacon journeys;
• save optional visitor notes;
• collect and later administer requested Beacon-specific travel updates;
• measure basic use and diagnose errors;
• protect the service, visitors, and physical Beacons; and
• comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests.

5. Public information

Approximate journey points and selected project content may be displayed publicly. We do not publicly display subscriber email addresses, precise home addresses, raw IP addresses, administrator-only placement details, or a list of people following a Beacon. Public points may be rounded, delayed, generalized, or removed for privacy and safety.

6. Service providers and disclosures

We may share information with providers that host, secure, transmit, map, maintain, or support Beacon, but only as reasonably necessary for those services. The current service uses Cloudflare for hosting, database, network, and security functions. Map features may load software or map tiles from Leaflet-related content delivery services and OpenStreetMap infrastructure, which can receive ordinary web-request information such as an IP address and browser details.

We may also disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights or safety, investigate abuse, or complete a legitimate organizational transfer subject to appropriate protections.

7. International processing

Beacon is operated from the United States and is intended to be used internationally. Information may therefore be processed in countries with privacy rules different from those where you live. Where required, we will use recognized transfer safeguards and contractual protections.

8. Retention

We keep information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described here, including the operational life and historical story of a Beacon, security, legal compliance, dispute handling, and consent records.

• Tap and security logs: generally retained while useful for Beacon reporting, fraud prevention, security, and aggregate journey history.
• Public journey points: may remain part of the Beacon’s generalized public story unless removed for safety, privacy, or operational reasons.
• Precise admin placement records: retained privately for operational integrity and auditability, with public views generalized.
• Follower email records: retained while the request is active or pending. After unsubscribe or deletion, a minimal suppression/consent record may be kept when necessary to honor the request and demonstrate compliance.
• Privacy requests: retained long enough to process the request, document the response, and meet legal or audit needs.

Beacon now keeps an internal retention schedule for administrators. Automated retention processing is planned, and manual review may be used until automation is fully enabled.

9. Your choices and rights

You may decline location access, choose not to add a map point, skip the optional form, and avoid the email subscription. You may withdraw journey-update consent and unsubscribe when the email system begins. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, or objection, and to complain to a data-protection authority.

Send a request to privacy@beaconinspiration.com or use the Privacy Request form. We may need limited information to verify the request. We will not discriminate against you for exercising an applicable privacy right.

10. Children

The public inspirational page does not require a child to provide personal information. The journey-update form is intended for people who are at least 16 years old or who have permission from a parent or guardian. Parents and guardians may contact us to request review or deletion of a child’s information.

11. Cookies, advertising, and sale of data

Beacon does not intentionally use advertising cookies, cross-site behavioral advertising, or tracking pixels on public pages. Necessary network, security, or session technologies may be used by the service and its providers. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

12. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards, including access controls, protected administrative routes, data minimization, approximate public mapping, and encrypted network transmission. No service can guarantee absolute security.

13. Changes to this Notice

We may update this Notice as Beacon develops. The effective date will change when material revisions are published. Where required, we will provide additional notice or request renewed consent.

14. Contact

For privacy questions or requests, email privacy@beaconinspiration.com or use the Privacy Request form. You may also review the Terms of Use.