1. Region-First Community Privacy
Folkora is a region-first community network designed to record and celebrate authentic local life. We operate with a fundamental commitment to privacy, data minimization, and respect for community boundaries. We do not sell your personal data, nor do we track your live physical movements.
2. Information We Collect and Manage
Account & Identity: Authentication is handled by external identity providers. Folkora receives an opaque, unique subject identifier. Your email is kept strictly private for administrative and notification purposes and is never exposed publicly.
Public Profile: If you choose to establish a public profile, your handle (e.g. @mayac), display name, bio, and avatar are publicly visible.
Region Presence: You may voluntarily declare connections to geographic areas (e.g., living in Flushing, visited Queens). Presences can be set to public or private. Folkora does not perform continuous or live GPS tracking.
Saved Stories (Bookmarks): Saved Stories are strictly private personal bookmarks. Story authors and other community members cannot see who saved a story. Saver identities never appear in feeds, metrics, or data exports.
Stories: Public published stories are visible across neighborhood feeds. Draft stories and private stories remain confidential to you.
Places and Discoveries: Community place proposals for public buildings, parks, landmarks, and institutions become shared community records upon verification. Private residential dwellings are strictly prohibited and rejected.
3. Data Export (Member Control)
You can download a complete, machine-readable JSON archive of your personal records at any time from your Account Settings page. In accordance with our saver privacy policy, data exports never reveal the identities of other members who saved your stories.
4. Permanent Account Deletion
You can delete your account at any time. When you confirm deletion by typing DELETE_MY_ACCOUNT:
- Your personal private bookmarks, likes, region presences, and draft stories are permanently purged.
- Your public profile is anonymized to “Deleted member” and your handle is retired.
- Canonical physical Places and Regions remain intact in the community knowledge graph.
- First Discoverer records remain chronologically intact but anonymous.
- Active recognition Marks stop displaying publicly.
- Your authentication subject is tombstoned to prevent unintended re-provisioning.
A dedicated contact channel for privacy questions will be available after the beta.