Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 18, 2026

Clean LA Volunteers (“we”, “us”) is a small, informal community group in Los Angeles. We are not a registered nonprofit. This page explains what information this website collects, why, and what you can do about it. Questions: hello@cleanlavolunteers.org.

What we collect and why

Volunteer signup. Name, email address, mobile phone number, city or neighborhood, ZIP code (optional), availability, your age group, and anything you write in the comments box. We use this only to confirm you are reachable, to create your member account, and to tell you about volunteering near you. We confirm your email with a link and your phone with a one-time text code.

Volunteers under 18. We do not accept online signups from anyone under 13. If you are 13 to 17 we also collect your parent or guardian’s name, email and mobile number, and we record their consent (the date, time, typed name and network address) before your account is activated. Your parent or guardian is copied on the emails we send you, and your public name on the site is shown as first name and last initial only.

Member accounts and the forum. Your account stores the details above plus your login and the date you joined. Forum topics and replies are public to anyone who visits the site and show your display name. We record the network address a post was made from to deal with abuse.

Cleanup photos and spot reports. Before-and-after photos, the location you describe, the date, and the name and email you give us. Photos are re-saved in a way that removes embedded camera data such as GPS coordinates. Approved cleanups appear in our public gallery with your name (or short name) as credit. Please do not include faces, license plates or other people’s belongings in photos.

Contact form. Name, email and your message, used only to reply to you.

Newsletter. Your email address, confirmed by a link you click. Every issue has an unsubscribe link.

Security logs. Our server keeps standard logs (network address, pages requested, browser type) and records failed login attempts and spam attempts to protect the site.

Services that help us run the site

• Twilio sends the one-time text code that confirms your phone number. Your number is sent to Twilio for that purpose only.
• Amazon Web Services (S3) stores archived cleanup photos.
• OpenAI and Google (Gemini) help us write the title and short description for approved cleanups from the photos and details you submit. No names, emails or phone numbers are sent to them.
• Google Analytics gives us anonymous visit statistics, and Google Fonts serves the site’s typefaces; both receive your browser’s network address when pages load.
• Our web host (InMotion Hosting) and our email provider deliver the site and our messages.

We do not sell your information, share it for marketing, or show your email or phone number publicly.

Cookies

Logging in sets cookies that keep you signed in (up to two weeks if you choose “Keep me logged in”). Google Analytics sets its own cookies for visit statistics. We do not use advertising cookies.

How long we keep information

• Signups that are never confirmed are deleted automatically after 30 days.
• Member accounts, forum posts and gallery entries stay until you ask us to remove them or we close the group.
• Contact form messages stay in our mailbox until we no longer need them.
• Newsletter addresses are kept until you unsubscribe.

Your choices and rights

Email hello@cleanlavolunteers.org from the address on your account and we will, within a reasonable time: send you a copy of the information we hold about you, correct it, remove a photo or forum post, or close your account and delete your details (except what we must keep for security or legal reasons). A parent or guardian can make any of these requests for a volunteer under 18, and anyone under 18 can ask for their own posts to be removed, as California law provides. Unsubscribe from the newsletter with the link in any issue.

Changes

If this policy changes in a meaningful way we will update the date above and, for members, mention it in the next newsletter.