Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Discover Firethorne is an independent editorial website about the Firethorne community in Waxhaw and Marvin, North Carolina. We are not the homeowners association, the community association, the Country Club of the Carolinas, the developer, or any affiliate of those entities. This policy applies only to this website and not to any third-party website we reference.

2. Information we collect

Information you provide. The Site offers a single contact form. If you use it, we receive the information you choose to enter — typically your name, email address, and message. Providing information is voluntary; if you do not wish to share it, do not submit the form.

Information collected automatically. Like most websites, our hosting infrastructure may automatically log technical data such as IP address, browser type and version, device and operating-system information, referring URL, pages viewed, and timestamps. This data is used for security, abuse prevention, diagnostics, and aggregate traffic understanding.

Browser storage. We use strictly necessary cookies and local browser storage to operate the Site — for example, remembering your cookie-notice choice and maintaining an administrator session. See our Cookie Policy.

Administrator accounts. Authenticated administrative areas of the Site store an account email and authentication credentials for the site operator only. These areas are not available to the public.

We do not knowingly collect Social Security numbers, government identification numbers, financial account numbers, precise geolocation, biometric data, or health information. Please do not submit such information.

3. How we use information

• to receive, review, and respond to inquiries submitted through the contact form;
• to operate, maintain, secure, and improve the Site;
• to detect, prevent, and investigate fraud, abuse, spam, and security incidents;
• to understand aggregate usage patterns and improve editorial content;
• to comply with law and to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

4. Contact-form recipient

Inquiries submitted through the contact form are routed to a single designated recipient mailbox operated on behalf of the Site. No other recipient, distribution list, or contact channel is used. Email is not a secure medium; do not send confidential or sensitive information through it.

5. Service providers

We rely on a limited number of service providers to operate the Site — including website hosting, content delivery, database and file storage, authentication, and email transmission. These providers process information on our behalf under their own terms and privacy policies and are not permitted to use it for their own unrelated purposes. We may also disclose information where required by law, subpoena, or valid legal process, or to protect our rights, safety, or property.

6. Retention

We retain contact-form submissions only as long as reasonably necessary to respond to the inquiry and to maintain records for legitimate business, dispute-resolution, and legal-compliance purposes, after which they are deleted or archived. Technical logs are retained for a limited period as determined by our hosting providers.

7. Security

We use commercially reasonable technical and organizational safeguards, including transport encryption (HTTPS), access controls, and row-level database security for administrative data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You transmit information to the Site at your own risk.

8. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, a copy of, or deletion of personal information we hold about you, to opt out of certain processing, and not to be discriminated against for exercising those rights. Residents of jurisdictions such as California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Texas, and individuals in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom, may have additional rights, including the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

To exercise any right, submit a request through our contact form, which is the only contact channel offered on this Site. We will verify your request as reasonably necessary and respond within the time period required by applicable law. We may decline requests where an exception applies.

You can also control cookies and local storage directly in your browser settings, and most browsers support Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals. Because practices vary, we do not respond to Do Not Track headers; we do not sell personal information in any event.

9. Children's privacy

The Site is intended for adults and is not directed to children under 13 (or under 16 where applicable law provides). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided information, contact us and we will delete it.

10. International visitors

The Site is operated in the United States. If you access it from outside the United States, you understand that your information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States, where data-protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction.

11. Third-party links

The Site links to independent third-party websites. We do not control and are not responsible for their content, privacy practices, or data handling. Review each third-party privacy policy before providing information to them.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy at any time by posting a revised version with a new "Last updated" date. Material changes will be reflected on this page. Continued use of the Site after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

13. Contact

Privacy questions and requests must be submitted through the contact form.