Privacy Policy

The Neighborhood Mailbox Project is a free, non-commercial archive of letters written by strangers, for strangers. We are based in India and operate the website at theneighborhoodmailbox.org.

In this policy, "we," "us," or "our" means The Neighborhood Mailbox Project. "You" means any person who visits the website, reads a letter, or submits one for publication.

Readers: We do not require an account or login to read letters. Standard server logs may record your IP address, browser type, and pages visited. This is used only for technical purposes and is not linked to your identity.

Writers: When you submit a letter, we collect your letter text, first name, optionally your last name, and city/country, and your email address. Your email is required so we can contact you about your submission.

Automatic data: We may receive basic technical data including IP address, device and browser type, referring page, and visit time. We do not use this to profile you or track you across other sites.

Contact form: When you contact us via our contact form, we collect your name, email address, and message. You may also optionally provide your location and indicate whether you would like to receive updates from us. This data is stored securely and used only to respond to your enquiry and, where you have opted in, to send occasional updates.

Moderation: Your letter and contact details are reviewed using a combination of automated screening and human editorial review. Submitted letters are first processed by an automated classifier to detect content that does not meet our community guidelines. Letters that pass automated screening are then reviewed by a human editor before publication. No letter is published solely by automated decision — a human reviews all final publication decisions.

Publication: If approved, we publish your letter with the attribution you chose: first name or "Anonymous," and optionally your city and country. Your last name and email are never published.

Operations: Basic technical data is used to keep the site running and resolve errors.

Correspondence: If you contact us, we use your name and email to respond to your enquiry. If you have opted in via our contact form, we may occasionally send you updates about The Neighborhood Mailbox — new features, letters, and community news. You can withdraw this consent at any time by emailing hello@theneighborhoodmailbox.org with the subject "Unsubscribe from updates." We do not use your information for any other purpose not listed here.

AI moderation: Letters submitted to this site are reviewed using an automated AI system as a first step in our moderation process. This system may automatically reject letters that do not meet our community guidelines. If your letter was rejected and you believe this decision was made in error, you may request a human review by emailing hello@theneighborhoodmailbox.org with the subject "Request human review." We will respond within 10 business days.

Legal basis: We process your data on the following bases: your consent, which you provide when you submit a letter or contact us via our form; legitimate interest, for operating the site securely and resolving technical errors; and, where you have opted in, consent for marketing communications. You may withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing that took place before withdrawal.

You retain ownership of your letter. By submitting, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to publish and display it on this website. You may publish the same letter elsewhere.

We will not use your letter commercially, license it to third parties, or include it in print without your explicit written permission.

Please do not include information that could identify another person without their consent. Letters with third-party identifying details may be edited or declined.

We do not sell your data. We do not share personal information with advertisers, data brokers, or any third party for commercial purposes.

Service providers: We use the following third-party services that process data on our behalf: Supabase (database and backend infrastructure), Resend (transactional email delivery), Netlify (website hosting), Cloudflare (DNS and content delivery), Anthropic (AI-assisted letter moderation), and Umami (privacy-friendly, cookie-free analytics). All processors are contractually bound to protect your data and may not use it for their own purposes. Some of these providers are based outside India — by using this site, you acknowledge that your data may be processed in those countries in accordance with their applicable data protection laws.

Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by law or to protect a person's safety. We will notify you where legally permitted.

Transfer: If the project is transferred to another organisation, we will notify users in advance and ensure any successor upholds this policy.

We use Umami, a privacy-friendly, cookie-free analytics tool, to understand how people use our site. Umami does not collect personally identifiable information, does not use cookies, and does not track you across other sites. We use this data only to improve the site experience. We do not use Google Analytics or any other analytics service that collects personally identifiable information.

We use only essential cookies necessary for the site to function. We do not use advertising cookies or tracking pixels. You can disable cookies in your browser settings without affecting your ability to read letters or use any part of the site.

Regardless of where you are located, you have the following rights:

Access: You can ask what personal data we hold about you and receive a copy.

Rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate data.

Erasure: You can ask us to delete your data, including removing your published letter from the archive.

Withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time. This does not affect processing that already took place.

Object: You may object to processing of your data in certain circumstances.

Portability: You may request a copy of the personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.

Complaints: If you believe we have not handled your personal data appropriately, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. EU residents may contact their national data protection authority. Indian residents may contact the Data Protection Board of India.

To exercise any right, contact us at hello@theneighborhoodmailbox.org. We will respond within 10 business days.

Submission data: Retained while your letter is published, and for up to 2 years after removal.

Email correspondence: Retained for up to 3 years.

Server logs: Retained for up to 90 days, then deleted.

Contact form submissions: Retained for up to 3 years from the date of submission. Your marketing preference is retained until you withdraw consent.

You may request deletion at any time. See Section 7.

This site is not directed at children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you are under 18 and wish to submit a letter, please ask a parent or guardian to contact us. If we discover we have collected data from a minor without parental consent, we will delete it promptly.

We use HTTPS encryption, access controls on submission data, and vetted hosting providers with strong security practices. No online system is completely secure. If we become aware of a breach affecting your data, we will notify you within 72 hours.

We may update this policy from time to time and will update the date at the top of this page. For material changes we will post a notice on the website. Archived versions are available on request.

For questions, data requests, or concerns about this policy, email us at hello@theneighborhoodmailbox.org. We aim to respond within 10 business days.