Privacy Policy

1. Who we are — Data controller

BetterLucenaCity part of the BetterGov.ph network, is a community-driven civic portal for Lucena City, Quezon. For data privacy purposes, the Head Maintainer team serves as the Personal Information Controller.

• • Privacy / security contact: weryses19@gmail.com (please include "PRIVACY" in the subject) /contact

2. Legal basis — RA 10173 (Data Privacy Act of 2012)

We process personal data based on the following grounds recognized under the Data Privacy Act of 2012:

• Consent: When you sign in, you agree to share limited data for the purpose of civic contribution.
• Legitimate purpose: Operating a transparent, non-partisan civic portal for the benefit of our community.
• Compliance: Meeting legal obligations when required.

We follow the core principles of transparency, legitimate purpose, and proportionality. That means we collect only what is necessary, use it only for the reasons we state here, and keep it only as long as it is needed. Reports involving sensitive matters, such as harassment under RA 11313, are handled with strict confidentiality and with protection under safe-spaces law.

3. What information we collect

3.1 Account and profile information

When you sign in through Google or GitHub, we create an account using only the information necessary to operate the platform and give proper credit for your contributions:

• • Email address — provided by your sign-in provider; never shown publicly and used only for system notifications.
• • Username — your unique public name (3 to 24 characters); shown on /contributors only if you choose to appear there.
• • Name and profile photo — optional display details from your sign-in provider.
• • Role and account status — your assigned role (Head Maintainer, Maintainer, Data Collaborator, Data Validator, or Tester) and whether your account is approved or restricted. Roles determine what you are allowed to contribute, validate, or moderate.
• • Privacy preferences — whether you want to appear on the public contributors list and whether your profile photo is shown. You control these settings anytime at /user/settings.

3.2 Your contributions and discussions

• • Contributions and private discussion threads — titles, details, categories, source links, and supporting-document links you submit through /contribute. If you upload large datasets, they are previewed in your browser first; only the parsed rows are submitted. No raw file is stored on our servers.
• • Transparency data you help verify — public information such as announcements, ordinances, budget entries, and contact details are linked to your account for provenance and accountability.
• • Reports — the title, description, category, and source link you provide at /report. If you are signed in, the report is linked to your account. If you submit as a guest, we store only the contact email you provide so we can follow up on your report. Guest submissions are limited to public report types such as Data Misinformation and Security Concerns. Private report categories require you to sign in.

3.3 Automatically collected information

• • Essential session cookies — necessary to keep you signed in and to refresh your session securely. These are strictly required for the platform to function and do not require a separate consent banner.
• • Theme preference — your choice of light, dark, or system theme is saved locally on your device and is not treated as personal data.
• • Offline cache — static assets may be stored locally on your device to support offline access. No personal data is kept in this cache.

3.4 What we do NOT collect

• • No advertising cookies, cross-site trackers, or third-party analytics such as Google Analytics.
• • No location tracking, contact syncing, or device fingerprinting.
• • No marketing profiles and no promotional emails.
• • No sensitive personal data such as government IDs, private home addresses, or private phone numbers. Please remove or redact such details before submitting anything to the platform.

4. How we use your information

• • To verify your identity and keep your session secure.
• • To attribute contributions for transparency and accountability, while fully respecting your visibility preferences. See /contributors and our contributor credit policy on GitHub: CONTRIBUTING — Privacy & Public Credit.
• • To send system notifications about your submissions, such as when they are received, need more documents, or are published. These messages come only from the Head Maintainer. Validators never email you directly; all communication stays within the private on-site discussion thread.
• • To moderate content and enforce our Code of Conduct, including investigating harassment reports under RA 11313.
• • To manage roles, approvals, and restrictions under a least-privilege model.
• • To improve data accuracy by cross-referencing sources before publishing, with correction threads linked as provenance.

5. Public vs private visibility

6. Cookies & device storage

You can clear cookies and local storage in your browser settings; clearing session cookies will sign you out. We do not use a consent banner because we do not set non-essential tracking cookies.

7. Third-party services & data processors

We do not sell data to, or share data with, advertisers or data brokers. Third parties listed above act as processors only for the purpose described.

8. Storage, retention & security

• • Where stored: In an encrypted cloud database managed by our authentication and data provider. Access credentials are kept in server-only environment variables and are never exposed to the browser or stored in our source code.
• • Access control: Strict role-based access — you can view all public profiles and update only your own; designated maintainers can moderate accounts only within their permission level, and every permission check also verifies that your account is approved and not restricted.
• • Additional safeguards: Automated database rules prevent self-approval, privilege escalation, and unauthorized restriction or role changes — only authorized maintainers can perform those actions, and elevated changes require Head Maintainer authorization.
• • In transit & at rest: All connections use HTTPS; data is encrypted at rest by our provider; content fetched from external government sources is treated as untrusted input before display.
• • Retention: Your account data is kept while your account exists. Contributions and reports are retained for audit and provenance; original discussions remain linked even after corrections are made. Guest report contact emails are kept with the report for follow-up purposes. You may request deletion at any time.
• • Account deletion: When your sign-in account is deleted, your profile and related personal data are removed automatically. Contact the Head Maintainer to request full erasure.

9. Sharing & disclosure

We do not sell personal data. We disclose personal data only:

• • To Head Maintainers and assigned Validators on a strict need-to-know basis to review your submission.
• • With your explicit consent or under lawful order, such as if you pursue a harassment case under RA 11313 and request records as evidence. Any disclosure follows RA 10173 consent and legal process requirements (see Code of Conduct — Reporting Harassment).
• • To comply with applicable Philippine law or to respond to a valid request from a government agency or the National Privacy Commission.

Volunteer validators never email you directly. All validator-to-source communication stays in the private on-site thread, as documented in Code of Conduct — Email use disclosure.

10. Your rights under RA 10173

As a data subject, you have the right to be informed, to access your data, to object to its processing, to request erasure or blocking, to demand rectification, to data portability where applicable, to be indemnified for damages, and to file a complaint with the National Privacy Commission.

• • Access and rectification: You can view and update your name, username, and privacy preferences anytime at /user/settings.
• • Withdraw opt-in: You may turn off public listing or profile photo visibility at any time.
• • Data portability: You may request a copy of your data in a portable format where technically feasible.
• • Erasure or blocking: You may request deletion or blocking of your personal data, subject to legal and audit retention requirements.
• • Complaints: You may file a complaint with the National Privacy Commission if you believe your rights have been violated.

To exercise any of these rights, contact the Head Maintainer at weryses19@gmail.com with "PRIVACY" in the subject line.

11. Children's privacy

This portal is intended for general civic use. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a minor has provided personal data, contact us to request removal.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy to reflect system changes or legal updates. Material changes will be noted by updating the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, via an announcement on /announcements. Continued use after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

13. Contact & governing law

Questions about this policy or how to exercise your rights: contact privacy/security at weryses19@gmail.com (include "PRIVACY" in the subject). For harassment-related privacy concerns, you may also file privately at /report (visible only to Head Maintainers, with RA 11313 + RA 10173 confidentiality — see Code of Conduct — Reporting Harassment).

This policy is governed by the laws of the Republic of the Philippines, including RA 10173 (Data Privacy Act of 2012) and its Implementing Rules and Regulations, and related issuances of the National Privacy Commission.

See also: /contributors (public credit by username only, opt-in/out) · /contribute (role selection & private discussion model) · /sitemap · GitHub: Code of Conduct · GitHub: Contributing (roles, privacy & validation)