Your story belongs to you.

This Privacy Policy applies to the Autism Contact website, community features, and related support forms that link to this policy. “Autism Contact,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to the operator of these services.

By using Autism Contact, you acknowledge the practices described here. This policy does not cover third-party websites, event organizers, Regional Centers, or resources that we link to.

We collect information you provide, information created through your use of the community, and limited technical information needed to operate and protect the service.

We may also obtain public event or resource information from organizer websites and public directories. That imported information describes organizations or events and is not used to build advertising profiles about community members.

We use information to provide accounts and sessions; display profiles and community content; deliver messages, invitations, friendship requests, event responses, and notifications; suggest people, groups, Regional Centers, events, or resources; and honor your visibility and accessibility preferences.

We also use information to respond to support requests, moderate content, investigate abuse or security incidents, prevent fraud, debug failures, maintain the service, comply with law, and protect community members and the public.

We do not use disability or health-related content to make eligibility, employment, insurance, credit, or advertising decisions.

• With your selected audience. Profile information and posts may be visible to other community members or group participants according to the feature and available privacy settings. Public content can be viewed or copied by others.
• With conversation participants. Direct messages, shared images, and conversation metadata are available to the people in that conversation.
• With service providers. Hosting, database, storage, security, and operational providers may process information for us under appropriate restrictions.
• For safety or legal reasons. We may preserve or disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, enforce our rules, investigate abuse, or protect rights, safety, and service integrity.
• During an organizational change. Information may be transferred as part of a merger, financing, reorganization, or transfer of the service, subject to applicable law and this policy or notice of a replacement policy.

Community members may choose to discuss autism, disability, accommodations, services, diagnoses, care, or family experiences. This can be sensitive information. You are not required to provide a diagnosis to create a standard account.

Autism Contact is a community service, not a healthcare provider, insurer, medical-record portal, or emergency service. Information submitted here is generally not protected as a medical record under HIPAA. Do not post medical records, service identifiers, Social Security numbers, financial credentials, or another person’s private information.

Before sharing information about a child or another person, consider their privacy and obtain permission where appropriate. Use audience settings, but remember that recipients may still save or redistribute what they can see.

We use an essential, HTTP-only session cookie to keep signed-in users authenticated. The current session cookie may remain valid for up to 30 days unless you sign out, it expires, or it is invalidated.

The website also uses browser local storage for interface state and certain locally saved preferences or prototype community features. Local storage remains on your device until the application or you remove it. Clearing browser data may sign you out or remove locally saved settings.

We do not currently use advertising cookies. If we introduce materially different analytics or advertising technologies, we will update this policy and provide any choices required by law.

We retain information while your account is active and as reasonably necessary to provide the service, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, meet legal obligations, protect safety, and maintain security. Retention varies by record: community content may remain until deleted, contact requests may be kept while support work is active, and security logs may be retained for a limited operational period.

Deletion requests may not immediately remove information from backups, content another user has copied, records we must retain, or messages that remain visible to other conversation participants. We may de-identify information instead of deleting it where permitted.

We use administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information, including hashed signup passwords, signed session tokens, restricted administrative functions, and file-type and size limits for uploads. No internet service can promise absolute security. Use a unique password and report suspicious activity promptly.

You can update available profile, location, visibility, messaging, notification, and accessibility settings from your account. You may leave groups, change event responses, remove content where the feature permits it, or sign out to end the browser session.

You may ask us to provide access to, correct, or delete personal information associated with you, or object to certain processing where applicable. Submit a request through the contact form and select an account or privacy-related topic. We may need to verify your identity and authority before acting. Applicable exceptions may prevent us from completing part of a request.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right. An authorized agent may submit a request where applicable, but we may require proof of authorization and direct identity confirmation.

California residents may have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended, if that law applies to Autism Contact. These can include rights to know, access, correct, or delete personal information; limit certain uses of sensitive information; opt out of sale or sharing; and receive equal service after exercising a right.

We collect these categories from you, your interactions with the service, other users who communicate with you, and public sources used for directories or event listings. We disclose them only as described in “How information is shared.” We have not sold these categories or shared them for cross-context behavioral advertising.

For general information about California privacy rights, visit the California Attorney General’s CCPA page.

Autism Contact is not directed to children under 13, and children under 13 should not create accounts or submit personal information. Parents and caregivers may discuss family experiences from their own accounts, but should minimize identifying information about children.

If you believe a child under 13 submitted personal information directly to Autism Contact, please contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

We may update this policy as the service, our practices, or applicable requirements change. We will revise the date above and provide additional notice when a change is material and notice is required.

For privacy questions, concerns, or requests, use our Contact Us page. Please select “Account help” and begin your message with “Privacy request.” Do not include passwords, medical records, government identifiers, or other unnecessary sensitive information.