Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 24, 2026.

TheFoundationsOf.us is an educational and source-review site for foundations, Muur history, ancestral memory, place-based research, community research, corrections, fact checks, safe sharing, and careful public claims. This policy explains what information may be processed when you visit or participate.

Information you voluntarily provide

You may choose to submit information through contact, correction, source-tip, community-note, fact-check, or contribution workflows. That information may include the page or topic you identify, the claim or correction you describe, source links, context notes, a public screen name, and any message text you provide.

Do not submit private family records, raw genetic data, private lineage notes, private oral-history material, legal documents, contact details, current addresses, or sensitive identity information through public or insecure forms. Public claims require public, reviewable evidence.

Contact, corrections, and source-tip submissions

Submissions are used to review sources, improve wording, route fact checks, evaluate corrections, respond to privacy or safe-sharing concerns, and maintain editorial accountability. A submission may become a public correction, community note, fact-check entry, source-review task, or held item after review. Private or sensitive details may be removed, summarized, or declined for publication.

Server logs

Like most websites, the server, host, security tools, or delivery network may process logs such as IP address, browser type, requested URL, referring URL, timestamps, device information, and error or security events. These logs are used for site operation, abuse prevention, troubleshooting, performance, and security.

Cookies and local storage

The site may use cookies required by WordPress, security tools, embedded services, or logged-in administration. Micro Quiz selections are stored in your browser using localStorage and are not sent to the site by the quiz script. If third-party services are enabled later, they may set their own cookies under their own policies.

Analytics

FOBA Site Suite does not connect analytics by default. If analytics are enabled through the host, WordPress configuration, or another plugin, this policy identifies that use and the owner reviews it for cookie, consent, privacy, and personally identifiable information risk before public measurement is promoted.

Advertising and Google AdSense

AdSense infrastructure is present but visitor ad rendering is disabled by default and gated by owner settings. No visible public ad boxes render while ads are disabled. If ads are enabled, third-party vendors, including Google, may use cookies to serve ads based on a visitor’s prior visits to this site and/or other sites.

Google advertising cookies may allow Google and its partners to serve ads based on visits to this site and other sites. Visitors can opt out of personalized advertising through Google Ad Settings. You can also review broader opt-out information at aboutads.info/choices.

Ads must not imply endorsement of historical claims, identity claims, source conclusions, legal status, ancestry, descent, DNA conclusions, tribe, nationality, membership, spiritual interpretation, oral tradition, or community status. Sensitive research workflows remain excluded from public ad placement unless owner review changes that policy.

Consent/CMP status for EEA, UK, and Switzerland visitors

This plugin does not include a consent management platform. Personalized ads, analytics, and third-party tracking for EEA, UK, or Switzerland visitors remain disabled unless an appropriate consent/CMP workflow is configured, reviewed, and identified here with the provider, consent choices, and how visitors can change their settings.

Public sharing and safe participation

Public participation may use screen names. Public author display is filtered so email-like display names are shown as pseudonymous aliases instead of addresses. Best-effort redaction may mask email addresses in public content, excerpts, and comments, but you should still avoid posting private information.

Identity and research limits

This project is educational. It does not certify identity, ancestry, tribe, nationality, DNA conclusions, legal status, descent, or membership in any community. Avoid submitting private identity documents, raw DNA files, unpublished source packets, or personal records about living people.

Embedded video and external links

Field videos use click-to-load embeds where possible, so external video providers load only after a visitor chooses to play a video. External links may take you to third-party sites with their own privacy practices.

Contact route

Use the same-domain Contact / Support page for privacy questions, corrections, source suggestions, community notes, permissions, and safe-sharing concerns. Any network handoff is labeled before readers leave this site.

What this policy adds

• It explains how the project limits public exposure while still allowing pseudonymous participation and public correction.
• It helps readers understand which tools keep data local, which workflows are public, and where they should stop before submitting sensitive information.
• It ties privacy directly to editorial quality, because careful history work gets weaker when people feel pushed to overshare identity or living-person data.

What a careful reader should do next

Before submitting anything public, remove private contact details, limit living-person material, avoid uploading raw identity records, and route sensitive questions through the most minimal public-safe path available.

Privacy action checklist

• Choose a screen name when public attribution is not necessary.
• Convert private evidence into a public-safe source description before submitting it.
• Stop and use Safe Sharing when a submission could identify, contact, pressure, or expose a living person.