Privacy Policy

URBAN LEGENDS SOCIETY
PRIVACY POLICY

1. WHO OPERATES ULS

Urban Legends Society (“ULS”) is a DBA of Death By Media LLC (“Death By Media,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). This Privacy Policy applies to the ULS mobile applications, website, Archive, Explore map, Location Hubs, community features, and related services (“Service”).

2. AGE

ULS accounts are for users 13 and older. Users 13–17 must have parent/legal-guardian permission. ULS does not intentionally offer accounts to children under 13 and does not claim to know a user’s exact age unless a feature actually collects it.

3. INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE

Depending on your use, ULS may process account/authentication information; email/provider information; username and Society Profile information; optional bio, profile customization and social links; Stories and Story details; comments/replies; reactions; photos, video, audio and documents; drafts and user-initiated draft backup/restore data; Podcast contact preferences; reports; appeals; Edit Requests; privacy/support requests; and purchase, subscription, Permanent Ad-Free, donation, refund and entitlement information.

Do not submit information you do not have the right or permission to provide.

4. PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE INFORMATION

Information intended to be public may include username, rank/title, public contribution information, public bio, profile image/frame, badges, optional social links, published Stories/media, comments/replies, reactions, and other community activity where the applicable feature displays it.

Your account/authentication email is not part of your public Society Profile.

Private account information, billing records, moderation records, exact hidden private-residence information, notification tokens, and internal records are not public profile information.

5. EMAIL AND COMMUNICATIONS

ULS may use your account email for authentication, account security/recovery, service communications, support, privacy matters, purchase-related communications where applicable, and material legal/policy notices.

Any future promotional/marketing email program will be separate from essential service communications and will provide applicable unsubscribe controls.

6. OPTIONAL SOCIAL LINKS

Social links you voluntarily add to your Society Profile are public. Following them takes users to third-party services governed by their own privacy practices.

7. DEVICE LOCATION

ULS may request device-location permission when a location-based feature needs it, such as centering Explore around your current position. Location permission is not required merely to have an account.

Declining permission may limit relevant location functionality. Using device location for Explore does not itself publish your current device location to other ULS users. Story/location submission is a separate action.

8. STORY AND LOCATION INFORMATION

ULS may process map coordinates, submitted addresses, city/state information, place names, former names/aliases, sub-locations, and related information to display, organize, submit, moderate, and preserve Stories and Location Hubs.

9. PRIVATE RESIDENCES / HIDE ADDRESS

For applicable private residences, the public experience may use a city-level privacy representation rather than the exact address.

“Hide Address” means hidden from public display, not erased from ULS records.

ULS may retain exact private-residence addresses/coordinates internally where reasonably necessary for operations, moderation, privacy handling, Archive integrity, duplicate/conflict prevention, legal compliance, safety, or recordkeeping. Exact hidden private-residence information is not intended for public display.

10. PUBLIC LOCATIONS AND THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION

ULS may identify public businesses, landmarks, institutions, historically relevant sites, and other legitimately public locations.

Users are responsible for submitted disclosures and permissions. ULS strongly discourages unnecessary private/sensitive information about third parties and may redact, restrict, or remove information for privacy, safety, legal, or policy reasons.

11. STORY MEDIA AND METADATA

Media attached to published Stories may be publicly viewable, accessible, or downloadable. Do not upload media you expect ULS to keep private.

ULS does not automatically strip metadata from uploaded media. Files may contain timestamps, device/software information, creator information, file properties, location information, or other metadata. Remove sensitive metadata before submission if you do not want it included.

12. STORY DRAFTS

ULS stores Story drafts locally on the user’s device. Eligible users may intentionally use Backup and Restore to back up local drafts to the cloud for device transfer. A local draft is not a published Story merely because it exists. Cloud-backed draft information is processed when the user uses the applicable Backup/Restore functionality.

13. ARCHIVE RETENTION

Published Stories become part of the ULS Archive. Account deletion does not automatically delete them. Contributors cannot directly delete published Stories; removal occurs through authorized moderation, privacy, copyright, legal, or other established processes.

14. ACCOUNT DELETION AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Deleting an account does not erase all prior contributions. As applicable, Stories, Story media, comments/replies, reactions, and other retained Archive/community contributions remain.

Under current ULS behavior, retained public contributions from a deleted account display the default attribution “Departed Member.”

ULS may retain the original internal account/contributor association where reasonably necessary for Archive integrity, moderation, ban-evasion prevention, legal compliance, privacy-request history, security, auditing, or dispute resolution.

The Delete Account flow should disclose before final confirmation that published contributions remain and public attribution changes to Departed Member.

15. REMOVED CONTENT

Removal from public availability does not promise immediate erasure from every backup, cache, audit record, or provider system. Limited copies may remain where reasonably necessary for backups, technical operations, moderation, security, legal compliance, copyright/privacy disputes, auditing, or other legitimate purposes.

16. MODERATION, REPORTS, APPEALS, AND SUPPORT

ULS may process reports, moderation cases, suspensions/bans, appeals, moderator notes/history, Edit Requests, privacy requests, content-removal requests, and support communications.

Sensitive records are restricted through applicable Portal authorization controls.

Such records may remain after account deletion where reasonably necessary for safety, ban-evasion prevention, disputes/appeals, legal compliance, privacy-request history, security, or Archive integrity.

17. BILLING AND PURCHASE DATA

ULS uses RevenueCat for purchase and entitlement management. Depending on platform, payment processing may involve Apple, Google Play, RevenueCat Billing, Stripe, or other providers identified at checkout.

ULS may process product/entitlement identifiers, ULS account identifier, plan/type, store/platform, purchase/renewal/expiration dates, auto-renew state, grace/billing-retry state, transaction/reference IDs, refunds/revocations, donation amount/date, and supplied promotion/offer metadata.

ULS does not store full payment-card or bank-account credentials.

RevenueCat may process end-user technical information, purchase/transaction information, store receipts or purchase tokens, and the ULS account identifier used as the RevenueCat App User ID to provide purchase/entitlement services. RevenueCat’s independent privacy practices apply.

RevenueCat Billing uses Stripe for underlying web payment processing. Stripe’s independent privacy practices apply.

Private transaction records may remain after account deletion for accounting, taxes, refunds/chargebacks, fraud prevention, legal obligations, purchase ownership, and auditing. Purchase/donation records are never public profile information.

18. ANALYTICS

ULS uses GA4 through a public-web gtag.js bridge and Firebase Analytics on Android/iOS for aggregate product measurement. The web bridge is not loaded for /portal.

Current custom events cover meaningful Story and Hub opens, Explore opens, and searches.

ULS does not set an Analytics user ID and does not intentionally add email, username, UID, raw search text, Story text, exact address, coordinates, moderation data, advertising identifiers, or device identifiers as custom event parameters.

Portal activity is excluded. Google/Firebase applies its own provider privacy/retention controls. Where consent is legally required before collection for affected users, ULS intends to apply appropriate collection/consent controls. Traffic Stats exposes aggregate reports only.

19. ADVERTISING

ULS uses Google AdMob on mobile for ad-supported users and has selected Google AdSense for the public web when production web advertising is configured.

Active Society Members and Permanent Ad-Free owners do not receive ULS ads under applicable entitlement rules.

ULS does not intentionally provide Story text, exact private addresses, usernames, account emails, or other private ULS content to AdMob for ad targeting.

Google advertising technologies may independently process information used for ad delivery/measurement, including IP addresses, cookies or similar web technologies, advertising/device identifiers where available and permitted, app/device information, ad interactions, and privacy/consent signals.

Google’s independent processing is governed by Google’s applicable terms/privacy policies.

ULS does not sell personal information for monetary payment. Some advertising activity may nevertheless be legally defined as “sale,” “sharing,” targeted advertising, or cross-context behavioral advertising. Where required, ULS provides applicable advertising privacy choices.

20. AD PRIVACY CHOICES / UMP

ULS uses Google User Messaging Platform / Privacy & Messaging tools for applicable advertising privacy messages and choices.

Depending on jurisdiction/configuration, these may address personalized advertising, non-personalized/limited ads, European Economic Area/UK/Switzerland consent, U.S. state privacy choices, and other Google-supported advertising privacy options.

ULS provides an Ad Privacy Choices entry point from the private Account area where applicable. Exact choices may depend on jurisdiction, Google systems, platform capabilities, and law.

21. COOKIES, IDENTIFIERS, IP ADDRESSES, AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES

ULS and providers may use cookies, local storage, SDK identifiers, IP addresses, device identifiers, advertising identifiers where available/permitted, and similar technologies to provide, secure, analyze, monetize, and support the Service.

For ad serving, third parties may place/read browser cookies, use web beacons or similar technologies, or use IP addresses and other identifiers.

ULS does not intentionally pass personally identifiable information to Google advertising services in violation of Google publisher requirements.

22. PRECISE LOCATION AND ADS

ULS uses device location for app functionality when permission is granted. ULS does not intentionally provide a user’s precise Explore device location or exact hidden private-residence coordinates to Google advertising services for ad targeting.

If this materially changes, ULS will update disclosures and obtain any consent required by law/provider policy.

23. ADVERTISING AND AGE

ULS does not intentionally offer accounts to children under 13 and does not independently profile users by exact age for advertising unless the Service actually collects that information. ULS follows applicable provider/platform requirements using information and consent signals actually available.

24. PUSH NOTIFICATIONS

ULS uses Firebase Cloud Messaging and applicable mobile/browser notification systems.

ULS may process private installation/messaging tokens, device/browser delivery information, account notification preferences, and information necessary to route notifications.

Tokens are private technical information. Account notification preferences are distinct from OS/browser per-device permission.

25. THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS

Depending on platform/feature, ULS relies on services including Google Firebase (authentication, database, storage, hosting, Cloud Functions, Analytics, Cloud Messaging), Google Maps/place services, Google AdMob, Google AdSense when activated, RevenueCat, Stripe, Apple App Store/platform services, Google Play/platform services, authentication providers, and social/Podcast/store destinations selected by users.

Providers may process information on ULS’s behalf or independently under their own terms/privacy policies.

26. DATA SECURITY

ULS uses technical and organizational measures intended to protect information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. No transmission/storage method can be guaranteed completely secure.

Access to sensitive administrative, moderation, billing-support, and private-location information is restricted through applicable authorization controls.

27. RETENTION

ULS does not use one universal retention period.

Information is retained only as long as reasonably necessary for purposes described here and legitimate Archive, operational, security, moderation/enforcement, dispute-resolution, accounting, tax, legal, fraud-prevention, backup, and auditing needs. Different categories may have different retention periods. Published Archive contributions may remain after account deletion as described above.

28. PRIVACY REQUESTS

Depending on applicable law, users may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, or information about certain processing.

ULS may verify that a requester controls the account or is otherwise authorized before disclosing, correcting, deleting, or changing private information.

Requests: privacy@urbanlegendssociety.com

A privacy request concerning eligible private account information does not automatically erase published Stories, comments, media, reactions, or other retained Archive/community contributions. Requests involving retained contributions are reviewed under applicable law and established ULS privacy/Archive processes.

29. CALIFORNIA AND OTHER PRIVACY RIGHTS

ULS is operated in California. California residents and users in other jurisdictions may have additional privacy rights when applicable law applies to ULS and the processing at issue.

ULS does not sell personal information for monetary payment. Certain advertising practices may be treated as sale/sharing/targeted advertising under applicable law, and ULS will provide required choices where applicable.

ULS will not claim statutory thresholds, exemptions, or obligations that do not actually apply.

30. INTERNATIONAL USERS

ULS may be accessed from jurisdictions outside the United States. Service providers may process information in the United States or other locations in which they operate.

Users may have privacy rights under local law. ULS will address applicable requests and consent requirements as required, but the Privacy Policy does not claim compliance mechanisms that have not been implemented.

31. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

ULS may update this Privacy Policy.

Material changes are intended to be communicated through an in-app notification and email with an effective date. Unless law/platform rules require affirmative re-acceptance, continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

Non-material updates may be posted with an updated effective date.

32. CONTACT

Urban Legends Society, a DBA of Death By Media LLC

Privacy: privacy@urbanlegendssociety.com
General support: help@urbanlegendssociety.com