Privacy Policy

Who we are

Ponnivalam Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public non-profit organization (EIN 41-5217868), located at 1549 Sheffield Ave, San Jose, CA 95125. This policy explains what information we collect through our website, volunteer accounts, and our members media portal, and how we use it.

Information we collect

We collect information in a few different ways, depending on how you interact with us:

• Contact form submissions — name, email address, and any message you send us through our Contact page.
• Volunteer and track lead information — name, phone number, and personal email address, collected when you join a PV27 track or volunteer team, so we can coordinate your work and provide you with an official Ponnivalam Foundation email account.
• Workspace account information — if you're issued an @ponnivalam.org account, standard Google Workspace account data associated with that account.
• Sign-in information — if you use our Members Media portal, we receive your name, email address, and profile photo from Google Sign-In, so we can confirm you're an authorized member.
• Limited Google Drive access — the Members Media portal reads a list of the photos and videos in our private members-only Drive folder, using your own Google account's read-only access, solely to display that library to you. We do not access, read, or store the contents of your personal Google Drive, email, or any files outside that one shared folder.

How we use this information

• To coordinate volunteer work, communicate about events and programs, and respond to inquiries
• To provide and secure access to the Members Media portal, so only authorized members can view our private community photos and videos
• To administer Google Workspace accounts issued to volunteers and track leads

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

Who has access

Access to volunteer and member information is limited to designated Foundation administrators and track leads who need it to do their coordination work. Our systems (Google Workspace, Google Drive) restrict access by account and, where applicable, by group membership — access is not open to the general public.

Third-party services we use

We rely on Google Workspace, Google Drive, and Firebase (a Google service) to run our volunteer accounts, store shared files, and operate the Members Media portal. These services have their own privacy practices, described in Google's Privacy Policy.

Children's privacy

Some of our programs (for example, our youth and Ascent tracks) involve participants under 18, typically alongside a parent or guardian's involvement. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13 without a parent or guardian's participation.

Data retention

We retain volunteer and member information for as long as it's needed for organizational and coordination purposes. You can ask us to review, correct, or delete your information at any time by contacting us (see below).

Security

We use Google Workspace's account and access controls, and restrict our private media library to authorized signed-in accounts only, enforced by Google Drive's own permission system — not just a setting on our website.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page reflects the most recent update.

Contact us

Questions about this policy, or requests to access, correct, or delete your information, can be sent to contact@ponnivalam.org.