Privacy Policy

Who operates AccessLens

AccessLens is operated by Dan Spelt in British Columbia, Canada. This policy describes the personal information the site collects and why. Questions and privacy requests go to hello@accesslens.ca.

Legal framework

AccessLens handles personal information in line with British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). Where personal information crosses a provincial or national border, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) can also apply. Dan Spelt is the person responsible for these practices.

Accounts

Creating an account stores:

• Email address and display name
• A hash of your password, when you set one. The password itself is not stored
• Name, email, and profile picture returned by Google, if you choose Google sign-in
• Role, account type (community reviewer or business), and badges earned from activity on the site
• Optional bio and avatar
• Display preferences: theme, text size, contrast, motion, line height, density, units, and whether maps load automatically
• A profile-visibility preference, stored for a future public profile. Published reviews still show the account display name
• Whether optional place-update email is turned on. It starts off

Email sign-in, when configured, sends a one-time link through Resend. That message is for signing in. It is not a newsletter.

What may be public

Approved place details, accessibility notes, reviews, display names, ratings, and attached media may appear publicly. Uploaded media uses a public URL. Do not upload private documents, faces without permission, licence plates, or other personal information.

Database identifiers for contributors are not included in public review responses. Follows, favorites, and in-app notifications stay on the signed-in account. There is no public list of who follows a place.

What is used for administration

Account details and place-submission contact information are used to operate accounts, review submissions, prevent abuse, and follow up about contributed records.

• Place submissions store the submitter’s name, email, and role, plus optional business phone, email, and website
• Business claim requests store the requester’s name and email, and any business email or proof file they provide
• Accessibility update requests store the signed-in person’s name and email with the proposed change
• Issue reports (broken elevator, blocked ramp, and similar) are private moderation records. They are not published as a public issue page
• Student outreach logs can include a business contact name and visit notes for program administration
• A verified business access code is kept in an encrypted cookie for 24 hours so that place’s update flow can stay signed in

Followed places and email

Following a place is separate from saving it as a favorite. When public details of a followed place change, AccessLens stores an in-app notification for each follower except the person who made the change. Routine timestamps and private moderation fields do not create a notification.

Email about that change is sent only when Email notifications is turned on in settings. The message names the place and says its public accessibility information changed. It does not list which fields changed. If delivery fails, the failure is recorded on the notification and the in-app notice stays. AccessLens does not run a marketing list.

Moderation and corrections

New place submissions are queued for administrative review. Community reviews can appear before an administrator marks them verified. Use the report action on a place record to flag inaccurate, unsafe, or privacy-sensitive content.

Official-source candidates

Official-source candidates retain their provider, dataset, licence, record identifier, and import date. They remain separate from published place records until current community details are supplied and reviewed. City of Victoria accessible-parking candidates are starter data under that city’s open-data licence. They are not a guarantee that a space is available or accessible today.

Maps, addresses, and technical data

Explore and place maps load map tiles in your browser from OpenStreetMap. Your browser sends that request directly, so OpenStreetMap can see the IP address and browser information that come with it.

Address lookup is done on the AccessLens server through Nominatim (nominatim.openstreetmap.org). The address or coordinates in the request are sent there, and successful results are cached in the AccessLens database so the same query is not repeated. A short-lived rate limit keeps the client IP address in server memory only. Those entries are not written to the database and are dropped when the server process restarts.

Hosting logs may include ordinary request data such as IP address, browser information, and timestamps. AccessLens does not run advertising analytics. Site fonts are self-hosted and are not loaded from Google at visit time.

Service providers

These services process limited information so the product can run:

• MongoDB stores accounts, contributions, follows, notifications, and cached geocode results
• Resend delivers magic-link sign-in email and optional place-update email. The recipient address and message content are processed by Resend, which may handle them outside Canada
• Google, only if you choose Google sign-in, authenticates you and returns the profile fields described above
• OpenStreetMap and Nominatim provide map tiles and address lookup

Cookies and on-device storage are described in the Cookie Policy.

Retention

Account, contribution, follow, and notification records remain in the database while the account or the related place record exists. AccessLens does not run an automatic deletion schedule. Geocode cache entries are kept so repeated address lookups can be avoided. You can ask for personal information to be deleted; some records may be kept when they are needed for moderation, security, or a legal obligation.

Your requests

Email hello@accesslens.ca to ask for access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, or to turn off future email. There is no self-serve account deletion screen. If a concern is not resolved, you can contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada for a PIPEDA matter.

Changes

When this policy changes, the updated version is posted on this page with a new date. Accessibility information on the map can change and should not be treated as a guarantee that a place will meet every person’s needs. How the site may be used is in the Terms of Use.

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