Privacy Policy

CharterLookup is a charter-school records aggregator with a community discussion layer. The bulk of the site — every school, authorizer, CMO, county, and closure-history page — is anonymous-browseable without an account. This policy explains what we collect when you visit, what we never collect, how we handle cookies and advertising, and how to delete anything tied to you.

What we collect

If you don't sign in: we collect standard web-server access logs (IP address, user agent, requested URL, timestamp) for operational purposes — abuse detection, capacity planning, and debugging. These logs are retained for 30 days and are not joined to any other data.

If you sign in (via Google, used to post and interact with comments on school pages): we store your Google email address, display name, and avatar URL — plus the comments you post, the upvotes you cast, and any moderation flags you submit. Sign-in is handled by Supabase Auth; the OAuth handshake never shares your Google password with us.

Cookies and similar technologies

First-party cookies (ours): we set a session cookie via Supabase Auth when you sign in. This is what keeps you signed in across page loads. Without it the site can't tell who you are. If you don't sign in, no first-party cookies are set.

Third-party cookies and advertising: if and when CharterLookup displays advertising, we expect to use Google AdSense and possibly other certified ad networks. Those services and their partners set cookies and similar technologies (such as the Google DoubleClick DART cookie) to deliver ads based on your visits to this site and other sites on the internet. Google describes its use of these technologies in its advertising privacy notice.

Opting out of personalized advertising. You can opt out of Google's use of advertising cookies by visiting Google's Ad Settings, or by visiting aboutads.info to opt out of personalized ads from many ad networks at once. Opting out does not eliminate ads; it just makes them less tailored to you.

Third-party services

The site relies on the following third parties:

• Supabase — database hosting and authentication. Your account row, comments, upvotes, and flags live there.
• Google Cloud — application hosting (Cloud Run) and OAuth login. Google sees you sign in; we receive only your email, display name, and avatar URL.
• Google AdSense and partners (if and when ads are enabled) — ad serving and measurement. See cookies section above.
• Google Analytics 4 — anonymous pageview statistics so we can see which content is useful and where users come from. We use the default GA4 configuration with IP anonymization enabled. We don't use User-ID-based cross-device tracking, custom audiences, or remarketing.

We don't use Meta pixels, Mixpanel, or other third-party trackers beyond what's listed here.

Comments are public

Anything you post in a school's Discussion section is visible to everyone — signed-in or not. Your display name and avatar (both from your Google profile) appear next to each comment. Don't share information you wouldn't want attributed to you in public.

We don't verify any claim made in a comment. Comments are opinions and firsthand experience, not records — the official records on each page are sourced from public databases and are clearly cited.

Moderation

Every comment has a "Flag" button. Flags route into a moderation queue we review and act on; serious abuse (doxxing, harassment, illegal content) is removed and the posting account is banned. Spam, off-topic comments, and clearly false attributions of fact are also removed.

We do not auto-hide flagged comments — a comment stays visible until a human reviews the flag. If you believe a comment about you or your school is false, flag it and email corrections@charterlookup.net with the specifics.

Children's privacy

CharterLookup is intended for adults — parents, journalists, researchers, and policy professionals — looking up information about K-12 charter schools. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information through the site (for example, by signing in with a child's Google account), email privacy@charterlookup.net and we will delete it.

Your privacy rights

California residents (CCPA / CPRA). You have the right to know what personal information we collect about you, to request deletion, and to opt out of any "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. We do not sell personal information. To exercise these rights, email privacy@charterlookup.net from the address tied to your account.

EU and UK residents (GDPR / UK GDPR). If you are in the European Economic Area, the UK, or Switzerland, you have rights to access, rectify, delete, and restrict the processing of your personal data, plus the right to data portability and to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Email the same address above to exercise these rights. Our legal basis for processing is your consent (for sign-in, comments, and any ads personalization you don't opt out of) and our legitimate interest in operating the service (server logs, abuse detection).

What we don't do

• No Meta pixels, Mixpanel, Hotjar, FullStory, or behavioral session-recording tools. Google Analytics 4 is the only analytics suite we run — see "Third parties" above.
• No selling personal information to third parties. We don't monetize your account data beyond AdSense's own contextual / interest-based ad targeting (which you can opt out of — see the cookies section above).
• No private messaging between users. The Discussion section is public commentary, not DMs.
• No newsletter or email marketing. Your Google email is used only as a stable account identifier; we don't send messages to it.
• No social-media login other than Google. No Facebook, X, or LinkedIn pixels.

Deleting your data

You can delete any comment you posted from the comment's own menu, and edit your display name from your settings page. For full account deletion, email privacy@charterlookup.net from the address tied to your account. We will delete your auth row, your profile, all of your comments, upvotes, and flags within 7 days. Deletion is permanent.

School records on this site

The school, authorizer, CMO, and closure records on CharterLookup are aggregated from public-records sources: the U.S. Department of Education's Common Core of Data, state-DOE rosters, and publicly-posted closure documents. We cite the source URL for every closure event. If you operate a school and believe a record is incorrect, email corrections@charterlookup.net with the source you'd like us to verify.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page when our practices change. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Material changes (such as enabling a new third-party service, including ad-network changes) will bump that date and replace the relevant section verbatim — there won't be a quiet edit. The historical text of prior versions is available on request.

Contact

CharterLookup is operated by Andrew Morris. hello@charterlookup.net. For privacy-specific requests, use privacy@charterlookup.net.