Privacy Policy

Information we may collect

Cemetery Finders collects limited technical and user-submitted data. We do not require account registration, and you can browse the archive anonymously. We may collect the following:

• Technical logs: IP addresses, browser types, operating systems, and page referral URLs are collected when requests are made to our servers for security and diagnostic purposes.
• Analytics data: Basic usage data, general location details (at the country or state level), and click patterns are reviewed to optimize layout and search speeds.
• Form submissions: If you report a spelling issue, submit coordinates, or request a listing edit, details are recorded in our review database.

Contact and correction form submissions

When you submit a query through our contact panel, your messages are saved directly into our secure database system. This is a local database transaction and does not rely on external SMTP or email delivery providers.

The fields stored may include your name (optional), email address (required), request type, page URL, message subject, message content, supporting source URL, IP address, and browser user agent (for abuse prevention). These records are only accessible to archive reviewers.

Technical logs and security

We collect IP addresses and browser user-agent signatures primarily to detect automated scraping abuse, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attempts, and programmatic spam submissions. These technical logs are stored in secure environments and are not displayed publicly.

Cookies, analytics, and advertising

Cookies are small text files placed on your device to remember basic display selections. We may use cookies to check rate limits, keep session variables secure, and review general traffic behavior.

If advertising is enabled on the site, third-party partners (such as Google AdSense) may place cookies to serve relevant ads based on your visits to this and other websites. You can configure your browser to reject cookies or manage advertising preferences directly with Google.

How information is used

We utilize the collected information strictly for operational and research verification purposes:

• To operate, maintain, and secure the website layout.
• To review, verify, and update disputed records in accordance with the corrections policy.
• To identify and block malicious crawlers, scraping bots, and abusive form submissions.
• To analyze general visitor metrics to improve search performance and database indexing.

What we do not sell

Cemetery Finders is not designed to profile individual users, sell contact rosters, or monetize personal data through broker networks. Any user data collected is restricted to the physical operations of the web archive.

Third-party and official source links

Our pages contain links to external registries, government mapping portals (such as the USGS), and veteran databases. We do not control these third-party platforms. When you leave our site, your data is governed by the privacy statements of those external services.

Data retention

Technical server logs are rotated and deleted periodically. Contact messages and correction submissions are retained as long as reasonably necessary to manage the correction workflow, verify database accuracy, maintain historic records, and resolve security issues.

Children’s privacy

Cemetery Finders is a public research archive and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors. Do not submit information about individuals under the age of 13 unless it is part of a verified historical record or correction request.

How to contact us about privacy

If you have questions about this policy or want to query the status of a submitted correction request, please message us through the contact page.