Privacy

Last updated October 18, 2026

Abodery is a volunteer history project about Waynesboro, Virginia’s old buildings. You can read every page without an account, and we collect as little as we can.

If you only read the site

We don’t ask who you are and don’t use advertising cookies. Like any website, our host (Google’s Firebase Hosting) receives the technical details every browser sends, such as your IP address and browser type, to deliver pages and protect against abuse. Maps and pictures load from the services that provide them: OpenStreetMap, the Library of Congress, the Virginia Geographic Information Network and the U.S. Geological Survey. Those services see your request the same way.

Searching

Matching by words happens in your browser. To match by meaning, what you type in the search box is also sent to our search service, which asks Google’s Vertex AI to interpret it and returns the closest records. We don’t keep searches or tie them to you; like any web request, Google Cloud’s logs record them for up to 30 days for troubleshooting. Visit counts note that a search happened, not what was searched for.

Counting visits

To learn which pages and features people use, we count visits with Google Analytics (through Google Firebase). It sets a cookie that tells a return visit from a new one, and records the pages you view and features you use, such as opening a map year, the 3D view or a photo, along with general details like your device type and approximate area. We’ve turned off Google’s advertising features and cross-device tracking, never send your name, email or anything you write, keep the detailed records for two months, and don’t count the editors’ or personal account pages.

If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, we don’t count your visits at all. Visitors in Europe are asked first, and nothing is counted unless they agree. You can also block it with Google’s opt-out add-on or your browser’s privacy settings; the site works the same either way.

If you sign in to share a memory

You sign in with your Google account, or with an email address and password. With Google we receive your name, email address and an account ID; with email, the name and address you give us. Your browser keeps you signed in until you sign out. We use your email only to manage your contributions and, if we need to, to contact you about them. We never show it on the site.

What you share (your text, photos, captions, how you know the place, and the name you choose to be credited with) is stored with Google Firebase. Nothing is shown publicly until an editor approves it, and you can ask to be credited as “A neighbor” instead of by name. If you’re interviewed, the conversation is kept with your account until you delete it, and editors and reviewers can read it once you send it.

Your memory’s full record

We keep everything you tell us as the memory’s full record: every sentence, every interview answer and every photo, with the ones kept private marked. Only you, Abodery’s editors and reviewers, and the AI privacy check described below read the full record. Reviewers help editors check what people share; some are AI assistants working from their own accounts, and they see the same full record an editor does. The public sees only what you chose to share, once an editor has approved it.

Before you send a memory, an AI model (Google Gemini) reads it and marks sentences that seem best kept private, such as something about a living person’s health. It marks them rather than deleting them: you see every mark and decide. If the check can’t run, we still mark contact details and recent sale prices ourselves.

You choose who sees a memory: share it now, keep it for the record (never shown publicly), or release it later. A memory released later stays private until January 1 of the year you pick, and then appears on its own if an editor has approved it. You can change the choice at any time on your page: a more private choice takes effect straight away, and sharing more widely goes back for review. Editors may keep more private than you did, but never publish what you kept private.

Private detail may help us find connections between places. It is never quoted, and an editor checks every connection before it is published.

Photos

Photos are resized and re-saved when you upload them, which removes hidden details such as the GPS position where a photo was taken. If you tick “Use this photo’s date and place to help”, we keep the date it was taken, a rough position (to about 100 metres) and roughly how far it was from the place (inside Shenandoah National Park, only that it was taken in the park) for editors checking your memory. That is never shown publicly. A photo you keep private is stored apart from the public ones, where only you, editors and reviewers can open it. You can also make a photo you already shared private from your page.

What is never published

• Contact details, such as phone numbers and email addresses.
• Modern sale prices (from 1980 on) of places people live in.
• The health, money or legal matters of someone living, unless the person who shared the memory tells us it’s about them or that they have permission.
• Exact locations inside Shenandoah National Park, to protect home sites and graves.
• Where a photo was taken (its GPS position).

What we don’t do

We don’t sell or rent personal information or share it with advertisers, and we don’t use it to show you ads. House histories come from public records such as National Register nominations and historic maps.

Suggesting a correction or removal

Anyone can use the “Suggest a correction or removal” link on a place or a memory, without signing in. We keep what you write and, if you give it, your email address, so an editor can reply. Only editors and reviewers see them.

Seeing, changing and deleting your information

On your page you can see everything you’ve shared and who sees it, edit it (edits are reviewed again before they appear), or delete it. Deleting a memory removes its full record and all its photos, private ones included. Interviews are deleted separately, from the same page. To have your account information removed entirely, or for anything else, email contact@abodery.com.

Children

Abodery isn’t directed at children. Accounts are for people 13 and older: Google limits its accounts to that age, and we ask when you create an account with an email address. If you believe a child has shared something, email us and we’ll remove it.

Changes

If we change how we handle information, we’ll update this page and its date. See also our terms of use and contributor terms.