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UndergroundMines
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Privacy Policy

How UndergroundMines.com collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you use the Site.

1. Who we are

UndergroundMines.com (“we,” “us”) operates a research catalog of documented underground mines and related community features at undergroundmines.com. Contact: /contact/.

2. Information we collect

Account information

  • Email address and password (stored as a secure hash)
  • Optional display name
  • Membership / access tier (for example free member or Explorer Pro)
  • Explorer profile fields you choose to set (handle, bio, visibility preferences, optional interests/website)

Content you submit

  • Mine verifications, flags, condition/feature reports, visit confirmations, and notes
  • Mine submissions and private-mine records (including coordinates you choose to store)
  • Collections, trip planning notes, checklists, and public trip reports/comments
  • Photos and captions (including moderation-only or public settings you select)
  • Contact-form messages and ticket replies

Technical and usage data

  • Server logs (IP address, user agent, request path/time, error diagnostics)
  • Session cookies and CSRF tokens needed for signed-in use and form security
  • Search and recently-viewed activity associated with your account where that feature exists (coordinate searches are not stored as searchable history)
  • Pageview / search analytics and advertising metrics processed through shared keyword-site network infrastructure when enabled

Payments

If Explorer Pro checkout is enabled, payment card data is handled by Stripe. We do not store full card numbers on UndergroundMines.com servers. We may receive limited billing metadata from Stripe (for example subscription status and customer identifiers) needed to deliver membership benefits.

3. How we use information

  • Operate accounts, authentication, and membership access controls
  • Display catalog content and privacy-aware maps according to your access tier
  • Process community submissions, moderation, notifications, and support tickets
  • Enforce location privacy rules and prevent unauthorized disclosure of exact coordinates
  • Improve reliability, security, spam/abuse prevention, and Site performance
  • Measure aggregate usage and, where configured, show advertising
  • Communicate about account, moderation, or service issues

We do not sell personal information.

4. Location privacy — special rules

Protecting sensitive mine locations is a core product rule, not only a marketing claim:

  • Exact gated coordinates for guests and free members are not included in page source, scripts, or API payloads intended for those tiers.
  • Public explorer profiles, public trips, and public visit reports are designed to omit stored mine coordinates, map pins, private route/meeting notes, and photo GPS metadata.
  • Community-submitted exact coordinates default to private to the uploader unless the contributor opts into Explorer Pro sharing and administrators do not restrict disclosure.
  • Public/free maps may show intentionally displaced Approximate Area markers; those points are not authoritative surveyed pins.
  • Member-uploaded photographs intended for public derivatives are re-encoded so GPS/EXIF location metadata is stripped from public files. Private originals are stored outside public web paths with access controls.
  • Some locations remain hidden regardless of membership.

Members remain responsible for not typing precise identifying locations into public text fields. See also Location privacy.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

  • Essential: session/login cookies and CSRF tokens for secure form posts
  • Analytics / advertising: when keyword-network analytics or ads are enabled, related cookies or similar identifiers may be used to measure traffic and deliver ads
  • Third-party widgets: the contact form may load an Altcha challenge widget from a CDN to reduce spam

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling essential cookies may prevent sign-in and form submission.

6. Sharing and processors

We share information only as needed to run the Site:

  • Hosting / infrastructure: our server and database providers that store Site data
  • Stripe: payment processing for Explorer Pro when checkout is enabled
  • Email delivery: transactional mail for contact tickets / account messages when the mailer is configured
  • Keyword-site network: shared analytics, ads, and contact-ticket infrastructure used by UndergroundMines.com
  • Map tiles / front-end libraries: browsers may request map tiles (for example OpenStreetMap) and library CDNs when you use interactive maps while signed in
  • Legal / safety: disclosure if required by law, or to protect rights, users, or the integrity of the Site

Public content you choose to publish (for example a public trip or public explorer profile) is visible to anyone who can access that URL.

7. Retention

  • Account and membership records are kept while your account is active and as needed for security/audit.
  • Community submissions and moderation history may be retained to preserve catalog integrity even if an account is later closed, unless deletion is required and feasible.
  • Contact tickets are retained to provide support continuity.
  • Server logs and analytics are retained for operational periods appropriate to security and reporting.

8. Security

We use industry-common protections such as password hashing, CSRF tokens on state-changing forms, server-side authorization for protected actions and coordinate access, prepared database statements, and separation of private media from public web paths. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure.

9. Children

The Site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact us so we can delete it.

10. Your choices

  • Update explorer profile visibility and contribution-stat display preferences in your account
  • Choose whether community-submitted exact locations may be shared with Explorer Pro
  • Keep trips/private mines private, or publish location-safe public versions
  • Withdraw open flags/verifications where the Site provides that action
  • Contact us to request account closure or correction of inaccurate account data

11. International users

The Site is operated from the United States. If you access it from another country, you understand that information may be processed in the United States and other locations where our providers operate.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect product or legal changes. The “Last updated” date below will change when we do. Continued use after an update means you acknowledge the revised policy.

13. Contact

Privacy questions or requests: Contact UndergroundMines.com.

Last updated: August 10, 2026