Holden's Archive is a family history archive and antique-document shop run by one family, not a large company. This policy explains, in plain language, what information the site holds about you, why it holds it, who else handles it, and what you can ask us to do with it.
Who runs this site
Holden's Archive, operated by Holden Margeson in South Carolina, United States. You can reach us about anything on this page at holden.archive.history@gmail.com. We do not publish a mailing address.
What we collect
If you only browse the archive, you do not need an account and we do not ask you for anything. Our hosting provider records ordinary technical information as part of serving pages to you (for example your network address and the page requested). We also keep short-lived records of request activity, such as a network address and a timestamp, to notice automated abuse like a program hammering the search page.
If you create an account, we collect:
- your email address and, for email sign-ups, a password (stored only in encrypted form by our sign-in provider, never visible to us);
- if you sign in with Google, the basic account details Google returns: your email address and your name;
- anything you choose to put in your member profile, such as a display name, a handle, a short biography, a profile photograph, and whether your profile is public or private;
- any date of birth or residence information you add about yourself or link to your profile (see "Public and private information" below: this is visible only to you);
- research projects, notes, records, sources, images and documents you create in the research workspace;
- documents you have claimed as owned, your claim history, and your choices about showing your name as an owner;
- support tickets and content reports you send us, including the message itself;
- a record of which versions of our policies you have agreed to, and when.
If you buy something in the shop, we collect what is needed to take payment and deliver the order:
- your name, email address and shipping address;
- the items ordered, the amounts, discount codes used, the order status and tracking details;
- confirmation of payment from Stripe. Your card number is entered on Stripe's checkout and is never seen or stored by us.
If you join the History By Mail Club, we also keep your plan, billing term, subscription status and shipping details, so we can bill you through Stripe and mail your boxes.
If you ask for a Certificate of Authenticity or buy elsewhere, we may record the buyer's name and sale details on the certificate we issue. Certificates are stored privately and are not published.
If you subscribe to announcements, we keep your email address and your choices so we can send the messages you asked for. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in each message.
Your cookie choices are stored in your browser so we can remember them.
We do not ask for government ID numbers, and we have no use for them.
Why we collect it
We use this information to let you sign in, take and deliver orders, process payments and refunds, issue certificates and claim codes, run the research and submission process, reply when you contact us, credit contributions where a contributor has chosen to be visible, keep the archive accurate, and protect the site from spam, fraud and automated abuse. We do not sell personal information.
Marketing and advertising
If you choose "Accept all" (or turn on Marketing) in the cookie choices, the site loads the Meta Pixel. Meta's pixel can set cookies and receives information about your visit, such as pages viewed, products viewed, items added to the cart and checkout starts, so we can measure and run advertising on Facebook and Instagram. If you choose "Accept required", the Meta Pixel does not load.
After a completed purchase, our server may also send Meta a record of that purchase, including the order value, and your email address and name in hashed (scrambled) form together with your network address and browser details, so Meta can match the purchase to advertising. You can manage advertising preferences through Meta's own ad settings. We do not otherwise use your information for advertising and do not sell it.
Our product catalogue is also shared as a public product feed (product titles, photos, descriptions and prices only), which contains no personal information.
Cookies and similar technology
The site uses strictly required cookies and browser storage (sign-in, cart, checkout and display settings) and, only if you allow it, marketing cookies. The full list, with what each item does, is in the Cookie Policy. There is no Google Analytics and no cookie-based visitor-tracking product on this site.
Services we rely on
Running the archive and shop means other companies necessarily handle some data on our behalf:
- Supabase: our database, sign-in service and file storage. Account details, orders, everything you save on the site, and uploaded images and documents are stored there.
- Vercel: our web host, which serves pages to you.
- Stripe: payments, tax calculation and subscriptions. Stripe handles your card details under its own privacy policy and sets cookies during checkout to process payments and detect fraud.
- Email delivery: order, shipping, claim, account and (if you opted in) announcement emails are sent through our email delivery providers, who process your email address and the message.
- Google: only if you choose "Continue with Google" to sign in, and for the site's typefaces, which are loaded from Google Fonts (your browser contacts Google when a page loads).
- Cloudflare: the Turnstile "are you human" check on sign-in and contact forms, and protection against floods of requests. Cloudflare processes technical signals from your browser to tell people from bots.
- OpenStreetMap: our maps use OpenStreetMap tiles, place searches use its public place directory, and when you type a United States shipping address at checkout the text you type is sent to OpenStreetMap's address search to offer suggestions and check the address.
- Meta: only as described under "Marketing and advertising".
- Shipping carriers, such as the postal service: your name and delivery address, so your order can be delivered.
Beyond these, we do not share personal information with anyone. We would only disclose information if the law required it, or to protect the archive or its members from harm.
Public and private information
The archive is a public historical record, so material published in it is visible to anyone, including search engines. That includes text read out of attached PDFs and documents, which is shown on public pages and made searchable so researchers can find it.
Some things are always private or under your control:
- Your email address is never published.
- Your date of birth and residences, if you provide them or they are linked to your member profile, are visible only to you. They are not shown to the public, to other members, or in search, maps, sitemaps, exports or print views.
- Your member profile is private unless you choose to make it public, and you choose whether you are shown as a contributor.
- Documents you own: a document you claim stays part of the public archive exactly as before. Your name is shown as its owner only if you turn that on for that document (or set it as your default). The "You own this" label is shown only to you. Your list of owned documents is shown on your profile only if you switch on "Show my collection publicly", and then only for documents where you chose to show your name.
- Claim codes are private and are never shown publicly.
- Research projects and notes in your workspace are private to you and the administrators until you submit them and an administrator accepts them into the public archive.
- Orders, addresses and certificates are private to you and the administrators who fulfil them.
Historical records in the archive describe people, many of them long deceased. If a record contains information about you or a living relative and you would like it changed or removed, write to us and we will look at it.
How long we keep things
We keep your account and the material you have saved for as long as your account exists. Order and payment records are kept for as long as needed for tax, accounting and legal obligations and to handle refunds, claims and authenticity matters. Accepted contributions stay part of the archive's historical record after an account closes, because removing them would break the record they belong to. Support tickets and content reports are kept as long as they are useful for handling the matter and keeping a record of decisions. Short-term abuse-prevention and claim-attempt logs are kept for a limited period and then deleted. We keep things only as long as they serve the archive and the shop.
Your choices and rights
You can:
- see and change your profile information at any time while signed in;
- choose whether your name is shown on documents you own, and whether your collection is public;
- change your cookie choices at any time from the link in the site footer;
- unsubscribe from announcements with the link in any message;
- ask us for a copy of the personal information held about you;
- ask us to correct anything that is wrong;
- delete your account from your profile page, or ask us to delete it for you.
Write to holden.archive.history@gmail.com for any of these. We will act on requests as soon as we reasonably can. Deleting your account removes your profile, your private workspace and your unsubmitted work; material already accepted into the public archive remains part of the historical record, and order records we must keep by law are retained.
If you live in a place whose law gives you additional privacy rights, such as the right to know what we hold, to correct or delete it, or to opt out of advertising-related sharing, write to the address above and we will respect those rights. Choosing "Accept required" in the cookie settings opts you out of the Meta Pixel.
Children
This site is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us personal information, write to us and we will delete it.
Security
Sign-in, storage and the database are provided by Supabase, payments by Stripe, and passwords are stored only in encrypted form. Access to private material is enforced at the database level. No site can promise perfect security, but we keep private material private and only collect what the archive and shop actually need.
Changes to this policy
This policy is versioned on the site. When we publish a new version, the previous one stays in the archive's policy history so you can see exactly what changed and when, and everyone with an account is notified. If a change is significant enough to need your agreement again, you will be asked to accept it the next time you sign in.
Contact
Questions, requests and complaints about privacy: holden.archive.history@gmail.com.
This policy and the running of Holden's Archive are governed by the laws of the State of South Carolina, United States.