What we collect, and what we don't.

1. Who we are

This policy is published by The Colab, LLC ("The Colab," "we," "us"), which operates the shared workspace at 122 South E Street, Exeter, CA 93221 and the website thecolabexeter.com. Questions about anything here: [email protected].

2. What we collect

When you fill in a form on the site — to book a tour, join the waitlist, apply for membership, ask a question, or request an event date — we receive what you type: your name, email address, phone number if you give it, the option you chose, and your message. The form is delivered to our inbox by a form service (Web3Forms) and arrives as an email at [email protected].

When you become a member or rent the space, we keep your contact details, your tier or booking, your payment history, your room bookings and the hours you've used, and any notes needed to run your membership (guest sign-ins, mail held for you, access credentials issued to you). When online billing is available, your card is handled by our payment processor, Stripe; we never see or store your full card number.

When you use the mail service, which every membership includes, we issue you a mailbox number and take a completed PS Form 1583 from you — the Postal Service form that allows us to receive mail on your behalf. To verify it we check two forms of identification, one a photo ID and one showing your home address, and we keep copies of both with the signed form. The Postal Service requires us to hold them and to produce them on request. We do not put identification numbers into our own systems: our records note only which kinds of document were checked, who checked them and when. If your mailbox closes, we keep the forwarding address you give us so we can re-mail your post, and it stays with your mailbox record.

If we end an agreement because of someone's conduct and decide to decline their future memberships, virtual offices, day passes or bookings (Member Agreement section 17, Virtual Office Agreement article 8), we keep a short record of that decision: the conduct it rests on, its scope, who approved it, when, and the date it will be reviewed. It is kept apart from our customer and marketing lists, and the person it concerns can ask us what it says or ask us to review it.

When you simply visit the website, our hosting provider (Cloudflare) processes the technical information any web request carries — your IP address, browser type, the page requested, and the time — to deliver the page and protect the site from abuse. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to understand how many people visit and which pages they read. It is cookie-free, doesn't build a profile of you, and doesn't follow you to other sites.

What we don't do: we don't use advertising cookies or tracking pixels, we don't buy data about you from anyone, and we don't sell or rent your information to anyone.

3. The member directory

We keep a member directory so people can find each other in the building. It is opt-in: nothing about you appears in it unless you ask us to add you, and we agree with you what your entry says. It appears in two places, and you can be in either, both or neither:

• Members directory — the screen at the street door, which can be read from the sidewalk. It shows your business name and your contact name, and nothing else.
• Members directory – detailed — the board upstairs, inside the Space. It shows your business and contact name, a line about what you do, your website, and your phone number if you give us one.

Your email address never appears on either. To come off either one, or both, just ask us and we'll make the change within one working day. The same goes for removing your entry altogether. When your membership ends, we take you off both automatically. The directory is never sold or shared. The pages behind both screens open only on a screen we have set up in the building, or for a current member who has signed in; a signed-in member sees the same entries as the board upstairs.

The room board. A screen in the Space shows the day’s room bookings, so members can see what is free. A booking shows the name of the member who made it and the short description they typed — both of which you can change when you book, because we prefill them and you can edit them. Tick Keep it off the board and your booking shows as “Private event” with no name at all. The board is a display inside the Space. The page behind it shows names only on a screen we have set up in the building or to a current member who has signed in; anyone else sees at most that a room is booked, never who booked it.

4. How we use it

To reply to you, arrange a tour, and answer questions. To set up and run your membership or booking — billing, access, guest passes, and mail handling. To send you things you'd expect from a workspace you belong to: opening updates if you're on the waitlist, receipts, changes to hours or terms, and occasional news about member events. You can opt out of the news at any time by replying to any message or emailing us; billing and terms notices continue while you're a member because they're part of the service.

5. Who we share it with

Only the service providers we need to run the business, and only what each one needs: Cloudflare (website hosting, security, and analytics), Web3Forms (delivering website form submissions to our inbox), Google Workspace (our email and calendar), Stripe (payments, once online billing is available), Resend (sending the emails the site sends you — your sign-in links, receipts, booking and membership confirmations — which means it handles your name and email address, and we keep a record of what was sent, to whom and whether it arrived), and SwitchBot (the keypad at the street door, which holds the door codes we issue you and when they work). Each of them handles data under its own privacy terms and our instructions. We also give the United States Postal Service the Form 1583 and the identification we verified for your mail service, if it asks for them, because that is a condition of being allowed to receive mail for you at all. We'll share information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of people in the space.

6. How long we keep it

Form submissions stay in our inbox while your enquiry is open and for a reasonable time afterwards in case you come back to us. Membership and rental records are kept while you're a member or have a booking, and afterwards for as long as tax and accounting rules require (generally up to seven years for payment records). The Form 1583 and the identification copies taken for the mail service are kept while you use the service and for as long afterwards as the Postal Service requires. If you'd like something deleted sooner, ask and we'll do it unless a legal obligation prevents us.

7. Your choices and rights

You can ask us what information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. California residents have specific rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, including the right to know, delete, and correct, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them; we don't sell or share personal information for advertising purposes, so there is nothing to opt out of on that front. To make any request, email [email protected] from the address we have for you, and we'll respond within the time the law allows (normally 45 days).

8. Security

The website is served over HTTPS, access to our systems is limited to the people who run The Colab, and card details never touch our systems. No method of storage is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable care, and if a breach ever affected your information we would tell you.

9. Children

The Colab is a workspace for adults. The website and our services are not directed at anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. If you think a minor has given us information, tell us and we'll remove it.

10. Links to other sites

The site links to a few outside services, such as Google Maps for directions. Those sites have their own privacy practices, which we don't control.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle your information, we'll update this page and the date at the top, and we'll email members about any change that matters.

12. Contact

The Colab, LLC
122 South E Street, Exeter, CA 93221
[email protected]