Privacy

What we collect

If you organize a shiva: your name, email and a password. The password is stored scrambled, so no one can read it, not even us. We also keep the details you enter about the shiva: the family name, the name of the person who died, the city, the delivery address and drop-off instructions, the dates, food notes, and any message or donation link you add.

If you bring a meal: your name, your email, what you’re bringing, any note you leave for the family, and whether you’d like a reminder.

When anyone visits: like almost every website, our server keeps a basic record of visits (an IP address, the page and the time) for 14 days, so we can keep the site running and safe.

Anonymous counts: to see whether the site is helping, we keep daily totals, like “family pages were viewed 40 times today” or “6 meals were claimed”. These are just numbers. They don’t include cookies, IP addresses, which family’s page was viewed, or anything about you.

Who can see it

• Anyone with the page’s link, or who finds it by searching the family’s name if the family allows that: the family name, who they’re sitting shiva for, the city, the dates, the family’s message, food notes, any donation the family suggests, and the meal list with each person’s name and what they’re bringing.
• People bringing a meal also see the delivery address and drop-off details, so they can deliver.
• The organizer sees everything on their page, including the email addresses of people bringing meals.
• Family members with the page’s passcode see everything except those email addresses.

Shiva pages ask search engines not to list them. A private page can only be reached with its link.

What we never do

• We never sell, share or rent anyone’s information.
• We never use it for advertising, marketing or newsletters. We only email you about the meals you’re part of.
• We never track you around the web. There are no ad, analytics or social media trackers here, and no outside scripts at all. Even our fonts are served from this site. Donation links open without telling the other site which family’s page you came from.

The emails we send

To people bringing meals: a confirmation with the address and a private link to change or cancel, a reminder the morning of if you asked for one, and a note if the family no longer needs your meal.

To organizers: a note when someone signs up for a meal or cancels, and password resets when you ask for one.

That’s all.

Cookies

We use only the cookies the site needs to work: one that keeps you signed in, and one that protects forms from misuse. There are no tracking cookies, which is why there’s no cookie banner. There’s nothing to opt out of.

Who helps us run the site

• DigitalOcean hosts the site and its database in Toronto, Canada. Their backups keep copies for a few weeks.
• Resend delivers our emails. Email addresses and the emails themselves pass through their servers in the United States.
• DreamHost hosts our email inbox, for messages you send us.

They handle information only to provide these services to us.

How long we keep it

Six months after a shiva ends, its page is deleted for good, along with its meals and the details of everyone who signed up. Copies in our backups age out within a few weeks after that.

Organizer accounts stay so you can sign in and organize again. If you’d like yours deleted, just ask.

Your choices

• If you’re bringing a meal, you can change or cancel it at any time from the link in your email.
• If you’re organizing, you can edit the page, pause sign-ups, or change who can find it at any time.
• Anyone can ask to see, correct or delete their information. Email hello@shivamealtrain.com. If you ask us to delete it, we’ll delete it permanently, within 30 days and usually much sooner.

Who we are

Shiva Mealtrain is run by Ryan Sugar, in Canada. For questions about privacy, or anything else, write to hello@shivamealtrain.com.

If this page changes, we’ll update the date at the top. We won’t start using your information in a new way without telling the people it affects.