This Privacy Policy, effective as of 4th December 2025, explains how Born Free (“we”, “us”) handles personal information when you use BornFree.life (the “Site”), join our community spaces (including Discord), contact us, or participate in Born Free projects.

Who is responsible: Born Free is currently operated by Joshua Leisk. If this changes (for example a separate legal entity), we will update this policy.

What we collect

We aim to collect the minimum needed. Depending on your involvement, we may collect:

identity and contact details (name or alias, email, country, organisation, role),

messages you send and content you publish in community spaces,

documents you provide (including attachments),

if you choose to share it, health-related information (for example symptoms, diagnoses, lab results, medications),

administrative information relevant to participation (for example opting in or out of particular projects),

website technical data via standard server logs.

We do not use behavioural advertising or analytics tracking beyond standard server logs.

De-identified by default (strong preference)

If you share health-related information, we ask that you provide it de-identified by default. Do not include direct identifiers unless strictly necessary. If you choose to send identifiable material, you do so by choice and we will handle it under this policy.

How we collect information

We collect information when you:

submit a website form or email us,

message in Discord/community spaces,

collaborate on documents or research drafts,

voluntarily provide information in the context of the protocol/community,

browse the Site (technical logs).

Why we collect it, how we use it

We use personal information to:

respond to enquiries and coordinate collaboration,

support community moderation and rule enforcement,

maintain continuity of discussions and project work,

improve educational materials and Site operation,

where applicable, support Born Free projects (including patient-led research activities).

Community spaces (Discord), important limits

Discord is a third-party platform. Posts and messages may be visible to others depending on channel permissions. Do not share information there that you would not want other members to see.

Moderators may review content for safety and rule enforcement. We do not treat community platforms as clinical record systems.

Research and publication

If a project is intended to produce public outputs (for example reports, presentations, publications), we aim to use de-identified information by default and apply project-specific governance/consent processes where appropriate. Any project-specific terms will be communicated separately from this general privacy policy.

Who we share it with

We do not sell personal information.

We may disclose personal information:

to service providers used for hosting, email, security, and cloud document storage,

to moderators/assistants who help operate community spaces (under confidentiality expectations),

to clinicians or researchers you nominate, if you ask us to,

where required or authorised by law, or to reduce a serious threat to safety.

Overseas handling

Some service providers (including community platforms and cloud storage) may store or process information outside Australia. Where practical, we choose reputable providers and apply reasonable safeguards.

Storage, security, and access control

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes limiting access to those who need it and using access controls.

Because third-party platforms are involved, absolute security cannot be guaranteed.

Retention, deletion, de-identification

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described above, then take reasonable steps to delete or de-identify it unless we’re required to retain it.

Deletion requests: You can request deletion at any time. We will take reasonable steps to delete information we control. Some information may persist in backups or within message threads where deletion is not practical, in which case we will take reasonable steps to de-identify where feasible.

Access and correction

You can request access to personal information we hold about you and request correction if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading.

Complaints

If you have a privacy complaint, contact us first and we will respond within a reasonable time. If you’re not satisfied, you can escalate to the relevant privacy regulator.

Contact

Privacy contact: Joshua Leisk
Email: privacy [at] bornfree.life