Privacy Policy

Effective date: February 20, 2026 · Last updated: February 20, 2026

Tacoma Planet ("we," "us," or "our") operates the website tacomaplanet.com (the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website and use our services.

1. Information We Collect

Personal Information

When you create an account, we may collect:

  • Username and display name
  • Email address
  • Password (stored using industry-standard cryptographic hashing; we never store plaintext passwords)
  • Profile information you voluntarily provide (avatar, bio, location, vehicle details)
Information from Third-Party Sign-In

If you sign in using a third-party service (such as Google, Facebook, or Twitter), we receive your name, email address, and profile picture from that service. We do not receive or store your third-party account password.

Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our site, we automatically collect:

  • IP address and approximate geographic location
  • Browser type and version, operating system
  • Pages visited, time spent on pages, and navigation paths
  • Referring website or search terms
  • Device type (desktop, mobile, tablet)
User-Generated Content

Forum posts, marketplace listings, build threads, event submissions, gallery uploads, and other content you create on the platform are stored and publicly visible according to the area of the site in which they are posted.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

  • Provide, operate, and maintain our community platform
  • Create and manage your user account
  • Send you notifications about activity relevant to you (replies, mentions, watched threads)
  • Send periodic emails such as daily digests of popular topics (you can opt out in your account preferences)
  • Moderate content and enforce our community guidelines
  • Analyze usage trends to improve the user experience
  • Detect, prevent, and address technical issues, fraud, or abuse
  • Display relevant advertisements (see Advertising section below)

3. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Essential Cookies

We use cookies that are strictly necessary for the operation of our site, including session cookies to keep you logged in and anti-forgery tokens to protect form submissions.

Analytics Cookies

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors interact with our website. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit the site, what pages they visit, and what other sites they used prior to coming to our site. We use this information solely to improve our Service. Google Analytics collects the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit our site, but we do not combine this with other data we hold about you.

Google's ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Advertising Cookies

We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on our site. Google and its advertising partners may use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites. You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings or aboutads.info.

You can manage analytics, ad measurement, and ad personalization consent at any time using the Cookie Settings / Do Not Sell or Share control in the site footer.

4. Third-Party Services

Our Service integrates with the following third parties:

  • Google Sign-In — for account authentication (Google Privacy Policy)
  • Google Analytics — for website usage analysis
  • Google AdSense — for serving advertisements
  • Google reCAPTCHA — for spam and abuse prevention (Google Privacy Policy)
  • PayPal — for marketplace and sponsorship payments (PayPal Privacy Policy)

Each of these services has its own privacy policy governing their use of your data.

5. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your data in the following circumstances:

  • Service providers — with vendors who help us operate the platform (hosting, email delivery, analytics), bound by confidentiality agreements
  • Legal requirements — if required by law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request
  • Safety — to protect the rights, property, or safety of Tacoma Planet, our users, or the public
  • Business transfers — in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, with notice to affected users

6. Data Retention

We retain your account information for as long as your account is active. Forum posts and other public content may remain visible even after account deletion, though we will remove personally identifying information upon request. Notification data is automatically purged after 90 days.

7. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS), hashed passwords, and secure server configurations. However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Your Rights and Choices

You have the right to:

  • Access your personal data through your account settings
  • Update or correct your information at any time via your profile page
  • Delete your account by contacting us (see below)
  • Opt out of email notifications via your notification preferences
  • Opt out of personalized ads via Google's Ads Settings
  • Opt out of analytics tracking via the Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on

9. Children's Privacy

Our Service is not directed to individuals under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have collected such information, we will take steps to delete it promptly.

10. California Residents (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to request disclosure of what personal information we collect, request deletion of your data, and opt out of sale/sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not sell personal information for money. To exercise these rights, use the Cookie Settings / Do Not Sell or Share control in the footer and contact us using the information below for account-level requests.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date above. Your continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, please contact us:

For account and Facebook Login deletion requests, see our Data Deletion Instructions.