JOY FOR LIFE · PRIVACY
Cookie & Tracking Technologies Policy
This policy explains how Joy for Life uses cookies, local storage, pixels, embedded services, analytics tools, and related technologies when you visit our website, make a donation, purchase merchandise, or access connected digital services.
Effective August 5, 2026
Joy for Life uses a limited combination of first-party and third-party technologies to operate its website, maintain security, understand site performance, process transactions, display embedded content, and support connected services.
Some technologies are necessary for the website to function. Others may be activated only after you provide consent, depending on your location, browser settings, and the privacy configuration applied to the website.
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Scope of This Policy
This Cookie & Tracking Technologies Policy applies to the Joy for Life website located at www.joy4life.org and to website functions that Joy for Life controls.
It also describes technologies that may be used when you interact with services connected to our website, including donation processing, merchandise purchases, membership services, embedded videos, social-media features, and externally hosted content.
Third-party websites and platforms maintain their own privacy and cookie practices. Their activities are governed by their own policies, not exclusively by this policy.
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Cookies and Similar Technologies
A cookie is a small data file that a website or service stores on a visitor’s browser or device. Cookies may remain only during a browsing session or may persist for a defined period after the browser is closed.
This policy also uses the term tracking technologies to include related mechanisms such as:
- Browser local storage and session storage
- Pixels and web beacons
- Software development kits
- Device and browser identifiers
- Embedded scripts and application interfaces
- Authentication tokens
- Fraud-prevention and security technologies
These technologies may store information, recognize a browser, preserve a visitor’s selections, measure interactions, enable transactions, or facilitate communication between the website and a service provider.
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Why We Use These Technologies
Joy for Life and its service providers may use cookies and similar technologies to:
- Load, operate, and secure the website
- Maintain website sessions and user preferences
- Prevent fraud, abuse, and unauthorized activity
- Process donations and merchandise purchases
- Support account login and membership functions
- Remember privacy and cookie selections
- Measure website traffic and performance
- Understand how visitors navigate the website
- Diagnose technical errors
- Display videos and other embedded content
- Improve accessibility and user experience
- Comply with legal, accounting, and security obligations
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Categories of Technologies
The technologies used through our website generally fall into the following categories:
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Essential Technologies
Essential technologies support functions that cannot reasonably be provided without them. These may be activated automatically when you access the website.
They may support:
- Page delivery and website availability
- Traffic routing and content delivery
- Security and malicious-activity detection
- Form submission and spam prevention
- Shopping-cart and checkout functions
- Donation processing
- Account authentication
- Cookie and privacy-preference storage
- Accessibility and basic interface functions
Because these technologies are required for the website or a service you request to function, they generally cannot be disabled through our website preference controls. They may sometimes be blocked through browser settings, although doing so may prevent portions of the website from operating properly.
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Analytics and Performance Technologies
Joy for Life may use Squarespace Analytics and other configured analytics services to understand aggregate website activity.
Analytics information may include:
- Pages visited
- Approximate visit duration
- Referring pages or traffic sources
- General device and browser characteristics
- Approximate geographic region
- Website interactions and navigation patterns
- Technical performance and error information
We use this information to evaluate website effectiveness, improve navigation, identify technical problems, and understand which content visitors find useful.
Where required, analytics technologies are restricted until a visitor provides consent through the website’s cookie controls.
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Functional Technologies
Functional technologies improve convenience or provide enhanced functionality. They may remember selections such as interface preferences, account state, language, form progress, video-player settings, or consent choices.
Blocking functional technologies may not prevent the main website from loading, but it may limit particular features or require you to re-enter selections.
08
Payments, Donations, and Fraud Prevention
Joy for Life uses third-party payment-processing services, including Stripe and payment tools made available through Squarespace, to process donations and purchases.
Payment providers may use cookies and related technologies to:
- Complete and authenticate transactions
- Detect and prevent fraudulent activity
- Protect payment information
- Remember certain checkout selections
- Comply with financial and regulatory requirements
- Evaluate device and transaction risk
Joy for Life does not directly control every cookie or device identifier used by a payment processor. Payment information is handled according to the processor’s own privacy and cookie policies.
For additional information, review:
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Red Thread Membership Services
Joy for Life’s Red Thread membership community is hosted through Circle. When you visit or sign in to the membership platform, Circle may use cookies and similar technologies for:
- Authentication and account security
- Maintaining signed-in sessions
- Remembering account and interface preferences
- Measuring platform performance
- Supporting community features
- Preventing abuse and unauthorized access
The Red Thread membership platform is hosted on a connected subdomain but is operated using Circle’s technology. Circle’s own privacy and cookie policies apply to its processing activities.
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Embedded Content and External Media
Our website may display content delivered by third-party platforms, such as:
- YouTube videos
- Vimeo videos
- Social-media posts or links
- Maps
- Payment forms
- Membership interfaces
- Externally hosted forms or media
When embedded content loads, the external provider may receive technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device characteristics, referring page, and interaction with the embedded content. The provider may also place or access cookies, subject to applicable consent requirements.
Merely linking to an external service does not necessarily cause that service’s cookies to load. Embedded players, scripts, forms, or interactive components may do so when displayed or activated.
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Third-Party Service Providers
Depending on the page and service used, our website may interact with the following providers:
This list identifies significant service categories and is not necessarily an exhaustive inventory of every technical subprocessor, content-delivery provider, or security vendor used by those platforms.
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Your Cookie Choices
Where available, the Joy for Life cookie banner allows visitors to accept, decline, or manage certain categories of nonessential cookies.
You may change your preferences by reopening the website’s cookie controls when that option is displayed. Clearing your browser cookies may also remove a previously stored consent selection, causing the cookie banner to appear again.
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Browser and Device Controls
Most browsers allow you to view, remove, restrict, or block cookies through browser settings. You may also be able to:
- Delete existing cookies
- Block third-party cookies
- Block all cookies
- Receive a warning before a cookie is stored
- Clear browser storage
- Restrict cross-site tracking
- Use private or incognito browsing modes
Browser controls vary by browser and device. Blocking all cookies may interfere with website forms, purchases, donations, account access, video playback, membership login, and privacy-preference storage.
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Do Not Track and Privacy Signals
Some browsers transmit “Do Not Track” or similar preference signals. Because there is not a single universally implemented technical standard governing every such signal, website responses may vary.
Where legally required and technically supported, Joy for Life and its service providers may recognize applicable browser-based privacy preference signals. Visitors may also use the cookie controls and browser settings described in this policy.
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Duration and Retention
Some cookies expire when you close your browser. Others remain for a period determined by their function, configuration, or service provider.
Retention periods may depend on whether the technology is used for:
- A temporary session
- Authentication
- Security and fraud prevention
- Privacy preference storage
- Analytics measurement
- Shopping-cart continuity
- Legal or financial recordkeeping
Joy for Life does not independently determine every retention period applied by third-party providers. Their retention practices are described in their respective policies.
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International Processing
Joy for Life is based in the United States. Our technology providers may process, route, or store information in the United States or other jurisdictions where they or their subprocessors operate.
Privacy protections and data-processing laws may differ between jurisdictions. Where required, service providers may use contractual or other lawful mechanisms to support international data transfers.
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Children’s Privacy
Our public website is not designed to use advertising or tracking technologies for the purpose of profiling children.
Participation in any Joy for Life program involving a minor is handled separately from ordinary public website browsing and may require authorization from a parent, guardian, or legally authorized representative.
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Changes to This Policy
Joy for Life may revise this policy when our website, services, vendors, privacy controls, or legal obligations change.
The effective date at the top of the page indicates when the policy was most recently updated. Material changes may also be communicated through the website or another appropriate method.
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Contact Joy for Life
Questions about this policy, our website technologies, or your privacy choices may be directed to:
Joy for Life, Inc.7327 SW Barnes Road, Suite 318
Portland, Oregon 97225
United States
These legal policies collectively govern the use of Joy for Life’s website, online services, charitable giving, community membership, merchandise transactions, and digital communications. Unless otherwise stated, the policies should be read together and interpreted as complementary documents.