In brief: RWN collects a small amount of coarse first-party technical diagnostic data and our hosting provider necessarily processes ordinary request/security information. Search words, exact location, and saved services are not sent to an RWN analytics database. RWN has no user accounts, advertising trackers, marketing cookies, user-upload storage, payments, subscriptions, or user-facing AI assistant, and we do not sell personal information.
1. Who and what this covers
Real World Needs (“RWN”) operates the public directory at realworldneeds.org. This notice covers the website and its browser-based tools. It does not cover the independent organizations, map services, hotlines, government sites, or other third-party destinations linked from a listing.
RWN currently provides an informational directory only. The public site does not offer accounts, application forms, donations, case intake, direct messaging, purchases, subscriptions, free trials, recurring billing, file uploads, or a conversational AI service.
2. Information RWN collects or receives
RWN collects or receives only limited information needed to deliver, secure, and troubleshoot the website:
- Coarse technical diagnostics: broad page class, broad screen-size class, limited performance measurements, and limited client-error details sent to RWN’s same-site diagnostic endpoint as described below.
- Ordinary hosting and security information: when your browser requests the site, Vercel necessarily processes network and request information such as IP address, browser/device information, requested path, time, and security events in order to deliver and protect the service.
RWN does not use this information to build a profile of the help you seek, determine eligibility, target advertising, or rank people.
3. Information RWN does not collect from the finder
The following information is used locally or sent only when you choose a feature, but is not collected into an RWN user database:
- Search words and filters are processed in your browser and are excluded from RWN diagnostic payloads.
- Saved service identifiers stay in your browser’s local storage.
- Exact device location is used in browser memory only after you grant permission and is not sent to an RWN database.
- Shared service identifiers are placed after
#in the URL so browsers do not send that fragment to the hosting server as part of the page request. - Public offline directory files are stored in your browser’s Cache Storage on supported devices.
RWN does not ask you to upload documents or photos, and there is no user-upload storage bucket. Public static website storage contains only intentionally public files such as site code, styles, logos, map/data assets, and directory files.
The public website does not provide an AI chatbot or personalized generative-AI answer system. RWN does not send your search words, location, saved services, or RWN diagnostic payloads to an AI model.
4. How location works
The site asks for location only after you press Use my location and your browser requests permission. Your exact coordinates stay in browser memory while the page is open so services can be sorted by distance. They are not saved, added to a shared link, or sent to an RWN database.
In the United States, your browser rounds latitude and longitude to one decimal degree before asking the public USDA Food and Nutrition Service ArcGIS map for current sites within 160 kilometres. This gives the USDA and Esri an approximate area—roughly 11 kilometres of latitude—and the network address used by your browser, but not your exact coordinates. The request happens only after you approve location. See Esri’s privacy statement and the USDA privacy policy.
You can stop location sorting and remove loaded meal sites with the Clear button beside the location control, Clear browser data in the footer, by closing the page, or by changing your browser’s location permission.
If you open Apple Maps or Google Maps, that service receives the organization’s name or public map coordinates. RWN does not put your device location in the link. Your map provider may use location separately under its own settings and privacy notice.
5. Cookies, saved services, and links
RWN does not set application cookies. When you press Save, the site uses local storage under the key rwn-saved-resources to keep a list of service identifiers on that device. The list remains until you remove saved services, clear RWN browser data, or clear site data in your browser.
Shared service links use the part of the URL after #. Browsers do not include that fragment in the HTTP request sent to the hosting server. Older RWN links that used a query parameter are read and immediately converted to the fragment format in the browser.
Technical performance sampling is chosen randomly when a page loads and does not create a cookie, local-storage value, or persistent telemetry identifier.
6. Low-connectivity and offline directory files
On browsers that support service workers, RWN can keep a small set of public same-site files in browser Cache Storage so the lightweight directory can reopen after a connection drops. The cached set is limited to the directory shell, its styles and script, the official RWN logo and web-app manifest, and the static directory search index. Directory pages you visit can also be kept so they can reopen without a network connection.
The offline worker does not cache RWN API requests, does not store the words you type into search, does not create a search-history database, and does not intentionally cache individual service-detail pages. Cache keys discard URL query strings. When a requested page is unavailable offline, navigation falls back to the cached text directory rather than inventing or serving stale live-source information.
These public files stay on your device. A newer RWN release can replace the cache, your browser can evict it, and you can remove it with Clear browser data in the finder footer or by clearing site data in browser settings.
7. Privacy-minimized technical diagnostics
RWN uses a small first-party endpoint on the same website to understand whether pages load and behave reliably. Performance timing is sampled on about 2% of page loads. Client errors and WebGL failures can also generate a limited diagnostic event when they occur.
Before a diagnostic request is sent, the browser reduces the page to a broad class such as finder, service, directory, or policy, and reduces screen width to small, medium, or large. Performance events can include measurements such as largest contentful paint, interaction latency, first contentful paint, time to first byte, layout shift, DOM readiness, and long-task count. Error events can include a short error type, script filename, and line or column number.
The diagnostic payload does not include your search words, exact page path, service identifier, city, precise screen dimensions, device location, saved services, reduced-motion preference, network connection type, name, email address, or an RWN user identifier. The endpoint does not return a tracking cookie.
8. Third-party services and data recipients
RWN does not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. The site has no third-party advertising tracker or third-party analytics service. The following providers can receive information only for the limited purposes described here:
| Provider | When data is sent | What it can receive |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Whenever the site is delivered, secured, or a minimized RWN diagnostic event is sent | Ordinary network/request information and the minimized diagnostic payload |
| USDA / Esri ArcGIS | Only after you approve a U.S. location search | A location rounded to one decimal degree plus ordinary network information |
| Apple Maps / Google Maps | Only when you choose to open the corresponding map link | The organization’s public name or map coordinates and information your browser/device sends to that provider |
| Listed organizations and other linked sites | Only when you choose to open or contact them | Information governed by that destination’s own service and privacy practices |
Vercel and linked providers may process information in countries other than your own. Their own privacy notices and contractual safeguards govern their processing. See Vercel’s privacy notice.
9. Retention and deletion
RWN follows a data-minimization approach rather than keeping a user profile:
- Exact location: kept only in browser memory for the active page session or until you clear location.
- Saved services: remain in your browser until you remove them or clear site data.
- Offline directory files: remain in browser Cache Storage until a new release replaces them, the browser evicts them, or you clear RWN/browser site data.
- Search words and filters: are not intentionally retained by RWN.
- RWN diagnostic events: are written to Vercel runtime logs; RWN does not copy them into a separate visitor analytics database or attach a persistent RWN user identifier.
- Hosting/security logs: are retained under the active Vercel service configuration and applicable legal/security requirements rather than a separate RWN user-record system.
Use Clear browser data in the finder footer or your browser’s site-data controls to delete RWN local storage and offline cache. Because RWN intentionally does not attach an account or persistent visitor ID to runtime and hosting logs, RWN may not be able to reliably isolate a particular low-information server log entry as belonging to one visitor.
10. Security controls
RWN uses HTTPS and restrictive browser/security headers, limits browser capabilities the site does not need, blocks third-party script execution by default, keeps the diagnostic endpoint same-origin, and minimizes the information sent to that endpoint. The public site does not expose a user-upload bucket, payment form, account database, or public administrative interface.
No security control can guarantee absolute protection. RWN therefore reduces risk primarily by not collecting sensitive visitor information that the directory does not need.
11. Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track
RWN does not sell personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or run cross-site advertising trackers. Because those activities are not present, Global Privacy Control (GPC) and browser “Do Not Track” signals do not need to disable a separate sale, sharing, or advertising-tracking feature on this site. Your browser’s normal blocking, location, storage, and permission controls continue to work.
If RWN later introduces a practice for which an opt-out preference signal is legally required, the signal handling and this notice must be updated before that practice launches.
12. Your choices and privacy rights
You can use the directory without sharing your location. You can block or revoke location permission, remove saved services, clear RWN’s offline cache and other site data, and open organization links without saving anything in RWN.
Depending on where you live and whether a privacy law applies to RWN, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to certain processing, and to complain to a data-protection authority. Most information used by the RWN interface is already under your control on your device. Use Clear browser data in the finder footer to remove RWN local storage, current location sorting, and the RWN offline cache. You can also clear site data in your browser. For information controlled by Vercel, see Vercel’s privacy request information.
Privacy contact: RWN does not yet have a verified public privacy mailbox and does not accept personal case, account, donor, or contact information through this site. A monitored privacy request channel must be published before RWN launches any feature that collects those categories directly from visitors.
13. Children
The directory can be used to find public services, but it is not designed to collect information from children. RWN does not knowingly ask a child to submit personal information through this site. A child facing danger should contact a trusted adult or the appropriate local emergency service.
14. Changes to this notice
RWN will update the review date and this page when its privacy practices materially change. Before launching accounts, forms, user uploads, third-party analytics, advertising, payments, subscriptions, donations, direct communications, or user-facing generative AI, RWN must review the data flow, security controls, consent/choice requirements, retention/deletion process, and this privacy notice.