Privacy Policy · retronica

This Privacy Policy explains how retronica ("we", "us") collects, uses, and protects your information when you visit retroni.ca and, in particular, when you sign in to post comments. We built commenting to be privacy-first: your real name and email are never shown publicly or attached to your comments.

1. Who we are

retronica is a review site for retro gadgets. For any privacy question or request, contact us at privacy@retroni.ca.

2. Information we collect

Account information. When you sign in with Google, our authentication provider (Amazon Cognito) receives your Google account's email address and basic profile (such as a unique identifier). We use the email only to operate and secure your account — it is never displayed publicly and never stored on a comment.
Your public alias. On first sign-in we generate a random, non-identifying alias (e.g. "BraveFalcon"). This alias is the only identity shown with your comments. You can change it at any time.
Comments. The text of comments you post, your alias, the article, and timestamps.
Technical information. Session cookies needed to keep you signed in, and standard server logs (such as IP address and browser type) used for security and abuse prevention.

3. How we use your information

To operate commenting — to publish your comments under your alias and let you manage them.
To moderate content (see below) and prevent spam, harassment, and abuse.
To secure the service, debug problems, and comply with legal obligations.

We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not sell your personal data.

4. Automated moderation

To keep discussions civil, the text of each comment is processed by an automated AI moderation service (Amazon Bedrock) before it is published, to detect harassment, hate, and spam. This processing is automatic; comments are approved, hidden, or flagged for review based on that assessment. No human-identifiable information is sent to the model — only the comment text.

5. How your information is shared

Service providers. We host the site and process data on Amazon Web Services (including Cognito for sign-in and Bedrock for moderation), acting as our processor.
Google. When you choose to sign in with Google, your interaction with Google is governed by Google's own privacy policy.

We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties.

6. Cookies

We use essential, first-party cookies to keep you signed in and to protect the sign-in flow. These are required for commenting to work; we do not use third-party advertising or tracking cookies.

7. Where your data is stored & how long we keep it

Data is processed and stored on Amazon Web Services infrastructure in the United States (us-east-1 region). We retain your account and comments until you delete them or delete your account. Server logs are kept for a limited period for security purposes.

8. Your rights & choices

Delete your data. You can delete your account at any time from your account page. Doing so permanently removes your profile, your alias reservation, all of your comments, and your sign-in record from our systems.
Change your alias. You can change your public alias whenever you like.
Access & other requests. Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, or restrict the processing of your personal data. Contact privacy@retroni.ca to make a request.

9. Children

retronica is not directed to children, and commenting is not intended for anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will revise the "Last updated" date above when we do, and material changes will be reflected here.

11. Contact

Questions or requests: privacy@retroni.ca. See also our Terms of Service.