Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

This policy explains what BALDE PH collects, why, how long it is kept and what rights you have. It is written to follow the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173) and its Implementing Rules and Regulations.

BALDE PH is an information and coordination platform. It is not a government agency, it is not certified by any government agency, and it does not claim government endorsement.

Legal review note. The identity of the Personal Information Controller, the designated Data Protection Officer and the registered address must be completed by the operator before this policy is relied on in production.

2. Information collected

If you only browse, the platform collects the information needed to serve pages securely: your IP address in server logs, your session cookie, and your cookie consent choice. Browsing the map, the directory, advisories and the learning hub needs no account.

If you create an account, it stores your name, email address, hashed password, optional phone number, chosen language, and optionally the region, province, city or municipality and barangay you identify as your area, plus household size if you enter it.

If you register as a water provider, it stores the business name and type, contact person and details, declared registration or permit numbers, business location, service area notes, and the supporting documents you upload.

If you register a water source, it stores its name, category, address, coordinates, contact details, operating hours, prices, and any photos submitted.

If you submit a shortage report, it stores the category, title, description, the area you selected, an optional free-text landmark, optional coordinates, the time you observed the problem, optional photos, and contact details only if you choose to provide them. You may submit anonymously.

If you request water assistance, it stores the category, description, urgency, general location, the number of affected households or people if you supply it, a flag indicating whether vulnerable members are present, and your contact details and exact location if you provide them.

If you contact support, it stores your name, email address, topic, subject and message.

Technical records. The platform keeps an audit log of administrative actions (who changed what and when), and a hashed form of the submitting IP address for shortage reports, assistance requests and contact messages, used only for rate limiting and abuse review. The hash is not reversible to an address.

Browser location. The map can search near you. The browser asks your permission first, and the coordinates are used for that search only. They are not stored against your account.

3. Why this information is processed

• To operate the service you asked for: showing listings, accepting your submissions, routing them to the right organisation and telling you what happened.
• To verify providers and organisations, so the directory can be trusted.
• To moderate submissions and prevent fraud, spam and abuse.
• To send you notifications about your own submissions and, if you opt in, relevant advisories.
• To meet legal obligations and to establish or defend legal claims where necessary.

The legal bases are your consent where consent is required, the necessity of processing to provide a service you requested, and the legitimate interests of operating a safe and accurate public information platform.

4. Information shared with others

Published publicly: water source listings that have been approved for publication, published advisories, published learning hub articles, and shortage reports that a moderator has verified. Verified reports are shown without the reporter's contact details, and anonymous reports are shown without any reporter identity.

Shared with authorised organisations: an assistance request is shared with the LGU, barangay, utility or partner organisation assigned to handle it, within that organisation's geographic jurisdiction. Your contact details and exact location are released to that organisation only when you consented to being contacted.

Never published: uploaded verification documents, assistance request contact details, exact household locations, internal review notes, and audit log entries.

The platform does not sell personal information and does not share it for advertising.

5. Third-party services

Map tiles are loaded from an OpenStreetMap-compatible tile provider, which receives the tile requests your browser makes, including your IP address. Email notifications are sent through the SMTP service the operator configures.

No analytics or advertising service is active in this deployment. The cookie consent interface lists analytics and marketing as categories so they can be governed correctly if the operator ever enables one. Until that happens, consenting to those categories causes nothing to load.

6. Cookies and browser storage

See the Cookie Policy for the full list. In summary, the platform uses a session cookie, a CSRF token cookie, a cookie recording your consent choice, and a pseudonymous consent identifier. The installable app also uses a service worker cache for public pages and assets, and local browser storage for offline report drafts you explicitly save.

Offline drafts stay on your own device until you choose to submit them. They are not transmitted in the background.

7. How long information is kept

• Account data: until you delete your account, plus a short period in backups.
• Shortage reports and assistance requests: retained as operational records. Contact details attached to a resolved request are removed once the matter is closed, unless retention is required for a legal claim.
• Verification documents: kept while the listing is active and for a period afterwards to evidence the decision, then deleted.
• Audit logs: retained for accountability.
• Hashed IP values: short-lived, kept only as long as needed for abuse review.

8. Security

Passwords are hashed. Access to records is controlled by role and by geographic jurisdiction. Verification documents are stored outside the public web root and served only through an authorised route. Administrative actions are logged. Uploads are validated and stored under randomised filenames.

No service can promise absolute security, and this policy does not make that promise.

9. Your rights

Under the Data Privacy Act you may be informed about processing, access your data, object to processing, have inaccurate data corrected, have data erased or blocked in the circumstances the law provides, obtain a copy in a portable format, and lodge a complaint with the National Privacy Commission. You may also claim damages where the law allows.

Some requests cannot be fully met. Erasure may be refused where a record must be kept to meet a legal obligation, to evidence a verification decision, or to establish or defend a legal claim. Where that happens you will be told which exception applies.

To exercise a right, contact privacy@uat.baldeph.com.

10. Children

The platform is not directed at children, and accounts are intended for adults. Where a minor's information reaches the platform through a household report, it is handled under the same protections and minimised wherever possible.

11. Changes

Material changes are published as a new version with a new effective date, and the revision history is kept. Where a change materially affects your rights you may be asked to review it again.

12. Contact

Privacy questions and requests: privacy@uat.baldeph.com General support: support@uat.baldeph.com