Facing the Mountain Zen Group · Kōgakuji

Privacy and cookies

We try to collect as little information as possible and to be plain about the information we do receive. We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.

This policy describes our public website, contact and signup forms, announcements mailing list, online community, and any online donation services we may provide.

Last updated August 17, 2026.

The short version

We do not sell or rent your personal information.
The public website does not use advertising cookies or behavioral analytics.
We receive information you choose to provide when you contact us, request announcements, make a donation, or participate in the online community.
Our hosting, form, email, security, community, and payment providers may process limited information needed to provide and protect those services.

Information you choose to give us

Contact and practice inquiries

When you contact us by email or through a website form, we receive your email address and whatever other information you choose to provide. We use it to answer your question, arrange practice-related communication, or carry out the request you made.

Our website contact forms are processed using Formspree. Formspree receives the information submitted through the form and processes it on our behalf so that we can receive and respond to your message.

Announcements mailing list

When you request to join our announcements list, we collect your email address and your confirmation that you would like to receive messages from Facing the Mountain. The signup request is submitted through Formspree.

We use Google Groups and Google Workspace to manage the announcements list and deliver messages. After receiving a signup request, we may send you a Google Groups invitation that you must accept to finish joining the list.

The list is used for practice announcements, event information, schedule changes, weather cancellations, and occasional sangha news. You may leave the list through the unsubscribe options provided with the mailing list or by contacting us.

Donations

If we offer online donations, payment information will be processed by the payment provider identified at the time of the transaction. Facing the Mountain may receive information such as your name, email address, donation amount, date, and transaction reference.

We do not intend to receive or store full payment-card details on this website. Those details are handled by the payment provider used to complete the transaction.

Online community

Our invite-based community forum uses Discourse. If you create an account, the forum stores the account information you provide and the topics, replies, or other content you choose to post. We use this information to operate and moderate the community, support practice, and maintain the safety and security of the forum.

Forum content is shared according to the visibility of the space in which it is posted. Please do not place private or sensitive information in a public or broadly visible discussion.

Cookies and technical information

Cookies are small pieces of data that a website can store in your browser. They may be used for necessary functions such as keeping you signed in, remembering preferences, or protecting forms and accounts from abuse.

The public Facing the Mountain website does not use advertising cookies or behavioral analytics. Our Discourse community uses functional cookies and similar browser storage needed for account registration, login, session security, and user preferences.

Our public website uses Cloudflare Turnstile on forms to help distinguish legitimate submissions from automated abuse. When a protected form is displayed or submitted, Cloudflare may process technical information needed to provide that security service.

Formspree, Google, Cloudflare, Discourse, and any payment provider we use may process technical information or use cookies or similar technologies as needed to provide their respective services. Their services are governed by their own privacy practices in addition to this policy.

Like nearly all web hosting systems, our hosting and infrastructure providers may temporarily process standard connection information, such as an IP address, requested page, browser information, date, and time. This information is used to deliver the site, diagnose problems, prevent abuse, and protect the service. We do not use it to build advertising profiles about visitors.

This site currently loads its Montserrat and Vollkorn typefaces through Google Fonts. Your browser therefore contacts Google to request those files. We do not use Google Analytics.

Photographs

This website includes photographs of actual Facing the Mountain practices, ceremonies, retreats, and community activities. We use photographs according to our sangha’s consent practices and try to represent people with care.

If you appear in a photograph and would like us to review, correct, or remove it, please contact us.

How we use and retain information

We use personal information only for the purpose for which it was provided, for the ordinary administration of the sangha, or when reasonably necessary for security, accounting, legal compliance, or the protection of our community.

We keep information only as long as it remains reasonably useful for those purposes. Some limited records may be retained to honor an unsubscribe request, preserve community moderation records, or meet accounting and legal obligations.

Information may also remain for a period of time in the ordinary backups, logs, or retention systems of the service providers we use.

We may disclose information when required by law or when reasonably necessary to protect a person, the sangha, or the security of our services. We do not disclose personal information for third-party advertising.

Your choices

You can leave the announcements list at any time using the unsubscribe options provided with the mailing list or by contacting us. Community members can review and update much of their account information through the forum.

You may also ask us to review, correct, or delete personal information that we control, subject to information we reasonably need to retain for security, legal, accounting, or administrative purposes.