This Privacy Policy explains how Vitaltale LLC (“Vitaltale”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, stores, and protects information in connection with Folding Monitor, available at folding.vitaltale.com (the “Service”).

Folding Monitor is a community-oriented monitoring and ranking service for Folding@home users, teams, and countries. The Service helps users view Folding@home-related statistics, rankings, team information, country-based leaderboards, and optional forum signature cards.

This Privacy Policy applies only to Folding Monitor. It does not apply to other Vitaltale services unless those services expressly refer to this Policy.

The Service is operated by:

Vitaltale LLC
Delaware, United States

Website: folding.vitaltale.com

Folding Monitor is an independent service and is not an official Folding@home service, nor is it operated, sponsored, endorsed, or controlled by Folding@home, Stanford University, or any related Folding@home project operator.

We may collect and process the following categories of information.

2.1. Information you provide directly

When you use or connect your Folding@home account to the Service, you may provide:

- Folding@home user name;

- Folding@home passkey;

- country selection or country setting;

- team-related information, where applicable;

- profile or avatar information, where supported;

- other information you choose to submit through the Service.

2.2. Folding@home account connection information

To verify and connect a Folding@home account, the Service may process:

- Folding@home user name;

- Folding@home passkey;

- Folding@home user ID;

- Folding@home team ID;

- Folding@home team name;

- Folding@home points, work units, ranks, and related statistics;

- team membership and country-related information.

Your Folding@home passkey is used only to verify your account connection. We do not use your passkey to fold on your behalf, control your Folding@home client, access your device, or perform Folding@home activity in your name.

We do not store your Folding@home passkey in plain text. Where storage is needed for account connection purposes, we store only a hashed or cryptographically protected representation of the passkey.

2.3. Public and derived Folding@home statistics

The Service may collect, receive, calculate, or display statistics related to Folding@home activity, including:

- user rankings;

- team rankings;

- country rankings;

- points and credit totals;

- work units;

- 24-hour, 7-day, 30-day, and all-time leaderboard data;

- rank changes and activity trends;

- team and country summaries;

- generated leaderboard previews and forum signature images.

Some of this information may be based on publicly available Folding@home-related data, data received from Folding@home APIs, data submitted by users, or data calculated by the Service.

2.4. Technical and usage information

When you access the Service, we may automatically collect limited technical information, such as:

- IP address;

- browser type and version;

- device type;

- operating system;

- referring URLs;

- pages viewed;

- timestamps;

- error logs;

- security and anti-abuse logs;

- basic server access logs.

This information is used to operate, secure, debug, and improve the Service.

2.5. Cookies and local storage

The Service may use cookies, local storage, or similar technologies for purposes such as:

- keeping you signed in or connected;

- remembering interface preferences;

- maintaining session security;

- preventing abuse;

- storing necessary technical settings;

- improving Service functionality.

We do not use advertising cookies. We do not use Google Analytics or GA4.

If we later introduce privacy-friendly analytics, such as a self-hosted Matomo installation, we will update this Privacy Policy as needed and, where required, provide appropriate notice or consent options.

Folding Monitor is designed around public rankings, profiles, team statistics, country statistics, and community visibility. As a result, some information may be publicly visible through the Service, including:

- Folding@home user name;

- Folding@home user ID;

- team name and team ID;

- country setting;

- avatar or profile image, where available;

- points, credits, work units, and rankings;

- team and country leaderboard positions;

- generated forum signature cards;

- public profile and ranking pages.

You should not connect or display information through the Service if you do not want that information to be visible in public rankings, public profile pages, or generated signature images.

The Service may allow users to generate image-based signature cards, including user and team signature cards, for use on forums, websites, or community pages.

These signature cards may include information such as:

- Folding@home user name;

- team name;

- country flag or country setting;

- rankings;

- points or credits;

- work units;

- recent activity statistics;

- Service branding or related visual elements.

If you embed or share a generated signature card outside the Service, that image may become visible to third parties and may be indexed, copied, cached, or redistributed outside our control.

We use information for the following purposes:

- to operate and provide the Service;

- to verify Folding@home account connections;

- to display rankings, profiles, team pages, and country pages;

- to generate leaderboard data and statistics;

- to generate user and team signature cards;

- to prevent fraud, spam, abuse, and unauthorized access;

- to maintain security and diagnose technical issues;

- to improve performance, usability, and reliability;

- to communicate important Service-related notices where applicable;

- to comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use your information for personalized advertising.

Where applicable law requires a legal basis for processing personal data, we rely on one or more of the following:

- performance of a contract, when processing is necessary to provide the Service you requested;

- legitimate interests, such as operating, securing, improving, and protecting the Service;

- consent, where required for optional features or non-essential processing;

- legal obligations, where processing is necessary to comply with applicable law.

We may share limited information with service providers that help us operate the Service, such as hosting providers, infrastructure providers, security tools, database providers, backup providers, and technical support services.

These service providers may process information only as needed to provide services to us and are expected to protect the information appropriately.

We may also disclose information if necessary to:

- comply with applicable law, legal process, or government requests;

- protect the rights, property, or safety of Vitaltale, users, or others;

- investigate abuse, fraud, security incidents, or technical issues;

- enforce our terms, policies, or legal rights;

- complete a business transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, restructuring, or sale of assets.

The Service may refer to, display, or interact with third-party services, including Folding@home-related APIs, public Folding@home data sources, forums, external team websites, and other community resources.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices, content, security, or data handling of third-party services. Your use of third-party services is governed by their own terms and privacy policies.

We keep information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide, maintain, secure, and improve the Service.

Different categories of information may be retained for different periods, depending on the purpose of processing. For example:

- account connection data may be retained while your Folding@home account remains connected;

- leaderboard and ranking data may be retained to provide historical statistics and rankings;

- server logs may be retained for a limited period for security, debugging, and abuse prevention;

- generated signature images may remain available while the related feature is active or while the relevant profile or team remains available.

We may retain certain information for longer where required for legal, security, fraud prevention, or dispute resolution purposes.

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect information processed through the Service.

These measures may include:

- secure server configurations;

- encrypted transport where applicable;

- access controls;

- passkey hashing or cryptographic protection;

- rate limiting and abuse prevention;

- logging and monitoring for security and reliability;

- separation of sensitive technical data where appropriate.

However, no online service can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You are responsible for protecting your own devices, accounts, passwords, passkeys, and access credentials.

Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have rights regarding your personal data, such as the right to:

- access information we hold about you;

- request correction of inaccurate information;

- request deletion of certain information;

- object to or restrict certain processing;

- withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;

- request a copy of certain information in a portable format;

- lodge a complaint with a data protection authority.

Some information displayed by the Service may come from public Folding@home-related data or third-party sources. In such cases, we may not be able to remove or change the original source data, but we may be able to adjust how it is displayed or connected within the Service.

To make a privacy-related request, contact us using the contact details provided below.

If the Service allows account connection, you may be able to disconnect your Folding@home account from the Service.

After disconnection, we may stop using your stored connection credentials for account verification. However, some public or historical ranking data may remain visible if it is based on public Folding@home statistics, previously generated leaderboard data, or data necessary for Service integrity.

Where technically and legally possible, we will honor valid deletion or restriction requests.

The Service is not directed to children under 16 years of age.

If you are under 16, you should not use the Service or connect a Folding@home account unless permitted by applicable law and with appropriate consent from a parent or legal guardian.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If we become aware that we have collected such information without appropriate consent, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

Vitaltale LLC is based in the United States. Your information may be processed in the United States or in other countries where our infrastructure, service providers, or technical systems are located.

Where required by applicable law, we take appropriate steps to protect personal data transferred internationally.

Folding Monitor is not a medical service and is not intended to collect, process, or store medical records, health records, clinical data, or patient data.

The Service is focused on Folding@home-related community statistics, rankings, teams, countries, and contribution data.

You should not submit medical records, health information, clinical files, or sensitive personal information to Folding Monitor.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.

When we make changes, we will update the “Latest update” date at the top of this page. If changes are material, we may provide additional notice where appropriate.

Your continued use of the Service after an updated Privacy Policy becomes effective means that you acknowledge the updated Policy.

If you have questions, requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or the processing of your information, you may contact us at:

Vitaltale LLC
8 The Green, Suite B, Dover, DE 19901, United States

Email: general@vitaltale.com

Website: folding.vitaltale.com