1. Scope and responsibility
Charles Bernadez operates Charles Bernadez Portfolio at charlesbernadez.com from the Philippines. In this policy, "we," "us," and "our" refer to Charles Bernadez as the operator responsible for personal information processed through this website. "You" refers to a visitor, member, contributor, or person contacting us.
This policy covers the portfolio, Gallery, Vlog, member accounts, contact form, and testimonial submissions. Personal information means information that identifies you or can reasonably be linked to you. External websites and services have their own privacy practices, explained below.
This notice explains our handling of information. It does not replace consent where consent is required, and it does not waive your rights. Use the contact details below for questions or requests.
2. Information we collect
The information involved depends on the feature you use. It comes from what you provide, your interactions with the site, and services you choose to connect.
Information you provide directly
- Account details: your name, email address, and sign-in information. Password-based accounts store a protected password hash rather than a readable password. For new registrations using the required agreement checkbox, we also record when you accepted and the versions of the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use presented.
- Inquiries: the name, email address, and message you send through the contact form, together with subsequent correspondence.
- Testimonials: your name, email address, quote, optional role or affiliation, and optional photo.
- Contributions and requests: comments you post, privacy or content concerns you report, and information reasonably needed to understand and resolve a request.
Information from Google, when you choose it
When Google sign-in or testimonial autofill is enabled and you use it, Google provides your account identifier, name, email address, email-verification status, and profile-picture URL. We check a sign-in credential to authenticate you or verify details used for a testimonial. This connection does not give us your Google password, Gmail messages, or access to private Drive files.
Information generated by use of the site
We maintain account identifiers and activity, comments, reactions, recorded share actions, submission times, moderation status, and contact-message delivery status. A recorded share action does not necessarily mean another person opened the shared link.
Hosting and security services may process IP addresses, browser and device information, request details, and security events. The application uses an identifier derived from an IP address to limit abusive requests and session information to maintain an aggregate visitor count. An IP-derived identifier is not necessarily anonymous.
You may decline to provide information. A feature may be unavailable if it needs that information to work; optional details such as a testimonial photo are not required to use the rest of the site.
3. How we use information
- Provide member features: create accounts, authenticate sign-ins, associate Vlog interactions with members, and display contributions.
- Respond to you: handle project inquiries, correspondence, account issues, and privacy or content requests. Contact messages may also be delivered to the site owner's email inbox.
- Publish and moderate: review testimonials, show approved contributions, and address inappropriate or disputed content.
- Operate and protect the site: maintain functionality, count visits, troubleshoot problems, check submissions, and prevent spam, unauthorized access, and other abuse.
- Meet legal responsibilities: respond to valid legal requirements, investigate incidents, and establish, exercise, or defend legal claims where permitted.
Google account information is used for sign-in, the member profile, and testimonial autofill you choose. Connecting Google does not authorize unrelated advertising uses. Providing an inquiry or testimonial email does not by itself enroll you in promotional mailing lists.
4. Grounds for processing
The lawful ground depends on the purpose and the law that applies to the activity:
- A requested service or steps toward an agreement: information necessary to provide member features you request or respond to a project inquiry, where the contractual ground applies.
- Consent: optional processing that relies on your specific, informed permission, including public contributions where consent is required. The notice at a submission form explains the intended publication.
- Legitimate interests: proportionate site administration, security, and abuse prevention, where permitted and balanced against your rights and reasonable expectations.
- Legal obligations and claims: necessary processing to satisfy an applicable legal obligation or deal with a claim, only on a ground that the applicable law allows.
Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it by contacting us. Withdrawal affects future processing and does not make earlier lawful processing unlawful. A materially different purpose requires an appropriate legal ground and further notice or consent where required. These grounds do not authorize collecting unrelated or excessive information.
5. Information you make public
Published Vlog comments can display your name and profile image. Reaction and share totals are visible on posts. Approved testimonials can display your name, quote, role or affiliation, and photo, including a Google profile photo used with your submission. Testimonials are reviewed before publication; comments may appear before review.
Account and testimonial email addresses and contact messages are not displayed publicly by these features. A private inquiry is not permission to publish it as a testimonial.
Choose public content carefully. Avoid passwords, government identifiers, financial or health details, confidential client material, and other people's private information. Public pages may be indexed by search engines, copied, or shared by others. We can address content under our control, but cannot guarantee removal of independent copies. See your choices and rights and the contribution terms.
6. Cookies and browser storage
Cookies are small values stored by your browser; local storage saves preferences on your device. The site uses these technologies for:
- Sessions and sign-in: maintaining a session and recognizing authenticated members.
- Form protection: helping prevent forged requests, repeated submissions, and other abuse.
- Visit counting: using session state to avoid repeatedly counting the same browser session in the visitor total.
- Appearance: remembering your light, dark, or system theme choice in local storage.
You can clear or block storage in your browser. This may sign you out, reset your appearance choice, or prevent protected forms and member features from working. Google sign-in, security checks, and embedded media may involve provider storage or requests governed by their own policies. A browser storage setting does not delete information already submitted to us.
7. Sharing and external services
Providers supporting the website
The deployed site uses Oracle Cloud hosting and Cloudflare for delivery and protection. A configured email provider processes contact notifications and account-related mail. These services process information needed for their roles, such as hosting site records, delivering messages, or examining requests for abuse.
Cloudflare Turnstile processes browser and network signals to help distinguish visitors from automated traffic. See the Turnstile Privacy Addendum and Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
Connected services, embedded content, and links
Google may receive browser requests when sign-in, Google Fonts, profile images, or Drive previews load. Other external image and video hosts receive requests when their content is displayed. These requests may disclose network and browser information even if you do not create an account here. See the Google Privacy Policy and the relevant provider's notice.
Following an external link or sharing through another service involves that service's own practices. Our responsibility for processing under our control remains; a provider's policy does not replace this notice.
Legal and protective disclosures
Information may be disclosed to competent authorities, professional advisers, or other appropriate recipients when required by law or necessary and lawful to address a claim, fraud, abuse, or a security incident. Disclosure must be limited to what the purpose requires. Public contributions are shared as described in section 5.
8. International processing
The site is operated from the Philippines, while hosting, security, email, and media providers may process information in other countries. Those countries may have different privacy laws.
Using an overseas provider does not remove our accountability for information under our control. Applicable transfer requirements and appropriate contractual, organizational, and technical safeguards must be considered for those arrangements. You can contact us for information about the providers and safeguards relevant to your information.
9. How long information is kept
Retention depends on the purpose of the record, whether that purpose continues, a removal request, and any legal requirement or specific claim. For example:
- Accounts and interactions support membership and the member features you use.
- Messages and correspondence support responding to an inquiry and any resulting project.
- Testimonials and comments support moderation and continuing approved publication.
- Security and request records support protection, investigation, and an appropriate record of how a request was resolved.
Deletion of accounts, messages, and submissions is handled manually; the site does not have a fixed automatic deletion schedule for those records. You can ask about the retention period or criteria for a particular record. Information no longer needed for a lawful purpose should be deleted or irreversibly anonymized.
Sessions and security counters expire separately from account and submission records. Removing active-site information may not immediately remove email copies or private backups. A request must also consider those copies, with access restricted and any necessary continued retention explained. Restoring a backup should respect completed removal requests. A legal hold permits necessary preservation, not unrelated reuse or indefinite retention without a continuing basis.
10. Protecting information
Access controls, encrypted connections on the public site, protected passwords, and submission safeguards help protect personal information. Security also depends on how records, provider accounts, and access permissions are managed. No website, storage system, or transmission method can guarantee absolute security.
Keep your sign-in details private and report suspected unauthorized access using the contact details below. Do not send passwords or sign-in codes in a report. We must assess personal-data incidents and meet applicable response and notification obligations. This section does not limit your rights or excuse required safeguards.
11. Your choices and rights
Choices when using the site
You can browse public content without registering, omit optional submission details, manage browser storage, and request removal of contributions. You can disconnect the site in your Google Account connections. Disconnecting Google does not itself delete a local portfolio account or earlier submissions; request that separately.
Requests about your information
Depending on applicable law, you may have rights to be informed, access and correct information, withdraw consent, object to processing, request erasure or blocking, restrict processing, receive a portable copy, and seek remedies for unlawful processing. These rights have conditions and exceptions; they are not all unconditional in every situation.
Use the contact details below. Describe your request, the email associated with your account or submission, and relevant page links. Reasonable identity verification may be needed to protect your information. Do not send a password, sign-in code, or identity-document copy unless a necessary, secure verification process has been agreed.
Requests are handled within applicable legal deadlines. We should explain the action taken and, if a request cannot be fully completed, the lawful reason and available next steps. Account closure, withdrawal of publication permission, and deletion of associated records may involve different actions; tell us which outcomes you want.
Questions and complaints
You may raise a concern with us or contact the relevant authority. Contacting us first is not a condition of exercising a legal remedy. In the Philippines, information about rights and complaints is available from the National Privacy Commission.
12. Children and other people's information
The site does not currently collect or verify visitors' ages. If a parent or guardian believes a child has provided information, contact us so the information and applicable requirements can be reviewed and appropriate removal or other action taken. Where the law requires parental authorization, it must be obtained before the relevant processing.
Share another person's details or photograph only if you have the necessary authority or other lawful basis. Anyone concerned about information concerning them can use the same request process, even without an account.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as features, providers, or legal requirements change. The date at the top identifies the latest revision. Material changes will be communicated through an appropriate notice, with further consent obtained where required. An updated policy does not retroactively authorize a new purpose for previously collected information.
The Terms of Use explain account responsibilities, content permissions, and other conditions for participating on the site.