Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 10, 2026

This policy explains how smfnow.com ("we", "us") handles personal information on this website and on the forums we host. Please read it alongside our Terms of Service.

1. Who is responsible for your data

smfnow.com operates this website and provides free hosting for Simple Machines Forum communities. We act as the data controller for information collected through this site and for account information relating to forum administrators.

For the content posted inside an individual hosted forum, the person who created and administers that forum is responsible for how their community is run and moderated. We provide the platform and enforce our Terms of Service.

If you need to contact us about privacy, use our contact form and mark your message as a privacy request.

2. Information we collect

Information you give us

• Forum registration. When you create a forum or register as a member on a hosted forum, we receive the username, email address and password you supply, plus any optional profile details you choose to add.
• Content you post. Topics, replies, private messages, attachments, gallery uploads and profile information you submit to a forum.
• Correspondence. If you use our contact or abuse report forms, we receive the email address, subject and message you send, so that we can reply and keep a record of the issue.

Information collected automatically

• Server logs. Your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring page, the pages you request and the time of each request. These are used for security, abuse investigation, load management and diagnosing faults.
• Cookies and similar technologies. Described in section 4.
• Aggregate usage statistics. Counts of page views, registrations and posts, used to understand how the service is being used.

We do not intentionally collect special categories of personal data such as health, biometric or political information. Please do not post such information publicly on a forum if you do not wish it to be visible.

3. How we use information

• To create, operate, maintain and support your forum.
• To authenticate you and keep you signed in.
• To send service messages such as password resets, notifications you have subscribed to, and notices about changes affecting your forum.
• To investigate abuse, spam, fraud and breaches of the Terms of Service, and to comply with legal obligations.
• To measure and improve the service in aggregate.
• To display advertising that funds the free service, as described in section 5.

Where the law requires a legal basis, we rely on: performance of a contract (running the forum you asked for), legitimate interests (security, abuse prevention, service improvement, and advertising that keeps the service free), consent (where required for non-essential cookies and personalised advertising), and legal obligation (responding to lawful requests).

4. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small files stored by your browser. We and our partners use them in three categories.

• Strictly necessary. Session cookies that keep you logged in, remember your form input and protect against cross-site request forgery. The service cannot function without these.
• Preference. Cookies that remember choices such as your theme, language and whether you have dismissed a notice.
• Advertising. Cookies set by Google and other third-party advertising vendors to select and measure the ads shown to you. See section 5.

Most browsers let you block or delete cookies through their settings. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will prevent you from logging in. Blocking advertising cookies does not remove ads; it means the ads you see are less relevant.

5. Advertising

This website and the forums we host are supported by advertising. That revenue is what makes the hosting free.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website and other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our sites and/or other sites on the internet.
• You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
• You can opt out of personalised advertising from many other participating vendors at aboutads.info/choices, or, in Europe, at youronlinechoices.eu.
• More detail about how Google uses data from sites that use its services is available at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Third-party vendors set their own cookies and are governed by their own privacy policies. We do not control what those vendors collect, and we do not pass them your name, email address or password.

6. Sharing your information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not rent, trade or share your email address with other organisations for their marketing purposes.

We share information only in these circumstances:

• Publicly, by your own action. Anything you post on a public board, including your username, avatar, signature and profile fields you have chosen to display, is visible to anyone who visits that forum and may be indexed by search engines.
• Service providers. Companies that host our servers, deliver our email, filter spam or serve advertising, acting on our instructions and limited to what they need to perform that function.
• Forum administrators. The administrator of a forum you join can see the registration email address and IP address associated with your member account on that forum, which is how moderation and ban enforcement work.
• Legal requirements. Where we are required to disclose information by law, court order or valid legal process, or where disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, our users, or the public from harm.
• Business transfer. If the service is sold or merged, account information may transfer to the acquiring entity, which would remain bound by this policy or give you notice of any change.

7. Data retention

Forum content and account information are kept for as long as the forum exists, because a message board with posts removed at intervals would not serve its purpose. Server logs are kept for a limited period for security and abuse investigation and are then deleted or aggregated. Correspondence sent to us through the contact and report forms is retained while the matter is open and for a reasonable period afterwards.

When a forum is deleted, its content and member data are removed from active systems. Copies may remain in backups for a limited period before those backups are rotated out.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights over your personal information:

• Access. Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction. Ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete. Most profile details can be corrected directly in your forum account.
• Deletion. Ask us to delete your account or forum. Note that posts you made in ongoing public discussions may remain where removing them would break the thread for other participants; ask us and we will discuss the options.
• Objection and restriction. Object to processing based on legitimate interests, or ask us to restrict processing while a dispute is resolved.
• Portability. Request your data in a portable form. Because we run standard SMF, we can usually provide a database export of a forum you administer.
• Withdraw consent. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting processing that already took place.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

California residents

If you are a California resident, you may request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, request deletion, and opt out of any "sale" or "sharing" of personal information as those terms are defined by California law. We do not sell personal information for money. To the extent that the use of third-party advertising cookies described in section 5 is treated as "sharing" under California law, you may opt out using the advertising opt-out links in that section. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

To make any request, use our contact form. We may need to verify your identity, usually by confirming control of the email address on the account, before acting on a request.

9. Children

This service is not directed at children under 13, and our Terms of Service require account holders to be at least 13 years old. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete the account and the associated data.

10. Security

We apply technical and organisational measures appropriate to the service, including restricted administrative access, hashed password storage, applied security patches and routine backups. No internet service can promise perfect security, so please use a strong, unique password for your forum account and do not reuse it elsewhere.

11. International transfers

Our servers and service providers may be located in countries other than the one you live in, including the United States. Where personal information is transferred internationally, we take steps to ensure it remains protected in a manner consistent with this policy.

12. Links to other sites

Forums hosted here contain links posted by members, and advertisements link to third-party sites. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices. Review the privacy policy of any site before providing it with personal information.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the service or the law changes. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised. Material changes will be announced on the site. Continuing to use the service after a change takes effect means you accept the revised policy.

14. Contact

Questions, privacy requests and complaints about this policy can be sent through our contact form. To report a hosted forum that is breaking our rules, please use the abuse report form instead, which reaches the moderation staff directly.