Your privacy matters to us.
The Perry County Amateur Radio Society does not believe that visiting an amateur radio club website should require surrendering a detailed history of where you’ve been, what you’ve clicked, or what you had for breakfast.
Our approach is straightforward:
Collect as little information as reasonably necessary, use it responsibly, and don’t sell it.
Website Analytics
PCARS uses Fathom Analytics to help us understand basic website usage.
Analytics can help answer useful questions such as whether people are visiting the site, which pages are useful, and how visitors generally find the website.
We chose Fathom because we want useful website statistics without building individual profiles of our visitors or participating in surveillance advertising.
Analytics information is used to help us improve the PCARS website and understand which content is useful to visitors.
It is not used to build advertising profiles.
Advertising and Tracking
PCARS does not operate an advertising network.
We do not sell your browsing history.
We do not sell visitor profiles.
We do not intentionally embed advertising trackers simply because somebody found another interesting JavaScript library.
Where practical, the PCARS website is designed to keep its resources local rather than depending unnecessarily on third-party services.
That includes site styling, scripts, and other resources that can reasonably be hosted by PCARS.
Cookies and Browser Storage
PCARS does not intentionally use cookies or browser storage for advertising or cross-site tracking.
Some website features may use browser capabilities when necessary to provide functionality or remember a local preference.
If we add functionality in the future that materially changes how visitor information is stored or used, we’ll update this policy accordingly.
Server Logs
Like most web servers, the systems hosting the PCARS website may create technical logs as part of normal operation.
Those logs may contain information associated with requests made to the server, such as:
- IP address
- Date and time of a request
- Requested page or resource
- Browser or user-agent information
- Referring page
- HTTP response information
- Errors or security-related events
Server logs may be used for ordinary operation, troubleshooting, reliability, abuse prevention, and security.
They are not maintained for the purpose of building marketing profiles of PCARS visitors.
When You Contact Us
If you email PCARS, we will receive the information you choose to send.
That may include your:
- Name
- Email address
- Amateur radio callsign
- Questions or comments
- Other information you voluntarily include in your message
We use that information to read your message, respond to you, and continue the conversation when appropriate.
If you ask about getting licensed, joining PCARS, a club project, amateur radio equipment, or another topic, we may retain the correspondence when it is useful for continuing that conversation or maintaining appropriate organizational records.
Don’t send sensitive personal information that we don’t need.
An amateur radio club generally does not need your Social Security number, banking credentials, medical history, or the combination to the mysterious safe behind the bookcase.
Joining PCARS
If you choose to join PCARS, we may need information beyond what is collected from an ordinary website visitor.
That information may include contact information and other details reasonably necessary to maintain membership records and communicate with members.
Membership information will be used for PCARS organizational purposes.
We do not intend to sell membership information or provide membership lists for unrelated commercial marketing.
The information actually requested during the membership process may change as the organization develops.
We will try not to ask for information merely because a form has an empty box available.
Amateur Radio Callsigns
Amateur radio callsigns are unusual identifiers because licensing information associated with them may already be publicly available through government or amateur-radio databases.
That does not mean PCARS needs to republish every piece of information we can find.
When callsigns are used on this site, we will try to use them for legitimate amateur-radio, organizational, educational, event, historical, or attribution purposes.
Event Information and Photographs
Amateur radio activities may involve public events, club activities, operating events, demonstrations, or other gatherings.
Information about those activities may be published on the PCARS website.
Photographs from activities may also eventually be used to show what PCARS members and participants are doing.
We will try to use photographs responsibly and with reasonable consideration for the people appearing in them.
If you have a concern about a photograph or other information published on the PCARS website, contact us.
External Links
The PCARS website links to other websites and services.
Those external sites have their own privacy practices, policies, technologies, and data-collection decisions.
Once you follow a link away from the PCARS website, the privacy practices of the destination site apply.
A link from PCARS does not mean we control that site’s privacy practices.
Embedded Third-Party Content
We prefer ordinary links and locally hosted resources where practical.
If PCARS uses embedded third-party content in the future, that content may allow the third-party provider to receive information directly from your browser.
We’ll try to avoid unnecessary third-party embeds, particularly when a normal link accomplishes the same job without inviting another company into the conversation.
Children and Young People
PCARS wants amateur radio to be accessible to young people, students, families, educators, and newcomers of all ages.
That makes privacy particularly important.
We do not intentionally use this website to collect unnecessary personal information from children.
If activities involving minors require information for participation, permission, safety, or communication, that information should be handled only as necessary for the activity and with appropriate involvement from a parent, guardian, school, or responsible organization as applicable.
Security
We take reasonable steps to protect the systems and information under our control.
No website, email system, computer, server, or network can honestly promise absolute security.
If we become aware of a security issue affecting information for which PCARS is responsible, we’ll address it as appropriately as circumstances allow.
Data Retention
We do not believe information should be retained forever merely because storage is inexpensive.
Technical logs, correspondence, membership information, and other records may be retained for different periods depending on why the information exists and whether it remains useful or necessary.
When information is no longer reasonably needed, it may be deleted as part of normal maintenance.
We Don’t Sell Personal Information
This deserves its own section because privacy policies have developed an unfortunate habit of requiring readers to hunt for the answer.
PCARS does not sell your personal information.
We’re trying to build an amateur radio community in Perry County.
We’re not trying to build an advertising database.
Changes to This Policy
The PCARS website and organization are still developing.
Our privacy practices may evolve as we add features, activities, membership processes, or services.
If those changes materially affect how we collect or use information, we’ll update this policy.
We’d rather describe what we’re actually doing than leave a privacy policy frozen in time while the website changes around it.
Questions or Concerns?
If you have a question about privacy on the PCARS website, or believe information about you should be corrected or removed, contact us.
We’ll take a look.
Preferably without forming a committee first.