Privacy Statement

This statement explains what information GO CERT holds, who can see it, and how a team's information stays separate unless the team chooses to share it.

1. The short version

• Each CERT team has its own site and its own records. A team's data belongs to that team.
• Other teams cannot see a team's data unless someone on the team marks a specific item as shared.
• We do not sell personal information and we do not show advertising.

2. What is stored

Your team's site stores what your team and its members enter, including:

• Member profile: name, email, phone, address, radio call signs, profile photo, roles and permissions, a member ID number and QR code.
• Activity: events, check-ins and check-outs, hours, credentials and training, equipment issued, time entries, ICS 214 logs and Incident Action Plans.
• Sign-in records: when you signed in, and the IP address and browser type used. Passwords are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form.
• Team content: announcements, library links, documents, calendar settings and branding.

Your browser keeps a sign-in token. If you use offline mode, it also keeps a copy of your team's data on that device until you upload and finish.

3. Who can see it

• Your team: members see their own information and what their role allows. Team administrators, and the team network administrators named by the network administrator (who have full control of the team's site), can see and manage member records. Command, planning and communications staff can change Incident Action Plans.
• After Action Reports: a member's own report is read only by that member and by command staff (Command Staff, CIC and team administrators). Command staff can merge submitted reports into a master report, which only command staff can see. They stay inside the team.
• Requests and bug reports: a feature request or bug report filed by a team network administrator belongs to the platform, not to the team. The network administrator can see the text, your name, email and team, and the history of updates, so please do not put member records or other private information in them.
• Other teams: only items your team has marked as shared (see section 4). Never member records or any of the items listed there as "never shared".
• The network administrator (the person who runs GO CERT): can create, suspend or remove team sites, set up team administrators, post network-wide announcements, switch categories of sharing on or off for a team, import a team's data when the team asks, and view a record of administrative actions. Running the service requires technical access to the servers and database; that access is used only to operate, secure, back up, troubleshoot and support the service, and not to read or use team data for any other purpose.
• Our hosting provider stores the data on our behalf.
• We may disclose information if the law requires it, or to prevent serious harm.

4. Sharing across the network

• Sharing is off unless you turn it on, item by item. A team can mark an event, a library link, a document or a team post as shared. Unmark it and it disappears from other teams' view.
• For each shared item the team chooses who can see it: the whole network or specific teams only. It can also be marked command staff only, so that only the command staff (Command Staff or CIC role) and administrators of the receiving teams can see it.
• Shared items are shown to the signed-in members allowed to see them, with the sharing team's name.
• The network administrator can switch off a whole category (events, trainings, resources, contacts) for a team.
• Contacts: a contact is private to the member who wrote it unless that member makes it visible to the team or, with permission, to the network (every other team or chosen teams).
• Network Visits (the one exception): a member may check in to another team's event only after both their own team and the team holding the event have approved. Once both have, the hosting team can see that member's name, phone number and call signs, and records their check-ins and hours at its events as it does for its own members. Either team can withdraw its approval at any time, which stops further check-ins; the hosting team keeps the record of check-ins already made.
• Never shared (otherwise): member records and contact details, member IDs and QR codes, check-ins, hours, credentials, equipment, time entries, ICS 214 logs, Incident Action Plans, After Action Reports, login history, and events marked command-staff-only.
• Be careful what you put in a title or description of something you share: everyone on the network can read it.

5. Other services your information may reach

• Weather forecast button (Incident Action Plan): the incident location or its coordinates are sent to the National Weather Service, to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service to turn an address into coordinates, or, if your team uses a key, to weather.com.
• Google Calendar: only if your team connects it. Event details are exchanged with Google as the team chooses.
• Page libraries: the scripts the pages need are served from this site. Only if one of them is missing does a page fall back to a public content delivery network (jsDelivr), which then sees your IP address as it would for any website.
• QR codes are drawn on your own device; they are not sent to another service.

6. How long we keep it

Team data is kept while the team is part of the network. A team administrator can remove members and records. When a team leaves, its data can be exported for the team and then deleted. Sign-in throttling records and offline-upload records are cleared automatically after a short time. Backups may keep deleted data for a limited period.

7. Protecting it

Each team's records are separated by team in the database and every request is checked against the signed-in member's team. Passwords are stored hashed and sign-in tokens expire. No system is perfectly secure; use a strong password, sign out on shared computers, and protect any device that holds an offline copy.

8. Your choices

You can ask your team administrator to see, correct or remove your information, or to remove you from the team. For information held by the network itself, contact your team administrator. A request about a team's records may have to go to that team, because the team owns them.

9. Children

GO CERT is not intended for children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their information.

10. Changes

We may update this statement. The date at the top shows the latest version. The rules for how data may be shared are in the Terms of Use.