Privacy Policy

Information you give us

We only collect personal information that you choose to send us. The main way that happens is our application form, where you can ask to receive help, offer to volunteer, or refer a neighbor who may need support.

Depending on which of those you choose, that form asks for:

• Your first and last name
• Your email address and phone number, and which of the two you prefer we use
• Your mailing address — street, town, state, and ZIP — and your county
• The services you are requesting or willing to provide, and the days you prefer
• Anything else you choose to write in the “Anything else we should know?” box

If you are referring someone else, we also ask for your own name and an email address or phone number, so that we can tell you whether we were able to reach the person you told us about. We keep your name and contact details on that neighbor’s record for the same reason.

You may also contact us directly by email or telephone. If you do, we keep what you send us so that we can respond and follow up.

How we use it

We use the information you give us to run our neighbor-to-neighbor services. Specifically, we use it to:

• Contact you about your application, referral, or question
• Match neighbors who need help with volunteers who can provide it, and arrange the schedule
• Keep a record of visits and services provided, so we know who has been contacted and what support is in place
• Let a referrer know that we have made contact with the neighbor they referred
• Understand how many people use our services and report totals to our board and funders

We do not use your information to send marketing on behalf of other organizations, and we do not sell, rent, or trade it.

Information collected automatically

This website does not use advertising trackers, social media pixels, or third-party analytics services such as Google Analytics. The fonts and images on this site are served from our own website rather than an outside provider.

We do keep a simple count of how many times each page is viewed, so we can see which parts of the site are useful. When you view a page we record the page address, the date and time, and a scrambled code that stands in for your visit. That code is created from your IP address and browser details, mixed together in a way that cannot be reversed, and it is regenerated every day — so it lets us avoid counting the same person twice on a single day, and nothing more. We do not store your IP address. Automated traffic such as search engine crawlers is excluded from these counts.

Cookies. This website does not place cookies on your device when you browse it or use the application form. A cookie is used in only one place: when a member of our staff signs in to the private administrative area of the site, so the site can keep them signed in. Your web browser may also store a small note on your own device if you dismiss the “Contact us” prompt, so it stays dismissed on your next visit. That note stays on your device and is never sent to us.

When we share information

We share your personal information only in these situations:

• With our volunteers. To arrange a service, we tell the assigned volunteer who they will be helping and what is needed. Volunteers agree to keep that information confidential.
• With a referrer. If someone referred you to us, we may confirm to them that we have been in touch with you.
• With the companies that operate this site for us. Our website and its information are stored on servers operated by our web hosting company, and messages from the form are delivered through our email provider. They handle this information on our behalf.
• When the law requires it, or when we believe in good faith that sharing is necessary to protect the health or safety of a neighbor, a volunteer, or the public.

When you make a donation, you leave this website and complete your gift on a separate donation service. That service handles your payment details under its own privacy policy — we never see or store your card or bank information. Our Facebook and YouTube links likewise take you to those companies’ own sites, which have their own privacy policies.

How long we keep it, and how it is protected

Because our work involves ongoing relationships with neighbors and volunteers, we keep contact records for as long as someone is part of our community, and afterward for as long as we need them for our records and reporting. Applications that we do not act on are removed once they are no longer needed.

Information collected through this site is stored on our web host’s servers in the United States, and the private administrative area is protected by individual staff accounts and passwords.

Seeing, correcting, or removing your information

You may ask us what information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to remove you from our records. Contact us at Info@CatskillNeighbors.org or 845-280-0459 and we will take care of it. If you have asked to receive services, please know that removing your record may mean we can no longer arrange them.

Children

This website and our services are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us information, please contact us and we will remove it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will post the revised version on this page and update the effective date at the top. Please check back occasionally.