DVDutchessVoice
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Privacy policy

Version 2026-09-28.1

Who runs this site

Dutchess Voice (dutchessvoice.org) is run by a small group of volunteers in Dutchess County, New York. It is not a company or a registered charity. The same volunteers run TrackTheSky (trackthesky.org) and HVRA Tracker (hvratracker.com). This policy covers dutchessvoice.org; TrackTheSky has its own privacy policy, which applies when you use that site. Questions: [email protected].

When you sign a petition

  • What we collect: your name, email address, street address, the town and ward you choose, your public-name choice, your email-update choices, and anything you write in the comment box.
  • Why we need your address: to place you in your County Legislature, State Senate, Assembly, Congressional and town districts, so officials can see how many of their own constituents signed. We look the address up with OpenStreetMap (see “Services” below) and keep its map location with your signature.
  • Your signature counts only after you click the link in the confirmation email we send you.
  • What you agreed to: we record which version of the petition, this policy and the terms of use you agreed to when you signed. If a petition’s wording changes after you sign, officials will be told which version you signed (see the terms).
  • What is public: the total number of signatures, counts by town, ward and district, and, if you choose, your public name and your comment. You pick one public name for the whole site:
    • without your name: your town, ward and a number that stays the same, such as “Town of Poughkeepsie · Ward 3 · #4821”;
    • a username you choose; or
    • your first name, last initial and town.
    You can also choose not to be listed on a petition page. “Without your name” is not fully anonymous: because the number stays the same, your posts can be linked together, and in a small ward people who know you might guess who you are. You can change your public name at any time. Your email and street address are never shown publicly.
  • Who else sees your signature: when we deliver a petition, the officials it is addressed to get each signer’s full name, town, ward and districts. This happens even if you choose not to be listed on this site. We do not give them your email, your street address or your comment. Once officials have the list it is out of our hands: it may be read at a public meeting, printed in a published agenda packet, or released under New York’s Freedom of Information Law. We can’t take back names that have already been delivered.
  • The survey: if you answer the survey at the end of a petition, your ratings are kept with your signature so you can change them. Only totals are published; individual answers are never published or shared. The “Take the survey” button stores a small signed cookie on your device so the site knows you signed.
  • Issues and suggestions you send: the petition’s admins review them first. If approved they are shown beside the survey under your public name, and the petition’s organizers may pass them on to the officials the petition is addressed to.
  • Email: we email you once to confirm your signature. We only send updates if you tick the box, and then only as one daily or weekly digest at the time you choose, never one email per change, and nothing when there is no news. Every digest has a one-click unsubscribe link.

When you create an account

  • What we store: your name, email address and your password as a one-way hash (we cannot read your password). We do not ask for your address until you sign a petition or look up your districts, and a district lookup is not saved unless you choose to save it.
  • If you save your address: only when you press “Save as my address”. If you are signed in we keep the address and its map location with your account; if not, it is kept only in a cookie on your own device. We use it only to fill in address fields and the “my districts” filters for you. Press “Forget” on the districts page to delete it at any time.
  • Your agreements: we record which versions of this policy and of the terms of use you agreed to, when, and a keyed one-way hash of your network address. If you choose email updates we record that too, and a later change of mind is recorded alongside it.
  • Comments on petitions and studies: if you are signed in you can comment on a passage or reply to others. Comments are public straight away, under your public name, with the words you quoted. You can delete your own; anyone signed in can report a comment, and admins can hide comments that break the terms of use. Admins can see which account wrote each comment.
  • If you submit a banner: we keep the image (re-saved without its hidden metadata, such as camera location), its title and caption, your account and when you sent it. Only you and the petition’s admins see it until it is approved; approved banners show your public name. If you like a banner we record that your account liked it, but we only show the total.
  • Shared accounts: your account also works on TrackTheSky (trackthesky.org). You sign in separately on each site. TrackTheSky keeps its own records when you use it (for example, which pages signed-in users visit), under its own privacy policy. Dutchess Voice pages don’t keep those records.

Services that handle your information

The site runs on our own computer in Dutchess County, with nightly backups on a second volunteer computer. These outside services also handle some information:

  • Cloudflare connects visitors to our computer and protects the site. It sees your network (IP) address, browser details and the pages you visit, and it forwards email sent to our hivenation.org addresses.
  • Resend sends our emails. It receives your email address, your name where an email uses it, and the message.
  • OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) turns an address you type into a map location. It receives the address text from our server, not your network address.
  • Esri supplies the background map images on the district and traffic maps. Your browser loads them directly, so Esri sees your network address and which area of the map you view.
  • Messages you send to our contact address are forwarded to a volunteer’s Gmail account.
  • Google Maps supplies the travel times in the traffic study. No personal information is sent to Google for this.

Cookies

We use only the cookies the site needs: one to keep you signed in, one that remembers you signed a petition (for its survey), and one for an address you save while signed out. Cloudflare may set its own security cookie. We use no advertising or analytics trackers.

What we never do

  • We never sell or rent your information, and never share it with campaigns, parties or advertisers.
  • We never give officials your email or street address.

Keeping your information safe

Two volunteer administrators can see full signer details, including email and street addresses. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, and network addresses only as keyed one-way hashes (used to prevent abuse). Connections to the site are encrypted, our nightly backups are encrypted, and access is limited. No website can promise perfect security. If a breach ever affects you, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

How long we keep it

  • A signature’s street address and map location: until 90 days after the final public decision on the petition, then deleted.
  • The rest of a signature (name, town, ward, districts): kept as the petition’s record for 2 years after that decision.
  • Accounts: until you ask us to close yours.
  • Email updates: until you unsubscribe or the petition closes.
  • Comments and other posts: until you delete them or we remove them.
  • Records of what you agreed to: 3 years after your account closes, so we can show what you agreed to if there is ever a question.
  • Sign-up protection: the hashed network address we use to stop repeated sign-up attempts is deleted after one day.
  • Backups: deleted information drops out of our backups within about five weeks.

Children

Dutchess Voice is not for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information. If we learn that a child under 13 has signed up or signed a petition, we will delete it. Teens 13 to 17 may sign petitions and comment; we use their information only to provide what they asked for.

Your choices

You can ask to see, correct or delete your information, withdraw your signature, or close your account by writing to [email protected]. We’ll reply within 30 days. Closing your account also closes it on TrackTheSky, because the two sites share accounts. We can’t recall names already delivered to officials, or copies made by other people.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we’ll update the version above and ask signed-in users to read it again.