Privacy Policy

Effective: November 8, 2026

The Friendship Sloop Society (“the Society”, “we”, “us”) is a nonprofit organization. This policy explains what personal information fss.org (the “Site”) collects, how we use it, and the choices you have. We keep it simple: we collect only what we need to run the Society and its website, and we never sell or rent your information.

What we collect

When you create an account or join – Name, email address, username, and password (stored in scrambled, hashed form — we can’t see it). – For membership and merchandise orders: billing name, address, phone number, and what you bought.

When you pay – Payments are handled by our payment provider, Stripe (including Stripe options such as Link, Cash App Pay, and Amazon Pay). Card details go directly to Stripe; the Society never receives or stores your full card number. We receive the payment result and the last few digits of the card.

What you choose to share – Profile details such as a profile or cover photo, your boat, and anything you add to your profile. – Community posts, comments, photos, and Sloop Registry information you submit. – Messages you send through our contact forms (your name, email address, and message).

Automatically – Technical information such as your IP address, browser type, and the pages you visit, recorded in our host’s server logs and by our security software to protect the Site from attacks and spam. – Cookies — see below.

How we use it

  • To run your membership: accounts, renewals, receipts, and access to member features.
  • To process orders, donations, and payments, and keep the financial records the law requires.
  • To send you Society business: renewal reminders, receipts, and replies to your messages. Contact-form messages are delivered by email to the officer responsible for that topic.
  • To publish what you choose to share (posts, photos, registry information) on the Site and in Society publications.
  • To keep the Site secure and free of spam and fraud.

What’s visible to others

Community posts, comments, photos, gallery captions, and Sloop Registry entries are visible to visitors. Your display name appears with what you post. Other profile details are shown to other members or publicly depending on your account settings, which you can change at any time.

Who we share it with

We never sell, rent, or trade personal information. We share it only:

  • with service providers who run parts of the Site for us, and only for that purpose:
  • DreamHost — website hosting;
  • Stripe — payment processing;
  • Automattic — Akismet spam filtering of comments and form submissions, and Gravatar comment avatars;
  • Defiant (Wordfence) — website security and firewall;
  • jsDelivr and unpkg — content-delivery networks that serve some of the Site’s code to your browser and so see your IP address;
  • with Society officers and volunteers who need it to do their job (for example, the treasurer for payments);
  • when required by law, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of the Society, its members, or others.

Cookies

We use only the cookies the Site needs to work: keeping you logged in, remembering your shopping cart, completing checkout (including cookies set by Stripe during payment), and security. We don’t use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. You can block cookies in your browser, but logging in and checkout won’t work without them.

How long we keep it

  • Account and profile information: while you have an account, and for a reasonable time afterwards in case you rejoin — or until you ask us to delete it.
  • Payment and order records: as long as tax and accounting rules require (generally seven years).
  • Content you’ve posted to the Society’s record (posts, photos, registry entries) may be kept as part of the Society’s history; ask us if you’d like something removed.
  • Security logs: a short period, generally no more than a few months.

Your choices

  • See or correct your information: most of it is in your account; for anything else, email us.
  • Delete your account or ask us to remove information: email the webmaster at webmaster@fss.org. We’ll do so unless we need to keep something for legal or accounting reasons.
  • Stop renewals: turn off automatic renewal in your account at any time, or write to the Membership Secretary at membership@fss.org.
  • Fewer emails: tell us if you don’t want non-essential Society emails. We’ll still send receipts and messages about your account.

Children

The Site is not intended for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we’ll delete it.

Security

We use reasonable measures to protect your information, including encrypted (HTTPS) connections, a security firewall, and limiting who can access it. No website is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Site changes. When we do, we’ll change the date above.

Contact

Questions or requests about your privacy: webmaster@fss.org General questions about the Society: info@fss.org

Friendship Sloop Society

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