Boston Virtual ARTCC, Inc. (Boston Virtual ARTCC or BVA) is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring users have a safe online experience. This Privacy Statement applies to all pages hosted on the BVA website (i.e., accessible on the ‘bvartcc.com’ domain, including our forums and other elements that comprise the site) and governs data collection and usage within the community. By using the BVA website (the “Website”), you consent to the practices described in this statement. This policy is effective April 24, 2022.
This Privacy Statement is incorporated into and subject to our Terms of Use. By using this Website you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this Privacy Statement. If you do not agree to the terms in this policy, do not access this Website.
Collection of Your Personal Information
BVA stores a very limited amount of personally identifiable information which includes but is not limited to your name, email address, and (if you applied for a pilot membership with us) your age. You are required to provide at least your real age, VATSIM ID, and a working email address when you apply for a pilot membership; you are not required to provide your real first or last name to us. We also collect the optional information you include in your application, which includes country, time zone, aviation experience, and other demographic questions that are not personally-identifiable. None of this information will be shared outside of the context of the administration of this community. You have the ability opt out of event reminder email communications, or of your membership, at any time.
If you join BVA through the VATUSA air traffic control process (i.e., you join because you select “ZBW” as your home ARTCC on VATSIM, and you have not submitted a pilot application), we receive and have access to some of your information through VATSIM and VATUSA. The information we have available is subject to VATSIM and VATUSA privacy policies, which may differ from ours. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of VATSIM and VATUSA. Nevertheless, the information provided to us when you become a BVA member is subject to these provisions.
There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by BVA. This can include your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by BVA for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Website. We make no guarantee that our data protection efforts will be successful we are not liable for any unauthorized access to your personal information.
We retain the information we collect as long as your application remains active, and retain application information indefinitely for historical and integrity of service purposes.
Information you choose to post, share, or message through social platforms such as Discord, TeamSpeak, and our member forums, or information you send to a staff members via email or other means, is not considered personal information. By posting or sharing content, you should be aware that this content may be available to the public, and is not subject to the same type of protection as personal information such as an email address. While BVA will consider requests to delete content you have shared on your behalf, we are under no obligation to remove such information, and in some cases we may be required to retain it.
Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through BVA public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others. While BVA does not regularly read or monitor private online communications, such as private messages sent through the forums, it can be dangerous to disclose information online. BVA makes no effort to screen or verify the identities, ages, or certification level of members. Individuals claiming to have certifications, including instructor certifications, have not been screened by our administrators and may or may not hold the certificates they claim to. As with any online communications, you should always protect yourself by limiting any personally-identifiable information you provide to anyone, through public boards or private messages.
BVA encourages you to review the privacy statements of websites you choose to link to from BVA so that you can understand how those websites collect, use and share your information. BVA is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on outside websites.
Use of Your Personal Information
Boston Virtual ARTCC collects and uses your personal information to operate the Website and our online community. BVA will contact you to provide community-wide email bulletins, to provide information about upcoming events if you opt-in to the ‘Event Reminders’ mailing list, or for operational purposes relating to your account or operation on the network. BVA may also contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered.
You can unsubscribe from any or all of our emails by sending an email to [email protected] with your request. An emailed request to delete your account and data will mean that we remove any data we have collected to the best of our ability, except that we retain some of the information on your application for reference in the future. We do not retain or collect any sensitive information such as a social insurance number, credit card information, or a physical address. You can also unsubscribe from email communications or delete your account by using the links in mail campaigns from us. You should be aware that a request to delete data within our database does not guarantee removal from third-party providers’ databases, nor does such a request have any information on the data collected or retained by the VATSIM network.
You should be aware that it may not be technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to us from our system. The need to back-up our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss means that a copy of your personally identifiable information may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate.
BVA does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. BVA may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (such as your name, age, and email address) is not transferred to the third party. In addition, BVA may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis or provide support. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to BVA, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information. BVA keeps track of the websites and pages our customers visit within BVA, in order to determine which BVA services are the most popular.
BVA does not use, collect, or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliation.
BVA may disclose your name, VATSIM ID, and particulars of a scenario to other elements of VATSIM for the purposes of conflict resolution. BVA will not disclose your email address or age to any other organizations.
BVA has a responsibility to its members to collect, store, and process data on a lawful basis. BVA relies on both consent (i.e., a member who applies to join the community provides consent as a condition of membership) and a legitimate interest to ensure the smooth functioning of the community and to ensure interactions between members conform to a set of shared expectations that govern the community. This legitimate interest, in addition to consent, constitutes a lawful basis for data collection, storage, and processing.
The Data Protection Officer is the Webmaster of BVA. The data controller is Boston Virtual ARTCC, Inc. You may reach our Data Protection Officer at [email protected].
Boston Virtual ARTCC will disclose information about you, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on BVA or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of BVA; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of BVA, or the public.
Data Sharing with VATUSA
This section only applies to BVA members who receive air traffic control training from our Mentors and Instructors (i.e., members who receive training toward a VATSIM air traffic control certification or rating from our volunteers).
In accordance with VATUSA procedures, BVA will share air traffic control records to a central training record database managed by VATUSA. Each time a training report is submitted, information including but not limited to the following will be transmitted to VATUSA: CID of instructor, session date, position, duration, session notes, session location (classroom, live, or sweatbox), and OTS status. When this information is transmitted to VATUSA, it becomes subject to VATUSA’s privacy practices, which we encourage all BVA air traffic controllers to review.
Please note that BVA may not have access to information once it is transmitted to VATUSA and will be unable to edit, remove, or otherwise modify these records once they are received by VATUSA.
Use of Cookies
BVA uses “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.
One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize BVA pages, or register with the Website, a cookie helps BVA to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. When you return to the same Website page, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the features that you customized.
You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the Website.
Google Analytics and Related Tools
We use Google Analytics to track Website views and general/aggregate data on website users. For more information on how Google uses data when using its partners’ sites or apps, please visit this webpage. To provide Website visitors more choice on how their data is collected by Google Analytics, Google has developed an Opt-out Browser add-on to enable you to opt-out of Google’s programs.
We may use similar tools that allow us to monitor/aggregate data on the Website. We do not explicitly share personally identifiable information with any third parties.
Security of Your Personal Information
BVA secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. BVA secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. When information such as a name or email address is temporarily stored outside of such an environment, such as on an administrator’s personal computer, written rules have been established to ensure security is maintained. We will never sell or freely provide any personal information you provide to BVA. Members will be able to contact you through a contact form available on our forums, if you choose to create an account there and do not disable that feature. Your email address will not be transmitted to other members, except those who are part of our staff and who have a legitimate reason to access that information.
Children
For users in the United States, you must be at least 13 years old to access and use the Website. We do not knowingly collect information from persons under 13 years of age. If you are under 13, you should not access our Website, create an account, or provide any information to us.
If you believe that we might have collected any personally identifiable information from a child under 13 (in the US) or under a similar age in another jurisdiction with similar legislative requirements, please Contact Us so that we may delete it.
If you are under 18, or the age of majority in the jurisdiction in which you reside, you may only use the Website with the consent of your parent or legal guardian. To assist with obtaining consent, when you first advise us that you are under the age of 18, you will receive an email from us introducing the community to your parent or legal guardian. We recommend you forward this email to them, and ask them to provide us with their contact information in case we need it in the future. This allows us to ensure everyone is aware of your use of the website and involvement in the community, helping to protect you online.
Your Choices and Rights
Members can access and update their account information on the Website.
Subject to applicable law, an individual has the right to request from us a copy of what personally identifiable information that we have collected or to ask to correct or update their it. Individuals can also request that we delete their personally identifiable information from our systems and records. We strive to respond to these requests with 30 days or as required in accordance with applicable law.
Changes to This Statement
BVA will occasionally update this Privacy Statement. BVA encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how BVA is protecting your information. Changes to the Privacy Statement, when significant, will be communicated to members through the monthly newsletter (the Logan Informer) or via direct email.
Contact Information
BVA welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Statement. If you believe that Boston Virtual ARTCC has not adhered to this Statement, please Contact Us. We will use reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem. Please be aware that BVA is a community of like-minded aviation enthusiasts sponsored entirely by donations from our members. None of our administrators or managers receive any monetary compensation.