PRIVACY POLICY

Effective: April 12, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how HAM-HQ ("the Service") collects, uses, and protects your personal information.

1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

When you create an account, we collect:

  • Email address (required)
  • Amateur radio callsign (optional)
  • Password (stored as a one-way cryptographic hash)

During your use of the Service, we also record:

  • Login timestamps
  • Account creation and modification dates
  • User-generated content you choose to store (contacts, scratchpad notes, NTS traffic records, preferences)

2. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

Your information is used to operate and maintain your account, send transactional emails (account verification, password resets, security notices), and provide the features of the Service. We do not sell your personal information. We do not send marketing emails.

3. FUTURE PAYMENT PROCESSING

If paid features are introduced, payment processing will be handled by a third-party payment processor. The processor may collect your payment method details, billing address, and transaction metadata. HAM-HQ will not directly store your full payment card numbers. The processor's own privacy policy will govern your payment data.

4. DATA RETENTION

Your account data is retained for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, your personal data (email, callsign, password hash, contacts, scratchpad, NTS traffic, and preferences) is permanently removed. A minimal anonymized record is retained solely to prevent re-use of deleted account identifiers and to support potential fraud or abuse investigations.

If you re-register after deleting your account, a new account is created with a new identity. Previous account data is not recoverable. This behavior is intentional by design.

5. COOKIES AND LOCAL STORAGE

The Service uses an HTTP-only secure cookie to maintain your login session. We also use browser localStorage to store your preferences and cached UI state. No third-party tracking cookies are used. Cloudflare Turnstile is used for bot protection during registration and may set its own cookies as described in Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.

6. DATA SECURITY

Passwords are hashed using Argon2id. All traffic is encrypted via HTTPS. Access to the production database is restricted. While we take reasonable measures to protect your data, no system is perfectly secure.

7. YOUR RIGHTS

You may view, update, or delete your personal information at any time from your account settings. You may also contact us with questions or requests regarding your data.

8. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance. Material changes will be communicated via email or a notice on the Service.

9. CONTACT

Questions about this Privacy Policy? Contact us.