Privacy Statement

Last Updated October 2018

Privacy Policy

SCCHGS collects personal information which you voluntarily share with SCCHGS.

SCCHGS uses your personal information only for conducting SCCHGS business.

SCCHGS does not obtain data about you from third parties, nor does SCCHGS share your personal information with third parties, with the single exception of PayPal as explained below.

Privacy Disclosure

Personal Data Collected and Used

Minors - If you are under 13 years of age, please be sure to obtain your parent’s or guardian’s permission before you send any personal information such as your name, address, or email address to this website or anyone else over the internet.

Parents are encouraged to be involved with their children’s online usage; see “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998” COPPA.

Membership Application Form - Your personal information from membership application / renewal forms is collected and retained by SCCHGS. Information includes names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, dates, and volunteering interests. This information is used for routine SCCHGS business, such as tracking membership status and payments, mailing newsletters and Connections, emailing announcements to members about Society business and occasional events, and for contacting members about membership status, volunteer interests and donations. SCCHGS does not share members’ names or other personal data with any third parties.

Research Services and Volunteering Forms - Personal information submitted on other SCCHGS forms is used only by the appropriate SCCHGS volunteers to service your request.

PayPal - SCCHGS accepts online payments via PayPal from the Membership Application and Research Services website forms. The personal data on those forms is sent to and retained on PayPal. PayPal notifies SCCHGS about payment transactions, sending SCCHGS your PayPal account email, name and address, but not your credit card.

Technical Data - The SCCHGS web server uses cookies to maintain sessions, and it logs website visits, recording your computer’s IP address. SCCHGS does not associate either the cookies or the logs to any personal identifying information. The SCCHGS website also utilizes a third party to collect and report aggregated anonymous website utilization statistics.

Information Contributed to SCCHGS

Donated Materials - SCCHGS and the Santa Clara City Library receive donations of personal information, such as old letters, compiled genealogies, birth marriage & death certificates, and more. These may come with consent for SCCHGS use, as from related family members; or they may come without explicit consent, as simply “found” papers. SCCHGS volunteers evaluate these donations and may retain items in various public SCCHGS and Santa Clara City Library files, such as the Early Settler File.

Clippings - SCCHGS volunteers review local newspapers and publications, clip items, and add them to SCCHGS files. These files are available to the public.

Pioneer Certificate Applications - You may voluntarily submit personal information in the course of applying for a SCCHGS Pioneer Certificate. That application form describes the potential use of your information and requires your consent. Pioneer Society members are listed on this website.

Early Settler Submissions - You may voluntarily submit information about early residents of Santa Clara County. SCCHGS includes that information in our Early Settler File, which is available to the public. Also SCCHGS creates an index of those materials which is publically available on this website.

Volunteering with SCCHGS

The SCCHGS website posts the names of current volunteers. The City of Santa Clara requires some personal information of volunteers, and collects volunteer hours by name.

The SCCHGS Newsletter routinely contains names and photos of participants in SCCHGS events, and articles about members. The newsletter is sent to most members and to a variety of public institutions. It is posted publically at the Santa Clara City Library and at some other recipient institutions. The newsletter is also posted in the “Members Area” of the SCCHGS website, which may be viewed by SCCHGS members, but not the general internet public.

Website Disclaimers

The SCCHGS website is maintained by volunteers who strive to keep it accurate, but errors and omissions may have occurred.

SCCHGS website forms do not use encryption. This means if you are using a public wi-fi connection, such as at a coffee shop, and submit an SCCHGS website form, a hacker could then conceivably see your information.

The SCCHGS website contains online indexes of much publicly available data. The indexers have attempted to accurately index the source material, but errors and omissions may have occurred.

The SCCHGS Early Settler File contains much donated information which SCCHGS has not attempted to verify.

The SCCHGS Facebook page is maintained and monitored by a volunteer. Please report any inappropriate postings.

The SCCHGS website has links to other websites. SCCHGS cannot be responsible for those other websites.