Privacy statement

GoScouting.org (this site) was built by, and is maintained, owned, and operated by Northern Star Council (doing business as Northern Star Scouting).

Northern Star Scouting is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that provides a safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy applies to GoScouting.org and governs data collection and usage. By using GoScouting.org, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Collection and Purpose of Collection of your Personal Information

Northern Star Scouting does not collect or use sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations on GoScouting.org.

Automatically Collected Information

Upon accessing GoScouting.org, Northern Star Scouting collects information about your computer hardware and software through use of Meta Pixel, Google Analytics, and/or CloudFlare Analytics (collectively refered to as the "Analytics Providers"). This information can include your IP address, browser type, page access times, and referring website addresses. This information is used by Northern Star Scouting for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the site, such as the number of visitors to each page.

Submitted Information

Upon searching for a unit, Northern Star Scouting collects the information submitted and passes it on to other services operated by Northern Star Scouting and the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America (doing business as Scouting America), allowing Northern Star Scouting and Scouting America to deliver the services you have requested, such as finding units in your area or sending you to the correct financial aid form.

Use of Your Personal Information

Northern Star Scouting does not sell, rent, or lease its customer lists to third parties.

Northern Star Scouting may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to Northern Star Scouting, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

Northern Star Scouting keeps track of the Web sites and pages our customers visit within Northern Star Scouting primarily to determine what Northern Star Scouting services are the most popular and which are no longer being utilized. This data may also be used to deliver advertising from Northern Star Scouting to both registered Scouts and new prospects whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

Google Analytics may utilize the information they gather to do activities outside of Northern Star, such as (but not limited to) creating personalized advertisements or sharing collected data with their partners to provide services. Users may opt out of personalized advertising from Google by visiting Ads Settings.

Northern Star Scouting Web sites will disclose your personal information, 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 Northern Star Scouting or GoScouting.org; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Northern Star Scouting; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Northern Star Scouting or the public.

Use of Cookies

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.

Cloudflare Web Analytics does not use any client-side state, such as cookies or localStorage, to collect usage metrics. It does not collect any personal information, or track users across sites. The other third-pary Analytics Providers may use "cookies" to help Northern Star Scouting understand how users utilize GoScouting.org and other sites owned, maintained, or operated by Northern Star Scouting.

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 Northern Star Scouting services or Web sites you visit.

Security of your Personal Information

Northern Star Scouting secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. Northern Star Scouting secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. When personal information is transmitted to other Web sites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Northern Star Scouting encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to link to from Northern Star Scouting's sites, such as GoScouting.org, so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use, and share your information. Northern Star Scouting is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of GoScouting.org and other sites maintained by Northern Star Scouting.

Changes to this Statement

Northern Star Scouting will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect company and customer feedback. Northern Star Scouting encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how Northern Star Scouting is protecting your information.

Contact Information

Northern Star Scouting welcomes your comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that Northern Star Scouting has not adhered to this Statement, please contact Northern Star Scouting at [email protected]. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.