Privacy Policy

Last updated October 2026.

This policy explains what the Minnesota Pilots Association (“we”) collects through this website and our membership records, why, who helps us handle it, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not give our member list to other organisations.

What we collect

• Membership and contact details: your name, email address, postal address and phone number, your membership level and dates, and a record of your payments (amount, date and method).
• Aviation profile: details such as the aircraft you fly and your certificates and ratings. For some members, records carried over from our previous website also include a date of birth and medical certificate details (class, year, and the doctor’s name and city). Only association administrators can see these fields; they are never published. If you would like any of them removed, ask us and we will delete them.
• Messages you send us through the contact form, with the date and the IP address they came from.
• A record of the emails we send you (what was sent, when, and whether it was delivered), and, for emails you ask for on the website such as a sign-in or payment link, the IP address the request came from.
• For some records imported from our previous website, the IP address recorded when you first registered there.

How we use it

To run your membership: to take payments, keep your membership dates, send you sign-in and payment links, remind you when your membership is due, tell you about association news and events such as GMAG, answer your messages, and keep the site safe from abuse (for example, limiting how often a form can be used from one address).

Email

• Emails you ask for (sign-in links, payment links, confirmations) are sent whenever you request them, and Stripe emails you a receipt when you pay.
• Membership emails: renewal reminders before and after your membership expires and, for people who have never been members, an occasional invitation to join.
• Newsletters are sent with Sendy, newsletter software that runs on our own web hosting rather than at an outside newsletter company. Like most newsletter tools it records when a newsletter is opened (by a small image in the email) and which links are clicked, so we can tell what is useful. If you sign up on the website, we email you first and add you only once you confirm.
• Every reminder, invitation and newsletter has a link to stop them. Our “Manage your emails” page lets you either stop these emails and keep your membership, or close your account entirely.

Cookies and analytics

The site sets one cookie of its own, which keeps you signed in and protects forms from forgery. It is needed for the site to work and lasts until you close your browser.

We use Google Analytics to understand how the public pages are used (which pages are read, roughly where visitors are, what device they use). It sets its own cookies and sends this information to Google. It is not used on the sign-in, join, payment, profile, unsubscribe or administration pages, and the addresses we report never include the part after a “?”, so personal links are never sent to Google. You can block it with your browser’s privacy settings or Google’s opt-out add-on, and the site works the same.

Who helps us

We use a few outside services to run the site. Each receives only what it needs for its part:

• Stripe processes card payments. Your card details go straight to Stripe; we never see or store your full card number.
• Amazon Web Services (Simple Email Service) delivers our email, and tells us when an address bounces or a message is reported as spam, so we stop sending to it.
• Cloudflare sits in front of the website to keep it fast and secure, and so handles your connection to it. Its Turnstile check on some forms tells people from automated spam.
• Our web hosting company stores the website and its database, including the newsletter software.
• Google provides Google Analytics, as described above.
• The site’s fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, and videos are shown with YouTube’s privacy-enhanced player, so your browser connects to Google when these load, and to YouTube when you play a video.

How long we keep it

The email log, contact-form messages and stored IP addresses are deleted after 24 months. Membership and payment records are the association’s records and are kept while they are needed for that purpose. If you close your account we keep a note that it is closed, so that we do not contact you again.

Your choices

• See and correct your details on My Profile (we email you a sign-in link; there is no password).
• Stop membership emails and newsletters with the link at the bottom of any of them.
• Contact us to ask for a copy of what we hold about you, or for your record to be corrected or deleted. We may keep a minimal record of payments where we need it for the association’s accounts.

Children

This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information.

Changes and contact

If we change this policy we will update this page and the date at the top. Questions are welcome through our contact page, or by post to Minnesota Pilots Association, P.O. Box 635, Circle Pines, MN 55014.