Privacy Policy
This is a Version 1 draft. It describes, in plain language, what Fair on the Air ("FOTA") collects and why. It will be revised as the program grows.
Accounts
Creating a FOTA account requires an email address, a display name, and a password. Your account is yours to close at any time — see Deletion Requests below.
Your email address is used to verify your account, to send you notifications about activations, fair submissions, and callsign review you have taken part in, and to let you recover a lost password. It is never shown on your public profile, never sold, and — see Future Public APIs below — never exposed through any public API.
Callsigns
Amateur radio callsigns are, by the nature of the hobby, public information. If you add a callsign to your FOTA account, it is shown on your public profile and on any activation or spot you submit. FOTA also keeps an internal record of how a callsign was verified (method, verifying administrator, timestamp) — that verification detail is visible to you and to administrators, never to other visitors.
Profiles
Whatever else you choose to add to your profile — country, region, a short bio, a profile photo, and optionally a QRZ username or profile link — is shown on your public profile. Country and region are used to show your activity on the map and in award tracking; they do not need to be a precise location, and nothing more precise than a fair's general area is ever requested from an activator.
Fair Submissions
When you submit a fair for inclusion in the FOTA database, the fair's name, location, and description become part of the public fair record once approved. FOTA also keeps an internal review trail (who submitted it, when, and any moderator notes) that is not shown publicly — only to the submitter and to program administrators.
Activations
Activations you log (fair, callsign, bands, modes, start/end time, notes) are public by design — that is how other operators find you on the air. Activation timestamps are recorded in UTC.
Spots
Spots you post (callsign, frequency, mode, timestamp) are public for the same reason activations are — hunters need them to find you. Spot timestamps are recorded in UTC.
Cookies
FOTA uses standard WordPress session cookies to keep you logged in and to protect forms from cross-site request forgery. These cookies are functional, not tracking or advertising cookies.
WooCommerce
If the FOTA store is enabled, purchases are processed by WooCommerce and, for payment, by whichever payment processor is configured on the site at the time — FOTA does not store your card details itself. Order history and shipping information are used only to fulfill your order.
Contact Forms
Messages sent through the Contact page (name, email, subject, message) are emailed directly to FOTA program administrators to respond to your message. They are not stored in a public database or shared with third parties.
Analytics
As of this draft, FOTA does not run third-party analytics or advertising trackers. If that changes, this policy will be updated first to name the service and what it collects.
Retention
Account, activation, spot, and fair-submission records are kept for as long as your account is active, so the historical fair/activation record stays intact for other participants. Spots expire from the live spotting board automatically after a short window but remain in the historical log.
Deletion Requests
You may request deletion or correction of your account data at any time through the Contact page. Because fair, activation, and award records are shared program history, deleting your account removes your personal account data but may retain de-identified activation records (fair, date, band/mode) the same way a paper log would — contact us if you have a specific concern and we will work with you.
Administrative Logs
Moderation actions — callsign verification decisions, fair submission review — are recorded in an internal audit log (who acted, when, and what changed). This log exists to keep moderation accountable and reviewable by administrators; it is never shown publicly and is not the same thing as WordPress's own post revision history.
Future Public APIs
FOTA publishes a REST API for its own front end today, and may open parts of it to third-party applications (for example, a mobile app) in the future. Any such access will only expose data that is already public on the site — callsigns, activations, spots, public profile fields. Private account data, and specifically your email address, is never exposed through any public API, present or future.
Contact Us About Privacy
Questions, corrections, or deletion requests can be sent through the Contact page.