Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

The Houston Corrosion Committee ("HCC," "we," "us," or "our") operates the member portal at houstoncorrosion.org. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you use our website and member services.

By creating an account or using our services, you agree to the practices described in this policy. If you do not agree, please do not register or use the portal.

2. Information We Collect

We collect the following categories of information:

Account information: Name, email address, phone number, password (stored as a salted hash — we never store plaintext passwords), company affiliation, and job title.
Professional information: Zone assignments, member type (operator or contractor), contractor service profiles, certifications, and professional biography.
Portal activity: Form submissions (projects, surveys, interruption requests, rectifier readings), acknowledgment records, and bid-board postings.
Communication preferences: Email notification opt-in status, SMS alert preferences, and secondary email addresses.
Technical data: Browser type and version, pages visited, and support ticket details (collected only when you submit a support request).

3. How We Use Your Information

Member services: To operate the portal, process registrations, authenticate logins, and manage your membership profile.
Zone notifications: To send email and optional SMS alerts when projects, surveys, or interruption requests are submitted for your assigned zones.
Member directory: To display your name, company, job title, and contact information in the member directory, visible only to other approved members.
Contractor marketplace: If you register as a contractor, your service profile and contact details are displayed in the contractor directory.
Administrative purposes: To respond to support requests, enforce the Code of Conduct, and manage committee operations.
Communications: To send transactional emails (registration confirmation, password reset, support ticket replies) and zone-based notifications you have opted into.

4. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We may share your information only in the following circumstances:

Within the committee: Your profile information is visible to other approved HCC members through the member directory. Form submissions (projects, surveys, interruptions) are shared with members in overlapping zones.
Service providers: We use Brevo (Sendinblue) for transactional email and SMS delivery. Brevo processes your email address and phone number solely to deliver messages on our behalf, under their own privacy policy and data processing agreements.
Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or governmental regulation, or if necessary to protect the rights, safety, or property of HCC or its members.

5. Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted on a dedicated server. All connections are encrypted via SSL/TLS.
Passwords are hashed using bcrypt with per-user salts. We never store or log plaintext passwords.
Authentication tokens are short-lived and transmitted only over HTTPS.
Access to the database and server infrastructure is restricted to authorized committee administrators.
While we implement industry-standard security measures, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

6. Your Rights and Choices

Access and update: You can view and update your profile information at any time through the member portal settings page.
Notification preferences: You can enable or disable email notifications and SMS alerts in your profile settings.
Account deletion: You may request deletion of your account and associated data by contacting a committee administrator or submitting a support request. We will process deletion requests within 30 days. Note that some records (e.g., historical form submissions) may be retained in anonymized form for committee operational records.
Data export: You may request a copy of your personal data by contacting a committee administrator.

7. Cookies and Tracking

The HCC portal uses only essential cookies required for authentication and session management. We do not use advertising cookies, analytics trackers, or third-party tracking pixels. No data is shared with advertising networks.

8. Data Retention

We retain your account information for as long as your membership is active. If your account is deactivated or deleted, we will remove your personal information within 30 days, except where retention is required for legitimate committee operational records (e.g., historical survey coordination data, which may be anonymized).

9. Children's Privacy

The HCC portal is intended for corrosion industry professionals. We do not knowingly collect information from individuals under 18. If we become aware that we have collected data from a minor, we will delete it promptly.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify active members via email and update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the portal after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, please contact us:

Email: info@houstoncorrosion.org
Web: Contact the Board