Pre-launch privacy policy

NECTARnet is collecting limited information so we can prepare community email lists, verify requests, prevent abuse, and invite interested people when the lists are ready. Submitting the form does not subscribe you to a list.

Information we collect

When you submit the interest form, we collect:

• your email address;
• the towns and cities you select;
• optional preferences about announcements, events, discussion, for-sale, or other lists, including interest in wider regional events, for-sale, jobs, and farming lists;
• optional comments, suggestions, ideas, and requests for other kinds of lists;
• the time you submitted and accepted the displayed terms;
• whether and when you confirmed your email address; and
• your IP address, browser User-Agent string, preferred-language header, and metadata capture time.

Submission attempts caught by our hidden bot field are blocked and stored separately with a suspected-bot flag, the reason they were blocked, a bounded copy of submitted form fields, and the same technical request metadata. This information helps us investigate and reduce automated abuse.

We also keep short-lived, keyed one-way values derived from IP addresses and email addresses to enforce request limits. These rate-limit records do not contain the original IP address or email address.

How we use the information

We use it to understand which community lists people are interested in, review suggestions and requests, send and verify confirmation requests, prepare future invitations, operate the site, diagnose problems, and protect the service from fraud, spam, and automated abuse. Every submitted response is reviewed by a person. We do not use the pre-launch information to subscribe you automatically.

Email and service providers

Confirmation messages will be delivered through SMTP2GO, which processes the sender, recipient, message, delivery status, and related mail metadata. Our hosting and infrastructure providers may process information as necessary to run, secure, back up, and monitor the site. We do not sell this information.

Cookies and tracking

The site uses a signed session cookie for form security and, for authorized writers, access to the private copy editor. We do not currently use third-party behavioral analytics, advertising cookies, browser fingerprinting, email open tracking, or email click tracking.

Email confirmation

We send a confirmation link to establish that the person requesting notification can access the submitted mailbox. Unconfirmed addresses are not treated as ready for a future invitation. If you did not submit the request, you may ignore the confirmation message.

Retention and deletion

This is a temporary pre-launch collection. We intend to delete the pre-launch information after the community lists launch, including information in the live database and retained backups according to the project’s deletion procedure. Blocked submission attempts and technical metadata are covered by the same commitment. Rate-limit counters expire automatically after 48 hours.

You may ask us to delete your information earlier by emailing hello@nectarnet.org. We may ask you to confirm control of the relevant email address before completing a request.

Security

We use measures intended to limit unauthorized access, including confirmation tokens stored as hashes, access controls, encrypted web and mail transport in production, and restricted operational credentials. No Internet service can guarantee absolute security.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes materially during pre-launch, we will update the effective date and terms version shown here and beside future consent records. Questions about this policy or the project can be sent to hello@nectarnet.org.