Neighbor Data Pledge

Joining the association gives you a look at your neighbors — a name, and whatever contact details a neighbor has chosen to share. The privacy policy is the site’s promise about how it handles your information. This is the promise you make in return: that you will treat what you learn about your neighbors here with the same care.

It is short on purpose, and it is written plainly, because it is meant to be kept, not just clicked past.

The pledge

When you join, you agree that a neighbor’s information — a name, an email address, a phone number, an address, anything you can see because you are a member — is theirs, not yours to use freely. Specifically, you agree:

• Neighborly and Association reasons only. You’ll use a neighbor’s information to reach them as a neighbor, or to do the work of the association — not for your own business, campaign, or cause.
• No marketing or solicitation. You won’t use it to advertise, sell, promote, fundraise, or pitch anything to a neighbor who didn’t ask you to.
• No selling, renting, sharing, or publishing. You won’t hand a neighbor’s information to anyone outside the association, post it publicly, or add it to any other list. The site’s own promise is “no data sales, ever” — this is the same promise, made by you.
• No collecting the whole. You won’t copy, scrape, or compile the neighborhood’s information into a separate list or database. What you can see is there to help you reach a specific neighbor, not to be gathered up.
• Ask first for anything else. If you want to use a neighbor’s information for a reason that isn’t plainly neighborly or association business, ask that neighbor first. Their answer settles it.
• Respect a neighbor’s choices. If someone shares less, or asks you not to contact them, that’s their call. Honor it.

Why this exists

A neighborhood works because people can find and reach each other. That only stays true if being reachable is safe — if a neighbor can share a phone number for a block cleanup without it turning up in a sales list, or a mailing address for the newsletter without it being resold.

The association’s bylaws already ask every member to treat neighbors with courtesy and to act with accountability (the Code of Ethics, Article XII). This pledge is the same spirit, made specific to the one thing membership newly gives you: a view of your neighbors’ information.

If the pledge is broken

Access to a neighbor’s information is a trust, and the board can withdraw it. A member who uses neighbors’ information for marketing, sells or shares it, or otherwise breaks this pledge may have their access limited or their account suspended, consistent with the bylaws. Serious misuse can also carry consequences under the law, separate from anything the association does.

If you believe a member has misused your information, or anyone’s, tell the board at board@lakecherokeefl.org.

Questions

Anything about this pledge goes to hello@lakecherokeefl.org.