Your privacy

Last updated October 2026.

Who we are

This website, wallingfordcert.org, belongs to Wallingford Community Emergency Response Team, Inc., a volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit based at the Office of Emergency Management, 143 Hope Hill Rd, Wallingford, CT 06492. Questions about this page or your information: email info@wallingfordcert.org or use our contact form.

Visiting the website

You can read the public pages without signing in or telling us anything about yourself. We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking tools, and we never sell or trade information about visitors. Like any website, the servers that host it keep standard technical logs, such as IP addresses, for security and troubleshooting.

What your browser keeps

• If you choose light or dark mode with the switch in the header, that choice is saved in your own browser so the site remembers it. So are the items you tick on the emergency kit checklist on Be Prepared. Neither is sent to us.
• Members who sign in to the Member Portal get WordPress’s sign-in cookies, which end when they sign out, plus the two-step sign-in the portal requires.

Services from other organizations

• Fonts: our pages load their typefaces from Google Fonts, so your browser connects to Google’s servers, which can see your IP address.
• Facebook: our Facebook posts load only if you choose “Show our Facebook posts.” Facebook may then set its own cookies. Links to our Facebook page open Facebook’s site.
• Weather alerts: the website itself asks the National Weather Service for Wallingford’s alerts. None of your information is involved.
• Calendars: “Add to calendar” downloads a calendar file to your device. The subscribe buttons open Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook, whose own privacy terms apply.
• Other websites: we link to FEMA, Ready.gov, the Red Cross, the State of Connecticut and others. Their own privacy policies apply once you are there.

Our contact form

When you send us a message, we receive your name, your email address and your message, so a volunteer can answer you. We use them only to reply and to follow up on what you asked. We do not add you to a mailing list.

Membership applications

The online application asks for what the paper form does: your contact details, date of birth, driver’s license information and a copy of your license, an emergency contact, any certifications you hold, and your Social Security number for the background check. The Social Security number is optional when you apply, but we need it before you join the team. Here is how we protect it:

• It travels over an encrypted connection, and your date of birth, Social Security number and license number are encrypted when they are stored.
• Your Social Security number is used only for your background check. It is never emailed, never added to the team roster and never copied into the team’s files.
• Your documents are stored privately, never in the website’s public media, and in a private folder in the team’s Google Drive.
• Only the leaders who process applications can see them, and every time anyone views a Social Security number, it is logged.
• The notices our leaders receive about new applications contain no personal details, and the confirmation sent to you repeats none of what you sent.
• Applications are kept on file. If you join, your application becomes part of your membership record.

Members of the team

We keep members’ contact details, training, certifications and attendance to organize the team: training, events, deployments and the paperwork they need. Member information is visible only to signed-in members and leaders, as each part of the Member Portal needs it. When the team is activated, we send the State’s Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS) the activation paperwork it requires, which includes the team roster.

Your choices

You can ask to see the information we hold about you, to correct it, or to have it removed. Email info@wallingfordcert.org and we will help. We may keep what we need for the team’s records, such as past training and deployment records.

Children

This website is not directed to children, and members must be 18 or older.

Changes to this page

We will update this page whenever our practices change, and change the date at the top.