This policy explains how Pangea and the Pangea Community Land Stewardship Association ("Pangea," "we") handle information collected through taoscommunity.org.

What we collect

• Inquiry and contact forms: name, email, phone, location, household and timeline details, and anything you write to us.
• Membership application: the details in the application, including household members, intended use, financial readiness, experience, references and your authorization for a background check.
• Financial verification documents: collected separately through a secure private link, not through this website.
• Site analytics: standard server logs, and Matomo analytics that runs on our own server. It sets no cookies, stores IP addresses with the last two parts removed, and uses them only to estimate an approximate location. Detailed visit records are deleted after 12 months; only summary reports are kept. We don't share analytics data with anyone.
• Videos: embedded videos play from YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com). YouTube's own privacy policy applies once a video loads.

How we use it

We use this information to answer inquiries, run the membership and lot-purchase process, and meet our obligations under the governing documents and the law. The Membership Committee and authorized staff review applications in confidence.

Background checks

With your written authorization, a licensed consumer reporting agency conducts background screening. That provider collects the identifying details it needs directly from you, under its own privacy and Fair Credit Reporting Act obligations.

Sharing

We don't sell or rent personal information. We share it only with service providers who help run the process (for example escrow, title and screening providers), and when the law requires it.

Newsletter

If you subscribe, we keep your email address, name if given, and a record of your consent: the wording you agreed to, when, and the IP address it came from. Newsletters are sent through Amazon Web Services. To see which newsletters are read and which links are useful, each newsletter contains a small image and links that tell us when it was opened or clicked. We record the time, the type of device and email app, and an approximate location from a shortened IP address. You can unsubscribe with the link in any newsletter or the unsubscribe button in your email app; it takes effect immediately.

Retention & security

Applicant and member records are kept in access-restricted systems and retained as legal requirements dictate. Records for applicants who don't proceed are deleted after 3 years unless the law requires otherwise.

Your choices

You can ask to see, correct or delete your information, or to stop receiving email from us, by writing to info@taoscommunity.org.