Website Usage Privacy Policy
The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy applies to The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants Web site and governs data collection and usage. By using The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants website, you consent to the data practices described in this policy.
Collection of your Personal Information
The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants encourages you to review the privacy policies of Web sites you choose to link to from The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants is not responsible for the privacy policy or other content on Web sites outside of The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants Web sites.
Use of your Personal Information
It is the policy of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Maryland to protect the personal information it collects about living persons. It does so in the following manner:
The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Maryland (SMDM) collects two kinds of personal information about applicants and members: 1) contact information and 2) genealogical information.
Contact information is: name, address, member numbers, telephone number (if it has been provided by the applicant), e-mail address (if provided by the applicant), date of membership, category of membership (annual, life, Jr. Life, Honorary), occupation (if provided by the applicant), MD Society web-site login credentials, and name of the Pilgrim ancestor.
Genealogical information is: Information concerning birth, death, marriages and divorces, adoptions, etc. At the beginning of the application process, the State Historian or Assistant State Historian(s) (the Historian) provides applicants with a partially completed application based on what the SMDM and the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (GSMD) knows about the proposed lineage. That document may include contact or public domain genealogical information or both.
The files of applicants who fail to complete their applications in a timely manner are considered to have been abandoned. Those files are destroyed.
In order to join the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (GSMD) and one of its member societies as a full member, it is mandatory the applicant be at least 18 years old and provide acceptable genealogical proof s/he is a direct descendant of one of the 102 passengers who made the crossing aboard the Mayflower. Other categories of membership do not have this requirement. All categories of membership must provide contact information in order for the member to realize the benefits of joining GSMD or the member society.
Where an applicant completes the application and submits it to the Historian together with its supporting documents, that file becomes and remains the property of the SMDM. The SMDM Historian temporarily preserves a copy and sends another copy to the GSMD via Dropbox. The use of Dropbox is mandated by the GSMD. That latter copy of the file becomes and remains the property of the GSMD and is subject to its privacy policy. The GSMD’s privacy policy is at https://www.themayflowersociety.org/privacy-policy Dropbox FAQ re its privacy policy is at https://help.dropbox.com/security/privacy-policy-faq The SMDM is not responsible for the privacy policy or any other policies and practices of the GSMD.
If the GSMD reject the application, the SMDM Historian destroys the Maryland copy of that file.
If the GSMD approve the application, it returns a copy of the approved application to the SMDM Historian. The SMDM Historian retains a copy of the approved application and sends a copy to the applicant only. No additional copy will be distributed unless the applicant requests such an action. At that time, the Historian destroys everything in the applicant’s file other than the application.
Using the information contained in the approved application, the SMDM Historian provides contact information to relevant members of the Maryland Board of Assistants so that the new member may be placed on various lists (e-mail and dues, for example) and included in the directory of members which is copyrighted and published to the membership only at regular intervals. It bears the following distribution notice: “This Directory of Officers and Members is intended solely for the use of the Mayflower Society …it may not be reproduced…”
The same procedure is followed with respect to Supplemental Applications.
The Historian updates the contact information from time to time and reports changes to the relevant members of the Maryland Board of Assistants and to the GSMD.
The SMDM Historian collects the name, address, name of sponsor, telephone number (if provided), email address (if provided) of Junior Members and of Friends of the Maryland Mayflower Society. This information is provided by the sponsor who is usually parent or grandparent of the proposed junior member or Friend (if the proposed Friend is a minor). That information is provided to the relevant members of the Maryland Board of Assistants so that the Friends and Junior Members may be included in the Directory and placed on the relevant lists. In addition, the Historian provides the Junior Members’ Committee with the birth dates of junior and junior life members so that appropriate birthday cards may be sent to them. No documents are collected from junior members.
We do not direct our website to or knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 – with the exception of junior members as stated above. If it is determined that such information has been inadvertently collected, we shall take the necessary steps to ensure that such information is deleted from our system.
The SMDM does not sell or rent the information in the membership directory (or any other information in the member’s file, a junior member’s file, or Friend’s file).
In the case of financial transactions (payment of dues, fees, etc.), we do not collect or store bank account numbers or credit card data. All payments are processed through Stripe, and users are directed to Stripe’s hosted checkout page to complete their transactions securely.
We do not collect personal information from our website other than what is voluntarily provided to us (e.g., through a preliminary review form). However, our website is hosted on WordPress and utilizes services provided by Wattz Web Design and Marketing, as well as Google Workspace for Non-Profits for our email communication. These third-party services may collect information for their own purposes. Please refer to their respective privacy policies for more information.
Changes to this Policy
The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants will occasionally update this Privacy Policy to reflect company and customer feedback. The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants encourages you to periodically review this Policy to be informed of how The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants is protecting your information.
Contact Information
The Maryland Society of Mayflower Descendants welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Policy. Please contact us at [email protected].