The following is the privacy policy of Shepherd of the Prairie Church with respect to information and images on the Web site www.sotp.org or www.shepherdoftheprairie.com. Our privacy policy addresses the privacy of congregational information.

While this website is intended primarily for those who are interested in learning more about SOTP and those who are already a part of the Shepherd of the Prairie community, the nature of a website is such that anyone with a computer and Internet access can view it.

We would like to include new content about our members, but we realize that we need to be sensitive to privacy issues. This article will explain our privacy policy.

We believe in the inherent good will of humanity, yet we know it is wise to protect the privacy rights of individuals. In developing and maintaining the website for Shepherd of the Prairie, we will proceed using a policy with respect to inclusion of personal information. We spell this out below both to make it clear and to invite discussion. Feel free to contact us with comments, questions or concerns.

Background

As use of the internet has grown, many concerns have arisen over access to personal information on the internet. Websites and most public posting forums are and are meant to be totally public. Any information posted there is released into a wide domain in which you have very little control over how the information is used. Search engines and automatic programs (known as robots or spiders) can read and collect information from an incredible number of web sites in a short time.

Concerns and issues have often been inflated into fears by print media to the point where many people are very concerned about using the internet. Even though most of the personal information available in the internet is also publicly available elsewhere, there are still common (and valid) concerns related to the ease of access and collection of information.

Some of the current concerns that are prevalent include:

• Unsolicited (unwanted) Email
  Unsolicited and generally unwanted email (SPAM) is becoming more of an annoyance lately to the point that many states are considering ways to make it illegal. Many people are becoming more careful about letting their email addresses become widespread to limit SPAM.
• Harassing Personal Contacts
  This can include all sorts of undesired personal contacts, whether hate-mail, personal harassment, stalking or pedophilic advances toward children or youth. This is probably more often initiated in chat forums than regular websites. (This is probably more rare than the media would portray, but it does concern many people and is still an issue to consider)

Privacy Policy

We have 3 basic groups of people that might be listed on our Web site; staff, adult members and youth. Information of concern includes names, email addresses and phone numbers. Home addresses never will be posted.

1. For staff, we will list names, email if they have it and office phone numbers (no home phones, addresses, etc.) It is important that people be able to contact the staff and that all access is through the office.
2. For adult members, we often list names when they are a contact for some group or activity that we are covering on the website. We do not list email addresses unless a member has specifically given us permission to do so. We will not list phone numbers. It is assumed that other members have the church directory or can call the office for phone numbers.
3. For youth, we do not list full names, but only first name and initial of the last name. We also do not list email addresses or phone numbers. This is to protect our youth from the more dangerous types of people that can and do use the internet to contact and take advantage of young people. In order to protect children, we will not post full names, addresses, or phone numbers of minors. First names and initials may be used. Photos of groups of children participating in events occurring in public places may be posted from time to time. Photos of individual children will only be used with permission of the parent or guardian.
4. In addition, our church always maintains a current printed Member Directory, but it is not publicly available. Current members have to request a copy through this Web site or a phone call to the church office, and the directory will be emailed to the requesting church member. Members can always withdraw permission if they do not want to be included on this printed directory.