Community Preparedness Team Privacy Policy
2024.12.17 DRAFT - NOT YET APPROVED AS OFFICIAL POLICY
Information Provided
Volunteers are required to provide some personal information to the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management's (PBEM's) Community Preparedness Team (CPT) for the purpose of routine program administration. That information is primarily provided through the volunteer application form and MyImpactPage (MIP) portal.
Personal information volunteers must provide includes but is not limited to name, mailing address, email, phone number(s), and date of birth.
Storage of Data
Personal data provided by volunteers is stored in the Volunteer Impact management system, which is hosted securely by a third-party service provider, Better Impact. Their privacy policy is here. (We call the system ‘MIP’, which is a reference to the URL where volunteers log in: MyImpactPage.com.)
Data is sometimes downloaded to city computers used by CPT staff in the course of normal work. For example, analyzing data and preparing reports. This data is maintained and deleted in accordance with the City of Portland's data retention policies.
Disclosure of Data
- City policy forbids employees from disclosing volunteers' personal information, with limited exception for email name, email address, and sometimes phone number(s):
- The application process requires agreement to the provision ‘I grant the City of Portland permission to share my name, email address, and telephone numbers with my volunteer Team Leader(s) for the purpose of contacting me for Team management.’ A volunteer who does not indicate agreement is not eligible for participation, because they could not practically become a member of a team.
- We occasionally provide a list of volunteers' names, email addresses, and team/neighborhood to Friends of Portland NET for their purposes as a nonprofit organization supporting PBEM volunteer programs. Volunteers may opt-out of Friends of Portland NET communications via a link in their email messages.
- CPT staff occasionally receive requests from Team Leaders for their Team Members’ home addresses for mapping purposes, and we refuse those requests. Team Members may choose to disclose their addresses or other information to each other, but PBEM cannot.
- If the data in Volunteer Impact/MIP is ever included in a FOIA request, we are confident that the City Attorney's Office would argue that volunteers' personal contact information – especially individual’s physical addresses – are exempt from disclosure and should be redacted.
Deletion of Data
When a volunteer resigns or is otherwise separated from the program, PBEM changes their Volunteer status to Inactive and will no longer contact them. However, data previously provided remains archived in the Better Impact/MIP system. The volunteer may choose to disassociate their Better Impact account from PBEM in their MIP Profile.
A volunteer's information in the MIP system cannot be deleted by PBEM, because each person may opt to have that information shared with multiple organizations which use the Better Impact platform, e.g. Multnomah County Library, Bird Alliance, and Medical Reserve Corps. To request deletion of your data deleted see the Inquiries section in Better Impact's privacy policy.
Background Checks
If a volunteer chooses to have their background check conducted by PBEM, additional personal information is required by our third-party background check service provider but is not transmitted to the City. For details about that process see Background Checks.