Legal
Privacy Policy
What is collected, why it is used, and what happens to information submitted to a project — including one run by a public agency.
What we collect
Depending on the feature being used, Tortoise may collect:
- Name
- Email address
- Organization
- Project submissions
- Survey responses
- Map comments
- Document comments
- Messages sent to a project team or to Tortoise
- Uploaded files
- Technical and security logs
- Device and browser information
- Usage information, such as which pages and tools were used
Why we use information
Information is used to:
- Operate projects
- Display authorized public participation
- Analyze engagement
- Generate reports
- Provide project administration
- Prevent abuse
- Maintain security
- Communicate with users
- Improve the service
- Support participating organizations
Public comments
Some projects are intended for public participation. Information designated for public display may become publicly visible, including the comment itself and the name or organization attached to it.
Participants should not include sensitive personal information in a public comment.
Contact details provided with a submission are not published to other participants.
Public records
When Tortoise is used for a project administered by a public agency, information submitted through the project may be subject to applicable public-records, records-retention, disclosure, or archival requirements. Tortoise cannot guarantee that information submitted to a public-agency project will remain confidential.
Agency policies
Participating agencies may have additional privacy, records, retention, and disclosure requirements of their own. Those requirements apply to the project in addition to anything described here, and the agency running a project is the best source for them.
Data sharing
Information is shared with the organization running the project, because the project is theirs.
Tortoise uses service providers in these categories: hosting and infrastructure, mapping and geographic services, AI processing, email delivery, analytics, and security. A provider receives only what it needs for the function it performs.
Participant information is not used for advertising. It is not shared with other participants.
Security
Reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards are used to protect information, including access separation between public participation, organization accounts, and internal operations.
No system is completely secure, and Tortoise does not claim otherwise.
Retention
How long information is kept depends on:
- Project requirements
- Organization settings
- Contractual obligations
- Public-record requirements
- Legal obligations
Where an agency is required to retain records, records are retained. Deletion is not promised where a retention obligation applies.
Children
Tortoise is intended for professional users and for members of the public taking part in a planning process. It is not directed to children.
Information from children should not be submitted. This section will be finalized following legal review, and its wording may change.
Contact
A privacy contact has not been configured yet. An administrator must record a verified privacy contact address before this page is relied upon.