Privacy Policy

This notice explains what personal data Great Minds Create, Inc., a New Jersey corporation ("we", "us") collects when you use Substation Scout and the Site Scanner, why we collect it, and what rights you have.

We are the data controller for the processing described here. Our registered office is 351 Golf View Dr, Little Egg Harbor Twp, NJ. You can reach us at support@substationscout.com.

The short version from Phil

Confidentiality is Paramount

Copper Tacks: besides the requisite legalese, I want visitors to this site to understand my commitment to the confidentially of their browsing and any reports they may purchase.

Anonimity-First

• I don't store any website user PII, even if you pay. There's no "accounts" concept on this website.
  • For the paid Site Scanner, payment metadata from Stripe does not include name or company and is never cross-referenced with report metadata to infer customer information.
  • For free information, I don't collect or store any user information at all — there are no analytics tools on this site of any kind.

Short Retention Policy for the Site Scanner

• Reports generated by the Site Scanner tool, paid ones included, are deleted automatically within 24 hours. The reports are absolutely never shared with anyone (besides the purchaser having the ability to download/share the report themselves). Download the report you bought — the copy on the server does not persist.
• The address you type into the Site Scanner is stored only as part of the generated report, and goes when the report goes. It is never written to a separate search log.
• The only metadata I save from the Site Scanner reports is the US State that was searched, as this helps me understand if specific areas are worth further investment of my time and tokens. It is kept as an aggregate count per state, with no address, no coordinates, no report link and no timestamp attached to it.

Confidentiality is taken seriously

• I am a veteran of the data center industry and I understand the sensitive nature of these projects. I am comitted to only viewing generated Site Scanner reports myself when absolutely neccessary to ensure function and quality.
• I am happy to review and agree to a Confidentiality Agreement if one is desired; note that this of course removes your anonimity as a user.
• It is possible for me to export my database and methods for installation in your own private environment. Contact me about bulk inquiries if interested.

Basic Technical Details

• No advertising trackers and no analytics scripts. There is no Google Analytics, no advertising pixel, no third-party tag manager and no cross-site tracking on this site.
• One cookie, set only if you use a special access code from Phil, no other users get a cookie. It carries no identifier for you.
• I never see your card details. Payments are handled by Stripe as Merchant of Record.
• I do not sell personal data and I do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

The longer version: What we collect and why

The address you submit

To generate a Report we need the US address or map point you enter. It is sent to the US Census Bureau geocoder to obtain coordinates, and to FEMA and USGS services to look up the flood zone and watershed for that point.

Every report generated — including a free preview you never pay for — is written to our server as part of the generated Report, addressed by a random 32-character token, so the Report can be retrieved from its link. For a purchased Report, legal basis: performance of the contract — this is the paid product; for a preview, legal basis: legitimate interests in operating the tool. Every stored copy, paid or not, is deleted automatically within 24 hours; see How long we keep it below.

A report title, if you add one, is applied in your browser only and is never transmitted to or stored on our server.

Server logs and abuse prevention

Our server applies rate limits per IP address to prevent abuse. Those IP addresses are held in memory only, for one hour, and are not written to disk. When an access code is redeemed our application log records that it happened, but not the address it came from. Our hosting and CDN provider (Cloudflare) separately processes request metadata, including IP address, to route and protect traffic, under its own retention policy. Legal basis: legitimate interests — keeping the service available and preventing abuse.

Purchases

If you buy a Report, the transaction is conducted by Stripe, via its Stripe Managed Payments service, as Merchant of Record. On your bank or card statement this shows as a charge from **link.com\*Substation Scout. Stripe collects and processes your name, email address, billing address, country and payment details in order to take payment, calculate and remit tax, and issue receipts. We do not receive or store your card details.** We receive confirmation that an order was paid, together with the limited order data Stripe passes to us for support and accounting.

Stripe is an independent controller for its own processing. See the Stripe Privacy Center and the Stripe/Link Buyer Terms.

Correspondence

If you email us, we keep the message and your email address so we can reply and keep a record of the exchange. Legal basis: legitimate interests.

Cookies

The site sets one cookie, and only if you access a report using a special access code. This means you will not have a cookie unless you are in contact with Phil about a special access code.

Cookie	Purpose	Contents	Lifetime
par_access	Remembers that a valid access code was entered, so you are not asked again	An expiry timestamp and a signature. No user identifier, and not the code itself	30 days

It is HttpOnly, SameSite=Lax and Secure over HTTPS. It is strictly necessary for the access feature to work and is not used for analytics, profiling or advertising. There are no other cookies. Stripe's checkout, when you open it, sets its own cookies under Stripe's notice.

Who we share data with

We share only what a task requires, and only with:

• Stripe — payment processing as Merchant of Record.
• Cloudflare — hosting, DNS and CDN for the site and the report service.
• US Census Bureau, FEMA, USGS — the address or coordinates you submit are sent to these public services to perform the geocode and the hazard lookups. These are US government services.

We do not sell personal data, we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, and we do not use it to train machine-learning models.

We may disclose data where we are legally required to, or to establish or defend legal claims.

International transfers

We operate from the United States and our service providers process data in the United States and other countries. If you are in the UK, EEA or Switzerland, transfers of your personal data outside your region rely on the appropriate safeguards operated by the relevant provider, such as Standard Contractual Clauses. Stripe operates its own transfer safeguards for the payment data it controls.

How long we keep it

• Generated Reports, including the submitted address: deleted automatically within 24 hours, whether or not the Report was paid for.
• Server and CDN logs: our own application log records the fact that an access code was redeemed, but not the IP address that redeemed it. IP addresses are held in memory only, for one hour, to apply rate limits. Cloudflare retains its own request logs under its own policy.
• Purchase records: retained by Stripe, and by us where needed, for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
• Correspondence: kept while it is useful for support, then deleted.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have some or all of the following rights over your personal data: access, correction, deletion, portability, restriction of processing, objection to processing, and the right to withdraw consent where processing relies on consent.

If you are a California resident, you additionally have the right to know what we collect, to delete it, to correct it, to opt out of sale or sharing — we do not sell or share personal data, so there is nothing to opt out of — and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

To exercise any right, email support@substationscout.com. We will respond within the period the applicable law requires. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

For anything concerning your payment, billing details or receipt, contact Stripe/Link support at https://support.link.com/contact — Stripe holds that data as Merchant of Record.

Complaints

If you are in the UK or EEA and think we have handled your data improperly, you may complain to your national data protection authority. We would rather hear from you first at support@substationscout.com.

Children

The site is a business tool and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16.

Changes

We may update this notice. The version in force is the one on this page, with the effective date shown at the top. Material changes will be reflected in that date.

Contact

Great Minds Create, Inc., a New Jersey corporation 351 Golf View Dr, Little Egg Harbor Twp, NJ Email: support@substationscout.com Other channels: Contact page