Ember Software, LLC.

Privacy Policy

EFFECTIVE DATE: December 1, 2023

Ember Software, LLC. d/b/a Ember-Fire® (“Ember,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) values your privacy. In this Privacy Policy (“Policy”), we describe how we collect, use, and disclose the information we obtain about visitors to our website, www.Emberfd.com (the “Site”), users of our mobile applications (the “App” or “Apps”), and the services available through our Site and App, and how we use and disclose that information.

By visiting the Site, using or downloading the App, or using any of our services, you acknowledge that your personal information will be handled as described in this Policy. Your use of our Site, App, or services, and any dispute over privacy, is subject to this Policy and our Terms of Use and Service Agreement, including its applicable limitations on damages and resolving disputes. The Terms of Use are incorporated by reference into this Policy.

DEFINITIONS

User – A user will either be an Organization or their Personnel.

Organization – An organization is a fire department, rescue squad, EMS agency, Town, City, County, State, or a division within a government agency.

Personnel are the employees, volunteers, firefighters, rescue workers, EMTs, emergency service personnel, and state or federal staff members of an Organization.

THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

We collect information about you directly from you and other parties and automatically through your use of our Site and App.

Information We Collect Directly From You. The information we collect from you depends on how you use our Site, App, and Services.

The Organization – Ember-Fire may gather data from Organizations within our Site to help improve the User’s experience while using the Site. This information may include, but is limited to, the Organization’s location, phone number, contact person(s), and other data.
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Personnel – Ember-Fire may gather data from Personnel who use the Site to help the Organization provide quality assurance. The data collected may include, but is not limited to, the person’s name, location, the IP address used while on the Site, the browser used while on the Site, and more. We feel that the best way to explain how and why data from the Personnel is being used is through examples.
Apparatus Check-Offs – Most emergency service personnel understand how to check off apparatus, and all Personnel also know that some try to game the system. One of the ways they game the system is by completing an Apparatus check without actually doing it.
- Example I – If your Organization has a ladder truck, most people know that completing a good checkoff of that type of apparatus takes 45 minutes and an hour or better. So, when using our Site to complete that check, if someone selects Ladder 1, the check pulls up, and they submit the checkoff within five minutes, our Site will show that short period where an officer or the head of the Organization can see it. To do this, when a person submits a form, our Site collects data for the person to show things like their location, the IP Address, and the time the form was started and submitted. The Site is not using that information to make a profit or sell to a third party; it is using it to provide the Organization with ways to monitor activity that leads to poor workmanship or unsafe acts.
- Example II – If a person was supposed to check off Engine 1 today, it was not submitted during their part-time shift (9-5). Still, it was submitted at 8:00 p.m. after they left the station; the Site will use the IP Address and Location to show the check was submitted at a location other than the Organization’s location. The Site uses that type of data collection to help identify poor workmanship or unsafe acts. If the apparatus is not checked off correctly, people’s lives could be endangered, so the Site focuses on quality assurance and compliance.
Hydrant Testing – As most Personnel know, when you are flow testing hydrants, you are standing at that hydrant and going from one hydrant to another. When you pull up the hydrant testing form on our Site, you enter the static pressure, stagnation pressure, and residual pressure and submit them; the Site, again, gathers data including but not limited to your location, so the Chief or other officers can see that the firefighter was standing at that hydrant when they submitted the hydrant flow data. The Site is not using that information to make a profit or sell to a third party; it is using it to provide the Organization with ways to monitor activity that leads to poor workmanship or unsafe acts. The Site focuses on quality assurance and compliance.

As you can see, almost all information being gathered is used to ensure that Personnel are providing the task at the place and time they are supposed to and in a manner that ensures the tasks are being completed to meet NFPA, OSHA, and other state, federal, or Organizational standards.

EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS

The Site may periodically send you free newsletters and emails that directly promote the use of our Services. When you receive newsletters or promotional communications from us, you may indicate a preference to stop receiving further communications from us, and you will have the opportunity to “opt-out” by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the email you receive or by contacting us directly (please see contact information below). Regardless of your indicated email preferences, we may send you service-related communications, including notices of any updates to our Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy.

CHANGING OR DELETING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

The Personnel or Organization may change your information by editing your profile within the Site or your personnel file.

Organization – If the Organization wishes to Delete its account, the Organization may contact us at Info@msfes.net and request that the account be closed. The Site will use commercially reasonable efforts to honor your request to close the account. Still, please note that legal requirements or internal company policies may dictate that we retain that information for specified periods, and we may not be able to honor your request until the expiration of that period. When we delete any information, it may be deleted from the active database but may remain in our archives. We may also retain your information for fraud prevention or similar purposes.

Personnel – With the Site being a Human Resource program, it is most likely the Policy of the Organization to keep your employment files for a while, up to 50 years past the death of a person, to comply with state and federal requirements. Also, in most states, in a private non-profit organization, your personnel files and the data within them are the property of the Organization. For this reason, the Site cannot wipe clean your data. We ask that you, as the Personnel, contact your fire chief, rescue chief, EMS director, and so forth and ask them to delete your data, but they most likely are required to keep it for an extended period under state or federal laws.

Please Note: Personnel within some legal jurisdictions, like the State of California, have certain legal rights to access specific personal data we hold about them and to obtain its correction, amendment, or deletion. Those Personnel may exercise some of those rights through the Organization, as the Site’s employees may not be able to see or locate private information within the Site for security and privacy reasons.

SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION & DATA

Ember Software LLC. works extremely hard to protect the security of the Organization’s and Personnel’s data and information. We use industry-standard security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage method is 100% secure. Therefore, while we make reasonable efforts to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

TRAFFIC ANALYTICS

We use third-party service providers to help us analyze how users use the Site. These services allow us to watch who tries to enter our software, as we work extremely hard to block people from foreign countries, like China, Russia, and Iran, from trying to access our software illegally. With third-party services, we can also help our users within the software in real-time. These types of companies may also use Cookies to gather information about the visitors to our Site. This Policy does not apply to them, and we are not responsible for the Cookies used by them.

DATA STORAGE

Ember Software, LLC. believes that to protect our Organizations and their Personnel, the data gathered should be stored in America and multiple places within America; just in case one storage site goes down, the data is still available to the Organization and Personnel at another location. We use at least two locations within America, one on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast, and the data storage provider is AWS. All of this ensures the highest level of security and reliability of data within the Site.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

This Policy is current as of the Effective Date set forth above. We may change this Policy from time to time, so please be sure to check back periodically. We will post any changes to this Policy on our Site and App. Suppose we make any changes to this Policy that materially affect our practices concerning the personal information we have previously collected from you. In that case, we will endeavor to provide you with notice in advance of such change by highlighting the change on our Site and App.

CONTACT US

If you have questions about the privacy aspects of our Services or would like to make a complaint, please get in touch with us at Info@msfes.net or in writing to PO Box 25908 Greenville, SC 29616.

CHILDREN UNDER 13

Our Site, Apps, and services are not designed for children under 13. If we discover that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will delete such information from our systems.

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