Privacy Policy

Effective date: July 6, 2026

1. Who we are

The Georgia Court Reporters Association, Inc. (“GCRA,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) is a Georgia non-profit professional association serving certified court reporters, CART providers, broadcast captioners, and students of the profession across the State of Georgia.

This policy explains what personal information we collect from you when you use the GCRA website (the “Site”), how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies to all visitors, registered members, course participants, donors, job-posting employers, and anyone interacting with our public Court Reporter Directory.

Contact for privacy inquiries: contactus@georgiacourtreporters.org

2. Information we collect

We collect personal information in the following ways:

2.1 Information you provide directly

• Account registration: name, email address, password (encrypted), mailing address, phone number, and credentials (CCR, CVR, CER, RPR, CRR, etc.).
• Membership profile: firm or court affiliation, judicial circuit, county coverage, areas of practice, photo (optional), bio (optional), and any other information you choose to add to your member profile.
• Payments and donations: payment card details are entered into a secure form provided by our payment processor (Stripe); GCRA itself does not store full card numbers or CVVs.
• Forms and registrations: information you submit through testing registration forms, committee interest forms, contact forms, and donation forms.
• Forum and community activity: posts, replies, direct messages, group memberships, comments, and any media you upload to discussions.
• Continuing education submissions: quiz answers, certificates of completion, CE credits earned via the GCRA Library or uploaded for verification.
• Job listings: when you post a job opening as an employer, the details of the listing and your contact information.
• Public Court Reporter Directory: if you have opted in, the information you elect to make public (name, firm, method, county coverage, phone, email, website, certifications). Listing in the public directory is optional and member controlled.

2.2 Information collected automatically

• Log files and analytics: IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring URL, pages visited, time spent on the Site, and approximate geographic location (city / region).
• Cookies: essential session cookies for authentication, cart, and form-progress tracking. We do not use third-party advertising cookies.
• Search activity on the Site: the search terms you enter (used to improve search results; not linked to your personal account).

2.3 Information from third parties

• Payment processor (Stripe): transaction status, last four digits of card, and billing country.
• OAuth providers (if you choose to sign in with Google, Facebook, or another supported provider): your name and email address as authorized by that provider.

3. How we use information

We use the information we collect to:

• Create and maintain your member account
• Process membership applications, renewals, and refunds
• Award and track continuing education credits
• Deliver online courses, quizzes, and certificates
• Operate the forum, group messaging, and other community features
• Display your listing in the public Court Reporter Directory (only if you opt in)
• Process donations to the GCRA Defense Fund and other initiatives
• Send transactional emails (renewal reminders, password resets, CE certificates, event confirmations)
• Send periodic newsletters and legislative updates (with the option to unsubscribe at any time)
• Maintain the security and integrity of the Site (preventing fraud, spam, and abuse)
• Compile aggregated, non-identifying analytics about Site usage
• Comply with legal obligations, court orders, and law enforcement requests

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

4. Who we share information with

We share personal information only in the following limited circumstances:

We require all service providers to maintain industry-standard data-security practices and to limit their use of GCRA data to provide services to us.

5. Public information

Some information is intentionally public by your action:

• Your name, public-facing forum posts, comments, and replies
• Your member directory listing if you have opted in
• Public profile fields you have marked as public (e.g., your firm name, county coverage)
• Donor recognition entries (only if you authorized public acknowledgment)

You can change what is public at any time from your member dashboard or by contacting GCRA.

6. Cookies

The Site uses cookies that are strictly necessary for the Site to function (authentication, session management, cart contents, language preference). Disabling these cookies will impair the Site’s functionality.

We do not use third-party advertising or behavioral tracking cookies. We do not participate in cross-site advertising networks.

7. Your rights and choices

You have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete (via your dashboard or by contacting us)
• Delete your account and associated personal data (subject to recordkeeping obligations described in §10)
• Object to specific uses of your information
• Withdraw consent to be listed in the public Court Reporter Directory at any time
• Unsubscribe from non-transactional emails using the link in any newsletter
• Export a copy of your account data in a machine-readable format

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at contactus@georgiacourtreporters.org.

7.1 California residents (CCPA)

If you reside in California, you have additional rights to know what categories of personal information we have collected and shared. Contact us to make a CCPA request.

7.2 EU/UK residents (GDPR)

If you reside in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you have rights under GDPR. Our legal bases for processing are: consent (for newsletters and public directory listing), contract (for membership services), and legitimate interest (for fraud prevention and security).

8. Data retention

We retain personal information for as long as your member account is active, plus a period afterward for legitimate business and legal reasons:

• Account profile data: retained while your account is active; deleted within 90 days of account closure on request
• Financial transaction records: retained for seven (7) years for IRS compliance
• CE credit records: retained for the period required by the Georgia Board of Court Reporting (currently 3 years)
• Forum content: posts you delete remain in our backup archives for up to 90 days

9. Security

We use industry-standard safeguards to protect your information, including TLS/SSL encryption for all data in transit, hashed passwords (bcrypt), two-factor authentication available on all accounts, and tokenized payment processing via Stripe (PCI-DSS Level 1).

No system is 100% secure. In the unlikely event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities within the timeframes required by applicable law.

10. Children

The Site is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. Student member registration requires self-attestation of age.

11. Links to other sites

The Site contains links to third-party websites (e.g., the Georgia Board of Court Reporting, NCRA, NVRA, AAERT, vendor partners, affiliate listings). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. Please review their respective privacy policies.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated by email to registered members and via a prominent notice on the Site at least 30 days before taking effect. Continued use of the Site after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

13. Contact us

For any privacy-related questions, requests, or concerns:

Georgia Court Reporters Association

Email: contactus@georgiacourtreporters.org

This policy was last updated: July 6, 2026. A complete archive of prior versions is available on request.