Privacy policy

What the VACC-CZ services collect about you, why, who else sees it, and what you can ask of us. Valid from 15 September 2026.

1. Who is responsible

The services under vacc-cz.org are run by VACC-CZ, the Czech subdivision of the VATSIM network. VACC-CZ is not a registered organisation or company. It is a group of volunteers who run the subdivision within VATSIM, a non-profit network for flight simulation. The people who run them and decide what they do with your data are the VACC-CZ staff. The person who answers for it under the GDPR is the VACC-CZ Director; the person who has access to the server and does the technical work on it is the VACC-CZ Technical Director. In the language of the GDPR, the staff are the data controller of the personal data described here.

Your VATSIM account itself, with which you sign in everywhere here, is run by VATSIM under VATSIM’s own privacy policy. As a subdivision of VATSIM, VACC-CZ is also bound by VATSIM’s data protection and handling policy, and a request you make to VATSIM about your data reaches us through it. This policy covers only what the VACC-CZ services do.

For anything about your data, write to staff@vacc-cz.org.

2. The services this policy covers

Everything below runs on one server. Each service is described in its own section; what they share comes first.

Development copies of some of these services run on the same server behind a password and are used by the staff only. They hold copies of the same kinds of data for testing and are not open to the public.

3. What every service shares

3.1 Hosting

The server is a virtual machine rented from Interneto vizija in Lithuania, in the European Union. All the services, their databases and their files live on it. The Technical Director administers the machine and is the one with access to it.

3.2 Server logs

The web server records each request to any of the services in a log: your IP address, the page requested, the time, and the browser and operating system your device reports. We use the logs only to keep the services running and to trace attacks and faults. They are kept for 14 days and then deleted automatically.

To stop password guessing, the server also counts failed sign-ins: at the website’s own login page, at the password in front of the development copies, and at any sign-in form that receives too many attempts too fast. An address that keeps failing is blocked for a while. The security log of those attempts and blocks, with the address and the time, is kept for 28 days, as is the record of who signs in to the server itself or tries to; both are then deleted automatically.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running secure, working services (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

3.3 Backups

Every night the server makes one encrypted backup of itself, databases included, keeps it on the same machine, replacing the previous one, and a copy goes to a backup server, where the copies are kept. The backups are encrypted, and the key is held on the main server and by the staff only, so the backup server’s operator cannot read them. A backup exists to restore the server after a failure and is used for nothing else; what you delete from a service, or what we delete at your request, is gone from the services, but may still be in an earlier backup until that backup is deleted.

3.4 E-mail

Every service sends its e-mail, such as a notification from the portal or a booking confirmation, through Zoho Mail, which also hosts the vACC’s mailboxes. Zoho handles this account from the United States, with the EU’s standard contractual clauses as the safeguard.

3.5 How the data is protected

Every service is reached over HTTPS only. Passwords, where a service has its own, are stored hashed. Access to the server and to the databases is limited to the staff who administer them, and every application runs with error reporting switched off so that no data leaks into an error page. The development copies are behind a password. The backups are encrypted.

3.6 Signing in

You sign in to the website, the portal, the event booking and Moodle with your VATSIM account, through our own sign-in service at auth.vacc-cz.org, described in section 4. One sign-in there serves all of them, and none of those four has a password of its own. The cloud, the forum archive and the wiki archive are not part of this: each has its own accounts and passwords, and each section below says which of the two a service uses. Sharing your name and e-mail address on VATSIM’s consent screen is what makes an account possible; if you withhold them, the service you were signing in to cannot create one and tells you so.

4. Sign-in service, auth.vacc-cz.org

The sign-in service runs on Handover, the open-source sign-in service from VATSIM Scandinavia, and is the one place where your VATSIM account meets our services. Everyone who signs in to anything here passes through it. It has no password of its own: it sends you to VATSIM’s own sign-in at auth.vatsim.net, where you confirm that VATSIM may share your full name, e-mail address, VATSIM details and country. It holds a record of you, so that the other services can ask it who you are:

• your VATSIM ID, first and last name and e-mail address;
• your ATC and pilot ratings, country, region, division and subdivision, as VATSIM reports them;
• the moment you last signed in, and that you accepted this policy on your first sign-in;
• the technical tokens that let it talk to VATSIM on your behalf, and a record of which of our services you have allowed to see your profile.

Each time another service signs you in, the sign-in service shows you what it is about to share and shares only that. It keeps no record of what you do in the services afterwards. Your session there lasts six hours. It holds a record for every person who has ever signed in to any service here.

Legal basis: your membership of the subdivision and the services you ask to use (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR). Cookies: a session cookie and a request-forgery token, both for the duration of the session.

5. Website, www.vacc-cz.org

5.1 Your account on the site

The website runs on WordPress, with a theme and a plugin the vACC wrote for itself, and is the vACC’s public site: aerodrome and airspace pages, events, and the members’ pages. Most of it is open to everyone; signing in shows more, and the ATC parts open to ATCs on the roster. You sign in through our sign-in service, and the website keeps no password of its own. It holds your account: your VATSIM ID, first and last name and e-mail address, taken from the sign-in service and updated on every sign-in. Your ATC rating decides whether you get the ATC role that opens the members’ pages; it is checked each time and not stored beyond that. Your country is received and not used or stored. If you decline to share your name or e-mail address, the site cannot create an account for you and says so.

Legal basis: your membership of the subdivision, of which the members’ area is a part (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).

5.2 What signed-in members see about other members

The members’ pages show the roster of active ATCs with names, VATSIM IDs, ratings and endorsements, who is on frequency by callsign and VATSIM ID with the name when it is in the roster, and ATC bookings with the name of the ATC who booked. Visitors who are not signed in see callsigns and VATSIM IDs only, never names. The names come from the portal (section 6).

Legal basis: our legitimate interest, and yours as a member, in the vACC operating as a group of identifiable ATCs (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). If you object to appearing by name, tell us and we will remove your name from what the site shows.

5.3 The ATC request form

The ATC request form takes the date and time you would like ATC coverage, the details of your event, and your VATSIM ID or e-mail address. What you type is sent by e-mail to events@vacc-cz.org and posted to the vACC’s private Discord server so that ATCs see the request. The form stores nothing on the site. To stop it being flooded, the site counts submissions from one internet address for ten minutes, keeping the address only as a one-way hash. Feedback on a session is not given on the website: it only links to the portal, which records it (section 6).

Legal basis: taking the steps you asked for (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR); the flood protection, our legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)).

5.4 Cookies on the website

None for a visitor who only reads. Signing in sets a ten-minute cookie that ties the answer from the sign-in service to your request, and then WordPress’s own session cookies for two weeks. One members’ page, WALDO, embeds a weather radar map from Windy.com in its own frame, within which Windy may set its own cookies under Windy’s privacy policy.

6. Portal, portal.vacc-cz.org

The portal runs on Control Center, the open-source training and booking system from VATSIM Scandinavia, and holds the vACC’s ATC records: the roster, training, endorsements, ATC activity and position bookings. Nothing in it is open without signing in; its front page is the sign-in page, and how much you see then depends on where you stand in the vACC: someone who is not a member yet can apply to join and little more, while training, endorsements and bookings are for ATCs on the roster. You sign in through our sign-in service, and the portal keeps no password of its own. For each ATC, student and mentor it holds, as far as it applies to you:

• your VATSIM ID, name, e-mail address and ratings, from the sign-in service;
• your training: requests and interests, the mentor assigned, training reports and mentor notes, examination results, and files attached to them;
• your endorsements and the positions and areas they cover;
• your ATC activity, counted from the network, and your bookings of positions;
• feedback given about a session, votes in polls, and the notifications the portal sent you;
• a log of the actions taken in the portal, yours and staff’s, with the time.

The portal shares two things outward. Your bookings of positions go to VATSIM’s ATC booking service, which publishes them across the network: the callsign, your VATSIM ID and the start and end of the session, for anyone to see, under VATSIM’s privacy policy. Your training and endorsements are synchronised, both ways and on a schedule, with VATEUD Core, the system of VATSIM’s European region, which is the authoritative record for all of it. What travels between the two is your VATSIM ID and that of the mentor or examiner concerned, your place on the roster, your tier, solo and visiting endorsements with the positions and areas they cover, mentor and examiner roles, examination results with the report attached to them, and requests to upgrade your rating. What the portal shows you of this is a copy of what VATEUD Core holds, and what VATEUD does with it is covered by VATEUD’s privacy policy. Once a day it refreshes every member’s name, e-mail address and ratings from the sign-in service, so it never holds an older version than VATSIM does. Your session in the portal lasts seven days.

The portal’s log of actions loses its IP addresses and browser details after two weeks, and entries are deleted after 90 days, both automatically.

Some of what the portal does is automatic: it queues and prioritises training requests by the vACC’s training rules, and it counts your ATC activity and flags an account as inactive when the activity rules say so, which can close the members’ pages to you until you are active again. No decision that affects you is final without a person: write to the training staff or to us and a person will look at it.

Training reports and examination results are, by their nature, an assessment of you. They are visible to you, to your mentors and to the training staff, and to nobody else. They are kept for good, as part of your record on the VATSIM network.

Legal basis: your membership of the subdivision and the training you asked for (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR); the activity counting and the log, our legitimate interest in running the subdivision and in accountability for what staff do (Article 6(1)(f)); the automatic handling of requests and activity, the same membership, with a person’s review on request (Article 22(2)(a) and (3)). Cookies: a session cookie and a request-forgery token.

7. Moodle, moodle.vacc-cz.org

The training site runs on Moodle, the open-source learning platform, and holds the vACC’s training material. Anyone can open it and read what is public; signing in shows more. You sign in through our sign-in service, and Moodle keeps no password of its own. It holds your account, which is your VATSIM ID, name and e-mail address, the courses you are enrolled in, and a record of your activity in them. The training staff can see that for their students.

Legal basis: the training you asked for (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR). Cookies: Moodle’s session cookie.

8. Event booking, booking.vacc-cz.org

The event booking runs on BMAC, an open-source event booking system, and is where pilots take a slot in one of the vACC’s events. Anyone can see the events and their slots; booking one needs a sign-in. You sign in through our sign-in service, and the booking keeps no password of its own. It holds your VATSIM ID, name and e-mail address from the sign-in service, the slots you booked with the flight details you gave, and a log of the actions taken in it. Booking confirmations go to your e-mail address. Your session lasts two hours.

Legal basis: the booking you asked for (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR). Cookies: a session cookie and a request-forgery token.

9. Cloud, cloud.vacc-cz.org

The cloud runs on ownCloud, the open-source file service, and is where the staff keep the vACC’s documents. Only staff members have accounts, and nothing in it is shown to anyone else. The cloud does not use our sign-in service: each of those accounts has its own username and password, kept by the cloud itself. It holds whatever the staff put there, and a document may name members where the vACC’s work requires it, a training record or an event plan for instance, under the same rules as the service it came from.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running the subdivision (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). Cookies: ownCloud’s session cookies, for staff only.

10. Forum archive, forum.archive.vacc-cz.org

The forum runs on phpBB and is kept as a read-only archive of the vACC’s past discussions. Anyone can read it, every board is locked so that nothing new can be posted, and no new accounts can be made; members who made an account back then can still sign in with it. The forum does not use our sign-in service: those accounts have a password of their own, the one set when they were made. It holds those accounts, with the username, a password stored hashed, the e-mail address and whatever else a member filled in on their profile, and the IP addresses the forum recorded with posts and sign-ins; and it holds the posts themselves, each naming its author.

If you would like your old forum account removed or your posts made anonymous, write to us.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest, and the members’, in keeping the community’s record (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). Cookies: phpBB’s session and sign-in cookies.

11. Wiki archive, wiki.archive.vacc-cz.org

The wiki runs on MediaWiki and is kept as a read-only archive of the vACC’s past reference pages. Anyone can read it, the pages are closed so that nothing new can be written, and no new accounts can be made; members who made an account back then can still sign in with it. The wiki does not use our sign-in service either: those accounts have a password of their own. It holds those accounts, with the username, a password stored hashed, the e-mail address and whatever else a member filled in on their profile, and the IP addresses the wiki recorded with edits; and it holds the pages with their edit history, each edit naming its author.

If you would like your old wiki account removed or your edits made anonymous, write to us.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest, and the members’, in keeping the community’s record (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). Cookies: MediaWiki’s session and sign-in cookies.

12. Discord bot

The bot is a small program the vACC wrote for itself, and it announces on the vACC’s Discord server when a Czech position goes on or off frequency. Everyone on that server sees what it posts. There is nothing to sign in to: the bot only posts, and you are on the Discord server with your Discord account. It watches VATSIM’s public data feed and posts a line with the callsign, the ATC’s name and the frequency; the name is the one VATSIM publishes in its feed for every ATC on the network, so the bot adds nothing that is not already public there. It holds only the list of who was online at its last check, so it can tell a change from a repeat. What it has posted stays on that server for good, unless the staff delete it, on Discord’s machines and under Discord’s privacy policy. The vACC’s Discord server itself is Discord’s service, which you join under Discord’s terms; VACC-CZ administers the server and what is posted on it, and nothing more.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in letting members see when Czech airspace is staffed (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

13. Who else receives your data

We do not sell or rent personal data, and we do not share it with anyone for their own purposes. These organisations handle data on our behalf or as part of the service you use:

14. How long we keep it

• Server logs: 14 days.
• Security logs (failed and blocked sign-ins, sign-ins to the server): 28 days.
• Backups: the copy on the server is replaced every night; the copies on the backup server are kept, encrypted, until the staff delete them.
• Your accounts on the sign-in service, the website, the portal, the event booking and Moodle: for as long as you are a member of the subdivision, or until you ask us to delete them.
• Your training record in the portal and Moodle: kept for good. Training, examinations and endorsements are part of your record on the VATSIM network, and they stay when you stop controlling or leave the vACC.
• The portal’s action log: IP addresses and browser details for two weeks, the entries for 90 days.
• Bookings and event slots: kept with the event’s record.
• The ATC request form: not stored on the site; the e-mail it produces is kept in the events mailbox for as long as needed to deal with it, and the Discord post until the team deletes it.
• The archived forum’s and wiki’s accounts and posts: as the community’s record, until you ask for yours to be removed or made anonymous.
• The Discord bot: it remembers only the last check, overwritten every few minutes; what it has posted on the vACC’s Discord server stays there for good, unless the staff delete it.

15. Your rights

Under the GDPR you may ask us at any time to:

• see the personal data we hold about you across the services (access);
• correct it (rectification), though your name and e-mail address come from your VATSIM account and are best corrected there;
• delete your accounts and data (erasure), apart from your training record, which stays as part of your record on the network;
• restrict what we do with it, or object to processing based on our legitimate interests, such as appearing by name on the roster or in the bot’s announcements;
• receive the data you gave us in a machine-readable form (portability).

None of the processing described here rests on your consent, so there is no consent to withdraw; what you can withdraw is your membership, and with it your accounts.

Write to staff@vacc-cz.org. We answer within a month. You may also complain to the Czech data protection authority, the Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů, Pplk. Sochora 27, 170 00 Praha 7, uoou.gov.cz.

16. Children

VATSIM membership is open from the age of 13. Our services do not seek out or knowingly collect data from anyone younger, and the only data they collect about a member is what the VATSIM account already holds and what the member does in the services.

17. Changes to this policy

When a service changes in a way that touches your data, this policy changes with it, and the date at the top moves on. Substantial changes are announced on the website’s news page.