Terms of Use

These terms apply to everyone who uses the GO CERT network ("GO CERT"), including this site, its apps and the offline desktop app. By signing in you agree to them.

1. What GO CERT is

GO CERT gives each Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) its own website at team-name.gocert.net, with its own members, events, check-ins, hours, credentials, equipment, communications and Incident Action Plans. The teams are connected in one network so that they can, if they choose, share some information with each other.

2. Team data belongs to the team

• Everything a team or its members enter into its site ("team data") belongs to that team. GO CERT does not own it and does not sell it.
• Team data is private to the team by default. Other teams cannot see it, search it or export it.
• The network administrator keeps the service running and may need technical access to the servers to do that (see the Privacy Statement). It does not use team data for any other purpose.
• Each team decides who on the team can see and change what, through the roles its administrators give to members. Members the network administrator names as team network administrators have full control of their team's site, whatever roles they hold.

3. Sharing across the network

• Data leaves a team only when someone on the team deliberately marks a specific item as shared: an event, a library link, a document or a team post. Nothing is shared automatically, and you can stop sharing an item or change who it is shared with at any time.
• Who it is shared with is chosen item by item. When you share an item you choose either the whole network (every other active GO CERT team) or specific teams only, and only the teams you pick can see it.
• Command staff only. You can also mark a shared item as command staff only. Then only the command staff of the receiving teams (members with the Command Staff or CIC role, and team administrators) can see it; other members of those teams cannot.
• Shared items are shown to the signed-in members who are allowed to see them, with the name of the team that shared them. Do not share something unless you are happy for everyone you chose, and for command staff only items every command staff member of those teams, to read it.
• The network administrator can also switch a whole category of sharing off for a team (events, trainings, resources, contacts).
• Contacts. Each member's address book is private to that member unless the member (with the team role's permission) makes a contact visible to the whole team or to the network. A network-wide contact is shown to the teams chosen, with the name of the team that shared it; it should hold only business or agency details, never private information about someone who has not agreed to it.
• These are never shared across the network, except as described under Network Visits below: member records and contact details, member IDs and QR codes, check-ins and hours, credentials and training records, equipment, time entries, ICS 214 logs, Incident Action Plans, After Action Reports, login history, and events marked for command staff only.
• A team that receives something shared by another team may use it for CERT purposes but must not republish it outside CERT, or pass a command staff only item to people who are not command staff, without the sharing team's permission. Shared items stay the property of the team that shared them.

4. Who may use it

• Accounts are for members of a GO CERT team, approved by that team's administrators. Do not share your password or your QR code with anyone.
• Your team's administrators are responsible for the accuracy of their members' records, for approving and removing members, and for what the team chooses to share.
• You must be old enough to be a CERT member under your team's rules. GO CERT is not meant for children under 13.

5. What you agree to

• Use GO CERT only for CERT business: training, exercises, deployments, communications and administration.
• Keep other people's information confidential. Member contact details and records are for CERT use only.
• Do not try to see another team's private data, break into accounts, interfere with the service or upload anything harmful or unlawful.
• Do not enter information you are not allowed to store, such as payment card numbers, government ID numbers or medical records of the people you help. Incident forms should hold only what the operation needs.

6. Offline use

The offline mode and the desktop app keep a copy of your team's data on the device you use. That device and its users are responsible for protecting the copy (screen lock, disk encryption where possible) and for uploading or discarding it when the work is finished. Other devices connected to an offline host can see what their members would normally be allowed to see.

7. Emergencies

GO CERT is a planning and record-keeping tool. It can be unavailable, slow or out of date, and forecasts, maps and other third-party information it shows may be wrong. Do not rely on it as your only means of communication or safety information in an emergency. Always follow your incident commander and local emergency services.

8. Availability and changes

The service is provided as it is, by volunteers, without a guarantee that it will be available or free of errors. The network administrator may change the service, suspend a team site or remove an account that breaks these terms. A team that leaves the network can ask for its data to be exported and then deleted.

9. Liability

To the extent the law allows, GO CERT and its administrators are not liable for loss or damage arising from the use of, or the inability to use, the service. Nothing here limits any right you have by law that cannot be limited.

10. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The date at the top shows the latest version. Continuing to use GO CERT after a change means you accept it. Questions: your team administrator.