Privacy Policy
How the ASAR Reference Guide handles personal information.
Last updated: 25 September 2026
Who this is about
The ASAR Reference Guide at asar.team is an internal tool built and run by Arrowsmith Search and Rescue, a volunteer search and rescue society on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. It is used by our own members. It is not a public service and accounts are not open to the general public.
Questions about anything on this page, or about your own information, go to nick@arrowsmithsar.ca.
What we collect
Only what the app needs to do its job. In practice that is:
- Your account. Your email address, your name, and which roles you hold in the app. Your password is held by Google Firebase Authentication and is never visible to ASAR.
- Expenses you submit. The date, vendor, amounts, GST and PST, fund and budget coding, your notes, who paid, who is to be reimbursed, whether it has been paid, and a photo or PDF of the receipt. Edits are kept as an append-only history, so a record shows what was changed and by whom.
- Operational records you create. Flight logs, drone maintenance, equipment records, site surveys, training and qualification records, conference reports, team board posts, debrief requests, and task or assignment records.
- Notifications. If you turn on push notifications, a token identifying your device, so we can send them.
- Membership details imported from D4H, our team management system, for things like member identification cards.
We do not sell personal information, we do not use it for advertising, and we do not share it with anyone outside the services listed below.
Who else handles it
Running the app means using other companies' services. Each one only sees what it needs:
- Google (Firebase). Accounts, sign-in, and the records above.
- Cloudflare. Runs the app's server and stores receipt files.
- Resend. Sends the app's email.
- Anthropic. Reads receipt photos so the amounts fill in by themselves, and answers questions in the in-app assistant. The receipt image and your question are sent for that purpose.
- Intuit (QuickBooks). Receives submitted receipts and their details, because that is where the society's books are kept.
- D4H. Our team management system, the source of membership details.
These companies store information on servers that may be outside Canada, including in the United States, where it may be subject to the laws of those countries.
Two things worth knowing plainly
Receipt links are public to anyone holding the link. Every uploaded receipt gets a permanent web address so it can be included in emails to the treasurer and the bookkeeper. That address is long and effectively impossible to guess, but it does not ask for a password. Anyone you forward the link to can open the receipt. Do not upload a document containing personal information that does not belong on the receipt.
The app works offline and keeps a copy on your device. Pages and some of your own information are stored in your browser so the guide still works without signal in the field. If you use a shared device, sign out when you are finished.
How long we keep it
Expense records and receipts are financial records of the society and are kept as long as the society is required to keep its books. Operational records are kept as long as they are useful for training, maintenance history and incident review. Your account lasts as long as your membership; when you leave, it is closed, and records you created as part of ASAR business remain part of the society's records.
Your information is yours
You can ask what we hold about you, ask for a correction if something is wrong, and ask questions about how it is handled. Write to nick@arrowsmithsar.ca and we will answer.
Some things cannot simply be deleted on request: a submitted expense is a financial record of the society, and the edit history behind it exists so that money can be accounted for. If you want something removed, ask and we will tell you plainly what can and cannot be done and why.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, the date at the top changes and members are told. Small wording fixes are just made.