Privacy & research

Last updated: September 21, 2026 · Ohio Valley Grazing Exchange

1. What we collect

Account: email, display name, password (stored by our auth provider, not in plain text), optional partner-organization affiliation.
Profile: home state/county, alliance, land/livestock roles, membership and certification marks, optional photos and logo URLs, directory crop tags.
Listings: forage or herd details, seasons, acreage/head, fencing, water, rates notes, town, map pin, and contact name/email/phone you choose to publish to members.
Activity: forum posts, graze confirmations, education suggestions, and technical logs needed to keep the service secure.
FarmTec (optional): research snapshot fields described below — only if you fill them in.

2. How listing privacy works

Guests (not signed in) see a county-level view only: side, county, livestock type, seasons, and similar filters — not town, map coordinates, free-text descriptions, rates, or contact details. Signed-in members can see full listing details so matches can happen. Printable 8.5×11 posters include contact so bulletin-board copies work for people who never log in.

3. Who operates the service

The Exchange is currently operated by Vysion Technology Solutions in collaboration with the people and organizations building it. Hosting, domain, and stewardship may later sit with a partner such as OEFFA, Extension, or a joint arrangement. If operators change, this notice will be updated. Technical infrastructure may use managed hosting and database providers under contracts that restrict use of your data to running the Exchange.

4. FarmTec research snapshot

FarmTec fields live on your account page. They are optional, not shown on your public profile, and aimed at understanding land use, livestock integration, and fossil-fuel pressures — themes from the Stinner Summit and related Extension work.

Questions you may answer

Total acres managed
Land-use mix (%): row crops, cover crops, grass/pasture/hay, other
% of pastures/fields on livestock (manual) grazing
Livestock integration goal: Already at (or near) 100% livestock integration; Working toward 100% livestock integration; Partial integration — not aiming for 100% right now; Not pursuing livestock integration; Not applicable to this operation
Field operations mix (%): fossil fuel, electric, PTO/tractor
Where fossil-linked costs hit hardest: Diesel / gasoline for tractors and implements; Synthetic nitrogen and other fertilizer; Plastics (mulch, twine, wrap, irrigation); Propane / heat / grain drying; Transport and hauling; Purchased feed; Other fossil-linked inputs
Practices already cutting fossil reliance: Managed / rotational livestock grazing; Cover crops in the rotation; Reduced or no-till; On-farm energy (solar, biofuels, etc.); Shorter / local supply chains; Electric or battery implements; Animal power or hand labor for some tasks; Other fossil-fuel reduction practices
Optional notes for researchers (free text)

Consent

Nothing enters a research rollup unless you check “Share anonymized answers for research”. You may clear consent or blank fields later by editing your account. Notes and individual farm identity are not published on the member directory.

Who may use research data

With your consent, hosts may compute anonymized aggregates (averages and counts across consented members). Those aggregates — and, where a separate research agreement is in place, carefully de-identified extracts — may be used by or shared with participating research and agricultural partners, including for example:

University Extension and research programs in the Valley (Ohio State / Wooster and AMP, Penn State, University of Kentucky, West Virginia University, and similar land-grant partners)
Nonprofit and farmer organizations on the Exchange (e.g. OEFFA, Stratford Ecological Center, National Farmers Union)
Federal and grant-linked programs aligned with the same themes (e.g. USDA agencies, SARE)
Stinner Summit / Agroecosystem Management Program collaborators working on fossil-fuel reduction and livestock reintegration

Research partners receive data to design education, measure regional patterns, and improve tools that help farms cut fossil-fuel dependence — not to market to you individually from FarmTec answers. We do not sell FarmTec data. Individual names, emails, phones, and exact farm locations are not part of the anonymized rollup.

The question set can expand later (new optional fields) if partners need better metrics; material additions will be reflected here and on the account form.

5. Cookies and sessions

We use session cookies so you stay logged in, plus a small preference cookie for the home intro. We do not run third-party advertising trackers on the Exchange.

6. Your choices

Edit or delete listings you own
Update profile and FarmTec fields / withdraw research consent
Change your password from Account
Request account closure by emailing andrew@vysiontech.com

7. Security

Access to private data is enforced with authenticated sessions and database-level row security. Guests cannot read member profiles, forum boards, or listing contacts. Integration APIs stay locked until a separate access key is configured. No method is perfect; report suspected issues to the contact below.