Privacy
Short version: we collect what you type into the form, we keep it in one database, we do not sell it, and you can ask us to take it out.
The form comes in two versions. The Quick Awareness Survey asks only a few questions, and your name, phone and email are optional. The Detailed Producer Experience asks for your name and phone. Between them, we collect only what the form asks for:
When the form is submitted, the server also records:
We use what you send to build a national record of how USDA livestock and drought programs treated ranchers, and, if you said we may, to contact you about your submission.
Friends of RGS may publish or share aggregated or de-identified statistics developed from producer submissions, for example how many ranchers in a state said no one told them a program existed. Those findings may be presented to the public and to public officials. We will not publish your name, contact information or directly quote your individual account without obtaining separate permission from you.
Friends of RGS, LLC runs this site and is responsible for what you send. For privacy questions, removal requests, corrections or anything else about the project, email [email protected].
Friends of RGS, LLC, which runs this project, and its legal counsel. No one else, except the two service providers described below, which run the machinery the site sits on.
We do not sell your information, rent it, trade it or hand it to a mailing list. We do not give your individual submission to USDA or any government office; what officials may see is the aggregated or de-identified statistics described above. Apart from our own legal counsel, we do not pass it to any law firm without asking you first and getting your say-so.
Two companies handle the information because they run the machinery underneath the site. They handle it under their own terms and privacy policies:
If you email us, Cloudflare forwards your message to the Friends of RGS inbox, where it is kept with the project's other correspondence.
What you send travels to us over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection and is stored in one database on Cloudflare's database service, set up so that it runs and stores data only in the United States. Copies can also exist in that service's automatic backups, in spreadsheet exports the people named above use to follow up with you, and, for your email address, in our email provider's sending records.
Two more services touch every visit, not just the form: the page loads its typefaces from Google Fonts, which receives your browser's internet address when the page loads (Google privacy policy), and Cloudflare receives your internet address to run the human check.
If a court or a government agency demands the information with a subpoena or an order, we have to respond. We cannot promise otherwise. We keep what we collect small for that reason.
We keep what you send for three years from the date you send it. After that we delete it, unless the legal hold described below applies.
Email [email protected] and say "Remove my information." Include the name, phone number or email address you gave us so we can find your submission. You do not have to give a reason. We will delete it from our database and from any exports we hold, and confirm by email when it is done. Automatic database backups expire on their own within 30 days.
You can also ask us what we hold about you, or ask us to correct it, at the same address.
If you sent the quick survey without a name, phone number or email, nothing in it ties the answers to you, so we cannot find them to remove.
There is one exception, and we would rather say it plainly than bury it.
If the information is subject to a legal hold, we have to keep it. A legal hold means that a legal claim, a hearing or a court case is underway or reasonably expected, and the law requires anyone who holds related records to preserve them. In that situation deleting records is not ours to choose. If you ask for removal and a hold applies to what you sent, we will tell you that, we will stop using the information to contact you, and we will delete it once the hold lifts.
The only visit counting this site uses, if any, is Cloudflare Web Analytics. Cloudflare states that it does not use cookies, does not fingerprint your browser and does not follow you to other websites. There are no other analytics on this site.
The form uses Cloudflare Turnstile to tell a person from an automated script. It replaces the picture puzzles other sites use. Cloudflare states that Turnstile is not used to track you across websites.
This site is for adult agricultural producers. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
If we change how any of this works, we will change this page and date the change here. Last changed: October 10, 2026.
Email [email protected]. A person reads it.
Sending the form does not file an appeal, protect any right, or extend any deadline. If you have a USDA decision letter, read the appeal section of it today. See Your Appeal Rights.