Privacy Policy

Who we are

The personal data controller is the Czech Astronomical Society, Fričova 298, 251 65 Ondřejov, ID No. 00444537, an association registered at the Municipal Court in Prague under file no. L 1164. The Variable Star and Exoplanet Section (SPHE CAS) is its organizational unit without its own legal personality.

We are a voluntary association of astronomers. We do not sell goods or services, we do not provide your data to anyone for a fee, and we do not use it for advertising. We only process what we need to operate the website, the ROST telescope, and to organize events. You can write to us at sphecas@gmail.com; general CAS policies can be found in the Personal Data Processing Policy and Personal Data of CAS Members.

What we process

ROST telescope account and reservations. Name, email, login credentials, and reservation records — so that you can reserve observation time and we can coordinate operations (Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) of the GDPR). We will delete the account upon your request; we retain reservation history for three years.

ROST observation log. Records, including the author’s name, are public — authorship is part of the scientific value of the observation (legitimate interest). The log is a permanent archive of the section; you may object to the publication of your name, and we will anonymize the record.

Emails. We retain these as long as necessary for processing, for a maximum of three years (legitimate interest).

Event registrations. These take place via Google Forms, are used exclusively for event organization, and are deleted one year after the event; accounting documents are archived according to the law.

Names on the website. We publish the names of executive committee members, award laureates, authors of publications and observations, and names in photos from events (legitimate interest). If you do not wish for this, please write to us and we will comply.

Cookies

We use only strictly necessary cookies for login, reservations, and form security. We do not measure traffic and do not use advertising cookies. The server stores technical access logs, including IP addresses, for website security for a maximum of six months. Details are in the Cookie Policy.

Who has access to the data

In addition to authorized officials of the section and the CAS, data is processed for us by mravenci na online s.r.o. (ID No. 06094953, Na Jíkalce 2906/19a, 301 00 Plzeň) as the website administrator and Google Ireland Limited (email inbox, registration forms, embedded maps and videos, fonts). We do not provide data to anyone else unless required by law.

The website is hosted in the European Union. Google services may also process data on servers in the United States; Google is listed under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, which the European Commission recognizes as providing an adequate level of protection.

The CAS membership records and the VarAstro observation database run separately — our section’s own system with a separate login and its own privacy policy. The Czech Astronomical Society is the controller there as well.

Your rights

You have the right to know what data we process about you and to obtain a copy; to have it corrected, supplemented, or deleted; to request restriction of processing; to obtain it in a machine-readable format; to withdraw consent; and to object to processing based on legitimate interest, including the publication of your name.

Simply write to sphecas@gmail.com, and we will respond within one month. You can file a complaint with the Office for Personal Data Protection, Pplk. Sochora 27, 170 00 Prague 7, www.uoou.cz.

We may update the policy if the way the website functions changes. Effective as of August 14, 2026.