Technology

How is my data secured?

For obvious reasons, we will not provide full details of our data security approaches. However, we can provide an overview for those who may have a technical interest in our backend.

All data is stored in a Microsoft Azure SQL database with IP restricted access. This means that database access is only available to users coming from known and approved IP addresses which provides a very high level of security on top of the existing security architecture that comes “out of the box” with Azure and SQL Server.

Our public APIs (the connections from the app to the backend services) are all protected using TLS 1.2 or greater at the transport level and the calls to our backend are further protected by an application level security token that is unique to each transaction. Although this does not guarantee that the system cannot be hacked, it does make it highly tamper resistent.

There are other security measures in place, and we feel that the value of the data stored within our system is worth less than the effort it would require to extract that data, which is a primary goal of information security systems.

What do you do with my data?

We are very concerned about privacy and security, especially considering how irresponsible many companies have been with the sensitive data of their users. Our philosophy is to collect only the data that we absolutely need in order to provide benefits to users of Harrier Central.

In terms of personal information, all we collect is your first and last name, email address and Hash name. We also use your current location (if you authorize the app to do so) in order to show you runs that are in your vicinity and also to set app preferences (e.g. should we show you distances in miles or kilometers). Finally, we also capture parametric data on your mobile device and web browser (e.g. which OS your are running, what type of phone you have) only to aid us in troubleshooting / debugging.

We also collect information on your runs with Kennels that are in Harrier Central. This enables us to maintain your run counts in our secure and resilient cloud hosted database. If you’ve ever been associated with a Kennel that has maintained run count information in an Excel spreadsheet or other database only to have that information lost, you know how frustrating it can be. With Harrier Central, this is no longer a concern.

In addition to the information we collect to provide you with features and benefits, we also collect information specifically to help mismanagement manage their Hash Kennels. This can include keeping track of who has paid, how much was paid, and how they paid (e.g. cash, bank transfer, PayPal, etc.). While we may store some banking information associated with Kennels in order to support easy mobile payments, we do not store any banking information related to individual Hashers.

All information we collect is maintained within our “walled garden” and is not shared with any third party.

If you have any specific questions about our information management practices, please reach out to us using our contact form or at connect@harriercentral.com

Where is my data stored?

The entire Harrier Central technology stack is built within the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Although this is a more expensive option than many other cloud providers or a privately hosted server, we have selected Azure for its security, ease of administration, ability to scale globally and broad range of built-in functions.

Currently our main database is hosted in the Northern Europe data center located in Ireland with a redundant backup held in the Western Europe data center located in Amsterdam. As our user base expands, we plan geo-replicate this database to Azure data centers located in the United States, Hong Kong, China and Australia. This will further ensure redundancy and improve performance for our global user base.

 

General

How much does the app cost?

Harrier Central is free for individual Hashers for all of the basic functions and it always will be. You can locate Hash Kennels and specific runs anywhere in the world, RSVP for runs, and keep track of your run and haring counts. You can even download a spreadsheet with full details of all the runs you’ve done with individual sheets containing run specifics for each Kennel you’ve run with.

With this in mind, we would like to point out that we have invested a significant amount of time, energy and our own money in launching Harrier Central and we have ongoing costs to host Harrier Central in Microsoft’s highly secure and global cloud platform. We are committed to the highest levels of security and privacy for our users. As such we will never connect Harrier Central to third party advertising platforms (whenever you see ads in your other apps, it is highly likely that some of your personal information is being shared with third parties). Thus, to ensure that we do not lose money on Harrier Central, we have to charge Kennels through in-app purchases for advanced features such as tracking Hash Cash, managing email distribution, promoting Haberdashery, and more.

We want the Hash community to know that we are not offering Harrier Central to make a profit off of the Hash. We aim only to cover our costs.

What is Harrier Central?

Harrier Central is an app designed specifically to meet the unique needs of Hashers and Hash Kennels worldwide. If you are a Hasher you probably know that our “tribe” is quite different than other sporting groups and as such we have unique needs to manage our Hash lives. Our app makes it easy to find runs anywhere in the world without having to join individual Facebook groups or hunt for websites.

For Kennels we offer a variety of Hash-specific administrative tools such as making it easy for Hares to volunteer, highlighting milestone run counts, managing email distribution (including for visitors), processing Hash cash, allowing Hares to upload receipts for their expenses, financial break-even analysis by run, and more.

For all users

How to search for Hash runs

Please keep in mind that the search function can only find Kennels that have requested to be added to our database. Make sure your Kennel joins Harrier Central today!

If the runs display is not showing you runs for a particular Kennel or area of the world, you can use Harrier Central’s advanced run search feature. To access this, simply pull down slightly on the runs display to reveal the search box. Here you can type any of the following items in the search box to find runs:

  • Continent name (e.g. Europe, Asia, North America, etc.)
  • Country, region / state, or city name
  • Street name
  • Post code / zip code (if one has been provided)
  • Run name
  • Run number
  • Kennel short name (e.g. AH3)
  • Kennel full name (e.g. Amsterdam Hash House Harriers)
  • Any words in the run description
  • Name of any of the hares
  • If the run is an event (enter “is event” in the search box)
  • The geographic scope of the event (enter “is local”,”is regional”,”is nash hash” or “is national”, “is interhash” or “is continental”, “is global” or “is world interhash”
  • By time period as described below
    • runs on a specific day of any week (e.g. “Sunday”)
    • runs on a specific day in the next week (e.g. “this Wednesday”)
    • using the keywords, “today” or tomorrow
    • using year or month name (e.g. “is 2021”, or “is August”)
    • using the time of the run (e.g. “2:45” or “14:45”)

Normally, the search looks through runs that are already displayed on your run list. If, however, you wanted to see what runs were coming up in Africa in the next few weeks, you could type Africa in the search box and click on the “Search all runs” box which will expand the scope to search for all runs currently in the system.

Currently the systems does not support complex queries (e.g. “in Europe next Thursday”) but we may add this feature in the future.

 

 

How to see Hash runs

Please keep in mind that Harrier Central can only display information from Kennels that have requested to be added to our database. Make sure your Kennel joins Harrier Central today!

To find Hash runs simply open the app. You will see a list all future runs for any Kennels that you are following and for Kennels that are within 50 miles or 50 kilometers from your current location (you can change this default distance in your personal profile if you wish).

The runs display is designed to make it very easy to find runs, especially when you are traveling. Each time you open the app, it receives run information from Kennels from around the world. If you are traveling and do not have an internet connection, you should still see runs for the local area when you arrive at your destination provided that your phone has accurate location information. If you choose to follow a Kennel, you will always see runs from that Kennel irrespective of your physical location.