Privacy Policy

Last Modified: May 4, 2021

Please reference the FOSSnotes Interpretation and Definitions appendix for relevant context.

Overview

We understand the importance of protecting Your Personal Data and strive to adhere to this policy in an effort to ensure that data is protected. Please read this policy, along with Our Terms and Conditions, in its entirety to ensure You fully understand Our practices.

This document describes the Company’s policies and procedures on the collection, use, and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

The Company uses Personal Data to provide and improve Our Service. By using the Service, You agree to the collection and use of Your data (which may or may not include PII) in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Binding Agreement

This Privacy Policy is incorporated within Our Terms and Conditions and applies to the information We obtain about You through Your use of The Service. Please review this Privacy Policy carefully before using the Service. By using the Service, You are agreeing to the collection, sharing, security, and uses of Your information described in this Privacy Policy. If You do not agree to the full terms of this Privacy Policy, You are not permitted to use Service.

Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

When Personal Data is collected

Personal Data is collected by the Service during the following:

  • Information sent to Us via email
  • Promotional activity/survey participation
  • Financial donations
  • Situations where collecting Personal Data is reasonable and permitted by the Law

Types of Data Collected

PII is only collected when necessary for the purposes of marketing, communication, licensing, product updates, analytics, financial transactions, and legalities.

Personal Data

While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain PII that can be used to contact or identify You. PII may include, but is not limited to:

  • First name
  • Last name
  • Email address
  • Usage Data

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the Website, We collect (1) the data shown in the comments form, (2) the visitor’s IP address, and (3) browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from Your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if You are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of Your comment, Your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of Your comment.

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Transactions

We collect information about You both directly from You and indirectly from other companies that provide data to Us. We use this information to communicate with Our supporters and donors and process their transactions. We do not sell this information to other organizations.

When You use the Service for transactions (including, but not limited to, making financial contributions, event registration, volunteer sign up, or when submitting an inquiry), We may ask You for Your name, address, phone number(s), and other information relevant to that transaction. We will ask for standard credit card information when You make a financial donation or make a purchase.

The Company has vendors that assist with processing and managing donations and donor Personal Data/PII; as such, these vendors are provided access to the donor’s Personal Data/PII. Occasionally, We may share Your Personal Data/PII with Our vendors and other partners that help Us with Our activities and programs. For example, We may share information with vendors that help Us administer Our website, manage data, etc. These vendors are bound by strict confidentiality rules and are permitted to use the Personal Data/PII only to support Our operations.

Media

If You upload images to the Website, You should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the Website can download and extract any location data from images on the Website.

Contact forms

When filling out the contact form on the Website, We collect (1) the data shown in the comments form, (2) the visitor’s IP address, and (3) browser user agent string to help spam detection. For customer service purposes, contact form submissions are retained for up to a year, after which they are deleted. This information is not used for marketing purposes.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on the Website may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites will behave in the same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about You, use Cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor Your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking Your interaction with the embedded content if You have an account and are logged in to that website.

Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device’s IP (Internet Protocol) address, browser type, browser version, the pages of Our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique Device identifiers, and other diagnostic data.

When You access the Service by or through a mobile Device, We may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile Device You use, Your mobile Device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile Device, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique Device identifiers, and other diagnostic data.

We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit Our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile Device.

Corrections

If You have reason to believe that the PII We hold about You is inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated, We appreciate being notified of this.

Third Party Entities

We process and access Your data through the help of third parties that have digital infrastructure that is necessary for providing products and services. These third parties have made contractual promises to not use Your Personal Data in any manner We do not authorize.

  • Website management services
  • Website design and programming services
  • Email communication manager
  • Advertisement services

Use of Your Personal Data

We may use Personal Data for the following purposes:

  • To provide and maintain Our Service, including marketing, fulfillment, product updates, and usage monitoring.
  • To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user.
  • For the performance of a contract: the development, compliance, and undertaking of the purchase contract for the products, items, or services You may have purchased or of any other contract with Us through the Service.
  • To contact You: To contact You by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application’s push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation.
  • To provide You with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which We offer that are similar to those that You have already purchased or inquired about unless You have opted not to receive such information.
  • To manage Your requests: To attend and manage Your requests to Us.

We may share Your Personal Data in the following situations:

  • With Service Providers: We may share Your Personal Data with Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of Our Service, to contact You.
  • For Business transfers: We may share or transfer Your Personal Data in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of Our business to another company.
  • With Affiliates: We may share Your information with Our affiliates, in which case We will require those affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. Affiliates may include other companies that We control or are under common control with Us (parent companies, other subsidiaries, joint venture partners, etc.).
  • With Business partners: We may share Your information with Our business partners to offer You certain products, services, or promotions.
  • With other users: when You share Personal Data – or otherwise interact in the public areas – with other users, such information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly distributed outside. If You interact with other users or register through a Third-Party Social Media Service, Your contacts on the Third-Party Social Media Service may see Your name, profile, pictures, and description of Your activity. Similarly, other users will be able to view descriptions of Your activity, communicate with You, and view Your profile.

Retention of Your Personal Data

We will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with Our legal obligations (for example, if We are required to retain Your Personal Data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce Our legal agreements and policies.

We will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when (1) used to improve security or functionality of the Service, or (2) We are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

If You leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so We can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on Our Website (if any), We also store the Personal Data they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their Personal Data at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

When Your PII is no longer required for the purposes which the Company uses PII, all reasonable steps will be taken to securely destroy that data.

Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at the Company’s operating facilities and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located. It means that this information may be transferred to – and maintained on – computers located outside of Your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from Your jurisdiction.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by Your submission of such information represents Your agreement to that transfer.

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your Personal Data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. No transfer of Your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of Your Personal Data.

Disclosure of Your Personal Data

Business Transactions

The Company may purchase other businesses or their assets or sell Our business assets. Personally Identifiable Information is commonly a business asset involved in such transactions. Please be aware, if the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, Your Personal Data or PII may be one of the transferred assets in the event the Company or all, or a portion of, its assets are acquired.

Law enforcement

Under certain circumstances, the Company may disclose Personal Data if required to do so by law, or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court or government agency), or in a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (1) conform to the mandates of the law or comply with served legal process, (2) protect and defend the Company rights or property or (3) act under exigent circumstances to protect the safety of the public or users of the Website.

Other legal requirements

The Company may disclose Your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

  • Comply with a legal obligation
  • Protect and defend the rights or property of the Company
  • Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
  • Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
  • Protect against legal liability

Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us; however, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While We strive to use commercially acceptable means that We deem appropriate and consistent with industry standards – such as firewalls and encryption technology – to protect Your Personal Data against loss, misuse, and alteration, We cannot guarantee its absolute security and make no assurances about Our ability to prevent any such loss, misuse, or alteration to You or to any third parties as a result.

Secure Communications

Unless We advise You that specific security measures are in place prior to Your sending information, communications that You may have with Us via email or U.S. Mail should generally not be considered secure. Therefore, if You choose to communicate with Us through these means, You assume the associated risks and We request that You do not send or post sensitive information via these means.

What rights you have over your data

If You have an Account, or have left comments, on the Website, You can request to receive an exported file of the Personal Data We hold about You, including any data You have provided to Us. You can also request that We erase any Personal Data We hold about You. This does not include any data We are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Although We have certain rights to limit Your control of data, We do believe it is Your data; so, whenever possible, Our Service will liberally comply with Your requests. We do not monetize data mining of Personal Data. To exercise any of these rights, please contact Us.

California Eraser Law

If You are a resident of California under the age of 18 and have provided Personal Data or content to Us in some manner, You have the right to request the deletion of that information pursuant to the “California Eraser Law.” Contact Us to make such a request.

Children’s Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13. Consistent with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), We do not knowingly collect PII from anyone under the age of 13. If You are a parent or guardian and You are aware that Your child has provided Us with Personal Data, please contact Us. If We become aware that We have collected Personal Data from anyone under the age of 13 without verification of parental consent, We take steps to remove that information from Our records.

If We need to rely on consent as a legal basis for processing Your information and Your country requires consent from a parent, We may require parental consent before We collect and use that information.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third party link, You will be directed to that third party’s website. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party sites or services.

Modifications

The Company reserves the right to modify the contents of this page and its policy at any time and for any reason. You are advised to review this policy periodically for any changes.