Privacy Policy
At the Commonweal Institute, we respect your right to privacy and we understand that visitors to http://www.commonwealinstitute.org (“Site”) need to control the uses of their personal information. We allow individuals to sign up for newsletters, e-mail updates, and event announcements on our Site and to donate to the Institute if they choose to do so. The privacy policy below describes the measures taken by us to protect your privacy in connection with your use of our Site.
WHAT PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT, AND WHEN DO WE COLLECT IT?
Registration
When you register to receive newsletters, e-mails, RSS feeds or event announcements, we ask for your e-mail address and name. You may include such other optional information as your organization name, your address, your telephone numbers, your age, your gender and your political activities and views.
Donations
We also use a form for those users who wish to give a donation to the Institute. These forms are operated by third parties who accept and process credit card payments to complete the donation transaction (currently Groundspring and PayPal). On this form, these third parties may collect, depending on the form, your contact information (e.g., your e-mail address, mailing address and/or telephone number) and necessary financial information (i.e., your credit card number). These third parties do not currently provide us with any financial information about you. They do provide us with your contact information, which may be used to process a donation and to provide us with a means to get in touch with you.
IP Address
An Internet Protocol (“IP”) address is a unique string of numbers that is assigned to your computer by your Internet Service Provider. Web servers automatically identify your computer by its IP address. We will use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our Site. Your IP address also may be used to gather broad demographic information.
Cookies
A “cookie” is a small data file that can be placed on your hard drive when you visit certain websites. We use cookies to collect, store and sometimes track information for statistical purposes to improve the services we provide. If you are a registered user, we will use a cookie to save your settings and to provide customizable and personalized services. These cookies do not enable third parties to access any of your personally identifiable information. Additionally, be aware that if you visit other websites you may be required to accept cookies. Advertisers and partners may also use their own cookies. We do not control use of these cookies and expressly disclaim responsibility for information collected through them.
Usage Data
We will collect statistical data about website usage, including the pages our guests visit, the amount of time they spend on each page, and the addresses from which they reach our site. This information does not identify you as an individual or allow us to track your personal usage of the site.
If you register with our Site, from time to time, we may send you e-mail messages informing you of news and events we believe may be of interest to you. Our newsletters (see below) may contain code that enables our database to track your usage of the newsletters, including whether the e-mail was opened and/or what links (if any) were clicked. We may combine such information with other information we have about you and may use this information to improve your experience with our Site and/or provide customized e-mail communications to you.
WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION?
We will not share your personally identifiable information with third parties (aside from entities that perform services for us, such as processing credit card payments, that either are bound to comply with our privacy policy or have privacy policies that protect your information) unless you have “opted-in” to such sharing.
However, we may disclose information you provide if required to do so by law or if we have a good faith belief that disclosure is necessary to (1) comply with the law or with legal process served on us; (2) protect and defend our rights or property; or (3) act in an emergency to protect someone’s safety.
We may gather demographic information from you (for example, your age, education level or household income) and statistical usage data from time to time. We will not share such information with any other person or entity in a manner that identifies you as an individual, unless we let you know that at the time of collection or we have your permission. When we share demographic information with third parties, we will give them aggregate information only.
WHAT ARE YOUR OPTIONS TO CONTROL THE USE OF YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION?
Although most users of our Site tell us they value receiving our newsletters, special promotions and information regarding service provided by others, we recognize the importance of providing you with choice and control. If you would rather not receive emails about events or other noteworthy news, please e-mail us at info@commonwealinstitute.org. You may also contact us by postal mail at Commonweal Institute, Inc., Attention: Opt-out, 397 Cortland Avenue, Suite 10, San Francisco, CA 94110.
HOW CAN I UPDATE MY PROFILE?
You can help us maintain the accuracy of your profile by notifying us when you change your address, title, phone number or e-mail address. If at any time you wish to update your information or stop receiving communication from us, you can reach us by e-mail, telephone and postal mail at the addresses set forth below. Please include your current contact information so that we can make the appropriate corrections.
WHAT ABOUT KIDS’ PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION?
Our Site is not directed to children under the age of 13. We assume products purchased through credit card means are purchased by adults or minors supervised by a parent or guardian. We respect the privacy of parents and children and are committed to complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). On those areas of our Site that ask for age, we do not collect personal information from individuals who identify themselves as under the age of 13 except in those limited circumstances where we believe that such collection is permitted under COPPA.
We may ask prospective users to provide their age during the registration process and on other areas of our Site. If a user indicates that he or she is under the age of 13 then all personal data collected during the registration process is automatically deleted except that we may retain and use limited information, such as the child’s email address, for a limited period of time, in those cases where we believe that the collection and use of such information is permitted under COPPA.
If a parent believes that his or her child has provided us with personal information, he or she can contact us via e-mail or postal mail as listed below. We will promptly delete the information upon learning that it relates to a child under the age of 13.
We believe that parents should supervise their children’s online activities and consider using parental control tools available from online services and software manufacturers that help provide a kid-friendly online environment. These tools can also prevent children from otherwise disclosing online their name, address and other personal information without parental permission.
WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY?
Security
We have security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Our data is stored in secure databases maintained by third party partners. Although we will exercise reasonable care in providing secure transmission of information between your computer and our servers, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information transmitted to us over the Internet and we accept no liability for any unintentional disclosure.
Links to Other Sites
Our Site contains hyperlinks and pointers to Internet sites maintained by third parties. These links are provided for your reference only. We do not control, operate or endorse in any respect information, products or services on such third-party sites and are not responsible for their content. Many third-party sites have their own privacy policies that differ from ours. This privacy policy only covers our Site and does not cover any other site. While we make every effort to keep your information secure, we do not control the policies of other sites.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We may make changes in our privacy policy from time to time. When we do so, we will post the revised privacy policy on our Site with a link at the bottom of our home page. Our home page will also contain a statement notifying readers that the policy has changed and the effective date of that change.
CONTACTING THE COMMONWEAL INSTITUTE
We would like to receive your comments and questions about this Privacy Policy and any other matter you have regarding our Site. Please address comments or questions to us via e-mail or postal mail.
You can e-mail us at: info (AT) commonwealinstitute (DOT) org
You may also contact us by mail at:
Commonweal Institute, Inc.
150 Erica Way
Portola Valley, CA 94028
ACCEPTANCE OF PRIVACY POLICY
Your use of our Site, including any dispute concerning privacy, is subject to this Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the changes on this page. Please check the revision date at the bottom of this page to determine if the policy has been modified since you last reviewed it. Your continued use of any portion of our Site following posting of the updated Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of the changes.
EFFECTIVE DATE
This privacy policy was last revised on June 16, 2009.
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