Last Updated: July 11, 2024
SEED SPOT (“SEED SPOT”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) recognizes the importance of privacy. In this Privacy Policy, we describe how we collect, use, and disclose information that we obtain about visitors to our website seedspot.org and any related subdomains (collectively, the “Site”) and users of the services available through our Site (the Site, and services available through it, are hereinafter collectively referred to as the “Services”).
By using any of our Services, you agree that your information, including personal information, will be collected, used, and disclosed as described in this Privacy Policy. Your use of our Services, and any dispute over privacy, is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including its applicable limitations on damages and the resolution of disputes.
Information We Collect
User Content
How We Use Information
How We Disclose Information
Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms
Third-Party Analytics
Do Not Track Disclosure
Interest-Based Advertising
Third-Party Collection
Security
Your Choices
Your California Privacy Rights
Children
Contact Us
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Information we collect
We collect information about you directly from you, from third parties, and automatically through your use of our Services. We may combine information the information that we collect from these various sources.
- Information We Collect Directly from You. We may collect information about you directly from you. For example, if you apply for a SEED SPOT program, we will request certain information, such as your name, email address, phone number, mailing address, link(s) to your social media pages, and information about your business; if you pay for a SEED SPOT program, we will collect your name, payment card information, and billing/shipping address. We will also collect any other information that you provide to us through our Services, such as your name, email address, and the contents of your message if you Contact us through our Site.
- We may collect information about you from third parties. For example, if you provide us with a link to any of your social media accounts, we will collect publicly available information about you from your social media page, or if one of your colleagues provides us with your name or email address in order to register you for a program, we will collect information about you from him/her.
- Information We Collect Automatically. We automatically collect information about you through your use of our Services, including, without limitation IP address, location, browser type, domain name, the website that led you to our Services, the website to which you go after leaving our Services, the dates and times you access our Services, device ID, and activities within our Services (e.g., links you click, searches you run, etc.). Please see our Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms section below for more information.
User Content
We invite you to post content on our Services, including your comments, discussions, pictures, and any other information that you would like to be available on our Services (collectively, “User Content”). If you post User Content to our Services, such User Content, along with other information, such as your first name, may be available to all users of our Services. Your User Content may become public and we cannot prevent such information from being used in a manner that may violate this Privacy Policy, the Terms of Use, the law, or your personal privacy. If you would like to remove any information that you have posted to our Services, please send us a request at connect@seedspot.com.
How We Use Information
We use the information that we collect, including personal information and User Content, for the following purposes:
- Providing and Improving Our Services. To provide and maintain our Services; to facilitate donations or payment; to improve our Services; to develop new features or services; to perform technical operations, such as updating software; and for other customer service and support purposes.
- Research and Analytics. To analyze how individuals interact with our Services; to monitor and analyze usage and activity trends; and for other research, analytical, and statistical purposes.
- Marketing and Communications. To communicate with you about your use of our Services; to send you updates; to respond to your inquiries; to provide you with news and newsletters, offers and other information we think may interest you; and for other informational, marketing, or promotional purposes. Our communications with you may include communications via email. Please see our section regarding Your Choices for more information about how to change your communications preferences.
- Protecting Rights and Interests. To protect the safety, rights, property, or security of SEED SPOT, the Services, any third party, or the general public; to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; to prevent or stop activity which SEED SPOT, in its sole discretion, may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, an illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity; to use as evidence in litigation; and to enforce this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use.
- Legal Compliance. To comply with applicable legal or regulatory obligations, including as part of a judicial proceeding; to respond to a subpoena, warrant, court order, or other legal process; or as part of an investigation or request from law enforcement or a governmental authority.
How We Disclose Information
We disclose the information that we collect, including personal information and User Content, as described to you at the time of collection or as consented to by you before disclosure, or as follows:
- Affiliates. We may disclose information to current or future affiliates or subsidiaries for research, marketing, and other purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy.
- Service Providers. We may disclose information to our vendors, service providers, agents, or others who perform functions on our behalf.
- Partners. We may disclose information to our partners (e.g., organizations with which we partner for events or programs).
- Other Unaffiliated Third Parties. We may disclose your information to third parties, including so that those third parties may send marketing information to you.
- Business Transfers. We may disclose information to another entity in connection with, including during negotiations of, an acquisition or merger, sale or transfer of a business unit or assets, bankruptcy proceeding, or as part of any other similar business transfer.
- Protecting Rights and Interests. We may disclose information to protect the safety, rights, property, or security of SEED SPOT, the Services, any third party, or the general public; to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; to prevent or stop activity which SEED SPOT, in its sole discretion, may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, an illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity; to use as evidence in litigation; and to enforce this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use.
- Legal Compliance. We may disclose information to comply with applicable legal or regulatory obligations, including as part of a judicial proceeding; in response to a subpoena, warrant, court order, or other legal process; or as part of an investigation or request from law enforcement or a government official.
- Aggregate and De-Identified Information. We may disclose aggregate, anonymous, or de- identified information for marketing, advertising, research, compliance, or other purposes.
We or our service providers use cookies and other tracking mechanisms to track information about how you use our Services. We or our service providers may combine this information with other information, including personal information, we collect about you.
Cookies. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to a computer’s hard drive through a web browser for record-keeping purposes. Some cookies allow us to make it easier for you to navigate our Services, while others are used to enable a faster log-in process or to allow us to track your activities while using our Services. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can edit your browser options to block them in the future. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers provides information about how to prevent a computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify upon receiving a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Users who disable cookies will be able to browse certain areas of the Services, but some features may not function.
Clear GIFs, pixel tags and other technologies. Clear GIFs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a computer’s hard drive, clear GIFs are embedded invisibly on web pages. We may use clear GIFs (also referred to as web beacons, web bugs or pixel tags) in connection with our Services to, among other things, track user activities, help us manage content, and compile statistics about usage of our Services. We and our service providers also use clear GIFs in HTML emails to you, to help us track email response rates, identify when our emails are viewed, and track whether our emails are forwarded.
Third Party Analytics
We may use third-party analytics companies, such as Google Analytics, to evaluate use of our Services. We or our service providers use these tools to help us understand use of, and to improve, our Services, performance, and user experiences. These entities may use cookies and other tracking technologies, such as web beacons or local storage objects (“LSOs”), to perform their services. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, you can download the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Do Not Track Disclosure
Our Services do not respond to Do Not Track signals. For more information about Do Not Track signals, please click here. You may, however, disable certain tracking as discussed in the Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms section above (e.g., by disabling cookies).
Interest-Based Advertising
We use third parties such as network advertisers to display advertisements on our Services, to assist us in displaying advertisements on third-party websites, and to evaluate the success of our advertising campaigns. You may opt-out of many third-party ad networks, including those operated by members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) and the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”). For more information regarding this practice by NAI members and DAA members, and your choices regarding having this information used by these companies, including how to opt out of third-party ad networks operated by NAI and DAA members, please visit their respective websites: www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp (NAI) and www.aboutads.info/choices (DAA).
Opting out of one or more NAI member or DAA member networks (many of which will be the same) only means that those members no longer will deliver targeted content or ads to you. It does not mean you will no longer receive any targeted content or ads on our Services or other services. You may continue to receive advertisements, for example, based on the particular website that you are viewing (i.e., contextual advertising). Also, if your browsers are configured to reject cookies when you visit an opt-out page, or you subsequently erase your cookies, use a different computer or change web browsers, your NAI or DAA opt out may no longer be effective.
Third-Party Collection
Our Services may contain links to third-party websites and applications or integrate with services provided by third parties. Any access to and use of such linked websites, applications, or third-party services is not governed by this Privacy Policy but instead is governed by the privacy policies of those third parties. We are not responsible for the information practices of such third parties, and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.
Security
We have taken steps to help protect the personal information we collect. However, no data security measures can guarantee 100% security. You should take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your devices by, among other things, choosing a robust password that nobody else knows or can easily guess and keeping your log-in and password private.
Your Choices
Updating or Deleting Personal Information. You may correct or delete the personal information that you provide to us by emailing us at connect@seedspot.org and describing your request to update or delete your personal information. Please note that we may retain certain information about you as required by law or as permitted by law for legitimate business purposes (e.g., in accordance with our record retention policies or to enforce our Terms of Use).
Opting out of Email Communications. We may send periodic promotional or informational emails to you. You may opt out of such communications by following the opt-out instructions contained in the email or contacting us at the Contact Us information below. Please note that it may take up to 10 business days for us to process opt-out requests. If you opt out of receiving marketing emails from us, we may still send you non-promotional emails (e.g., about your donations).
Your California Privacy Rights
If you are a California resident you may request from us once a year, free of charge, information about the personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request via email to connect@seedspot.org. In your request, please attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for your response.
Children
Our Services are not targeted to minors and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we discover that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will promptly delete such personal information from our systems.
Contact us
If you have questions about the privacy aspects of our Services or for further information about our data privacy policies and practices, please contact us at connect@seedspot.org.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy is current as of the Effective Date set forth above. We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, so please be sure to check back periodically. We will post any changes, including any material changes, to this Privacy Policy on our Site.