Tech Matters Privacy Policy

Contents of Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy and Our Better Deal for Data Commitments
Personal Data We Collect
How We Use Personal Data
When We Disclose Personal Data
Your Privacy Choices and Rights
International Transfers of Personal Data
Supplemental Notice for EU/UK GDPR
Children’s Personal Data
Third-Party Websites/Applications
Contact Us

THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND OUR BETTER DEAL FOR DATA COMMITMENTS

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time in our sole discretion. If we do, we’ll let you know by posting the updated Privacy Policy on our website and we may also send other communications.

We provide this Privacy Policy to inform you how your personal data will be collected, used, and shared in a direct, clear, and easy to understand format. We are committed to responsible personal data collection, use, and disclosure without exploiting you or other data subjects. We are working as part of a community movement, the Better Deal for Data, towards reasonable and enforceable commitments to responsible personal data use compatible across organizations and jurisdictions. If you need assistance in understanding any of the terms provided or feel as though our terms do not align with our stated values, please contact us as set forth in “Contact Us” below. We would love to get your feedback.

We make the following commitments to you – all of the individuals or organizations whose personal data we touch – about your personal data we collect, analyze, store, and/or share:

1. We are using your personal data to benefit you, your community, humanity, and the planet; not for private gain or profit.
2. We don’t claim ownership of your personal data: it remains subject to your control.
3. We will delete your personal data, correct it, or transfer it somewhere else upon your written request.
4. We will not monetize your personal data by providing it to third parties for compensation.
5. You can decide if you want to make your personal data open or want to monetize it for your benefit.
6. We will protect and steward your personal data and comply with applicable privacy laws; however, if you act as a “data controller” for personal data of others, you may have privacy obligations to these data subjects, as well.
7. If you allow Tech Matters to include your personal data to perform research, we will follow best practices around the anonymization of personal data, and published research results will be made available to you for free.
8. We will be bound by legal agreements implementing these commitments and anyone we share your personal data with will be similarly bound.

PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT

We collect personal data you provide to us, personal data we collect automatically when you use the Services, and personal data from third-party sources, as described below. We are not collecting your personal data to be intrusive but rather to provide you with the Services and to improve them for others and to focus on important social issues by sharing data with researchers and policy makers appropriately to advance our understanding of these issues. Your personal data is being used to benefit you, your community, humanity, and the planet; not for private gain or profit.

A. Personal Data You Provide to Us Directly

We may collect personal data you provide to us. We collect personal data in order to provide you with the requested Services. If you do not provide the personal data requested, we may not be able to provide you the Services. If you disclose personal data relating to other people to us or to our service providers, you represent you have the authority to do so and permit us to use the provided personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

• Account Information. We may collect personal data in connection with the creation or administration of your account. This personal data may include, but is not limited to, your name, title, email address, phone number, postal address, organization, country of residence, data you provide when responding to one of our surveys, and other information you store with your account, such as username, password, preferred language, area(s) of interest, current or future roles of interest.
• Purchases. We may collect personal data and details associated with your purchases, including payment information. Any payments or donations made via our Services are processed by third-party payment processors. We do not directly collect or store any payment card information entered through our Services, but we may receive information associated with your payment card information (e.g., your billing details).
• Through the Services. We collect personal data through the Services — for example, when you register for an account, sign up for a newsletter, complete a survey, subscribe to receive specific updates, submit a partnership request, make a donation, make a post on one of our forums or blogs, or contact us for assistance with the Services.
• Your Communications with Us. We, and our service providers, may collect the information you communicate to us, such as through email or a web chat tool.
• From Other Sources. We receive personal data from other sources, such as publicly available databases or providers of demographic information. If you connect your third-party (such as your Google, Apple or Microsoft) account to your Services account, you will share certain personal data from your third-party account with us — for example, your name, email address, photo, and any other information that may be, or you make, accessible to us when you connect your third-party account to your Services account.
• Surveys. We may contact you to participate in surveys. If you decide to participate, we may collect personal data from you in connection with the survey.
• Conferences, Trade Shows, and Other Events. We may collect personal data from individuals when we attend or host conferences, trade shows, webinars, and other events.
• Business Development and Strategic Partnerships. We may collect personal data from individuals and third parties to assess and pursue potential collaboration opportunities.

B. Personal Data Collected Automatically

While we may collect personal data automatically when you use the Services, you are still in control.

• Device Information. We may collect personal data about your device, such as your Internet protocol (IP) address, user settings, cookie identifiers, other unique identifiers, browser or device information, Internet service provider, and location information (including, as applicable, approximate location derived from IP address and precise geo-location information).
• Usage Information. We may collect personal data about your use of the Services, such as the pages that you visit, items that you search for, the types of content you interact with, information about the links you click, the frequency and duration of your activities, and other information about how you use the Services.
• Cookie Notice (and Other Technologies). We, as well as third parties, may use cookies, pixel tags, and other technologies (“Technologies”) to automatically collect personal data through your use of the Services.
• Cookies. Cookies are small text files stored in device browsers.
• Pixel Tags/Web Beacons. A pixel tag (also known as a web beacon) is a piece of code embedded in the Services that collects personal data about use of or engagement with the Services. The use of a pixel tag allows us to record, for example, that a user has visited a particular web page or clicked on a particular page element. We may also include web beacons in e-mails to understand whether messages have been opened, acted on, or forwarded.

See “Your Privacy Choices and Rights” below to understand your choices regarding these Technologies.

C. Personal Data Collected from Third Parties

We may collect personal data about you from third parties. For example, if you access the Services using a Third-Party Service (defined below), we may collect personal data about you from that Third-Party Service that you have made available via your privacy settings. In addition, users of the Services may upload or otherwise provide personal data about others.

HOW WE USE PERSONAL DATA

We use personal data for a variety of business purposes, including to provide the Services, for administrative purposes, and to provide you with marketing materials, as described below. When using your personal data, we do so in a safe way and for your benefit.

A. Provide the Services

We use personal data to fulfill our contract with you and provide the Services, such as:

• Managing your information;
• Providing access to features and functions of the Services and fulfilling your requests; for example, to:
  • Provide Services’ functionality to you, such as, providing access to your registered account and providing you with related functionalities or customer service.
  • Respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests — for example, when you send us questions, suggestions, compliments, or complaints, or when you request other information about our Services.
  • Send administrative information to you, such as changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
• Providing you with our materials and facilitating social sharing; for example, to:
  • Send you our newsletter and similar email updates.
  • Request feedback or a donation from you.
  • Facilitate social/data sharing functionalities you may choose to use.
• Accomplishing our purposes and supporting and furthering our mission; for example, for:
  • Enhancing, improving, or modifying our current products and Services.
  • Audits, to verify that our internal processes function as intended and are compliant with legal, regulatory, or contractual requirements.
  • Fraud and security monitoring purposes — for example, to detect and prevent cyberattacks including attempts to commit identity theft.
  • Developing new products and Services.
  • Identifying usage trends — for example, understanding which parts of our Services are of most interest to users.
  • Determining the effectiveness of our promotional efforts and fundraising campaigns so we may adapt our programs to the needs and interests of our users.
• Answering requests for support;
• Communicating with you;
• Sharing personal data with third parties we engage to provide the Services (as discussed in more detail below);
• Carrying out activities required to comply with our legal obligations; and
• Allowing you to register for events.

We may aggregate and/or anonymize personal data so it will no longer be considered personal data. We do so to generate data (no longer identifying you or any other individual) that we may use and disclose for purposes related to our nonprofit mission and activities.

EU/UK GDPR Lawful Bases: If the EU GDPR and/or the UK GDPR apply to our processing of personal data under this section, our lawful bases may include performance of a contract, legitimate interest, consent, and/or compliance with legal obligations.

B. Marketing

We do not sell, trade, or share personal data with third parties for their own fundraising or marketing purposes nor do we use personal data to send fundraising or marketing mailings on behalf of other organizations. We may use personal data to tailor and provide you with marketing and other content about the Services. We may provide you with these materials as permitted by applicable law.

If you have any questions or concerns about our marketing practices, you may contact us at any time as set forth in “Contact Us” below.

EU/UK GDPR Lawful Bases: If the EU GDPR and/or the UK GDPR applies to our processing of personal data under this section, our lawful bases may include legitimate interest and/or consent.

C. With Your Consent or Direction

We may use personal data for other purposes clearly disclosed to you at the time you provide personal data, with your consent, or as otherwise directed by you. Please note that information you post or disclose through these Services may become public and may be available to other users and the general public. When you connect your Services account to your third-party account (such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft), you may share information (including personal data) with your third- party account provider. By doing so, you authorize us to facilitate this sharing of information, and you understand that the use of shared information will be governed by the third-party’s privacy policy.

EU/UK GDPR Lawful Bases: If the EU GDPR and/or the UK GDPR applies to our processing of personal data under this section, our lawful bases may include performance of a contract, legitimate interest, and/or consent.

WHEN WE DISCLOSE PERSONAL DATA

We disclose personal data to third parties for a variety of purposes, including to provide the Services, to protect us or others, or in the event of a major business transaction such as a merger, sale, or asset transfer, as described below.

A. Disclosures to Provide the Services

We may disclose any of the personal data we collect to the categories of third parties described below. If you have any concerns about third parties’ data usage, please contact us as set forth in “Contact Us” below.

• Service Providers. We may disclose personal data to third-party service providers that assist us with the provision of the Services. This may include, but is not limited to, service providers that provide us with website hosting, customer service, analytics, payment processing, IT support and related infrastructure services, email delivery, auditing, and other similar services. In addition, personal data and chat communications may be disclosed to service providers that help provide our chat features.
  • Some of the service providers we may use include: Google Analytics. We sometimes use analytics tools which use cookies and other similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Services and report on activities and trends. These tools may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps, and online resources. We may use Google Analytics to perform these functions but may also use other tools. For more information about how Google uses your personal data, please visit Google Analytics’ Privacy Policy. To learn more about how to opt-out of Google Analytics’ use of your personal data, please click here.
• Other Users You Share or Interact With. Portions of the Services are intended to allow you to share information with others, for example to publish information about your work to other users or to enable information access by a particular group of users. These features of the Services make such sharing clear by their design and terminology.
• Third-Party Services You Share or Interact With. The Services may link to or allow you to interface, interact, share information with, direct us to share information with, access and/or use third-party websites, applications, services, products, and technology (each a “Third-Party Service”) such as Kobo Toolbox, and LandScale.
  • Any personal data shared with a Third-Party Service will be subject to the Third- Party Service’s privacy policy. We are not responsible for the processing of personal data by Third-Party Services.
• Business Partners. We may share your personal data (specifically, contact data) with business partners such as the Cisco Foundation, the Good Tech Fest, and the Skoll World Forum, to provide you with a product or service you have requested. We may also share your personal data with business partners with whom we jointly offer products or services.
  • Once your personal data is shared with our business partner, it will also be subject to our business partner’s privacy policy. We are not responsible for the processing of personal data by our business partners.

B. Disclosures to Protect Us or Others

We may access, preserve, and disclose any information we store associated with you to external parties if we, in good faith, believe doing so is required or appropriate to: comply with law enforcement or national security requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety; enforce our policies or contracts; collect amounts owed to us; or assist with an investigation or prosecution of suspected or actual illegal activity. Remember, you may ask us to delete this information at any time by contacting us as set forth in “Contact Us” below.

C. Disclosure in the Event of Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers

If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, purchase or sale of assets, transition of service to another provider, or other similar corporate transaction, your personal data may be disclosed, or transferred as part of such a transaction. In the event of bankruptcy or receivership and to the extent permitted by applicable law, we will use our best effort to exempt personal data from disclosure, sale, or transfer. If unsuccessful, however, and to the extent permitted by law, we will attempt to notify you and, where permitted, provide you with the opportunity to opt out of such disclosure, sale, or transfer.

Your Privacy Choices and Rights

A. Your Privacy Choices.

The privacy choices you may have about your personal data are described below.

• Email Communications. If you receive an unwanted email from us, you can use the unsubscribe functionality found at the bottom of the email to opt out of receiving future emails or by otherwise contacting us as set forth in “Contact Us” below. Note that you will continue to receive transaction-related emails. We may also send you certain non-promotional communications regarding us and the Services, and you will not be able to opt out of those communications (e.g., communications regarding the Services or updates to this Privacy Policy) except by deleting your account and requesting the deletion of your data by contacting us as set forth in “Contact Us” below.
• Text Messages. If you receive an unwanted text message from us, you may opt out of receiving future text messages from us by following the instructions in the text message you have received from us or by otherwise contacting us as set forth in “Contact Us”
• Mobile Devices. We may send you push notifications through our mobile applications. You may opt out from receiving these push notifications by changing the application settings on your mobile device. With your consent, we may also collect precise location-based information via our mobile applications. You may opt out of this collection by changing the application settings on your mobile device. To request deletion of your account, please use the standard deletion functionality available via the Services or contact us as set forth in “Contact Us”
• “Do Not Track.” Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. Please note we do not respond to or honor DNT signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers because not all browsers offer a DNT option and DNT signals are not yet uniform. For this reason, we along with many other website operators do not currently respond to DNT signals. For more information about DNT signals, visit com.
• Cookies. You may stop or restrict the placement of Technologies on your device or remove them by adjusting your preferences as your browser or device permits. However, if you adjust your preferences, you may experience some inconvenience or loss of functionality in your use of the Services. You may wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html.
  • Please note that cookie-based opt-outs are not effective on mobile applications. However, you may opt-out of certain tracking on some mobile applications by following the instructions for Android, iOS, and others.
  • Please note you must separately opt out in each browser and on each device.

B. Your Privacy Rights.

In accordance with applicable law, you may have the right to:

• Confirm Whether We Are Processing Your Personal Data;
• Request Access to or Portability of Your Personal Data;
• Request Correction of Your Personal Data;
• Request Deletion of Your Personal Data;
• Request Restriction of or Object to our Processing of Your Personal Data;
• Request to Opt-Out of Certain Processing Activities Involving Sensitive Personal Data (which we do not collect at this time); and
• Withdraw Your Consent to our Processing of Your Personal Data. Please note that your withdrawal will only take effect for future processing and will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us as set forth in “Contact Us” below. We will process such requests in accordance with applicable laws and will make reasonable efforts to do so even if no law applies.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL DATA

All personal data processed by us may be transferred, processed, and stored anywhere in the world, including, but not limited to, the United States or other countries, which may have data protection laws that are different from the laws where you live. These countries may or may not have adequate data protection laws as defined by the data protection authority in your country.

If we transfer personal data from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and/or the United Kingdom to a country that does not provide an adequate level of protection under applicable data protection laws, one of the safeguards we may use to support such transfer is the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

For more information about the safeguards we use for international transfers of your personal data, please contact us as set forth in “Contact Us” below.

SUPPLEMENTAL NOTICE FOR EU/UK GDPR

This Supplemental Notice for EU/UK GDPR only applies to our processing of personal data that is subject to the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation.

In some cases, providing personal data may be a requirement under applicable law, a contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract. If you choose not to provide personal data in cases where it is required, we will inform you of the consequences at the time of your refusal to provide the personal data.

If we process personal data that is considered a “special category of personal data”, then our processing of this personal data may be supported by one or more of the following conditions:

• Explicit Consent: You may have provided your explicit consent for our processing of your personal data.
• Necessary for Employment, Social Security, or Social Protection Law Purposes: Our processing of your personal data may be necessary for the purposes of carrying out obligations and exercising specific rights in the field of employment, social security, and/or social protection law.
• Necessary to Protect Vital Interests: Our processing of your personal data may be necessary to protect the vital interests of you if you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent.
• In Connection with a Foundation, Association or Other Nonprofit Body: Our processing of your personal data may be carried out in the course of our legitimate activities in connection with a foundation (for example, A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds), association, or other nonprofit body (such as Rainforest Alliance).
• Publicly Available Personal Information: Our processing of your personal data may relate to personal data which has been manifestly made public by you.
• Necessary for the Establishment, Exercise or Defense of Legal Claims: Our processing of your personal data may be necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
• Necessary for Substantial Public Interest: Our processing of your personal data may be necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

CHILDREN’S PERSONAL DATA

The Services are not directed to children under 13 (or other age as required by local law outside the United States), and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has uploaded personal data to the Services in violation of applicable law, please contact us as described in “Contact Us” below.

THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES/APPLICATIONS

The Services may contain links to other websites/applications and other websites/applications may reference or link to our Services. These third-party services are not controlled by us. We encourage our users to read the privacy policies of each website and application with which they interact. We do not endorse, screen, or approve, and are not responsible for, the privacy practices or content of such other websites or applications. Providing personal data to third-party websites or applications is at your own risk. If you need assistance managing the risks of sharing information with other third parties, please contact us as described in “Contact Us” below.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, or to exercise your rights as detailed in this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: [email protected].