PRIVACY AND COOKIES POLICY

Effective Date: This  Policy is effective as of Aug. 14, 2024.

This  Policy applies to all websites, online features, and other services (together "Services") that collect or process personal data and link to this Privacy and Cookies Policy ("Policy"). Thank you for choosing to be part of our community at Think of Us ("TOU", Company", "we", "us", "our"). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy.  In this privacy notice, we seek to explain to you in the clearest way possible what information we collect, how we use it and what rights you have in relation to it. We hope you take some time to read through it carefully, as it is important. By continuing to use our Services, you are consenting to this Policy. If you do not consent, do not use the Services.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
We collect certain categories of Personal Data you provide to us.
We receive certain information about you from third parties, such as third-party applications and data providers.
We use personal data to allow you to use the features in the online and/or mobile services, websites, and software provided on or in connection with our products. We also use your information to connect you with relevant resources and services.
We use cookies and other tracking technologies to personalize Services and advertising and to make our Services function better.
We may share or disclose your personal information as needed to provide our Services or with your consent or permission. We may disclose personal data with schools, our business partners or service providers in accordance with applicable law. We also share data with third parties we engage to process data on our behalf or when such sharing is required by law, or in certain other situations.
Subject to applicable laws, we transfer your personal data to the United States or other jurisdictions in which our service providers or we are located.
Subject to applicable laws and, as relevant, you may have certain rights, such as opting-out of certain kinds of processing or requesting access, rectification, deletion, or other actions regarding your personal data.
We maintain technical and organizational measures to protect personal data from loss, misuse, alteration, or unintentional destruction.
We provide other information in this Policy about: (i) the legal basis for collecting and processing personal data, (ii) the consequences for not providing personal data, (iii) automated decision-making, and (iv) data retention.
We may revise this Policy, for example, to reflect changes in the law, our personal data collection and use practices, the features of the Services, or advancements in technology. To review previous versions of this policy, click here.
Should you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact us as detailed below.

1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT FROM YOU

The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make and the products and features you use. We may collect the following categories of personally identifiable information (“Personal Data”) you provide to us when using the Services:

You are not required to provide all Personal Data identified in this Policy to use our Services or to interact with us offline, but certain functionality will not be available if you do not provide certain Personal Data. If you do not provide certain Personal Data, we may not be able to respond to your request, or provide you with marketing or information that we believe you would find valuable.

2. INFORMATION WE RECEIVE FROM THIRD PARTIES

In order to enhance our ability to provide Services to you and update our records, we may collect information directly from you, from our affiliates, partners and other third parties we work with, or from other publicly available sources, and automatically through your use of our Services. We may combine information collected from or about you from these various sources.

3. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use the categories of Personal Data outlined above, subject to applicable law, for the following purposes:

  1. To provide requested Services or information you requested
  2. When you provide us consent, where required
  3. To process and administer your account registration or your application
  4. To improve our Services and connect you with our Services in a more efficient, streamlined manner
  5. To update you on changes to our Terms or policies, or other messages related to the Services
  6. To identify usage trends, determine effectiveness of our campaigns, and evaluate our Services
  7. To process donation transactions, keep you informed about donation opportunities, and to encourage donors’ continued financial support
  8. To help ensure the security of our sites and apps
  9. To enforce compliance with the Terms of Use posted with this Policy
  10. To tailor Services to you (e.g. language, currency)
  11. As required by law or in response to request by government or law enforcement authorities.

4. COOKIES AND SIMILAR TRACKING TECHNOLOGY

Cookies, web beacons (also known as "tracking pixels") and other tracking technologies may be used by the Company to collect information about interactions with the Services, including information about your online behavior. These cookies and similar tracking technologies allow us to recognize you when you visit or interact with our Services. They perform several different functions, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving your experience. We will use the information we receive only for the purposes that are described in this Policy. Most Web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies. If you choose to remove cookies or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our Services. To opt-out of interest-based advertising by advertisers on our Services visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/.

5. HOW WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may share your Personal Data in the following circumstances:

  1. With your consent. If you provide consent for us to share your Personal Data with third parties, including for their own marketing purposes, we will share Personal Data with these third parties. You may also specifically request that we share your Personal Data with someone, which we will typically do per your request If you submit user-generated content to a site or app, this content may be disclosed publicly.
  2. Third Parties Providing Services on Our Behalf. We share data with our third party service providers and business partners, such as companies that host and operate our site and apps, send emails, and carry out data analysis.
  3. Business Reorganization. Some transactions may occur in which your Personal Data may be considered one of the assets of a transaction. In this case, your Personal Data may be transferred to a new organization to the extent permitted by law.
  4. Mandatory Disclosures and Legal Protections. We may share information with government and law enforcement authorities and with other parties involved in, or contemplating, legal proceedings to comply with a legal obligation, when we believe in good faith that the law requires it, to verify or enforce our Terms of Use or where this is necessary for us or for third parties to protect our or their rights, property, safety, or security.

6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Our Services are hosted and operated by us or our service providers in the United States and other countries. As such, your Personal Data will be transferred to and processed in the United States. Where your consent is required by applicable law, by using the Services and providing us with your Personal Data, you consent to the international transfer of your Personal Data and acknowledge that you understand that the data protection regime in the United States may not be as robust as that in your home country.

7. YOUR RIGHTS 

Where required by applicable law, you may have the right to obtain confirmation that we maintain certain Personal Data relating to you, to verify its content, origin, and accuracy, as well as the right to access, review, port, delete, or to block or withdraw consent ("opt-out") to the processing of certain Personal Data (without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal). In particular, you may ask us not to use your Personal Data when we carry out profiling for direct marketing purposes, engage in processing with the aid of automated means (if relevant), or any other processing based on your consent.

Please contact us as described in Section 11 below to submit a request to exercise your applicable rights and to contact us with general privacy-related questions.  We may request certain information for the purpose of verifying the identity of the individual seeking access to his or her Personal Data.

We will make good-faith efforts to make such requested changes in our then-active and relevant databases as soon as practicable, but it is not always possible to immediately completely change, remove or delete all your information or public postings from our databases and residual and/or cached data may remain archived thereafter. Further, we reserve the right to retain your Personal Data (a) as permitted by applicable law; (b) as required by applicable law; and (c) for so long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which the data is retained except to the extent prohibited by applicable law.  

You can opt out of receiving email newsletters or other communications by following the opt-out instructions provided to you in those communications. Please note that transactional account messages will be unaffected if you opt-out from marketing communications.

8. DATA SECURITY

We maintain comprehensive technical and organizational measures to protect Personal Data from loss, misuse, alteration, or unintentional destruction. However, no security measure can guarantee against compromise. You also have an important role in protecting your Personal Data. We are not responsible for the privacy, information, or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any offering, site, or other products and third party content used in connection with the Services. The inclusion of a link does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by us or by our affiliates.

9. OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES 

  1. Some jurisdictions require an explanation of the legal basis for the collection and processing of Personal Data. We have several different legal grounds on which we collect and process Personal Data, including: (a) as necessary to perform a transaction (such as in order to provide the products and services you requested); (b) as necessary to comply with a legal obligation (such as when we use Personal Data for record keeping); (c) consent (where you have provided consent as appropriate under applicable law); and (d) necessary for legitimate interests (such as when we act to maintain our business generally, including maintaining the safety and security of the Services).
  2. We do not use automated decision-making without the aid of human intervention and review.
  3. For Personal Data that we collect and process for other purposes described above, we typically retain such Personal Data for no longer than the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this  Policy and as otherwise needed to address tax, corporate, compliance, litigation, and other legal rights and obligations. We generally retain Personal Data related to marketing activities for the time period permitted by applicable law, and upon request, we will securely delete such data in accordance with applicable law.

10. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may update this Policy from time to time as our services and privacy practices change, or as required by law. The effective date of our Policy is posted above, and we encourage you to visit our Services periodically to stay informed about our privacy practices. We will post the updated version of the Policy on our Services, and ask for your consent to the changes in accordance with applicable law. To review previous versions of this policy, click here.

11. CONTACT US

If you have any questions or comments regarding this Policy or our privacy practices, please contact our Information Security team, by email at security@thinkofus.org, by phone at 1-202-964-3970, or by post to:

Think of Us
700 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE SE
WASHINGTON, DC 20003
United States

You may also have a right to submit a complaint to a supervisory authority for data protection in the country where you live, where you work, or where you consider that a breach of data protection has occurred.