[box]
We at the Coalition for Smarter Growth want this site to be a safe and private place for users. We will do our part by not requiring you to register or provide any information at all to use most sections and features of this website. In turn, please read this policy and take the steps outlined below.
There are certain actions and areas of the site that will require you to provide personal information, such as:
- becoming a member of our supporter network
- RSVPing for an event
- signing a petition sponsored by us or using our templates to contact elected officials
- sending an email question
- making a donation.
Any time you provide personal information, this privacy policy will govern our use of the information you have provided.
By submitting personal information to us, you agree that we may use the information in accordance with this privacy policy. We will update this privacy policy as we deem necessary.
Personal Information You Choose to Provide
In order to gain access to certain areas of our site or to use certain features, you may choose to provide personal information. If you do submit information to us, we will use that information for the purposes for which it was submitted. We may also use your information in other ways, such as to contact you about other Coalition for Smarter Growth activities and/or fundraising campaigns or as otherwise disclosed to you at the point of collection, and we may share your information with other organizations.
For example:
- If you register for one of our events or make an online donation to us, your information will be added to one or more of our supporter lists and databases, and you may be contacted about other Coalition for Smarter Growth activities, news, and/or fundraising campaigns.
- If you join or opt-in to our activist network, you will receive informational updates and action alerts about smart growth-related issues. Our activist network is an electronic network, and therefore we need an email address to contact you. We also need your full postal address or “where I live” field designation, in order for our systems to match you to the correct local jurisdiction(s), thereby ensuring that you are primarily sending messages to your designated elected officials.
You should be aware that we use a third-party vendor called Salsalabs to provide services on this site and in our offline business operations. The information that you submit on this site may be provided to Salsalabs on a confidential basis so that they can provide services (such as maintaining our databases, sending email messages to activists or supporters, facilitating our fundraising activities and campaigns, or processing credit card transactions) on our behalf.
Other than as described in this privacy policy, or as may be necessary to protect the rights, property, and safety of our organization, our clients, or others, or as may be necessary to comply with applicable law, we will not give or sell the personal information you provide online. We also reserve the right to share personal information you provide with legal authorities if it is, in our sole opinion, necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected fraud, situations involving threats or potential harm, or if required by law (such as by a subpoena, court order, or other legal means).
Financial Information You Choose to Provide
If you choose to make an online donation, you will have to provide your credit card billing information. As this information is collected and transferred over the Internet to a secure server, it is encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, the industry standard security technology that is designed to protect sensitive information. If you are making a donation, the credit card information that you provide at the time of donation is used only to process your donation and will not be used for any other purposes.
Security
Information submitted via the Internet, including through a web page or e-mail is subject to interception or incorrect routing, and the Internet is not a fully secure communications channel. Please consider this prior to submitting any information to us via this web site.
While we follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
When you register with or donate to us, or become a member of our supporter community through this website, you will have a personal subscription management page, where you will be able to edit your personal information, as well as review your messaging, advocacy, and/or donation records. Access to your personal subscription management page is controlled to protect the privacy of your data — our website requires that you log on with your e-mail address and personal password (contact us to set or retrieve your password) to access your personal subscription management page.
Remember, breaches of security also can occur when users are not vigilant in protecting their own information. The next section of our privacy policy suggests some actions you can take to help control the security of your personal information.
We Need Your Help
Although we do our best to protect your privacy on our sites, we need your help.
You have control over your own privacy. Think carefully before providing any personal or financial information online.
Although this site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information you have provided, no e-mail or Web transmission is completely secure against interception. If you are worried because your communication is very sensitive, do not send it electronically.
Remember that we cannot protect your privacy once you leave our site, such as by hyperlink. So when you visit other websites, check each one’s privacy policy yourself, and be careful about the information you submit or share.
You should be aware that in some areas of our online content, we utilize personalization measures designed to make your experience more enjoyable (i.e., personalized links in email that allow data fields to be pre-populated with certain personal information). We need your help to protect the information embedded in these links. You should always keep your email account information secure and not allow others to access your email account.
How to Unsubscribe or Contact Us About Your Information
If you do not want to receive any email from us in the future, please contact our staff (see below) or use this unsubscribe link. Our email blasts always include an “unsubcribe” link in the footer of the message; you may also use that link to unsubscribe at any time.
If you wish to review the contact information we have on file for you, correct your contact information or provide a change of address, or inform us how you wish your contact information to be used, please contact our staff (see below).
You may contact us by mail, email, or telephone, as follows:
Mail:
Coalition for Smarter Growth
316 F Street NE Suite 200
Washington, D.C. 20002
Email: action@smartergrowth.net
Phone: 202.675.0016
Policy Last Updated: February 1. 2013.
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes here, so that you are continually aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify our privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently.
[/box]