We are committed to protecting your privacy. The policies below are applicable to Riverkeeper websites, including riverkeeper.org; all email newsletters published or distributed by Riverkeeper; and all other interactive features, services, and communications provided by Riverkeeper (“Sites”), however accessed and/or used, that are operated by us, made available by us, or produced and maintained by Riverkeeper (collectively “Riverkeeper” or “we”, “us”, or “our”). We have established this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to let you know the kinds of Personal Information we may gather during your visit to these Sites, why we gather it, what we use it for, when we might disclose it, and how you can manage it or have it removed.
Online security
Our website has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control, including your Personal Information. We use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) security technology that encrypts links between our web server and the browsers of all visitors to our website, ensuring that all data passed to our web server from users’ browsers remains private. Riverkeeper encrypts credit card numbers, provides firewalls to protect our servers, and implements virus/intrusion detection software. However, no transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so you provide your information at your own risk.
Personal Information we may collect from you
In using the Sites, you may choose to give us Personal Information such as your name, email address, contact information such as postal address and phone number, and credit card or other payment information.
For example:
- We collect information from you when you subscribe to our newsletter, become a member, sign up to support our organization, or make a donation. When registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, or credit card information. You may, at any time, choose to opt out of receiving marketing-related emails by following the opt-out procedures at the bottom of our emails.
- We may use third-party postal address, phone number, and email address verification products to correct or update your contact information.
- To send a message from our online action center to government officials and other decision-makers, you may be required to identify yourself by name, address, email address, phone number. or other information. Riverkeeper includes this information when we send your message. This is necessary for your message to be effective, and in the case of many government officials, it is required. Riverkeeper may also use this Personal Information to contact you with the latest alerts and progress reports. Please note that comments sent to federal agencies may be made available publicly, often via the web, and will sometimes include the full name and address of the person(s) submitting the comments.
- Riverkeeper may also ask for your mobile number so that you can be kept up to date on breaking news and the latest actions. You can opt-out at any time by emailing membership@riverkeeper.org or replying to a text message with STOP.
How we use the Personal Information you give us
- To personalize your interactions with Riverkeeper, such as to customize your email content based on your interests, send you requests to participate in events in your area, and otherwise target content and communications to you.
- To respond to inquiries and fulfill your requests, such as to process donations, renew your membership, or send you information about an event or project, as well as to provide membership services.
- To send administrative information to you, such as information regarding our website and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
- To facilitate social sharing functionality.
- For our internal purposes, such as data analysis, audits, fraud monitoring and prevention, developing new products and services, enhancing, improving or modifying our website, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, and operating and expanding our activities.
Riverkeeper does not sell or share our donors’ or supporters’ Personal Information with anyone else, nor do we send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations.
You have the right to know what Personal Information you have previously provided to us, and to ask us to modify, correct, or delete it. You also have the right to ask us to permanently delete your account. You can log in to see your Personal Information and to modify or delete certain elements of it. To make other changes, please contact us at info@riverkeeper.org, or by sending a letter to:
Website Privacy Manager
Riverkeeper, Inc.
20 Secor Road
Ossining, New York 10562
Other information we may collect
Through the technology underpinning the Sites, we may collect additional information about you in the course of your use of the Sites. You may be able to block our collection of some of this information by using privacy protections available on your computer or device, such as App Privacy Protection on an iPhone.
Cookies
We use cookies to help us monitor traffic and collect information about use of the website. Cookies are small files stored on your computer or device that contain information about the websites you visit. This information is stored as aggregated data in Google Analytics. We use cookies to see which parts of our website are popular and provide direction to improve our users’ online experience. We may also use them to show relevant advertising to you on social media platforms or other websites.
You may be able to use tools in your web browser to delete cookies or block the use of cookies. If you do, some features of the Sites may not work properly.
Other information
- We use Google Analytics and other similar technologies that use cookies to collect information about Site use anonymously and report website trends, without identifying individual visitors. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/, and opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
- We may use pixel tags and other similar technologies to, among other things, track the actions of users of the Sites, measure the success of our marketing campaigns, and compile statistics about use of the Sites and response rates.
- We may collect your IP address when you visit the Sites, along with information about the type of computer and web browser you are using. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet. We use IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, administer our Site, analyze trends, track users’ movement, gather broad demographic information for aggregate use in order for us to improve the site, and deliver customized, personalized content. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
- When you interact with any Riverkeeper property page or account on a social media platform, such as Facebook, we may collect the Personal Information that you make available to us on that page or account including your account ID or username. However, we will comply with the privacy policies of the social media platform and we will only collect and store Personal Information that they permit us to collect. If you choose to link or login to your Riverkeeper account with or through a social networking service, Riverkeeper and that service may share certain information about you and your activities. With your consent, we also may share information about your activities, including what you view on the Sites, with that social network’s users.
Our website does not respond to web browser “Do Not Track” signals.
Links to other sites
The Riverkeeper website provides links to other websites that we do not control. While we make efforts to choose our links carefully, we cannot take any responsibility for the content of linked websites, or for the privacy policies of websites we link to. Since we do not control these websites, we encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these third-party websites prior to any use.
Third-party service providers
We occasionally have third parties perform services on our behalf, such as data processing, marketing, analytics, advocacy and outreach, hosting, billing, social media integration, and fraud protection. These third parties have access to your Personal Information only as needed to perform their services for Riverkeeper and are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of the information.
Protection of children
Unless otherwise disclosed during collection and with parent or guardian consent (for instance, in some of the educational areas on our Sites), Riverkeeper does not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age you should not provide Personal Information to Riverkeeper without providing us with consent from your parents. If Riverkeeper discovers that a child under the age of 13 has provided us with Personal Information and we do not have parental consent, or if you are a parent or guardian and you notify us that your child has provided us with Personal Information, we will immediately delete the information.
Retention of personal information
Following termination or deactivation of your account, Riverkeeper or its service providers may retain information (including your Personal Information) for a commercially reasonable time for backup, archival, and/or audit purposes.
Governing law
These Sites are published in the United States. We attempt to protect the Personal Information of all users of our Sites and we attempt to comply with local data protection and consumer rights laws to the extent they may apply to the Riverkeeper services, but our Sites are located and targeted to United States citizens and our policies are directed at compliance with those laws. If you are accessing this website from a country in the European Union, please note that this website and the information contained in it is not provided for or directed to you.
Notice to California residents
Riverkeeper complies with the requirements of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended, including the requirements to allow you to Correct, Know, and Delete your information. This Privacy Policy tells you how to do these things. We do not sell your Personal Information and we do not share it except as necessary to operate the Sites and provide you with the information and services you request.
Changes to this policy
Riverkeeper reserves the right at any time and without notice to change this Privacy Policy. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting to this site. We encourage you to check back regularly to ensure you understand our current privacy policies.