Orbmedia, Inc Privacy Policy
Effective Date: March 1, 2015
Last Updates: July 8, 2020
INTRODUCTION
Orbmedia, Inc. (“Orb Media”, “Orb or “we”) aspires to be transparent in how we interact with all our users (“users” or “you”). This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy” or the “Policy”) lets you know the types of information we may collect from you through websites[, mobile sites and applications] (“apps”) and other services (collectively, “Orb’s Services”) and how we collect, use and disclose such information and, where applicable, how you can control our collection, use and disclosure of your information. When you use Orb’s Services, you agree to be bound by this Policy and its terms and conditions. This Policy applies to any information that Orb collects from Orb’s Services, including your personal information, such as your name and e-mail address, or other information that could be used to identify you as an individual or allow someone to contact you, as well as any information associated with such information (collectively, “personal information”) and your non-personal information (i.e., browser and software information, demographics and service usage).
From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy. Any changes will become effective when we post the updated Policy and will be reflected by a new “Last Updated” date at the top of this document. In some cases, we may also tell you about changes by additional means, such as by posting a notice of changes on an Orb website or by sending an e-mail to the e-mail address we have on file for you. By continuing to use Orb’s Services on or after the revised Last Updated date, you agree to the terms of the modified Privacy Policy.
COLLECTION OF INFORMATION
Orb and our service providers collect personal and non-personal from and about you (collectively, “your information”):
(1) personal information includes information you voluntarily give to Orb, for example, by providing your email address, by signing up to be a part of our community-based journalism network or by participating in one of our digital surveys; and
(2) non-personal information that is automatically gathered when you navigate our website as a visitor, or when you “like” or share our content through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or other social media websites and services (“Social Media Services”), we may also occasionally incorporate features from such Social Media Services into Orb’s Services.
Any information that you give to or is collected by Social Media Services is subject to their individual privacy policies and not covered by this Policy. We recommend you consult their privacy policies for more information or before using their services to interact with our site. The information we receive from these Social Media Services may depend on your privacy settings. Any such information that we obtain will remain subject to that third-party Social Media Service’s privacy policy. We will use any such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you access Orb’s Services while logged into certain Social Media Services, such Social Media Service may be able to identify your browser and associate the technical information provided by your web browser with other information that it has already collected on or about you, which may result in its ability to identify you.
Information You Voluntarily Supply to Orb
We may collect and store any information you voluntarily supply when you use Orb’s Services, including when you express an interest in obtaining information, participate in certain of Orb’s Services, become part of our community-based journalism network, or if you participate in our digital surveys. You may be asked to voluntarily give us your information such as your name, email address, postal address, phone number, age, gender, education level and/or your professional or personal experience. This list is not exhaustive and you may be asked for additional information. We may also combine this personal information with other information about you that we receive from other sources or that is publicly available. You do not have to give us any of the above information, or any other personal information, in order to use most of Orb’s Services, but you may be required to give us some of your information to benefit fully from Orb’s Services. For example, if you wish to “tell us what you think” about one of our stories, you will be asked to supply your email address so that we may respond to you.
Information You Provide When Making a Donation
Orb is committed to protecting our donor’s personal information and will never sell or lease any donor information. Orb collects and uses the personal information from its donors for internal use only. From time to time, we might track information such as name, address, telephone number and e-mail address, credit card information, information on events attended, publications received and special requests for program information, and information provided by the donor in the form of comments and suggestions. Orb uses donor information to create accurate budget projections and to update donors on our plans and activities that match their interests. Orb stores donor and donation information in a secure database for IRS purposes, and this information is shared confidentially with board members and authorized staff. Orb may trade or share donor information with other entities when the donor has given consent or as required by law. Donors have the choice to opt out of mailing lists and communications and can do so by contacting Orb at info@orbmedia.org.
If you wish to make a donation, we may use an independent third-party payment processor to process such payments (a “Processor”). If you make a donation through such Processor, you will be directed to the Processor’s website. We may also share your information with a Processor only as necessary for such Processor to perform its functions and to the extent permitted by law. Any information that you provide to a Processor will be subject to the applicable Processor’s privacy policy, rather than this Policy.
Information We Get Automatically
In addition to information you voluntarily give to Orb, we also may collect non-personal information from you as you use Orb’s Services. For example, in order for you to connect to Orb’s Services, our servers receive and record information about your computer, device, and browser, potentially including your IP address (which we may associate with your domain name or that of your Internet access provider or wireless carrier, and your location), browser type, referring page that linked you to us, and other software or hardware information. If you access Orb’s Services from a mobile or other device, we may collect a unique device identifier assigned to that device, geolocation data, or other transactional information for that device. We and/or our service providers also obtain the following information automatically via certain tracking technologies, which may run on your device, when you use Orb’s Services. The circumstances in which we may deploy tracking technologies or automatically obtain your information include:
Cookies. Orb uses cookies in order to improve our website. Cookies and other tracking technologies (such as browser cookies, pixels, beacons, and Adobe Flash technology including cookies) use data that may include a unique identifier that does not identify you personally. These technologies may be used to collect and store information about your usage of Orb’s Services, such as pages you have visited, and content you have viewed. In particular, we use “session ID” cookies, which expire when you close your browser as well as persistent cookies, which recognize your browser when you come back to our website. You can modify your cookie settings through your browser settings. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may experience reduced functionality. Third-party providers of web analytics services, such as Google Analytics and Chartbeat, may also use cookies and web beacons to gather this sort of information on our behalf.
IP Address. We use IP addresses to learn how often users visit parts of our website. We might combine that information with personal information that we have collected to improve our website and communications.
Web beacons and other technologies. A web beacon (also known as a pixel tag) is a tiny image (typically just one-pixel) that can be placed in an online page or in an electronic communications to you to help us measure the effectiveness of our content by, for example, counting the number of individuals who visit our website. Similar to cookies, these technologies help us track where users visited on the site and other user behaviors.
Javascript. We may send instructions to your device using JavaScript or other computer languages to gather the sorts of information described above and other details about your interactions with Orb’s Services.
The information we collect automatically may be combined with personal information and information from other sources, such as publicly available information from Social Media Services and commercially available sources so that we may improve our website. These technologies also allow us to recognize you when you access Orb’s Services using different web browsers or devices.
USE AND DISCLOSURE
Orb might use information about you for the following purposes:
to maintain your account, deliver the Orb’s Services or any other services that you requested, and to improve your experience on our website;
to communicate with you about the website, Orb’s community-based journalism network, or other products or services that you might be interested in;
to respond to your questions and comments;
to analyze and present survey data you provide us;
to improve Orb’s Services and reporting;
to generate analytics reports on the usage of Orb’s Services;
to perform analysis to improve the quality of our organization, the website, and the products we offer or develop new features; or
for other purposes when you have given your consent.
Orb also takes serious precautions to guard your information and will never lease, sell or trade your information without your explicit permission. We may, however, share or use your information for the following additional purposes:
To allow service providers to assist us in providing and managing Orb’s Services. We may make your information available to certain third-party service providers, such as contractors, agents or sponsors, who help us manage or provide Orb’s Services, for example, website maintenance and support, payment processing, email distribution and promotions management. These service providers may not use personal information for any purpose other than in connection with the specific service they are providing to you and Orb or as required by law. Use of your personal information by these third parties is governed by their own privacy policies and procedures and not by this Policy.
To contact you. We may periodically send you notifications related to Orb’s Services. You may not opt out of certain technical updates or policy-related notifications, but you may always opt out of any promotional materials.
To protect the rights of Orb and others. There may be instances when we may disclose your information, including situations where we have a good faith belief that such disclosure is necessary in order to: (i) protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, or property of Orb; (ii) protect the safety, privacy, and security of users of Orb’s Services or members of the public including in urgent circumstances; (iii) enforce our terms and conditions; (iv) protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; (v) comply with the law or legal process; or (vi) respond to requests from public and government authorities, which may include authorities outside your country of residence.
Some of the uses specified above are necessary for the provision of Orb’s Services as requested by you. In other cases, the uses are based on our legitimate interests, such as making Orb’s Services available to people who have expressed an interest in digital nonprofit journalism or similar services. In some cases, we are obligated to use personal information in order to comply with legal obligations.
SECURITY
Orb uses commercially reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical measures to safeguard information in its possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure or modification. However, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of our servers or databases, those of third party service providers or Social Media Services. You use Orb’s Services at your own risk.
If you correspond with us by e-mail, text message, or using our digital surveys on our website or a “Contact Us” feature on Orb’s Services, a third party could view the information you send in transit by such means. We will have no liability for disclosure of your information due to errors or unauthorized acts of third parties during or after transmission.
RIGHTS RELATING TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
You may review, update or correct certain of the personal information that we store by using the “Contact Us” information listed below. We may require that you verify your identity and provide other details before we are able to provide you with any information, correct any inaccuracies or delete any information (provided your right to delete information is subject to our records retention policies).
You may opt out of our e-mail distribution by clicking the unsubscribe link within the e-mail you receive. Please understand that it may take us a few days to process any unsubscribe request.
In some jurisdictions, including in the countries of the European Economic Area (“EEA”), you have the right, in certain circumstances, to (i) require us to delete your personal information, (ii) require us to restrict processing of your personal information, (iii) receive a copy of the personal information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or instruct us to transmit that data to a third party; and (iv) object to our continued processing of your personal information for direct marketing or other purposes. You can exercise these rights free of charge contacting us using the details in the “Contact Us” section below.
OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Location of Data
Orb’s Services are hosted by third-party hosting services that supply the servers, data storage, software, and databases for us to run Orb’s technology (“Hosting Providers”). Because we do not control these Hosting Providers, we cannot guarantee where your data will be located at all times. If you are a user located outside the United States, you understand and consent to having any personal information potentially processed by our Hosting Providers in the United States. This includes the use of cookies and other tracking technologies as described above. As a result, please read this Policy with care. Use of your personal information by our Hosting Providers is governed by their own privacy policies and procedures and not by this Policy.
Transfers Outside the EEA
The information in this section is directed to those users located in the EEA.
To process information of individuals located in the EEA for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, it is sometimes necessary for us to transfer your personal data to the United States and other locations outside the EEA. We may transfer such data to service providers located outside the EEA and to our office located outside the EEA. We may do so for the operation of the Orb’s Services or where we consider the transfer is necessary for exercising, establishing or defending legal rights of Orb.
Non-EEA countries might not have the same legal framework for data protection as the EEA countries. In particular, the United States, which is the most common destination of our transfers of personal information outside the EEA, may not provide a level of personal data protection equivalent to that of the EEA.
Data Retention
We will retain your information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or allowed by law. Remember that copies of your information, including personal information, may remain viewable in some circumstances where, for example, you have shared such information with Social Media Services or other third parties. Because of the nature of caching technology, your registration information or other personal information may not be instantly inaccessible to others, and we cannot be responsible for retention of such information by third parties who have had access to such information. We may also retain back-up information related to your account on our servers for some time after cancellation for fraud detection or to comply with applicable law or our internal security policies. Due to technical constraints, contractual, financial or legal requirements, it is not always possible to completely remove or delete all of your personal information.
Do Not Track Disclosures
Some web browsers may transmit “do-not-track” (“DNT”) signals to mobile applications with which the user communicates. We currently do [not] change our tracking practices in response to DNT settings in your web browser. We may have our third-party partners, including web analytics companies such as Google Analytics and Chartbeat, collect information about your online activities over time and across Orb’s Services. These third parties may not change their tracking practices in response to DNT settings in your web browser.
Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
Email: info@orbmedia.org
1629 K Street N.W.
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006-1631 USA
Phone: +1.202.363.1657
Please note that we will not accept requests via the telephone, mail, or by facsimile, and we are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or that do not have complete information.
If you are located in the EEA, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority of the EEA state where you work or live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred.