This Privacy Policy describes how “answertree.org,” “we” or other first person pronouns treat the information we collect and/or receive from users of our website, www.answertree.org (“Site”), any downloadable mobile app(s) we offer (“App”) and any of our other services (collectively, the “Services”).
By visiting the Site, downloading an App, subscribing to our newsletter or using our Services in any other way, you expressly consent to the collection, storage, use and disclosure of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, you may not use the Services.
Information We Collect
• Personal Information. We collect the information you volunteer to us. When you subscribe to our newsletter, comment on an article, send us an email, or share personal information with us in any other way, we will collect the information you provide. This information may include your name, email address or other contact information (“Personal Information”).
• Usage. We will record information about your use of our Services, such as what Content you post or respond to and other information about your interaction with the tools and content we offer.
• Subscribing to Newsletters. You may subscribe to our recurring email newsletter by providing your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time by following the directions in the newsletter.
• Emailing Articles. If you use our email feature to tell a friend about an article on our Site, you will be enabled to send an email with a link to the article.
• Content. We may offer a user the ability to post content (“Content”). answertree.org may use your Content as described in the Terms of Service. Any Content you post on our Site is by design open to the public and is not private. This includes any comments you post and any Personal Information included in connection with those comments. Your Content can be seen, collected and disclosed by third parties, including third parties who may contact you for unauthorized purposes. Please think carefully before posting any Personal Information or any information you wish to keep private.
• Automatic Collection. Like most web businesses, we may use cookies, pixels, web beacons and other automated mechanisms to keep track of user interactions with our Site and other Services and with any ads we place on third party properties. We may also use third party services such as Google Analytics to gather and analyze user information. We may collect information such as your computer’s IP address, the type of browser you are using, the websites you visit and the type of content and ads you click on. We refer to all of the data gathered for our analysis as “Analytics Data.” Analytics Data does not include personal information such as your name, email address, physical address or phone number. We use Analytics Data to help us evaluate and improve the Site and other Services. Google gives users the ability to opt out of its data gathering. If you are interested in finding out more, please see the information provided at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/181881?hl=en and https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Another way to prevent the collection of Analytics Data is to disable the use of cookies in your browser but the Site and Services may not function as well if you do that.
• If you use our Apps or otherwise access our Services through a mobile device, we may collect information such as your mobile device’s UDID and/or other persistent identifiers and different types of information about your location, including specific location information (e.g., GPS data), and your interaction with the App and our content (e.g., events). If you do not want your device to provide us with location-tracking information, you can disable the GPS or other location-tracking functions on your device, if your device gives you that option.
How We Use the Information We Collect and Receive
We may use your information to:
• Provide you with Services.
• Operate, maintain, protect, develop and improve the Services.
• Conduct and publish research.
• Contact and communicate with you.
• Provide you with additional information we think may be of interest to you.
• Customize the content and any advertising you see.
Sharing Information
• Personal Information and Usage. In limited circumstances, we may give third parties your Personal Information and/or usage information. For example:
• We may disclose this information as part of due diligence or in connection with a sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganization or liquidation.
• We may transfer this information to third parties that are helping us provide our Services, such as hosting companies, payment processors, subcontractors, and our affiliates, consultants and representatives.
• We may disclose this information if permitted or required by law, or where we believe such action is necessary in order to protect or defend answertree.org or the interests of our users or business partners.
• Content and Automated Information. We may freely share any Content and any information that is collected by automated means with third parties such as clients, advertisers, sponsors and business partners, for our benefit and/or for their own use.
• Related Companies. We may share your information with our related companies. Those companies will only use your information in the same manner that we are allowed to use it.
• Network Advertisers. We may share information relating to your usage of the Site and Services collected on an aggregated basis with network advertisers. Such network advertisers are third parties that serve advertisements on the Site for products and services that you may be interested in. These advertisers, as well as third party ad network providers, sponsors and traffic measurement services may use technologies such as cookies, web beacons or JavaScript to analyze the effectiveness of their ad targeting. Such third parties may also gather user data themselves, separate from any data that we provide to them. Third party gathering and use of data is subject to their own privacy practices and privacy policies, which may be different than ours.
• Opting Out of Network Advertising. You may opt out of many third-party ad networks. Please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp for information on opting out of third-party ad networks operated by Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) members, the Digital Advertising Alliance at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ for information on opting out of third-party ad networks operated by About Ads members, and the IAB opt-out platform at http://youronlinechoices.eu for an on-line guide to pan-European ad networks. Please make sure that cookies are enabled when you opt-out from any third-party ad networks; if your browser is not set to accept cookies or you later erase your cookies, your opt-out may no longer be effective. Please note that if you disable the display of personalized ads from advertising partners, you will continue to receive ads that are less relevant to your interests/browsing behavior. Finally, be aware that even if you opt out of third-party ad networks operated by these members, you may continue to receive targeted advertising on our Site and other websites.
Do Not Track
At this time, answertree.org does not respond to Do Not Track signals from Web browsers.
Children Under 18
Our Services are not intended for children under the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18, please do not use our Services or provide your contact information or any other personally identifiable information to answertree.org. Our Services may include unmonitored content posted by users or sourced from other third parties and such content may be unsuitable for children. We do not knowingly collect or distribute information from or about children under 13 and will delete any such information if we become aware of it. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact [email protected] to have your child’s personal information removed.
Security
Any information collected by answertree.org is stored using security procedures and practices that we believe are appropriate to the nature of the information. However, no online storage or data transmission over the Internet can be 100% secure. As a result, answertree.org cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit using our Services.
Social Networks
answertree.org offers the ability to post information about your use of our Services using your login credentials from various social media websites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, etc.) (“Social Media Accounts”). We may also offer plugins which are operated by these third-party platforms (e.g., Facebook’s Like button). If you are logged into your Social Media Account, the third-party platforms may be provided with information about your interactions on our Site. Please read the privacy policies of the applicable social media websites to learn more about how they collect and use your information.
Foreign Countries
Our Services are provided from facilities based in the United States and may also be provided from servers located outside the United States. We may store and process your information both in and out of the United States. Your use of our Services constitutes your consent to and understanding of processing both in and out of the United States. For example, if you use our Services from outside the United States, your Personal Information will be transferred to and maintained on servers or databases located outside your country. The privacy and data protection laws and rules of the United States may vary from those in the country where you live.
Accessing or Rectifying Your Information
You have the right to obtain from us free information about your personal data stored at any time and a copy of this information. If the information we hold about you is inaccurate or not complete, you have the right to ask us to rectify it. If that data has been passed to a third party with your consent or for legal reasons, then we must also ask them to rectify the data.
Erasing Your Information
We shall process and store your personal data only for the period necessary to achieve the purpose of storage, or as far as this is granted by applicable laws or regulations to which we are subject to.
You have the right to request the erasure of your information. This is sometimes called ‘the right to be forgotten’. You have the right to the erasure of personal data concerning you without undue delay, and we shall have the obligation to erase personal data without undue delay when:
- The original purpose for the personal data is no longer necessary or the data itself is no longer necessary for the purpose
- When you no longer consent.
- If you object to your data being processed and there is no legitimate reason to override this objection.
- If the data being processed relates to the offer of information society services to a child.
- If the data is ever processed in breach of data protection regulations (i.e. GDPR).
- There is a legal obligation to erase the data.
If one of the aforementioned reasons applies, and you wish to request the erasure of personal data stored by us, you may at any time contact our Data Protection Officer or the controller who shall promptly ensure that the erasure request is complied with immediately.
Where the controller has made personal data public and is obliged to erase the personal data, the controller, taking account of available technology and the cost of implementation, shall take reasonable steps, including technical measures, to inform other controllers processing the personal data that you have requested erasure by such controllers of any links to, or copy or replication of, those personal data, as far as processing is not required.
Object, Restrict, or Withdraw Consent
You have the right to ask us to restrict how we process your data. This means we are permitted to store the data but not further process it. We keep just enough data to make sure we respect your request in the future.
It is your right to lodge an objection to the processing of your personal data on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time, to the processing of personal data concerning you. This also applies to profiling.
We shall no longer process the personal data in the event of the objection unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
If we process personal data for direct marketing purposes, you shall have the right to object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you for such marketing. This applies to profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing. If you object to us to the processing for direct marketing purposes, we will no longer process the personal data for these purposes.
In addition, you have the right, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to object to the processing of personal data concerning you by us for scientific or historical research purposes, or for statistical purposes, unless the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest.
If you have given us your consent to process your data but change your mind later, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, and we must stop processing your data.
Data Portability
We must allow you to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across services in a safe and secure way without this effecting the usability of your data. In exercising your right to data portability, you shall have the right to have personal data transmitted directly from one controller to another, where technically feasible and when doing so does not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.
Automated Individual Decision-Making
You shall have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you, or similarly significantly affects you, as long as the decision (1) is not necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between you and a data controller, or (2) is not authorized by law to which the controller is subject and which also lays down suitable measures to safeguard your rights and freedoms and legitimate interests, or (3) is not based on your explicit consent.
If the decision (1) is necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between you and a data controller, or (2) it is based on your explicit consent, we shall implement suitable measures to safeguard your rights and freedoms and legitimate interests, at least the right to obtain human intervention on the part of the controller, to express your point of view and contest the decision.
Privacy
California
We have prepared additional disclosures and notices for California consumers. Those additional disclosures can be found here.
Nevada
We do not sell your Covered Information (as defined under Nevada law).
Notice of Privacy Practices for Other U.S. States
For disclosures required by the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) regarding the categories of personal information, processing purposes, and information regarding personal information that we collect, please see the Information We Collect section of the answertree.org CCPA Policy, which can be found here. Please note that the term “share” is defined differently in the CCPA and the CPA; we do not share personal information with third parties, as those terms are used in the CPA.
Applicable state law (such as the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, Colorado Privacy Act, and the Connecticut Data Privacy Act) may give you certain rights. The law of your jurisdiction may permit you to request that we:
- Confirm whether or not we are processing your personal information and provide you with access to such personal information
- Correct inaccuracies in your personal information, taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes of the processing of the personal information;
- Delete your personal information;
- Provide you a copy of personal information that you previously provided to us in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit the data to another business, where our processing is carried out by automated means; and
- Opt you out of the processing of the personal information for purposes of targeted advertising, the sale of personal information, or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning you.
Certain information may be exempt from such requests under applicable law. We need certain types of information so that we can provide our Services. If you ask us to delete it, you may no longer be able to access or use the Services.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please submit a request at [email protected]. You will be required to verify your identity before we fulfill your request. To do so, you will need to provide at a minimum your name and email address or as otherwise directed by us.
If we deny your request to exercise any of the rights above, you may appeal that denial by contacting us in the manner described herein and describing in detail why you believe the denial was in error. Your description must include your full name and email address, along with a copy of the denial notice you received from us.
Data Retention
We will only retain your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for your information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your information, the purposes for which we process your information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
In some circumstances we may anonymize information about you (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use and retain this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Third Party Sites and Services
We may provide links to third party websites, apps and other services. We are not responsible for those third parties and cannot control their use of any information that they collect from you. You should contact such third-party websites directly to determine their privacy policies.
Changes to Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time and will do so by posting the revised Privacy Policy on the Sites. The new Privacy Policy will apply to all current and past users of the Sites, Products, and Services and will replace any prior Privacy Policies that are inconsistent. Your continued use of the Sites constitutes your agreement to the Privacy Policy as revised.
Contact Us
If you would like to opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us, please follow the instructions in the messages or emails to unsubscribe.
If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please email us at [email protected].