Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy of Climate XChange Education and Research, Inc. (“CXC”) covers the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information that may be collected by CXC when you interact with us, such as when you visit our website (the “Website”), sign up for our newsletter, or complete one of our online forms. Please take a moment to carefully read the following to learn more about our information practices. This Privacy Policy works in conjunction with our Terms of Use.

Overview

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect from you, why we collect it, how we use that information and for what purpose, to whom we disclose that information, how we safeguard that information, how you can request erasure of that information, and how you can change how we collect information and communicate with you. If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us by email at info@climate-xchange.org.

What does “personal information” mean?

Personal information is non-public information that personally identifies you and includes (but is not limited to) your name, address, email address, and phone number.

How do we collect information about you?

We collect information that you provide to us as well as information automatically gathered from devices that you use to connect to our Website. We also collect information that you share with our third-party service providers regarding our programs and services.

Information You Provide to Us: We collect personal information you give to us directly when, for example, you talk to us in phone calls or in meetings with our staff, or you complete one of our online forms. These forms allow the user (you) to request changes or provide feedback to the Website, ask for help from CXC staff, sign up for our newsletter, donate, or download data from our State Climate Policy Dashboard (the “Dashboard”). Each of these forms has a slightly different mix of fields required for the user to fill out, but all require some level of personal information (such as name, email address, and phone number). These forms are not required for use of the Website and Dashboard.
Information We Collect Automatically: We may automatically record certain information when you use our Website through your desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone. This may include your IP address or other device address or ID, web browser, and/or device type, the features of the apps you use, the web pages or sites that you visit just before or just after you use our services, the pages or other content you view or otherwise interact with on our services, and the dates and times that you visit, access, or use our services. We may also collect information about your interactions with our email messages, such as whether you opened, clicked on, or forwarded a message. We provide more information below about how we use technologies to automatically collect information.
Information We Collect from Other Sources: We may collect personal and non-personal information from third parties. If we combine or associate information from other sources with personal information we collect from you, we will treat the combined information as personal information as described in this policy.

How do we use personal information we collect?

We use personal information to provide better service to you and to improve our operations and programs.

For Service Reasons: We use personal information to provide you with our services, respond to your requests, verify information with third party collaborators for accuracy, resolve disputes, collect donations, and troubleshoot problems.
For Learning About Our Users: We use automatically collected information to learn about usage trends and preferences of the users of our Website. This helps us to personalize our services and communications, keep track of how users provide information to us online, monitor the use of our online services, and generally improve our program performance.

When do we share your information?

We do not share your personal information with organizations or individuals outside of CXC (and its staff and agents) except as follows:

With Your Consent: When we have your consent to do so, we may share your information with our collaborators for purposes of furthering our programs. Please note that we do not sell, rent, or otherwise share your personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes.
For Service Reasons: We may share personal information with our service providers and third parties for the purpose of providing our services to you and delivering computer website, application, maintenance, and other services for us.
For Legal Reasons: We may share personal information with law enforcement agencies, courts, or others when legally required, such as under a subpoena, court order, bankruptcy action, or other legal process, or to cooperate with law enforcement or other governmental officials; with third parties when we believe it appropriate to take precautions against liability, protect ourselves against unlawful activity, investigate and defend against third-party claims, protect the security and integrity of our operations, protect our property, enforce our legal rights, or protect the safety and rights of others; and acquirers or successors as part of a merger, sale of assets, or similar transaction to which we are a party (should this occur, we will continue to ensure that these privacy policies apply to your personal information). Generally, we limit the information we share to that which is reasonably necessary for these third parties to perform specific functions.

What is not considered to be personal information?

Information that is de-identified or does not identify a specific user is not considered to be personal information under this policy. This non-personal information includes automatically collected and aggregated data, or other information that is anonymous. We may make this information available to third parties. For example, we may provide it when we comply with reporting obligations, carry out fundraising activities, or study usage patterns on our Website.

Can you make changes in how we collect and use your information, and how we communicate with you?

Yes. There are a variety of ways for you to change how we collect and use your information and how we communicate with you. As described below, you may choose not to provide us with information, to update or erase your information, to opt-out of one or more forms of communication from us, or to limit how we collect information automatically.

Here is more information about your choices:

Not Providing Information: You may choose not to share certain personal information with us. That is entirely up to you. Not sharing some information may mean that we will not be able to provide you with some services and online capabilities.
Updating or Erasing Your Information: We want to keep your personal information accurate and up to date. If you have any questions about what personal information we have about you, or you wish to access, restrict, change, or erase any personal information, you may contact us at info@climate-xchange.org.
Opting Out of Marketing Emails, Mail, or Phone Calls: We may send marketing communications to our existing contacts in a variety of ways, including emails, texts, regular mail, and phone calls. If you do not wish to receive one or more of these types of communications from us, you may opt out by emailing us at info@climate-xchange.org. Please be aware that if you opt out of receiving email from us or otherwise modify the nature or frequency of marketing communications you receive from us, it may take up to 10 business days for us to process your request.
Changing How Information is Collected Automatically: As discussed later in this policy, you can make adjustments in the settings of the web browsers on your device to modify your cookie settings. This affects how information is collected automatically when you use your device.

How is your personal information protected?

We use physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect personal information. We use authorization controls for information access, and review and update our information collection, storage, and processing practices to help guard against unauthorized access. Some of your personal information may be stored on web servers and with our cloud providers and other third-party service providers, all of which are subject to applicable laws to protect your information.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Accordingly, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any personal Information, and you provide information to us with that understanding.

If we learn of a security systems breach, then we will attempt to notify you so that you can take appropriate protective steps. We may also post a notice on our Website.

How do we use cookies and similar technologies?

Cookies: When you use our Website, our computer system may send one or more cookies to your device. A cookie is a small data text file, which a web site stores on your computer’s hard drive (if your web browser permits) that can later be retrieved to identify you to us. The cookies make your use of the site easier, make the site run more smoothly, and help us to maintain a secure site. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, but some parts of our site may not work properly in that case. Please review your web browser’s “Help" file to learn the proper way to modify your cookie settings.
Data analytics: Our Website has hotjar installed, which tracks user clicks, scrolling, and other behavior on the page. We are able then to see the behavior of users, either as individual sessions or as an average group. We use this information solely to improve the Website.
Third-Party Web Beacons: We may use third-party content or advertising on our Website that use various forms of web beacons, which allow the third-party content provider to read and write cookies to your browser in connection with your viewing of that content.
Third-Party Buttons: We may use third-party buttons (such as Facebook or Instagram “like” or “share” buttons) that allow third parties to collect information about you through their browser cookies, even when you do not interact with the button. Information collected through web beacons and buttons is collected directly by these third parties. CXC does not participate in that data transmission. Information collected by a third party in this manner is subject to that third party’s own data collection, use, and disclosure policies.

When does this Privacy Policy apply?

This policy applies to your relationship with CXC, including both your personal and online interactions with us. This policy does not apply to services offered by other nonprofits, government entities, organizations, businesses, or individuals, including other sites linked to our site or that you hear about from us. Information you provide to third parties is provided directly to them, not us. It is subject to their policies, if any, governing privacy and security, even if accessed through our site. For clarity, we are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of those third-party sites or services, or for their products or services. We encourage you to learn about third parties’ privacy and security policies before providing them with information.

Additional Terms

Children’s Privacy: We do not knowingly collect information from any child under 13 years of age. Do not provide any personal information unless you are at least 13 years of age, and parents/guardians, please caution your children accordingly. If a child under 13 has provided personal information, a parent or guardian may alert us at info@climate-xchange.org. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parent or guardian consent, we will delete that information, or upon request, we will provide it to parents or guardians upon verifying their identity and relationship to the child.
International Users: If you use our services from the European Union, United Kingdom, or other regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from United States laws, you should know you are transferring your personal information outside of those regions to the United States for storage and processing. CXC is based in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States, and information and data provided by users will be transmitted to the United States. Please contact us at info@climate-xchange.org should you have any questions regarding our collection, use, retention, and erasure of your data.
Changes and Updates to this Policy: We may change this policy at any time. For example, as technologies, laws, or user needs change, our Website and its features may also change. We will communicate these changes to you by posting them on our Website. We reserve the right to amend this policy at any time without notice and we encourage you to periodically review our Website for the latest information on our privacy practices.
Terms of Use: This Privacy Policy is part of and incorporated into CXC’s Terms of Use, which is the contract between you and CXC governing use of this site. Parts of the Terms of Use affect this policy, so, if you have not yet done so, please review them here. Terms used but not defined in this Privacy Policy have the definitions in the Terms of Use.

Questions and Comments

Please contact us with any questions or comments about this policy, your personal information, our use and disclosure practices, or your consent choices by email at info@climate-xchange.org

For written inquiries, our address is:

Climate XChange Education and Research, Inc.

One Beacon Street, Floor 15

Boston, MA 02108