Project Learning Tree® (PLT) is a program of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). SFI is committed to ensuring the privacy of the personal information it obtains from individuals participating in its programs. The intent of this Privacy Policy is to demonstrate our firm commitment to your privacy and to disclose the privacy practices of SFI as it relates to the PLT program, the www.plt.org website (the “Site”) and to information obtained from participants in the PLT program.
By accessing or using the Site and/or providing any personal information to us at any of our programs, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not accept these practices, you must not access or use the Site or provide your personal information to us.
What information does the Site collect?
You do not have to provide any personal information to read the content of our Site. However, you will provide personal information when submitting a donation, subscribing to our newsletter, ordering products from our Site, accessing specific resources, attending a PLT program event, workshop, or seminar, or contacting us for more information. Some examples of information we collect include: your name, address, e-mail address, phone number, payment information (e.g., credit card information and billing address), and some demographic information in some instances. When you place an order or offer a donation we may need to know your name, email address, mailing/billing address, phone number, credit card number and expiration date. We may also use the information to contact you if there is a problem with your order/donation or for feedback on our other products and services. You also provide your information by completing evaluation forms provided to you when you participate in one of PLT’s programs, events, workshops or seminars. When you make a credit card payment, the information is maintained by our credit card processing company and is kept in accordance with their standard policies.
If you contact us via e-mail or other correspondence, we may ask for your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number. This allows us to process your request and provide you with the most complete information via the quickest method. Your contact information will be used to disseminate news and information about PLT, SFI and other programs.
SFI protects the confidentiality of its donors. We never sell information about our contributors. We honor all requests by donors who wish to remain anonymous and, except for donor acknowledgement, share information about other contributors only and unless they expressly require, request or approve that we do so. If you would like to review personal information collected and request corrections, please contact us at the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, 2121 K Street, NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20037.
From time-to-time our Site requests information from users via surveys. Participation in these surveys or via media contact forms is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose information. Information requested may include contact information (such as name, email or mailing address), and demographic information (such as zip code, age level). Survey information will be used for purposes of interpreting survey research results, monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this Site.
Like many websites, the Site also may collect information about visitors and the manner in which visitors utilize and navigate the Site. For example, the Site may track the pages you visit on the Site, the URL that you visited before you came to the Site, the URL to which you next go, and your IP address. This information helps us to design and improve the Site to better suit our visitors’ needs. We may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer the Site. Your IP address also may be used to help identify you and to gather broad demographic information.
Our website is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.
Does the Site use cookies?
Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to a user’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes while visiting a site. Like most websites, we may use cookies on certain pages of the Site. Cookies make using the Internet easier by, among other things, saving your passwords and preferences for you. We may also use cookies to deliver content specific to your interests and for web traffic analysis and site navigation. You are free to not accept the cookies by referring to your browser’s “help” feature, but certain features of the Site may not work as intended or may be slowed if you decline to accept cookies.
To whom do we disclose information?
Except as provided in this Policy, we will not knowingly sell, share or rent any information obtained about our visitors with third party organizations or businesses without permission, except to provide information requested by the visitor. Information that we collect is used for internal purposes such as fulfilling your requests for products, services or information, providing customer support/responding to your inquiries, compiling usage statistics regarding the Site, and analyzing visitor preferences regarding the Site and other products and services. We may share the information collected on the Site with outside parties to the extent necessary to fulfill your requests for information or to provide our products and services to you. For example, we do use third party services to assist us in securely processing your credit card orders/donations. We strive to ensure that any such parties will provide at least the same level of protection as this Privacy Policy offers. However, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties and do not guarantee that these third parties have similar privacy practices.
When you provide information to PLT/SFI when registering to access resources on this Site, or by completing evaluation forms or during events and seminars hosted by the local PLT sponsors and partners, the PLT sponsors or partners of the state in which you reside or to which you provided the information are given access to your personal information. PLT sponsors and partners are required to provide the same level of protection this Privacy Policy offers. In some instances, the PLT program sponsors may be governmental agencies, which will have access to your personal information as well. The information maintained by such governmental agencies is protected under the particular rules and regulations of such agencies and not under this Privacy Policy.
We will divulge personal information to law enforcement agencies or other governmental agencies when required to do so or when we in good faith believe it is necessary in order to comply with legal obligations. We will, however, ask all governmental officials to provide us with acceptable reasons that we believe, in our sole discretion, support disclosure of personal information. We may monitor email correspondence and telephone calls to track reported problems and to ensure quality assurance. Similarly, we monitor web traffic in the aggregate for the purposes of evaluating marketing campaigns and content improvement.
In the event that this Site or substantially all of SFI’s assets are acquired, merged or reorganized, user information will of course be one of the transferred assets.
What are the privacy policies of linked sites and other third parties?
This web site contains links to other sites. This policy statement only addresses the use and disclosure of information collected by the Site. Although you may link to other sites or third parties via the Site, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties or the content of linked sites. We encourage our website visitors to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information.
This web site uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google designed to help us understand how visitors engage with our web site and improve web site content. Google utilizes cookies to collect data (for example, the web address of the page that you’re visiting, your IP address, and basic demographic data) to track and examine the use of this web site to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services. In compliance with Google Analytics Terms of Service, we do not track, collect or upload any data that personally identifies an individual (such as a name, email address) when you simply browse this web site. Find Google’s privacy policy here.
Information Collected by Third Parties
Third parties, including Facebook, Twitter, and Google, may use cookies, web beacons, and other storage technologies to collect or receive information from our website and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads.
We may use information collected on our Site to tailor ads based on your interests and history with us that may be displayed to you on our Site and elsewhere.
Users can opt-out of the collection and use of information for ad targeting through sites like http://www.aboutads.info/choices and http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.
How can you access or correct your information?
You may view, correct or update the personal information we have about you by sending a request to the e-mail address below. If we use any of your personal information in a manner that you believe is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy, please notify us immediately by sending an email to the address below so that we may correct such inconsistency.
How may this privacy statement be amended?
From time to time, we may make changes to our information practices or alter the functionality of the Site. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on our home page so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We encourage you to periodically review this page and the Site’s home page for the latest information on our privacy practices for this Site.
What security measures does the Site employ?
The Site may have security measures in place that are intended to protect against the loss of information that the Site collects. However, you should keep in mind that this Site is run on software, hardware and networks, any component of which may, from time to time, require maintenance or experience problems or breaches of security. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your username and password and are responsible for any unauthorized use.
How can you contact us?
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of SFI/PLT in regards to your Personal Information, or your dealings with SFI/PLT concerning your personal information, you can contact us by e-mail at: [email protected].
Effective Date: July 15, 2017