Privacy Policy

Updated: 08/08/21

The CHANCE Organization recognizes and respects the importance of maintaining your privacy and keeping your information secure.

This Privacy Policy describes how CHANCE (Connecting Humans And Nature through Conservation Experiences), its employees, officers, directors, and affiliates (collectively “CHANCE”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), collect, use and share information we collect when you interact with us on: chancepsu.org or websites that link to this policy, social media platforms, email or postal mail.

It's our intent to ensure that this Privacy Policy and our practices are honest, complete, clear, and current. To do so, we reserve the right to update and revise this policy without prior notice. Revisions will be noted with a new date at the top of this policy.

Please read the Privacy Policy carefully before you start to use our Website. By using the Website, you agree to be bound and abide by this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, or if you violate them in any way, your right to access or use the Website is terminated.

How we collect information

To be a continually improve the user experience and offer relevant information about our programs and missions to you, we record information from your interactions with us online and when you interact with us via email or social media. The types of information we may collect, and methods used to collect them fall under one or more of the following categories:

Information you provide to us

Field Course Applicant information

When you submit an application for a field course, we collect your basic contact information, examples of this information include but are not limited to: your name, email address, postal address, and phone number, along with any education and/or profession information included in the application requirements, and other materials such as a letter of recommendation, unofficial transcript, and personal essay. We may collect other information as required during the application process. This information is ONLY used for the application to a CHANCE field course.

Information we collect as you use our website

Activity & device information

When you use the CHANCE website we collect information on the actions you take such as search history, pages you browse, along with certain device, browser, and location information (such as IP address) from how you accessed it.

Public information (the content you share)

All content and information (personal or otherwise) that you add to the Website or social media platforms associated with CHANCE, including but not limited to photos and comments on our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. will be considered public information for the purposes of this policy. Please be careful when posting and sharing your information online.

Pseudonymized Browsing Information

We use third party analytics tools such as Google Analytics to help us measure the performance of our website. These tools collect pseudonymized browsing information that may include how often people visit our website, which pages they visit, and the source of the visit. This information is not sufficient to be attributed to you as an identified or identifiable person.

To process analytics data when you visit the website, third party analytics tools use various technologies, including cookies or similar technologies to identify your browser or computer device. Third parties providing these tools do not receive your email address, or other Personal Information through the use of cookies.

To opt out of Google Analytics on the CHANCE website go to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Information from third parties

In addition to the information you provide to us voluntarily, and that which we collect from your use of our website and services, we may combine this information with additional data from other third party sources to complete your user profile and measure the effectiveness of our marketing initiatives beyond our website.

Social networks

If you use social media logins (like Twitter and Facebook) to post comments, ratings, questions, photos or other content, we may be able to view the information you have made public on the social network. You can always limit this sharing using your social media service settings.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Like many websites, CHANCE uses cookies and other tracking technologies on our website to collect, process, and store Personal and Pseudonymized Browsing Information.

We use cookies for a variety of purposes, including to enhance your web browsing and improve the quality of content we provide to you.

Cookies are small files that are stored on the device you use to access the website. You can adjust the settings on your device to remove or refuse cookies by following the instructions provided by your web browser.

Our website uses first party cookies (set by CHANCE) and third Party Cookies (set by Google Analytics). The cookies used on our website may be persistent or session based.

The CHANCE website may also use other technologies including but not limited to Javascript tags or tracking pixels to collect, process, and store Personal and Pseudonymized Browsing Information as described above. Tracking pixels and tags assist in delivering cookies and allow us to collect Browsing Information about website users.

The tracking technologies used on our website may be used by CHANCE, or our third party partners for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Our third party partners may use these tracking technologies to measure advertising effectiveness (such as which web pages are visited) to understand user patterns, to determine whether you have seen particular ads and for their own business purposes that are not described in this Privacy Policy.

How we use information

CHANCE may use information collected to analyze and improve our information and services, and to conduct targeted marketing and advertising activities.

If you provide us with your email address when you register for a field course, we may use your information to contact you with special news, fundraising requests, and other content about our field course programs and CHANCE.

Interest-Based Advertising

We may work with third party advertising companies that collect and use information about your online activities across sites over time, in order to deliver more relevant advertising elsewhere on the Internet. This practice is known as interest-based advertising. You may visit http://www.aboutads.info to learn more and to opt out of this type of advertising by third-party advertising companies participating in the Digital Advertising Alliance self-regulatory program.

We do not operate or control www.aboutads.info and are not responsible for the opt-out choices available there. Electing to opt out will not stop ads from appearing in your browser or applications and may make the ads you see less relevant to you. If you delete, block or otherwise restrict cookies or use a different computer or Internet browser, you may need to renew your opt-out choice.

CHANCE does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals and handles all user information consistent with this Privacy Policy.

How we share information

We’re committed to sharing information only when needed for a legitimate business or legal purpose, and then only with recipients who will protect it.

On our website & marketing materials

We may use information collected from field course participants and site visitors for the purpose of informing other prospective students and participants, such as sharing a testimonial about our field course in an email campaign, brochure or other marketing materials.

With service providers and business partners

We may share your personal information with third parties who perform services on our behalf. For example, we share certain email activity data with vendors to help measure campaign performance, and personalize the user experience. We may also share information with data aggregators, advertising partners, and business consultants that are carefully selected and agree to terms pursuant to this Privacy Policy.

For legal requests

We use personal information to comply with legal obligations pursuant to the legal protections afforded to you in your country. Where required to obey the law, such as in response to a subpoena or legal process we will disclose your personal information. We also reserve the right to use your personal information to exercise or defend legal claims.

Data retention

We will only retain your information for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this policy or as needed to provide services to you or to advertise or market services to you. For example, we may not delete your personal information insofar as it is needed to uphold our legal obligations, resolve disputes, or enforce our agreements, or as needed to continue to inform our marketing efforts.

Links to Third Parties, Social Media, and Social Sharing

Our website may contain links to other websites that are outside of our control. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of any other website or service linked to or from the website, including the information or content contained within them. If you visit any third party website, or provide any personal information to such site, you are not submitting that information to us, and we have no control over the website’s privacy practices. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site, and to familiarize themselves with the privacy statements of all websites that they visit and interact with.

Government, Courts, and Law Enforcement

We will access, preserve, and share any information about you, without your consent, to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we in good faith believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including, but not limited to, subpoenas), to comply with applicable laws, to protect the property and rights of CHANCE, you or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to pose a risk of being, or is illegal, unethical or legally actionable.

We may also access, preserve and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity; to protect ourselves, you and others, including as part of investigations; and to prevent death or imminent bodily harm. Information we receive about you may be accessed, processed and retained for an extended period of time when it is the subject of a legal request or obligation, governmental investigation, or investigations concerning possible violations of our terms or policies, or otherwise to prevent harm.

Security

We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect the confidentiality and security of information transmitted to us. To guard your information delivered to us electronically, our Website uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). SSL encrypts information submitted via website forms so only we are able to decode the information submitted.

Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your contact information, to the extent permitted by law, we do not guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to or from our website, and you do so at your own risk.

Policy Changes

If we decide to change our privacy policy in whole or in part, we will inform you by updating the date at the top of this policy. We encourage you to check regularly to see if our Privacy Policy has changed.

Governing Law

This Privacy Policy and the privacy practices of our website and CHANCE are governed solely under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania (in the United States of America), without regard to its conflict of law principles.

Privacy Questions

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments about this privacy policy, please email us at jshea@psu.edu, or you can write to us at:

CHANCE
Attn: Dr. Jacqueline McLaughlin
Penn State Lehigh Valley
2809 Saucon Valley Road
Center Valley, PA 18034-8847
Re: Privacy Policy