Terms of Service

Terms of Service

Date of Last Revision: January 11, 2013

Purpose

Born This Way Foundation respects and protects the privacy of our users.

The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to disclose to you what information the Born This Way Foundation may collect from visitors to our website, BornThisWay.Foundation, and from those who register for our Born Brave Network, their affiliate sites, subdomains, mobile versions, and any associated applications that are owned and/or operated by the Born This Way Foundation (collectively, the “Website”), and how we collect, use and share this information.  In this Privacy Policy, the Born This Way Foundation is referred to as “BTWF,” “BBN” “us,” “we,” or “our,” as the context requires, including our role as administrator of the Born Brave Network (“BBN”).

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully.  This Privacy Policy applies to all users (“you”) of the Website. By using our services and the Website, including any content posted on the Website, you signify your acceptance of our Terms of Service, including this Privacy Policy.  If you do not agree to the Terms of Service, you must stop accessing or using our Website.  Please contact us with any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy at info@bornthisway.foundation.

Changes to Privacy Policy

We may, in our sole discretion, modify or revise this Privacy Policy at any time.  Such changes or updates are effective immediately after we give notice of the change or update, which we may do so by revising the “Date of Last Revision” date of this Privacy Policy or by otherwise posting on the Website at https://bornthisway.foundation/privacy-policy/, or by email, conventional mail and/or by any other means that provides reasonable notice.  If registered with our Website, you must provide us with your correct email address and make sure that email from BTWF and BBN is not filtered from your inbox by your ISP or email software. You agree that your use of the Website, after the date such notice is posted, means that you accept and agree to be bound by such modifications or revisions to the Privacy Policy.  You agree that we shall not be liable to you for any damages that might result form any changes to the Privacy Policy, if any.

Information You Provide

Personally Identifiable Information

Personally Identifiable Information is information that identifies a specific user, such as your first and last name, home address (including zip code), email address, telephone number, date of birth, and gender.  Personally Identifiable Information also includes credit card billing information that you may provide to donate to BTWF charitable activities or purchase BTWF merchandise.  When you register for a BBN account or engage in certain activities on the Website, we may ask you to provide certain Personally Identifiable Information about yourself.  Depending on the activity, some of the information we ask you to provide is mandatory and some is voluntary.  If you do not provide the mandatory information for a particular activity requiring disclosure of such information, you will not be permitted to engage in that activity.  Examples of activities in which we collect Personally Identifiable Information on the Website include but are not limited to (1) registering to become a BBN member, (2) requesting newsletters or other BTWF communications, (3) making a donation to the BTWF, (4) purchasing merchandise and (5) pledging to support a campaign in which BTWF is participating.  You may also post certain public content, such as testimonials, forum posts, and comments, to our Website. Any such content you post may be viewable by the general public and is governed by our Terms of Service [include link].
If you register to become a BBN member, you may also provide Personally Identifiable Information to us by attending an in-person event that we sponsor.  If you register to attend such in-person events through your BBN account, information about your participation in the event may be collected via RFID badges or by other means, such information including, but not limited to: the kiosks you visited at the event, activities you participated in at the event, photographs, audio and video recorded during the event, and information you provide to us at the event.  This in-person information collected at BTWF-sponsored events will be associated with your BBN account registration and will be used and protected according to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information

Non-Personally Identifiable Information is information that does not identify a specific user. This type of information may include the Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) of the website you visited before coming to our Website, the URL of the website you visit after leaving our Webite, the type of browser you are using and your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address. We may automatically collect this information when you visit our Website through the use of electronic tools like cookies and web beacons or pixel tags.

We may save “cookies” to your computer—small data files that are transferred when you allow your browser to accept cookies. Cookies automatically identify your browser to our Website whenever you visit, and save your passwords, preferences, and other information. By tracking how and when you use various features of our Website, cookies help us improve our Website. Accepting cookies allows you, among other things, to personalize your experience on our Website. Cookies may also allow our Website to present personalized advertising to you. Third-party advertising companies may place separate cookies on your computer, and we have no access to or control over these cookies. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by our Website only, and does not cover the use of cookies by any third-party advertising company. The use of advertising cookies sent by third-party servers is standard in the industry.   You can generally opt out of providing this information by turning cookies off in your browser. Some portions of our Website, however, may not function correctly if you have turned cookies off.   We may use other industry standard technologies like pixel tags and web beacons to track your use of our Website pages and promotions, or we may allow our third-party service providers to use these devices on our behalf.  Pixel tags and web beacons are tiny graphic images placed on certain pages on our Website, or in our emails that allow us to determine whether you have performed a specific action. When you access these pages or open or click an email, pixel tags and web beacons generate a Non-Personally Identifiable notice of that action. Pixel tags allow us to measure and improve our understanding of visitor traffic and behavior on our Website, as well as give us a way to measure our promotions and performance. We may also utilize pixel tags and web beacons provided by our Affiliates and/or Partners for the same purposes.

We may collect IP addresses or click-stream data for purposes of system administration, to improve our Website, and to report aggregate information internally or to sponsors. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. Our computers identify your computer by its IP address. When you request pages from our Website, our computers log your IP address.
Click-stream data is information collected by our computers when you request pages from our Website. Click-stream data may include such information as the page served, the time, the source of the request, the type of browser making the request, the preceding page view and other such non-personal information. When analyzed, this data helps us determine, among other things, how visitors arrive at our Website, what type of content is most popular, and what type of visitors in the aggregate are interested in particular kinds of content and advertising.

Information Provided Through Social Network Platforms

If you access our services on a “social network platform” (including, but not limited to, Facebook and Twitter), we will access and store the information explicitly allowed by the social network platform by their Terms of Service, once you give us permission to do so, through an interface provided by the social network platform.  BTWF activities that may be accessible via a social network platform include games, forums, and other activities that may be available on the Website or at in-person events.  If you have registered for a BBN account, the information provided to us by social network platforms may be associated and stored with your BBN account information.  As we do not have control over the user interface provided by social network platforms, we do not take any responsibility for any changes or problems with the interface or exchange of information provided by any of these social network platforms.

How We Use Your Information

We use Personally Identifiable Information to enhance your user experience of the Website, enhance your user experience at in-person events sponsored by us, improve the operation of the Website, deliver services to you and improve our service offerings, improve our marketing and promotional efforts, analyze Website use, process donations and purchases of products, and facilitate your experience with third-parties. If you use our Website to request that we send information to another person, we may store your Personally Identifiable Information, and the Personally Identifiable information of the recipient you specify, and we may use that recipient’s contact information to allow him or her to access the information specified in your request. We may also use Personally Identifiable Information to troubleshoot, resolve disputes, accomplish administrative tasks, contact you, enforce our agreements with you (including our Website Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy), comply with applicable laws, and cooperate with law enforcement activities.
When you make a donation or purchase a product on our Website, you grant us permission to access your billing information.  This Personally Identifiable Information for billing is stored on a secure server. We will use your Personally Identifiable Information to send you information concerning your donation or product purchase, including a confirmation email and any notices about problems with your payment method.  Personally Identifiable Information provided as part of a donation you make to us, or to any partner for whom we are collecting donations , or for a purchase you make from us, is only used as necessary to complete the transaction and to provide you with tools to manage and monitor your transactions.

We use Non-Personally Identifiable Information to troubleshoot technical issues, administer the Website, analyze trends, gather demographic information, comply with applicable laws, and cooperate with law enforcement activities. We may also share this information with our authorized third-party service providers and advertisers in order to measure the overall effectiveness of our online advertising, content, and programming.

Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information

We will not share your Personally Identifiable Information with third-parties without your permission except in the following situations:

  • to enforce our Terms of Use;
  • if we believe in good faith that it is required by law enforcement or judicial authorities, or if it is necessary to comply with other legal requirements;
  • if it is necessary to respond to an emergency that we believe involves potential threats to the safety of persons or property;
  • to prevent or investigate suspected fraud, illegal activity, violations of our Terms of Service, or activity that we believe in good faith may expose us to legal liability;
  • to provide information to trusted third-party service providers for the sole purpose of processing Personally Identifiable Information in connection with the completion of a donation to us or purchase from us;
  • to enable trusted third-parties that provide services on our behalf or with whom we have collaborated to offer a particular service; or
  • during any merger, acquisition, or transfer of substantially all our assets, or during negotiations for such an event.

We encourage our trusted third-party service providers to adopt and post privacy policies that offer the same level of protection of your Personally Identifiable Information.   However, the use of your Personally Identifiable Information by such parties is controlled by those parties and thus, not subject to our control.

Disclosure of Non-Personally Identifiable Information

We may disclose or share Non-Personally Identifiable Information with our partners, affiliates and advertisers.  For example, we may share aggregated demographic information (which does not include any Personally Identifiable Information) with “third-party advertisers” and other parties as provided herein.

We may use trusted third-party service providers to track and analyze Non-Personally Identifiable usage and volume statistical information from our users to administer our Website and constantly improve its quality. We may also publish this information for promotional purposes or as a representative audience for advertisers. Please note that this is not Personally Identifiable Information, only general summaries of the activities of our users.  Such data is collected on our behalf, and is owned and used by us.

Our Security Procedures

We have implemented security measures to protect your Personally Identifiable Information from loss, misuse, and alteration. We use industry-standard practices to safeguard the confidentiality of your Personally Identifiable Information. You can access your Personally Identifiable Information on our Website through your BBN account login and password.  We recommend that you do not share your password with anyone.  In addition, your Personally Identifiable Information resides on a secure server that only selected personnel and contractors have access to.  We encrypt certain sensitive information (such as credit card information) using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to ensure that your Personally Identifiable Information is safe as it is transmitted to us.

Perfect security, however, does not exist on the Internet. As a result, while we employ commercially reasonable security measures to protect data and seek to partner with companies which do the same, we cannot guarantee the security of any information transmitted to or from the Website.  We are also not responsible for any information you share with other users of our Website or with third-parties, including advertisers, sponsors, or partners who are linked on our Website.

Your Control of Personally Identifiable Information

You may limit the collection and use of different elements of your Personally Identifiable Information by not participating in those activities for which we collect Personally Identifiable Information, as described above. You may choose to discontinue the collection, use, and disclosure of your Personally Identifiable Information by limiting or discontinuing your use of our Website.
We believe that you should have the ability to edit the Personally Identifiable Information you provide to us.  You can access and update your Personally Identifiable Information by logging into our Website and modifying your BBN profile. You may delete your account and opt out of any further communications from us by either:

  • clicking on the links provided in our email communications for that purpose; or
  • sending an email request to info@bornthisway.foundation.

You agree to maintain accurate contact information and to promptly update your Personally Identifiable Information if it changes. You may ask to have the information in your BBN account deleted or removed; however, because we keep track of past transactions, you cannot delete information associated with past transactions (i.e., donations and purchases) on the Website. In addition, it may be impossible for us to completely delete all of your information because we periodically backup the Website information stored on our servers.

Privacy Protection for Children

The Website is only intended for individuals at least 18 years old, or younger with the express consent of your parents or legal guardians, but in no event younger than 13 years old. Minors under the age of 13 may not use the Website.

PARENTS PLEASE READ: We do not permit those under the age of 18 (or older in some jurisdictions, if the age of majority is older) to enter the Website without your express consent.  No information should be submitted to or posted on the Website by any user under 18 years of age (or older in some jurisdictions, if the age of majority is older) without the consent of a parent or guardian.

If you are under the age of 13, please do not use our Website. In compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, we will not knowingly permit persons under the age of 13 to provide Personally Identifiable Information to us. If we later learn that you are under the age of 13, we will take appropriate steps to remove your Personally Identifiable Information from our database and restrict you from accessing our Website.  We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13, and no part of the Website is designed to attract anyone under the age of 13. We do not sell products for purchase by children, although in certain instances, we may offer children’s products for purchase by adults.  Unless otherwise disclosed during collection, we do not knowingly provide any Personally Identifiable Information about minors, regardless of its source, to third parties, nor is this information knowingly used by us for any marketing or promotional purposes.  Minors are not allowed to participate in contests or sweepstakes on the Website.

Third-Party Websites

This Privacy Policy addresses only the use and disclosure of information that we collect.  . Other Websites, including advertisers, sponsors, Affiliates and Partners linked to from our Website, may have their own policies that are not addressed or controlled by this Privacy Policy. Please note that if you provide any information directly to parties other than us, including Websites linked to our Website, different rules may apply to the use or disclosure of the personally identifiable information you disclose to those parties. We encourage you to investigate and ask questions before disclosing personally identifiable information to third-parties.

International Users

If you are accessing our Website from outside of the United States, your Personally Identifiable Information will be transferred to the United States. Regardless of where that information is collected or transferred, it will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Communications to or from our Website

WE MAKE NO GUARANTEE OF CONFIDENTIALITY OR PRIVACY OF ANY COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TRANSMITTED TO OR FROM THE WEBSITE. You acknowledge that any content you post on the Website is a public and not a private communication. Others may read and view your communication without your knowledge.

We do not control or endorse the content, messages or information posted by third-party users. We will not be liable for the privacy of any of your or any other third-party postings to the Website and specifically disclaim any liability resulting from such postings and communications, including any objectionable content.

Limitation of Liability

By providing us with any Personally Identifiable Information, you expressly and unconditionally release and hold harmless Born This Way Foundation, its members, and each of their subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees and agents (collectively, the “Releasees”) from any and all liability for any injuries, loss, or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with the use or misuse of the collected Personally Identifiable Information, as further detailed in our Terms of Service.  In addition, while we take efforts to ensure the appropriate use of data provided to third-party companies, promotional partners, or vendors, the Releasees are not liable for any injuries, loss, or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with the use or misuse of your collected Personally Identifiable Information by any third-parties.

Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at info@bornthisway.foundation