Earth Rangers.com

Last modified: July 13, 2010

At the Earth Rangers Foundation, the privacy of information we collect from our members and donors is extremely important to us and as such we have developed this privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) which meets and exceeds all applicable law with respect to treatment of such information. This Privacy Policy applies to all of the products, services and websites offered by Earth Rangers on our various websites (“Sites”) and adheres to the following ten privacy principles recommended by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada:

Accountability
Identifying purposes
Consent
Limiting collection
Limiting use, disclosure and retention
Accuracy
Safeguards
Openness
Individual access
Challenging compliance, and continuous improvement.

If you have any questions, inquiries or complaints about this Privacy Policy or other privacy matters regarding Earth Rangers, please contact our Privacy Officer through our website(s) or as follows:

Email
privacy@earthrangers.com

Telephone
905-471-3447 (ask for Privacy Officer)

Mail
Privacy Officer
Earth Rangers Foundation
9520 Pine Valley Drive
Woodbridge, Ontario
Canada
L4L 1A6

We commit to responding to your questions, inquiries and complaints in a timely manner.

At Earth Rangers we are committed to protecting the privacy of all members, donors and users of our Sites. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to provide information regarding the collection, use and disclosure of information collected from individuals who access and participate in the various programs on our Sites. We closely monitor our collection, storage, use and disclosure of information to ensure it is held securely and confidentially at all times. Furthermore, as an organization who works closely with children we recognize the unique issues and concerns that collecting information from children gives rise to. We limit the information collected from children who register on our Sites, require parental consent when necessary, and have special policies in place for dealing with children under the age of 13.

What information do we collect?

When members register for an Earth Rangers Account (an “Account”) we require information from them such as their email address, birth date (for age verification purposes), and for some of our programs we require further information such as their city, province, and the name of their school. If the member is under the age of 13, we ask for parental contact information, including a parental email address.

When making a donation, donors provide us with the following information: first name, last name, email address, street address, city, province, country, postal code, name on credit card, credit card type, card number, expiry date.

Earth Rangers also employs cookies on its Sites to track the number of visitors to the Earth Rangers Site. We do not extract personal information through the use of cookies.

For what purpose do we use the information?

We collect personal information from members and donors exclusively for the purposes of facilitating requests they have made for electronic content (including newsletters and alerts), soliciting donations to Earth Rangers, accepting and processing donations to Earth Rangers (including the issuance of tax receipts), contests, membership and occasionally we use information for internal research purposes. Earth Rangers strives to keep its supporters informed of activities and other similar donor opportunities by communicating with them on occasion through email and mail and sending updates and appeals for support.

Emails

We use email addresses collected from members for the purpose of facilitating members. access to various interactive features found on our Sites, such as access to games and contests, participation on forums and message boards on our Sites, participating in anonymous polls and surveys that are found on our Sites, and communicating with the members and donors through the contact information they have provided.

Non-Identifiable Information (Postal Code, School Name, City, Province)

We collect this information for the purpose of grouping members from the same areas or schools together into collective fundraising groups and to monitor the fundraising success of particular demographics.

Identifiable Information

When receiving donations, we collect identifiable information for the purpose of processing the donation, and to issue a tax receipt.

Will we disclose the information collected from members and donors?

We limit disclosure of the information collected from members and donors exclusively to employees and independent contractors (only as required) of Earth Rangers, third party service providers (for credit card transactions and storage of information), limited website display (first name and corresponding donation amount of donors) on our Sites, possibly to like-minded environmentally conscious organizations if donors have consented to this and as we may be required to disclose by law.

Employees and Independent Contractors

At Earth Rangers, we limit the number of employees and contractors who have access to the collected information from our members and donors to our Content Management Team who are employees and contractors that require this information to perform their duties and operate our programs. All Earth Rangers employees have received instruction and information on our Privacy Policy, and the Content Management Team has received specialized training in the handling of confidential information.

Third Party Service Providers

Information collected from members and donors is stored through third party service providers. Earth Rangers exclusively uses third parties that are subject to substantially similar privacy policies as ours and have in place demonstrable and highly secure protections and safeguards for information use. Contracts in place with all third party service providers ensure that this information is not used for other purposes and that confidentiality is maintained at all times.

Limited Website Display

To encourage donor participation and to recognize donors for their outstanding contribution to conservation efforts in Canada, we display donor’s first names and their corresponding contributions on our Sites. This display is done only for donor’s who consent to it. Consent for this display is received during the donation process and can be revoked at anytime by contacting our Privacy Officer (contact information provided above).

Environmentally Conscious Organizations

From time to time, Earth Rangers exchanges mailing addresses of donors (over the age of 18) with other environmentally conscious, non-profit organizations. This exchange of information is commonplace among non-profits and is an integral part of the fundraising we require to continue our work. A donor may indicate to us their desire to withdraw from this exchange and withhold their information from other environmental groups by contacting as outlined above.

Information is not disclosed outside of Earth Rangers without the consent of the donor. With a donor.s consent, Earth Rangers may exchange contact information and mailing lists with other environmentally conscious organizations. If a donor has given such consent and wishes to revoke it, they may make such a request in writing to our Privacy Officer (contact information provided above) and we will honour that request.

How is consent obtained?

We will always obtain consent from members and donors before collecting personal information. For less sensitive information, this consent is implied when registering and our users are informed about the treatment of their information through this Privacy policy. For the distribution of more sensitive information, we require explicit consent.

By registering for an ER account, Bring Back the Wild campaign or by giving a donation, you consent to the collection, use and distribution of that information as described in this Privacy Policy. Notwithstanding the above, ER requests explicit consent from donors during the donation process, to distribute the information provided (name, address, email) to other like-minded environmentally conscious organizations.

What safeguards are in place to protect the personal information?

We ensure that any information that is collected from members and donors has physical, and electronic safeguards that ensure that the information is securely protected. At Earth Rangers information collected from members and donors is always stored in an environment with limited access and with electronic and physical safeguards sufficient to protect access to the information.

How is information stored?

At Earth Rangers information collected from members and donors is always stored in an environment with limited access and with electronic and physical safeguards sufficient to protect access to the information.

What controls do parents have?

Children Under 13

In order to protect children who use our Sites, we have implemented a parental notification feature that operates as follows:

if a child indicates that he or she is under 13 years of age, we require them to provide us with an email address for their parent or legal guardian;
we then contact the parent or legal guardian through the email address informing them that their child has signed up for an Earth Rangers Account, and providing them with a link to the Site’s terms and conditions for their review; and
if for any reason, the parent or legal guardian does not wish to accept the terms and conditions or otherwise have their child enrolled as a member of ER, they may then contact us at the contact information provided in the email (and above in this policy) and we will deactivate the child’s Earth Rangers Account.

Contest Information

Earth Rangers Sites feature contests in which children may voluntarily participate. In order to claim prizes, the winners of these contests will be required to provide their address and may provide their name. This information is used only for the purposes of awarding contest prizes, will be solicited only with parental notification and is destroyed at the conclusion of the contest.

Opt-Out Options

Parents are given the option through email, and on the website to opt their child out of our programs.

How long is personal information kept for?

We have developed policies whereby we will store personal information in a secure manner for only as long as is reasonably necessary to achieve the purposes for which information was collected, following such time the information is destroyed.

Can a member or donor review their personal information?

If you are an Earth Rangers member or donor, you have a right to access and review the personal information that Earth Rangers has collected from you. If you so desire, we ask that you contact our Privacy Officer (contact information provided above) so that we may provide you with such access. We commit to respond to any such inquiries in a timely manner.