Your privacy is important to us. Our Privacy Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect and use the personal information you provide to us and to assist you in making informed decisions when using our site and our products and services. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information we collect by other means (including offline) or from other sources.
What Information Do We Collect?
When you visit our Web site you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and Web site use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our Web site.
1. Personal Information You Choose to Provide
Credit Card Information: STEM Synergy is grateful for the donations that help us continue our valuable work. It is very important to us that your personal information remains secure. we require that the companies we work with to process your online donation payments use high-grade encryption and security protocols, and that all vendors processing check and credit card transactions received on our behalf meet all industry standards, certify their compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and are audited to meet with the Statement on Auditing Standard 70 (SAS 70). The personal information that you provide is stored in a secure location and accessible only by designated employees trained in the proper handling of customer information. We employ industry standard techniques such as firewalls, encryption, intrusion detection, and site monitoring to protect your personally identifiable information from unauthorized access by users inside and outside the organization. You should be aware, however, that “perfect security” does not exist on the Internet; third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications.
Registration Information: You are not required to provide any personal information on our website unless you choose to do so. We do ask for personal information on our online donation pages to properly enable donation transaction processing. When you donate to STEM Synergy online, you will provide us information about yourself, your firm or company, and your practices when you donate, you may choose register for certain services, or register for email newsletters and alerts. When you choose to participate in various fundraising or awareness campaigns of STEM Synergy, we may request additional information including, but not limited to, your name, an image or photograph, contact information, and narratives authored by you. By choosing to provide any of this information, you are explicitly granting STEM Synergy permission to use any provided information for public use, posting, and consumption.
Email Information: If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. Our website does not automatically recognize your e-mail address. We ask for your e-mail address on a number of pages within our site, but you may opt out of e-mail communications at any time by un-checking the box beneath where you entered in your e-mail address, or by clicking the unsubscribe link that is included at the bottom of every e-mail communication from STEM Synergy.
2. Web Site Use Information
STEM Synergy’s web server automatically recognizes, but does not collect or use your domain name (IP address). Similar to other commercial Web sites, our Web site utilizes a standard technology called “cookies” (see explanation below, “What Are Cookies?”) and Web server logs to collect information about how our Web site is used. Information gathered through cookies and Web server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our Web site, and the Web sites visited just before and just after our Web site.
How Do We Use the Information That You Provide to Us?
Broadly speaking, we use personal information for purposes of administering and expanding our service and charitable activities, providing donor services and making available other products and services to our donors and prospective donors. Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our Web site, information, news concerning our humanitarian relief services and development programs, and special donation opportunities and offers we think you will find valuable.
What Are Cookies?
A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a Web site, that site’s computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies. Each Web site can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a Web site to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.
How Do We Use Information We Collect from Cookies?
As you visit our Web site, the site uses its cookies to differentiate you from other visitors. In some cases, cookies are use to recognize you as a return visitor, or to allow our online community to recognize you as an existing member. Cookies, in conjunction with our Web server’s log files, allow us to calculate the aggregate number of people visiting our Web site and which parts of the site are most popular. This helps us gather feedback in order to constantly improve our Web site and better serve our mission. Cookies do not allow us to gather any personal information about you and we do not generally store any personal information that you provided to us in your cookies.
Sharing Information with Third Parties
STEM Synergy will not sell or trade donor’s information with any organization, nor will STEM Synergy send mailings on behalf of other organizations. You are not required to provide any personal information on our website unless you choose to do so. We do ask for personal information on our online donation pages to properly enable donation transaction processing. We use this information to acknowledge receipt of your donation for tax purposes and may publicly acknowledge your gift on STEM Synergy and/or other web services. If you give a gift to STEM Synergy, your name and address will be placed on our physical mailing list. Certain Disclosures We may disclosure your personal information if required to do so by law or subpoena or if we believe that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the law or comply with legal process served on us or Affiliated Parties; (b) protect and defend our rights and property, the Site, the users of the Site, and/or our Affiliated Parties; (c) act under circumstances to protect the safety of users of the Site, us, or third parties.
How Do We Protect Your Information?
How Do We Secure Information Transmissions?
Email is not recognized as a secure medium of communication. For this reason, we request that you do not send private information to us by email. Some of the information you may enter on our Web site may be transmitted securely via Secure Sockets Layer SSL, 128 bit encryption services. . Pages utilizing this technology will have URLs that start with HTTPS instead of HTTP. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or guarantee that your information on the Web site may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.
What About Other Web Sites Linked to Our Web Site?
We are not responsible for the practices employed by Web sites linked to or from our Web site nor the information or content contained therein. Often links to other Web sites are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that may be useful to the users of our Web site.
Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Web site to another Web site, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect. Your browsing and interaction on any other Web site, including Web sites which have a link on our Web site, is subject to that Web site’s own rules and policies. Please read over those rules and policies before proceeding.
Your Consent
By using our Web site you consent to our collection and use of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on our Web site to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it.