CivicAlert ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. We also believe in transparency, and this Notice explains how we treat your personal data. Please read the Notice carefully to learn more about how we process personal information and what rights you may have under applicable law.
This Notice describes our practices for the personal information for which we are a "data controller" under applicable law. This includes information collected when you visit our website, https://www.civicalert.net/ (the "Site"), or use the CivicAlert mobile application (the "App").
CivicAlert collects only the minimal amount of personal information necessary to provide you with a seamless user experience, as listed below. You may choose not to provide us with any personal information, but you will not be able to access portions of the Site or App that require this information for functionality.
| Category | Description and Purpose |
|---|---|
| Contact Information |
When you visit our Site, use the App, request our services, or register for a newsletter, events, or programs with us, we may ask you for your name, address, telephone number, email address, or other contact details. We process Contact Information to operate our Site, App, and research; to provide the App to you; to conduct research relating to the App and its use; to provide you support; to honor our Terms of Use and contracts; to ensure the privacy and security of our Site, App, and services; to maintain our databases and back-ups; to manage our relationships with you; to serve you the content and functionality you request; to enhance your experience and provide you with a more personal and interactive experience; to communicate with you; and to keep records of our communications with you. Note that phone numbers are always optional, and if provided for the purposes of subscribing to SMS notifications, they are used exclusively to deliver gunshot detection alerts and are never shared with third parties for marketing or any other purpose. |
| Account Registration Information |
When you create an account on the App, in addition to your Contact Information, we collect your account ID and any password that you choose to create. We don't require you to register or provide personal information to view our Site or access much of its content. We use Account Information to operate our Site, App, and research; to provide the App to you; to conduct research relating to the App and its use; to provide you support; to honor our Terms of Use and contracts; to ensure the privacy and security of our Site, App, and services; to maintain our databases and back-ups; to manage our relationships with you; to serve you the content and functionality you request; to enhance your experience and provide you with a more personal and interactive experience; to communicate with you; to keep records of our communications with you; to develop new products and services; and for usage analytics purposes. |
| Communications and Inquiries |
If you contact us, sign up for a mailing list, submit a question, or provide us feedback, in addition to your Contact Information, we will receive the subject matter of your message and any comments, content, or other information that you choose to provide. We process Communications and Inquiries to operate our Site, App, and research; to provide the App to you; to conduct research relating to the App and its use; to provide you support; to ensure the privacy and security of our Site, App, and services; to maintain our databases and back-ups; to manage our relationships with you; to serve you the content and functionality you request; to enhance your experience and provide you with a more personal and interactive experience; to communicate with you; to keep records of our communications with you; and to develop new products and services. |
| Cookies and Similar Technologies |
We may use cookies and use similar technologies as described in the "Cookies and Similar Technologies" section of this Notice. If you choose to disable cookies and similar technologies, some areas and features of the Site may not work properly. We process Cookies and Similar Technologies to operate our Site, App, and research; to conduct research relating to the App and its use; to provide the App to you; to provide you support; to ensure the privacy and security of our Site, App, and services; to maintain our databases and back-ups; to manage our relationships with you; to serve you the content and functionality you request; to enhance your experience and provide you with a more personal and interactive experience; to communicate with you; to keep records of our communications with you; to develop new products and services; and for usage analytics purposes. |
| Device and Usage Information |
When you visit our Site or use the App, we automatically collect information from your browser and your device, including the date and time of your access, your Internet Protocol (IP) address or unique device identifier, your browser type, and data about which pages you visit and how you navigate the Site or App. We process Usage Information to operate our Site, App, and research; to conduct research relating to the App and its use; to provide the App to you; to provide you support; to ensure the privacy and security of our Site, App, and services; to maintain our databases and back-ups; to manage our relationships with you; to serve you the content and functionality you request; to enhance your experience and provide you with a more personal and interactive experience; to communicate with you; to keep records of our communications with you; to determine user interests; to develop new products and services; and for usage analytics purposes. |
A "cookie" is a small file created by a web server that can be stored on your device (if you allow) for use either during a particular browsing session (a "session" cookie) or a future browsing session (a "persistent" cookie). "Session" cookies are temporarily stored on your device and remain there until they expire at the end of your browsing session. "Persistent" cookies remain stored on your device until they expire or are deleted by you. Local shared objects (or "flash" cookies) are used to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on a website. First-party cookies are set by the website you are visiting, and they can only be read by that site. Third-party cookies are set by a party other than that website.
Some third parties may use data collection technologies to collect information about you when you browse the Internet. We do not control these third parties' technologies or how they may be used. If you have questions about targeted content, you should contact the responsible party directly or consult their privacy policies.
Most web browsers are set by default to accept cookies. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you may set your browser to refuse all or some types of cookies or to alert you when cookies are being stored. These settings may affect your enjoyment of the Site's functionality. Adjusting the cookie settings may not fully delete all of the cookies that have already been created. To delete them, you should review your web browser settings after you have changed your cookie settings. For more information about how to modify your browser settings to block or filter cookies, visit http://www.aboutcookies.org/. You may learn more about internet advertising practices and related consumer resources at https://youradchoices.com/control, https://thenai.org/about-online-advertising/faq, and http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices.
CivicAlert is committed to maintaining your privacy. Except as strictly necessary to deliver the services you have requested, such as transmitting your phone number to our SMS delivery provider solely for the purpose of sending alerts you may have opted into, your personal information will never for any reason:
When we are acting as the data controller or where permitted by applicable law, we may share your personal information only in the following contexts:
| Category | Disclosure Contexts |
|---|---|
| Research Partners |
We may share your personal information with other institutions and investigators with whom we are conducting research relating to the service, as well as when requested or required by sponsors and other governmental funding agencies in connection with our research. |
| Disclosures with Your Consent |
We may ask if you would like us to share your personal information with other unaffiliated third parties who are not described elsewhere in this Notice. We will only disclose your personal information in this context with your consent. |
| Legal Obligations and Rights |
We disclose personal information in response to subpoenas, warrants, court orders or other legal process, or to comply with relevant laws. We may also share personal information in order to establish or exercise our legal rights, to defend against a legal claim, and to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding possible illegal activities, suspected fraud, safety of person or property, or a violation of contract. We may also disclose personal information as needed to protect vital interests. |
| Service Providers |
We may share personal information with our agents, contractors, and service providers. Among other things, service providers help us to administer the Site and App; support our provision of the App and Site; provide technical support; and assist with other legitimate purposes permitted by law. |
| Professional Advisors |
We may share personal information with our insurers and other professional advisors, including attorneys, accountants, consultants, and auditors, that need access to your information to provide operational or other support services on our behalf. |
| Deidentified or Aggregated Data |
We may share aggregated information and information that does not identify any specific individual, such as groupings of demographic data and user preferences, (i) for compliance with reporting obligations; (ii) for business or marketing purposes; and (iii) to assist us and others in understanding our users' interests, habits, and usage patterns for certain programs, content, services, marketing, and/or functionality. |
We will only keep your information for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, to comply with our business requirements and legal obligations, to resolve disputes, to protect our assets, to operate our business, and to enforce our agreements.
We may delete your information if we believe it is incomplete, inaccurate, or that continued storage of it is contrary to our objectives or legal obligations. When we delete data, it will be removed from our active servers and databases, but it may remain in our archives when it is not practical or possible to delete it.
We may retain and use anonymous, de-identified, or aggregated information for as long as is permitted under applicable law.
We prioritize the security of your data. Any personal information you provide is encrypted and stored securely on our servers. We employ industry-standard security measures to safeguard your data against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction, and we implement multiple layers of security to protect against unauthorized access. From time to time, we review our security procedures and consider new technologies and methods.
But, no security system is perfect, and no data transmission is 100% secure. Although we strive to protect personal information, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information transmitted to or from the Site. Your use of the Site is at your own risk. We cannot guarantee that your data will remain secure in all circumstances.
If a data breach compromises your personal information, we will notify you and any applicable regulator when we are required to do so by applicable law.
Please use the "Contact Us" details at the end of this Notice to exercise your rights and choices under this Notice.
Email Preferences. If you no longer wish to receive communications from us via email, you may opt-out by clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of our emails or by contacting us via the "Contact Us" details at the end of this Notice and providing your name and email address so that we may identify you in the opt-out process. Once we receive your instruction, we will promptly take corrective action. Please note that registered users cannot opt out of receiving transactional e-mails related to their account.
SMS and Text Preferences. If you no longer wish to receive SMS-based communications or alerts from us, you may opt-out by replying "STOP" to any SMS message you receive from us or by disabling SMS notifications in your account settings. Once you opt-out, you will immediately stop receiving SMS messages.
Accuracy and Updating Your Personal Information. Our goal is to keep your personal information accurate, current, and complete. If any of the personal information you have provided to us changes, please update it in your account profile, or let us know via the "Contact Us" details at the end of this Notice. We are not responsible for any losses arising from any inaccurate, inauthentic, deficient, or incomplete personal data that you provide to us.
Complaints. If you believe that your rights relating to your personal information have been violated, you may lodge a complaint with us by contacting us via the "Contact Us" details at the end of this Notice.
This Notice does not apply to any third-party websites or applications. The Site may contain links to, and media or other content from, third parties. These links are to external resources and third parties that have their own privacy policies. Because of the dynamic media capabilities of the Site, it may not be clear which links are to external, third-party resources. If you click on a third-party link, you will be redirected away from the Site. You can check the URL to confirm whether you have left the Site.
We cannot and do not (1) guarantee the adequacy of the privacy or security practices employed by or the content and media provided by any third parties or their websites, (2) control third parties' independent collection or use or your information, or (3) endorse any third-party information, products, services or websites that may be reached through embedded links on the Site.
Any information provided by you or automatically collected from you by a third party will be governed by that party's privacy policy and terms of use.
We are a non-profit organization, and our Site, App, activities, and services are not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect information online from children under the age of 13. No one under the age of 13 may access, browse, or use the Site or App or provide any information to us online. If we learn that we have collected or received personal information from a child under the age of 13 online without a parent's or legal guardian's consent, we will take steps to stop collecting that information and to delete it. If you believe we have received any information from a child under the age of 13 online, please contact us using the "Contact Us" details provided at the end of this Notice.
For more information about COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), please visit the Federal Trade Commission's website at: https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule.
We may add to, change, update, or modify this Notice from time to time. We will post all changes to this Notice on this page, and the updated policy will be effective immediately upon posting. We may also, in our discretion, notify you of changes to this Notice via email.
You are expected to, and you acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to, carefully review this Notice prior to using the Site, and from time to time, so that you are aware of its current terms. Your continued use of the Site after the "Last Updated" date will constitute your acceptance of and agreement to any changes and to our collection and sharing of your information according to the then-current Notice. If you do not agree with this Notice and our practices, you should not use the Site.
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, wish to exercise your rights, or want to submit a complaint, please contact us at support@civicalert.net, and we will do our best to assist you.
This Privacy Policy represents our commitment to protecting your personal information and maintaining your trust in the CivicAlert platform.