Privacy Policy

Benevolist, Inc. (“Benevolist,” “we” or “us”) respects the privacy of its users. This Privacy Policy (the “Privacy Policy”) is intended to describe for individuals who are users (hereinafter, “you” or “users”) of our website, benevolist.org (the “Website”):

  • the Personally Identifiable Information (or PII, as defined below) we collect;
  • how that PII may be used;
  • with whom that PII may be shared;
  • your choices about such uses and disclosures; and
  • your use of the Service (as defined below) and other interactions you may have with us.

We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully when using the Service. By using the Service, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please contact us through the Contact Us page on Benevolist.org.

Overview

The Site offers a service that generally allows for the creation of a needs based listing and coordination service (known and referred to as a Benevolist) for a recipient or recipients. This includes, without limitation, tools to create a list, send or share list links, receive email invitations or notifications, and share updates, including but not limited to the Website. The services provided through the Website are herein referred to as the “Service”. These Terms of Service govern and apply to your use of the Service.

Information we collect about you

We may collect personal information that can identify a living person, such as your name, email address, and contact information (“PII” or “Personally Identifiable Information”). We may also collect information that does not identify you, such as data collected automatically through the Service infrastructure itself (“Usage Data”). When you provide PII through our Website, the information may be sent to servers located in the United States and other countries around the world.

  • Information you provide. We may collect and store any PII you enter on our Website or provide to us in some other manner.
  • Information from other sources. We may also periodically obtain PII, Usage Data or other information (updated delivery and address information, purchase history, and additional demographic information) about you from business partners, contractors, and other third parties and add it to your account information or other information we have collected.

Your choices about collection and use of your information

New Users

  • You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but that may result in you being unable to use certain features of our Website because such information may be required in order for you to register as a member.

Registered Users

  • Account Changes
    • Profile Changes (except for account closure) may be done at any time through the Website. Click on the “My Account” link, and change the desired information.
    • Account Closure: If you have an online profile with us, you may choose to close your account at any time by submitting a request via the “Contact Us” link on the home page of the Website. After you close your account, you will not be able to sign in to our Website, access any of your PII and list creation history, purchase history, and all events that you have created or scheduled will be cancelled. You can open a new account at any time.
      • If you close your account, we may still retain certain information associated with your account for analytical purposes and record keeping integrity, as well as to prevent fraud, enforce our Terms of Service (the “Terms of Service”), take actions we deem necessary to protect the integrity of our Website or our users, or take other actions otherwise permitted by law. In addition, if certain information has already been provided to third parties as described in this Privacy Policy, retention of that information will be subject to those third parties’ policies.

Removing PII from a specific Benevolist

  • Delete your name from an invitation list: You may delete your name from a Benevolist invitation list by logging into your account and proceeding to the “Dashboard” and selecting the “Remove Me” button. Once your name is removed from the invitation list, it will no longer be accessible to other invitees (unless you are subsequently re-invited to participate in the Benevolist by the organizer or the recipient. Once you are removed, you will no longer receive communication related to the Benevolist). You must individually remove your name from each Benevolist you do not wish to participate in.
  • Cancel a Benevolist: As the organizer you can cancel a Benevolist you created by signing into your account and opening the Benevolist and selecting “Delete this List”.

Information we collect about others

We may collect and store information about others that you provide to us. If you use our Website to create a Benevolist for others (friends, relatives, colleagues, etc.) or to send invitations or messages through our system, we may store your PII, and the PII of each such recipient. We use invitees’ contact information to allow them to view, respond to, and comment on your Benevolist invitation.

We may send reminders to invitees, other Benevolist related information, and we may display their email addresses or names to other invitees of the same Benevolist. We also may send post-Benevolist emails to the recipients, organizers, and participants. If you use the reminders feature of the Services, we use the information you provide in your reminders to send it to you and others to whom you have requested it be sent. Anyone may opt out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from us by contacting us.

Other than as described in this Policy we will not intentionally sell or otherwise disclose invitee contact information you submit to any third party. We may also collect invitees’ contact information in order to provide certain services through our Website.

Use of cookies

  • Information collected automatically. We automatically collect information from your browser when you visit our Website. This information may include your IP address, your browser type and language, access times, the content of any undeleted cookies that your browser previously accepted from us (see “Cookies” below), and the referring website address.
  • Cookies. When you visit our Website, we may assign your computer one or more cookies to facilitate access to our Website and to personalize your online experience. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on our site, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on our site. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, please note that you may not be able to sign in or use some of the interactive features offered on our Website.
  • Other Technologies. We may use standard internet technology, such as pixel tags, web beacons and other similar technologies, to track your use of our site. We also may include web beacons in promotional or other email messages or newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon. We also may receive an anonymous identification number if you come to our Website from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website. The information we obtain in this manner enables us to customize the services we offer our Website visitors to deliver targeted advertisements and to measure the overall effectiveness of our online advertising, content, or other activities.
  • Information collected by third parties. We may allow third parties, including our authorized service providers, advertising companies, and ad networks, to display advertisements on the Website. These companies may use tracking technologies, such as cookies, to collect information about users who view or interact with their advertisements. Our Website does not provide any PII to these third parties.

How we use the information you provide

  • manage your profile and provide you with customer support;
  • to deliver invitations and/or other products and services that you have requested;
  • share information you have voluntarily provided about yourself with other registered invitees who have been invited to the Benevolist;
  • perform research and analysis about your use of, or interest in, our products, the Services, or content, or products, services or content offered by others;
  • develop and display content and advertising tailored to your interests on our Website and other sites;
  • enforce our Terms of Service;
  • manage our business; and
  • perform functions as otherwise described to you at the time of collection.

With whom we share your information

Personally Identifiable Information

We do not share your PII with others except as indicated below or when we inform you and give you an opportunity to opt out of having your PII shared. We may share PII with:

  • Other Users. Invited users and/or those in possession of the unique Benevolist URL will be able to view the PII of the Benevolist recipient that is included in the specific Benevolist Summary page. In addition, other invitees to a specific Benevolist may choose to email you through Benevolist pertaining to the Service.
    • To ensure your privacy, Benevolist will not give out your email address or any other contact information (nor the email address or any other contact information of the Benevolist recipient) to other Benevolist users not associated with a mutual and specific Benevolist (except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy.) Other Benevolist users who would like to participate must be invited, obtain the unique URL assigned to the specific Benevolist, and be registered users of Benevolist in order to participate and access PII associated with a specific Benevolist.
  • Service Providers, Business Partners and Others. We may employ third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our service, to provide the service on our behalf, to perform Site-related services (including but not limited to data storage, maintenance services, database management, web analytics, payment processing, and improvement of the Site’s features) or to assist us in analyzing how the Service are used. These third parties have access to your PII only for purposes of performing these tasks on our behalf.
  • Business partners: When you make purchases through the Website or our services, we may share PII with the businesses with which we partnered to offer you products or services. When you elect to engage in a particular merchant’s offer or program, you authorize us to provide your email address and other information to that merchant.
  • Other Situations. We also may disclose your information:
    • In response to a subpoena or similar investigative demand, a court order, or a request for cooperation from law enforcement or other government agency; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases, we may raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us.
    • When we believe disclosure is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent, or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, our employees, or others; to comply with applicable law or cooperate with law enforcement; or to enforce our Website Terms of Service or other agreements or policies.
    • In connection with a substantial corporate transaction, such as the sale of our business, a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.

Any third parties to whom we may disclose PII may have their own privacy policies which describe how they use and disclose PII. Those policies will govern use, handling and disclosure of your PII once we have shared it with those third parties as described in this Privacy Policy. If you want to learn more about their privacy practices, we encourage you to visit the websites of those third parties.

Aggregated and non-personal information

We may share aggregated and non-personal information we collect under any of the above circumstances. We may also share it with third parties to develop and deliver targeted advertising on our Website and on the websites of third parties. We may combine non-personally identifiable information we collect with additional non-personal information collected from other sources. We also may share aggregated information with third parties, including advisors, advertisers and investors, for the purpose of conducting general business analysis. This information does not contain any PII and may be used to develop website content and services that we hope you and other users will find of interest and to target content and advertising.

Security

Benevolist is very concerned with safeguarding your information. We employ reasonable measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access. Please refer to the Federal Trade Commission’s website for information about how to protect yourself against identity theft. The security of your data is important to us but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your PII, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Third-party websites

There may be places on the Website where you may click on a link to access other websites that do not operate under this Privacy Policy. We recommend that you consult the privacy statements of all third-party websites you visit by clicking on the “privacy” link typically located at the bottom of the webpage you are visiting. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Children’s privacy

We do not knowingly collect PII from children under the age of 13.

Our policy on “Do Not Track” signals under the California Online Protection Act (CalOPPA)

We do not support Do Not Track (“DNT”). Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked.

You can enable or disable Do Not Track by visiting the Preferences or Settings page of your web browser.

Legal basis for processing PII under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are from the European Economic Area (EEA),Benevolist’s legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described in this Privacy Policy depends on the PII we collect and the specific context in which we collect it.

Benevolist may process your PII because:

  • We need to perform a service pursuant to a contract with you
  • You have given us permission to do so
  • The processing is in our legitimate interests and it is not overridden by your rights
  • To comply with the law

Your Data Protection Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain data protection rights. Benevolist aims to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete or limit the use of your PII.

If you wish to be informed about what PII we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us.

In certain circumstances, you have the following data protection rights:

The right to access, update or delete the information we have regarding you. Whenever made possible, you can access, update or request deletion of your PII directly within your account settings section. If you are unable to perform these actions yourself, please contact us to assist you.

The right of rectification. You have the right to have your information rectified if that information is inaccurate or incomplete.

The right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your PII.

The right of restriction. You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information.

The right to data portability. You have the right to be provided with a copy of the information we have regarding you in a structured, machine-readable and commonly used format.

The right to withdraw consent. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where Benevolist relied on your consent to process your personal information.

Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.

You have the right to complain to the applicable Data Protection Authority about our collection and use of your PII. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We will occasionally update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices and services. When we post changes to this Privacy Policy, we will revise the “last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share your PII, we will notify you by prominently posting notice of the changes on our Website. We recommend that you check our Website from time to time to inform yourself of any changes in this Privacy Policy or any of our other policies.

Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement

If you have a claim of copyright infringement, you must send written notification to the following Designated Agent:

info@benevolist.org

To be effective, the notification must include the following:

  • A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
  •  Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
  • Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material;
  • Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted;
  • A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  • A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.