Privacy Policy

Introduction

Algalita (referred to as “We, “Our” or “Us”), is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. We take care to protect the privacy of our customers and users of our products that communicate (online or offline) with us, at events, over the phone, through our websites and social media platforms. 

We have therefore developed this privacy policy to inform you of the data we collect, what we do with your information, what we do to keep it secure as well as the rights and choices you have over your personal information. 

Throughout this document we refer to Data Protection Legislation, which means the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and any legislation implemented in connection with the aforementioned legislation. Where personal data is processed by a controller or processor established in the European Union, European Economic Area (EEA) or the data of people in the European Union, it also includes the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR). This includes any replacement legislation coming into effect from time to time. 

Whilst Algalita is a charitable Not for Profit organization and therefore not subject to California Consumers Privacy Act 2018 (CCPA), reference to some aspects of the legislation have been included to demonstrate best practice according to California State Law. Algalita also complies with the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003 (CalOPPA) – a privacy law that applies to any website that collects the Personal Identity Information (PII) of California residents. 

Algalita is the data controller for the personal information we process, unless otherwise stated. 

You can contact us by email or mail.  

Our Data Protection Lead: Katie Allen 

Email:  katie@algalita.org 

Our main postal address: 

Algalita
148 N. Marina Drive,
Long Beach,
CA 90803 

 

 

What personal data we collect, when we receive it and how we use it

We will never sell your personal data to anyone.

We only collect personal information that we know we will genuinely use and in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation.  The type of personal information that we will collect about you, and the personal data you voluntarily provide to us on this website depends on how you interact with our site and may include some or all of the following:

  • When you contact us via our websites or directly via email – for example, when you complete our Contact Us forms or complete a survey we will collect your name, email address, phone number, the content of the message, etc. We use this information to respond to queries and improve our programs and services.
  • When you sign up for our newsletters – we will collect your name and email address to add you to our newsletter mailing list to send you the resources you requested. You can always amend your marketing preferences, including to unsubscribe from our newsletters by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of any of our newsletters, or by contacting us at info@algalita.org.
  • When you sign up for an event or educational programming, volunteer with us, or sign up to receive Algalita content and materials – for example when you request a toolkit, or when you register for an online or in-person Algalita event or fieldtrip, we may collect your name, phone number, email, address, payment information, shipping/school/home address, signature etc. to deliver the resources or programming to you.
  • When you donate or purchase merchandise, event tickets, or educational programming – for example when you donate through our online donation portal, purchase a tshirt, toolkit, event ticket, or fieldtrip programming, we may collect your name, email, phone number, address, work address, and payment information for the purpose of carrying out a financial transaction and delivering the receipt, goods, or services.
  • When you create an account – for example, when you create an individual, student, or class account in our Wayfinder Society program, we may collect your username, email, birth year, school name, grade, city, state, country, parent/guardian email address, and optional photograph to establish your unique, secure account so we can track your progress through the program, communicate with you via our secure messaging system to provide feedback on your action submissions, send you certificates, review your Action Project submissions, and award you points (Hours) for successful submissions.
  • When you interact with us on social media – for example, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), LinkedIn, YouTube, or Pinterest, your personal data is processed by the social media platform providers under the privacy policies and processes. We process your personal data collected from social media to respond to your messages or send you direct communications.
  • When you apply for a role advertised on our website – we will collect your name, email address, address, phone number, your CV/resume and submitted application responses. We use this data to evaluate your application and communicate with you during the recruitment process.
  • When you visit our website we use cookies – (small data files transferred onto computers or devices by sites) for record-keeping purposes and to enhance functionality on our site. You may deactivate or restrict the transmission of cookies by changing the settings of your web browser, or clicking the cookie icon at the bottom left-hand corner of the website. Cookies that are already stored may be deleted at any time.
  • When you visit our website we will store usage data including – the website you visited us from, the parts of our site you visit, the date and duration of your visit, your IP address which we store in full form in the server logs for 30 days for security reasons and which we anonymise on receipt for use in website analytics, information from the device (device type, operating system, screen resolution, language, country your are located in, and web browser type) you used during your visit, and more. We process this usage data using Matomo Analytics, and we process the information for statistical purposes, to improve our site and to recognize and stop any misuse. You can opt out of being tracked by our Matomo Analytics instance in our CookieYes cookie manager at the bottom left-hand corner of the website, or with the checkbox below.

 

Opt-out of website tracking

You may choose to prevent this website from aggregating and analyzing the actions you take here. Doing so will protect your privacy, but will also prevent the owner from learning from your actions and creating a better experience for you and other users.

You may choose to prevent this website from aggregating and analyzing the actions you take here. Doing so will protect your privacy, but will also prevent the owner from learning from your actions and creating a better experience for you and other users.

Please be aware that some browsers can delete the opt-out cookie if you have not visited our website in anywhere between 7 days (Safari), 45 days (Firefox) or 400 days (Chrome) as of the date of this policy. These timeframes may be subject to change. If you are not a regular visitor to our websites and wish to opt-out of analytics use, please check the setting when you visit, to make sure the opt-out is still recognized by your browser.

 

Legal Bases

If you are in the UK under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), or in the EU under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:  

  • (a) Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting katie@algalita.org. 
  • (b) We have a contractual obligation. 
  • (c) We have a legal obligation 
  • (d) To protect your vital interests 
  • (f) We have a legitimate interest. 
    • Where we collect data based on our legitimate interest, our interest will not override your individual rights and freedoms. 

If you are a California resident, under the CCPA, we will process your personal data where we have your consent. If you are under the age of 13, we require your parent’s consent before processing your data. 

Who we might share your information with

We may share your personal data with other organizations in the following circumstances: 

  • If the law or a public authority lawfully requests the personal data; 
  • If we need to share personal data in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (this includes providing personal data to others for the purposes of preventing fraud and reducing credit risk); or
  • From time to time, employ the services of other parties for dealing with certain processes necessary for the operation of the Website. However, all the information we share will be collected and anonymised, so neither you nor any of your devices can be identified from it. 
  • We will not share your information with any third parties for the purposes of direct marketing. 
  • We use data processors who are third parties who provide elements of services for us, such as to manage our donations and collect surveys. We have Data Processor Agreements in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us or further sub-processors who must comply with our Data Processing Agreement. They will hold your personal data securely and retain it for the period we instruct.   
  • Algalita does not sell your personal information. 
  • We may share your information with our relevant partners in order to provide our services. 

How long we keep your information for

We retain a record of your personal information in order to provide you with a high quality and consistent service. We will always retain your personal information in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation and never retain your information for longer than is necessary. We will retain your personal data for receipt of the newsletter until you opt-out of receiving communications. 

Your rights over your information (EU and UK)

The right to be informed about our collection and use of personal data 

You have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data. We ensure we do this with our internal data protection policies and through our external website policy. These are regularly reviewed and updated to ensure these are accurate and reflect our data processing activities. 

Right to Access Your Personal Information 

You have the right to access the personal information that we hold about you in many circumstances, by making a request. This is sometimes termed ‘Subject Access Request’. If we agree that we are obliged to provide personal information to you (or someone else on your behalf), we will provide it to you or them free of charge and aim to do so within 1 month from when your identity has been confirmed. 

We would ask for proof of identity and sufficient information about your interactions with us so that we can locate your personal information. 

If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us as set out below. 

Right to Correct Your Personal Information 

If any of the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, you may ask us to correct it. 

If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us as set out below. 

Right to restrict processing 

You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data. For example, this may be because you have issues with the accuracy of the data we hold or the way we have processed your data. The right is not absolute and only applies in certain circumstances. 

If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us as set out below. 

Right to Erasure 

You have the right to have personal data erased. This is also known as the ‘right to be forgotten’. The right is not absolute and only applies in certain circumstances.  

If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us as set out below. 

Right to Portability 

The right to portability gives you the right to receive personal data you have provided to a controller in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. It also gives you the right to request that a controller transmits this data directly to another controller. 

If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us as set out below. 

Right to object 

You have the right to object to our processing of some or all of the personal data that we hold about you. This is an absolute right when we use your data for direct marketing but may not apply in other circumstances where we have a compelling reason to do so, e.g., a legal obligation.  

For more information about your privacy rights if you are based in the UK 

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) regulates data protection and privacy matters in the UK. They make a lot of information accessible to consumers on their website and they ensure that the registered details of all data controllers such as ourselves are available publicly. You can access them here https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public. 

You can make a complaint to the ICO at any time about the way we use your information. However, we hope that you would consider raising any issue or complaint you have with us first. Your satisfaction is extremely important to us, and we will always do our very best to solve any problems you may have.  

Your rights over your information (California)

California Privacy Rights 

To the extent provided for by law and subject to applicable exceptions, California residents have the following privacy rights in relation to the Personal Information we collect: 

  • The right to know what Personal Information we have collected and how we have used and disclosed that Personal Information; 
  • The right to request deletion of your Personal Information;
  • The right to be free from discrimination relating to the exercise of any of your privacy rights. 
  • The right to opt out of the sale of your personal information
  • The right to not be discriminated against based on actions you take regarding your data Exercising Your Rights. 

California residents can exercise the above privacy rights by contacting us at katie@algalita.org. 

Security

Data security is of great importance to Algalita and to protect your data we have put in place suitable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure your collected data.   

We take security measures to protect your information including: 

  • Limiting access to our buildings to those that we have determined are entitled to be there.
  • Implementing access controls to our information technology.
  • We use appropriate procedures and technical security measures (including strict encryption, anonymisation and archiving techniques) to safeguard your information across all our computer systems, networks, websites, and offices.
  • Never asking you for your passwords. 
  • Advising you never to enter your password into an email or after following a link from an email. 

One of our security providers is Google ReCaptcha. Google asks us to tell you that this is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. 

What happens if our business changes hands?

We may, from time to time, expand or reduce our business and this may involve the sale and/or the transfer of control of all or part of our business. Any personal data that you have provided will, where it is relevant to any part of our business that is being transferred, be transferred along with that part and the new owner or newly controlling party will, under the terms of this Privacy Policy, be permitted to use that data only for the purposes for which it was originally collected by us. 

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time (for example, if the law changes). We recommend that you check this policy regularly to keep up to date. 

How to contact us

If you would like to exercise one of your rights as set out above, or you have a question or a complaint about this policy, the way your personal information is processed, please contact us by one of the following means: 

By email: katie@algalita.org 

Via our website: Home – Algalita 

Thank you for taking the time to read our Privacy Policy. 

Algalita 

 

This Policy was last updated on 12/19/24