General

The Organic Center recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of the users of this website. This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy” or “Policy’’) discloses the privacy practices for the organic-center.org website (“website” or “site”), and it constitutes an agreement between The Organic Center (TOC) and you, as the user of the website (“you”).

Because this website wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, we agree to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance and to notify you of:

  • What personally identifiable information of yours or third party personally identifiable information that is collected from you through the website
  • The organization collecting the information
  • How the information is used
  • With whom the information may be shared
  • What choices are available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of the information
  • The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under TOC control
  • How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information

All activities in which you may engage on this website are voluntary.  You are not required to provide any personal information to us unless you choose to access features on this site that require the information.  If you do not agree with the terms of this Policy or other terms of use on this website, then you should immediately exit this website and discontinue using the site.  If you do not agree with the terms of our Privacy Policy and our terms of use posted at organic-center.org please do not provide us with personal information, and leave this site.  The terms of use of this site are expressly incorporated herein by reference and made a part of this policy.  By using our website, you signify that you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy as well as to our terms of use.

The information about you collected on this website or gathered as a result of your use of this website is subject to this Privacy Policy.

Effective Date

This Privacy Policy is effective as of January 1, 2020 and will remain in effect except with respect to any of its provisions that are changed in the future, in which case the changes will become effective on the date they are posted on the website or we otherwise notify you of the changes.  We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time.  Changes, modifications, additions, or deletions will be effective immediately on their posting to this site.  Please revisit this Privacy Policy from time to time to be sure that you are familiar with the then-current Policy.  Your continued use after we post any such modifications will constitute your acknowledgement of the modified Policy and your agreement to abide and be bound by the modified Policy.  We will also revise the “last updated” date found at the beginning of this Privacy Policy when we post changes to it.

Disclaimers

This Privacy Policy does not extend to anything that is inherent on the operation of the Internet, and therefore beyond our control, and is not to be applied in manner contrary to applicable law or governmental regulation.  This online Privacy Policy only applies to information collected through this site.  This Privacy Policy does not apply to any information we collect from you in any place other than this website.

Personal Information We May Collect

We may ask you for certain information referred to on this site as “personal information,” which includes information that pertains to your identify.  Such information may include, but is not limited to, items such as your name, address, date of birth, age, gender, e-mail address, and telephone number of credit or debate card number.  You may be required to provide personal information to access or use certain parts of our website or features of the site.  If you do not provide the requested personal information, you may note be able to access or use the features of the site where such information is requested.

General Information We May Collect

There may be other instances in which we collect information from you that is more general in nature (“general information”).  Such information may include your INTERNET protocol (IP) address, which enables us to identify your computer of device on a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network, which includes the World Wide Web.  Your computer has an IP address, which is required in order for you to communicate with others via the Internet.  Such general information, including the click stream data and cookies, as mentioned below, may be collected from you whenever you access the site, whether or not you provide us with any personal information.

Click Stream Data

When you visit our website, we may also collect “click stream date” (server address, domain name).  This information can be combined with information you have provided to us by registering, for example, which will enable us to analyze and better customize your visits. We may use click stream data for traffic analysis or e-commerce analysis of our website, to determine which features of our site are most or least effective or useful to you.

Information Collection and Use

TOC is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not disclose this information to others in ways different from those disclosed in this Privacy Policy.

We collect information from our users and encourage them to communicate with us at several different points on this site, and we maintain this information electronically or in hard copy format. We use the information that we collect from our users to provide the information and features available on this site, as well as for development of new services and features and to otherwise improve this site, and for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. The Organic Center respects the privacy of visitors to organic-center.org. E-mail addresses and other volunteered information are generally kept confidential. However, we have several partner organizations we may occasionally share information with, including but not limited to, the Organic Trade Association. Except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy, we will not sell, share, rent or otherwise disclose to any third party any personally identifiable information that we collect from our users without their permission.

Some of the information collected on this site or gathered as a result of your use of this site is as follows:

  • We collect and store site visitor information in aggregate form such as the operating system, platform, browser and geographic location of your computer.
  • We collect and store your access times and dates, page statistics, sites that referred you to our site and the kind of errors you may encounter while using our site.
  • We also collect and store the Internet Protocol ("IP") address of the computer you use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
  • If you choose to identify yourself or others by sending us e-mail, regular mail, or other correspondence, you may disclose personally identifiable information about yourself or others to us.
  • We use information we collect from the site to analyze trends, administer this site, monitor overall site traffic and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
  • We may provide certain non-personally identifiable information to third parties in aggregate form. This is not linked to any personal information that can identify any individual person.

If you send us personally identifiable information about yourself and request information that can be provided by third parties (e.g., press, clients, or others), we will share such information with those third parties to help answer or address any questions or inquiries you may have. In addition, we may contact you to respond to your particular inquiry. We may also disclose personally identifiable information and/or IP addresses to a third party if we believe in good faith that the law or legal process requires it, or to protect our rights or property or the rights or property of others.

All correspondence we receive from you, whether by e-mail, regular mail, or otherwise will be kept for as long as they are needed or are relevant.

Use of Cookies

As with all websites, organic-center.org logs certain information from each visitor, such as which files are being accessed and the time of day. Cookies are small text files containing a string of characters that can be placed on your computer or mobile device that uniquely identify your browser or device. Cookies allow a site or services to know if your computer or device has visited that site or service before. Cookies can then be used to help understand how the site or service is being used, help you navigate between pages efficiently, help remember your preferences, and generally improve your browsing experience. Cookies can also help ensure marketing you see online is more relevant to you and your interests.

Our website stores and retrieves information on your browser using cookies. This information is used to make the site work as you expect it to. It is not personally identifiable to you, but it can be used to give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose to change your privacy preferences to prevent non-essential cookies from being set.

 

How We Respond to “Do Not Track” Disclosures

We are strongly committed to not sharing non-public information with third parties.  Under this Privacy Policy, we may share your information only under particular situations, as described in this Policy.  Because we protect all users in this manner, we do not change our behavior in response to a web browser’s “do not track” signal.

 

Security

All of the information that we collect is either stored electronically or is restricted in our offices. Only personnel who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information.

Please be advised, however, that although we have endeavored to create a secure and reliable site for you, the confidentiality of any communication or material transmitted to or from this site cannot be guaranteed. We urge you to exercise caution when conveying personal information over the Internet. For example, if you send us e-mail, you should know that e-mail is not necessarily secure against interception.

When disclosing any personal information, you should remain mindful of the fact that it is potentially accessible to the public and, consequently, may be collected and used by others without your consent. You should therefore consider carefully if you want to submit sensitive information that you would not want disclosed to the public. You should also recognize that your use of the Internet and this site is solely at your own risk. You agree that we have no responsibility or liability for the security of personal information transmitted via this Site, the Internet in general or through any other medium.

Site Links

This site may contain links to other websites. Please be aware that our other websites have their own separate privacy policies. With the exception of our own websites, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave this site and to read the privacy statements of each and every site that collects personal information about you. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by this Site.

Privacy Contact

We welcome your questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy and the use of your personal information. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or about our information-collection practices, or if you wish to remove any of your personal information from our database, please contact us. Alternatively, you can contact us in writing at The Organic Center, The Hall of the States, 444 N. Capitol St. NW, Suite 445A, Washington D.C. 20001. If you do so, we may use the information you provide in the ways we have described in this Privacy Policy.

Notification of Change

If we are going to use your personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection, we will notify you via e-mail. You will have a choice as to whether or not we use your information in this different manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our website notifying users of the change. In some cases where we post the notice we will also e-mail users who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.