Privacy Policy

LAST REVIEWED: July 15, 2022

PURPOSE

This statement summarizes the Start Somewhere, LLC. (“Lesbians Who Tech”) privacy policy and explains how we collect, use and disclose information we receive through our Services. We are committed to respecting and maintaining the privacy of customer information that may be collected by us or submitted to us through www.lesbianswhotech.org (“Website”) or via other means of communication. We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make changes to this policy, we will notify you by updating this statement on our Website.

This Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference into the Lesbians Who Tech Terms of Service found here. We welcome your questions, comments, and concerns about privacy. For the update or removal of personal information, please contact us at squad@lesbianswhotech.org.

SCOPE

This Privacy Policy applies to Personal Information that is Processed by Lesbians Who Tech in the course of our business, including on Lesbians Who Tech website, blogs, and other online or offline offerings. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any third-party websites, services or applications, even if they are accessible through our Services. All individuals whose responsibilities include the Processing of Personal Information on behalf of Lesbians Who Tech are expected to protect that data by adherence to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is intended to meet requirements globally.

TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOW WE USE IT

Our primary goal in collecting information from you is to provide you with a smooth, efficient and customized experience while using our Website and to allow us to provide events and services to you.  Lesbians Who Tech may collect personally identifiable information such as name, job title, company, home and/or work address, email address, and phone number when you sign up for a Lesbians Who Tech event and when you register for Company mailing lists or utilize certain services.  For purposes of billing, you may need to provide your credit card type, number, expiration date and billing address for the card. We will also ask for your email address and save your information when you request an invite to the Website. We collect this information so we can send you relevant email messages related to your interest in Lesbians Who Tech, including information regarding updates to the Website, newsletters, and promotions. If you do not wish to receive these email communications, you can opt-out by clicking on the “unsubscribe” hyperlink in the emails or by emailing us at squad@lesbianswhotech.org.

Like many websites, we automatically collect information about your use of our Website in an effort to improve customer experience, website design, product assortment, and the services we provide, to note trends and statistics, and to detect potential cases of fraud. We gather information about IP address, browser, language preferences, date and time of visit, and pages accessed. When possible, we also gather demographic data including age range, gender, and interests. Place of processing: USA. Find Google’s privacy policy here.

Although Lesbians Who Tech uses industry standard practices to protect your information, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Due to technical limitations, we cannot and do not guarantee that your personal information or private communications will always remain private. This Website may contain links to and portions of other sites. Lesbians Who Tech is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these other sites. When you leave our Website or view a portion of a third party’s site through our Website, we encourage you to read the privacy statements of each such site. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by Lesbians Who Tech.

Some of the ways that Lesbians Who Tech may collect Personal Information include:

  • You may provide Personal Information directly to Lesbians Who Tech through interacting with the Services, making online purchases, participating in surveys, attending events, and requesting Services or information.
  • As you navigate the Services, certain passive information may also be collected about your visit, including through cookies and similar technologies as described below.

Some types of personal information we collect include:

  • Information You Provide Directly to Us. When you use the Services or engage in certain activities, such as registering for an Event with Lesbians Who Tech, making an online purchase, responding to surveys, requesting Services or information, or contacting us directly, we may ask you to provide some or all of the following types of information:
    • Registering for an Event with Us. When you register for an Event we will automatically add you to our mailing list. To add you to a mailing list, we’ll collect certain information that can be used to identify you, such as your name, email, title, postal address, zip code and phone number.
    • Communications with Us. We may collect Personal Information from you such as email address, phone number or mailing address when you choose to request information about our Services, attend an event, register for Lesbians Who Tech’s newsletter, request to receive customer or technical support, or otherwise communicate with us.
    • Surveys. From time to time, we may contact you to participate in online surveys. If you do decide to participate, you may be asked to provide certain information which may include Personal Information. All information collected from your participation in our surveys is provided by you voluntarily. We may use such information to improve our products, Sites and/or services and in any manner consistent with the policies provided herein.
    • Automatic Data Collection. Our servers automatically record certain information about how Individuals use our Services (we refer to this information as “Event Data”). Event Data may include information such as an Individual’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, cookie identifiers, MAC address, IMEI, Advertiser ID, and other device identifiers that are automatically assigned to your computer or device when you access the Internet, operating system, browser type and language, hardware type, the web page that a User was visiting before accessing our Services, the pages or features of our Services to which a User browsed and the time spent on those pages or features, search terms, the links on our Services that a User clicked on and other statistics. We use Event Data to administer the Services and we analyze (and may engage third parties to analyze) Event Data to improve, customize and enhance our Services by expanding their features and functionality and tailoring them to Individuals’ needs and preferences. We may use a person’s IP address to generate aggregate, non-identifying information about how our Services are used.
    • Location Information. We may collect and store information about your location by converting your IP address into a rough geo-location. We may use location information to improve and personalize our Services for you.
    • Information Submitted Via Services. You agree that Lesbians Who Tech is free to use the content of any communications submitted by you via the Services, including any ideas, inventions, concepts, techniques, or know-how disclosed therein, for any purpose including developing, manufacturing, and/or marketing events or Services. Lesbians Who Tech will not release your name or otherwise publicize the fact that you submitted materials or other information to us unless: (a) you grant us permission to do so; (b) we first send notice to you that the materials or other information you submit to a particular part of a Service will be published or otherwise used with your name on it; or (c) we are required to do so by law.

How Lesbians Who Tech uses your information:

  • To Provide Products, Services, or Information Requested. Lesbians Who Tech may use information about you to fulfill requests for events, Services, or information, including information about potential or future Services.
  • Administrative Purposes. Lesbians Who Tech may use Personal Information about you for its administrative purposes, including to:
    • Develop new events and Services;
    • Ensure internal quality control;
    • Verify Individual identity;
    • Send email to the email address you provide to us to verify your Event status and for informational and operational purposes, such as Community management, customer service, or system maintenance;
    • Process payment for products or services purchased;
    • Prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities;
    • Enforce our Terms.
  • Marketing Lesbians Who Tech Events and Services. Lesbians Who Tech may use Personal Information to provide you with materials about offers, products, and Services that may be of interest, including new content or Services. Lesbians Who Tech may provide you with these materials by phone, postal mail, fax, or email, as permitted by applicable law. Such uses include:
    • To tailor content, advertisements, and offers;
    • To notify you about offers, products, and services that may be of interest to you;
    • To provide Services to you and our sponsors;
    • For other purposes disclosed at the time that Individuals provide Personal Information; or
    • Otherwise with your consent.

You may contact us at any time to opt out of the use of your Personal Information for marketing purposes.

  • Research and Development. We may share aggregated information and non-identifying information with third parties for industry research and analysis, demographic profiling and other similar purposes. We may contract with third parties who provide us with other information about you, which we may then combine with the information we receive from you. We use this information to better provide our Services, to customize our advertisements to you and other customers, and to provide direct marketing to you, including by mail.

COOKIES, PIXEL, BEACONS, ANALYTICS INFORMATION, AND INTEREST-BASED ADVERTISING

We may use various mechanisms to track activity on the Website, including cookies.  A cookie is a small removable data file that is stored on your computer’s hard drive when you visit our Website. This allows us to collect information about your usage of our Website in an effort to improve customer experience, analyze usage patterns, and tailor the Website to our users’ needs.  Cookies are safe and cannot be used to deliver a virus. Cookies only identify your computer to our servers when you visit our Website. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies. If you do not wish to accept cookies, you can refuse the transfer of cookies to your computer’s hard drive by adjusting your Internet browser.  Without accepting a cookie, you can browse through our site, but you will be unable to establish a shopping cart session and make a purchase on-line. Other mechanisms used:

  • Pixel Tags/Web Beacons. A pixel tag (also known as a web beacon) is a piece of code embedded on the Site that collects information about users’ engagement on that web page. The use of a pixel allows us to record, for example, that a user has visited a particular web page or clicked on a particular advertisement.
  • Social Media Widgets: Our Website includes social media features such as the Facebook “Like” button and LinkedIn (that might include widgets such as the share this button or other interactive mini-programs). These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. These social media features are either hosted by a Third Party or hosted directly on our Website. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
  • Analytics. We use Google Analytics, a service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”), to gather information about how users engage with our Services. For more information about Google Analytics, please visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You can opt out of Google’s collection and processing of data generated by your use of the Services by going to http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Our uses of such Technologies fall into the following general categories:

  • Operationally Necessary. We may use cookies, web beacons, or other similar technologies that are necessary to the operation of our sites, services, applications, and tools. This includes technologies that allow you access to our sites, services, applications, and tools; that are required to identify irregular site behavior, prevent fraudulent activity and improve security; or that allow you to make use of our functions such as shopping-carts, saved search, or similar functions;
  • Performance Related. We may use cookies, web beacons, or other similar technologies to assess the performance of our websites, applications, services, and tools, including as part of our analytic practices to help us understand how our visitors use our websites, determine if you have interacted with our messaging, determine whether you have viewed an item or link, or to improve our website content, applications, services, or tools;
  • Functionality Related. We may use cookies, web beacons, or other similar technologies that allow us to offer you enhanced functionality when accessing or using our sites, services, applications, or tools.
  • Advertising or Targeting Related. We may use first-party or third-party cookies and web beacons to deliver content, including ads relevant to your interests, on our sites or on third party sites. This includes using technologies to understand the usefulness to you of the advertisements and content that has been delivered to you, such as whether you have clicked on an advertisement.

If you would like to opt out of the Technologies we employ on our sites, services, applications, or tools, you may do so by blocking, deleting, or disabling them as your browser or device permits.

THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES, SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS, AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT KITS

The Site may contain links to other websites and other websites may reference or link to our Site or other Services. These other domains and websites are not controlled by us, and Lesbians Who Tech does not endorse or make any representations about Third-Party websites or social media platforms. We encourage our users to read the privacy policies of each and every website and application with which they interact. We do not endorse, screen or approve, and are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other websites or applications. Visiting these other websites or applications is at your own risk.

Lesbians Who Tech’s Services may include publicly accessible blogs, community forums, or private messaging features. The Site and our other Services may also contain links and interactive features with various social media platforms (e.g., widgets). If you already use these platforms, their cookies may be set on your device when using our Site or other Services. You should be aware that Personal Information which you voluntarily include and transmit online in a publicly accessible blog, chat room, social media platform or otherwise online, or that you share in an open forum may be viewed and used by others without any restrictions. We are unable to control such uses of your information when interacting with a social media platform, and by using such services you assume the risk that the Personal Information provided by you may be viewed and used by third parties for any number of purposes.

THIRD-PARTY PAYMENT PROCESSING

When you make purchases through the Services, we process your payments through a Third-Party application. The Third-Party application may collect certain financial information from you to process a payment on behalf of Lesbians Who Tech, including your name, email address, address and other billing information.

ONWARD TRANSFER—LESBIANS WHO TECH MAY DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION

Information We Share.

We may share your information as described in this Privacy Policy (e.g., with our Third-Party service providers; to comply with legal obligations; to protect and defend our rights and property) or with your permission.

  • Information Shared with Our Services Providers. We may engage third-party services providers to work with us to administer and provide the Services. Some of examples of these third-party’s services are payment processing, shipping, and handling returns. These third-party services providers have access to your Personal Information only for the purpose of performing services on our behalf and are expressly obligated not to disclose or use your Personal Information for any other purpose. When you make a payment, the third-party payment processor (e.g., Eventbrite, PayPal, Square) receives your full payment information and we receive only a funding confirmation.

Lesbians Who Tech has executed appropriate contracts with the service providers that prohibit them from using or sharing Personal Information except as necessary to perform the contracted services on our behalf or to comply with applicable legal requirements.

  • Business Partners. Lesbians Who Tech may share Personal Information with our business partners, and affiliates for our and our affiliates’ internal business purposes or to provide you with an event or service that you have requested. Lesbians Who Tech may also provide Personal Information to business partners with whom we may jointly offer events or services, or whose products or services we believe may be of interest to you. In such cases, our business partner’s name will appear, along with Lesbians Who Tech. Lesbians Who Tech requires our affiliates and business partners to agree in writing to maintain the confidentiality and security of Personal Information they maintain on our behalf and not to use it for any purpose other than the purpose for which Lesbians Who Tech provided them.
  • Displaying to Other Members. We do not share any information you give us with any other members.
  • Marketing – Interest-Based Advertising and Third-Party Marketing. Through our Services, Lesbians Who Tech never allows Third-Party advertising partners to set tracking tools (e.g., cookies) to collect information regarding your activities (e.g., your IP address, page(s) visited, time of day).
  • Disclosures to Protect Us or Others (e.g., as Required by Law and Similar Disclosures). We may access, preserve, and disclose your Personal Information, other Account information, and content if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to: (i) comply with law enforcement or national security requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; (ii) respond to your requests; (iii) protect yours’, ours’ or others’ rights, property, or safety; (iv) to enforce Lesbians Who Tech policies or contracts; (v) to collect amounts owed to Lesbians Who Tech; (vi) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss or in connection with an investigation or prosecution of suspected or actual illegal activity; or (vii) if we, in good faith, believe that disclosure is otherwise necessary or advisable.

In addition, from time to time, server logs may be reviewed for security purposes – e.g., to detect unauthorized activity on the Services. In such cases, server log data containing IP addresses may be shared with law enforcement bodies in order that they may identify users in connection with their investigation of the unauthorized activities.

  • Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers. If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, sale of company assets, or transition of service to another provider, then your information may be sold or transferred as part of such a transaction as permitted by law and/or contract. In such event, Lesbians Who Tech will endeavor to direct the transferee to use Personal Information in a manner that is consistent with the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such Personal Information was collected.

Data Transfers

All Personal Information collected via or by Lesbians Who Tech may be stored anywhere in the world, including but not limited to, the United States, the European Union, in the cloud, on our servers, on the servers of our affiliates or the servers of our service providers. Your Personal Information may be accessible to law enforcement or other authorities pursuant to a lawful request. By providing information to Lesbians Who Tech, you consent to the storage of your Personal Information in these locations.

OPT-OUT (RIGHT TO RESTRICT PROCESSING)

GENERAL

We offer you choices regarding the collection, use and sharing of your Personal Information, and we’ll respect the choices you make. Please note that if you decide not to provide us with the Personal Information that we request, you may not be able to access all of the features of the Services. You have the right to opt out of certain uses and disclosures of your Personal Information. Where you have consented to Lesbians Who Tech’s Processing of your Personal Information or Sensitive Personal Information, you may withdraw that consent at any time and opt out of further Processing by contacting hello@lesbianswhotech.org. Even if you opt out, we may still collect and use non-Personal Information regarding your activities on our Sites and/or information from the advertisements on Third-Party websites for non-interest based advertising purposes, such as to determine the effectiveness of the advertisements.

EMAIL AND TELEPHONE COMMUNICATIONS

If you receive an unwanted email from us, you can use the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of the email to opt out of receiving future emails. We will process your request within a reasonable time after receipt. Note that you will continue to receive transaction-related emails regarding events or services you have requested. We may also send you certain non-promotional communications regarding Lesbians Who Tech and our Services and you will not be able to opt out of those communications (e.g., communications regarding updates to our Terms or this Privacy Policy).

HUMAN RESOURCES DATA

With regard to Personal Information that Lesbians Who Tech receives in connection with the employment relationship, Lesbians Who Tech & Allies will use such Personal Information only for employment-related purposes as more fully described above.

“DO NOT TRACK”

Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. DNT is a way for users to inform websites and services that they do not want certain information about their webpage visits collected over time and across websites or online services. Please note that we do not respond to or honor DNT signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers.

COOKIES AND INTEREST-BASED ADVERTISING

As noted above, you may stop or restrict the placement of cookies on your computer or remove them from your browser by adjusting your web browser preferences.

The online advertising industry also provides websites from which you may opt out of receiving targeted ads from our data partners and our other advertising partners that participate in self-regulatory programs. You can access these, and also learn more about targeted advertising and consumer choice and privacy, at www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp, or http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/ and www.aboutads.info/choices/. You can also choose not to be included in Google Analytics here.

To be clear, whether you are using our opt-out or an online industry opt-out, these cookie-based opt-outs must be performed on each device and browser that you wish to have opted out. For example, if you have opted out on your computer browser, that opt out will not be effective on your mobile device. You must separately opt out on each device. Advertisements on Third-Party websites that contain the AdChoices link and that link to this Privacy Policy may have been directed to you based on anonymous, non-Personal Information collected by advertising partners over time and across websites. These advertisements provide a mechanism to opt out of the advertising partners’ use of this information for interest-based advertising purposes.

RIGHTS OF ACCESS, RECTIFICATION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION

You may inquire as to whether Lesbians Who Tech is Processing Personal Information about you, request access to Personal Information, and ask that we correct, amend or delete your Personal Information where it is inaccurate. Where otherwise permitted by applicable law, you may send an email to hello@lesbianswhotech.org or use any of the methods set out in this Privacy Policy to request access to, receive (port), seek rectification, or request erasure of Personal Information held about you by Lesbians Who Tech. Please include your full name, email address associated with your Account, and a detailed description of your data request. Such requests will be processed in line with local laws.

Although Lesbians Who Tech makes good faith efforts to provide Individuals with access to their Personal Information, there may be circumstances in which Lesbians Who Tech is unable to provide access, including but not limited to: where the information contains legal privilege, would compromise others’ privacy or other legitimate rights, where the burden or expense of providing access would be disproportionate to the risks to the Individual’s privacy in the case in question or where it is commercially proprietary. If Lesbians Who Tech determines that access should be restricted in any particular instance, we will provide you with an explanation of why that determination has been made and a contact point for any further inquiries. To protect your privacy, Lesbians Who Tech will take commercially reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access to or making any changes to your Personal Information.

DATA RETENTION

Lesbians Who Tech retains the Personal Information we receive as described in this Privacy Policy for as long as you use our Services or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our Services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws.

SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION

We take reasonable administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to protect the information that we collect from or about you from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. When you enter sensitive information on our forms, we encrypt this data using SSL or other technologies. Please be aware, however, that no method of transmitting information over the Internet or storing information is completely secure. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of any information.

By using the Site or providing Personal Information to us, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of the Site. If we learn of a security system’s breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically by posting a notice on the Site or sending an email to you. You may have a legal right to receive this notice in writing.

INTERNATIONAL USERS

By using the Site, Lesbians Who Tech will transfer data to the United States. By choosing to visit the Site, utilize the Services or otherwise provide information to us, you agree that any dispute over privacy or the terms contained in this Privacy Policy will be governed by the laws of Oregon, United States and the adjudication of any disputes arising in connection with Lesbians Who Tech or the Site will be in accordance with the Terms.

If you are visiting from the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use, please note that you are agreeing to the transfer of your information to the United States and to Processing of your data globally. By providing your Personal Information, you consent to any transfer and Processing in accordance with this Policy.

CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

The Services are not directed to children under 16 years of age, and Lesbians Who Tech does not knowingly collect Personally Identifiable Information from children under 16 years of age. If you are under the age of 18, you must have your parent’s permission to access the Services. If you learn that your child has provided us with Personal Information without your consent, you may alert us at hello@lesbianswhotech.org. If we learn that we have collected any Personal Information from children under 16, we will promptly take steps to delete such information and terminate the child’s Account.

REDRESS/COMPLIANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

If you have any questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, please contact Lesbians Who Tech by email at hello@lesbianswhotech.org. We will address your concerns and attempt to resolve any privacy issues in a timely manner.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY AND PRACTICES

This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. You understand and agree that you will be deemed to have accepted the updated Privacy Policy if you use the Services after the updated Privacy Policy is posted on the Services. If at any point you do not agree to any portion of the Privacy Policy then in effect, you must immediately stop using the Services.

  • Revision to the Privacy Policy. Any information that is collected via our Services is covered by the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is collected. We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time in our sole discretion, so review it periodically. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we’ll endeavor to notify you of those changes by posting them on the Services or by sending you an email or other notification, and we’ll update the “Last Updated Date” above to indicate when those changes will become effective.
  • Posting of Revised Privacy Policy. If there are any material changes to this Privacy Policy, Lesbians Who Tech will notify you by email or as otherwise required by applicable law. We will post any adjustments to the Privacy Policy on this web page, and the revised version will be effective immediately when it is posted (or upon notice as applicable). If you are concerned about how your information is used, bookmark this page and read this Privacy Policy periodically.
  • New Uses of Personal Information. Additionally, before we use Personal Information for any new purpose not originally authorized by you, we will endeavor to provide information regarding the new purpose and give you the opportunity to opt out. Where consent of the Individual for the Processing of Personal Information is otherwise required by law or contract, Lesbians Who Tech will endeavor to comply with the law or contract.

CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

California law permits users who are California residents to request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, a list of the Third Parties to whom we have disclosed their Personal Information (if any) for their direct marketing purposes in the prior calendar year, as well as the type of Personal Information disclosed to those parties. Lesbians Who Tech does not share Personal Information with Third Parties for their own marketing purposes.

DEFINITIONS

The following capitalized terms shall have the meanings herein as set forth below.

  • “Agent” means any Third Party that Processes Personal Information pursuant to the instructions of, and solely for, Lesbians Who Tech or to Lesbians Who Tech discloses Personal Information for use on its behalf.
  • “Employee” refers to any current, temporary, permanent, prospective or former employee, director, contractor, worker, or retiree of Lesbians Who Tech or its subsidiaries worldwide.
  • “Personal Information” is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“Individual”).
  • “Process” or “Processing” means any operation which is performed upon Personal Information, whether or not by automatic means, such as collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure, or destruction.
  • “Sensitive Data” or “Sensitive Personal Information” is a subset of Personal Information which, due to its nature, has been classified by law or by policy as deserving additional privacy and security protections. Sensitive Personal Information includes Personal Information regarding EU residents that is classified as a “Special Category of Personal Data” under EU law, which consists of the following data elements: (1) race or ethnic origin; (2) political opinions; (3) religious or philosophical beliefs; (4) trade union membership; (5) genetic data; (6) biometric data where Processed to uniquely identify a person; (6) health information; (7) sexual orientation or information about the Individual’s sex life; or (8) information relating to the commission of a criminal offense.
  • “Third Party” is any company, natural or legal person, public authority, agency, or body other than the Individual, Lesbians Who Tech or Lesbians Who Tech’s Agents.