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Privacy Policy

Last updated on June 11, 2022

This page contains Chalkbeat Inc.’s (“Chalkbeat”, “us”, “our” or “we”) privacy policy (this “Privacy Policy”), which explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect the information that we obtain from you. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this Privacy Policy. The content on our site is delivered by 3rd party vendors: Vox Media and Perfect Sense DBA Brightspot, their interaction with you is described in these Vox Media Privacy Notice and Brightspot Privacy Policy. Your use of Chalkbeat’s website is at all times subject to our Terms of Use, which incorporates this Privacy Policy. 

This Privacy Policy applies when we collect data from users (“you”) through our website, emails related to the use of our website, and features controlled, whether partially or otherwise, by us (the “Features”). If a Feature is co-branded or developed by a third party, the third party’s privacy policy may also apply.

“Personal Information” includes information that alone or when in combination with other information may be used to readily identify, contact, or locate you (e.g., name, address, telephone number, email address, and location) and also includes information referred to as “personally identifiable information” or “personal information” under applicable data privacy laws, rules or regulations. We do not consider Personal Information to include information that does not allow a third party to identify you. This Privacy Policy does not cover the practices of companies we don’t own or control or people we don’t manage.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. By using or accessing the Features in any manner, you agree to this Privacy Policy  and you hereby consent that we will collect, use and share your information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Features.

This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of our Features after we make changes will be deemed an acceptance by you of those changes, so please check this Privacy Policy periodically for updates. Please note that if you’ve opted not to receive legal notice emails from us (or you haven’t provided us with your email address), those legal notices will still govern your use of the Features, and you are still responsible for reading and understanding them. Use of information we collect is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is collected.

  1. HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION

1.1 You can visit the Features without identifying yourself or revealing any of your Personal Information. In a few areas on the Features, we ask you to provide Personal Information in order to enhance your use of the Features or for other purposes, such as facilitating correspondence with you, registration to use certain features of the Features (e.g., the jobs board, the events calendar, the newsletter, etc.), or completing transactions, such as donations. In other cases, we collect Personal Information you post through the Features. It is always your choice whether or not to provide that Personal Information. If you choose not to provide requested Personal Information, you may not be able to use certain functionalities of the Features. We will not collect additional Personal Information outside of what is provided for in this Privacy Policy or use the Personal Information we collected for materially different, unrelated or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.

1.2 When you make payments through the Features, such as when making a donation, you may need to provide Personal Information, such as your credit card number and billing address. That information will be provided directly to our third-party payment processor, and we will not have access to and will not collect or maintain your credit card information.

1.3 The Features may collect location data to provide location-related functionality (“Location Data”). We and our service providers may also collect your usage activity and preferences (“Usage Data”). We may link Location Data and Usage Data to other information we have collected about you.

1.4 We and third parties, including but not limited to providers of social media, software, mailing, survey, and advertising services, may use cookies, pixel tags, web beacons or other similar technologies to operate the Features. These technologies may collect and store Personal Information as well as usage statistics and other non-personal information. Browsers allow you to block and delete cookies. However, if you do that, the Features may not work properly. By using the Features, you are authorizing us to gather, analyze, and retain data related to the provision of the Features.

1.5 If we combine or associate information from third parties with Personal Information that we collect through the Features, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

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Categories of Sources of Personal Information

We collect Personal Information about you from the following categories of sources:

You

  • When you provide such information directly to us.
  • When you use our Website.
  • When you send us an email or otherwise contact us.  
  • When you use the Website and such information is collected automatically.
  • Through website cookies.
  • If you use a location-enabled browser, we may receive information about your location.

Third Parties

  • Vendors
  • We may use analytics providers to analyze how you interact and engage with the Website, or third parties may help us provide you with customer support.

 

2. HOW WE USE INFORMATION

2.1 We use information, including Personal Information, to complete a transaction with you or do something else that you have asked us to do, and we may provide it to third parties to allow us to facilitate the Features. For example, if you request support or other information, we may need to use Personal Information to respond to your request. We may use and retain any data we collect to provide and improve our Features. We may also use and retain any data we collect in the following use cases: 

  • Fulfilling our legal obligations under applicable law, regulation, court order or other legal process, such as preventing, detecting and investigating security incidents and potentially illegal or prohibited activities.
  • Protecting the rights, property or safety of you, Chalkbeat or another party.
  • Providing support and assistance for the Website.
  • Improving the Website.
  • Doing fraud protection, security and debugging.
  • Carrying out other business purposes stated when collecting your Personal Information or as otherwise set forth in applicable data privacy laws.

 

 

2.2 We may use information, including Personal Information and data collected through cookies and similar technology, to provide online advertising on the Features and for our fundraising, advertising or marketing purposes. Cookies are small pieces of data – usually text files – placed on your computer, tablet, phone or similar device when you use that device to access our Features. We may also supplement the information we collect from you with information received from third parties, including third parties that have placed their own cookies on your device(s). Please note that because of our use of cookies, the cookie does not support “Do Not Track” requests sent from a browser at this time. California residents see section 7.4 for information about “Do Not Track” 

2.3 We use the following types of Cookies:

• Essential Cookies. Essential cookies are required for providing you with features or services that you have requested. Disabling these Cookies may make certain Features unavailable.

• Functional Cookies. Functional cookies are used to record your choices and settings regarding our Features, maintain your preferences over time and recognize you when you return to our website. 

• Performance/Analytical Cookies. Performance/Analytical cookies allow us to understand how visitors use our website. They do this by collecting information about the number of visitors to the website, what pages visitors view on our website and how long visitors are viewing pages on the website. Performance/Analytical cookies also help us measure the performance of our advertising campaigns in order to help us improve our campaigns and the website’s content for those who engage with our advertising. For example, Google LLC (“Google”) uses cookies in connection with its Google Analytics services. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the Website is subject to the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You have the option to opt-out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page at www.google.com/privacy_ads.html or the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

You can decide whether or not to accept cookies through your internet browser’s settings. Most browsers have an option for turning off the cookies feature, which will prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, as well as (depending on the sophistication of your browser software) allow you to decide on acceptance of each new cookie in a variety of ways. You can also delete all cookies that are already on your device. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit our website and some of the Features may not work.

2.4 At any time, you can opt-out of receiving any communication from Chalkbeat by either: (a) contacting us at contact@chalkbeat.org and requesting to have your name removed from our mailing list; or (b) clicking the “unsubscribe” link in any email from us.

2.5 We may create anonymized, de-identified and aggregated data from Personal Information collected through the Features, including by removing information that makes the data personally identifiable to a particular user, and use or share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes, including to analyze, build and improve the Website and promote our business, provided that we will not share such data in a manner that could identify you. 

2.6 We use Location Data to provide location-based functionality.

2.7 Any user-generated content submitted on or through public Features will be treated as being non-confidential and nonproprietary, and we will be free to use such information for any purpose whatsoever. In doing so, we may edit your user-generated content for clarity or brevity and identify you by name and location as the author of the user-generated content if that information has been provided.

2.8 Any information you share in a public forum, including any Personal Information, is public information and may be seen, collected, or used by anyone, including third parties that do not adhere to this Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for events arising from the distribution of any information you choose to publicly post or share through the Features. We may use Personal Information and non-personal information about you to identify you with a posting in a public forum.

 

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3. HOW WE SHARE INFORMATION

3.1 Our service providers and research institutions with which we collaborate may have access to your Personal Information and other information, for the purpose of performing services on our behalf. All such service providers and such research institutions who have access to your Personal Information are required to keep the information confidential and not use it for any other purpose than to carry out the services they are performing for us or as otherwise required by law. We may also use third-party service providers to help us analyze certain online activities. We do not share any Personal Information about our users with these third parties, and these third parties do not collect such information on our behalf. However, we retain the right to share your Personal Information with third parties for marketing purposes.

3.2 The content you share on the Features may be displayed on the website or you may elect to post information through links to social media services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other users who will view and use the information.

3.3 We may allow our affiliates, vendors, and suppliers to have access to aggregate statistics about our users, traffic patterns, and related Features information. These aggregate statistics do not include Personal Information.

3.4 We may access, preserve, and disclose your Personal Information, other account information, and content if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to comply with government reporting requirements, law enforcement requests, and legal processes such as a court order or subpoena; or to respond to your requests; or to protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety.

3.5 Information about our users, including Personal Information, may be disclosed and otherwise transferred to an acquirer, or successor or assignee of Chalkbeat as part of any merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or similar transaction, as well as in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which information is transferred to one or more third parties as one of our business assets.

3.6 We may also disclose your Personal Information with your permission or as communicated to you at the point of collection of this information.

 

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4. HOW WE PROTECT INFORMATION

4.1 We maintain safeguards that are designed to improve the integrity and security of Personal Information in our custody and control. While we strive to protect your Personal Information, we do not ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. We also cannot guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our safeguards.

4.2 If you post Personal Information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties for which we are not responsible.

4.3 You provide us with this data at your own risk; no data transmitted over the Internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

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5. THIRD-PARTY SITES

5.1 Please be aware that other websites that may be accessed through the Features may collect Personal Information about you. These third-party websites may send their own cookies and other tracking devices to you, log your IP address, and otherwise collect data or solicit Personal Information. This Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices of those third-party websites. You should read the privacy policies and terms and conditions of linked or referenced sites that you enter.

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6. CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

6.1 The Features are not intended for or directed to persons under the age of 13.

6.2 Consistent with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13 without obtaining verifiable parental consent. If you are a parent or legal guardian and believe that your child under 13 years of age has volunteered Personal Information on the Features, and you do not consent to our possession of it, you may alert us at contact@chalkbeat.org and we will delete that child’s Personal Information from our systems.

6.3 If we learn that Personal Information on children under 13 has been collected without verifiable parental consent, we will take appropriate steps to remove that information from our database.

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7. CALIFORNIA USERS/ NEVADA USERS

7.1 California residents may opt-out of our disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. It is important to note that this opt-out does not prohibit disclosures made for non-marketing purposes.

7.2 If you are a California resident, you have the additional right to receive: (a) information identifying all third-party companies to which we have disclosed Personal Information pertaining to you and your family for those companies’ direct marketing purposes, within the past year; and (b) a description of the categories of Personal Information disclosed.

7.3 To opt-out of the disclosures referenced in Section 7.1 or to obtain the information referenced in Section 7.2, please email your request to contact@chalkbeat.org.

7.4 Internet browsers can be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. California Business & Professions Code Section 22575(b) (as amended effective January 1, 2014) provides that California residents are entitled to know how Chalkbeat, Inc. responds to “Do Not Track” browser settings.

There currently is no consensus among industry participants as to what “Do Not Track” means in this context. Therefore, like many websites and online services, the Services do not alter their practices when they receive a “Do Not Track” signal from a visitor’s browser. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit here.

7.5 If you are a Nevada resident, you have the additional right to opt-out of the sale of certain Personal Information to third parties who intend to license or sell that Personal Information. You can exercise this right by contacting us at contact@chalkbeat.org with the subject line “Nevada Do Not Sell Request” and providing us with your name.

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8. INTERNATIONAL USERS

8.1 The Features are hosted through servers located in the United States and are intended for visitors located within the United States.

8.2 By providing any information, including Personal Information, on or to the Features, you consent to its transfer, storage, and processing within the United States. This is true regardless of whether you are located in a region of the world with laws governing data collection and use that are different and potentially stricter than the laws of the United States.

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9. UPDATE OR DELETE PERSONAL INFORMATION

9.1 To update any of your Personal Information we hold about you, to request that we delete any information about you that we have obtained from the Features, or to communicate your consent choices regarding your Personal Information, you may contact us at contact@chalkbeat.org.

9.2 Your right to access or update your Personal Information is subject to applicable legal restrictions. We may take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or updating your Personal Information.

9.3 We may retain your Personal Information for as long as the website is active or as needed to provide you with the Features, and to maintain a record of your transactions for financial reporting and compliance purposes. Additionally, we will retain and use your Personal Information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

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CONTACT US

Please contact us with any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, your Personal Information, or our use and disclosure practices, by email at contact@chalkbeat.org or by writing to us at the following address:

Chalkbeat Inc.

450 Seventh Avenue

32nd Floor

New York, NY 10123