Privacy Policy: BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation

Revised November 11, 2020

Introduction

BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation (we,” “our,” “us”) is a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This Privacy Policy describes BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation's policies and practices regarding its collection, use, and sharing of personal data.

In the course of providing its nonprofit services, BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation may collect and process the personal information of individuals, including consumers, website visitors, complainants, arbitrators, and the representatives of businesses that participate in or interact with its programs (collectively, unless otherwise specified, “you,” “your”). This privacy policy covers websites operated by BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation, including industryselfregulation.org.

Programs operated by BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation include the Center for Industry Self-Regulation. In general, policies and practices described in this Privacy Policy apply to all current and future BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation programs. However, if a particular program is named in a section of this policy, that section applies only to the specified program.

Other organizations that make use of the BBB brand are governed by their own privacy policies. For example, BBB Wise Giving Alliance has a separate privacy policy published on give.org and the International Association of Better Business Bureaus has a separate privacy policy published on BBB.org.

BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation provides its nonprofit services exclusively to businesses and consumers in the United States. Visitors to BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation websites from other countries should be aware that their information may be processed and stored in the United States.

We recognize our ongoing responsibility with regard to the privacy of individuals whose personal data we collect and process. If we embrace new data privacy practices or adopt new policies, we will update this Privacy Policy. In the event that we make material changes to this policy, we will notify affected individuals.

Our Collection, Use, and Sharing of Your Information

1. Information that you submit to us.

In general, BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation uses information you affirmatively submit to us for the purpose for which it is submitted, such as to reply to your email, respond to your inquiry, handle your complaint, process billing transactions, register your participation in an event, respond to requests related to program participation, review applications to be a BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation doner, and communicate with you when appropriate.

BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation relies on information collected from our users to develop new services and conduct analyses to enhance current content and services. Information collected from you may be used in aggregate form to review usage and operations of our site and address issues with our site. We may also use personal information we collect for operational notices, in program record-keeping, and to conduct research on industry marketplace practices. We may publish aggregate data to report trends and statistics, but the aggregate data will not include personal information.

Specifically, we may collect and process personal data you submit to us under the following circumstances:

a. While you use our public website. You can affirmatively submit to BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation certain information as you make use of our online services, which we use for purposes of delivering our website and services to you and for analytics. Such information may include the contents of a search query or other text that you type in our web forms. We do not share this information with third parties except agents we may contract with to deliver our services and for analytics.

d. When registering for an event or conference. When you register for aBBB National Programs Charitable Foundation-hosted conference or other event, we collect your name, business name, title, email address, and phone number. We use this information to keep you informed about the event, to send you information about our programs, services, and future events as well as, if relevant, membership, or sponsorship opportunities. You also have the option to provide us with your Twitter handle to facilitate ongoing discussion and, as applicable, the state in which you practice law for purposes of applying for CLE credits (when applicable/appropriate).

The registration process for our conferences is handled by a third-party agent, Cvent, which is authorized to use your personal information solely for purpose of providing the services that BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation has contracted it to provide and for any purposes described in Cvent’s privacy policy.

We may share your name, business name, and title with other conference attendees. With your permission, we may share your company name with conference speakers. We do not otherwise share conference registration information with non-agent third parties.

e. When applying to BBB NP in an individual capacity. When you apply to be a BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation employee or intern, you submit your name, address, and other contact information, and information about your qualifications. We use this information for processing your application and for contacting you in relation to your application. We do not share this information with any non-agent third parties.

f. When applying to or requesting information from a BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation program on behalf of a business. BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation may collect contact and billing information from a business that enquires about National Partner sponsorship or participation with an individual BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation program. This may include personal contact information about representatives of the business. To request to change the personal information associated with your business account, please reach out to the individual program with which you do business.

h. When settling an invoice. BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation will use any billing information you have provided in order to contact you for payment of an invoice. In the process, we may ask for payment information, which will be entered directly into the payment system controlled by our third-party payment processor. BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation does not directly process or store payment information.

i. When signing up for a newsletter. At certain points where your information is collected on our site, there may be a box where you may indicate you would like to be on a mailing list to receive information about BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation or an individualBBB National Programs Charitable Foundation program. This election box only appears in places where the service collecting your information maintains such lists. We do not sell mailing lists and this information is not shared with any non-agent third parties. You can remove your name from a BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation mailing list by utilizing the appropriate unsubscribe feature contained in the emails.

2. Information collected automatically through your use of BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation websites and services.

a. Device information. Like most websites, BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation may automatically collect certain information from the device you use to visit our website, which we store in log files. This may include your browser type, device type, IP address, region, or general geographical location from which your device is accessing the internet, operating system, unique device identifier, software version, and the domain name from which you accessed the site. We may rely on third-party agents to collect or process this analytic information. This information is used solely for our internal business purposes, including to improve the functionality of our site, diagnose problems, and generate statistical reports.

b. Usage information. We also may collect information about your use of the site on a particular device, including the date and time you visit the site, the referring site URL, the areas or pages of the site that you visit, the amount of time you spend viewing or using the site, other click-stream or site usage data, emails that you open, forward or click-through to our site, and advertising that you click on. We may rely on third-party agents, such as Google Analytics, to collect or process this analytic information. This information is used solely for our internal business purposes, including to improve the functionality of our site, diagnose errors, generate statistical reports, analyze trends, understand and improve user experience, and identify aggregate user preferences.

To view an overview of the privacy practices of Google Analytics, please go here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245. Google Analytics supports an optional browser add-on that—once installed and enabled—disables measurement by Google Analytics for any site a user visits. You can find the browser add-on here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

c. Cookies or other persistent identifiers. BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation and our third-party agents may use persistent identifiers such as cookies, embedded scripts, web beacons, pixel tags, or similar technologies to collect information about our visitors’ interactions with our site. We use these identifiers to generate the data described in “usage information” above. This information is used to understand how visitors use our sites and provide better services to you, provide easier site navigation, access to forms, or to track analytics and certain statistical information that enables us to improve our site and provide you with more relevant content and information on our site and other sites.

You can still use BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation websites if you have set your browser to reject cookies or tracking identifiers, but there is a possibility that this will prevent you from viewing or accessing some of the features of our sites. At this time we do not respond to “Do Not Track” signals issued by web browsers.

3. Information collected by third parties and shared with BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation.

a. In the course of complaint resolution, conciliation, or arbitration. BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation may receive information about you from businesses or organizations with which you have interacted for the purposes of facilitating the resolution of a pending complaint, conciliation, or arbitration proceeding. This may include your name, date of birth, account number, or other information used to verify your identity. This may also include account history information, your previous communications with the business or organization related to the matter in your complaint, or any other relevant information.

b. Participating business contact information. A business participating in BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation programs may share with BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation contact information for its employees or designated representatives.BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation will use this information only for the purposes of fulfilling the contract with the business.

Other Ways Information May Be Shared

We may use third-party agents to collect or process data on our behalf. Such contractors are obligated to not disclose or use your information for purposes other than for which it was originally collected or subsequently authorized.

BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation may also share information under the following circumstances:

• We respond to requests from governmental agencies or where required by law (such as by subpoena, investigative demand, court order, or regulation).
• We may share information with appropriate governmental or regulatory authorities, where warranted by a company’s failure to (i) participate in certain BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation self-regulatory programs; (ii) follow procedures; (iii) substantially comply with its pledge or commitments; or (iv) participate in or honor the recommendations of a given program.
• We may share information with appropriate persons or governmental authorities should your communication suggest possible harm to others.

Choices about your information.

Mailing Lists

You may unsubscribe from our mailing lists or other routine email communications using the link included at the end of each message or by sending an email to info@industryselfregulation.org.

Your Ad Choices

BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation adheres to the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising, and commits to provide consumers with notice and choice about interest-based advertising. On pages where we allow third parties to collect data for interest-based ads, you will see the notice “Your Ad Choices” near the link to our Privacy Policy. You may also see the AdChoices Icon   in or near the ad. This icon may mean that this ad was tailored to your possible interests as inferred from your browsing activity. Clicking on the Icon should provide you with access to more information about interest-based ads, including how to opt out of this practice.To learn more about interest-based advertising, click here. To opt out of future interest-based advertising, click here. You will still see ads, but they will not be tailored to your interests.

Children

BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation websites are not designed with the purpose of attracting any person under age 16. BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation does not knowingly collect or maintain any personal information from children under the age of 16. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 16, we will delete that information. Parents, if you believe your child has provided personal information to us, you can request that the information be deleted by contacting us at info@industryselfregulation.org.

Security

Personal data that you provide to BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation is stored by BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation on servers located in third-party data centers in the United States with restricted access, that have implemented reasonable procedures to prevent unauthorized access to, and the misuse of, personal data. BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation restricts access to your personal data to authorized BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation employees, independent contractors and service providers who need to access the data in order to provide services in support of BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation operations and program services.

BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation has taken steps to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of systems and services processing personal information and will restore the availability and access to information in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident.

International Transfers

If you are visiting our site from outside the United States, be aware that your information will be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located within the United States. The collection, use, retention and any other processing of your information will be governed by U.S. law and further by the specific jurisdictions within the United States where that information is stored, unless otherwise specified.

Problems or Complaints with BBB National Programs Charitable Foundation's Privacy Policy

If you have comments or concerns about this privacy policy, you may contact us at info@industryselfregulation.org.