Privacy Policy

Effective date: June 1, 2017

We put a high priority on protecting your privacy. We will not rent or exchange your email address with anyone, and you can choose to stop hearing from us at any time — just ask.

All the details

This Privacy Policy describes how the Environmental Defense Fund, the Environmental Defense Action Fund, our legislative lobbying entity, and our affiliates (referred to herein as “EDF,” “we,” or “us”) collect, use, and disclose personally identifiable information gathered through our websites and mobile applications that link to this Privacy Policy (the “Sites”).

This Privacy Policy only addresses information collected directly through or from our Sites – it does not address or govern any information-gathering, use, or dissemination practices related to information collected from you other than directly through or from the Sites, such as from telephone, facsimile, postal mail, personal delivery, or other or additional offline means or media.

When you register for special services on one of our sites, you give us personal information about yourself (such as name, address, zip code, email address, etc.). You can always opt out, now or at any time later, to keep from getting any unwanted messages or solicitations.

If you have any questions, please ask.

1. What organization is collecting your information?
2. What personally identifiable information of yours is collected?
3. Passive information collection
4. How your personally identifiable information may be used and shared
5. What choices are available to you regarding collection, use, and distribution of the information?
6. What kind of security procedures are in place to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of your information?
7. How you can access, update, or delete your information
8. Changes in our privacy policy
9. Official terms and conditions
10. Information related to minors
11. Your California privacy rights

1. What organization is collecting your information?

We are the Environmental Defense Fund, a non-profit, tax-deductible environmental advocacy and research organization, and the Environmental Defense Action Fund, a non-profit, non-tax-deductible environmental advocacy and research organization. The Environmental Defense Fund and the Environmental Defense Action Fund are affiliated organizations. We are responsible for any information collected on our Sites. Our organizational sites are www.edf.org and www.edfaction.org. In addition, we sponsor several other sites, including but not limited to EDF+ Business, EDF Climate Corps, Supply Chain Solutions Center, Defend Our Future, and Moms Clean Air Force.

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2. What personally identifiable information of yours is collected?

Personally identifiable information is information that identifies you, such as your name, phone number, email address, mailing address, or even credit card number (if you use a credit card to make a donation).

If you ask for one of our many personalized or enhanced services, we will ask you to provide us with personally identifiable information. For example, if you wish to contact your representative in Congress, we will ask for your address so that we can direct your communication to the correct member of Congress. We also keep a record of faxes and e-mails you send from our system, as well as your comments.

If you post information or materials on our message boards, chat, profile pages, blogs, and other services, please note that any information you post or disclose through these services will become public and may be available to users of those services on the Sites and to the general public. We urge you to be very careful when deciding to disclose any information on such services.

We want to be very clear: We only obtain this kind of personally-identifying information when you choose to provide it.

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3. Passive information collection

As you navigate the Sites, certain information may be collected passively, meaning it is gathered without you actively providing it, as described below:

• Through your browser: Certain information is collected by most browsers, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type and operating system type and version screen resolution, and Internet browser type and version.
• Through your device: If you access the Sites through a mobile device or other network-connected product, certain information may be collected about that device, including your device type, network service provider, and other identifiers. We may collect unique device identifiers (such as IDFA and AID tags and UUID and UDID identifiers) associated with the device you use to access the Sites. In addition, your device may allow us to collect certain weather-related information, such as the exact barometric pressure where you are located.
• Using cookies: Cookies are pieces of information stored directly on the computer you are using. Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the Sites, pages visited, and language preferences. We and our service providers use this information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience while using the Sites. More specifically, we use cookies to:
  • recognize your computer or device to make your use of the Sites easier, such as to remember your locations of interest and other preferences with the Sites;
  • gather statistical information about use of the Sites in order to continually improve the design and functionality of the Sites, understand how individuals use the Sites, and to assist us with resolving questions regarding the Sites;
  • select which of our advertisements are most likely to appeal to you and display them while you are on the Sites and on other websites, applications, and online services that you use; and
  • track consumer responses to online advertisements.
  • to learn more about cookies, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
• Using monitoring tools: The Sites may utilize pixel tags, web beacons, clear GIFs, Flash Shared Objects, HTML5 Local Storage, HTML5 Mini Databases, and other similar technologies, both on certain aspects of the Sites and in HTML-formatted e-mail messages to you. These monitoring tools are used for the purpose of, among other things, measuring the success of our marketing campaigns, compiling statistics about Site usage and response rates, and tracking the activities of users of the Sites and e-mail recipients.
• IP Address: Your IP Address is a number that is automatically assigned to the computer that you are using by your Internet Service Provider. An IP Address is identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever a user visits the Sites, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that were visited. Collecting IP Addresses is standard practice on the Internet and is done automatically by many online service providers, including website operators. We use IP Addresses for purposes such as calculating Site usage levels, helping diagnose server problems, and administering the Sites.
• Analytic tools: We also use tools and third party services to collect information about usage of the Sites, including Google Analytics. You can learn more about Google Analytics, and its privacy practices, at the Google Analytics Help Page. Generally speaking, Google Analytics collects information on how often users visit the Sites, what aspects of the Sites they visit when they do so, and what other websites users visited prior to accessing the Sites. The Sites make use of Google Analytics services for Demographics and Interest Reporting as well as Display Advertising features, including Remarketing, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, and DoubleClick Campaign Manager integration. You may opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising or customize Google Display Network ads through the Google Ads Settings page. You may also prevent your data from being collected and used by Google Analytics by opting out through the use of the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

If you are uncomfortable with the idea of this information being collected and used in these ways, most computer systems, devices, and web browsers offer privacy settings and options, such as disabling cookies, resetting your IDFA, and opting for “Do Not Track” features. For the avoidance of doubt, “ad blocking” services and applications are not always effective and should not be relied upon for the purpose of preventing information from being collected and used. We do not override these settings or options and encourage you to use them to enhance your choices and personalize your experiences. However, in order to access certain content, features, services, products, or benefits of the Sites, you may be required to provide us with certain information. If you do not wish to provide that information through the Sites or if you opt to utilize the aforementioned privacy features, you may be unable to obtain certain content, features, services, or benefits of the Sites. Note that changing these settings will not prevent you from seeing advertisements and offers, but those advertisements and offers may not be tailored to your interests and needs.

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4. How your personally identifiable information may be used and shared

We use your personally identifiable information to give you personalized service (for example, information about your neighborhood, or your favorite subjects); to send you email alerts; to answer your requests; to let you become a member online; and to better understand demographic information about our supporters and website visitors. Our overriding goal in our use of your personal information is to better serve you and our other supporters and website visitors and to advance our environmental advocacy goals. You can opt out at any time to stop any further contact from us.

We may also use this information to suggest other web site services to you, ask you to become a member, or to solicit donations. At any time you can opt out.

We may share your personally-identifiable information, as well as a record of transactions you conduct with us, with third-party advertising and analytics partners and related service providers. We do so in order to deliver information about our work and your opportunity to support it through a variety of communication channels, including online advertising, social media messages, email messages, and offline communications. We also work with a variety of third party business partners, including advertisers, advertising networks, and advertising and analytics companies, which use the technologies describe above in this policy to passively collect data about your use of the Sites. These companies use the information they collect to provide you with advertisements relevant to your interests, which may be delivered to you on the Sites or on third party websites or applications. This is called “Interest-Based Advertising” or “Online Behavioral Advertising.” To learn more about Interest Based Advertising and your options with respect to these practices, please visit www.networkadvertising.org/choices, https://www.oracle.com/legal/privacy/marketing-cloud-data-cloud-privacy-policy.html, http://www.aboutads.info/choices, and https://choice.microsoft.com/en-US/opt-out.

We may disclose your information, whether personally identifying or not, to third parties who perform functions on our behalf such as solicitation or acknowledgment of charitable gifts and aggregate analysis and marketing activities, as well as to professional advisors such as auditors and attorneys. These partners may also combine your email information with other information they have access to such as mailing address so that EDF may serve relevant marketing offers to you via email and direct mail. While EDF may undertake efforts to see that any third party to which EDF discloses personal information is under an obligation to use the personal information solely for the purposes for which the information was disclosed, such third parties are independent third parties over which EDF exercises no control. EDF is not responsible for, and will not be liable for, the conduct, actions, omissions, or information handling or dissemination practices of third parties. We also may rent or exchange names and postal addresses to other organizations through a broker. If you wish to remove your name from our list rental/exchange program, please email members@edf.org to make that request.

Your information and data, whether personally identifying or not, may also be disclosed or distributed to another party with which EDF enters or reasonably may enter into a corporate transaction, such as, for example, a merger, consolidation, acquisition, or asset purchase, or to a third party pursuant to a subpoena, court order, or other form of legal process, in response to a request by or on behalf of any local, state, federal, or other government agency, department, or body, whether or not pursuant to a subpoena, court order, or other form of legal process, or if determined by EDF in its sole judgment that such disclosure or distribution is appropriate to protect the life, health, or property of EDF or any other person or entity.

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5. What choices are available to you regarding collection, use, and distribution of your personally-identifiable information?

Now, or at any time in the future, you can correct or update your information online or by contacting us. And you can tell us not to send you any messages or solicitations at all. To opt-out from receiving content from Environmental Defense Fund or its partners and affiliates, please tell us.

If you wish to opt-out of participating in Interest Based Advertising, you can use some or all of the following methods:

• Visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices (for web-based advertising), and http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices (for mobile advertising);
• For mobile advertising, use your phone operating system’s opt-out setting. For instructions on how to “Limit Ad Tracking” on iOS, please visit this Apple Support Document. For instructions on how to opt out of interest-based ads on Android, please visit these instructions;
• In accordance with industry self-regulatory principles, you should see this icon in or around EDF advertisements that are delivered on other sites using information collected on our Sites, and in or around third-party advertisements that are delivered on our Sites using Interest Based Advertising programs. Clicking on this icon will provide information about the companies and data practices that were used to deliver the ad and will also describe how you may opt-out of these advertising programs.

If you use more than one device, you should renew your opt-out choices on each such device.

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6. What kind of security procedures are in place to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of your personally identifying information?

We take commercially reasonable precautions to protect us and our users from unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of information we hold.

We take care to utilize appropriate and reasonable administrative, physical, and technical measures to help safeguard personally identifiable information that we control. While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers on which we store personally identifiable information and process credit card donations and updates to monthly billing are kept in a secure environment. We also use “anti-hacking” security measures and employ security consultants.

Despite the efforts we use to protect your information, no transmission or electronic storage of information can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have reason to believe that your use of the Services or engagement with us is no longer secure, please contact us immediately.

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7. How you can access, update, or delete your information

Please contact us to obtain, change, update or delete our records of your personal information, or to change your privacy options.

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8. Changes in our privacy policy

Should our practices change, this notice will be immediately updated. See Official Terms and Conditions of using our web sites.

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9. Official terms and conditions

1. Disclaimer. We do our very best to make all our information accurate. But we do not and cannot guarantee its accuracy. This means that if you rely on it, you cannot hold us at fault for any inaccuracies.

   Legalese version: Environmental Defense Fund and its affiliates make no warranties, express or implied, about the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any of the information it provides to the public.

2. Changes without notice. We may change any part of this policy, without any separate notice to users. The current policy will always be posted here. We will not change the overall purpose of this policy, which is to protect your privacy consistent with our goals as a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the environment.

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10. Information Related to Minors

The Sites are not intended for persons under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information online from persons in this age group. We reserve the right to delete any information identified as having been provided by such persons at our discretion.

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11. Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, you are entitled by law to request an information sharing disclosure. If you provide notice to the address below, we will provide you with a notice of your right to prevent sharing of your personal information as well as a cost-free means of doing so. To receive such a notice, please contact us.

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