Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 19, 2021

This Privacy Notice explains how Thumbs Down Speak Up (“TDSU”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, and otherwise processes Personal Information (as defined below) in connection with our website (the “Site”) and the related content, platform, services, applications and other functionality offered on or through the online services (collectively, the “Services”). It does not address our privacy practices relating to job applicants, employees and other personnel.

What is Personal Information?

When we use the term “Personal Information” in this Privacy Notice, we mean information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, to an individual. It does not include aggregated or deidentified information that is maintained in a form that is not reasonably capable of being associated with or linked to an individual.

Our Collection of Personal Information

Sometimes we collect Personal Information automatically when an individual interacts with our Services and sometimes we collect Personal Information directly from an individual. At times, we may collect Personal Information about an individual from other sources and third parties, even before our first direct interaction.

Personal Information Collected from Site Visitors and Account Holders

We collect the following Personal Information submitted to us by visitors to our Site and account holders:

• Contact Information, which may include first name, last name, organization, email address, phone number and communication preferences.
• Inquiry Information, including information provided in custom messages sent through the forms or contact information provided on our Site.
• Survey Information, including information provided in any questions submitted through surveys, or content of any testimonials.

Personal Information Automatically Collected

As is true of most digital platforms, we and our third-party providers may also collect Personal Information from an individual’s device, browsing actions and site usage patterns automatically when visiting or interacting with our Site, which may include log data (such as internet protocol (IP) address, operating system, browser type, browser id, the URL entered and the referring page/campaign, date/time of visit, the time spent on our Site and any errors that may occur during the visit to our Site), analytics data (such as the electronic path taken to our Site, through our Site and when exiting our Site, as well as usage and activity on our Site) and location data (such as general geographic location based on the log data we or our third-party providers collect). 

We and our third-party providers may use (i) cookies or small data files that are stored on an individual’s computer and (ii) other, related technologies, such as web beacons, pixels, embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies and logging technologies (collectively, “cookies”) to automatically collect this Personal Information. For example, our Site uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”), to collect and view reports about the traffic on our Site. More information about the use of Google Analytics for these analytical and non‑advertising purposes can be obtained by visiting Google’s privacy policy here and Google’s currently available opt-out options are available here.

To manage cookies, an individual may change their browser settings to: (i) notify them when they receive a cookie, so the individual can choose whether or not to accept it; (ii) disable existing cookies; or (iii) automatically reject cookies.  Please note that doing so may negatively impact an individual’s experience using our Site, as some features and offerings may not work properly or at all.  Depending on an individual’s device and operating system, the individual may not be able to delete or block all cookies. In addition, if an individual wants to reject cookies across all browsers and devices, the individual will need to do so on each browser on each device they actively use. An individual may also set their email options to prevent the automatic downloading of images that may contain technologies that would allow us to know whether they have accessed our email and performed certain functions with it.

Personal Information from Third Parties

We also obtain Personal Information from third parties; which we often combine with Personal Information we collect either automatically or directly from an individual.

We may receive the same categories of Personal Information as described above from the following third parties:

• Social Media: When an individual interacts with our Services through various social media networks, such as when someone logs in through a social network, “Likes” us on Facebook or follows us or shares our content on Google, Facebook, Twitter, or other social networks, we may receive some information about individuals that they permit the social network to share with third parties. The data we receive is dependent upon an individual’s privacy settings with the social network. Individuals should always review and, if necessary, adjust their privacy settings on third-party websites and social media networks and services before sharing information and/or linking or connecting them to other services.
• Service Providers: Our service providers that perform services solely on our behalf, such as survey and marketing providers, collect Personal Information and often share some or all of this information with us.
• Information Providers: We may from time to time obtain information from third-party information providers to correct or supplement Personal Information we collect. For example, we may obtain updated contact information from third-party information providers to reconnect with an individual.
• Publicly Available Sources: We collect Personal Information about individuals that we do not otherwise have, such as contact information, employment-related information, and interest-in-services information, from publicly available sources. We may combine this information with the information we collect from an individual directly. We use this information to contact individuals, to send advertising or promotional materials or to personalize our Services and to better understand the demographics of the individuals with whom we interact.

Our Use of Personal Information

We use Personal Information we collect to:

• Fulfill or meet the reason the information was provided, such as to fulfill our contractual obligations, to deliver the Services you have requested and to process transactions;
• Provide you with a newsletter, updates about our activities, current news and new blog post notices.
• Manage our organization and its day-to-day operations;
• Communicate with individuals, including via email, text message, social media and/or telephone calls;
• Request individuals to complete surveys about our organization, organizations we partner with, and Services;
• Market our Services to individuals, including through email, direct mail, phone or text message;
• Administer, improve and personalize our Services, including by recognizing an individual and remembering their information when they return to our Site;
• To fundraise in accordance with our internal policies and procedures;
• Facilitate user benefits and services;
• Identify and analyze how individuals use our Site and Services;
• Conduct research and analytics on our user base and our Services; 
• Improve and customize our Services to address the needs and interests of our user base and other individuals we interact with;
• Test, enhance, update and monitor the Services, or diagnose or fix technology problems;
• Help maintain the safety, security and integrity of our property and Services, technology assets and business;
• Defend, protect or enforce our rights or applicable contracts and agreements;
• Prevent, investigate or provide notice of fraud or unlawful or criminal activity; and
• Comply with legal obligations.

Where an individual chooses to contact us, we may need additional information to fulfill the request or respond to inquiries. We may provide additional privacy disclosures where the scope of the inquiry/request and/or Personal Information we require fall outside the scope of this Privacy Notice. In that case, the additional privacy disclosures will govern how we may process the information provided at that time.

Our Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose Personal Information in the following ways:

• Survey Providers: We may share Personal Information with third parties who assist us in delivering our survey offerings and processing the responses.
• Marketing Providers: We may coordinate and share Personal Information with our marketing providers in order to communicate with individuals about the Services we make available.
• Customer Service and Communication Providers: We may share Personal Information with third parties who assist us in providing our customer services and facilitating our communications with individuals that submit inquiries.
• Other Service Providers: In addition to the third parties identified above, we may engage other third-party service providers that perform business or operational services for us or on our behalf, such as website hosting, infrastructure provisioning, IT services, analytics services, administrative services.
• Other Business As Needed To Provide Services: We may share Personal Information with third parties that an individual engages with through our Services or as needed to fulfill a request or transaction.
• Legal Obligations and Rights: We may disclose Personal Information to third parties, such as legal advisors and law enforcement:
  • in connection with the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims;
  • to comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal process;
  • to protect our rights and property and the rights and property of others, including to enforce our agreements and policies;
  • to detect, suppress, or prevent fraud;
  • to protect the health and safety of us and others; or
  • as otherwise required by applicable law.
• Otherwise With Consent or Direction: We may disclose Personal Information about an individual to certain other third parties or publicly with their consent or direction. For example, with an individual’s consent or direction we may post their testimonial on our Site or service-related publications.

If you are a resident of the State of Nevada, Chapter 603A of the Nevada Revised Statutes permits a Nevada resident to opt out of future sales of certain covered information that a website operator has collected or will collect about the resident. Although we do not currently sell covered information, please contact us at privacy@tdsu.org to submit such a request.

Your Choices About Online Ads

We support the self-regulatory principles for online advertising (Principles) published by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA).  This means that we allow you to exercise choice regarding the collection of information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites for online interest-based advertising purposes.  More information about these Principles can be found at www.aboutads.info.  If you want to opt out of receiving online interest-based advertisements on your internet browser from advertisers and third parties that participate in the DAA program and perform advertising-related services for us and our advertising partners, please follow the instructions at www.aboutads.info/choices or http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ to place an opt-out cookie on your device indicating that you do not want to receive interest-based advertisements.  Opt-out cookies only work on the internet browser and device they are downloaded onto.  If you want to opt out of interest-based advertisements across all your browsers and devices, you will need to opt out on each browser on each device you actively use.  If you delete cookies on your device generally, you will need to opt out again.

If you want to opt out of receiving online interest-based advertisements on mobile apps, please follow the instructions at http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices.

Please note that when you opt out of receiving interest-based advertisements, this does not mean you will no longer see advertisements from us on our websites or online services.  It means that the online ads that you do see from DAA program participants should not be based on your interests.  We are not responsible for the effectiveness of, or compliance with, any third-parties’ opt-out options or programs or the accuracy of their statements regarding their programs.  In addition, third parties may still use cookies to collect information about your use of our online services, including for analytics and fraud prevention as well as any other purpose permitted under the DAA’s Principles.

Children’s Personal Information

Our Services are not directed to, and we do not intend to, or knowingly, collect or solicit Personal Information from children under the age of 13. If an individual is under the age of 13, they should not use our Services or otherwise provide us with any Personal Information either directly or by other means. If a child under the age of 13 has provided Personal Information to us, we encourage the child’s parent or guardian to contact us to request that we remove the Personal Information from our systems. If we learn that any Personal Information we collect has been provided by a child under the age of 13, we will promptly delete that Personal Information.

Links to Third-Party Websites or Services

Our Site and Services may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Except where we post, link to or expressly adopt or refer to this Privacy Notice, this Privacy Notice does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, any Personal Information practices of third-party websites and online services or the practices of other third parties. To learn about the Personal Information practices of third parties, please visit their respective privacy notices.

Updates to This Privacy Notice

We will update this Privacy Notice from time to time. When we make changes to this Privacy Notice, we will change the date at the beginning of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we will notify individuals by email to their registered email address, by prominent posting on this Site or our Services, or through other appropriate communication channels. All changes shall be effective from the date of publication unless otherwise provided.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or requests in connection with this Privacy Notice or other privacy-related matters, please send an email to privacy@tdsu.org

Alternatively, inquiries may be addressed to:

Thumbs Down Speak Up
127 West 83rd Street
PO Box 13
NY, NY 10024