Terms & Privacy Policy

This online Privacy Policy tells you about the information Common Threads collects through our website, how we use that information and how you can opt out of certain uses of information we may collect.

PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY BEFORE USING ANY OF COMMON THEADS SERVICES. BY USING ANY SUCH SERVICES AND/OR NAVIGATING THROUGH THE WEBSITE YOU ARE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND THIS POLICY AND THAT YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, SIMPLY EXIT THIS PAGE WITHOUT ACCESSING OR USING ANY OF OUR SERVICES.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on March 25, 2010.

Below you will find information on a number of topics, including:

• What personally identifiable information of yours is collected from you through the Website
• How the collected information is used
• With whom such information may be shared
• What choices are available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of the information
• The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under our control
• How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information

Children are not eligible to use our service and we ask that minors (under the age of 13) do not submit any personal information to us or use the service. Common Threads does not collect or maintain information from those actually known to be under the age of 13, and no part of our Website is structured to attract anyone under the age of 13.

General Information Collection and Use

Common Threads is the sole owner of the information collected on the Website. We will not sell, share or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this policy, without first obtaining your consent. Generally, we request this information when registering visitors to the Website or when visitors to the Website and/or registered users request a particular service. This information collected is used to register the user for the selected service and to contact the user about such service (e.g. e-mail address). Information required to be submitted to become a registered user may include name, e-mail address, license number and street address (as well as other types of information).

Some of our services may be offered in conjunction with partner companies, affiliates or other companies or websites with which we work. In order for us to provide these services to you, it may be necessary for us to share your personal information with one of such entities. These parties are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services. If you do not want your data to be shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer by not using that particular service.

Customer Service Correspondence

If you send us correspondence, including e-mails and faxes, we may retain such information in the records of your account. We may also retain customer service correspondence and other correspondence. We retain these records in order to measure and improve our customer service, and to investigate potential fraud and violations of our Terms of Use Agreement. We may, over time, delete these records if permitted by law.

Cookies

A “cookie” is a piece of data stored on a user’s hard drive containing information about the user. As part of offering and providing personalized services, we may use cookies in an effort to save you time while on our Website. If a user rejects the cookie, he or she may still have limited use of the Website. Generally we use cookies to:

• Remind us who you are and to access your account information
• Track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our Website;
• Estimate our audience size and measure certain traffic patterns.

IP Addresses

Every computer connected to the Internet is given an IP address. We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the Website, track users’ movement and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information, and our web servers do not record the e-mail addresses of our visitors.

Sharing

As a general rule, except as described in this privacy policy, we will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information except when we have your permission or under special circumstances (such as when we believe the law requires it). We may disclose or share aggregated demographic information with certain partners, affiliates and advertisers, however, except as described above, this is not linked to any personal information that can identify any individual person or company. In addition, commonthreads.org may disclose account or other personal information when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with Common Threads.

Common Threads may also release personal information to appropriate governmental authorities under the following circumstances:

• Where release is required by law (for example, a subpoena) or regulation, or is requested by a government agency conducting investigations or proceedings;
• Where our records indicate a company may be engaged in fraudulent activity or other deceptive practices that a governmental agency should be made aware of.

As with any other business, it is possible that Common Threads in the future could merge with or be acquired by another company. If such an acquisition occurs, the successor company would have access to the information maintained by commonthreads.org, including customer account information, but would continue to be bound by this Privacy Policy unless and until it is amended as described herein.

Links

This Website may contain links to other websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites, as this privacy policy applies solely to the Website. We encourage our users to remain vigilant when they leave our Website and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information.

Surveys

From time-to-time our Website may request information from users via surveys. Participation in these surveys, to the extent we run any, is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information requested may include contact information (such as name and shipping address) and demographic information (such as zip code and age level). Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of the Website.

Notification of Changes

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes under the appropriate link on the “home page” of our Website so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. The new terms shall be effective immediately upon being posted on the Website. It is the responsibility of each user to review the latest terms from time to time, and if any user does not agree with any updates to the privacy policy, such user should immediately cease use of the Website and any purchased services.
Commonly Asked Questions about Making Secure Donations to Common Threads