Private Policy
WEBSITE PRIVACY NOTICE
Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan
Adopted by the Board
Directors on January 11, 2012
Welcome to the official
Web site of Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan. This Web site is
owned and operated by Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan, a 501(c)
(3) non-profit organization located in southeastern Michigan.
Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan (“GSSEM”) is committed to
protecting the privacy of youth and adult website visitors. This
website privacy notice discloses how GSSEM collects, protects, and
uses information provided online, as well as how GSSEM protects
children's privacy. By using the pages on this site, visitors are
accepting the practices described in the Privacy Policy.
If GSSEM policy practices described herein change any time in the
future, GSSEM will post the policy changes on our website. It is
important for our visitors to understand that all personally
identifiable information that is collected will be treated in
accordance with the privacy notice in effect at the time the
information is collected.
DATA COLLECTION
GSSEM’s online properties comprise of, but are not limited to,
all pages found under www.gssem.org, including the online council
shop, camp website and our destination sites for volunteers, girls and
teens.
GSSEM uses its best efforts to respect and
protect the privacy of its online visitors. This means visitors are
not required to register or provide information in order to simply
view the GSSEM website.
GSSEM only gathers personally
identifiable data, such as names, addresses, zip/postal codes, email
addresses, etc., when voluntarily submitted by a visitor. Examples
include: personally identifiable information collected in order to
process online transactions, online donations, or job applications.
This information is used solely by GSSEM or other entities who are
involved in the operation of this site for internal purposes.
GSSEM does not sell information to third parties. GSSEM will
only share personally identifiable information with third parties when:
- The person submitting the information has authorized GSSEM to
share it;
- Sharing the information is
necessary to the operation of the site or a service on the site, for
instance, to process a credit card transaction, - or -
- We are required to do so by law.
GSSEM has no control over or responsibility for the data
collection and use practices of third parties that process online
transactions, for example, credit card companies. Please note that
GSSEM never asks for social security numbers.
CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) protects
the personal information of children under the age of 13. This applies
to individually identifiable information about a child that is
collected online, such as full name, home address, email address,
telephone number or any other information that would allow someone to
identify or contact the child.
COPPA also cover other
types of information—for example, hobbies, interests and information
collected through “internet cookies” or other types of tracking
mechanisms—when they are tied to individually identifiable
information. It is important to understand this law; parent/guardians
are encouraged to read more about COPPA.
*** NOTE TO
PARENT/GUARDIANS ABOUT WEBSITE PRIVACY OF CHILDREN ***
GSSEM is committed to providing a safe, secure, and fun online
experience for children who visit our site. GSSEM is dedicated to
safeguarding any personal information collected online and to helping
parents and children have positive experiences on the Internet.
Consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998,
GSSEM will never knowingly request personally identifiable information
from anyone under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental
consent.
Parents can revoke their consent and ask that
information about their children be deleted from the website by
contacting GSSEM by phone at (800) 482-6734 or via e-mail. To do this
or to review personal information collected from children, we must
verify the identity of the requesting parent. When a parent revokes
consent, we will stop collecting, using, or disclosing information
from that child. To respect the privacy of parents, information
collected and used for the sole purpose of obtaining verifiable
parental consent or providing notice is not maintained in retrievable
form by the website if parental consent is not obtained after a
reasonable time.
GSSEM believes it is good policy not to
collect any more personally identifiable information from children
under 13 than is necessary for them to participate in our online
activities. In addition, be aware that all sites that are targeted to
children under 13 are prohibited by law from collecting more
information than they need.
SUBMISSIONS
GSSEM welcomes youth to learn more about our organization
and, where appropriate, participate in polls and surveys, as well as
submit comments, artwork, writings, and other submissions for posting
on our Website. For this reason, GSSEM follows the guidelines for
interactive electronic media published by the Children's Advertising
Review Unit (CARU) of the Better Business Bureau for pages targeted to
children under 13. However, we encourage this be done only with their
parent's knowledge and supervision. We also encourage children to use
an alias (e.g., "Bookworm", "Skater", etc.), first
name, nickname, initials, or other alternative to full names or screen
names which correspond with an email address for any activities which
will involve public posting.
In keeping with CARU's
Principle regarding respecting and fostering the parents' role in
providing guidance for their children, we encourage parents to check
and monitor their children's use of email and other online activities
regularly.
USE OF “INTERNET COOKIES”
Visitors should be aware that non-personal information and data
may be automatically collected by the GSSEM website through the use of
"internet cookies." "Cookies" are small text files
a website can use to recognize repeat visitors, facilitate the
visitor's ongoing access to and use of the site, and allow a site to
track usage behavior and compile aggregate data that will allow
content improvements. Cookies are not programs that come onto a
visitor's system and damage files. Generally, cookies work by
assigning a unique number to the visitor that has no meaning outside
the assigning site.
If a visitor does not want
information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple
procedure in most browsers that allows the visitor to deny or accept
the cookie feature, however, be aware that further steps may be
required in order to turn off “flash cookies.” GSSEM uses
"cookie" technology only to obtain non-personal information
from its online visitors in order to improve visitors' online
experience and facilitate their visit within our site.
LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES AND SERVICES
This website may be linked to other sites and services that are
not maintained by GSSEM. These websites have their own privacy
policies, which you should review prior to visiting them. GSSEM has no
responsibility for linked websites and provides these links solely for
the convenience and information of our visitors.
OUR SECURITY SAFEGUARD
The safety and security of our online visitors on line
experience is of the utmost concern to GSSEM. We ensure the
appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures are in
place to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data
security, and correctly use the information we collect online.
CREDIT CARD SAFETY
Protecting the safety of credit card information is very
important. GSSEM uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to protect
the security of credit card information as it is transmitted. SSL is
the industry standard in Internet encryption technology, which is a
highly sophisticated method of scrambling data as it travels from a
personal computer/smart phone/smart device to the GSSEM website
servers. Credit card numbers are encrypted during the purchasing
process and whenever that data is transferred to participating
merchants.
To make sure the GSSEM secure server is
reached before personal financial information is submitted, visitors
need to look at the lower left-hand corner of their browser. If an
unbroken key or a closed lock is shown (depending upon the browser),
then SSL is active. To double-check for security, visitors should also
check URL or Address line of the browser. If a secure server has been
accessed, the first characters of the address in that line should
change from "http" to "https."
It is
important to protect against unauthorized access to passwords for your
computer or smart devices. Therefore, it is important to sign off when
finished if using a shared computer.
CHILDREN’S PURCHASES
All children and youth under the age of 18 must get
parent/guardian permission to use a credit card to make purchases
online.
HOW TO CONTACT US
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, you can
contact us at our address:
Girl Scouts of Southeastern
Michigan
1333 Brewery Park Blvd
Suite 500
Detroit,
MI 48207
800-326-0309
Or by sending us an
email at: communications@gssem.org
Thank you for visiting our website.
