Welcome to Public Spend Forum’s Privacy Policy
Effective Date: May 10, 2015
Public Spend Forum LLC (“PSF”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) recognizes the importance of privacy. In this Privacy Policy, we describe how we collect, use, and disclose information that we obtain about visitors to our website, publicspendforum.net, and through our online surveys and promotions (collectively, the “Site”) and the services available through our Site (collectively, the “Services”). By visiting the Site or using any of our Services, you agree that your personal information will be handled as described in this Privacy Policy. Your use of our Site or Services, and any dispute over privacy, is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including its applicable limitations on damages and the resolution of disputes. Our are incorporated by reference into this Privacy Policy.
Information We Collect
We collect information about you directly from you, automatically through your use of our Site or Services, and from third parties (e.g., social media platforms). We may combine information automatically collected with other information that we have collected about you.
- Information We Collect Directly From You. People who access some of our Services but do not have accounts (“Visitors”) may browse our Site without directly providing us with information. However, we will collect information from those who purchase products from us, register for free accounts, and/or pay an annual service fee to subscribe to our Services (“Registered Users”). Registered Users may be asked to provide certain personal information when they sign up for our Products or Services including name, address, telephone number, billing information (such as a credit card number), and the type of personal computer being used to access the Services. The personal information collected from Registered Users during the registration process is used to manage each Registered User’s account (such as for billing purposes). This information is not shared with third parties, unless specifically stated otherwise or in special circumstances. However, in instances where our company and a partner jointly promote our Services, we may provide the partner certain personal information, such as the name, address, and username of persons who subscribed to the Services as a result of the joint promotion for the sole purpose of allowing us and the partner to assess the results of the promotion. In this instance, personal information may not be used by the partner for any other purpose. We may also generate non-identifying and aggregate profiles from personal information Registered Users provide during registration (such as the total number, but not the names, of Registered Users). As explained in more detail below, we may use this aggregated and non-identifying information to sell advertisements that appear on the Services.
- Information We Collect Automatically. We automatically collect information such as the following about your use of our Site or Services through cookies and other technologies: domain name; browser type; operating system type; pages or screens you view; links you click; IP address; when and the length of time you visit or use our Services; and the referring URL, or the webpage that led you to our Site.
How We Use Your Information
We may use your information, including personal information, for the following purposes:
- Providing Our Services. To provide our Services to you, to fulfill your orders, and for other customer service purposes.
- Tailoring Content. To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you, and to otherwise personalize your experiences while using our Site or Services.
- Communicating with You.
- Analyzing Use of Our Services. To better understand how users access and use our Site and Services, both on an aggregated and individualized basis; to respond to user desires and preferences; and for other research and analytical purposes.
- Complying with the Law. To comply with applicable legal obligations.
How We Disclose Your Information
We may disclose your information that we collect about you, including personal information, with the following entities:
- Affiliates. We may disclose your information to our affiliates or subsidiaries for research, marketing, and other purposes consistent with this Policy.
- Service Providers. We may disclose your information to our vendors, service providers, agents, or others who perform functions on our behalf.
- Business Partners. We may disclose your information to partners (e.g., if we co-sponsor an event with a partner), and those partners may use your information for their own marketing or promotional purposes.
- Unaffiliated Third Parties. We may disclose your information to other unaffiliated third parties, including for their own marketing purposes. Please see our Special Information for California Consumers section below with regard to such disclosures.
We may also disclose your information that we collect about you, including personal information, in the following ways:
- Business Transfers. We may disclose your information to another entity if we are acquired by or merged with another company, if substantially all of our assets are transferred to another company, or as part of a bankruptcy proceeding.
- In Response to Legal Process. We may disclose your information in order to comply with the law, a judicial proceeding, subpoena, court order, or other legal process.
- To Protect Us and Others. We may disclose your information where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Use or this Privacy Policy, or as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
- Aggregate and De-Identified Information. We may disclose aggregate or de-identified information about users for marketing, advertising, research, or similar purposes.
Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms
We and our service providers use cookies and other tracking mechanisms to track information about your use of our Site or Services. We or our service providers may combine this information with other personal information we collect about you.
- Do Not Track. Our Site does not respond to Do Not Track signals, but we do not track your activities once you leave our Site. You may disable certain tracking as discussed in this section (e.g., by disabling cookies).
- Cookies. We or our service providers may use cookies to track visitor activity on our Site. A cookie is a text file that a website transfers to your computer’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes. We or our service providers may use cookies to track user activities on our Site, such as the pages visited and time spent on our Site. Most browsers allow users to refuse cookies. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Visitors to our Site who disable cookies may not be able to browse certain areas of the Site.
- Clear GIFs, pixel tags and other technologies. Clear GIFs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, which are embedded invisibly on web pages. We or our service providers may use clear GIFs (also known as web beacons, web bugs or pixel tags), in connection with our Site to track the activities of visitors to our Site, help us manage content, and compile statistics about usage of our Site. We or our service providers may also use clear GIFs in HTML emails to our users, to help us track email response rates, identify when our emails are viewed, and track whether our emails are forwarded.
- Third-Party Analytics. We use third party service providers, including Google Analytics, to evaluate the use of our Site and our Services. We or our service providers use automated devices and applications to evaluate use of our Site and Services. We or our service providers use these tools to help us improve our Site, Services, performance, and user experiences. These entities may use cookies and other tracking technologies, such as web beacons or Flash LSO, to perform their services.
- User-Generated Content
We invite you to post content to our Services, including your comments, pictures, articles, and any other information that you would like to be available on our Services. If you post your own content on our Site or Services, it may be available to all visitors to our Site, and we cannot prevent such information from being used in a manner that may violate this Privacy Policy, the law, or your personal privacy.
Online Shopping
At some Web sites, you can purchase products and services or register to receive materials, such as a newsletter, catalog or new product and service updates. In many cases, you may be asked to provide contact information, such as your name, address, email address, phone number, and credit/debit card information. If you complete an order for someone else, such as an online gift order sent directly to a recipient, you may be asked to provide information about the recipient, such as the recipient’s name, address, and phone number. Our company has no control over the third parties’ use of any personal information you provide when placing such an order. Please exercise care when doing so. If you order services or products directly from our company we will use the personal information you provide only to process that order. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to complete that order.
Advertisements
Our company may display our online advertisements. In those cases we share aggregated and non-identifying information about our Users collected through the registration process as well as through online surveys and promotions with these advertisers. Additionally, in some instances, we use this aggregated and non-identifying information to deliver tailored advertisements or joint ventures. For instance, an advertiser or joint venture company tells us the audience they want to reach and provides us an advertisement tailored to the audience. Based upon the aggregated and non-identifying information we have collected, we may then display or send the advertisement to the intended audience. Our company does not share personal information about its Users with these advertisers or joint venture companies.
Third-Party Links
Our Site and Services may contain links to third-party websites. Any access to and use of such linked websites is not governed by this Policy but instead is governed by the privacy policies of those third-party websites. We are not responsible for the information practices of such third-party websites.
Security
We have taken steps to help protect the information we collect about you from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Please be aware that despite our efforts, no data security measures can guarantee 100% security. You should take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your account by, among other things, choosing a robust password that nobody else knows or can easily guess and keeping your log-in and password private. We are not responsible for any lost, stolen, or compromised passwords or for any activity on your account via unauthorized password activity.
Your Choices
You may modify the information that you have submitted by emailing us at support@publicspendforum.net. We may send periodic promotional or informational emails to you. You may opt out of such communications by following the opt-out instructions contained in the email. Please note that it may take up to ten (10) business days for us to process opt-out requests. If you opt out of receiving emails about recommendations or other information we think may interest you, we may still send you emails about your account or any Services you have requested or received from us.
Children
Our Services are not designed for children under thirteen (13) years of age. If we discover that a child under 18 has provided us with personal information, we will promptly delete such information from our systems.
Special Information for California Consumers
California residents may request a list of certain third parties to which we have disclosed personally identifiable information about you for their own direct marketing purposes. You may make one request per calendar year. In your request, please attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for your response. You may request this information in writing by contacting us at: support@publicspendforum.net. Please allow up to thirty (30) days for a response.
Contact Us
If you have questions about the privacy aspects of our Site or Services, please contact us at support@publicspendforum.net.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy is current as of the Effective Date set forth above. We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, so please be sure to check back periodically. We will post any changes to this Privacy Policy on our Site. If we make any changes to this Privacy Policy that materially affect our practices with regard to the personal information we have previously collected from you, we will endeavor to provide you with notice in advance of such change by highlighting the change on our Site.
GDPR Policy
Your privacy is very important to us. We have developed this Policy so you can understand how we collect, use, communicate, disclose and make use of personal information. We ensure website visitors that the personal information you provide is confidential and processed in compliance with the relevant applicable laws and regulations. In this context, we have taken appropriate steps to secure your visit to and use of our website and to prevent abuse. Furthermore, we tell you how we handle your personal data and how we use cookies.
Processing of personal data
What is Personal Data?
Personal data is any data that can identify an individual such as a name, phone number, email address, etc.
Which Personal Data Do We Use and Why?
We use your personal data when the data has been provided by you to Public Spend Forum. Some examples of a user submitting their personal data to us are:
– Signing up for a newsletter
– Applying for a position
– Contacting us for customer service or a general inquiry
– Requesting a refund or replacement
– Signing up to receive a coupon or discount
– Commenting on a blog post
We process your personal data for the purpose for which we received it. Therefore, if you sign up for a newsletter, we will use your email address only to send you that newsletter.
Your data will never be transmitted to third parties without your permission, unless this is necessary to carry out your request such as sending you an email blast with a third party software or in the event we are obliged to do so by law or regulation or a decision by a judicial authority.
Our Newsletter & Promotional Coupons
We use a third party called Mailchimp to maintain your email subscription to us and to send you emails of promotional nature. All of our emails have clear unsubscribe links at the bottom of them. We will only use your email to send you promotional emails & coupons with your consent.
Social Media
To manage the information we receive about you from a social networking site or any other third party, you will need to follow the instructions from that party for updating your information and changing your privacy settings. The information we collect is covered by this privacy statement and the information the third party collects is subject to such third party’s privacy practices. Privacy choices you have made on any third party site will not apply to our use of the information we have collected directly through our sites.
In Store Credit & Debit Card Transactions
Public Spend Forum – through its Shopify portal – transmits your credit or debit card information to its bank in an encrypted fashion. This information is not retained by Public Spend Forum.
What Are Your Privacy Rights?
You have the following privacy rights:
– Right of access: Individuals can ask for a copy of the personal data retained about you and an explanation of how it is being used.
– Right to rectification: Individuals have the right to correct, revise or remove any of the personal data retained about them at any time.
– Right to be forgotten: Individuals can ask to delete their personal data.
– Right to restrict processing: If an individual believes, for example, that their personal data is inaccurate or collected unlawfully, the individual may request limited use of their personal data.
– Right of portability: Individuals have the right to receive their personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
– Right to object: Where an individual decides that they no longer wish to allow their personal data to be included in analytics or to receive direct marketing emails or other personalized (targeted) marketing content at any time, the individual may opt out of use of their data for these purposes.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact support@publicspendforum.net
Security of Your Personal Data
Your personal data is strictly confidential and Public Spend Forum has appropriate technical and organizational security measures against loss or unlawful processing. For this purpose, Public Spend Forum uses additional security techniques, including secure servers, firewalls and encryption, as well as physical protection of areas where data is stored.
Public Spend Forum has a Head of Data Protection that can be contacted with any questions: raj@publicspendforum.net.
How We Use Cookies
A cookie is a small text file stored on your device when you use our website. A cookie has a unique number to which data can be linked. Public Spend Forum uses the following cookies on our website.
Google Analytics
This cookie measures, with the help of Google Analytics, how many visitors come to the website, what is viewed the most, etc. We use this statistical data to align the website content and navigation according to the needs of visitors as well as to improve the functionality and content of the website. The resulting analytics reports cannot be tracked back to individuals. To learn more about Google Analytics and their privacy policy, visit: https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html/
Social Media
Through social media cookies, Public Spend Forum gives you the opportunity to share information on the website using social media buttons. To ensure that these buttons work, we use cookies from the social media parties represented in the social media icons. For the cookies that the social media parties use and the data that they collect from them, we refer to the statements given by these parties on their own websites.
How Long Will the Cookies Be Stored?
Most cookies disappear when you close the browser. Some cookies can be stored for a few days to a few years.
Removing or Disabling Cookies
You can remove or disable cookies yourself at any time using your browser. An explanation on how to adjust cookie settings can be found in most browsers under Help. Please note: most websites will not work properly if you disable cookies.
Changes to Privacy & Cookie Statement
Public Spend Forum reserves the right to modify this Privacy & Cookie Statement and therefore advises you to check this page regularly for any changes that have been made.
Questions?
If you have any questions or would you like more information regarding this Privacy & Cookie Statement, please contact support@publicspendforum.net.