Vessel Work Inc Privacy Policy
Vessel Work Inc (“VW”), a 501(c)(3) corporation, is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of personal information entrusted to us. We have designed this Privacy Policy to answer questions regarding our privacy principles and practices.
What is Personal Information?
This Privacy Policy is applicable to all users (“Users”) of the VW website found at https://vesselwork.org/ (the “Website”), as well as other websites developed by VW now or in the future (“VW Sites”) and VW web pages on third party sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn (“Third Party Sites,” and together with the Website, and the VW Sites, the “Sites”) and all Users of the Sites who provide personal identifiable information (“personal information”). When this Privacy Policy uses the term “personal information,” we mean information that identifies a particular individual, such as the individual’s full or partial name, postal address, email address and telephone numbers. Some jurisdictions may call personal identifiable information “personal data” or “personally identifying information,” and may include opinions about or related to a User within the definition of personal information.
What Is the Scope of Our Privacy Policy?
This Privacy Policy addresses our policies and procedures relating to the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of personal information. This Privacy Policy is intended to assist you in understanding VW's policies and procedures relating to our management of personal information and is applicable to VW, its successors and assigns, and any affiliates of VW. This Privacy Policy is applicable to the personal information of all Users of the Sites and personal information you provide to us through other means. Please note that each Third Party Site has its own privacy policy and terms of service that are not affected by this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Use governing our Website (the “Terms of Use”).
Personal and Other Information Collected, Used, and Shared by VW
In order to make your experience on the Sites the best it can be, we may need to collect certain personal information that is voluntarily provided by you when you explore the Sites, make a donation, use our Services (as defined in the Terms of Use), register for an Event (as defined in the Terms of Use), purchase an item from the Gift Shop, submit comments to the Guest Forum or other areas of the Sites, or communicate with us by mail, telephone or electronically. For the 12-month period prior to the date of this Privacy Policy, we explain here what categories of personal information we have collected, where we got it from, why it is needed, and with whom we shared it:
What is Personal Information?
This Privacy Policy is applicable to all users (“Users”) of the VW website found at https://vesselwork.org/ (the “Website”), as well as other websites developed by VW now or in the future (“VW Sites”) and VW web pages on third party sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn (“Third Party Sites,” and together with the Website, and the VW Sites, the “Sites”) and all Users of the Sites who provide personal identifiable information (“personal information”). When this Privacy Policy uses the term “personal information,” we mean information that identifies a particular individual, such as the individual’s full or partial name, postal address, email address and telephone numbers. Some jurisdictions may call personal identifiable information “personal data” or “personally identifying information,” and may include opinions about or related to a User within the definition of personal information.
What Is the Scope of Our Privacy Policy?
This Privacy Policy addresses our policies and procedures relating to the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of personal information. This Privacy Policy is intended to assist you in understanding VW's policies and procedures relating to our management of personal information and is applicable to VW, its successors and assigns, and any affiliates of VW. This Privacy Policy is applicable to the personal information of all Users of the Sites and personal information you provide to us through other means. Please note that each Third Party Site has its own privacy policy and terms of service that are not affected by this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Use governing our Website (the “Terms of Use”).
Personal and Other Information Collected, Used, and Shared by VW
In order to make your experience on the Sites the best it can be, we may need to collect certain personal information that is voluntarily provided by you when you explore the Sites, make a donation, use our Services (as defined in the Terms of Use), register for an Event (as defined in the Terms of Use), purchase an item from the Gift Shop, submit comments to the Guest Forum or other areas of the Sites, or communicate with us by mail, telephone or electronically. For the 12-month period prior to the date of this Privacy Policy, we explain here what categories of personal information we have collected, where we got it from, why it is needed, and with whom we shared it:
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Category of Personal Information Collected |
Source of Information |
Purpose for Collection |
Categories of Recipients |
Contact information: such as your name, address, email address, telephone numbers, or other contact information; and, for children, the name, mailing address and/or email address of a parent or legal guardian. |
From you |
To provide and deliver information, products, or services you have requested, including processing your payment or donation, to provide information we think may be of interest to you, to send you information related to products and services, including confirmations, invoices, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages, to communicate with you about upcoming events, and other news about products and services offered by VW and our selected partners, to determine your eligibility for our products and services, and to manage and administer our community features and member programs and services. |
Our service providers who administer our community features and member programs and services, and selected partners and affiliates that we believe may have offers or be of interest to you. |
Purchase and order information: contact information, together with purchase details, delivery details, payment details, and/or any communications we have received about your order or purchase. |
From you |
To validate, confirm, verify, deliver, install, and track your order, including to arrange for shipping, handle returns and refunds, maintain a record of the purchases you make, to service products you purchased from us, and to provide you offers that may be of interest to you. |
Our service providers who process, fulfill, and ship orders. |
Payment information: name, card issuer and card type, credit or debit card number, expiration date, CVV code, and/or billing address. |
From you and your payment card issuer |
To check that the right person is using the right card or account, meet the requirements of the card brands or account issuers, and to make sure we are paid for what you buy. |
Our service providers who process payments for us. These third-party service providers are prohibited from using personal information for any other purpose and are contractually required to comply with all applicable laws and requirements, which may include Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards if they are processing payments for us. |
Information you provide about a third party: if you send someone else a communication from the Sites (such as sending a gift), we may collect information such as that person’s name, telephone number, email, and/or shipping address. |
From you |
To deliver to or communicate with the person at the address which you have requested. |
Our service providers and our co-marketing partners. |
Legal information: fraud checks or flags raised about your transactions, the payment card you want to use, payment card refusals, suspected crimes, complaints, and/or claims. |
From you, the police, crime and fraud prevention agencies, payment card providers, the public, regulators, and your and our professional advisors and representatives. |
To protect you and our business against criminal activities and risks, and to make sure we understand and can meet our legal obligations to you and others and can defend ourselves. |
Our service providers who help us with fraud protection and credit risk reduction, law enforcement and/or other governmental authorities in accordance with applicable law. |
Preference information: your marketing preferences, your account settings including any default preferences, any preferences you have indicated, the types of services/offers that interest you, the areas of our Sites that you visit, or complaints you may have about the Sites and any of their content and offerings. |
From you, from our website technology interaction with your browser/devices and cookies and other similar technologies tracking the pages you visit, the marketing messages you open, and the links you follow. |
To properly investigate and respond to any complaints, questions, or concerns you may have about our products or our Sites, to enhance your online experience and make the Sites more interesting and useful to you, to manage content delivery, to recognize you and welcome you to the Sites, to provide you with information, products or services we think may be of interest to you through other third-party sites or applications, via email, or text messages that are offered by us or other marketing partners, and for various other purposes related to our foundation. We use this information to understand which areas of our Sites are most appealing or least appealing, or to deliver content that is specific to your country or area of residence. |
Our third-party vendors and other service providers that perform website analytic services for us. |
Demographic information: such as your gender, date of birth, number of children, and personal interests. |
From you |
To make the Sites more interesting and useful to you, to provide products and services we think may be of interest to you, through other third-party sites or applications, via email, or text messages that are offered by us or other marketing partners, to understand which areas of our Sites are most appealing or least appealing and for various other purposes related to our foundation. |
Our third-party vendors and other service providers that perform website analytic services for us. |
Communications: communications we have with you. |
From you |
To handle your requests, and to contact you when necessary or requested, including to respond to your comments and questions and provide customer service. |
Our service providers who assist us with customer service. |
Voluntary information: any voluntary information you provide us with, such as responses to surveys or fundraising events and social media account details. |
From you and your social media account provider. |
To better understand you and to serve you better through more detailed information, enhanced customer service, and directed Vessel Work promotional efforts of particular interest, learn and improve from your survey feedback and/or organize events. |
Our service providers who administer surveys and promotions and our co-marketing partners. |
Personalization: your journey online and how you use our Sites, and whether and when you open our marketing emails and respond to our advertisements. |
From you, from our Site technology’s interaction with your browser or devices and cookies tracking the pages you visit. |
To make the Sites more interesting and useful to you, to improve products and services, customer service, and customer shopping experience. |
Our third-party vendors and other service providers that perform website analytic services for us. |
Device information: IP address, internet provider, operating system and browser used, type of device, such as laptop or smartphone, and/or device cookie settings and other device details, such as MAC address and geolocation, if you permit it to obtain your precise geolocation. |
From you and from our website’s interaction with your browser or devices. |
To collect information regarding the frequency with which you visit various parts of our Sites, to make sure our Sites work properly with your device and make sure you can see and use our intended website on the device you are using, for analytical and demographic purposes, and to provide offers that may be of interest to you. We also will use this information to protect the security or integrity of the Sites and our business, such as by protecting against and preventing fraud, unauthorized transactions, and managing risk exposure, including by identifying potential hackers and other unauthorized users. We may combine IP addresses with personally identifiable information. |
Our service providers who help us with fraud protection, and third-party vendors and other service providers that perform website analytic services for us. |
Information automatically collected from your browser: when you use the Sites, some data is automatically transferred from your browser to our server, including your browser type, operating system type or mobile device model, viewed webpages, links that are clicked, IP address, mobile device identifier or other unique identifier, sites or apps visited before coming to our Sites, the amount of time you spend viewing or using the Sites, the number of times you return, or other click-stream or site usage data, and emails we send that you open, forward, or click through to our Sites. |
From you and from our website’s interaction with your browser or devices. |
We will use this information in an aggregated non-specific format for analytical and demographic purposes. We also will use this information to protect the security or integrity of the Sites and our business, such as by protecting against and preventing fraud, unauthorized transactions, and managing risk exposure, including by identifying potential hackers and other unauthorized users. |
Our third-party vendors and other service providers that perform website analytic services for us. |
In addition to the sharing of your personal information as described above, we also may disclose personal information we collect as follows:
To a Third Party in the Event of a Significant Transaction or Other Event
In the case of any significant transaction or event involving VW or any of its affiliated entities such as, by way of example, a sale, merger, amalgamation, financing, re-organization, liquidation, or insolvency, other parties to the transaction and their professional advisors may need to have access to VW’s various databases as part of the due diligence process. In this event, VW would only provide such access under terms of a strict confidentiality agreement. Upon completion of the transaction or event, your personal information would be transferred to VW’s successor-in-interest.
To Third Parties in the Event of Legal Reasons
We advise you that we may disclose personal information to the government or other legal or regulatory authorities (i) if so ordered by a court of law, or (ii) for other legal reasons, such as (a) to comply with legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena or court order; (b) to protect VW’s rights and property; (c) to investigate reports of fraud or of Users sending material using a false email address or Users sending harassing, threatening, or abusive messages; (d) to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our Website; or (e) in emergencies, such as when we believe someone's physical safety is at risk. In some cases, disclosure to third parties may be required by law to be without notice to you.
For Our Donors
VW is committed to respecting the privacy of our donors, both financial and in-kind, whether the donation is made online, by mail, widget, application or any other method online and offline. We may collect certain personal information, including but not limited to contact information, payment information, donor history, and fundraising event history in connection with fundraising events. We will not share, sell, exchange or trade our donors’ personally identifiable information with any other entity. In addition, we will not send mailings to our donors on behalf of other organizations, third party fundraising or marketing purposes.
User Content
You may also provide us photographs or other video materials, including but not limited to Forum and/or Guestbook communications and photos, which may contain personal information. In addition, our Sites may offer message boards, conversation pages, profile pages, blogs, fundraising pages, and other features in which you provide us with User Content. If you provide personal information when you use any of these features, that personal information may be publicly posted and otherwise disclosed without limitation as to its use by a third party. Our rules regarding User Content are described in the Terms of Use.
You May Disclose Personal Information on an VW Sites
VW provides several opportunities on our Website and on Third Party Sites to disclose personal information, such as when you list upcoming fundraising activities on a user page or in connection with your use of other Services provided by VW. Our Sites may offer message boards, conversation pages, profile pages, blogs, fundraising pages, public forums and other features in which you provide us with User Content. Your use of these features and your disclosure of personal information with respect to these features is completely voluntary; however, if you provide personal information when you use any of these features, that personal information may be publicly posted and otherwise disclosed without limitation as to its use by a third party.
What Security Measures Does VW Have in Place To Safeguard Personal Information?
VW has implemented physical, electronic and administrative measures to protect your information from error, loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. For example, we use encryption, passwords and firewalls to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information contained on our computer systems. In addition, our employees and any third parties we use are contractually bound to protect the confidentiality of your information and access is restricted to those with a need to know the information to carry out the identified purpose. From time to time, we review our security procedures to protect our Users’ personal information in order to consider appropriate new technology and methods; however, despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. In this regard, we urge you to take every precaution to protect your personal data while you are on the Internet.
Where is my Personal Information Located?
Your personal information may be stored and processed in servers, including those of our authorized third parties, currently located in the United States. These servers shall always be subject to the safeguards described in this Privacy Policy to protect against unauthorized collection, use or disclosure, and you shall be able to access the personal information stored in such servers in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Non-Personal Information
Non-personal or aggregated information is information that cannot be associated with or traced back to a specific person. When Users browse our Sites, for example, we may gather information about the number of Users who are viewing each page so that we can learn what features generate the most interest. We may disclose anonymous, aggregated information about our Sites to third parties.
Links to Third-Party Sites
Users may, through hypertext or other computer “links,” gain access to other websites on the Internet which are not operated or monitored by VW. VW is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by VW of the website or content linked to. VW ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY MATERIAL OUTSIDE OF THE WEBSITE OPERATED BY VW AND ITS AFFILIATES, INCLUDING ANY WEBSITE WHICH MAY BE ACCESSED THROUGH A LINK ON AN VW OPERATED SITE. Unless otherwise indicated at a VW-operated Site, VW is not sponsored by or affiliated with the linked website, and trademarks used in connection with linked website are not trademarks of VW. VW specifically disclaims responsibility for any inadvertent viewing by a minor of any material intended for adults on a website accessed through use of a linked website. If you click on a link for Facebook, Twitter or any other third-party website, you should know that our Privacy Policy will not apply on those sites. It’s always a good idea to read the privacy policy of a website if you’re concerned.
How To Control How Your Personal Information is Collected, Used and Disclosed
You have control over how we collect, use and disclose your personal information. Any comments, questions or changes regarding the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information shall be directed to a VW representative, as described below.
You may choose not to receive email from us, even after granting permission, by unsubscribing. Instructions on how to unsubscribe from emails that are not related to processing of your transactions with us are included in each such email.
A request for a copy of the personal information we keep about you, depending on the laws of your country, must be made in writing giving details with which VW can identify you. Information will be furnished in accordance with applicable law.
Questions, Comments, or Accessing or Updating Your Personal Information
If you have any questions or comments about VW’s Privacy Policy, would like to advise us how you would like your personal information not to be used or disclosed, or would like to access or update your personal information, please email us at [email protected]. You can also write to us at Vessel Work, 124 Finch Dr., Elyria, OH 44035.
Please note that certain information is required by VW to process payment and fulfill any orders or donations that you may place through the Website, and if you withdraw your consent to the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information for these purposes, then VW will not be able to fulfill your orders or process donations.
Acceptance of Privacy Policy/Amendments to Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy outlines the information usage practices of VW. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use the Sites. We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy at our discretion and at any time. If, at some point in the future, there is a material change to our information usage practices that affects your personal information, you will be notified of such change by a conspicuous posting on the Website. Your continued interaction with VW following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes, subject to your continuing right to notify us at any time as to how you would like us to treat your personal information.
This Privacy Policy was last updated September 10, 2024.
Users Outside of the United States
Our computer systems and some of the computer systems of our third party service providers are currently based in the United States, so your personal data will be processed by us in the United States where data protection and privacy regulations may not offer the same level of protection as in other parts of the world, such as the European Union. As a visitor from outside the United States, by using the Site you agree to this Privacy Policy and you consent to the transfer of all such information to the United States, which may not offer an equivalent level of protection of that required in the European Union or certain other countries, and to the processing of that information as described in this Privacy Policy.
Do Not Track
Do Not Track (DNT) is a privacy preference that users can set in some web browsers, allowing users to opt out of tracking by websites and online services. At the present time, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has not yet established universal standards for recognizable DNT signals and therefore, VW does not recognize DNT.
Cookies Policy
VW may also collect information that is stored in cookies, and we may associate this information with your personal information. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your hard drive, not on our Sites. We use cookies for a number of reasons. Cookies allow you to store your password without having to constantly re-enter it. Cookies also help us to tailor messages that better match your needs and interests, and they allow us to better understand how Users in general use our Sites, which in turn helps us to focus our resources on features that are most popular with our Users. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, but some parts of our Sites may not work properly if you do. Additionally, VW may use first-party and third-party cookies for integrated services, external services, and applications that our website(s) support.
Children's Privacy
VW complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (as amended, “COPPA”), which prohibits collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 without verifiable parental consent. If it comes to our attention that we have unknowingly collected information from a child under the age of 13, we will take all reasonable measures to delete it as soon as possible and will not use such information for any purpose (except where necessary to protect the safety of the child or others as required or allowed by law). If you become aware of any personally identifiable information we have collected from children under 13, please email us at [email protected]. You can also write to us at Vessel Work, 124 Finch Dr., Elyria, OH 44035.
Types of personal information collected: Under COPPA, “personal information” is defined as individually identifiable information, such as a first and last name; a home or other physical address, including street name and city or town; an e-mail address; a telephone number; a Social Security number; or persistent identifiers such as customer or processor serial numbers held in a cookie, where the identifier is associated with individually identifiable information. We collect and use only as much information about a child as necessary for the activity, and do not condition participation in any online activity on the disclosure of more personal information than is reasonably necessary. Occasionally, we use cookies to store pertinent User information during a session.
Use of personal information: We use the information we collect from children only for internal business purposes, for the child to participate on the Sites, and/or to give credit to children for work they have created. We contact children by e-mail only in response to their requests for information or assistance. VW uses cookies solely for the purpose of holding information during online sessions. If, however, a child voluntarily discloses personal information, such as a name or e-mail address, on bulletin boards or in chat areas that are accessible to other Users, then such information could be collected and disclosed by others. VW cannot take any responsibility for such collection or disclosure.
Involvement of parents: In accordance with the provisions of COPPA, we will notify parents when collecting personal information from children, and will seek parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing certain personal information from children. Parents may review and have deleted their child’s personal information, and may refuse to permit further collection or use of their child's information by contacting the VW representatives listed herein. Please note that, while we make reasonable efforts to comply with such requests, deletion of your personal information does not ensure complete and comprehensive removal of that data from all systems. Parents may consent to our collection and use of their child’s personal information without consenting to the disclosure of that information to others. Parents and legal guardians may contact VW as follows:
Vessel Work Inc
124 Finch Dr.
Elyria, OH 44035
[email protected]
Phone: 216-544-8989
vesselwork.org
For more information about COPPA, see FTC - Children’s Privacy.
If we knowingly collect personal information on a child-directed service or from a user we have actual knowledge is a child, we will retain that information only so long as reasonably necessary to 1) fulfill the request or allow the child to participate in the activity, 2) ensure the security of our users and our online services, and/or 3) as required by law. If we learn we have collected personal information from a child in a manner inconsistent with COPPA’s requirements, we will either delete that personal information or seek parental consent.
Collection and Use of Personal Information from Children
If an online service seeks to collect personal information from a child that is not subject to an exception under COPPA, we will first ask for a parent or guardian’s consent to that collection as required by law.
Our online services directed to children may collect the following information from children for
the purposes described:
- Registration Information: Children may be able to register with an online service to view content, participate in contests, play games, and more. We may ask the child to provide a screen name (that does not include the child’s name) and password. We may also request information for notification purposes, such as a parent or guardian’s email address, the child’s first name and gender, and birth date. We may ask for a child’s email address for purposes of generating a password reminder. In such cases, unless we otherwise obtain consent or notify the parent of ongoing communications (as discussed below), we will hash such email address so that it can only be used as a password reminder and cannot be used to contact the child.
- Email Address for One-Time Response: We may ask for a child’s email address or other online contact information in order to respond to a question or request from a child. We will delete this information after responding to the question or request. If an online service allows children to create accounts by providing name and email address, we will first seek parental consent as required by COPPA.
- Email Address for Newsletters or Other Ongoing Communications: Our online services may offer ongoing communications to our users, such as newsletters or show updates. In such circumstances, we may collect a child’s email address or other online contact information, along with a parent’s email address. We will notify the parent via email about the collection and use of the child’s information and provide the parent an opportunity to prevent further contact with the child.
- Content: We may allow children to submit content to us. If a child includes personal information in such content, we will take reasonable measures to delete the personal information or first seek parental consent.
- Contests and Sweepstakes Entry Information: Our online services may feature contests or sweepstakes and seek information necessary for a child to participate in such contest, including the child’s first name and parent’s email address to notify the parent (as required by law). If the child wins the contest, we may contact the parent via email to request information for prize fulfillment.
- Information to Obtain Parental Consent: We may ask a child for a parent’s or guardian’s email address or other permissible contact information in order to request consent. If we do not receive parental consent within a reasonable time, we will delete the contact information and any other related information collected from the child. We may conduct other methods of parental consent permitted by COPPA, including obtaining a credit card number and charging a fee (which may be nominal), asking a parent to speak to a customer service representative by phone or video, or requiring submission of a signed consent form.
- Persistent Identifiers: Our online services may automatically collect persistent identifiers for internal operations, including to provide and improve our online services, conduct analytics, authenticate users, personalize content, maintain the security and integrity of the service, and to ensure legal or regulatory compliance. Specifically, we may collect Internet protocol or IP address, pages and content visited, the type and version of operating system or web browser, device ID. We, or our third-party service providers, may collect this information using HTTP cookies, flash cookies, HTML5 and Flash local storage, web beacons/GIFs, embedded scripts, and ETags/cache browsers (“Cookies”).
We may share or disclose personal information collected from children in the following circumstances:
- With our service providers in order for them to perform service on our behalf;
- As permitted or required by law, including in response to a court order or a subpoena.
- To protect the safety of a child, to prevent a crime, or to facilitate a public safety investigation;
- To take precautions against liability; or
- To protect the security or integrity of our online services.
Parental Controls
Parents or guardians may contact [email protected] to review personal information provided by his or her child, have such information deleted, and/or refuse to allow further collection or use of such information. You may send mail inquiries to: Vessel Work, 124 Finch Dr., Elyria, OH 44035.