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How We Collect and Use Information

 

We collect the following types of information about you:

Information you provide us directly:

We ask for certain information such as your username, real name, city of residence, job description, name of the organization or school where you work, your e-mail address, and how many youth will benefit from sharing our products with you when you register for a Multicultural Education for Resource Issues Threatening Oceans Foundation Inc. DBA as MERITO Foundation account to download products free of cost, or if you correspond with us. We may also retain any messages you send through the Service, and may collect information you provide in User Content you post to the Service. We use this information to operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the Service.

 

Information we may receive from third parties:

We may receive information about you from third parties. For example, if you access our websites or Service through a third-party connection or log-in, for example, through Facebook Connect, by “following,” “liking,” or “sharing’ MERITO Foundation application, linking your account to the MERITO Foundation Service, etc., that third party may pass certain information about your use of its service to MERITO Foundation Inc. This information could include, but is not limited to, the user ID associated with your account (for example, your Facebook UID), an access token necessary to access that service, any information that you have permitted the third party to share with us, and any information you have made public in connection with that service. If you allow us access to your friends list, your friends’ user IDs, and your connection to those friends, may be used and stored to make your experience more social, and to allow you to invite your friends to use our Service as well as provide you with updates if and when your friends join MERITO Foundation. You should always review, and if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third-party websites and services before linking or connecting them to the MERITO Foundation Service. You may also unlink your third party account from the Service by adjusting your settings on the third party service.

 

Inviting a friend to use MERITO Foundation’s Service:

MERITO Foundation may, in its sole discretion, develop a feature that allows you to invite third parties to the Service. If you choose to use our invitation service to invite a third party to the Service through our “Invite friends” feature, you may directly choose a friend to invite through your mobile device’s native contact list – but we do not require that you import your contacts list to the Service, and we do not retain the information contained in your contacts list. You understand that by inviting a friend to MERITO Foundation Inc. through the “Invite friends” feature, you are directly sending a text or email from your personal accounts and that we are not storing your contact list. In addition, you understand and agree that normal carrier charges apply to communications sent from you phone. Since this invitation is coming directly from your email or phone, we do not have access to or control this communication.

 

Finding your friends on the Service:

MERITO Foundation may, in its sole discretion, develop a feature that allows you to locate your friends with MERITO Foundation accounts through a “Find friends” feature. The “Find friends” feature allows you to choose to locate friends either through (i) your contact list, (ii) social media sites (such as Twitter or Facebook) or (iii) through a search of names and usernames on MERITO Foundation. If you choose to find your friends through your contact list, then you agree to provide MERITO Foundation access to your contact list such that we can perform the search necessary to determine whether or not someone associated with the information you provide is using MERITO Foundation. If you choose to find your friends through social media sites, then you understand that the information these sites provide to use to conduct this type of search is governed by their privacy policies and your account settings on those sites. If you choose to find your friends through a search of names or usernames, then simply type a name to search and see if that name or username appears on our Service. Note that we do not retain any information contained in your contacts list, or information from social media sites about your contacts, and we do not use such information for any purpose other than to help you find your friends on MERITO Foundation.

 

Analytics information:

We may directly collect analytics data, or use third-party analytics tools and services, to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Service. These tools collect information sent by your browser or mobile device, including the 2 pages you visit and other information that assists us in improving the Service. We collect and use this analytics information in aggregate form such that it cannot reasonably be manipulated to identify any particular individual user.

 

Commercial and marketing communications:

We use the information we collect or receive, such as your email address, to communicate directly with you. We may send you emails containing newsletters, promotions, and volunteer event information. If you do not want to receive such email messages, you will be given the option to opt out or change your preferences. We also use your information to send you Service-related emails (e.g., account verification, purchase and billing confirmations and reminders, changes/updates to features of the Service, technical and security notices). You may also be able to be “found” on MERITO Foundation based on information that you provide (see “Find friends on MERITO Foundation”) above.

 

Use of certain service type information we collect about you:

We use or may use cookies, log file, device identifiers, location data and clear gifs information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) to provide and monitor the effectiveness of our Service; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns; (e) diagnose or fix technology problems; (f) help you efficiently access your information after you sign in; (g) to provide advertising to your browser or device, and (h) automatically update the MERITO Foundation application on your mobile devices.

 

Sharing of Your Information

We will not rent or sell your information into third parties outside MERITO Foundation and its group companies (including any parent, subsidiaries and affiliates) without your consent, except as noted below:

● Who we may share your information with: We may share your information with third-party business partners and Trusted Users for the purpose of providing the Service to you. Third party business partners will be given limited access to your information as is reasonably necessary to deliver the Service, and we will require that such third parties comply with this Privacy Policy, or operate under a similar privacy policy.

● Who can see your email address: If you enter an email address, you will enable communication from MERITO Foundation.

 

What happens in the event of a change of control:

We may buy or sell/divest/transfer the company (including any shares in the company), or any combination of its products, services, assets and/or businesses. Your information such as customer names and email addresses, and other user information related to the Service may be among the items sold or otherwise transferred in these types of transactions. We may also sell, assign or otherwise transfer such information in the course of corporate divestitures, mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies, dissolutions, reorganizations, liquidations, similar transactions or proceedings involving all or a portion of the company.

 

Instances where we are required to share your information:

MERITO Foundation will disclose your information where required to do so by law or subpoena or if we reasonably believe that such action is necessary to (a) comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement; (b) to enforce our Terms of Use or to protect the security, quality or integrity of our Service; and/or (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of MERITO Foundation, our Users, or others.

Sharing certain service type information we collect about you:

 

We may share certain service type information, including information obtained through tools such as cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data and clear gifs (such as anonymous usage data, referring/exit pages and URLs, platform types, number of clicks, etc.): (i) with our third-party business partners for the purposes described in the section above on “How We Collect and Use Information.” We may also aggregate or otherwise strip data of all personally identifying characteristics and may share that aggregated, anonymized data with third parties.

 

How We Store and Protect Your Information

Storage and Processing:

Your information collected through the Service may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which MERITO Foundation or its subsidiaries, affiliates, or service providers maintain facilities. MERITO Foundation may transfer information that we collect about you, including personal information, to affiliated entities, or to other third parties across borders and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world. If you are located in the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information, including personal information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, and you consent to the transfer of information to the U.S. or any other country in which MERITO Foundation or its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, or service providers maintain facilities and the use and disclosure of information about you as described in this Privacy Policy.

 

Keeping your information safe:

MERITO Foundation cares about the security of your information, and uses commercially reasonable safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of all information collected through the Service. To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you access to your account. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information, and for controlling access to your email communications from MERITO Foundation, at all times. However, MERITO Foundation cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to MERITO Foundation or guarantee that information on the Service may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed. Your privacy settings may also be affected by changes to the functionality of third party sites and services that you add to the MERITO Foundation Service, such as social networks. MERITO Foundation is not responsible for the functionality or security measures of any third party.

 

Compromise of information:

In the event that any information under our control is compromised as a result of a breach of security, MERITO Foundation will take reasonable steps to investigate the situation and where appropriate, notify those individuals whose information may have been compromised and take other steps, in accordance with any applicable laws and regulations.

 

Your Choices about Your Information

We make every effort to promptly process all unsubscribe requests. As noted above, you may opt out of Service related communications (e.g., account verification, purchase and billing confirmations and reminders, changes/updates to features of the Service, technical and security notices). If you have any questions about reviewing or modifying your account information, you can contact us directly at info@meritofoundation.org

 

Opting out of collection of your information for Tracking / Advertising:

Please refer to your mobile device or browser’s technical information for instructions on how to delete and disable cookies, and other tracking/recording tools. Depending on your type of device, it may not be possible to delete or disable tracking mechanisms on your mobile device. Note that disabling cookies and/or other tracking tools prevents MERITO Foundation or its business partners from tracking your browser’s activities in relation to the Service, and for use in targeted advertising activities by third parties. However, doing so may disable many of the features available through the Service. If you have any questions about opting out of the collection of cookies and other tracking/recording tools, you can contact us directly at info@meritofoundation.org

 

How long we keep your private profile information:

Following termination of your User account, MERITO Foundation may retain your private profile information for a reasonable time for backup, archival, or audit purposes. For the avoidance of doubt, any information that you choose to make public on the service may not be removable.

 

Children’s Privacy

MERITO Foundation does not knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register as Users. The Service and its content are not directed at children under the age of 13. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without 4 verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at info@meritofoundation.org

 

Links to Other Websites and Services

We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites or services linked to or from the Service, including the information or content contained therein. Please remember that when you use a link to go from the Service to another website, our Privacy Policy does not apply to third-party websites or services. Your browsing and interaction on any third-party website or service, including those that have a link or advertisement on our website, are subject to that third party’s own rules and policies. In addition, you agree that we are not responsible and we do not control over any third-parties that you authorize to access your User Content. If you are using a third-party website or service (like Facebook, Google groups, etc) and you allow such a third-party access to you User Content you do so at your own risk. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information we collect by other means (including offline) or from other sources other than through the Service.

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