Privacy Policy

Seva Foundation – Privacy Policy

Seva Foundation understands that you care about how we collect, use, and share information when you interact with our website, email, and online services (our “Services”), and we value the trust you place in us. This Privacy Policy explains:

  • the types of information we collect through our Services;
  • how we use and protect that information;
  • the types of information we may share with others and under what circumstances; and
  • the choices you have regarding our collection, use, and sharing practices.

This Privacy Policy applies to the Seva Foundation and our website, emails we send, as well as the information we collect when you interact with us through social media or other websites and online services. It does not apply to non-Seva Foundation websites and mobile applications that may link to our Services or be linked to or from our Services; please review the privacy policies on those websites and applications directly to understand their privacy practices.

What Information We Collect

Information You Give Us

Our Services may include features that permit you to enter contact information and other information about you. We collect and store any information you enter on our Services. This includes:

  • Information provided in connection with your creation of an account, including your First Name, Last Name, City, State, Email Address, and Phone Number, as well as your interests
  • Information provided in connection with a donation you make or merchandise you choose to purchase through our website, including your First Name, Last Name, City, State, Email Address, and Phone Number
  • Email address information when subscribing to our email bulletins
  • Information you provide when you interact with us via social media, including any posts, pictures, videos and messages which you submit to us either via our social media sites (including by use of hashtags associated with us) or our site

When you engage in a financial transaction on our website, Seva Foundation does not process or store credit card information. When submitting a donation or payment, donors and customers are connected with a third party online payment platform, Blackbaud, which processes the credit card transaction and sends us confirmation of payment only. Blackbaud uses industry-standard encryption and secure web pages for transmission of credit card information to keep your information secure, accurate, current, and complete. For more information on Blackbaud, please visit their Privacy Policy. Seva Foundation does store the names, addresses, and phone numbers of donors and customers for cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship activities.

Information We Collect Automatically

When you interact with our Services, certain information about your use of our Services is automatically collected. Much of this information is collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies, as well as through your web browser or device.  Cookies are pieces of information that websites transfer to your computer to enable you to take full advantage of the website's features. For example, cookies make it easier for you to use our Services by performing certain functions such as saving your passwords and your personal preferences regarding your use of the site.  Any or all activities with regard to collecting usage information may be performed on our behalf by third-parties (see Additional Information About Third Party Cookies below). This includes:

  • Details of your visits to our site and information generated in the course of the use our Services (including the timing, frequency and pattern of service use) including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, and other communication data, the resources that you access, and how you reached our site
  • Details regarding the device you use to access our Services, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type
  • Information about how you interact with our ads and newsletters, including whether you open or click links in any correspondence
  • Information that you make available to us on a social media platform (such as by clicking on a social media icon linked from our Services or choosing to log in through a social media account), including your account ID or username and other information included in your posts

How We Use and Share That Information

Why We Collect This Information

We may use the information we collect from you for the following purposes:

  • To communicate with you, including to respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests
  • To send you newsletters, offers, special events, information about features and enhancements on or to our website or other materials
  • To provide, maintain, personalize, optimize, and improve our Services, including research and analytics regarding use of the website, or to remember you when you leave and return to the website
  • To detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be fraudulent or illegal

Who We Share the Information With

Service Providers: We engage third party service providers to perform functions on our behalf such as: hosting, content management, technical integration, marketing, analytics, payment processing, and customer service. 

Social Media: Where you choose to interact with us through social media, your interaction with these programs typically allows the third party to collect some information about you through cookies they place on your device and other tracking mechanisms. In some cases, the third party may recognize you through its cookies even when you do not interact with their application. Please visit the third parties’ respective privacy policies to better understand their data collection practices and controls they make available to you.

Data Aggregation: We may combine information from our Services together and with other information we obtain from our business records or from third party sources.  For example, Seva Foundation will buy lists of like-minded organizations from a trustworthy third party.  To maintain our costs, we on occasion will exchange our mailing list with other like-minded organizations, through the same reputable third party.  Email addresses are never shared or sold.  Seva Foundation supporters may opt out of having their names or mailing addresses shared by sending an email with the subject "Do not share" to admin@seva.org.

Additional Information About our Data Collection and Sharing Practices

Personal Data Collected From You About Others: If you elect to use our "Tell-A-Friend" or "eCard" referral services to inform a friend about our website, you will be giving us your friend's name and email address. Seva Foundation will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting them to visit our website. Seva Foundation will only use your friend's name and email address for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email. Please do not provide email addresses or any other contact details for children under 16. We will inform any third party you invite that you gave us his or her details in the invitation e-mail. 

Change of Ownership or Corporate Organization: We may transfer to another entity or its affiliates or service providers some or all information about you in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, acquisition, sale of assets or any line of business, change in ownership control, or financing transaction. We cannot promise that an acquiring party or the merged entity will have the same privacy practices or treat your information the same as described in this Privacy Policy.

Required by Law: We may use or disclose information about you if required to do so by law or on the good-faith believe that such sharing is necessary to (a) conform to applicable law or comply with legal process served on us or our Services; (b) protect and defend our rights or property, our Services, or our users; or (c) act to protect the personal safety of our employees and agents, other users of our Services, or members of the public.

Transfer of Data: If you use our Services outside of the United States, you understand that we may collect, process, and store your personal information in the United States and other countries.  The laws in the U.S. regarding personal information may be different from the laws of your state or country.  Any such transfers will comply with safeguards as required by relevant law.  By using our Services, you consent to the collection, international transfer, storage, and processing of your data.

How We Secure the Information We Collect From or About You

All information provided to Seva Foundation is transmitted using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption. SSL is a proven coding system that lets your browser automatically encrypt, or scramble, data before you send it to us. We also protect account information by placing it on a secure portion of our website that is only accessible by certain qualified employees of Seva Foundation. However, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of such information. 

Your Options and Rights

Correcting or Updating Your Information: Upon request, Seva Foundation will make good-faith efforts to provide users with any personally identifying information about them that Seva Foundation gathers and maintains and to correct this information if it is inaccurate or to delete such data at the user’s request if it is not otherwise required to be retained by law or for legitimate business purposes. We ask individual users to identify themselves and the information requested to be accessed, corrected or removed before processing such requests. We may decline to process requests that are unreasonably repetitive or systematic, require disproportionate technical effort, jeopardize the privacy of others, would be extremely impractical (for instance, requests concerning information residing on backup tapes) or for which access is not otherwise required. Users can make such requests by contacting us at the below address or phone number.

Cookies: Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but, if you prefer, you can usually modify your browser setting to disable or reject cookies. If you delete your cookies or if you set your browser to decline cookies, some features of our Services may not be available, work, or work as designed.

You may be able to opt out of or block tracking by interacting directly with the third-parties who conduct tracking through our Services. Please see below for more information.

Our Email Bulletins: If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email bulletin, or email us at admin@seva.org and we will promptly remove you from all correspondence.

Your California Privacy Rights

Residents of the State of California have the right to request information regarding third parties to whom the company has disclosed certain categories of personal information during the preceding year for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please email admin@seva.org or write to us at the below address.

Additional Information About Third Party Cookies

Seva Foundation relies on partners to provide many features of our website and Services using data about your use of the Seva Foundation and other sites. We use cookies for the following purposes:

  • Site Operations: Enabling features that are necessary for providing you the services on our site, such as identifying you as being signed in, remembering your preferences, and the number of times you have been shown an advertisement
  • Analytics: Allowing us to understand how our Services are being used, track site performance and make improvements
  • Personalized Advertising: Delivering tailored advertising based on your preferences or interests across services and devices and measuring the effectiveness of ads
  • Social Media: Enabling the sharing of content from our Services through social networking and other sites

Below is a list of these partners with links to more information their use of your data and how to exercise your options regarding tracking.

Category

Partner

Further Information

Analytics, Personalized Advertising

Google

How Google users information from sites or apps that use our services

Personalized Advertising, Social Media

Facebook

Data Policy

Personalized Advertising

AddToAny

Data Privacy


Most people consider the use of cookies to be an industry standard and your browser is probably set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you delete your cookies or if you set your browser to decline cookies, some features of our Services may not be available, work, or work as designed.

You can learn more about ad serving companies and the options available to limit their collection and use of your information by visiting the websites for the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, and the European Interactive Digital Advertising Initiative. Similarly, you can learn about your options to opt-out of mobile app tracking by certain advertising networks through your device settings and by resetting the advertiser ID on your Apple or Android device.

Please note that opting-out of advertising networks services does not mean that you will not receive advertising while using our Services or on other websites, nor will it prevent the receipt of interest-based advertising from third parties that do not participate in these programs. It will, however, exclude you from interest-based advertising conducted through participating networks, as provided by their policies and choice mechanisms.  If you delete your cookies, you may also delete your opt-out preferences.

Other Websites

Our Services contains links to other sites. Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are entering another site for which Seva Foundation has no responsibility. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on all such sites as their policies may be different than ours. 

Changes to Policy

Seva Foundation reserves the right at any time and without notice to change this Privacy Policy simply by posting such changes on our website. Any such change will be effective immediately upon posting. 

Contacting the Website

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this website, or your dealings with this website, you can contact: 

Seva Foundation 
1786 Fifth Street 
Berkeley, CA 94710 
(510) 845-7382 

You can also send an email to: admin@seva.org