Farm Aid Privacy and Acceptable Use Statement

Updated October 22, 2021

Farm Aid maintains this website in order to provide you with information about our work, and to enable you to interact with us online. This Statement describes Farm Aid’s treatment of information you provide through our website, and the limitations placed on your use of the information and technology we provide at the website. Additionally, this Privacy and Acceptable Use Policy also pertains to Farm Aid’s treatment of personal / donor data collected offline. YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE CONSTITUTES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS STATEMENT.

Farm Aid’s website has several features. In addition to providing descriptions of our goals and how we support family farmers across the country, the website provides you with the opportunity to shop online. The website also gives you the opportunity to take action to improve the lives of family farmers, including the option to provide direct financial support to Farm Aid.

Throughout this statement of policies and agreements, you will see the terms “Farm Aid,” “we,” “our,” and “us” – these terms refer to Farm Aid, Inc. an Illinois non-stock corporation with tax-exempt status pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). You will also see the terms “you,” “your,” and “yours” – these terms refer to visitors to and users of our Website.

A. Do I have to submit any personal information in order to visit the Farm Aid website?

We do not ask you to submit personal information if you are just browsing our website. However, you may not be able to access all parts of the website or interact with us without supplying personal information. If you choose to take advantage of some of our services, we will sometimes request personal information (information that allows us to identify you). For example, if you would like to make a donation or a purchase, we will ask you to provide us with personal information including your address, telephone number and other identifying information.

B. What are “cookies,” and does the Farm Aid website use “cookies?”

A “short term cookie” is a small piece of data that is sent to your browser from Farm Aid’s web server and is stored temporarily in your computer’s memory. Farm Aid may use long or short-term cookies to keep track of a user’s status while they are conducting a transaction or interacting with the website. This is solely for the purpose of enhancing your experience and is not used for any other purpose.

C. How does Farm Aid use “cookie” information and can I control its use?

Cookie information is used by Farm Aid to keep and sometimes track information about you in order to deliver better and more personalized services and better administration of our website. For example, we may use the information for tracking which areas of our website you have visited, and how frequently. We may also use cookie information to keep track of a user during a transaction. This type of information helps Farm Aid provide services and site content that is interesting to our visitors.

Please check your computer or software manual for specifics on how cookies work on your particular computer. It is possible to block cookies from being loaded onto your computer.

D. Does Farm Aid ever collect personal information, such as my name, address or credit card information, through its website?

At certain sections on our website, you may be asked to submit personal information. This includes, but may not be limited to, your name, address, zip code, telephone number, organization name and e-mail address. In addition, in order to make an online contribution to Farm Aid, or to complete a purchase in our online store, we may ask you to provide credit card or other billing information.

E. How is personal information used by Farm Aid, and can I control its use?

Personal information will be used only internally by Farm Aid to provide you updates on information you have requested. We also may in the future use this information to provide you access to various sections of our website that are personalized for your needs.

You do not have to disclose any personal information if you do not want to. You can always decide not to use those website services or features that require such information. You can stop receiving emails from Farm Aid by following unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of all of our emails.

Upon your verified request, Farm Aid will delete personal information that we have collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies. To request that Farm Aid delete your personal information, please email support@farmaid.org.

F. Does Farm Aid share information (personal or cookies) with other companies or organizations?

Our policy regarding personal information is simple: except as provided in this Privacy Policy, Farm Aid will not share, sell or exchange any personal information to third parties without telling you in advance and giving you the opportunity to tell us not to share the information. We make an effort to include a link to this Privacy Policy and Acceptable Use Policy whenever we ask you for personal information.

Farm Aid hires third parties to provide certain administrative services – such as processing credit card transactions, preparing address labels, managing databases, and sending mailings – which requires Farm Aid to provide third parties with access to certain information. We require all third party service-providers to sign non-disclosure agreements and to hold personal information in strict confidence.

If we are compelled by law, or some other regulatory authority, Farm Aid will disclose personal information. If we have reason to believe that there has been some inappropriate interference with or use of the Farm Aid website, or if we have reason to believe that one of our website users may have been injured or some other party harmed, we may be required to disclose personal information as we deem appropriate or if asked by a legal or regulatory authority.

Finally, we may share aggregate, statistical and other non-personal information with our sponsors and other third parties. For example, we may share the number of our website visitors from various states with a sponsor, or the number of visitors to our website. These aggregate statistics do not include personal information.

Remember, you are under no obligation to disclose any personal information if you do not want to. If you are not comfortable with Farm Aid’s uses of information, you can always decide not to use those web-site services or features that require such information.

G. What rules apply if I “click” over to another website?

In order to provide certain services and materials, Farm Aid contracts with other companies and individuals to support our website activities. These additional services and materials may include providing “links” to other websites from our website. Except as may be outlined in this statement, this Statement does not apply to any third-party sites. Anytime you leave the Farm Aid website, we have no control regarding what information may be collected about you, nor can we control what third-parties might do with the information. Farm Aid is not responsible for, and has no control over, the information collection or privacy practices of other websites. For example, when you click on a sponsor’s name at the Farm Aid site, you will be connected with the third-party sponsor’s website (even if our name/logo is on the screen). This sponsor website should have its own privacy policy applying to transactions at their website. It is important that you review any privacy policies on third-party sites carefully, BEFORE you use any services or programs offered. If you cannot find or do not like a website’s privacy policy, you may choose not to offer information to that site.

H. How does the Farm Aid website provide security and confidentiality of information?

Farm Aid has built in several layers of security into our system and the third party systems we use. All online transactions are transacted on a secure server. This information remains confidential and is not shared with any outside sources.

I. Are there limitations on my use of the information and technology at the website?

When you use our website, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions contained in this Statement. These terms and conditions have been developed for your protection, as well as ours. Farm Aid owns the materials and technology, or has the right to use the materials and technology, included on the Farm Aid site. No one outside Farm Aid may use any of the material or technology for any purpose, including personal financial gain or other inappropriate activity. Remember, if choose not to accept the terms and conditions of this Statement, you are free to “click” away from our website.

It is improper, and may be a violation of law, for you to post or download and distribute any material that you do not own or for which you do not have permission to use. PLEASE BE AWARE: violation of someone’s copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights may subject you to civil or criminal penalties.

Use of Farm Aid materials or technology for illegal, inappropriate, or obscene purposes, or in support of such activities is strictly prohibited. We define these terms as follows:

  • “Illegal activities” are those that violate laws, regulations and/or private agreements, including federal or state laws governing charitable activities, copyright laws, trademark laws, license agreements or other intellectual property rights.
  • “Inappropriate uses” are any uses other than for legitimate informational, educational or fundraising purposes.
  • “Obscene activities” are those that violate generally accepted social standards for use of this type of material or technology.

You are entirely responsible for all of your activities on the Farm Aid website. PLEASE BE AWARE: Farm Aid may terminate your ability to interact at our website in the event we, in our sole discretion, determine that you have engaged in a prohibited activity. Listed below are some, but not all, prohibited activities that may result in termination:

  • Posting, transmitting, or facilitating in the promotion of illegal content through our website.
  • Use of our website to harass, threaten, embarrass, or do anything else to another visitor or third-party that is unwanted.
  • Transmitting or facilitating distribution of content that is untrue, threatening, harassing, abusive, racially or ethnically offensive, vulgar, sexually explicit, obscene, defamatory, or objectionable
  • Disrupting the flow of any chat areas with vulgar language, abusiveness, or other conduct that may disrupt normal activities.
  • Pretending to be anyone whom you are not. You may not impersonate Farm Aid staff, or anyone else.
  • Attempting to get a password, other account information, or other private information from others, or harvest e-mail addresses or other information.
  • Posting any unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or any other forms of solicitation at our website.

J. Does Farm Aid ever change its website policies?

From time to time, Farm Aid may add features or services to our website. This may include collecting different types of information and/or changing the uses of the information. In these instances, we will endeavor to edit this policy in a timely fashion to explain the new practices. PLEASE check these policies occasionally to find out if there are any changes (there is a date of publication at top). If we make substantial changes in our website policies, we will try to include an announcement on our home-page so that you will know to look for the revised policy.

K. Who do I contact with questions or comments about the privacy policy or acceptable use agreements?

If you have any questions about our privacy policy or acceptable use policy, please click here for contact information for our organization.

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