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Privacy policy

 Last revised: 2023-08-09

DATA PROTECTION POLICY

Last updated: April 13, 2023

Information collected through and about this website is collected and processed by the We Mean Business Coalition (“WMBC”), in its capacity as the host organization of the SME Climate Hub and data controller.

We Mean Business Coalition (“We Mean Business,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) provides this Privacy Policy to describe how we collect, use, and share the information of individuals who visit or use our website at www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org (the “Site”). Please be sure to read this entire Privacy Policy before using or submitting information via the Site.

INFORMATION COLLECTION

When you use our Site, you may voluntarily provide information about yourself and your organization, including your name, email address, and any other information you choose to provide. We collect this information when you register as a user of the Site, contact us, or interact with us for any other purpose.

We also automatically collect information relating to your interactions with us and our Site, including browser type, IP address, pages visited and other activities on the Site, device type, time and date of visit, and other information we collect through the use of cookies, web beacons, tags, and similar technologies. See the “Digital Advertising & Analytics” section of this Privacy Policy to learn more about the use of this information and the choices available to you.

INFORMATION USE

We may use provided information for any lawful purpose, including the following:

  • To contact you by email or other forms of communication regarding updates or informative communications related to our mission and initiatives, your and/or your organization’s relationship with us, and the functionalities, products, or contracted services we provide to you or your organization;
  • To provide and maintain our Site, including to monitor the usage of our services;
  • To respond to your inquiries and manage requests you submit to us;
  • To manage your account, including to manage your registration as a user of the Site and the personal data you provide;
  • To provide you with news, special offers, and general information about other goods, services, and events we offer that may be of interest to you;
  • To operate and improve our services;
  • To operate, personalize, and improve the Site, including for advertising and analytics purposes;
  • To prevent and detect fraud;
  • To comply with the law and maintain the security of the Site; or
  • With consent, or as otherwise disclosed at the time information is collected.

INFORMATION SHARING

We may share the information we collect with other parties, including the following:

  • With our participating companies and organizations;
  • With third-party service providers or vendors who process data on our behalf to help our business operations, such as email service providers;
  • With third parties or other vetted partners;
  • With affiliates, including our parent company and any other subsidiaries, joint venture partners, or other companies under common control, in which case we will require such affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy;
  • When necessary to comply with our legal and/or regulatory obligations, or when we are compelled to do so by a governmental agency, court, or other entity (e.g., in response to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process);
  • When necessary or appropriate to protect or defend the rights, safety, or property of We Mean Business, users of the Site, or any other person, including to enforce our agreements, policies, and terms of use;
  • In the event of a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, transfer of control, joint venture, or other business combination involving us, or our related companies; or
  • With your consent, or as otherwise disclosed at the time of data collection or sharing.

We may share information that has been de-identified or aggregated without limitation.

SECURITY

To prevent unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of information we collect, we have put in place commercially reasonable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures designed to safeguard personal data.

COOKIES

Cookies are small files placed on your device when viewing a website. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some parts of the Site. We use both “persistent” and “session” cookies for the purposes set out below:

NECESSARY COOKIES

Type: Session Cookies
Administered by: Us

Purpose: These cookies are essential to provide you with services available through the Site and to enable you to use its features. They help to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts. Without these cookies, the services you have requested cannot be provided, and we use these cookies only to provide you with those services.

FUNCTIONAL COOKIES

Type: Persistent Cookies
Administered by: Us

Purpose: These cookies allow us to remember choices you make when you use the Site, such as remembering your login details or language preference. The purpose of these cookies is to provide you with a more personal experience and to avoid you having to re-enter your preferences every time you use the Site.

PERFORMANCE COOKIES

Type: Persistent Cookies
Administered by: Third-Parties

Purpose: These cookies are used to track information about traffic to the Site and how users use the Site. The information gathered via these cookies may directly or indirectly identify you as an individual visitor. This is because the information collected is typically linked to a pseudonymous identifier associated with the device you use to access the Site. We may also use these cookies to test new pages, features or new functionality of the Website to see how our users react to them.

TARGETING COOKIES

Type: Persistent Cookies
Administered by: Third Parties

Purpose: These cookies are set by our advertising partners and may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND ANALYTICS

We may partner with ad networks and other ad serving providers (“Advertising Providers”) that serve ads on behalf of us and others on non-affiliated platforms. Some of those ads may be personalized, meaning that they are intended to be relevant to you based on information Advertising Providers collect about your use of the Site and other sites or apps over time, including information about relationships among different browsers and devices. This type of advertising is known as interest-based advertising.

We may also work with third parties that collect data about your use of the Site and other sites or apps over time for non-advertising purposes. We use Google Analytics and other third-party services to improve the performance of the Site and for analytics and marketing purposes. For more information about how Google Analytics collects and uses data when you use our Site, visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners, and to opt out of Google Analytics, visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

THIRD-PARTY LINKS AND TOOLS

We may provide links on the Site to third-party websites or apps, including plug-ins that link to social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube.  These websites and apps are independent from We Mean Business and have their own separate privacy policies. We Mean Business is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such third-party websites or apps. We recommend that you review the third-parties’ privacy polices before you visit these websites or apps to learn about their data practices.

The Site may also include integrated social media tools or “plug-ins,” such as social networking tools offered by third parties. If you use these tools to share information or you otherwise interact with these features on the Site, those companies may collect information about you and may use and share such information in accordance with your account settings, including by sharing such information with the general public. Your interactions with third-party companies and your use of their features are governed by the privacy notices of the companies that provide those features. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy notices of any accounts you create and use.

OPTING OUT OF EMAILS

We may use personal data to provide newsletters, communications, or other information that may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving these communications from us by following the “unsubscribe” link or instructions provided in such emails or by contacting us at [email protected].

Note that you cannot opt out of emails that provide information about your organization’s climate pledges or that confirm donations.

NON-U.S. USERS

This section applies to visitors that access the Site or provide information to us from the European Economic Area (“EEA”), Switzerland, or the United Kingdom (“UK”).

LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING

We may rely on the following legal bases to process personal data about you:

  • Consent: where you have provided your consent to process personal data for one or more specific purposes, such as for email promotional messages. You have the right to withdraw consent by contacting us at [email protected], and with respect to email, you can also withdraw consent as described above;
  • Performance of a contract: where processing personal data is necessary for the performance of an agreement with you or your organization or you have requested we do something before creating a contract, such as making a climate pledge or providing a donation;
  • Legal obligation: where processing personal data is necessary to fulfill our legal and regulatory obligations;
  • Vital interests: where processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of you or another person;
  • Legitimate interest: Where it is necessary to process personal data for purposes of an important commercial or business interest.

DATA SUBJECT RIGHTS

You have the right to:

  • Request access to the personal data we hold about you;
  • Request correction and/or erasure of personal data we hold about you;
  • Request that we restrict processing of personal data about you in certain circumstances;
  • Object to any automated decision-making based on your conduct, such as analytics for direct marketing conducted by us;
  • Request the transfer of personal data we hold about you to another party (i.e., the right of data portability) where processing is based on our contract with you or on your consent);
  • Withdraw your consent to process personal data, where we previously obtained your consent.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the “Contact Us” section below. Please note that We Mean Business may be unable to afford these rights to you under certain circumstances, such as if we are legally prevented from doing so. Additionally, you have the right to lodge a complaint against us. To do so, contact the data protection authority in your country of residence.

RETENTION OF PERSONAL DATA

We will retain personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use personal data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

We will also retain usage data for internal analysis purposes. Usage data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of the Site, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

TRANSFER OF PERSONAL DATA

Personal data we collect may be transferred to and maintained on servers or databases located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction, including in the United States. When transferring personal data to countries outside the EEA or the UK, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that adequate controls are in place to assure the protection of personal data.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. You should check this page periodically to learn of any updates. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the amended version on our Site and the effective date will be updated.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us by email at [email protected].