PRIVACY POLICY

Privacy Policy

(as of November 15, 2021; as modified from the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) Privacy Policy (CC BY 3.0 US)). HC Media thanks EFF for its generous terms, and similarly shares the language of this Privacy Policy under CC BY 3.0 US.

Hearsay Culture Media, LLC (HC Media) is committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to our website, as well as our members and users. HC Media has established this Privacy Policy to explain what information we collect through our websites and how it is used, as well as protections for our members’ and donors’ personal information.

HC Media does not and will not sell or rent member, donor or user information under any circumstances, and we do not share member, donor or user without prior consent except as compelled by law. This restriction applies to member and donors who join or donate both online and offline.

HC Media is located within the United States, and therefore will transfer, process, and store your information in the United States, which may not provide as much protection as your home country.

Information Gathered by HC Media’s Site

Logging: Circumstances in which HC Media may need to log and retain technical information for longer than seven days include when we believe it is reasonably necessary for HC Media’s mission and functionality, including situations such as:

1. site testing
2. diagnosis of technical problems
3. defending against attacks to the site
4. handling a spike in traffic or other abnormal, short-term circumstances.

Cookies: We use session cookies on certain portions of the website. Session cookies expire when you close your browser. You can use Tor if you wish to keep your connection information anonymous, but please note that you can still be identified to HC Media if you log in.

Voluntarily Submitted Information: In addition, HC Media collects and retains information you voluntarily submit to us. It is up to you whether to submit information to us, and how much information to provide. If you choose to become an HC Media member, use the HC Media Shop, otherwise donate to HC Media, we may ask for identifying information such as your name, email address, mailing address and phone number and will retain that information. For online donors and shoppers, we also ask for your credit card number or other payment information. If you use the HC Media Shop, you are asked to provide personal information, such as a shipping address, necessary to complete your transaction.

We may ask for additional personal information when you provide feedback or comments, or otherwise communicate with us. We are pleased to receive anonymous donations in the mail or in-person, but please note that your personal information may be required if you choose to donate using our online form, or if you choose to use a mobile payment processor for in-person donations (and the mobile payment processor will also receive your payment information, subject to their privacy policy.)

From time to time, we may ask for personal information on other portions of the Websites.

Mailing Lists: If you choose to subscribe to an HC Media mailing list, we collect your email address, and, if you choose to provide it, a zip or postal code.

Use of Information

In general, HC Media uses the information provided by you to further its mission.

Member and Donor Information: We use member and donor information for our legitimate interest in processing and managing your membership or contribution, including fundraising reminders and renewals. If you agree, we will use your email address to send you updates and Content.

Publication: If you provide information for publication, we may use your name and contact information you have provided to us to provide you with attribution.

Other activities: We may run surveys, contests, or similar activities through this site. Such information will be used for the purposes for which it was collected. We use the information provided through our online shop to fulfill your order, and address any problems that might arise. We also look at technical information to diagnose problems with or consider improvements to our servers or related technologies and to administer hearsayculture.com and other websites we host or provide.

Third-Party Service Providers

When necessary and appropriate, HC Media uses the following categories of third party services:

• content delivery networks and cloud hosting providers (for example, hosting and handling traffic to our site)
• Financial services and payment processors (for example, your credit card and online payments)
• cloud email providers (for example, sending you email)
• shipping and fulfillment services

Where possible, we take steps to limit the ability of third parties to retain data about our users. These service providers may place session cookies on your computer. HC Media’s service providers may also log standard technical information, such as the numerical Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer you are using; the browser software you use and your operating system; the date and time you access our site; and the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site. Our service providers may also store and organize the personal information collected through this site on our behalf. HC Media’s third party providers primarily process information in the United States, but may process data in other jurisdictions. Where possible, we will enter into General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant Data Protection Addendums with third-parties who process data on our behalf.

HC Media may change the specific third-party providers from time to time, and will transfer stored information to any new provider subject to similar restrictions and agreements. From time to time, HC Media may work with third-party consultants or other service providers who may have access to personally identifiable information. In such cases, we will restrict their use of personally identifiable information in accordance with their assigned tasks.

Third-Party Services and APIs

HC Media’s Websites also provide links to or interacts with a wide variety of third-party websites, including interactive links to sites like social media, telephone calling services, mapping services, or audio and video hosting websites, often via application programming interfaces (APIs). HC Media is not responsible for, and does not have any control over, the privacy practices or the content of such third parties.

We encourage users to read the privacy policies of any website visited via links from or interactions with the HC Media Websites. Where appropriate, we will provide specific notice of these third-party services at the point of interaction.

Disclosure of Your Information

While HC Media endeavors to provide the highest level of protection for your information, we may disclose personally identifiable information about you to third parties in limited circumstances, including: (1) with your consent; or (2) when we have a good faith belief it is required by law, such as pursuant to a subpoena or other judicial or administrative order.

If we are required by law to disclose the information that you have submitted, we will attempt to provide you with prior notice (unless we are prohibited or it would be futile) that a request for your information has been made in order to give you an opportunity to object to the disclosure. We will attempt to provide this notice by email, if you have given us an email address, or by postal mail if you have entered a postal address. If you do not challenge the disclosure request, we may be legally required to turn over your information.

In addition, we will independently object to requests for access to information about users of our site that we believe to be improper and we have done so.

Updating or Removing Your Information

You may choose to correct, update, access, or delete the membership information you have submitted to us by sending an email requesting changes to privacy@hearsayculture.com.

Your consent to our use of your information is very important to us. If you would like to withdraw your consent, restrict or object to HC Media’s processing of your data, please email privacy@hearsayculture.com.

Data Storage and Retention

If you communicate with HC Media, we keep records of those communications indefinitely, pursuant to our document retention policy (described below).

Financial records of donations and other transactions are retained indefinitely, pursuant to our document retention policy. Check copies and payment distribution details are normally kept up to seven years. Accompanying donor information is kept indefinitely unless the individual requests that it be removed.

Our document retention policy provides that HC Media generally retains documents for the period of their immediate or current use, unless longer retention is necessary to comply with contractual or legal requirements. However, data storage periods are based on HC Media’s assessment of its needs and might include retaining some documents for historical reference and retaining some documents because HC Media has insufficient organizational resources available to dedicate to their review and destruction, and/or other pertinent factors.

If we inadvertently collect more personal information than intended, we endeavor to delete the extraneous information. When we no longer need to retain information or when deleting information on request, we endeavor to remove all copies. However, please understand that deleted information may continue to persist on backup media.

Contacting HC Media

If you have any questions about our privacy and data protection practices, you can reach us at:

Hearsay Culture Media, LLC, 2618A Battleground Avenue # 350, Greensboro, NC 27408.
Email: privacy@hearsayculture.com.

If our processing of your personal data is covered by EU law, you may also lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority for your country of residence.

Security

HC Media employs industry standard security measures to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control. Although we make good faith efforts to store information collected by HC Media in a secure operating environment, we cannot guarantee complete security.

Changes to Our Policies

HC Media’s Privacy Policy may change from time to time. However, any revised privacy policy will be consistent with our mission. If we make any substantive changes to our policies, we will give as much notice as is feasible.