PRIVACY POLICY

Click Here for Spanish Translated Privacy Policy

1.  Introduction

Thank you for visiting EarthEcho International’s websites and/or choosing to download and/or install any of our Apps.  Please read our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy carefully, as you must agree to both documents in order to be permitted to use our Services.

It is the policy of EarthEcho International to respect and protect the privacy of our users. To fulfill this policy, EarthEcho International agrees to exercise reasonable precautions to maintain the confidentiality of information provided by you in connection with accessing and using its websites, including www.earthecho.org, www.monitorwater.org, www.ourechochallenge.org, and http://stemexplore.org (collectively, the “Sites”), or in connection with downloading and accessing our mobile software applications, including the EarthEcho Water Challenge app (the “App” or, together with the Sites, the “Services”). EarthEcho International also agrees to post prominently and in plain language its specific privacy policies.  EarthEcho International does not share personal information to any third parties except in the limited circumstances described in this Privacy Policy.

2.  Definitions

Throughout this document, we may use certain words or phrases, and it is important that you understand the meaning of them. The following is a non-exhaustive list of definitions of words and phrases found in this document:

“App” refers to our mobile software applications, including the EarthEcho Water Challenge App;

“Service” refers to the services that we provide, including our program materials, App and our Site;

“Site” refers to our websites, www.earthecho.org, www.monitorwater.org, and www.stemexplore.org;

“User” refers to anyone who uses our Service, including users of our App, general visitors to our Site, and you;

“EarthEcho International” refers to our organization, Earth Echo International, Inc.; our Site; our App; our Service; or a combination of all or some of the preceding definitions, depending on the context in which the phrase is used;

“You” refers to you, the person who is governed by this Privacy Policy.

3.  Information Collected

General Users

We collect certain personal information from you when you sign up to use our services that can be used to identify you, such as your name, your e-mail address, content you submit through the Sites or the App (e.g., photos, comments, and other material), and any other information that you provide to us voluntarily, including your Facebook profile information should you choose to use your Facebook account to log in to the App and to share your profile with us, and your current location data if you choose to share it through the App.  The information we collect from you, other than any information you affirmatively choose to make public, is disclosed to third parties only in accordance with our Terms of Services and/or this Privacy Policy

We collect and process your personal information only with your consent or, for those students below the age at which they can provide consent under applicable laws, the consent or authorization of your parent or guardian.  Individuals can always refuse to supply personal information, can withdraw their previously-given consent to process such information, and can request access to, or correction or removal of, their personal data, with the caveat that doing so may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities for which their personal information is necessary. By using and submitting information through the Sites, you consent to EarthEcho International’s processing of your personal data in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy.  

Photos or comments submitted to our Sites will be publicly available to other visitors of our Sites and are not treated as private under this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Service. By using our Services, you understand and agree that photos and comments you submit may be used by EarthEcho International for any purpose and will be made publicly available.

EarthEcho Expeditions

Applicants to participate as fellows in our EarthEcho Expeditions programs are asked to provide certain information on an online application form.  The information collected on this application form will be shared internally within EarthEcho International for the purposes of reviewing the applicant information, selecting potential expedition fellows from among the applicants, and publicly sharing information about selected expedition participants on its website.  Information submitted by applicants who are not selected as fellows will not be shared outside of EarthEcho International.  Unsuccessful applicants can ask EarthEcho International to delete their data from our servers at any time within 1 year of their application.  Applicants selected by EarthEcho International to be fellows will be provided with a written agreement to complete and return to EarthEcho International.

Information provided by those applicants who are selected and return a signed agreement to EarthEcho International (the “expedition participants”) will be shared with Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, a sponsor of the Expeditions program.  For purposes of The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation acts as a controller in requesting consent from expedition participants, and upon consent when it processes personal information from expedition participants, gained from the expedition participants for the purpose of using expedition participant’s name, audio, photos and/or film in internal and external communications promoting the expedition.  Applicants shall have the right to withdraw their consent at any time. The withdrawal of consent shall not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. Subject to applicable law, data subjects have the right to request access to and rectification or erasure of their personal information, or the restriction of our use of their personal information, or to object to the processing of their personal information as outlined in Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation privacy policy. Applicants can email privacy@euro.ngc.com to make such a request with Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation.

EarthEcho Water Challenge

Users of the www.monitorwater.com or the App should be aware that we will transfer your information to mWater, the creator of our App.  The App is governed by mWater’s own privacy policy.

Users wishing to purchase their own water monitoring kit to participate in the Water Monitor Challenge must do so using a third-party website operated by Lamotte Company, in partnership with EarthEcho International, and information provided on that form will be processed by Lamotte Company.  For users who apply to EarthEcho International to have their purchase of a kit sponsored by a donor, in the event the sponsorship is approved we will purchase the kit directly from Lamotte, and the information provided for the order will be shared between both entities for the purpose of processing the order.

Automated Data Collection

Whenever you visit our Sites or use our App, we automatically collect certain information, such as your IP address, referring URL, browser, operating system, cookie information, and Internet Service Provider.  This information is used to help improve the functionality of the Sites and App, to gauge the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns, and to discourage fraudulent use. This information is shared externally only on an aggregated basis.  Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, this information alone cannot usually be used to identify you.

EarthEcho uses one or more companies to place advertisements for our programs on third-party sites. Cookies and other technologies such as Web beacons or tags are used to measure the effectiveness of our ads and to determine the display of content and advertising to you based on your interests, both on our Sites and on third-party sites you may visit. To support this interest-based advertising solution, we, and companies whom we have contracted with, may use anonymous information about your visits to our and other websites. The information collected by this process is always anonymous, and does not enable any third-party to identify you individually.

Although it is our hope that you find the display of advertising to you based on your anonymous interests valuable, if you would prefer not to participate in the services, you can always opt-out of this activity by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) website here.

4.  Use of Your Information

We may use your information to:

5.  Donor Commitment

We will not sell, share, or trade our donors’ names or personal information with any other entity, nor send mailings to our donors on behalf of other organizations. This policy applies to all information received by EarthEcho International, both online and offline, on any platform, as well as any electronic, written, or verbal communications.

6.  Accessing, Editing, and Removing Your Information

You can contact EarthEcho International by email to inquire if we are keeping personal information about you. If we do have personal information about you, we will provide you with a readable copy of such personal information at no charge. Factual errors in your personal information, including out-of-date information, can be corrected by sending an email to education@earthecho.org with a request for such a change that credibly shows our error.

Although most changes may occur immediately, information may still be stored in a web browser’s cache.  We take no responsibility for stored information in your cache, or in other devices that may store information, and disclaim all liability of such.  In addition, we may, from time to time, retain residual information about you in our backup and/or database.

We retain the personal data collected from subscribers unless and until an individual asks us to remove their information.

You may always opt out of receiving some or all communications from us by unsubscribing through the email marketing platform Mailchimp. You can also update your email preferences here.  To remove any personal information from our database, send an e-mail to education@earthecho.org with the word “remove” in the subject line.

7.  Cookies

Visitors should be aware that non-personal and some personal information and data may be automatically collected on the Sites through the use of “cookies.” Cookies are small text files stored as text on a computer hard drive. Websites can use cookies to recognize repeat visitors, facilitate the visitor's ongoing access to and use of the site, and allow a site to track usage behavior and compile aggregate data that will allow content improvements. EarthEcho International uses cookie technology to obtain non-personal and personal information from its online visitors in order to improve visitors’ online experience, facilitate their visit within our Sites and advertise products and services that may be of interest to users. We do not, however, connect cookie data to personal data that includes names, email addresses, or other identifiable information.

If a visitor does not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows the visitor to deny or accept the cookie feature. You can choose to prevent EarthEcho International from establishing a unique user-ID. We recommend that you visit any of the commonly available Cookie FAQs on the Internet to learn more about this.

We also use a tool called “Google Analytics” to collect information about use of the Sites. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit the Sites, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to the Sites. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve the Sites. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personal information. Although Google Analytics uses a cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit a site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to these Sites is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to our Sites by disabling cookies on your browser.

8.  Third Party Websites

The Sites contain links to websites and resources maintained by other individuals and organizations.  EarthEcho International is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content on any of these other web site. Note also that the linked site may collect personal information from you when you link to their site and that this collecting of information is not subject to the control of EarthEcho International.  These third party websites are not screened for privacy or security issues by EarthEcho International, and you release us from any liability for the conduct of these third party websites. Please review the privacy policy and terms of service for each site you visit through third party links.

9.  Third Party Access to Your Information

EarthEcho International may share your information with third party individuals and organizations to assist us in providing the Services, including contractors, web hosts, and other vendors.

Throughout the course of our provision of our Services to you, we may delegate our authority to collect, access, use, and disseminate your information.  For example, our web host stores the information that you provide us, and we may hire outside contractors to perform maintenance or assist us in securing our website.

It is therefore necessary that you grant the third parties we may use in the course of our business the same rights that you afford us under this Privacy Policy.  For this reason, you hereby agree that for every authorization which you grant to us in this Privacy Policy, you also grant to any third party that we may hire, contract, or otherwise retain the services of for the purpose of operating, maintaining, repairing, or otherwise improving or preserving our website or its underlying files or systems.  You agree not to hold us liable for the actions of any of these third parties, even if we would normally be held vicariously liable for their actions, and that you must take legal action against them directly should they commit any tort or other actionable wrong against you.

10.  Release of Your Information for Legal Purposes

In addition to the disclosures otherwise permitted by this privacy policy, EarthEcho International may disclose your personal information if we have a good-faith belief that doing so is required by a subpoena or other judicial or administrative order or otherwise required by law.  In the event that we receive a subpoena affecting your privacy, we may elect to notify you to give you an opportunity to file a motion to quash the subpoena, or we may attempt to quash it ourselves, but we are not obligated to do either.  

Additionally, EarthEcho International may disclose personal information where we, in good faith, deem it appropriate or necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) the rights or property of EarthEcho International, any individual, or the general public; maintain and protect the security and integrity of our services or infrastructure; protect ourselves and our services from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; investigate and defend ourselves against third-party claims or allegations; or assist government enforcement agencies.

11.  Security Measures

We take all reasonable precautions to enhance the security of our Services and to protect the information provided through our Sites or the App or otherwise in our possession.  Nevertheless, despite our best efforts, no transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure.

In addition, we recommend that you use anti-virus software, firewalls, and other precautions to protect yourself from security threats.

12.  Security Measures

We take certain measures to enhance the security of our Service, as it is in our interest to do so.  However, we make no representations as to the security or privacy of your information.  It is in our interest to keep our website secure, but we recommend that you use anti-virus software, firewalls, and other precautions to protect yourself from security threats.

13.  International Transfer

EarthEcho International and its servers (as well as Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, mWater, and their respective servers) are located in the United States. Users located in the European Union should be aware that their data will be transferred to the United States and that the European Commission has not found United States law to adequately protect the rights of data subjects.  EarthEcho International and its partners take reasonable precautions to ensure that all processing activities conducted on their behalf are compliant with The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679. Under that regulation, EU users who believe their data has been misused have the right to lodge a complaint with their Member State’s supervisory authority.

14.  Our Commitment to Children's Privacy

Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important. We never collect or maintain information at the Sites from persons we know to be under age 13, and no part of our Sites is designed to attract anyone under age 13. Please do not communicate with or contact us if you are under age 13.

Any person who provides Personal Information through these Sites represents to us that he or she is 13 years of age or older. If EarthEcho International learns that personal information has been collected from a user under 13 years of age on or through these Sites, then EarthEcho International will take the appropriate steps to cause this information to be deleted.

15.  Amendments

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time.  When we amend this Privacy Policy, we will update this page accordingly.  You must read this page each time you use our Services and your continued use of our Services shall constitute your acceptance of any such amendments.

Last Modified:  September 28, 2021