Privacy

Use of Personal Information

The NatureServe website collects personal information from our online visitors on a voluntary basis only. Personal information collected may include your name, your organization, email address, phone number, address, and specific information about how you found our site and how you might use our materials. Providing personal information is not generally required to access information on this website. We request personal information only when you do the following things:

• sign up for email updates
• submit feedback and comments
• complete surveys or request to download certain types of data
• make an online donation
• register for an event

NatureServe works with third party vendors to provide a more customized experience for you. To do so, NatureServe may share your Personal Data for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice with:

• a member of our group
• with partners, suppliers, and sub-contractors
• Credit Card Transactions, Electronic Fund Transfers, Payments by Check or Money Order and Online Financial Transactions. NatureServe hires third parties to provide credit card, bank, payment and information processing services and order fulfillment services. If you choose to make an application for employment, make a donation online, by phone, through the mail or by other means, or make a purchase from our donation page we will share your personal information with our processing service providers.
• analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimization of our Site
• trusted third-party companies and individuals
• other non-profits

Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.

Links to Other Websites

Our website may contain links to enable you to visit other websites of interest easily. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Your Access to and Control Over Information 

You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via email or by phone at 703-908-1858 to:

• Ask what data we have about you, if any 
• Change/correct any data we have about you 
• Have us delete any data we have about you
• Express any concern you have about our use of your data

Online Donations

When you make a donation to NatureServe using the "Donate Now" button, you submit a variety of personal information to enable us to process your donation properly. This personal information may include:

• Name
• Address
• Phone
• email address
• “acknowledgement” or “in memory of” information
• donation amount

Data Collection and Sharing

We may post links to websites operated by third parties. These sites may send their own cookies, web beacons, and other technologies to your device in order to collect data or solicit personal information. We have no access to third-party cookies, and third-party organizations have no access to ours. Third-party sites have their own privacy policies, and NatureServe does not control and is not responsible for their policies, practices, or handling of visitor information.

In addition to NatureServe disclosing user information listed under "Use of Personal Information", we may disclose user information a) if required to do so by law or b) if we have a good-faith belief that such disclosure is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing interference with or injury to (either intentionally or unintentionally) NatureServe’s rights or property, to other website users, or to anyone else that could be harmed by such activities.

Cookies and Web Beacons

In order to help enhance the performance and functionality of the Site, we utilize session, persistent and third-party “cookies” that store a small piece of data on a users’ computers and collect certain information about the users’ visit to our Site. We also use cookies to understand users’ browsing and buying activities so that we can measure the success of online advertising campaigns we run on the Site.Our Site also uses web beacons (either directly or from our partners), along with cookies, to determine if a user has visited a particular website. These beacons aid in providing more relevant advertising to the user, as well measuring the success of an advertising campaign, but provide no personally identifiable information. 

Cookies are small text files that web servers typically send to users’ computer when they visit a website. Cookies are stored as text files on users’ hard drive, and can be accessed by web servers when the user visits a website or views an advertisement. A session cookie is a cookie that stores information as a user is using the Site but is deleted once the browser session is finished. A persistent cookie is a cookie that stores information as a user utilizes the Site and stores and uses that information in connection with future visits of the user to the Site. Third-party cookies and/or web beacons are cookies or web beacons provided by our technology and/or advertising partners. Any third-party cookie or web beacon that we authorize for use on the Site only collects that information described below for the same stated purposes as if we were directly collecting the information. For a third-party cookie or web beacon, the third-party will have access to the collected information in order to provide us with information or services to enhance the performance and functionality of the Site.

The cookies and web beacons we use collect non-personally identifiable information about users of the Site, including: browser used to access the site, date and time, the URL of the page being loaded, users who have visited a particular website(s), any previously assigned cookie identification (a unique identifier assigned to a user to identify repeat visitors), browser window size, the geographic location of the user, device and operating system used to access the Site. The information we collect from these cookies and web beacons is used to determine information about a user’s visit to our Site, including the number of visits, average time spent, pages viewed, navigation history through the website, and other statistics. This information is used to enhance the users experience while visiting our Site and to improve the performance of our Site by, among other things, allowing us to monitor Site performance, making the Site easier to use, measuring the effectiveness of promotional placements, and tailoring the Site (including the ads and offers a user receives) to better match a user’s interests and preferences. 

Users who prefer not to accept cookies can set their Internet browser to notify them when they receive a cookie or to prevent cookies from being placed on their hard drive. If you consent to our collection of cookies and you subsequently wish to withdraw your consent, you will need to manage the settings on your web browser to delete all cookies and disallow further acceptance of cookies. Please note that disabling cookies on your browser will prevent us from tracking your activities in relations to our Site, however, it may also disable some of the functions and features of the Site and the Site may not work properly.

If you would like to determine your consent status, please contact us at: info@natureserve.org

By continuing to use our Site, you are agreeing to our placing cookies and/or web beacons on your computer in order to analyze the way you use our Site. Please read this cookie policy carefully for more details about the information we collect when you use the Site.

If you do not wish to accept cookies or web beacons in connection with your use of this Site, please discontinue use of the Site.

Email Newsletters and Updates

NatureServe periodically sends news updates by email to website users who have provided us with their e-mail address through any of the means listed under 'Use of Personal Information'. These updates may also include requests to donate to NatureServe. Recipients may choose to unsubscribe to these emails at any time. Information about how to unsubscribe is located at the bottom of each e-mail update.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to collect information about use of this site. This tool collects information such as how often users visit this site, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to this site. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve this site. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this 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 this site 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 this site by disabling cookies on your browser.

Website Log Files

Our log files record information including Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and page navigation. The IP addresses that are recorded do not provide us with personal information about you and are not linked to any personally identifiable information.

Your Acceptance of These Terms

By using this website, you signify your acceptance of the NatureServe privacy policy. Changes to this policy may periodically be posted here. Your continued use of the site following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes.

Security

We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline. Wherever we collect sensitive information (such as credit card data), that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a closed lock icon at the bottom of your web browser, or looking for "https" at the beginning of the address of the web page. While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

Updates

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time, and all updates will be posted on this page. 

Contacting NatureServe

If you have any questions or comments about this privacy statement or our practices or websites, please contact:

NatureServe
Phone: (703) 908-1800
Email: info@natureserve.org

2550 South Clark Street, Suite 930A
Arlington, VA 22202

Policy last updated April 25, 2023