Privacy Policy
Effective Date: February 17, 2016
Last updated: October 23, 2020
BallotReady, Inc. ("we," "us," "our," or "BallotReady") takes seriously the authorized use of your personal information. The following Privacy Policy sets forth our information gathering and dissemination practices for Ballotready.org (the "Website").
BY ACCESSING OR USING THE WEBSITE, YOU HEREBY AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND CONSENT TO THE COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION AS DISCUSSED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, DO NOT ACCESS THIS WEBSITE.
BallotReady reserves the right to modify or amend this Privacy Policy at any time. All changes will be effective immediately upon posting to the Website. Material changes will be conspicuously posted on the Website. By accessing or using the Website after such changes are posted you agree and consent to all such changes.
Your use of BallotReady's Services is at all times subject to our Terms of Use available at https://about.ballotready.org/terms (the "Terms of Use"), which incorporate this Privacy Policy. Any terms we use in this Privacy Policy without defining them have the definitions given to them in the Terms of Use.
What does this Privacy Policy Cover?
This Privacy Policy covers our treatment of personal information that we gather when you are accessing or using our Services, but not to the practices of companies we don't own or control, or people that we don't manage. We gather various types of personal information from our users, as explained in more detail below, and we use this personal information internally in connection with our Services, including to personalize and improve our services, to allow you to set up a user account and profile, to contact you and allow other users to contact you, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, to provide and improve the Services, and to analyze how you use the Services. In certain cases, we may also share some personal information with third parties, but only as described below.
The Website may contain links to third party websites. This Privacy Policy is not applicable to any third party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy or security practices of any such third parties, and before interacting with any of these third party sites, you are advised to review their rules and policies before providing them with any information.
Collection of Personal Information
BallotReady may collect any content, record, or electronic communication of any kind, including without limitation, the following personal information: (1) contact information, (2) e-mail address, (3) physical address, (4) demographic information, (5) information regarding your political views and opinions, (6) information we collect from surveys and questionnaires issued or collected by the Website, (7) information regarding a request of an absentee ballot; (8) voter eligibility related information, and (9) other personal information required to provide the Services and so that we may communicate with you and send you requested information subject to applicable laws and the terms of the Privacy Policy.
BallotReady may collect personal information you voluntarily share with us when using our Services, as well as other information, for example through Internet Protocol ("IP") addresses and the use of "cookies," which may be placed on your computer when you access the Website.
BallotReady logs IP addresses for systems administration purposes. IP addresses are not used to track a user's session. This information only helps us determine how often different areas of our Website are visited.
BallotReady may use cookies to track the use of our Website and to facilitate and enhance your experience on our Website. "Cookies" are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer's hard drive. Our cookies enable us to facilitate access to different aspects of our Website. For example, by showing when and how you and others visit our Website, cookies help us to see which pages of the Website are popular and which are not. Cookies can also help us to improve your enjoyment of the Website, for example, by remembering your address or other personal information when you request information or Services on the Website.
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can disable this function so that your browser will not accept cookies. Please be aware that disabling this function may impact your use and enjoyment of the Website.
We may use and share information with those persons and third-party entities specifically involved in providing you with Services from BallotReady. We may also share your personal information with third party analytics companies for marketing or research purposes. In addition, BallotReady reserves the right to use and share your personal information in the event BallotReady believes doing so is necessary to operate the Website or where such disclosure may be required by law, or to protect BallotReady's right or the rights of others. In addition, we may use and share deidentified or aggregated information that does not uniquely identify you when it enables us to improve and enrich our Services and Website content. We may share non-personally identifiable information (such as deidentified or aggregate usage data) with interested third parties to help them understand the usage patterns for certain Services.
Use of Personal Information
We use the personal information and other information you submit to operate, maintain and provide to you the Services. BallotReady may use certain personal information about you internally for purposes such as analyzing how the Services are used, diagnosing service or technical problems, maintaining security, and personalizing content.
By providing BallotReady your email address (including by "following," "liking," linking your account to the BallotReady Service, on a third party website or network), you consent to our using the email address to send you Services-related notices, including any notices required by law, in lieu of communication by postal mail. You also agree that we may send you notifications of activity on the Services to the email address you give us, in accordance with any applicable privacy settings.
Following termination or deactivation of your account, BallotReady may retain, subject to this Privacy Policy, your profile information and all information posted to public areas of the Services.
We use cookies, clear gifs, and log file information to: (1) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the Website; (2) provide custom, personalized content and information; (3) monitor the effectiveness of our Services; (4) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns; (5) diagnose or fix technology problems reported by our users or engineers that are associated with certain IP addresses; (6) help you efficiently access your information after you sign in; and (7) track user content and users to the extent necessary to comply as a service provider with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. See the section of this Privacy Policy labeled "Cookies" above.
Sharing of Personal Information
Any personal information or other content that you voluntarily disclose in public areas of the Website becomes available to the public, as controlled by any applicable privacy or website customization settings. To change your privacy settings on the Website, you may visit your online account with BallotReady. If you remove information that you posted to the Website, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Website, or if other users have copied or saved that information.
From time to time, we may run contests, special offers, or other events or activities ("Events") on the Website or pursuant to the Services together with a third party partner. If you provide personal information to such third parties, you give them permission to use it for the purpose of that Event and any other use that you approve. We cannot control third parties' use of your personal information. If you do not want your personal information to be collected by or shared with a third party, you can choose not to participate in these Events.
We may share your personal information with third parties who perform services on our behalf that are necessary for the orderly operation of the Website and Services. Among other things service providers may help us perform website hosting, app design, maintenance services, database management, web analytics, app analytics, billing, payment processing, fraud protection, credit risk reduction, marketing, or any other use set out in this Privacy Policy. Access to your personal information by these service providers is limited to the information reasonably necessary for the service provider to perform its limited function.
Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, BallotReady will not disclose personal information to any third party unless required to do so by law or subpoena or if we believe that such action is necessary to (1) conform to the law, comply with legal process served on us or our affiliates, or investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities; (2) to enforce our Terms of Use, take precautions against liability, to investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, to assist government enforcement agencies, or to protect the security or integrity of our Website; and (3) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of BallotReady, our users or others.
In the event of a change in control of BallotReady or sale by BallotReady of substantially all of its assets, any personal information in the control of BallotReady may be transferred to the BallotReady successor, who will comply with the terms of this Privacy Policy, as it may be amended from time to time.
Social Media Platforms
Our Website may allow you to connect and share personal information from BallotReady with certain social media platforms (e.g., Facebook or Twitter). This feature may require us to implement cookies and/or APIs provided by such social media platform to facilitate the communication. In addition, by choosing to use any third party social media platform or choosing to share content with any social media platform, you allow BallotReady to share personal information with the designated social media platform. BallotReady cannot control any policies or terms of such third party platform. As a result, we cannot be responsible for any use of your personal information or content by a third party platform.
Prohibited Access by Children
This Website is not directed toward children under 13 years of age. BallotReady does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register for our Services. If you are under 13, please do not send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 13 is allowed to provide any personal information or other information to or on the Services. It is possible that by fraud or deception we may collect or receive personal information from children under 13. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible after learning of the collection of such information. Please reach us at the contact information available below with any concerns.
Third Party Ad Networks and Behavioral Advertising
We may contract with service providers to serve ads on our behalf across the Internet and sometimes on the Website. They may collect information about your visits to our Website, and your interaction with our Services. They may also use information about your visits to this and other websites to target advertisements for goods and services. These targeted advertisements may appear on our Website or on other sites that you visit. The information is collected through the use of a pixel tag, which is industry standard technology used by most major websites. If you do not want these service providers to collect this information you may opt-out of this collection as further described below.
Analytics
Like many websites, our Website uses Google Analytics to collect information about your use of our Website. This information consists of information that your web browser automatically sends to Google, such as the web address of the page that you visit and your IP address. Google may also set cookies or read preexisting cookies. This information is stored on Google ́s servers. Google uses this information to provide us with reports about traffic to our Website and your visit to our Website (such as the domain from which you access the internet, the web address of the website from which you linked to our Website, the time and date of your visit to the web pages that you view and click through). We will use this data to improve our Website structure and content.
Google may also use this data in accordance with its Privacy Policy, which can be found at http://www.google.com/privacy.html. For more detailed information on how Google uses your data through our Website, please visit http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.
You may opt-out of our use of Google Analytics by visiting the Google Analytics opt-out page and installing the Google Analytics browser add-on, currently made available by Google at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Opting Out of Online Advertising
To opt out of remarketing advertising provided through Google, visit Google's Ad Preferences Manager to customize your ad preferences and tell Google which interest-based ads you'd prefer to see. If you do not want to receive those kinds of advertisements, look for the "Ad Choices" icon in the advertisements, which will contain a link to the privacy policy of the ad network that will provide you with information on how to opt-out of receiving such targeted advertising.
You can also visit the website http://www.aboutads.info to change your consumer preferences with respect to certain online ads and to obtain further information about third party ad networks and online behavioral advertising.
Do Not Track
We will automatically collect cookies when you visit the Website. Due to this automatic collection, we do not currently honor do not track requests.
E-mail Communication
We may use your email address to send you other messages, such as newsletters, changes to features of the Services, or special offers. If you do not want to receive such email messages, you may opt out by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link in such email message, contacting BallotReady at info@ballotready.org, or simply replying to the email you receive with the word "Remove" in the subject line. Opting out may prevent you from receiving email messages regarding updates, improvements or offers. You may not opt out of Services-related e-mails.
Security
The Website has reasonable security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. While we cannot guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration to data will not occur, BallotReady uses reasonable standards, such as Secure Socket Layers ("SSL") technology, to help safeguard against such occurrences. In certain areas, the information passed between your browser and our system is encrypted with SSL technology to create a protected connection between you and our Website to ensure confidentiality. In the event that a breach into our security systems occurs and there is a possibility that an unauthorized person acquires your personal information, BallotReady will notify you electronically, in writing, or by telephone of such a breach if permitted to do so by applicable law.
Your account is protected by a password for your privacy and security. You must prevent unauthorized access to your account and personal information by selecting and protecting your password appropriately and limiting access to your computer or device and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your account.
We reasonably endeavor to protect the privacy of your account and other personal information we hold in our records, but unfortunately, we cannot guarantee complete security. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors, may compromise the security of user information at any time.
Access to Personal Information
If you wish to have access to your personal information in our records, please contact us with your request at the contact information available below. You may also request that we update your personal information or correct any factual errors that you believe may exist regarding this information.
You can always opt not to disclose personal information or other information to us, but please note that some information may be required to use the Website or the Services.
Deletion of Personal Information
Typically, we retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. You may, however, request that we delete your personal information by contacting us contacting us as described below. We will grant a request to delete information as required by law, but you should note that in many situations we must keep your personal information to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, or for another one of our business purposes. Except as provided above, we will delete, aggregate, or deidentify all of your personal information as described in this subsection within the timeframes required by law.
Your California Privacy Rights
Consumers residing in California are afforded certain rights with respect to their personal information under the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA") and Shine the Light Law. If you reside in California, this section applies to you.
Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information. In the preceding 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information: Individual Identifiers and Demographic Information, Commercial Information, Internet or Network Activity, Inferences Drawn from Personal Information. For examples of the precise data points we collect and the sources of such collection, please see "Collection of Personal Information" above. We collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in the "Use of Personal Information" section above. We share personal information with the categories of third parties described in the "Sharing of Personal Information" section above.
We must disclose whether the following categories of personal information is disclosed for a “business purpose” or “valuable consideration” as those terms are defined under California law. Note that while a category below may be marked, that does not necessarily mean that we have personal information in that category about you. In the preceding twelve months, we have disclosed the following categories of personal information in the manner described.
Individual Identifiers and Demographic Information:
PI is Disclosed for a Business Purpose
PI Not is Disclosed for Valuable Consideration
Commercial Information
PI is Disclosed for a Business Purpose
PI Not is Disclosed for Valuable Consideration
Internet or Network Activity
PI is Disclosed for a Business Purpose
PI Not is Disclosed for Valuable Consideration
Inferences Drawn from Personal Information
PI is Disclosed for a Business Purpose
PI Not is Disclosed for Valuable Consideration
Under California Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents who have an established business relationship with BallotReady are entitled to ask us for a notice describing what categories of personal information we share with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. This notice will identify the categories of information shared with and will include a list of the third parties with which it is shared, along with their names and addresses. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit your request to the address listed below.
Exercising Your Privacy Rights
When exercising the rights or options described in this Privacy Policy, the following guidelines apply:
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee or decline to comply with your request if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive.
When exercising your rights or otherwise assisting you, we may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity. This is a security measure to ensure we do not disclose personal information to any person who is not entitled to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within 45 days of your request. Occasionally it may take us longer than 45 days to respond, for instance if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you of the delay, and may continue to update you regarding the progress of our response.
You will not be subject to discrimination as a result of exercising the rights described in this Privacy Policy. In some cases, when you exercise one of your rights, we will be unable to comply with the request due to legal obligations or otherwise, or we will be unable to provide you certain Services. These responses are not discrimination and our reasons for declining your request or ceasing Services will be provided at that time.
You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. In order to designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf, you must provide the requester’s proof of identification and the authorized agent’s proof of identification.
Third-Party Websites
The Website may link to, or be linked to, other websites not maintained by or related to BallotReady or our Services. BallotReady is not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of any third parties or third-party websites, including any linked or linking websites. To the extent that you disclose personal information to any such third parties, different rules may apply to their use and disclosure of personal information that you disclose to them. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of such websites before disclosing your personal information to them.
Contact Information
If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy or any other privacy or security issue, please contact us at:
info@ballotready.org
BallotReady, Inc. PO Box 220881, Chicago, IL 60622