Privacy Policy

The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council (“the Council”) owns and operates the website www.ridgetrail.org. This website provides information, resources and data to the public, trail enthusiasts and site visitors, and is also intended to raise awareness and support for the Council. The Council collects personal information, as offered by the user, to those who register on the Council’s website. Visitors to the site are not required to provide Personally Identifiable Information in order to browse the valuable information included on the website.

By using our site, you are accepting the terms of this Privacy Policy, outlined below. The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council reserves the right to modify or amend the terms of our Privacy Policy without notice to you. If we intend to apply the modifications or amendments to this Privacy Policy retroactively or to personal information already in our possession, we will provide you with notice of the modifications or amendments. We will not, however, materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of Personal Information we have previously collected from you without your express consent.

Please contact the Council with any questions or concerns regarding the Privacy Policy by emailing info@ridgetrail.org.

EMAIL PRIVACY

The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council does not provide, sell or rent email addresses to anyone outside the organization.

NORMAL WEBSITE USAGE

The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council has a firm commitment to internet privacy. You can visit most portions of our site without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information.

Collection and Use of Personally Identifiable Information

The Council may collect email addresses and other personally identifiable data about you when such data is voluntarily submitted to our site. The following are the most common ways in which we may collect your personal information:

  • Submission of user generated content on any part of the site that permits.
  • Sign up to receive e-mail newsletters or e-mail alerts from us.
  • Request for customer service or other assistance.
  • Participation in surveys, panels, or market research.
  • Participation in special events and promotions.
  • Making a donation, joining, or renewing your Council membership.
  • Entry in contests or sweepstakes.
  • Participation on social media accounts involving the Council and our brands.
  • Any other place on the site where you knowingly volunteer personal information.

Collection of Personal Information From or Through Social Media Sites

When you interact with any Bay Area Ridge Trail Council property page or account on a social media platform, such as Facebook or Instagram, we may collect the personal information that you make available to us on that page or account including your account ID or “handle.” However, we will comply with the privacy policies of the corresponding social media platform and we will only collect and store such personal information that we are permitted to collect by these social media platforms.

Collection and Use of Non-Personally Identifiable Information

We may also collect certain information that does not identify you individually and our servers may automatically keep an activity log of your use of our website (“Non-Personal Information”). We may collect and store any of the following categories of Non-Personal Information:

  • Non-identifiable demographic data such as age, gender, and five digit zip code as part of collecting personal information.
  • Device information about your computer, mobile device, or other device that you use to access the sites. This information may include IP address, geolocation information, unique device identifiers, device type, browser type, browser language, and other transactional information.
  • Analytics and usage information about your use of the site.
  • Other information regarding your use of the site.

Collection of Your Source IP Address/Location Information

We may also collect and store location information about you on the site and associated with your account that you volunteer on the site or enable through the site. We also collect and store your computer’s source IP address which may disclose the location of your computer at the time you access the site.

Google Analytics

We also use Google services, including Google Analytics and Google AdWords which uses cookies and other, similar technologies to collect information about site use anonymously and reports website trends, without identifying individual visitors. You can learn about Google’s privacy policy here.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use the information we learn from you to help us personalize and continually improve your experience on the Sites. We may use your Personal and Non-Personal Information in the following ways:

General Uses

  • Provide you with the content, products and services you request.
  • Track your purchase and donation information.
  • Post your user generated content to our website as you request.
  • Communicate with you about changes to our policies.
  • Communicate with you about your comment to a story or topic.
  • Send you newsletters, offers and promotions for our products and services, third party products and services, or special events by e-mail, text, or other another medium.
  • Provide you with advertising including advertising based on your activity on our site or activity on third party sites and applications.
  • Administer contests, sweepstakes, promotions, and surveys.
  • Optimize or improve our products, services and operations.
  • Perform statistical, demographic, and marketing analyses of users of the Sites and their purchasing patterns.

Disclosure to Third Parties

We occasionally have third parties perform services on our behalf, such as data processing, marketing, analytics, advocacy and outreach, hosting, billing, social media integration, fraud protection, etc. These third parties have access to your personal information only as needed to perform their services for the Council and are contractually obligated to maintain confidentiality and security of the personal information.

We do not provide, sell or rent email addresses to anyone outside the organization. However, we occasionally share your mailing info with other carefully screened nonprofit organizations. You may withdraw your consent to our sharing of your Personal Information with business partners and third parties at any time by following the opt-out process described below. We may also use or disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to applicable law or comply with legal process served on us or this site; (b) protect and defend our rights or property, this site or our users, and (c) act under emergency circumstances to protect the personal safety of us, our affiliates, agents, site users, or the public.

Security

The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council uses industry accepted data collection and encryption methodologies in an attempt to ensure the secure collection and transmission of sensitive user information. While we try our best to safeguard your personal information once we receive it, no transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

Use of cookies and tracking technology

When clicking on links on the Council’s website, third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your browser for the purposes of tracking users referred by the Council, and using web beacons or other tracking technology. These cookies do not collect personally identifiable information. For more information on cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information provided by the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

YOUR OBLIGATIONS TO KEEP YOUR ACCESS RIGHTS SECURE

You promise to provide true, accurate, current and complete information as prompted by the site’s registration form, order form or otherwise (such information being the “User Data”).

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I LINK TO OR FROM ANOTHER WEBSITE?

This site may contain links to other websites operated by affiliates of the Council or third parties. Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Policy do not apply to information gathered through these other websites. We are not responsible for the actions and privacy policies of third parties and other websites.

GOVERNING LAW

Our website is published in the United States. We attempt to protect the Personal Information of all users of our website and we attempt to comply with local data protection and consumer rights laws to the extent they may apply to the Council services, but our website is located and targeted to United States citizens and our policies are directed at compliance with those laws.

NOTICE TO NON-US USERS

If you are located outside the United States of America, you should be aware that your personally identifiable information will be transferred to the United States of America, the laws of which may be deemed by the your country to have inadequate data protection.

YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

Residents of the State of California have the right to request a list of all third parties to which a company conducting business in California has disclosed personal information during the preceding year for direct marketing purposes. In turn, businesses (including the Council), must respond to such requests unless they have a comprehensive privacy policy that gives residents an Opt-out or Opt-in choice for use of their personal information by third parties for their direct marketing purposes and a cost-free means to exercise that right.

OPT-OUT, CORRECTION, AND “UNSUBSCRIBE” PROCEDURES

This section explains the choices you have with respect to how your information is used and shared, including opting out of the use of your personal information by third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Therefore, we are not required to maintain or disclose a list of the third parties that received your personal information for marketing purposes during the preceding year.

To opt out of having your information exchanged with other organizations, or to correct any information, send us email or postal mail as follows:

Email to: info@ridgetrail.org

Send postal mail to:
Bay Area Ridge Trail Council
391 Sutter St, Suite 701
San Francisco, CA 94108

In your letter or email, make sure to provide your:

  • Full Name.
  • Mailing address (including City, State and Zip Code).
  • Indication that you do not wish to have your membership information exchanged with other organizations, or correction instructions.

You can also call Member Services at (415) 561-2595

The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council may contact you by email to communicate advocacy and educational messages, and other information that may be of interest to users of this site. There are several ways in which you can opt-out of receiving such future email communications from us:

We provide you with the opportunity to opt-out at the point where we request information from you, such as when you take action through our site.

You also have an opportunity to opt-out of receiving future email communications from us by following the “unsubscribe” or “remove” instructions contained in emails we send you.

We may continue to contact you via email for administrative or informational purposes, including follow-up messages regarding the administration of your account, renewal of your membership, contests you have entered or other transactions you have undertaken.

COMPLAINT PROCEDURE

If you suspect that we have handled your personal information in a manner that doesn’t comply with the Privacy Policy, please contact us by emailing an explanation to info@ridgetrail.org.