Privacy Statement

VERSION DATE: September 20, 2014

Management of the Website and Safe Harbor
Collection of Your Personal Data
Use of Your Personal Data
Sharing of Your Personal Data
Protection of Your Personal Data
Access to and Updating Your Personal Data
Use of Cookies and Web Beacons
Communications Preferences
Enforcement of this Privacy Statement
Changes to this Privacy Statement
How to Contact Us

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Alumni Network (“GFA”) provides a broad array of services to You as a member. As You use these services, We want You to be clear about how We’re using personally identifying information You share with Us and the ways in which You can help protect Your privacy. Your privacy matters to GFA so whether You are new to GFA or a long-time member, please take the time to review this Privacy Statement. This Privacy Statement (“Statement”) applies to data collected by GFA through the GFA Website, as well as its offline services.

The privacy practices set forth in this Privacy Statement are for the GFA Website and other specified activities relating to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Alumni Network only. If You link to or visit other websites managed by third parties, please review the privacy statements posted on those sites. GFA has no control over those websites and is not responsible or liable for the policies and practices followed by third parties.

YOUR USE OF OUR WEBSITE OR PROVISION OF ANY PERSONAL DATA CONSTITUTES AGREEMENT TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT. PLEASE DO NOT USE THE SITE OR PROVIDE INFORMATION (OR ALLOW OTHERS TO DO SO ON YOUR BEHALF) IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT, AND ANY APPLICABLE SUPPLEMENTAL RELATED POLICIES.

Management of the Website and the Safe Harbor

Conenza, Inc. (“Conenza”) hosts and manages the GFA Website. As GFA’s vendor, Conenza collects, uses, and discloses certain personally identifiable information that it receives in the United States from all GFA members wherever they reside in the world including, but not limited to, the European Union. Conenza also shares this information with GFA. References in this Statement to “We”, “Us” or “Our” are meant to include both Conenza and GFA.

Throughout this Privacy Statement, We will refer to this personally identifiable information “Personal Data” and mean this term to include EU or Switzerland Personal Data from users located in the EU or Switzerland, as well as, Personal Data from users located anywhere else in the world. In particular, Conenza recognizes that the European Union and Switzerland have established strict protections regarding the handling of EU or Switzerland Personal Data, and Conenza therefore has elected to adhere to the US-EU Safe Harbor and US-Switzerland Safe Harbor Privacy Principles (the “Safe Harbor”) with respect to such EU or Switzerland Personal Data that it receives in the United States. For further background and information about the Safe Harbor, and to see Conenza’s representation on the Safe Harbor List, please refer to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s web site at www.export.gov/safeharbor.

Collection of Your Personal Data

We collect Personal Data that You actively provide to Us through the use of the GFA Website and via other methods, such as when You volunteer, sign up to receive a newsletter or request other information, when You send Us an inquiry, when You choose to make a donation, fill out a nomination form, or provide Personal Data in response to other opportunities on the Website. In connection with these activities, We may collect the following Personal Data about You such as, but not limited to: name, address, telephone number, company name, email address, credit/debit card or other payment related information.

It is always Your choice as to whether to provide Personal Data on the GFA Website. However, some of Your Personal Data must be provided to participate in certain programs or activities in which You choose to participate. Should You choose not to provide information, this could limit or eliminate certain functions of the site or Your ability to benefit from the services You have requested.

When You register, Your name appears in the Directory and is visible to other registered members of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Alumni community. When You complete Your profile following registration, You may choose which pieces of information are visible in the directory using the “Privacy” feature in Your profile. You may change this at any time by clicking the Edit button in the appropriate section of Your profile and then choosing the desired privacy setting in the Privacy feature drop-down list.

Use of Your Personal Data

The information We collect helps Us understand Your needs and interests, provide superior customer service, and continually improve Our products and services. For example, We may use Your Personal Data and aggregate information to but not limited to:

Allow You to connect with other members of the network
Create groups and participate in groups
Upload documents to share with other members or third-parties
Create or participate in events
Allow You to participate in blogs
Invite a colleague to join GFA
Update, amend, or delete inaccuracies in Your Personal Data
Receive service-related emails, marketing-related emails and newsletters
Add a photo of yourself, contact information, education history, and other personal information
Provide information or services that You have requested
Customize and personalize Your experience
Monitor and measure Our web site performance
Respond to Your inquiries
Send You webinar archives that You have requested
Process Your donations
Process submitted nomination forms
Other Website operational activities related to providing the services You have requested on the Website

Please note that any of the information or content You have in Your profile or elsewhere on the GFA Website, including a photo of yourself, may be viewed by other members of the site, depending on the privacy settings You have selected for this information or content. You may delete any of this information in Your profile at any time by selecting the Edit button for that particular section of Your profile and then pressing Delete. You may opt-out of receiving any newsletter subscription or marketing communications from Us by using one of the following methods:

Select the email “opt-out” or “unsubscribe” link, or follow the opt-out instructions included in each subscription communication.
Write to Us at:

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Alumni Network
c/o Conenza
1916 Pike Place Ste 12 – 1428
Seattle, WA 98101
Sharing of Your Personal Data

We use Your Personal Data to pursue GFA’s mission and operations and to engage in the activity (and related activities) for the purposes which You have shared the information with Us. We do not share personal information with companies, organizations and individuals outside of GFA unless one of the following circumstances applies:

With Your consent

We will share Personal Data with companies, organizations or individuals outside of GFA when We have Your consent to do so. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.

For external processing or services

We provide personal information to Our affiliates or other trusted business partners or persons to process it for Us or provide services; such as, Akamai for its Web Application Accelerator or ExactTarget or Constant Contact for its email marketing software. These third-parties can only use Your Personal Data based on Our instructions and in compliance with Our Privacy Statement and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

For legal reasons

We will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of GFA if We have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:

meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request
enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations
detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues
protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of GFA, its users or the public as required or permitted by law

We may share aggregated, non-personally identifiable information publicly and with Our partners – like publishers, advertisers or connected sites. For example, We may share information publicly to show trends about the general use of Our services.

If GFA or Conenza is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, We will continue to ensure the confidentiality of any personal information and give affected members notice before personal information is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy statement policy.

Protection of Your Personal Data

Pursuant to applicable regulations, We maintain commercially reasonable technical and organizational measures to help protect Your Personal Data against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access. We use secure socket layer (SSL) encryption technology on Our Website to help protect Your Personal Data and payment card information that We collect when You pay Your membership fee or make a donation. Your user account registration information is password-protected and encrypted so that only You and Us have access to this personal information. Do not divulge Your password to anyone. Also remember to sign out of Your account and close Your browser window when You have finished using the site, particularly if You share a computer with someone else or are using a computer in a public place like a library or Internet cafe.

We restrict access to Personal Data to Conenza and GFA employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for Us, and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations. Unfortunately, no information security system can be 100% secure. As a result, although We strive to protect Your Personal Data, We cannot ensure or warrant the security of Your Personal Data against any possible loss or unauthorized access.

We keep Personal Data for as long as We think is necessary or advisable and We reserve the right to retain it to the full extent prohibited by law. We may discard Personal Data in Our discretion, so You should retain Your own records, and not solely rely upon Our storage of any Personal Data, donation information or other data.

Access to and Updating Your Personal Data

Whenever You use Our services, We aim to provide You with access to Your personal information. If that information is wrong, We strive to give You ways to update it quickly or to delete it – unless We have to keep that information for legitimate business or legal purposes. You can access, correct and update Your Personal Data via the Website or by contacting Us at the contact information as described in the How to Contact Us section of this Privacy Statement.

You can ask Us to delete or deactivate Your user account, but then You will not be able to access any members-only areas of the site. You can exercise these rights and choices by contacting Us at:

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Alumni Network
c/o Conenza
1916 Pike Place Ste 12 – 1428
Seattle, WA 98101
Telephone: +1 (855) 579-9669
dataprivacy@conenza.com

We may reject requests that require disproportionate technical effort (for example, developing a new system or fundamentally changing an existing practice), risk the privacy of others, or would be extremely impractical (for instance, requests concerning information residing on backup systems).

We aim to maintain Our services in a manner that protects information from accidental or malicious destruction. Because of this, after You delete information from Our services, We may not immediately delete residual copies from Our active servers and may not remove information from Our backup systems.

Use of Cookies and Web Beacons

As part of offering and providing customizable and personalized services, this Website uses cookies and web beacons to store and sometimes track information about You. Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to Your computer or mobile device when You visit a site. Cookies are then sent back to the originating site on each subsequent visit, or to another site that recognizes that cookie. Web beacons, also called “clear GIFs” or “web bugs”, are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on Your hard drive, web beacons are embedded invisibly on site pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. For the purposes of this Statement, both cookies and web beacons are referred to as “cookies”. Cookies are useful because they allow a site to recognize a user’s device. You can find more information about cookies at: www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu.

Cookies do a lot of different jobs, like letting You navigate between pages efficiently, remembering Your preferences, and generally improve the user experience. We also may employ cookies from third-parties to help Us compile aggregated statistics regarding the operations of Our site. We prohibit cookies on Our site from being used by third-parties to collect or access Your Personal Data. When You receive newsletters or promotional email from GFA, We may use cookies, customized links or similar technologies to determine whether the email has been opened and which links You click in order to provide You more focused email communications or other information, to help Us record metrics to enhance Your experience on Our Website.

The cookies used on this site have been categorized on the basis of the categories found in the ICC UK Cookie guide issued in April 2012. A list of all the cookies used on this site by category is set out below.

Strictly necessary cookies – These cookies are essential in order to enable You to move around the site and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the site. Without these cookies services You have asked for cannot be provided.
Performance cookies – These cookies collect information about how visitors use a site, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is anonymous and is only used to improve how a site works. Performance cookies We use include web analytics tracking cookies which are used to track analytics of site use, including pages viewed and whether the individual is a new or repeat visitor.
Functionality cookies – These cookies allow a site to remember choices You make (such as Your user name, language or the region You are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. For instance, a site may be able to provide You with local information or news by storing in a cookie the region in which You are currently located. These cookies can also be used to remember changes You have made to text size, font and other parts of web pages that You can customize. They may also be used to provide services You have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. We may use information collected from Our cookies to identify user behavior and to serve content and offers based on Your profile. In some cases We pass this information on to trusted business partners for marketing or analysis purposes. In most cases We will not be able to track individuals by name, only if a user is a registered user will We associate the cookie information with a named individual. These cookies cannot track Your browsing activity on other websites. They don’t gather any information about You that could be used for advertising or remembering where You’ve been on the internet outside Our site. Functionality cookies We use include Conenza tracking cookies which authenticates the user by log-in details and remembers language selection and Social login cookies which remember when someone has previously used social log-in.
Targeting cookies – These cookies are used to deliver advertisements more relevant to You and Your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times You see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the site operator’s permission. They remember that You have visited a site and this information is shared with other organizations such as advertisers. Quite often they will be linked to site functionality provided by the other organization.

If You do not want to receive cookies, You may set Your browser to reject them. However, if You turn cookies off, You may not have access to some of Our Website’s services and features. Unless You have adjusted Your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, Our system will issue cookies when You access Our Website.

Communications Preferences

GFA sends out an email Newsletter and periodic emails notifying You of upcoming events, activities and other GFA related information. If You receive promotional emails from Us and would like to stop getting them in the future, You can do so by following the directions in that message.

To help manage its communications, GFA uses a third-party email marketing solution. If You chose not to receive a GFA communication sent via this third-party solution You will be choosing not to receive any GFA communications sent via this service. If You wish to not receive one type of communication from GFA (like the Newsletter, but still want to receive email from GFA), please email Us at: dataprivacy@conenza.com and We will remove You from that distribution list and keep You on other types of communications distribution lists, per Your request.

Your choice to not receive promotional emails from GFA does not apply to the receipt of mandatory service communications that are considered part of the operational elements of GFA. For example, if You signed up to attend an event and the event details have changed, GFA will send You an email with information regarding the changes to the event.

Enforcement of this Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement is part of and supplemented by Our Terms of Use, which together with any supplemental privacy policy and Terms form a contract. If there is a conflict between the Terms of Use and this Privacy Statement, the latest version of this Privacy Statement will control. We and You are bound by the Terms of Use, including this Privacy Statement. If You think We are not adhering to the terms of this Privacy Statement, You may contact Us by writing to dataprivacy@conenza.com or to the physical address listed below. There are no third-party beneficiaries of this Statement.

Changes to this Privacy Statement

If We change this Privacy Statement, We will post any changes on this page, so that You are always aware of the information that We collect, how We use it, and under what circumstances We disclose it. We will also post an updated link on the home page of the Website that indicates a Newly Revised Privacy Statement with a summary notification about the changes. We encourage You to check this Website periodically to see if any recent changes to this Privacy Statement have been made. You can also tell if this Privacy Statement has changed recently by reviewing the Effective Date posted at the beginning of this Privacy Statement.

How to Contact Us

If You have any questions about this Privacy Statement or Our privacy practices, please contact Us using the contact methods listed here:

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Alumni Network, c/o Conenza Inc. 1916 Pike Place Ste 12 – 1428
Seattle, WA 98101 T: +1 (855) 579-9669 F: 206.792.4201 Email: dataprivacy@conenza.com