Privacy Policy

End Climate Silence is a campaign group that takes data privacy seriously. This privacy policy, adapted from our email service provider, Mailchimp, explains who we are, how we collect, share and use Personal Information, and how you can exercise your privacy rights.

1. About Us

End Climate Silence is a volunteer organization dedicated to helping the media cover the climate crisis with the urgency it deserves.

2. Privacy for Visitors

This section applies to Personal Information that we collect and process when you visit End Climate Silence Sites, and in the usual course of our campaigning, such as in connection with our events and marketing activities.

A. Information We Collect

(i) Information you provide to us: End Climate Silence Sites offer various ways to contact us, such as through form submissions or email to inquire about our work. For example, we may ask you to provide certain Personal Information when you express an interest in obtaining information about us or our Service, take part in surveys, subscribe to our petitions, or otherwise contact us. You may choose to provide additional information when you communicate with us or otherwise interact with us, and we may keep copies of any such communications for our records.

The Personal Information we collect may include:

• Your name and/or email address
• Marketing information (such as your contact preferences); and
• Any information you choose to provide to us when completing any ‘free text’ boxes in our forms.

(ii) Information we collect automatically: when you visit End Climate Silence Sites or interact with our emails, we and our third-party partners use cookies and similar technologies such as pixels or web beacons, alone or in conjunction with cookies, to collect certain information automatically from your browser or device. In some countries, including countries in the EEA, this information may be considered Personal Information under applicable data protection laws. Our use of cookies and other tracking technologies is discussed more below, and in more detail in our Cookie Statement below.

The information we collect automatically includes:

• Device information: such as your IP address, your browser, operating system, device information, unique device identifiers, mobile network information, request information (speed, frequency, the site from which you linked to us (“referring page”), the name of the website you choose to visit immediately after ours (called “exit page”), information about other websites you have recently visited, the web browser you used (software used to browse the internet) including its type and language), and viewfinder size and scripts errors.
• Usage data: such as information about how you interact with our emails, End Climate Silence Sites, and other websites (such as the pages and files viewed, session duration, links clicked, searches, non-sensitive text entered, mouse movements, operating system and system configuration information and date/time stamps associated with your usage).

B. Use of Personal Information

We may use the information we collect through our site and in connection with campaiging activities (alone or in combination with other data we collect) for a range of reasons in reliance on our legitimate interests, including:

• To provide, operate, optimize, and maintain End Climate Silence Sites.
• To send you campaign information, recommendations and non-transactional communications (e.g., email) about us, in accordance with your marketing preferences, including information about our work as necessary for our legitimate interest in conducting direct marketing or to the extent you have provided your prior consent.
• For recruitment purposes if you have applied for a role with End Climate Silence.
• To respond to your online inquiries and requests, and to provide you with information and access to resources or services that you have requested from us.
• To manage End Climate Silence Sites and system administration and security.
• To improve the navigation and content of End Climate Silence Sites.
• To identify any server problems or other IT or network issues.
• To compile aggregated statistics about site usage and to better understand the preferences of our Visitors.
• To help us provide, improve and personalize our marketing activities.
• To facilitate the security and continued proper functioning of the End Climate Silence Sites.
• To carry out research and development to improve our End Climate Silence Sites.
• To carry out other legitimate business purposes, as well as other lawful purposes, such as data analysis, fraud monitoring and prevention, identifying usage trends and expanding our campaign activities in reliance on our legitimate interests.
• To cooperate with public and government authorities, courts or regulators in accordance with our legal obligations under applicable laws to the extent this requires the processing or disclosure of Personal Information to protect our rights or is necessary for our legitimate interest in protecting against misuse or abuse of our End Climate Silence Sites and Service, protecting personal property or safety, pursuing remedies available to us and limiting our damages, complying with judicial proceedings, court orders or legal processes, or responding to lawful requests.

C. Public Information and Third Party Websites

• Social media platforms and widgets. The End Climate Silence Sites include social media features, such as the Facebook Like button. These features may collect information about your IP address and which page you are visiting on our End Climate Silence Site, and they may set a cookie to make sure the feature functions properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our End Climate Silence Site. We also maintain presences on social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Any information, communications, or materials you submit to us via a social media platform is done at your own risk without any expectation of privacy. We cannot control the actions of other users of these platforms or the actions of the platforms themselves. Your interactions with those features and platforms are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide them.
• Links to third party websites. The End Climate Silence Sites include links to other websites, whose privacy practices may be different from ours. If you submit Personal Information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit.

D. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website.
• Analytical or performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
• Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
• Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:

You should be aware that we share the information collected by the cookies with our campaigning partner organisations for non-commercial purposes.

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our website.

E. Other Data Protection Rights

Depending on the country in which you reside, you may have the following data protection rights:

• To access; correct; update; port; delete; restrict or object to our processing of your Personal Information.
• You may also have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your Personal Information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. Contact details for data protection authorities in the EEA are available here.
• Similarly, if we have collected and processed your Personal Information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect the processing of your Personal Information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent. You can also contact us at any time to update your marketing preferences.

We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. We may ask you to verify your identity in order to help us respond efficiently to your request.

5. General Information

A. How We Share Information

We may share and disclose your Personal Information with our campaign partners or with the following types of third parties for the purposes described in this privacy policy:

• Our service providers: Sometimes, we share your information with our third party service providers working on our behalf for the purposes described in this privacy policy. For example, companies we’ve hired to help us provide and support our Service or assist in protecting and securing our systems and services and other business-related functions. ther examples include analyzing data, hosting data, engaging technical support for our Service, processing payments, and delivering content.
  
  For example: We use YouTube’s API services in connection with our Service to provide certain features. As such, you acknowledge and agree that by signing up for an account and using the Service, you are also bound by Google’s Privacy Policy.
  
  
• Campaigning: If you are signing up to a petition, your Personal Information may be shared with the institution or individual being petitioned. If you tick the box to opt in to receive campaign updates, we will also add you to our newsletter subscription so that we can update you on the campaign you have signed up to and other related work that we do.
  
  
• Any competent law enforcement body, regulatory body, government agency, court or other third party where we believe disclosure is necessary (a) as a matter of applicable law or regulation, (b) to exercise, establish, or defend our legal rights, or (c) to protect your vital interests or those of any other person. In certain situations, we may be required to disclose Personal Information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

B. Legal Basis for Processing Personal Information (EEA and UK Persons Only)

If you are located in the EEA or UK, our legal basis for collecting and using the Personal Information described above will depend on the Personal Information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.

However, we will normally collect and use Personal Information from you where the processing is in our legitimate interests and not overridden by your data-protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms. Our legitimate interests are described in more detail in this privacy policy in the sections above titled “Use of Personal Information”, but they typically include improving, maintaining, providing, and enhancing our campaigns; ensuring the security of the Service and our End Climate Silence Sites; and supporting our marketing activities.

Where required by law, we will collect Personal Information only where we have your consent to do so.

C. Security

We take appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction, taking into account the risks involved in the processing and the nature of the Personal Information.

D. International Transfers

(i) We operate in the United States

End Climate Silence is headquartered in and has offices in the United States and our servers are also located in the United States. This means data we process may be transferred to, stored, or processed in the United States.

(ii) Data transfers from Switzerland, United Kingdom, or the EEA to the United States

End Climate Silence has in place appropriate safeguards in accordance with applicable legal requirements to provide adequate protection for any personal data transferred from Switzerland, the UK, or the EEA to the United States. For example, we use and have incorporated European Commission approved “Standard Contractual Clauses” or “Model Clauses” into our third arty software Data Processing Agreement.

In addition, End Climate Silence participates in and will continue to certify its compliance with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. While the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks were invalidated in 2020 by the Court of Justice of the European Unition, we will continue to honour our obligations under our certification and adhere to the Privacy Shield’s principles. To learn more about the Privacy Shield Frameworks, and to view our certification, visit the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Privacy Shield website available here.

We adhere to the Privacy Shield Principles for all onward transfers of Personal Information from the EEA, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.

F. Retention of Data

We retain Personal Information where we have an ongoing legitimate business or legal need to do so. Our retention periods will vary depending on the type of data involved, but, generally, we’ll refer to these criteria in order to determine retention period:

• Whether we have a legal or contractual need to retain the data.
• Whether the data is necessary to our campaigning.

When we have no ongoing legitimate interest to process your Personal Information, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your Personal Information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your Personal Information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

G. California Privacy

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides consumers with specific rights regarding their Personal Information. You have the right to request that entities subject to the CCPA disclose certain information to you about their collection and use of your Personal Information over the past 12 months. In addition, you have the right to ask relevant legal entities to delete Personal Information collected from you, subject to certain exceptions. If a business sells Personal Information, you have a right to opt-out of that sale. Finally, a business cannot discriminate against you for exercising a CCPA right.

H. Changes to this Policy

We may change this privacy policy at any time and from time to time. The most recent version of the privacy policy is reflected by the version date located at the top of this privacy policy. All updates and amendments are effective immediately upon notice, which we may give by any means, including, but not limited to, by posting a revised version of this privacy policy or other notice on the End Climate Silence Sites.

I. Questions & Concerns

If you have any questions or comments, or if you have a concern about the way in which we have handled any privacy matter, please send an email to [email protected]