Privacy Policy

EARN Privacy Policy
(effective as of July 17, 2017)

Thank you for visiting the network of websites and online services operated by EARN Inc. (“EARN”). This Privacy Policy applies to those websites and other online services that display or provide an authorized link to this Privacy Policy (the “Sites”). Please read this Privacy Policy to understand what personal information we collect, why we collect it, and how we use and share the information we collect. By using the Sites, you the user (“you”) indicate that you have read and consent to the practices described by this Policy.

We may collect the following categories of information:

Information collected and stored automatically.

There are certain categories of information we will automatically collect or store when you visit the Sites and browse through pages or download information. For example, we may collect the following types of information:
• Your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, which is a number automatically assigned to your computer by your Internet Service Provider whenever you use the Internet;
• The type of browser and operating system used to access the Sites;
• The date and time you access the Sites and whether you previously visited the Sites;
• The pages you visit within the Sites and other information about your activity on the Sites; and
• If you linked to our Sites from another website, the URL of that website.

Information collected that you voluntarily provide or direct us to collect.

We may collect any information that you choose to provide through the Sites (including, without limitation, content in emails you send and information that you submit through forms or otherwise through the Site, when you subscribe to or register for newsletters or other services, or when you participate in polls and surveys). This may include personally identifiable information such as your name, email address, year of birth, gender, zip code, country, and mailing address.

We may collect additional information that you submit to us or direct us to collect. When you link a financial account with an EARN program, the information that we might collect may include such data as your account username, access number(s), password(s), security question(s) and answer(s), account number(s), login information, and any other security or access information, as well as additional data relating to your account(s), such as account balances, credit card charges, debits, and deposits.

We also may receive additional information about you from third-party sources, and we may combine that information with the information we have collected or received about you in other ways.

Use of collected information.

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• to process donations and other transactions, provide our products services, and respond to your requests, questions, and comments;
• to provide you with personalized services (for example, information about your local area or your favorite subjects) and to send you email news;
• to analyze usage of the Sites and improve the Sites and to otherwise improve the quality of our products or services, including through market research, project planning, and statistical analyses;
• to enhance the types of services that we and our business partners may provide to you in the future; and to troubleshoot problems and address errors and service interruptions;
• to communicate with you, including without limitation to provide information about EARN, our mission, other products or services, legal notices, or information about changes to this Privacy Policy;
• to protect our rights and the rights of others, to detect and protect against error, fraud, or other criminal activity, to respond to legal process and defend against legal claims, and as otherwise required by law, as determined by EARN in its sole discretion; or
• as otherwise set forth in this EARN Privacy Policy, or as otherwise described to you at the point of collection or pursuant to your consent.

Sharing of collected information with third parties.

EARN may share personally identifiable information we collect about you under the following circumstances:

• with authorized service providers that help us provide our services or perform other business functions for us, such as sending emails and newsletters or hosting web services;
• with business partners with which we partner to provide you a service or product that you have requested or to process a transaction that you have requested. For example, we partner with third parties to process donations made online and to facilitate your online credit card transactions. As another example, in some cases, EARN may partner with third parties to provide you with the ability to link a financial account with an EARN program and/or to provide other services to you. In those cases, such third parties may have access to your personally identifiable information, including without limitation your account username and password or other authentication credentials, as well as information about your account activity. Please note that EARN does not control the privacy or security practices of these third parties; they may use the information for their own business purposes, including to perform analytical research and performance tracking and improve their various products and services, and their privacy and security practices may be different than ours;
• to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process, in response to a request for cooperation from law enforcement or another government agency, or to establish or exercise our legal rights, defend against legal claims, or otherwise protect or defend our rights or property;
• when we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, or as otherwise required by law;
• in connection with a corporate transaction, including in the unlikely event of bankruptcy or the sale of all or any portion of our organization;
• in aggregated or other non-personally identifiable form; and
• as otherwise described to you at the point of collection or pursuant to your consent.

Note: EARN uses Plaid Technologies, Inc. (“Plaid”) to gather End User’s data from financial institutions. By using our service, you grant Client and Plaid the right, power, and authority to act on your behalf to access and transmit your personal and financial information from the relevant financial institution. You agree to your personal and financial information being transferred, stored, and processed by Plaid in accordance with the Plaid Privacy Policy.

International Transfers

Please be aware that information you provide to us or that we obtain as a result of your use of the Sites may be collected in your country and subsequently transferred to the United States or to another country in accordance with applicable law. By using the Sites, you consent to the collection, international transfer, storage, and processing of your information in the United States.

Comments posted to the Sites.

Any personally identifiable information or content that you voluntarily disclose online in comments becomes publicly available and can be collected, used, or shared by others. Your username and other identifying information also may be displayed to other users when you post comments. Accordingly, when posting comments, you should exercise caution not to provide any personally identifying information or other information that you would not want seen by others. Use of the community functions on the Sites is at your own risk.

Third-party functionality and links to other websites

In addition, some of the content and functionality on our Sites may be provided by third parties that are not affiliated with us. For example, we may enable you to share certain materials on our websites through social networking services, such as Facebook and Twitter. Third-party advertisers also may have a presence on some of our sites. These third parties may collect or receive certain information about your use of our Sites, including through the use of cookies, web beacons, and Internet technologies, and this information may be collected over time and combined with information collected across different websites and online services. Some of these companies participate in industry-developed programs designed to provide consumers choices about whether to receive targeted advertising. Please visit the websites operated by the Network Advertising Initiative and Digital Advertising Alliance to learn more.

Our Sites contain links to third-party websites and partners, whose privacy and information security practices may be different than ours. Please note that EARN does not control the privacy practices of these other websites or businesses to which we provide hyperlinks or access, and the information practices of such companies are not covered by this Privacy Policy.

Accordingly, if you choose to access any of these third-party sites or services, you should read the privacy notices and user disclosures on these other websites and evaluate their practices before deciding to disclose any information or use any of these services.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies.

A “cookie” is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. When you visit the website again, the cookie allows that site to recognize your browser, and it may store user preferences and other information.

When you visit the Sites, a cookie may be sent to your computer by a third party analytics company—for example, Google Analytics, in order to track the categories of automatically collected, non-personal information described above. We track this information in order to improve our Sites and maximize your user experience. We also may use other types of standard Internet tracking technologies, such as web beacons and flash cookies.

Children.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of thirteen. Should we learn that a child under the age of thirteen has provided us with personal information, we will delete that information from our database as may be required by applicable law.

Security.

EARN strives to use the best available means to protect your personally identifiable information, but no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, can be 100% secure at all times. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your personally identifiable information.

Opt-out.

We provide you the ability to opt-out of certain email and mail communications, such as our newsletters. For more information or to opt-out of receiving certain such communications, please email info@earn.org or follow the unsubscribe instructions that may be included in the email you receive.

Your California Privacy Rights.

California residents are entitled once a year, free of charge, to request and obtain certain information regarding our disclosure, if any, of certain categories of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. We do not share personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

Do-Not-Track Signals and Similar Mechanisms.

Some web browsers may transmit “do-not-track” signals to the websites and other online services with which a user communicates. There is no industry standard that governs what, if anything, websites should do when they receive these signals. EARN currently does not take action in response to these signals. If and when a standard is established and accepted, EARN may revisit its policy on responding to these signals.

Changes to this Privacy Policy.

We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy, and we therefore encourage you to review the privacy policy before accessing the websites or otherwise furnishing data to EARN. We will notify you about material changes to this policy by placing a prominent notice on the Sites or by sending a notice to an email or mailing address you have provided to us.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact EARN:

By email—info@earn.org;

By mail—EARN, 235 Montgomery St. #1050, San Francisco, CA 94104; or

By phone—(415) 217-3660.

Effective Date: July 17, 2017