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Gender Menace

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Privacy Policy

Last revised: November 21, 2024

Table of Contents

Introduction
Who We Are
Scope
Partner Information
Information We Collect
* Information You Provide
* Information Automatically Collected
* Information Collected From Other Sources
How We Use Information
How We Share Information
Cookies & Other Tracking Technologies
Information Hidden in Media
Embedded Content From Other Websites
How We Retain Your Data
How We Secure Personal Information
Your Choices Regarding Your Information
Changes to Your Information
Your Data Rights
Jurisdictional Issues
* United States Jurisdiction
* Legal Basis for Processing Information (for Visitors From the EEA)
Use of Website(s) by Minors
Changes to Privacy Policy
Contact Us

Introduction

Gender Menace values and wants to protect your privacy.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us at support@gendermenace.net.

Gender Menace (“we”) will make every reasonable effort to protect your private information. However, despite our best efforts, it is possible that there could be a data breach leaking data beyond your stated preferences, so please don’t put any information on the gendermenace.net website unless you are prepared for that information — under the worst of circumstances — to become public.

This Privacy Policy explains who we are, how we collect, protect, share, disclose, and use personal information about you and how you can exercise your privacy rights.

We will never sell your personal information. We will never share your personal information outside of people with authenticated user accounts making authorized use of our website, although we are unable to guarantee that there will never be a data breach.

Who We Are

Gender Menace is a small collective of dedicated activists and programmers who are members or allies in the struggle to raise awareness and fight for the rights of gender-expansive individuals and communities (for more info, see About Us). Our website address is: https://www.gendermenace.net

Scope

This Privacy Policy applies only to gendermenace.net and any associated websites developed by the Gender Menace collective.

If you click on one or more links to a website that is not a Gender Menace site, then this Privacy Policy will not apply to the information collected on that website. Gender Menace has no control over third-party websites and will not be held responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to have been caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, advertising, products, or other materials on or available from such websites, nor from any information that you provide to such websites or that such websites collect from you.

This Privacy Policy applies to our collection and use of personal information, which means any information that we collect relating to an identified or identifiable natural personal, including, but not limited to, an individual’s name, address, email address, password(s), telephone number, texting number, organization name (e.g., employer or school), organization title, timezone, website URL, gender identities, languages, notification settings, privacy settings, terms and conditions settings, and support for gender-expansive people and causes (“Personal Information”).

Gender Menace has no intention of gathering credit card numbers, bank account numbers, credit union account numbers, or any other financial information.

Personal Information does not include “aggregate” information, which is data collected about use of our website(s) or about a group or category of services or users, from which individual identities or other Personal Information has been removed and cannot be identified. This Privacy Policy does not restrict or limit our collection and use of aggregate information.

Partner Information

Currently and in the foreseeable future, Gender Menace does not share data with any partner organizations. However, we do store encrypted backups with a backup service provider.

In the future, Gender Menace may contract with one or more data processor related to a third-party partner. In that case, we will notify you that any information you submit as part of the form-filling process will be made available to the data controller directly. We have no ability to control, and shall have no responsibility for, how such data controllers use your information. The information on these data controllers and on how such data controllers use your personal data are detailed in the privacy policies of the given data controllers. We will not review, share, distribute, or reference any Personal Information controlled by our third-party partners, except as provided in our agreement with our third-party partners, or as may be required by law. For purposes of this Privacy Policy and the obligations of Gender Menace, Personal Information does not include information controlled by third-party partners (“Third-Party Personal Information).

Information We Collect

Information You Provide

You may voluntarily provide Personal Information to us when you:

  • Create an account/profile (e.g. your full name, address, email address, etc.)
  • Create an action alert or take action on the Action Portal
  • Enter your username/password
  • Fill out a form
  • Leave a comment
  • Fill out a survey
  • Conduct searches on the website(s)
  • Sign up to receive email or text message alerts/updates (e.g. email address, phone number, texting number)
  • Sign up as a volunteer

Please note that information we collect may vary, depending on whether you are visiting the Action Portal or the rest of the website(s).

Information Automatically Collected

When you visit the website(s), we may collect certain information automatically from your device. In some countries, including countries in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), this information is considered Personal Information under applicable data protection laws.

Specifically, the information we collect automatically may include:

  • Your computer’s IP address
  • Your browser type and operating system
  • Your bandwidth speed
  • Information about the software programs that are installed on your computer
  • Web pages you were visiting immediately before and after you visited the website(s)
  • Web pages that you view and links that you click on within the website(s)
  • Standard server log information
  • Information collected through cookies
  • If you access the website(s) through a mobile device, the type of mobile device, your device’s unique ID, the type of mobile Internet browser and operating system you use, and the location of your device

Information Collected From Other Sources

We do not anticipate collecting information from other sources, except for information available on public news sources or other websites for the purposes of research and advocacy on behalf of gender-expansive communities.

How We Use Information

We may use collected information in various ways to provide our services, including but not limited to:

  • Sending email or other electronic communications
  • Fulfilling requests for services and information
  • Protecting and ensuring the safety of participants in Gender Menace activities
  • Preventing illegal activities, enforcing the website(s) Terms and Conditions, and otherwise protecting our rights
  • Preventing spam, spoofing, cyber-attacks, and other fraudulent and/or annoying activities
  • Developing internal analytics and to improve the quality, effectiveness, and relevance of the website(s) and services to our visitors
  • Developing new tools and services
  • Maintaining and improving the accuracy of the records we hold about you
  • Maintaining information for short-term, transient use
  • Carrying out audits

How We Share Information

We will only make Personal Information about users available to third parties as described below:

  • With your express permission: to letter, petition, boycott, demonstration, or other campaign targets, who may in turn further distribute your Personal Information. We are not responsible for the practices of campaign targets.
  • With your express permission: to letter, petition, boycott, demonstration, or other campaign creators, who may in turn further distribute your Personal Information. We are not responsible for the practices of campaign creators.
  • To trusted third-party service providers, including vendors and consultants, employed to perform, website-related services, including database management and backups, web hosting, maintenance services, analytics, data processing, geolocation, technical support services, credit-card processing, security services, and email and text message distribution.
  • To any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court or other third party to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety or other rights and interests of any person, violations of the Terms and Conditions, or as otherwise required by law.
  • When we believe in good faith that we are lawfully authorized or required to do so or that doing so is reasonably necessary or appropriate to comply with the law or legal process or respond to lawful requests, claims or legal authorities, including lawful subpoenas, warrants, or court orders in whichever country or countries these may occur.
  • As permitted under the terms in place with any third-party partner.
  • To any other person with your consent.

We may share aggregate information with third parties to help us develop content or services.

To customize your experience on the website(s), we provide you with the opportunity to access or interact with third-party services, such as Bluesky and Threads. When you connect to the website(s) through these third-party services, we may share minimal Personal Information about you with these third-party service providers.

We may use data that we receive from third-party service providers to:

  • Enhance and personalize your experience on the website(s) (e.g. display your profile picture)

Cookies & Other Tracking Technologies

As is standard practice on many websites, we may set and access cookies, web beacons, Flash cookies, and other similar tracking technologies (collectively, “Cookies”) on your computer. Cookies are small amounts of information stored in files within your computer’s browser.

Information Hidden in Media

If you upload images to the website(s), you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website(s) can download and extract any location data from images on the website(s).

Embedded Content From Other Websites

Articles on the website(s) may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

How We Retain Your Data

We retain Personal Information we collect from you when we have an ongoing legitimate need to do so, including: to provide you with a service you have requested, to provide our third-party partners with a service they have requested, or to comply with applicable legal, tax, or accounting requirements.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your Personal Information, we will either delete or anonymize it. 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.

If we are processing Personal Information on behalf of one of our third-party partners, we will do so as instructed by our partner.

If you leave a comment on our website(s), the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users who register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their Personal Information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

All users can limit sharing of their Personal Information, although some website functions, such as creating an action alert on the Action Portal, require sharing of at least a username and possibly an individual or organizational name. Taking action with an action alert on the Action Portal may require further disclosure of Personal Information.

How We Secure Personal Information

We use appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect the Personal Information that we collect and process about you. The measures we use provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing your Personal Information. Specific measures we use include encryption of data in transit and at rest, industry-standard development practices and software update policies to keep software up to date and secure, use of web application firewalls and other security tools, regular security audits and scans, and logging and monitoring of access to Personal Information.

Your Choices Regarding Your Information

We will only send you campaign-related communications if you opted in to receiving them. These may include emails, text messages, and social media ads. You have the right to opt out of receiving such communications at any time.

To reduce the amount of Personal Information that we collect from you and limit its use, you can take one or more of the following steps:

  • Opt out of participating in action alerts and our Action Portal by deleting your account
  • Opt out of receiving emails from us, by clicking the unsubscribe link in emails you receive from us
  • Opt out of allowing us to collect your geographic location by changing the location settings on your mobile device

Changes to Your Information

To change any Personal Information that you provided as part of your account, log in to your account and edit your account information and/or your profile. If you require assistance to do so, please email support@gendermenace.net.

Your Data Rights

We respond to all requests from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

If you register on this site or have left comments, you can request an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

As described in this Privacy Policy, if you are using the website(s) through one of our third-party partners (e.g. the Organization organizing an action) then we are the processor of your Third-Party Personal Information and our partner is the data controller. In such cases, if you want to exercise any data protection rights above or have questions or concerns about how your Third-Party Personal Information is handled by us as a processor on behalf of our third-party partners, you should contact the relevant partner that has contracted with us, and refer to their separate privacy policies.

Because we have a limited ability to access Third-Party Personal Information that our third-party partners submit to the website(s) or that you submit to the partner on one of the website(s), if you wish to make your request directly to us, please provide the name of the third-party partner who submitted your Third-Party Personal Information to one of the website(s) or who you submitted Third-Party Personal Information to on one of the website(s). We will refer your request to that partner, and will support them as needed in responding to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

If you are a visitor from the European Economic Area (“EEA”) using the Action Network tool (Action Builder is currently unavailable for use by EEA-based users), you have the following data protection rights under the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (hereinafter: GDPR):

  • If you wish to access, correct, update, or request deletion of Third-Party Personal Information, you can do so at any time by contracting the partner who is the controller for your information, or by contacting us at support@gendermenace.net with the name of the third-party partner and we will forward your request to them, as described above.
  • In addition, you can object to processing of your Third-Party Personal Information, restrict processing of your Third-Party Personal Information or request portability of your Third-Party Personal information by contacting the third-party partner who controls your Third-Party Personal Information, or contact us as support@gendermenace.net with the name of the third-party partner and we will forward your request to them, as described above.
  • If you wish to withdraw consent to use Third-Party Personal Information, please contact the third-party partner you controls your Third-Party Personal Information, or contact us at support@gendermenace.net with then name of the third-party partner and we will forward your request to them, as described above.
  • You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about the collection and use of your Third-Party Personal Information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. For UK users, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office. Contact details for data protection authorities in the EEA, Switzerland, and certain non-European countries (including the US and Canada) are available here.

Under California Civil Code Sections 1798.83-1798.84, residents of the U.S. state of California are entitled to ask us annually for a notice identifying the categories of Personal Information which we share with our affiliates and/or third-parties for marketing purposes and to provide contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to support@gendermenace.net. Note, however, that we do not disclose users’ Personal Information to third parties for marketing purposes as defined in the statute.

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), if we are collecting your information on behalf of a third-party partner covered by the CCPA, you have the right to request that your information be deleted. Please contact the third-party partner who controls your Third-Party Personal Information or contact us at support@gendermenace.net.

Jurisdictional Issues

Because Gender Menace is a global organization, your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers. By using the website(s) and services, you understand that your information will be transferred to countries outside your country of residence, which may have data protection rules that are different from those of your country. In certain circumstances, courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies or security authorities in those other countries may be entitled to access your Personal Information.

United States Jurisdiction

Some of our data processing equipment is located in the United States. If you visit one of the website(s) from another country, please be aware that information you provide to us or that we obtain through your use of the website(s) may be transferred to and processed in the United States and will be subject to United States law. United States privacy and data protection laws may not be equivalent to laws in your country of residence.

Further details can be provided upon request.

If you are a visitor from the EEA using the Action Portal, our legal basis for collecting and using personal information depends on the specific context in which we collect it.

For all the data collected where we are acting as processor of so-called Third-Party Personal Information, our third-party partner makes the determination.

We have taken appropriate safeguards to require that your Personal Information will remain protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy. These safeguards include implementing the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers of Third-Party Personal Information with our third-party service providers and partners, which require all parties to protect Third-Party Personal Information they process from the EEA in accordance with European data protection law. If we collect and use your Personal Information in reliance on our legitimate interests, this interest will normally be to operate the website(s) and service, communicating with you as necessary to provide our services, improving our platform, undertaking marketing, or for the purposes of detecting or preventing illegal activities.

We have self-certified adherence to the principles of the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework with regard to personal data transferred from the European Union and the United Kingdom and we have designated JAMS as our alternative dispute resolution provider under the Framework.

Where we are acting as a controller of data, we will normally collect Personal Information from you only (i) where we need the Personal Information to perform a contract with you, (ii) where the processing is in our legitimate interest and not overridden by your rights, (iii) where we have your consent to do so. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect Personal Information from you.

If we collect and use your Personal Information in reliance on our legitimate interests, this interest will normally be to operate the website(s) and service, communicating with you as necessary to provide our services, improving our platform, undertaking marketing, or for the purposes of detecting or preventing illegal activities.

Where the GDPR is applicable, we do not disclose Personal Information to a third party located outside the EEA unless:

a) the third party is or agrees to be bound by the GDPR Standard Contractual Clauses, or

b) the onward transfer of Personal Information is otherwise in line with Module One, point 8.7 of the the GDPR Standard Contractual Clauses.

Information you provide may also be suitable to express your political views or political affiliation. As the information on political views and political affiliation is within the special categories of Third-Party Personal Information, we collect and process all information on such interactions and any other Third-Party Personal Information linked to such interactions in line with Article 9 of the GDPR.

If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your Personal Information, please email dataprotection@gendermenace.net.

Use of Website(s) by Minors

If you are under the age of 16, please ask your parent/guardian for their consent before submitting your Personal Information to our website(s) – as long as you’re confident that taking such action will not cause you any harm. Please note that certain services on our site may require you to be the age of majority in your jurisdiction to use.

We encourage parents to monitor their children’s Internet usage and caution them about the dangers of personal information on the Internet. Children under age 13 (or under age 16 to the extent the GDPR is applicable) should not visit the website(s) on their own and should not submit any Personal Information to the website(s). We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under age 13 (or under age 16 to the extent the GDPR is applicable). If we learn that we have collected any Personal Information from a child under age 13 (or under age 16 to the extent the GDPR is applicable) without verifiable parental consent, we will delete that information from our database as soon as possible.

We may need to verify the identity of the person alerting us before implementing this part of our policy.

Changes to Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect changes in our practices. If we modify the Privacy Policy, we will place a prominent notice on the website(s) or take other appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make as we determine in our sole discretion. As part of any modification of the Privacy Policy, we will update the “last revised” date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

Each time you visit the website(s) or provide us with information through the website(s), by doing so you are accepting the Privacy Policy in effect at that time.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about, or want to exercise your rights under the Privacy Policy, please contact support@gendermenace.net.

If you are a visitor from the EEA and need to get in touch with our Data Protection Officer, please contact dataprotection@gendermenace.net.

If you are an EEA visitor, the data controller of your Personal Information is Gender Menace or our relevant partner.