Privacy Policy

Dated: March 28, 2022

Who we are

Our website address is: https://photoperspectives.org.  We are a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting a better understanding of our world, and its inhabitants, through the power of photography.

Personally Identifiable Information We Collect

Table Round Profile

Photo Perspectives’ social and educational network is known as The Table Round.  For users age 13 and over who establish a Photo Perspectives account, we collect: the individual’s first and last name, nickname/pseudonym, and email address in order to communicate with the user, associate posts and forum comments with the appropriate individual, and link various “site badges” and course material with a particular user.  Users have the option of uploading an avatar/profile photo as well as header image that is linked to their profile information.  If you are the parent/guardian of a user, we may ask you for sufficient information to establish your identity as an adult responsible for the minor who can enter into binding terms of service and content use agreements related to use of our service.  Scholarship applicants may be required to provide address and telephone information for internal purposes related to administration of our Scholarship Program.  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.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

Posts and Forum Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.  If you leave a comment, 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.  If you  opt-in to saving your name and  email address  in cookies, you will not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

For users participating in a group learning experience such as our WOW – Middle School Initiative, forum questions and answers will remain for future iterations of the particular school’s workgroup to benefit.  For such content authored by users having since deleted their profile, the comment or question will show as anonymous.

Media

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

Your uploaded images will be linked to your user profile as a means of identifying you as the copyright owner.  Formal copyright notice using the identifier you specify may be posted along with an uploaded image if that image is used for promotional or other organization related purposes as specified in our Terms of Service.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site 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.

The most common embedded content involves video stored on our YouTube Channel.  YouTube’s Terms of Service, Community Guidelines, and Privacy Policies govern use of content embedded from, or directly viewed at, YouTube.

Less often, we may embed content from our social media accounts.  Such embedded content, or viewing that content directly on the social media platform, are governed by each platform’s policies which can be found through the links below:

Instagram, Twitter, Meta, LinkedIn – 

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive 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.  We are also unable to “unpublish” materials used in printed or digital promotional or educational materials.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

When you request password reset, your IP address is used as part of the process and may be explicitly sent to your e-mail address on file.

We accept payments and donations through Stripe. When processing payments, some of your data will be passed to Stripe, including information required to process or support the payment, such as the purchase total and billing information.

Please see the Stripe Policy Page for more details.

Donation data maintained within our databases include your e-mail address, date and amount of donation, and to which fund you donated.  This information is maintained to issue end of the year tax statements for your use to document donations as well as for internal control purposes to ensure donations to a specific program are correctly allocated to that program.

We utilize the Mail Chimp newsletter platform.  Should you choose to opt in to receive our newsletter, your e-mail is provided to, and stored by, the Mail Chimp Platform until such time as you opt out.

What we collect and store during a purchase process

While you visit our site, we’ll track:

• Products you’ve viewed: we’ll use this to, for example, show you products you’ve recently viewed
• Location, IP address and browser type: we’ll use this for purposes like estimating taxes and shipping
• Shipping address: we’ll ask you to enter this so we can, for instance, estimate shipping before you place an order, and send you the order!

We’ll also use cookies to keep track of cart contents while you’re browsing our site.

When you purchase from us, we may ask you to provide information including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, credit card/payment details and optional account information like username and password. We’ll use this information for purposes, such as, to:

• Send you information about your account and order
• Respond to your requests, including refunds and complaints
• Process payments and prevent fraud
• Set up your account for our store
• Comply with any legal obligations we have, such as calculating taxes
• Improve our store offerings
• Send you marketing messages, if you choose to receive them

If you create an account, we will store your name, address, email and phone number, which will be used to populate the checkout for future orders.

We generally store information about you for as long as we need the information for the purposes for which we collect and use it, and we are not legally required to continue to keep it. This includes your name, email address and billing and shipping addresses.  Credit card information is not stored in our website databases.  Such information may be stored by our credit card processing service, Stripe according to their policies.

We will also store comments or reviews, if you choose to leave them.

Who on our team has access

Members of our team have access to the information you provide us. For example, both Administrators and Shop Managers can access:

• Order information like what was purchased, when it was purchased and where it should be sent, and
• Customer information like your name, email address, and billing and shipping information.

Our team members have access to this information to help fulfill orders, process refunds and support you.

Members of our Board of Directors have authority to review any documentation held within our records.

Privacy Policy Regarding Users under Age 13

The policies in this section primarily apply to our Photo Adventurers, WOW – Middle School Initiative, and WOW – Homeschooler Participants. The first consists of an animated series and associated educational materials designed for pre-K through 1st or 2nd Graders.  The second program serves 6th through 8th graders, most of whom are likely to fall in the under 13 category.  The Homeschoolers Group may contain children of any age.  Our online social network, The Table Round, includes opportunities for users to post media and comments and questions in various sections and forums.  Other Photo Perspectives Services involve the entities described above.

Why It Matters – COPPA:

COPPA refers to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the associated Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule.  The US Congress passed the law in 1998.  The Federal Trade Commission promulgated regulations and associated amendments shortly thereafter.  While generally exempting nonprofit organizations from the COPPA rules, the Federal Trade Commission strongly recommends nonprofits use the rules as recommendations for best practices.  More information about the Act can be found here.  

Information We Collect:

For the internal operation of our organization, each child’s registration requests the child’s first and last name, a nickname to use, a picture to use as an avatar, and the name and e-mail address of the child’s parent or legal guardian. We ask the parent/legal guardian to provide direction on how they wish to have the child credited for the copyright of the photo for any use in line with our Terms of Service.

Each user possesses the ability to upload photos associated with projects, post questions and comments in their activity feed and on group forums, and interact with other members of their online group.  The author of all such postings are identified in the post by their avatar and user name and are subject to our Terms of Service. 

How We Use Collected Information and Who Has Access:

We do not sell or trade user information in any manner.  The child’s profile information is used to identify progress in any online courses taken, track on site activity for the purpose of providing “badges” or “awards” (e.g., a GIF badge posted to their profile for commenting on X amount of peer posts or reading an educational article), to respond to direct questions, and to provide feedback to the WOW Instructor in the case of our Middle School Initiative.  Parent/guardian names and e-mail are gathered for communication purposes as well as to provide access to their child’s activities.  Parent/guardian use of any other Photo Perspectives Service subjects them to the Privacy Policies and Terms of Service specified herein in general.

Access to child and parent/guardian information is restricted to those providing direct service, those with oversight authority, and those participating in the particular service if a group activity.  Our board of Directors holds oversight responsibilities for our nonprofit and may request access to records for valid reasons associated with such duties.  For our school based programs, the teacher/instructor is given such access as necessary to carry out the functions of the position and monitor and respond to forum posts and other Table Round activity.  Additionally, a School Administrator such as a principal is provided “moderator” status such that he or she can monitor posts for appropriateness and respond to questions or concerns from parents. We will also disclose information held in response to a valid court order issued by a legal entity with jurisdiction.

Further Safeguards:

We restrict visibility of user profile data to the group in which the user is participating.  Member directories are only available to members, instructors, school administrators, and Photo Perspectives staff involved with the specific group.