The Social Science Research Council (“we” or “us” or “our”) respects the privacy of our users (“user” or “you”). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you visit our website, www.ssrc.org, including any other media form, media channel, mobile website, or mobile application related or connected thereto (collectively, the “Site”). This Privacy Policy applies regardless of how you access the Site – whether by personal computers, mobile devices or otherwise.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. BY VISITING THE SITE, YOU CONSENT TO OUR USING ANY INFORMATION THAT YOU PROVIDE TO US OR THAT WE COLLECT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS POLICY, DO NOT VISIT OR USE THIS SITE.

GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (EU)

The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) is a European Regulation concerning the use and processing of personal information. We are committed to processing your information in compliance with the GDPR.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. If and when we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will provide you with notice as appropriate under the circumstances by displaying a prominent notice within the Site or by sending you an email (if we have your email address). Please be sure to read any such notice carefully. You can tell that this Policy has been updated by checking the last revised date posted on the top of this page. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes to this Privacy Policy will mean that you accept those changes. Any changes or modifications will be effective immediately upon posting the updated Privacy Policy on the Site.

COLLECTION OF YOUR INFORMATION

We may collect information about you in a variety of ways. The information we may collect on the Site includes:

Personal Data

Personally identifiable information, such as your name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number, and demographic information, such as your age, gender, and interests, that you voluntarily give to us when you register with the Site (such as for grant applications, employment applications, program activities, or events) or when you choose to participate in various activities related to the Site (such as for email newsletter sign-up forms or surveys). You are under no obligation to provide us with personal information of any kind and you may visit and browse the information on the Site regardless of whether you furnish personal information. However, your refusal to provide personal information may prevent you from using certain features of the Site.

Derivative Data

Information our servers automatically collect when you access the Site, such as your IP address, your browser type, your operating system, your access times, and the pages you have viewed directly before and after accessing the Site.

Financial Data

Financial information, such as data related to your payment method (e.g., valid credit card number, card brand, expiration date) that we may collect when you submit an online donation. We store only very limited, if any, financial information that we collect. Otherwise, all financial information is stored by our payment processor, Authorize.net. You are encouraged to review their privacy policy and contact them directly with any questions.

USE OF YOUR INFORMATION

Having accurate information about you permits us to provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized experience and further contributes to our charitable mission. Specifically, we may use information collected about you via the Site to:

  • Create and manage your account.
  • Compile anonymous statistical data and analysis for use internally or with third parties.
  • Email you regarding your account.
  • Enable user-to-user communications.
  • Increase the efficiency and operation of the Site.
  • Notify you of updates to the Site.
  • Monitor and analyze usage and trends to improve your experience with the Site.
  • Manage our organization.
  • Request feedback and contact you about your use of the Site.
  • Resolve disputes and troubleshoot problems.
  • Send you newsletters, mailings, and information about programs, initiatives, activities, and events by email or another medium.

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

In connection with our charitable mission or for other lawful purposes, we may share information we have collected about you in certain situations. Your information may be disclosed as follows:

By Law or to Protect Rights

If we believe the release of information about you is necessary to respond to legal process, to investigate or remedy potential violations of our policies (including this Privacy Policy), or to protect the rights, property, and safety of others, we may share your information as permitted or required by any applicable law, rule, or regulation.

In Connection With Our Fellowship Programs

Our fellowship and grant programs are funded from grants or under agreements of cooperation with outside foundations. Applications for fellowships and grants are reviewed by teams of outside reviewers during the peer review process to determine the finalists and awardees. Specific application materials – including personal information included therein – may be shared, in whole or in part, with outside reviewers during the peer review process and with program funders for evaluation or other program-related purposes.

With Third-Party Service Providers

We will not sell your information or provide it to third parties for financial gain. In fact, we only share your personal information when such sharing genuinely furthers our charitable mission. We may share your information with third parties that perform services for us or on our behalf, including payment processing, data analysis, email delivery, hosting services, customer service, and marketing assistance.

Some of the third party service providers with whom we work include:

  • Google Analytics – We use Google Analytics to analyze and track users’ use of the Site, determine the popularity of certain content, and better understand online activity. For further details, please see Google’s privacy policy at: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=us

TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES

Cookies and Web Beacons

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on the Site and hold certain information.

Cookies are files with small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Tracking technologies also used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our Site.

You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of the Site.

Examples of cookies we use:

  • Session Cookies. We use session cookies to operate our Site.
  • Preference Cookies. We use preference cookies to remember your preferences and various settings.
  • Security Cookies. We use security cookies for security purposes.

Website Analytics

We may also partner with selected third-party vendors, such as Google Analytics, to allow tracking technologies and remarketing services on the Site through the use of first-party cookies and third-party cookies, to, among other things, analyze and track users’ use of the Site, determine the popularity of certain content, and better understand online activity. By accessing the Site, you consent to the collection and use of your information by these third-party vendors. You are encouraged to review their privacy policies and contact them directly for responses to your questions. We do not transfer personal information to these third-party vendors.

You should be aware that getting a new computer, installing a new browser, upgrading an existing browser, or erasing or otherwise altering your browser’s cookie files may also clear certain opt-out cookies, plug-ins, or settings.

THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES

The Site may contain links to third-party websites and applications of interest that are not affiliated with us. Once you have used these links to leave the Site, any information you provide to these third parties is not covered by this Privacy Policy, and we cannot guarantee the safety and privacy of your information. Before visiting and providing any information to any third-party websites, you should inform yourself of the privacy policies and practices (if any) of the third party responsible for that website, and should take the steps necessary to, at your discretion, protect the privacy of your information. We are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of any third parties, including other sites, services or applications that may be linked to or from the Site.

SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION

We use administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your personal information. While we have taken reasonable steps to secure the personal information you provide to us, please be aware that despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse. Any information disclosed online is vulnerable to interception and misuse by unauthorized parties. Therefore, we cannot guarantee complete security if you provide personal information. We encourage you to take all appropriate security measures when providing us with personal information – such as using and limiting access to your credit card and banking information and access to your computers, personal electronic devices and web browsers.

RETENTION OF YOUR INFORMATION

We keep your personal information only as long as necessary to support our charitable mission. As set forth above, you have various rights with respect to the retention of your personal information, including, but not limited to, the right to request that we delete your information (by writing to us at the physical address or email address supplied below). We will honor your request, unless we are legally allowed or required to maintain your personal information – such as to (a) process any outstanding or unresolved charitable donation, (b) meet our legal, tax, audit or accounting obligations, (c) comply with legal process or court order, and/or (d) protect the rights, property, security or safety of others; (e) respond to an emergency and/or (f) confirm your identity.

POLICY FOR CHILDREN

The Site is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 13 without the supervision of a parent or guardian, and we do not knowingly solicit information from or market to children under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, (or otherwise under the applicable age limit of your country), please do not submit any personally identifiable information to us. You may rely on your parent or guardian to assist you. If you are a parent of a child under the applicable age limit for consent in your country and become aware that your child has provided personal information to us, please contact us so that we can either (a) gain your consent to the collection of the personal information or (b) receive your instructions to delete the personal information. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child without the consent of a parent or guardian, we will take all reasonable steps to delete the information in the absence of contrary written instruction from such parent or guardian.

CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems include a Do-Not-Track (“DNT”) feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. No uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this Privacy Policy.

OPTIONS REGARDING YOUR INFORMATION

Your Rights and Preferences Under the GDPR

We are committed to honoring your right to privacy. With this in mind, it is important that we inform you of certain rights that may be available to you under the GDPR (if you are a resident of the European Union) with respect to the personal information that you provide to us.

  • Right of Access – your right to be informed of and request access to your personal information;
  • Right to Rectification – your right to request that we amend or update your personal information where it is inaccurate or incomplete;
  • Right to Erasure – your right to request that we delete your personal information;
  • Right to Restrict – your right to request that we temporarily or permanently stop processing all or some of your personal information;
  • Right to Object – your right to object to your personal information being processed for direct marketing purposes;
  • Right to Data Portability – your right to request a copy of your personal information in electronic format and the corresponding right to transmit that personal information for use elsewhere; and
  • Right not to be Subject to Automated Decision-Making – the right to not be subject to a decision based solely on automated decision making, including profiling, where the decision would have a legal effect on you or produce a similarly significant effect.

It is important that you understand these rights and know that you are free to exercise each of them with respect to your personal information. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us as described below. In your request, please indicate (a) what personal information is concerned, and (b) which of the above rights you would like to enforce.

Account Information

Regardless of whether GDPR applies, you may at any time review or change the information in your account or terminate your account by:

  • Contacting us using the contact information provided below.
  • Managing your contact information via our webform on www.ssrc.org.

Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, some information may be retained in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our Terms of Use and/or comply with legal requirements.

Emails and Communications

If you no longer wish to receive correspondence, emails, or other communications from us, you may opt out by:

  • Contacting us using the contact information provided below.
  • Managing your subscription preferences via our webform on www.ssrc.org.

If you no longer wish to receive correspondence, emails, or other communications from third parties, you are responsible for contacting the third party directly.

CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine the Light” law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared personal information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us using the contact information provided below.

If you are under 18 years of age, reside in California, and have a registered account with the Site, you have the right to request removal of unwanted data that you publicly post on the Site. To request removal of such data, please contact us using the contact information provided below, and include the email address associated with your account and a statement that you reside in California. We will make sure the data is not publicly displayed on the Site, but please be aware that the data may not be completely or comprehensively removed from our systems.

CONTACT US

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or wish to access, update, correct or delete any of your personal information, please contact us at:

Social Science Research Council
1 Pierrepont Plaza
15th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201
United States
Phone: (212) 377-2700
Email: communications@ssrc.org

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