Privacy policy for Wildlife Insights Service

This Privacy Policy describes how the information that you or the entity or organization you represent (collectively “you” or “your”) provide or make available to the Wildlife Insights web site and platform (collectively the “Service”) located at https://wildlifeinsights.org will be treated. Wildlife Insights (“WI”) is a network of institutions and individuals who support the mission of the Service. WI is led by its core members, who are listed at https://wildlifeinsights.org/about (the “WI Core Members”), The Service is operated by Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences on behalf of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (“Friends”, “we” or “our”), a WI Core Member, on behalf of all the WI Core Members*. This Privacy Policy, along with the Wildlife Insights Terms of Use located at https://wildlifeinsights.org/terms-of-use (the “Terms of Use”), applies to end users of the Service (“Users”) who use or access the Service from any location from which such use or access is authorized under the Terms of Use. By registering on the Service, using the Service, accessing the Service or any data, information or other content thereon (collectively, “Content”) or submitting Content to the Service, you agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy.

*Unless otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy, all references to Friends should be read as Friends acting on behalf of all the WI Core Members.

1. Processing of Personal Information

A. Personal Information we collect

Personal information means any information about a living individual from which that individual can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). All personally identifiable information about you is referred to in this Privacy Policy as “Personal Information”. If you wish to use the Service, you must register and, in doing so, provide Personal Information about yourself. This may include your name, email address, location, age, username, password and password recovery identification information selected by you.

We will also collect information about the computer or device you use to access the Service, including location data such as GPS data and mapped WiFi access points, IP addresses, browsers or hardware or software types and versions, and use such data to provide and personalize the Service to you. Additionally, we may collect, process and use your computer or device content, metadata and connection data as necessary to provide the Service to you, to detect, contain and rectify errors or faults on your computer, device or communication network or to discover, investigate or prevent fraud or criminality.

We may use and process your Personal Information only as described in this Privacy Policy.

B. Use of your Personal Information

We will use your Personal Information to provide the Service to you, including personalization of the Service for you, and to communicate with you. We will make your name and email address available to other Users to facilitate communication among Users. We will share your Personal Information in other manners or with other parties only as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If we wish to share your Personal Information with others for any other reason or in any manner not authorized under this Privacy Policy, we will first request and obtain your separate consent.

We will use your Personal Information as described above on lawful bases, including for the legitimate purposes outlined above, and on the basis of your consent, which you have provided us by registering on the Service. Our processing of your Personal Information as described does not outweigh your rights and freedoms and you have the right at any time to withdraw your consent.

As described in the Terms of Use, we may use third-party service providers, to help us operate the Service. In the case of all such service providers, we will require the provider to agree to adhere to this Privacy Policy regarding any Personal Information it obtains from you.

We may disclose your Personal Information as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena or other judicial, legislative or administrative process, in response to a government request for information or if we believe that disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, protect our operations or security or investigate or report fraud or criminality relating to Friends or to the Service or its mission. In the event of a merger, acquisition or sale of all or a portion of Friends or the Service or the replacement of Friends as the operator of the Service on behalf of the WI Core Members, we may transfer Personal Information to the successor organization, in which case we will announce the event on the Service, as well as describe any choices you may have regarding your Personal Information. We will not give or sell your email address to any persons or entities other than as described in this Privacy Policy.

C. The use of cookies or other technologies in connection with Personal Information

We will place our “cookies” on your device to digitally personalize your Service use. Cookies track your preferences, login credentials and traffic and browsing patterns, and may be permanent or temporary. We may also use other technologies (e.g. web beacons) to track your use of the Service. We will not share any Personal Information we obtain via cookies other than as described in this Privacy Policy. You are not required to accept our cookies, and you can change your computer, device or browser settings to disable them, but functionality of the Service may be limited if you do not accept our cookies.

2. PROCESSING OF NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION

A. Non-personal information the Service collects

We collect all of the wildlife monitoring and other data that you submit or make available to the Service during your use of the Service but that is not Personal Information, including the specific pages, features or Content you access within the Service, the length of time you use specific Service features and the third-party web pages or applications from which you are referred to the Service (collectively “Non-Personal Information”).

B. Your Non-Personal Information

We may process, reproduce, translate and otherwise use your Non-Personal Information for the purpose of administering the Service, providing the Service to you, customizing your Service use experience, analyzing the use of the Service, maintaining the security of the Service and improving or updating the Service. We may combine your Non-Personal Information with other information and use such information in combined form, but in all cases only as described in this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use. As authorized under the Terms of Use, we may use your Non-Personal Information, alone or with third-party sub-licensees, to develop or improve computer vision models for the purpose of advancing technology related to conservation, including training relating to the use of such models. In the case of such uses with a third-party sub-licensee, the sub-licensee will be authorized to use your information only for such purpose.

C. Web site and other analytics within the Service

We may perform analytics regarding the use of the Service, to improve the performance of the Service and to troubleshoot problems. If we perform such analytics through the use of third-party sub-licensees (e.g. Google Analytics), the sub-licensee will be authorized to use your information only for such purpose.

3. MANAGEMENT AND PROTECTION OF INFORMATION

A. Protecting Personal Information

We maintain appropriate and reasonable administrative, physical, and technical measures to protect your Personal Information. We restrict access to only those persons who need to know the Personal Information in question to provide the Service to you and any other persons that you have authorized to have access to your Personal Information. We use Secure Sockets Layer (“SSL”) encryption on all Service web pages where Personal Information is collected. You must use an SSL-enabled browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox or Chrome) or device to submit Personal Information to the Service or to Friends via the web.

The internet is a global environment. By using the Service, you consent to trans- border and international transmissions of your Personal Information to servers located anywhere in the world, including but not limited to the United States.

B. Third-party postings and links

As authorized under the Terms of Use, Friends may post Content you submit to the Service to social media accounts for the Service. Your Personal Information will not be posted by Friends to social media accounts for the Service. If other Content you submit to the Service is posted by Friends to social media accounts for the Service, the use of such Content thereon will be governed by the terms, conditions and privacy policies of the respective social media platforms.

The Service may include links to, or may interact with, third-party web sites or services. Any such links or interactions are provided only as a convenience and do not imply endorsement of such sites or services. Friends is not responsible for the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties operating web sites or services to which the Service links or with which the Service interacts.

C. Retaining your information

We delete your Personal Information and Non-Personal Information as soon as the information is no longer necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, unless we retain the information to comply with applicable law or retain a copy of the information following disclosure of it as permitted under Section 1(B) hereof. Except for Personal Information we retain for the foregoing reasons, we will delete your Personal Information upon your request made on our “Contact Us” page at https://wildlifeinsights.org/contactor via email to info@wildlifeinsights.orgPlease note that, as described in the Terms of Use, fulfilling the purposes for which your information was collected may include retention and certain uses of such information even after your User account is terminated.

4. Do not track Signals

Friends does not track Users over time and across third-party web sites to provide targeted advertising and therefore does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

5. CALIFORNIA SERVICE USERS

For California (USA) Service Users Only: Friends does not authorize the collection of Personal Information through advertising technologies without separate User consent. We do not disclose Personal Information to third parties for direct marketing by or on behalf of such third parties.

6. EU AND UK SERVICE USERS

For European Union and United Kingdom Service Users Only: In accordance with applicable law, you are entitled to know what Personal Information we hold about you and you may ask us to make any necessary corrections to ensure that it is accurate and kept up to date. Under applicable law, you also have the right to request deletion of your Personal Information or to object to the processing of your Personal Information. If you wish to exercise your rights, please use our “Contact Us” page at https://wildlifeinsights.org/contact or send an email to info@wildlifeinsights.org. In the event you are not satisfied with how Friends processes your Personal Information or with the services that enable you to exercise your rights as outlined in this Section 6, then you have the right to address a complaint to the relevant competent supervisory authority. Friends is based in the United States. Please be aware that if you submit Content or information to us, it may be stored on servers outside the EU or UK, including in the United States.

7. ADDITIONAL HELP

A. Correcting errors in your Personal Information

You can modify your User registration data through the Service’s profile settings. If you need help or would like us to correct your information, please use our “Contact Us” page at https://wildlifeinsights.org/contact or send an email to info@wildlifeinsights.org.

B. Amending or updating this Privacy Policy

We may amend or update all or any portion of this Privacy Policy at any time. Please check the Service periodically for possible amendments or updates. If we make material revisions, we will post an announcement on the Service or inform you in an email. The current version of the Privacy Policy, with the date of last revision, can be found at https://wildlifeinsights.org/privacy-policy. A revision to this Privacy Policy is binding on you unless you terminate your User account and stop using the Service.

C. Communications regarding this Privacy Policy

For all communications with Friends regarding this Privacy Policy, please send a message in English from our “Contact Us” page at https://wildlifeinsights.org/contact or send an email in English to info@wildlifeinsights.org.

© 2019 Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, 11 W Jones St, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27601, USA, on behalf of Wildlife Insights and the WI Core Members

Date of last revision of this Privacy Policy: June 13, 2023