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Privacy Policy

Effective Date: May 25, 2018
Last Updated: August 1, 2019

Overview

Thank you for reviewing the Science History Institute’s website privacy policy. The Science History Institute respects your privacy and does not collect personally identifiable information about visitors to our websites except as described in this privacy policy. This privacy policy offers an explanation of what data we collect and how we use it. It also gives you a means to “opt out” of providing certain personally identifiable information.

Please read this privacy policy in its entirety.

Disclaimer

The Science History Institute is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Our websites offer public access to a wide range of material, which is intended to be educational and informational. We make every effort to ensure the material on these websites is accurate. However, if you discover any material containing errors, you may contact us at [email protected].

This privacy policy applies only to the Science History Institute’s websites. It does not apply to the websites of other organizations to which we link.

Information Collected Automatically

When you visit the Science History Institute’s websites, the following information is collected automatically as part of website operations:

  • Device information: We collect information about the browser, operating system, and screen resolution of the device that you use to access or use our websites.
  • Location information: We collect information about your location, such as general information (e.g., IP address) and more specific information (e.g., your language, city, and country, as reported by your browser).
  • Usage information: We collect information, such as the name of the website that referred you to us (the last website you visited before ours); the date and time you access our websites and the duration of your visit; whether it is your first or a repeat visit to our websites; navigational information, including the pages, files, documents, and links you visit; and the name of the domain or service provider from which you accessed our websites.

This information enables us to improve the overall design, use, and performance of our websites. This information is collected and used in the aggregate only and is not used to contact you personally.

Personally Identifiable Information

Personally identifiable information is any information that relates to an identified person or information that, together with other information, may identify a person. Below we describe the types of personally identifiable information that we collect, how that information is used, and the legal basis for the collection of such information.

On some occasions we may ask you to provide personally identifiable information on online forms. Providing information on online forms is always voluntary, and you are free not to complete any online forms. If you choose not to complete the forms, however, some products and services may not be available to you.

  • Contact information: We ask for your full name, telephone number, email address, postal address, or other information to register for events and programs online. 
  • Payment information: We ask for your payment card information or other personally identifiable information to fulfill licensing transactions or to receive products or services. We will also collect payment information if you choose to make a donation to the Science History Institute.
  • Survey information: We also ask you about your age, hobbies, income, gender, or other information to participate in surveys or other online activities.
  • Donor information: If you choose to make a donation to the Science History Institute, we will collect information that is necessary to process your transaction. This includes your name, billing address, telephone number, email address, and transaction history with the Science History Institute. We additionally collect any information that you choose to provide with your donation, such as the name of the person your donation is honoring and any comments that you send us.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information that we collect to

  • Process your donations;
  • Send you information about your relationship or transactions with us;
  • Process and respond to your inquiries;
  • Contact you with information that we believe will be of interest to you, such as special events and promotions, new products or services, or other information;
  • Generate and review reports and data about our donors and website users;
  • Perform analytics and research aimed at improving the accuracy, effectiveness, usability, or popularity of our websites;
  • Improve the content and features of our websites or develop new content and features;
  • Solicit donations from potential donors;
  • Enforce the legal terms that govern your use of our websites;
  • Administer and troubleshoot our websites; and
  • Use for the specific purpose for which you provide information, which will be disclosed at the time you provide the information.

How Long We Retain Your Personally Identifiable Information

We will retain your personally identifiable information for a period after you stop using our websites or making donations, or to the extent that we are obliged to retain your information in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and/or as necessary to protect our legal rights or for certain business requirements. There may be no time limit to this policy.

Please note that even if you request that we delete your information, deletion by our third-party providers may not be immediate, and the deleted information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period. Further, information that has already been shared with third parties may not be deleted by them.

How We Share Your Information

We share your information with third-party service providers and with social media platforms to meet our legal obligations, to protect our rights and those of third parties, and in the event we are involved in a liquidation or reorganization. Specifically, we may share your information with

  • Third-party service providers that provide certain services related to our websites;
  • Eventbrite to process registrations for events and programs;
  • Blackbaud to process payment for donations;
  • Social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Vimeo, to engage audiences and promote content;
  • Third parties in response to any subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process we receive; to establish or exercise our legal rights; or to defend against legal claims;
  • Third parties, such as law enforcement, government agencies, courts, and/or other organizations, when we believe in good faith that a disclosure is appropriate in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding possible violations of this privacy policy and/or to protect the rights and property of the Science History Institute, our employees, our users, and the public;
  • Third parties, such as law enforcement, government agencies, courts, and/or other organizations, when we believe in good faith that a disclosure is appropriate in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding possible illegal activities, suspected fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person; and
  • Third parties in connection with any proposed or actual merger, reorganization, transfer of control, sale of some or all of our assets, or financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our organization by another company.

Our Legal Bases for Processing and Sharing Your Information

We process your information and share it with third parties for the purposes described in this policy, based on the following legal grounds:

  • With your consent: We ask for your consent to process or share your information for specific purposes, and you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. For example, we ask for your consent to provide you with promotional information. We also ask for your consent to collect information through surveys.
  • For our legitimate interests: We process and share your information for our legitimate interests and those of third parties while applying appropriate safeguards that protect your privacy. For example, we process and share your information in order to help us
    • Provide, maintain, and improve our websites;
    • Perform analytics and research aimed at improving the accuracy, effectiveness, usability, or popularity of our websites;
    • Improve the content and features of our websites or develop new content and features;
    • Solicit and process donations to help further our cause;
    • Promote website content;
    • Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, abuse, security, or technical issues with our websites;
    • Protect against harm to the rights, property, or safety of the Science History Institute, our users, or the public as required or permitted by law; and
    • Enforce legal claims, including investigation of potential violations of applicable privacy policy.
  • To fulfill our contractual obligations: We process and share your data to provide a service you have requested under a contract. For example, we process your payment information when you agree to donate to the Science History Institute.
  • To comply with legal obligations: We process and share your data when we have a legal obligation to do so, for example, if we’re responding to legal process or an enforceable governmental request.

Transfer of Personally Identifiable Information outside the European Union

Personally identifiable information captured on our websites may be transferred to or processed at destinations outside the EU. Such destinations may include those not subject to the same data privacy provisions required in EU countries. Our websites transfer your personally identifiable information with your consent in order to provide you with the services you have requested. We will take necessary measures to ensure that your personally identifiable information is processed safely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

About Cookies

When you visit our websites, we or our third-party providers place a text file called a “cookie” in the browser directory of your computer’s hard drive. These may be session cookies, which expire once you close your browser, or persistent cookies, which stay on your device for a set period or until you delete them. We use these cookies to support the functionality of our website, including adjustments to content. Below is more detail about the types of cookies that we use:

  • Required: These cookies are required for the functioning of our websites and may be used to implement security features or embed video or sound files.
  • Functional: These cookies record some of your activity on our websites as well as information about your device, such as what browser you are running and what pages you access. This information helps us and our third-party service providers diagnose server and software errors and, in cases of abuse, track and mitigate the abuse.
  • Analytics: Our service providers, including Google Analytics, use cookies as part of their tools. These cookies allow our service providers and us to recognize and count the number of users of our websites, see how they interact with our websites and different functions, and determine how to improve our websites.

Other cookies that we use are described below:

  • Google Analytics: We use a tool called Google Analytics to collect some information we listed above about your use of our websites. We use the information we get from Google Analytics to improve our websites. In order to collect this information Google Analytics may set cookies on your browser or mobile device or read cookies that are already there. Google Analytics may also receive information about you from apps you have downloaded that partner with Google. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to our websites with other websites that partner with Google is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. Please review those for information about how Google uses the information collected through Google Analytics and how you can control the information collected by Google.
  • ShareThis: ShareThis facilitates the sharing of online content on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Email, Digg, and Reddit. ShareThis may also use the information it collects to present you with targeted advertising.
  • Facebook Pixel: Facebook Pixel allows us to track the effectiveness of our ads and send targeted advertising to the visitors of our websites.
  • Crazy Egg and HotJar: Crazy Egg and HotJar generate “heat maps” based on our visitors’ activities on our websites, so that we can optimize our interactions with our visitors.
  • New Relic: New Relic provides application performance monitoring and performance analytics, so that we can improve our websites.

Opting Out of Tracking and Email Communications

  • Opting out of cookies: You may set your browser to decline cookies. However, if you elect to decline cookies, some pages of our websites may not display properly. You are free to delete cookies after your session, and your browser should contain instructions on how to do this. For cookies that track activity in connection with sending targeting advertising, you can opt-out of many of these third party targeting cookies through the Digital Advertising Alliance’s consumer choice page (http://optout.aboutads.info), the Network Advertising Initiative’s consumer choice page (http://optout.networkadvertising.org), or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance consumer choice page (https://youronlinechoices.eu).
  • Google Analytics: To prevent your information from being used by Google Analytics, you can download the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on for Google Analytics that can be found here.
  • ShareThis: You can opt out of the automatic retention of data collected through your browser by ShareThis by visiting their Privacy Policy and clicking on the button to opt out.
  • Facebook Pixel: You can control how Facebook displays targeted ads by changing your ad settings within Facebook. 
  • Crazy Egg: You can opt of tracking by Crazy Egg by following the instructions found here.
  • HotJar: You can opt of tracking by HotJar by following the instructions found here.
  • New Relic: You can opt out of tracking New Relic by setting your browser to decline cookies as described above. 
  • Email communications: When you provide your email address while making a gift, registering for an event, requesting our print magazine, or signing up for our mailing list, we may begin sending you marketing messages through our email service provider, Constant Contact. If you do not want to receive promotional information from the Science History Institute, simply follow the SafeUnsubscribe or Update Profile links at the end of any email. You can also opt out at any time by sending an email with your full name and email address to [email protected] or by contacting us via the following postal address: Development, Science History Institute, 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Please state in your message that you no longer wish to receive promotional information from the Science History Institute. Please note that if you opt out of promotional messages, we may still send you messages about your transactions.

Security

The Science History Institute uses software to maintain the security of our website. All credit card information provided will be encrypted and secured in compliance with current Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. We also monitor traffic to protect against unauthorized attempts to access or change the information available on our websites.

Embedded Plug-Ins, Widgets, and Links to Other Websites

Our websites contain embedded applications, widgets, plug-ins, and links to other websites, such as YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, and Mixcloud. These third parties may use cookies or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our websites. The information they collect may be associated with your personally identifiable information or they may collect information, including personally identifiable information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. For information on how to opt out of such tracking, see the “Opting Out of Tracking and Email Communications” section above. 

The websites to which we link may have different privacy policies and practices from those disclosed here. We assume no responsibility for the policies or practices of linked websites and encourage you to become acquainted with them.

“Do-Not-Track” Disclosure Requirements

Our websites do not recognize or respond to browser-initiated Do Not Track signals.

Children

We do not intend to either solicit or collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 16. If you are under 16, you should not use or enter information on our websites.

EU Data Subject Rights

If EU data-protection laws apply to our processing of your personally identifiable information, you have the right to access, correct, amend, or delete personal information about you that we hold. A list of these rights is below.

You may access your account to view, correct, or delete information about you and information that is associated with your account. For instructions on accessing your information or for assistance with these rights contact our database administrator, Joshua Balascak, at [email protected] or 215.873.8204, or via the following postal address: Development, Science History Institute, 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106.

In the event that we refuse a request under rights of access, we will provide the individual with the reason for such refusal. Individuals in the EU have the right to complain as outlined below:

  • Right of access: You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.
  • Right of rectification: You have the right to have information that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete corrected.
  • Right to be forgotten: In certain limited circumstances you have the right to request that we erase from our records the information that we hold about you.
  • Right to restriction of processing: In certain limited circumstances you have the right to restrict the processing of your information.
  • Right to withdraw consent: If you have provided consent for the processing of your information, you have the right (in certain circumstances) to withdraw that consent at any time, which will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before your consent was withdrawn.
  • Right of portability: In certain limited circumstances you have the right to have the information we hold about you transferred to another organization.
  • Right to object: You have the right to object to certain types of processing of your information, such as direct marketing (to the extent applicable).
  • Right to object to automated processing, including profiling: You have the right not to be subject to the legal effects of automated processing or profiling. 
  • Right to lodge a complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe that we have not complied with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with regard to your personally identifiable information.

Questions or Concerns

If you have any questions or concerns about how we process your information, please let us know by sending an email to [email protected] or by contacting us via the following postal address: Science History Institute, 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change the terms of this privacy policy at any time but will not do so without posting the revised policy on our websites. We encourage you to review this privacy policy whenever you visit our websites to make sure you understand how we use the information we collect. For certain revisions that materially expand the ways in which we use or share the information previously collected from you, we will either display an alert next to the privacy policy or otherwise on our websites in advance of and/or concurrently with the changes taking effect, or we will directly communicate with you in advance of the changes.