Privacy Policy

The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce knows that your privacy is important to you, and we want you to know that it is important to us too.

Don't forget that LGBT Business Enterprise certification ® fees are waived when you join your local affiliate chamber.

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To demonstrate our commitment to the privacy of your personal information, we have developed this policy, which discloses our privacy practices for the personal information we collect through this Web Site. It is meant to explain the types of information we collect through our Web sites on which it is posted (including mobile optimized versions of our Web sites) and the various social networking platforms that we use (each, a “Site”), how we will use, disclose and protect this information once it is collected, and how you can opt-out of some of our uses and disclosures of your information. 

BY USING THE WEB SITE YOU AGREE AND CONSENT TO OUR USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AS DESCRIBED IN THIS POLICY, WHICH IS INCORPORATED INTO AND SUBJECT TO OUR WEB SITE TERMS OF USE.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH AND CONSENT TO OUR USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AS DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY, PLEASE DO NOT PROVIDE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO US THROUGH THIS WEB SITE.

Here are a few general principles to keep in mind as you read through this Policy:

  • The Site is owned and operated by the NGLCC (referred to in this policy as “we,” “us,” “our” and other similar pronouns). 
     
  • As our business evolves, this Policy may change, so check back to this page periodically to make sure you understand how your Personal Information will be treated.
     
  • This Policy does not apply to information that you may provide to us, or that we may obtain, other than through our Site, such as over the phone, by mail, or in person.
     
  • IF YOU ARE LOCATED OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES, YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT THE INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE TO US IS BEING TRANSMITTED TO US AND PROCESSED IN THE UNITED STATES AND WILL BE PROTECTED SUBJECT TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND UNITED STATES LAWS, WHICH MAY NOT BE AS PROTECTIVE AS THE LAWS IN YOUR COUNTRY.  ALSO, THIS SITE PLACES COOKIES AND LOCAL SHARED OBJECTS ON YOUR COMPUTER OR DEVICE WHICH ARE FURTHER DESCRIBED BELOW.  BY USING THE SITE, YOU AGREE TO THIS.

Opt-Out

You may have the right to opt-out of certain of our uses and disclosures of your Personal Information.  For example, when you provide Personal Information on this Site, you may be included in data sent to our teaming partners unless you elect to opt-out. 

User-Provided Information

Users may browse through the informational portion of our Web Site without providing us with any personal information. However, if you request information or materials from us, we may ask for your contact information, such as your name, email address, company name, address, and phone number. In addition, we may collect personal information from you when you send us emails or submit other forms of information directly to us. We may also collect personal information from you at other points on our Web Site that state that personal information is being collected.

Our Web Site contains secure pages, which are only accessible by our Stakeholders – Corporate Members, Certified LGBTBE ®, Affiliate Partner Organizations, and Team NGLCC.  Only our stakeholders in good standing are able to access the secure pages of our site.

To receive some information, you are required to complete a registration form. This registration form may ask you to enter certain personal information. This information will be compiled into a profile. Such information may include at least the following: name, address, email address, company name, phone number, and work address.  You may visit this site anonymously.

NGLCC owns this Web Site and the personal information collected through this Web Site. We collect information from you when you subscribe to our newsletter, respond to a survey or fill out a form.  We may outsource to a third party the hosting and operation of the Web Site. However, such third parties do not and will not have any ownership interest in the personal information collected or any right to use the personal information apart from the operation of the Web Site. NGLCC is not responsible for the privacy practices of any third parties.

“Personal information” is information that would allow someone to identify or contact you, including, for example, your full name, address, and telephone number, and/or email address. Personal information does not include aggregated information that, by itself, does not permit the identification of any one individual.  We collect Personal Information such as your name; company name; postal addresses; e-mail addresses; telephone numbers; fax numbers; gender; application information; and demographic information. 

Site Usage Information

We use the personal information collected through this Web Site to administer and deliver our services and programs. In connection with the delivery of our services and programs, we may share the personal information with third-party partners or vendors who help deliver or administer the services and programs, but they are only permitted to use the information in connection with the delivery or administration of our services and programs.

We may also use the personal information collected through the Web Site to provide you with information or newsletters related to our services and programs, and to promote our services and programs to you or your company as listed in your profile. This may include sending you information and promotions via email, postal mail, fax, or telephone calls. However, for information that we have collected through your voluntary participation in an online customer survey to obtain your suggestions or comments about NGLCC’s services or programs, we use such information only for the purpose for which it was collected. We will not use such survey information for direct marketing or disclosure to other companies.

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:

  • To improve client services (your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs)
  • To respond to general inquiries, administer a contest, take a survey or other site feature
  • To send periodic emails
  • The email address you provide may be used to send you information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests

We also use personal information on an aggregated basis for a variety of purposes, including operating and enhancing our Web Site and our services and programs, internal marketing research, and management reporting. We reserve the right to use and disclose this aggregated information to third parties for any purpose. Aggregate information will not identify any one specific individual.

As is the case with many Web sites, our servers automatically collect your IP address when you visit our Site, and we may associate that with your domain name or that of your Internet access provider.  If you visit a mobile optimized version of the Site, we may receive data from or about the mobile phone or devices that you use to access the Site, including type of device and mobile carrier.  We may also capture certain “clickstream data” pertaining to your Site usage.  Clickstream data includes, for example, information about your computer or device, Web browser and operating system and their settings, the referring page that linked you to the Site, the pages, content or ads you see or click on during your visit and when and for how long you do so, the next Web site you visit when you leave the Site, and any search terms you have entered on the Site or a referral site.  This information enables us to generate analytics reports on the usage of our Site.  

In addition, we may deploy various tracking technologies on the Site to collect additional information about your Site visits.  For example:

  • Cookies are small data files stored on your computer or device at the request of a Web site.  A cookie assigns a unique numerical identifier to your Web browser, and may enable us to recognize you as the same user who was at our Site in the past, and relate your use of the Site to other information about you, such as your Site Usage Information and Personal Information.  Cookies may be used to enhance your experience on the Site (for example, by storing your username so you can log in easily, keeping you logged into the Site after you have provided your password, and storing the contents of your shopping cart as you browse) or to collect general usage and aggregated statistical information and detect and prevent fraud.  Most browsers can be set to detect cookies and give you an opportunity to reject them, but refusing cookies may, in some cases, inhibit or preclude your use of the Site or its features.  To learn more about the use of cookies, including how to manage or delete them, click here.    
     
  • HTML5 (the language some Web sites are coded in) may be used to store information on your computer or device about your Site usage activities.  This information can be retrieved by us to determine how our Site is being used by our visitors, how it can be improved, and to customize it for our users.
     
  • A pixel tag (also known as a “clear GIF” or “web beacon”) is a tiny image – typically just one-pixel – that can be placed on a Web page or in our electronic communications to you in order to help us measure the effectiveness of our content by, for example, counting the number of individuals who visit us online or verifying whether you’ve opened one of our e-mails or seen one of our Web pages.

By using our Web Site, you consent to our use of these tracking technologies as described above.

Do-Not-Track Disclosures

Some Web browsers may transmit “do-not-track” (DNT) signals to the Web sites with which the user communicates.  Because of differences in how Web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them.  Because there currently is no industry standard concerning what, if anything, Web sites should do when they receive such signals, we currently do not change our tracking practices (which are explained in more detail under the Site Usage Information section above) in response to DNT settings in your Web browser.  If and when a final standard is established and accepted, we will reassess how to respond to these signals.

In the event we need to investigate or resolve possible problems or inquiries, we can, and you authorize us to, disclose any information about you to private entities, law enforcement or other government officials as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate.

Our third party partners, such as ad networks, Web analytics companies and social media and networking platforms, collect information about your online activities over time and across our Site and other online properties.  These third parties do not change their tracking practices in response to DNT settings in your Web browser and we do not obligate these parties to honor DNT settings.  We utilize Google Analytics for our Web analytics and you can opt-out from your data being used by Google Analytics by visiting https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.  To opt-out of internet-based behavioral advertising, visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices or http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices.

How is your information used?

We or our service providers may use the information we collect from and about you to perform the following business functions:

  • enabling users to use our Site and its features
  • administering the Site and your account with us
  • responding to your requests, questions, and concerns
  • market research
  • developing new features and offerings on the Site
  • protecting our rights and property 
  • customizing our Site to your interests and history with us
  • other purposes disclosed when personal information is submitted to us
  • otherwise for research and development, analytics, and to improve, enhance and develop new products, services and other offerings

To perform the above functions, we may match information collected from you through different means or at different times, including both Personal Information and Site Usage Information, and use such information along with information obtained from other sources (including third parties) such as demographic information and updated contact information. 

We or our service providers may also use your information to assess the level of interest in, and use of, the Site, our e-mails and our other messaging campaigns both on an individual basis and in the aggregate. 

Social Networking

We maintain presence on several social networking and blogging platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.  We also incorporate some third party social networking features onto our Site that allow you to share and/or publicly post content or information from our Site to your profile on a third party social network.  Through these platforms and features, we receive some Personal Information and some Site Usage Information about you, and this Privacy Policy applies to that information as well.  In addition, third party social networking platforms and blogging platforms have their own privacy policies which explain how the third parties that provide them will use and protect your information.  If you choose to use the third party social networking features on our Site, we may suggest language for you to post on your social network (such as “John Smith read our U.S. Chamber Blog”).

Do we share Personal Information and Site Usage Information with others?

Yes.  We may share the information we collect on the Site with others for a variety of reasons.  In addition to the kinds of information sharing you might expect, such as sharing with third parties who need your information in order to provide services to us (or on our behalf) and sharing what you voluntarily post to public areas on the Site with other Site users, we may share your information:

  • with our affiliates
  • when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or property, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud or respond to a government, judicial or other legal request, or to comply with the law 
  • in connection with a corporate change or dissolution, including for example a merger, acquisition, reorganization, consolidation, bankruptcy, liquidation, sale of assets or wind down of business

In addition, we may share non-personally identifiable Site Usage Information (including aggregate data) with others, for their own use, in a form that does not include your name or contact information.

Your Access Rights

Security

While we endeavor to protect the security and integrity of sensitive Personal Information collected via this Site, due to the inherent nature of the Internet as an open global communications vehicle, we cannot guarantee that any information, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our system or otherwise in our care, will be absolutely safe from intrusion by others, such as hackers. 

If you correspond with us by e-mail or using Web forms like a “contact us” feature on our Site, you should be aware that your transmission might not be secure.  A third party could view the information you send in transit by such means.  We will have no liability for disclosure of your information due to errors or unauthorized acts of third parties during or after transmission.

We have established, and we maintain, reasonable security procedures to protect the confidentiality, security and integrity of your personal information. We use encryption, Secure Socket Layers, and firewalls, and we implement off-line efforts to further protect this information, including limiting employee access to personal information and updating our employees regarding our security practices and privacy policies. However, please recognize that “perfect security” does not exist on the Internet. Due to the inherently open and public nature of the Internet, third parties may intercept or access transmissions or private communications without your or our knowledge or consent.

This Web Site is maintained in the United States of America. By using this Web Site, you authorize, agree to and opt-in to the exportation of your personal information to the U.S.A. and its storage and use as specified above when you provide such information to us.

If you create an account on our Site, you are responsible for maintaining the strict confidentiality of your account password, and you shall be responsible for any activity that occurs using your account credentials, whether or not you authorized such activity.  Please notify us of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security.

If we believe that the security of your Personal Information in our care may have been compromised, we may seek to notify you of that development.  If a notification is appropriate, we will endeavor to notify you as promptly as possible under the circumstances.  If we have your e-mail address, we may notify you by e-mail.  In the event we need to investigate or resolve possible problems or inquiries, we can, and you authorize us to, disclose any information about you to private entities, law enforcement or other government officials as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate. You consent to our use of e-mail as a means of such notification.

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

“Linked-To” Web Sites

The Site may contain links, banners, widgets or advertisements that lead to other Web sites.  We are not responsible for these other sites, and so their posted privacy policies (not this Policy) will govern the collection and use of your information on them.  We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each Web site visited after leaving the Site to learn about how your information is treated by others.

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

Please note that if you provide any information on your own or directly to third parties who may be linked to, or otherwise connected with our Web Site, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of your personal information. We encourage you to investigate and ask questions before disclosing information to third parties.  You should review the privacy policy of any site linked to our Web Site, prior to providing any information on or to that site.  This Privacy Policy applies only to this Web Site and does not apply to any third-party site that may link to or be linked from this Web Site.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may amend or change this Privacy Policy at any time without any prior notice to you. We will post any revisions to this policy on this Web Site, so that users are aware of these changes. Any user of this Web Site who provides any personal information after changes to this Privacy Policy are posted will be deemed to have accepted the revised Privacy Policy. If at any point we decide to use the personal information you provided through this Web Site in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will send you an email notifying you of such changes and giving you the option to allow or not allow us to use the information in the different way. Without such consent, we will use personal information in accordance with the Privacy Policy in effect at the time the information was collected.

Contact Us

We hope this Privacy Policy helps you understand our policy procedures regarding your personal information that you provide us through this Web Site. If you have any questions, you may contact us at info@nglcc.org