Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 10/19/2021

INTRODUCTION

The Black Professionals in Food and Agriculture (“BPFA,” “we,” “us” or “our”) promotes the advancement and development of Black professionals in the food and agriculture industry. This Privacy Policy applies only to websites controlled by BPFA (the “Site(s)”). Please read this Privacy Policy carefully because by registering for or using the Sites you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound to this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to keep up to date on how we are handling your personal information.

WHAT INFORMATION DOES BPFA COLLECT ABOUT ME

“Personal information” is information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular individual. BPFA collects (i) personal information voluntarily supplied by you, and (ii) tracking information collected as you navigate the Sites. We note that over time, non-personal information could become personal information through regulatory developments, technological advancements, or co-mingling with personal information. The types of personal information we collect from you depends on the features you use on the Sites.

In particular, BPFA collects the following information from and about you:

Member Information – If you register as a member, we will collect information from you to administer the membership and services provided to members. This includes the name and photo associated with your Google account when you submit the membership form; full name; preferred pronoun; experience working in the food, nutrition, or agriculture industry; current employer, job title, email address, phone number, and additional information about your interest in BPFA.
Event Attendee Information – If you attend an event hosted by us, we may collect your contact information.
User Information – We may collect personal information from you when you sign up on our Site(s) to receive information from BPFA or to contact us. That personal information may include, among other things, your full name, email address, phone number and other information you provide to us.
Sensitive data – We may collect limited sensitive data related to attendance at BPFA events.
Demographic Information – We may collect your demographic information, such as your age, city, state and country.
Usage Information – We may collect information about how you and your devices interact with the Site(s). This could include features you use, the web pages you visit and the search terms you enter. This could also include data information about your devices and the network you use to connect to our services, including IP addresses, device identifiers and data information about the performance of the services you use on the Sites and any problems you experience with them.
Content and Other Information You Provide to Us – We may collect additional content and information that you voluntarily provide us, such as when you send us feedback or provide us information about job opportunities or announcements.
Public data and posts – This may consist of comments or content that you post and the personal information about you that accompanies those posts or content, which may include a name, user name, or comments.

HOW DO WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION?

(1) Active Collection

As noted above, we collect and store the personal information from you directly, at the time you supply information to us via the Sites. For instance, if you contact us with a question, we may store your communications, including any personal information you include in them, so we can effectively respond to you. If you do not want us to collect your personal information, please do not provide it to us.

(2) Passive Collection

We may collect information passively while you are visiting or interacting with the Sites. We call this “passive” collection because you may not know that this information is being collected. Here are some examples of the information that is collected via the Sites and a description of how this information is used:

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses – Your IP address is a number that lets computers attached to the Internet know where to send your information, such as the webpages you view. We use this information to deliver our webpages to you upon request, tailor our Sites to the interests of our users and measure traffic within our Sites.
Cookies, web beacons, and other similar technologies – A cookie is a small text file that may be used to collect information about your activity on the Sites. For example, when someone visits a page within the Sites, a cookie is placed on the user’s machine (if the user accepts cookies) or is read if the user has visited the Sites previously. Web beacons are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to allow us to count users who have visited certain pages of the Sites and to help determine the effectiveness of promotional or advertising campaigns. When used in HTML-formatted email messages, web beacons can tell the sender whether and when the email has been opened. Web beacons are embedded invisibly on webpages. For more information, please see the “COOKIES AND ADS POLICY” section below.

HOW DOES BPFA USE THE INFORMATION COLLECTED ABOUT ME?

BPFA uses your personal information for a number of purposes including the following:

to provide and administer member services;
provide you with member support and to respond to inquiries;
to measure and improve those services and features;
for internal record keeping;
to invite you to participate in surveys or research about BPFA or our members;
to alert you to updated information from BPFA or other third parties, or to forward promotional materials;
to inform you of upcoming events and administer such events;
to send our newsletters;
to invite BPFA members to advertise or be a sponsor of a future event;
to invite BPFA members to volunteer at upcoming events;
to invite non-BPFA members to become members;
to use IP addresses to identify the location of users, to block disruptive use, to establish the number of visits from different countries;
to analyze and improve the activities and content offered by the BPFA website to provide you with the most user-friendly navigation experience. We may also use and disclose information in aggregate (so that no individuals are identified) for marketing and strategic development purposes;
to notify you about a material change to this Privacy Policy, if necessary, or to contact you in response to sign-up forms;
to protect the rights of BPFA and others. There may be instances when we may disclose your personal information, including situations where we have a good faith belief that such processing is necessary in order to: (i) protect, enforce or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety or property of BPFA, our affiliates or their employees, agents and contractors (including enforcement of our agreements and terms and conditions); (ii) protect the safety, privacy and security of users of our Site(s) or members of the public; (iii) protect against fraud or for risk management purposes;
to comply with applicable laws or legal process and/or respond to requests from public and government authorities; or
for any other legitimate business reasons.

WILL BPFA SHARE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH ANYONE ELSE?

We will use your information within BPFA for the organizational and membership purposes for which it was obtained. We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personal 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. Non-personal information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses—see the “COOKIES” section below.

BPFA may share your personal information in the following instances:

Service providers, helping to administer the services, products, services educational programs and events. We may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) that perform services on our behalf, including payment processors, which may have their own terms and conditions.
Subsidiaries and affiliates to better serve the BPFA membership and its evolving needs;
Sponsors, Exhibitors and Hosts of BPFA events to allow sponsors and exhibitors to contact you about their products and services that may be of interest to our membership;
Third parties, who provide products and services of interest to BPFA members and event attendees;
Competent authorities, including law enforcement, in order to comply with applicable laws or court orders;
For direct or indirect reorganization, we may share or transfer your information in the course of any direct or indirect reorganization process including, but not limited to, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, bankruptcies, and sales of all or a part of our assets. Your information may be shared following completion of such transaction and/or during the assessment process pending transfer. If transferred in such a case, your information would remain subject to this Privacy Policy or a privacy policy that, at a minimum, protects your privacy to an equal degree as this Privacy Policy; and
With your consent, we may share or disclose information about you if you ask or authorize us to do so, including by intentionally interacting with third parties on our Sites. Additionally, when you choose to share information in a public forum, that information may be seen or collected by anyone, including third parties that do not adhere to our Privacy Policy.

FORUMS, CHAT ROOMS AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS

Please note that any information you include in a message you post to any chat room, forum or other public posting area is available to anyone with a membership. If you do not want people to know your email address, for example, do not include it in any message you post publicly. PLEASE BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHEN DISCLOSING ANY INFORMATION IN CHAT ROOMS, FORUMS AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE BY OTHERS OF THE INFORMATION THAT YOU DISCLOSE IN CHAT ROOMS, FORUMS AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS.

INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS

If you choose to provide us with personal information, it will be stored in the United States and may be stored in other jurisdictions. BPFA may transfer that information to its service providers, affiliates and subsidiaries, across borders, and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world. If you are visiting the Site from the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use, please note that your personal information is transferred to the United States and may be transferred to other jurisdictions. The United States does not, and these other jurisdictions may not, have the same data protection laws as the European Union and may not afford many of the rights conferred upon data subjects in the European Union. By providing your personal information, you consent to:

The use of your personal information for the uses identified above in accordance with this Privacy Policy; and
The transfer of your personal information to the United States as indicated above.

What is a cookie?

Cookies are small text files on your device. They are made by your browser when you visit a website. Every time you go back to that website, your browser will send the cookie file back to the website’s server. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognize a user’s device. Most browsers accept cookies automatically but allow you to disable them. Please check your browser and browser settings to determine where these types of cookies are stored and whether and how they may be deleted. The Network Advertising Initiative also offers a means to opt-out of a number of advertising cookies. Please visit www.networkadvertising.org to learn more. In any event, if you reject our cookies, you may still use the Site, but you may be limited in some of the features.

Why does BPFA use cookies?

We use, and allow certain third parties to use, cookies and other similar technologies to operate our Site(s). We, or third parties, may use session cookies or persistent cookies. Session cookies only last for the specific duration of your visit and are deleted when you close your browser. Persistent cookies remain on your device’s hard drive until you delete them or they expire. Different cookies are used to perform different functions, which we explain below:

Essential. Some cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around our Sites and use their features, such as accessing secure areas of the Sites. Without these cookies, we cannot enable appropriate content based on the type of device you are using.
Browsing and functionality. These cookies allow us to remember choices you make on the Sites, such as your preferred language and the country from which you are visiting, and provide enhanced, more personalized features.

UPDATES TO BPFA’S PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time so you may wish to check it each time you submit personal information to BPFA. The date of the most recent revisions will appear on this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these changes, please do not continue to use the BPFA website to submit personal information to BPFA. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to keep it up to date on how we are handling your personal information.

SECURITY AND RETENTION

We take commercially reasonable precautions to protect your information. No data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you understand that any information you transfer to BPFA is done at your own risk. If we learn of a security systems breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. By using the Sites or providing personal information to us, you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy and administrative issues relating to your use of the Sites. We may post a notice on our Sites if a security breach occurs. We may also send an email to you at the email address you have provided to us in these circumstances. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing.

We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits visitors to the Sites who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not share personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes at this time.

LINKS TO EXTERNAL SITES

BPFA takes no responsibility for the content of external Internet sites. Other websites that we may link to are owned and operated by third parties, and BPFA has no control over them. The fact that we include links to other websites does not mean that BPFA approves of or endorses any other third-party website or the content of that website. We accept no liability for any statements, information, products, or services that are published on or are accessible through any websites owned or operated by third parties.

Your visit to the Sites is subject to this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

bpfa.dc@gmail.com