Privacy Policy

St. Louis Votes Website Privacy Policy

Updated July 2024. 

St. Louis Votes (“we”, “us” and “our”) is committed to protecting the privacy of our website visitors, customers, business partners, and end users through our compliance with this “Privacy Policy.” Throughout this Privacy Policy, we refer to any person accessing or using this Website as “you,” or the “User.”

​This Privacy Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the website www.stlouisvotes.org (our "Website" or “Site”) and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting and disclosing that information.

​This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect:

• On or through this Website.
• In email, text, and other electronic messages between you and this Website.
• When you interact with our advertising on third-party websites and services, if those applications or advertising include links to this Privacy Policy.

It does not apply to information collected:

• Offline or through any other means, including on any other website or social media platform profile operated by us or any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries); or
• By any third party, including through any integration or plug-in that may be used in conjunction with the Website. Please be aware that we have no control over the content and policies of those third-parties, and cannot accept responsibility or liability for their respective privacy practices.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your “Personal Information” (as defined below in “What Information Do We Collect About You?”) and how we will treat it. Personal Information may be referred to as “Personal Information.” If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your only choice is not to use our Website. By accessing or using this Website, you agree to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of this Website after we make changes is deemed to be your acceptance of those changes, so please check the Privacy Policy periodically for updates.

​What Information Do We Collect About You

Generally, we may collect two types of information: Personal Information as defined by this policy and Other Information that does not generally identify you. We consider Personal Information as any information concerning the personal or material circumstances of an identified or identifiable individual. An identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identification number or to one or more factors specific to his or her physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity. If we are required by law to treat that data that does not generally identify you as “Personal Information,” then we will collect, use, and disclose it in the same manner in which we collect, use, and disclose Personal Information as detailed in this Privacy Policy. 

What We May Collect

• Personal contact information such as name, address, telephone number and email address;
• Business contact information such as business address, telephone number and email address;
• Transactional information, including bank, credit, or debit-card numbers;
• Information necessary to provide services or products to you;
• Comments and opinions you provide when you contact us directly by email, telephone, or mail;
• App usage data;
• Internet or other electronic network activity information (including Internet or other similar activity, browsing history, search history, IP address, and information regarding your interactions with our Website or other services);
• Browser and device information;
• Online information collected through “cookies” and other technologies;
• How you use our sites, search terms, pages you visit on our website and other performance information;
• Demographic information and other information provided by you that does not reveal your specific identity;
• Information that has been aggregated in a manner such that it no longer reveals your specific identity;
• Commercial information, including products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies;
• Demographic information (e.g., age and date of birth, sex, gender); and
• Geolocation data (inferred from your IP address or mobile device location).

How We May Collect

Generally, we collect Personal Information directly from you in circumstances where you provide Personal Information. 

We may collect information about you in a number of ways and through different sources. For example, we may gather information when you: 

• Enter into an agreement with us for our services;
• Register online or place an order for any of our products or services;
• Voluntarily complete a customer survey or provide feedback on any of our message boards or via email;
• Create a profile;
• Register for newsletters and alerts;
• Sign up for conferences and events;
• Participate in public user posting areas (surveys, bulletin boards, discussion forums);
• Use any applications or web services we provide; and
• Use or view our website via your browser’s cookies.

Automated Information Collection

We may connect information collected automatically with information we already have about you in order to identify you.  In order to provide the best experience possible and run our business operations, we also use automated information collection for reporting and analysis purposes. We may review these metrics to see how you interact with us on our website, in our apps, and through other business transactions. 

All personal information is collected in a fair and non-intrusive manner, with your voluntary consent given by choosing to engage with us. Personal information is not accessible to anyone outside the specific function for which it is collected. We respect the privacy of clients who may choose to provide personal information. We recognize the need for appropriate protection and management of personal information that you provide to us. 

Data About Children

We do not knowingly collect Personal Information through the Site from children under the age of 13. We reserve the right to delete any information identified as having been provided through the Site from children under the age of 13.

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Sensitive Information

Unless we specifically request or invite it, we ask that you not send or otherwise disclose to us your racial or ethnic origin, political affiliations or opinions, health information, or criminal background. In those cases where we may request or invite you to provide the foregoing information, we will only do so in accordance with all applicable data protection law requirements. Where you provide us with such information without being requested to do so by us, we reserve the right (but do not have any obligation) to erase such information at our discretion.

Social Media

We engage with our members and other individuals on multiple social media platforms. If you contact us on one of our social media platforms, request service via social media, or otherwise direct us to communicate with you via social media, we may contact you via direct message or use other social media tools to interact with you. In these instances, your interactions with us are governed by this Privacy Policy, as well as the privacy policy of the social media platform you use.

How We Use Cookies 

In addition to the above methods of collecting Personal Information, we use data collection devices such as "cookies" or tracking pixels on certain web pages to personalize the experience, help analyze our web page processes and use, and measure promotional effectiveness. Cookies are small files that a website transfers to your device through a web browser that enable the systems to recognize your device and capture and remember certain information. Similarly, tracking pixels are graphics embedded on a webpage or in an email that may be used to deliver or communicate with cookies, to count users who have visited certain pages, and to understand usage patterns. 

In general, our website uses cookies and other tracking technologies as follows: 

• Where necessary to run our website, allowing you to log in and engage with new or existing accounts;
• To increase the function of our websites, including personalizing content for you, pre-filling forms, and remembering your preferences;
• For analytics purposes such as helping us understand how our website is used and to determine how best to market our products to you;
• To determine if our email messages have been opened and acted upon; and
• To obtain information about your interactions with our online advertisements.

Cookies vary in how long they last. “Session cookies” terminate shortly after you terminate your internet session. “Persistent cookies” are stored on your device until a set expiration date. We use both session cookies and persistent cookies on our website. 

If you set your device to not receive cookies at any time, certain personalized services cannot be provided to you, and accordingly, you may not be able to take full advantage of all of our features. If you do not wish to receive a cookie or if you wish to set your browser to warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or if you wish to turn off all cookies, use the options on your browser to assist you. Please note that by turning cookies off, you will not have access to many features available on our Website. 

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Interest Based Advertising

We may collect data about your online activities on our Site to provide you with advertising about products and services tailored to your individual interests. We also may obtain data for this purpose from third-party websites on which our ads are served. This section of our Privacy Policy provides details and explains how to exercise your choices.

You may see certain ads on other websites because we work with advertising partners (including advertising networks) to engage in remarketing and retargeting activities. Our advertising partners allow us to target our messaging to users through demographic, interest-based and contextual means. These partners track your online activities over time and across websites by collecting information through automated means, including through the use of third-party cookies, web server logs, and web beacons. They use this information to show you advertisements that may be tailored to your individual interests. The information our advertising partners may collect includes data about your visits to websites that participate in the relevant advertising networks, such as the pages or advertisements you view and the actions you take on the websites. This data collection takes place both on our Site and on third-party websites that participate in the ad networks. This process also helps us track the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. For example, we utilize certain of our ad partners’ targeted advertising services to show you our ads on other websites based on your prior visits to our Site and other online activity. The interest-based data collected about you is linked to your computer or device. Our advertising partners may use the information that they receive to provide advertising services to us or to third parties using the same advertising network.

​Provided that a company participates in industry-developed programs designed to provide consumers choices about whether to receive targeted advertising, you also may opt out of ad network interest-based advertising generally through the Network Advertising Initiative website or by visiting http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ (web-based advertising) or http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices (for mobile advertising). To learn more, please visit the websites operated by the Network Advertising Initiative and Digital Advertising Alliance at www.networkadvertising.org/choices.

Opting-out does not mean that you will stop receiving ads from us. It means that you will stop receiving ads from us that have been targeted to you based on your visits and browsing activity across websites over time.

Do Not Track 

Some browsers have a “do not track” feature that allows you to tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. At this time, our websites do not respond to browser “do not track” signals, as there is no industry standard for compliance.  

How We Use Links To Third-Party Websites 

Our websites may contain links to other websites. The links are meant to enable access to publicly available information on other websites. We make no representations whatsoever about any other website which you may access through the website. We have no control over the content on other websites, and a link to a website neither implies nor constitutes sponsorship, endorsement, approval, or responsibility for the content. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party sites or services. 

Security

We take what we believe to be reasonable steps to protect the Personal Information collected by us from loss, misuse, unauthorized use, access, inadvertent disclosure, alteration, and destruction. However, no network, server, database, or Internet or e-mail transmission is ever fully secure, error-free, or “hacker proof.” Therefore, you should take special care in deciding what information you provide to us. Please keep this in mind when disclosing any Personal Information.

In the event that we believe the security of your Personal Information in our possession or control may have been compromised, we may seek to notify you of that development. If we believe a notification is appropriate and we have your e-mail address, we may notify you by e-mail. You consent to our use of e-mail as a means of such notification. If you prefer for us to use the United States postal service to notify you in this situation, please contact us as described below.

Please visit your mobile device manufacturer’s website (or the website for its operating system) for instructions on any additional privacy controls in your mobile operating system, such as privacy settings for device identifiers and geolocation.

Data Retention

We generally retain Personal Information for so long as it may be relevant to the purposes above, or for longer when required by law. To dispose of Personal Information, we may anonymize it, delete it, or take other appropriate steps. Even if we delete your Personal Information, it may persist on backup or archival media for an additional period of time for legal, tax, or regulatory reasons, or for legitimate and lawful business purposes.

How Will We Use The Information We Collect?

We may use information collected when you visit our Website for the following business purposes:

• Provide you with our products and services, and to process transactions related to those products and services.
• Respond to your requests or provide information requested by you.
• Send administrative or account-related information to you.
• Manage your account and provide support or other services, such as product updates, fixes and product and service recommendations.
• Obtain and understand your feedback or user experience.
• Better understand our customers and end-users and the way they use and interact with our websites, mobile apps, products, and services.
• Provide a personalized experience, and implement the preferences you request.
• Improve service reliability or improve features and functionality.
• Enhance security, monitor and verify identity or service access, combat spam, or other malware or security risks.
• Provide you with marketing and promotional communications (where this is in accordance with the law).
• Determine the effectiveness of marketing and promotional campaigns.
• Post testimonials publicly (with your prior consent).
• Interact with you on third-party social networks (subject to that network's terms of use and privacy policies).
• Administer product downloads and to confirm your compliance with our licensing and other terms of use.
• Communicate with you about our events or our partner events.
• Provide quality control and staff training.
• To prevent fraud.
• For internal record keeping and administrative purposes.
• To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide your information and consent.
• To comply with our legal obligations and resolve any disputes that we may have.

How We Share Your Personal Information

We may share personal information with our service providers, consultants, vendors, and affiliates for our internal business purposes. We may share information as described as follows or as otherwise described to you:

• Service providers, vendors, consultants, and affiliates. We may share your Personal Information with our affiliates, joint marketing partners, service providers, funding organizations, reputable non-profit organizations that share a similar purpose or mission, vendors and consultants, in order for them to provide their services to us. We may share your Personal Information to process your requests, provide customer service, operate and improve our business, website and apps, improve our products and customer service, process payments or assess creditworthiness, perform auditing and quality control, assist with marketing and advertising, to communicate with you on our behalf, and to otherwise operate our business. We may share information with third parties in connection with or during negotiations of any reorganization, acquisition, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets, or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceeding). While we endeavor to share your personal data only with third parties that respect your Personal Data, we do not control how these third parties use or disclose your Personal Data.
• Our organization maintains strict privacy policies to protect the personal information of our users obtained for text message communications. This information is never sold, rented, released, or traded to others without prior consent or legal obligation. Any sharing of information with third parties is solely for the purpose of fulfilling the organization's obligations to the user. We guarantee that it will never be shared with third parties for marketing purposes.
• Other Disclosures without Your Consent. We may disclose Personal Information in response to subpoenas, warrants, or court orders, or in connection with any legal process, or to comply with relevant laws. We may also share your Personal Information in order to establish or exercise our rights, to defend against a legal claim, to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding possible illegal activities, suspected fraud, safety of person or property, or a violation of our policies, or the provision of services by, a third-party intermediary.
• Background Checks and Credit Reports. We may disclose Personal Information to entities engaged in background checks and credit reporting as allowed by law.
• Public. Some areas of our websites may provide the opportunity to post comments or reviews in a public forum. If you decide to submit information on these pages, that information may be publicly available.
• Service Providers. We share your Personal Information with service providers. Among other things, service providers may help us to administer our websites, support our programs, conduct surveys, provide technical support, respond to complaints or other issues, and assist in the provision of services.

International Transfers of Personal Information

We are based in the United States. The recipients of the Personal Information disclosures described in the “How We Share Your Personal Information” Section above may be located in the United States or elsewhere in the world. Privacy laws in these countries may not provide protections equivalent to those of your country of residence, and your government may or may not deem such protections adequate. Whenever we transfer Personal Information outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or the UK, we take legally required steps to make sure that the appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your Personal Information.

EU Controller

European Union data protection law makes a distinction between organizations that process Personal Information for their own purposes (known as “data controllers”) and organizations that process Personal Information on behalf of other organizations (known as “data processors”). If you have a question or complaint about how your Personal Information is handled, these should always be directed to the relevant data controller since they are the ones with primary responsibility for your Personal Information.

We may act as either a data controller or data processor in connection with your Personal Information, depending on the circumstances. However, under applicable law, we are considered the “data controller” of the Personal Information we handle under this Privacy Policy. Our contact information appears at the end of this Privacy Policy.

Our Legal Bases for Handling Your Personal Information

The laws in some countries require us to tell you about the lawful grounds we rely on to collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process your Personal Information. To the extent those laws apply, our lawful bases for processing your Personal Information are:

• To Honor Our Contractual Commitments to You: In some cases, we process Personal Information to meet our obligations to you, or to take steps at your request, in anticipation of entering into such a contract with you, or as is otherwise necessary for our contractual relationship.
• Consent: Where required by law, and in some other cases, we process Personal Information on the basis of your consent. This may be implied consent where permitted by law, and it will be explicit consent where required by law.
• Legitimate Interests: In many cases, we process Personal Information on the ground that it furthers our legitimate interests in commercial activities, such as the following, in ways that are not overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the affected individuals:

• customer service;

  • marketing;
  • protecting our customers, community, users, personnel, and property;
  • analyzing and improving our business;
  • processing job applications; and
  • managing legal issues.

We may also process Personal Information for the same legitimate interests of our customers, business partners, and related organizations.

• Legal Compliance: We need to process, use, and disclose Personal Information in certain ways to comply with our legal obligations.
• To Protect the Vital Interests of the Individual or Others: For example, we may collect or share Personal Information to help resolve an urgent medical situation.

Your Rights and Choices​:

Opt Out From Direct Electronic Communications

Where it is in accordance with your preferences, we may send you direct electronic communications, such as through email or text message, regarding donation opportunities or events or programs that might be of interest to you. You may “opt out” of receiving these electronic communications by clicking on the opt-out link within the e-mail you receive, or by sending an e-mail to [email protected] indicating which communications you no longer wish to receive. Please note that if you opt out of receiving promotional messages from us, this does not impact other transactional and administrative messages which you will continue to receive (such as emails relating to logistical information for an event for which you are registered or regarding changes to this Policy).

Opt Out From Cookie-Related Processing and Interest Based Advertising

You can opt out from certain cookie-related processing and interest-based advertising.

• Under the laws of the European Economic Area (and in some cases in Israel and other countries outside the United States), individuals have certain legal rights to obtain confirmation of whether we hold Personal Information about them, to access Personal Information we hold about them (including, in some cases, in portable form), and to obtain its correction, update, amendment or deletion in appropriate circumstances. They may also object to our uses or disclosures of Personal Information, request a restriction on its processing, or withdraw any consent, though such actions typically will not have retroactive effect. This also will not affect our ability to continue processing data in lawful ways (for example, if you opt out of the use of your telephone number for direct marketing, we might still decide to contact you by phone in an emergency).
• For example, individuals in the European Economic Area have the right to opt out of all of our processing of their Personal Information for direct marketing purposes. To exercise this right, they may contact us as described at the end of this Privacy Policy.

How You Can Access, Update, Correct, or Delete Your Personal Information

If you would like to submit a data access, correction, restriction, or deletion request, you can do so by contacting us at [email protected] and we will process such request with respect to any Personal Information that we are able to link to you individually based on the information that you can provide to us. Text Message Opt-Out: If you are receiving text messages from us and wish to stop receiving them, simply respond with either “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE” to the number from which you received the message. Once we receive your message, you will no longer receive further text messages from us. These rights and options that you have with respect to Personal Information are subject to limitations and exceptions under applicable law. In addition to those rights, if you live in certain jurisdictions, you have the right to submit a complaint to your relevant supervisory authority. However, we encourage you to contact us first at [email protected]  and we will try to resolve your concerns.

Notice to California Residents

Subject to certain limits under California Civil Code § 1798.83, if you are a California resident, you may ask us to provide you with: (1) a list of certain categories of Personal Information that we have disclosed to certain types of third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year; and (2) the identity of the third parties that received certain Personal Information from us for their direct marketing purposes during that calendar year. To do so, please contact use at [email protected].

The rights and options described above are subject to limitations and exceptions under applicable law. In addition to those rights, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority. However, we encourage you to contact us first, and we will do our very best to resolve your concern.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We will review and update this Privacy Policy periodically in response to changing legal, technical and business developments. When we update this Privacy Policy we will note the date of its most recent revision above. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will take appropriate measures to inform you in a manner that is consistent with the significance of the changes we make and is in accordance with applicable law, either by posting on the homepage or sending an email to the email address on file for registered users. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, you may write to us at [email protected].