Privacy Statement of Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

Information about our Organization and Website

Our privacy policy covers the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (“BALLE”). All personal information that the user enters voluntarily in the use of our web site falls under this privacy statement. BALLE is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. Our privacy policy does not cover any affiliated organizations, including BALLE affiliated Networks. BALLE affiliated Networks and any other affiliated organizations referred to in this site are independent and autonomous organizations and have their own policy regarding privacy.

Providing Visitors with Anonymous Access

You can access our Web sites home page and browse our sites without disclosing your personal data.

Automatic Collection of Information

We do not automatically log personal data nor do we link information automatically logged by other means with personal data about specific individuals.

Cookies

We do not use cookies to store personal data nor do we link non-personal information stored in cookies with personal data about specific individuals.

Data Collection and Purpose Specification

We collect the personal data that you may volunteer while using our services. Personally identifiable information such as your name, postal address, telephone number, or email, are collected only if you choose to give this information on a voluntary basis.

We do not collect information about our visitors from other sources, such as public records or bodies, or private organizations.

Statistics

BALLE analyzes the Web server (Apache) logs to better understand the traffic to our sites. This does not involve creating individual profiles for visitors. BALLE uses the aggregate data.

Specific Information Collection Activities

"Contact" Functions. Some pages on our site offer users the opportunity to email either BALLE, or other companies or organizations about specific issues.  To do so, users may be asked to provide certain personal information to facilitate these communications. This information often includes the user’s name, email address, and, depending on which contact method the user chooses, postal address. This information is used to create a template letter or message from the user to the organization or company and, if the user chooses to email the message using our automated function, it will include the user’s email address to as part of the email message. This provides the organization or company a way to respond to users regarding the content of the message.

"Join" or "Donate" Functions. To contribute to BALLE in any way, users are asked to provide certain personal information. This information may include the user’s name, email address, phone number and postal address. This information is used to process and fulfill your membership(s) or donation and to provide relevant information to you for tax purposes.

"Subscription" Function. To subscribe to email newsletters offered by BALLE, users are asked to provide an email address. BALLE does not ask for additional information for this function. Users who no longer wish to receive our communications may opt-out of receiving these communications by replying with unsubscribe in the subject line in the email or email us info@livingeoconomies.org.

Specific Information Regarding our On-line Marketplace Directory

We provide the opportunity for owners of independent businesses to list certain personal information in our on-line Marketplace Directory. This information is used to promote the business and provide the general public with relevant information about that business. This information is shared across all BALLE affiliated Network web sites. By using this service, you agree to the terms of use listed in the BALLE Marketplace Terms of Use Statement and Agreement.

Sharing: Collaboration and Partners

BALLE collaborates with certain other organizations to leverage its resources and impact. Only in cases that BALLE believes will interest the user and will strengthen our combined efforts will BALLE share personal contact information with our partners (credible third parties collaborating with BALLE, who have been presented our privacy policy). BALLE also enables collaboration by connecting people, and thus exchanges personal contact information.

Confidentiality / Security

All our employees and data processors, who have access to, and are associated with the processing of personal data, are obliged to respect the confidentiality of our visitors' personal data.

Our visitors' personal data will only be disclosed to State institutions and authorities where required by law or other regulation.

Links

BALLE provides links to other sources of information that we believe may be of interest to site visitors.  We have no control over the content of the sites to which we link in BALLE’s site and these sites may have different privacy policies, which we encourage you to review. When you click through to other Web sites, you may get cookies directly from them. BALLE does not see or use these cookies, and we do not control how other sites use cookies.

Changes to Privacy Policy

BALLE’s features and services will change over time and our information-gathering practices and policies may also change.

While our philosophy of protecting user information from inappropriate uses and disclosures will not change, this policy will be updated occasionally to include any change that materially affects the collection, maintenance, use, or disclosure of personal information.

Other changes to this privacy policy statement that reflect refinements, improvements, updates, and new features will be made as appropriate and posted as soon as possible. Whenever the privacy policy changes, we will modify the date to reflect that a change was made.

Access to the personal data we may hold about you

You may request in writing any personal information about you that we hold, or correct or amend information about you if it is inaccurate by sending an email to info@livingeconomies.org or writing to the address below.