Privacy Policy

About CCST

We are the California Council on Science & Technology, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to making California’s policies in the fields of science & technology stronger since 1988.  CCST is committed to ensuring its website visitor’s privacy and personal information remains private and secure and has adopted certain standards and procedures as outlined in the Privacy Policy below.

Personal Information

CCST makes every effort to refrain from collecting personal evidence about their website users without their consent.  However, the website does collect personal information in a number of ways; 1) directly when you provide it to us, 2) automatically as you navigate through the site, or 3) when you use services associated with the sites.  The information the website automatically collects when you navigate the website can include the type of computer operating system, the IP address and/or mobile device identifier, the web browser type, the content viewed, the frequency with which the visitor visits a part of the site, the information regarding the online or mobile service provider, and the cookie ID.

How we use personal information

Personal information provided by the user is used by CCST staff for a number of purposes, including but not limited to, the following:

• responding to a user request
• processing  a donation or an application
• completing event registration
• adding a user to a specific email mailing list.

CCST may send marketing relevant to our services using this information, but we do not share personal data with other organizations, unless explicitly stated or required by any forms, applications, or other data entry being completed by the visitor on the CCST website.  Such organizations may include, but not be limited to, financial organizations processing a credit card donation, or third-party entities handling the details for events, such as registration, accommodations, or special needs.

Other reasons CCST may disclose your personal information to a third party are (i) if we reasonably believe that disclosure is compelled by applicable law, regulation, legal process, or a government request (including to meet national security, emergency services, or law enforcement requirements), (ii) to enforce our agreements and policies, (iii) to protect the security or integrity of our services and products, (iv) to protect ourselves, our other customers, or the public from harm or illegal activities, or (v) to respond to an emergency which we believe in good faith requires us to disclose data to assist in preventing a death or serious bodily injury.  If CCST is required by law to disclose any personal information of you, we will notify you of the disclosure requirement, unless we are prohibited by law. Further, we object to requests we do not believe were issued properly.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are used to store small pieces of information. They are stored on your device when the website is loaded on your browser. These cookies help us make the website function properly, make it more secure, provide better user experience, and understand how the website performs and to analyze what works and where it needs improvement.

As most of the online services, our website uses first party and third party cookies for several purposes. First party cookies are mostly necessary for the website to function the right way, and they do not collect any of your personally identifiable data.

We use cookies from third party provider Google to better understand and improve the performance of our site at an aggregate, anonymous level. CCST uses the cookies to anonymously calculate visitor, session, and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. The cookies also provide data on how visitors use a website while creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the collected data includes the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.

Learn more at Google, "How Google Uses Information From Sites Or Apps That Use Our Services."

How long we retain your data

If you accept the use of cookies, they are stored on a temporary basis as specified, but generally range from very short durations (one minute or one day) for website performance tracking to longer durations (one year) for more static data such as your decision to accept or reject cookies. Cookie preferences may be viewed and adjusted through CCST’s website.

When CCST receives personal information, it is retained for as long as is reasonably necessary to provide the stated service for which the information was provided, as described above, or to comply with state and federal law.

Security

CCST utilizes data storage services with industry leading technology companies who provide enterprise level security for our network and cloud software services. CCST uses SSL encryption on its websites, donation pages, and payment processing. Administrative access to our donor databases is limited to very few CCST administrators with multi-factor authentication required for every sign-in. CCST uses commercially reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical measures to safeguard information in its possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure or modification.

Please note that no service is completely secure. While we strive to protect your data, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss or a data breach will never occur.  If an unauthorized hacking, data loss, or data breach causes any damage to visitor, CCST will not be liable to visitor for those damages caused by the unauthorized access, hacking, data loss or breach.  However, CCST will take every step necessary to mitigate any damages to visitor from said unauthorized access, hacking, data loss or breach.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. CCST assumes no responsibility for the policies of these third party websites.

Collection of information from children

The privacy of children is important to us. When a child visits our site, we may collect a limited amount of information automatically.  We specifically make every effort to not collect data from children under the age of 13, including registration information, such as their name, phone number, address or email address from children.  In the event we discover we have collected information from a child in a manner inconsistent with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act requirements, we will either delete the information or immediately seek the parent’s consent for that collection.

Contact

If you have any queries or concerns about the processing of your information that is available with us, or if you wish to review and/or make changes to your stored information, you may email CCST at [email protected].  We will address your concerns in accordance with applicable law.

Changes to our Privacy Notice

The current policy became effective on June 26, 2023. We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time, and if we do, the most current version will be available at https://ccst.us/about-ccst/privacy-policy/ with the date indicating when it was last updated.  These changes might be minor, such as updating an address or fixing a typo, or they might be material, such as making a change that affects your rights.  If we make changes that affect your rights, we will provide advance notice to you, such as by posting a message on our home page. We will comply with applicable law with respect to any changes we make to this notice and seek your consent to any material changes if this is required by applicable law.