Privacy Policy

*Updated July 28th, 2020    

Owner and Data Controller:
Connecticut Passive House

PO Box 551
Ivoryton, CT 06442
Owner contact email:
info@ctpassivehouse.org

Privacy Policy

This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for CONNECTICUT PASSIVE HOUSE, INC. and CTPASSIVEHOUSE.ORG. We are committed to protecting your privacy and encourage you to periodically review this page to be informed of how we protect the information you disclose to us.

Information Collection and Use

 


CTPassiveHouse.org. collects information from our users at several different points on our website.

What We Do With Your Data

As a policy, Connecticut Passive House does not sell, trade or rent your personally identifiable information to third-parties, unless you have granted us permission to do so.

We Only Share Some of your Data with some third-party service providers. We list the specific third-parties in use (with links to their privacy policies) in the sections below.

Order

We request information from the user on our order form when making a purchase so we can place the orders. Here is where a user must provide their contact information, like name and shipping address, and financial information, like credit card number and expiration date. This information is used for billing purposes and to fill the customer’s order. If we have difficulty processing an order, this contact information is used to communicate with the customer. We use Stripe to capture credit cards charges, your credit card information goes straight through to Stripe and never stays or pass through our server.

In addition to Stripe’s secure server, CTPassivehouse.org is strongly encrypted with an SSL which you should check for the https:// or the safe lock sign in your browser before placing your order.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s hard drive containing information about the user. We use both session and persistent cookies. Cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users in the aggregate by analyzing popular areas and products to enhance future experiences on our site. Cookies do not cause damage to your computer systems or files, and only the web site that transferred a specific cookie to you can read, modify or delete such cookie. If you do not want information collected cookies, there are simple procedures in most browsers that allow you to delete existing cookies, to automatically decline cookies, or to be given the choice of declining or accepting the transfer of cookies to your computer.

Email/Contact Forms

We use Google/G Suite to process all internal email and communication with our customers. Google’s privacy policy is available here: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Embedded Content From Other Websites

Embeds are pieces from other websites that are shown from time to time on our websites. They behave in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website and may use cookies or capture information. Typically embedded content is from websites that share videos, images, or other content. These services may collect your IP Address, your User Agent, store and retrieve cookies on your browser, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including correlating your interaction with the content with your account with that service, if you are logged in to that service.

Links to the privacy policies of the most common services have been included below.

 

Usage Tracking

CTPH database tracks the traffic throughout our site. This information is used to compile overall statistics and is not recorded at an individual level. This includes IP (internet protocol) addresses, browser type, ISP (internet service provider), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and #of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate. The statistics help us decide which products and services best serve our members and guests.

We use Google Analytics for tracking visitors and aggregating information about the traffic to our websites. The Google Analytics privacy policy can be found here: https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can learn more about how to opt-out of tracking in Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

Aggregate Information

CTPH uses aggregate information from demographic surveys, traffic patterns and IP addresses to customize our site. Aggregate information is occasionally shared with third parties for purposes such as planning or executing advertising or promotions.

European Union, UK and Switzerland Additional Notice

We respect your privacy rights and provide you with reasonable access and rights to the Personal Data, as this term is referred to for individuals located in the countries of the EU, UK or Switzerland pursuant to the European Directives 95/46/EC and 2002/58/EC (EU General Data Protection Regulations Legislation, also known as GDPR), that you may have provided through your use of the Services. If you live in the European Economic Area (EEA), and wish to access, amend, delete, or transfer any Personal Data we hold about you, you may contact us as set forth in the “Who We Are; Contacting Us” section above.

You may update, correct, or delete your Personal Data and preferences at any time by request to us at the email below. Please note that while any changes you make will be reflected in active user databases instantly or within a reasonable period of time, we may retain all information you submit for backups, archiving, prevention of fraud and abuse, analytics, satisfaction of legal obligations, or where we otherwise reasonably believe that we have a legitimate reason to do so.

You may decline to share certain Personal Data with us, in which case we may not be able to provide to you some of the features and functionality of the Services.
At any time, you may object to the processing of your Personal Data, on legitimate grounds, except if otherwise permitted by applicable law. If you believe your right to privacy granted by applicable data protection laws has been infringed upon, please contact us at the email above. You also have a right to lodge a complaint with data protection authorities.

Sharing

CTPassivehouse.org gives you access to third party partners to provide you with certain services that are detailed below. CTPH will provide that third party with your transaction information and then that third party will collect additional information if needed to provide you with the requested service, such as outside shipping company to ship orders, and a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services.

Finally, notwithstanding any other provision of this privacy policy to the contrary, we reserve the right to disclose your personal information if we believe that we are required to do so (i) by law; (ii) to comply with legal process or governmental requests; (iii) to enforce our Terms of Service; (iv) to protect our operations or those of any affiliated entities; (v) to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of CTPH, any affiliated entities, you or others; and (vi) to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

Marketing Campaigns

We use email marketing to communicate with customers and potential customers from time to time. All email lists and campaigns are “opt-in” meaning we will not send you these sorts of emails unless you indicated that you wish to receive them during signup or other interactions on our website.

We may send you “system” emails, such as password reset requests or payment notifications/receipts even if you have not opted-in to email marketing lists.

All marketing emails sent by us will include an unsubscribe link in the footer of the email. Emails sent to you may also include standard tracking, including open and click activities.

We use MailChimp for email marketing. Mailchimp’s privacy policy is found here: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.

We may utilize social media and web advertising campaigns. These service providers use cookies on our sites and/or pixel tracking to serve ads across the different platforms.
Google AdSense & DoubleClick: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/en/privacy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/

Paying Clients

For payment transactions, we use PayPal and Stripe. PayPal’s privacy policy can be found here: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full. Stripe’s privacy policy can be found here: https://stripe.com/us/privacy.

If you purchase using PayPal, we ask for:

  • Email Address: So we can deliver our products and contact you if needed.
  • First Name: To personalize your account experience.
  • Username: So you can log in to your account to ask questions or download our products.
  • Billing Country: For tax purposes.
  • Billing Province: If you live in Canada, we need to know which province you live in for tax purposes.

If you purchase using your credit card, we ask for all of the above, and:

  • Credit Card Information: So we can process your payment. This data is sent to Stripe, and is never stored on our server.
  • Billing City and Zip/Postal Code: To verify your credit card purchase.

You’re also asked if you’d like to receive email updates and news. If you check this box, your information will be added to our MailChimp list.

Links

This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy policy applies solely to information collected by CTPH.

Affiliates

If you come to our site through a link provided by one of our affiliates, a cookie will be added to your browser in order to remember the affiliate. This cookie will remain in your browser for 60 days, or until you delete it.

Catalog, Newsletters, Etc.


If a user wishes to subscribe to our catalog, newsletter, etc., we ask for contact information such as name and e-mail address to provide these communications. Because we respect our users’ privacy, we provide a way to opt-out of these communications. Please see the choice and opt-out section below.

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send you an e-mail. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though you can deactivate your account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Surveys & Sweepstakes

From time to time, our site requests information from users via surveys or sweepstakes. Participation in these surveys or sweepstakes is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information requested may include contact information (such as name, shipping address and e-mail address), and demographic information (such as zip code, age level). Contact information will be used to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site.

Security & How We Protect Your Data

CTPH takes every precaution to protect our users’ information. When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the Secure Socket Layers (SSLs) encryption software. While on a secure page, such as our order form, a lock icon appears on your Web browser. When you are not on a secure page, no lock icon will appear. In addition, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment under restricted access. Additionally, our payment processors such as Stripe or PayPal receives your financial information directly and securely without saving it on our servers.

If you have any questions about the security at our website, send us an e-mail at info@ctpassivehouse.org for more info.

What Data Breach Procedures We Have In Place

Should any event occur where customer data has been lost, stolen, or potentially compromised, our policy is to alert our customers via email no later than 48 hours of our team becoming aware of the event. We will also report such incident to any required data protection authority. We will work closely with any customers affected to determine next steps such as any end-user notifications, needed patches, and how to avoid any similar event in the future.

Supplementation of Information

In order for CTPH to properly fulfill its obligation to our customers, it is necessary for us to supplement the information we receive with information from third party sources such as our affiliated websites. For example, in order for CTPH to enhance our ability to tailor the site to an individual’s preference, we combine information about the purchasing habits of users with similar information from our affiliated sites, and CTPH. When a user makes a purchase from any of these companies, the companies collect and share that purchase information with us so we can tailor the site to our users’ preferences.

Special Offers

Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special offers and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users, we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see our choice and opt-out below.

Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating

If a user’s personally identifiable information changes (such as your zip code, phone, e-mail or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate that user’s personally identifiable information provided to us. This can be done by using the unsubscribe feature in our communication.

Choice/Opt-Out

Users who no longer wish to receive promotional materials may opt-out of receiving these communications by using the unsubscribe feature in our e-mail.

Changes to This Policy

We reserve the right to change this privacy policy, and any of our policies or procedures concerning the treatment of information collected through the site, without prior notice. You can determine when this privacy policy was last revised by referring to date at the top of this page. Any changes to our privacy policy will become effective upon posting of the revised policy on the Internet, accessible through the site. Use of the site following such changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy then in effect. We encourage you to periodically review our privacy policy to ensure familiarity with our most current version.