PRIVACY POLICY
INTRODUCTION
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (“the Garden”) created this
statement to demonstrate our firm commitment to your privacy. We do not collect
personally identifying information about you when you visit our site unless you
choose to provide such information to us. Providing such information is
strictly voluntary. This policy is your guide to how we will handle information
we learn about you from your visit to our website.
Lewisginter.org and shop.lewisginter.org collect
customer information for a variety of reasons, including as part of our ongoing
efforts to provide superior customer service; to improve our customers’
shopping experience; and to communicate with our customers about our products,
services and promotions, including those that we believe may be of particular
interest to you based on information we have collected.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
The Garden uses Google Analytics to collect information about
how you use our website. Google
Analytics’ privacy policy explains how this information is collected
and used by Google. You may also wish to review Google
Analytics’ Terms of Service. We use Google Analytics to improve our website
user experience and for reporting to sponsors about the volume of web
traffic. You can prevent Google from collecting this information by disabling
cookies in your browser settings.
COOKIES
A cookie is a small text file that is sent to your browser
from a website and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies can’t read
data from your hard disk or read cookie files that were created by other
sites—the website that creates a cookie is the only one a browser will permit
to access it.
Examples of ways in which the Garden might use cookies would
be to control access to certain user features, to customize content areas, or
to analyze site activity and user behavior. The Garden also reserves the right
to use cookies in the future in conjunction with new content or extended
functionality.
We also use cookies to collect information about our website
users and use cookies in advertising including remarketing campaigns (display,
search and social). You are not required to use cookies to use this site. Users
should be aware, however, that prohibiting the use of cookies may restrict the
user’s access to certain types of content or features.
TYPES OF
INFORMATION COLLECTED
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden does not collect any personal
information about individuals—such as names and postal or email
addresses—except when such information is knowingly provided to the Garden by
the individual. Personal information might be obtained from online transactions
such as purchases (including merchandise from the Garden Shop eStore, classes offered by the Education Department or
event tickets), membership subscriptions or donations. Additionally, personal
information may be transmitted as part of a form submission or in connection
with other activities, services or resources made available on our site. Any
personally identifying information retrieved by the Garden must be voluntarily
submitted by the user.
The Garden’s website does collect some anonymous
“non-personally identifiable” information about visitors automatically when
pages on our website are requested through a browser. This information is used
for statistical purposes and to help us monitor how guests navigate our site,
allowing us to tailor our services for the majority of visitors. Non-personally
identifiable information may refer to information about our visitors’ browsers,
operating systems, Internet Service Providers or other similar information.
The Garden’s website collects Internet Protocol (IP) addresses
as a component of the non-personally identifiable information. An IP address is
a number assigned to your computer by a web server when you’re on the Internet.
This information is used to collect data such as determining how many users
visited a specific area of our site, but personally identifiable information is
not included. Such information could, if necessary, be used to identify a user
in order to comply with safety and/or security issues or with legal
requirements.
USE OF INFORMATION
Any personal information provided to the Garden is maintained
and accessible only by the Garden unless the Garden expressly states otherwise.
The following are examples of how the Garden may use the personal
information it collects:
- If
you made a purchase from the Garden Shop eStore,
the required personal information (similar to that provided during a
telephone or mail-order purchase) will be used to complete your order.
- If
you indicated that you were interested in receiving Garden-related news
and information, you might receive emails that we feel may be of interest
to you.
- The
following is an example of how the Garden may use the non-personally
identifiable information it collects: Cumulative anonymous data could be
analyzed to describe the collective characteristics and behaviors of
online visitors and subsequently be used to further optimize the
effectiveness of our site.
SHARING INFORMATION
The Garden may share with trusted third parties information you
provide when corresponding with us or when becoming a Member. If you prefer not
to have your personally identifiable information shared in this way, please
indicate this to Garden staff. For example, if you are booking an event
here, your contact information may be shared with our in-house caterer,
Meriwether Godsey. Your information may also be
shared with trusted third parties such as our membership database
provider or our education registration
provider. You may log in to those third-party providers to update your
information and/or contact preferences. If you purchase items from our online
store, your information will be managed by our point-of-sale
service provider.
You may email or write the Garden at the addresses below
to review the information collected about you, to request corrections, or to
let us know your preference for sharing your information.
We want to be very clear: We will not obtain
personally-identifying information about you when you visit our website unless
you choose to provide such information to us. Providing such information is
strictly voluntary. Except as might be required by law, we do not share any
information we receive with any outside parties.
DONOR
CONFIDENTIALITY
Lewis Ginter adheres to the highest standards of donor
confidentiality. We value our donors and respect their privacy. The Garden will
not sell, share, or trade names or personal information of donors with any
other entity, nor will we send mailings to our donors on behalf of other
organizations. We may publish donor names in our Annual Report, unless a donor
requests anonymity in writing. All other donor or prospective donor information
shall be kept strictly confidential by the Garden and our authorized personnel.
SECURITY
The Garden protects all personally and non-personally
identifiable information that it receives via the Internet against unauthorized
access.
In addition, the Garden’s website uses Secure Sockets Layer
(SSL) encryption to process purchases made on the Garden Shop eStore and third-party ticketing systems. Because we use
this technology, online customers can feel confident that their personal
information is protected from interception by any third party. Sensitive credit
card information is not permanently stored on any Garden web server; and though
your order information is retained for our records, this information is never
shared with other companies or persons.
Unfortunately, no online data transmission or storage system
can be guaranteed to be 100 percent secure. If you have reason to believe that
your information is no longer secure, please immediately notify the
Garden.
WHAT IS A SECURE
CONNECTION?
When a secure connection is established between your browser
and a website, any data that is transferred over the connection will be
encrypted to prevent it from being viewed by a third party. Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL) encryption, the standard for most browsers and servers, makes it
very difficult for anyone to intercept or decode messages exchanged over this
type of secure connection.
Most browsers display an image of a locked padlock in their
status bar when connected to a secure site. Secure transactions are also
indicated when the prefix in the location bar of your browser switches from
http:// to https://. If you do not see the padlock displayed in the status bar,
if the padlock is unlocked, or if the protocol in the location bar is not
listed as https://, then any data exchanged with the website is potentially
visible to others.
Depending on your browser, you may be able to view authentication
information about a secure page by clicking on the locked padlock in the status
bar. For more information on how your software establishes a secure connection,
see the help files for your particular browser.
Estore credit card information
is not stored on any Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden web server. Your order
information is retained for our records, but this information is never shared
with other companies or persons. For other transactions with the Garden, credit
card information is not permanently stored on any Garden web server; and though
our order information is retained for our records, this information is never
shared with other companies or persons.
LINKS TO OTHER
SITES
Users may find content on the Garden’s website or the Garden
Shop’s eStore that links to the sites and services of
our partners, sponsors, vendors or other third parties. In many cases, these
links represent cooperative projects or are established with persons or
entities that have a significant connection to or relationship with our site.
Although every effort is made to ensure that any referrals are to reputable and
relevant sources, the Garden does not control the content or links that appear
on these sites. In addition, these sites or services, including their content
and links, may be constantly changing. These sites and services may have their
own privacy policies and customer service policies, or no policy at all. The
Garden maintains a policy against the non-consensual collection or sharing of
personal information and encourages visitors to review the privacy policies of
any sites they visit to ensure their personal information is being protected.
The Garden is not responsible for the information collection,
use, disclosure or security policies or practices of other organizations,
particularly in regards to social media.
USE OF TEXT AND
IMAGES
If you would like to publish information or images that you
find on our website, please send your request to ContactUs@lewisginter.org.
Information about using our logo and images can be obtained by contacting the
Garden using the information provided at the end of this policy. For usage
of our wordmark, please view our
wordmark branding guidelines (PDF) and fill
out a request form.
ACCESSIBILITY
The Garden’s website is designed to be accessible to visitors
with disabilities and to comply with federal guidelines concerning
accessibility. We welcome any comments or suggestions you may have in this
regard. To learn more about visitor accessibility at the Garden, please visit
the accessibility
page of our web site.
POLICY CHANGES
Occasional changes may be made to this document as new
services and content are added to our site or to reflect changes in the
Garden’s policies. Visitors to the Garden’s website or the Garden Shop eStore are encouraged to check this document periodically
to stay informed of current privacy guidelines.
ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS
By using the Garden’s website, you signify your acceptance of
our privacy policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our
site. Your continued use of any Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden website following
the posting of changes to these terms will indicate your acceptance of those
changes.
EMAIL
You also may decide to send us personally-identifying
information, for example, in an email message containing a question or comment,
or by filling out a web form that provides us this information. We use
personally identifying information from email primarily to respond to your requests.
We may forward your email to other employees (including catering staff) who are
better able to answer your questions. We may also use your email to contact you
in the future about our programs that may be of interest.
If you sign up for one of our email lists, we will only send
you the kinds of information you have requested. We won’t share your name or
email address with any outside parties. You can unsubscribe from our emails at
any time by updating your preferences on our database or by clicking
“unsubscribe” on the bottom of the email.
YOUTH AND PRIVACY
We take special care when working with youth information. For
youth ages 4 – 12, parents provide basic registration information
online via Active Network for students enrolled in out-of-school time
programs. For those ages 13 – 18 applying to youth volunteer and service
programs we collect information via an online form via Volgistics
volunteer management software and/or email. We never
share any information about youth; all information is confidential. We allow
parents of youth participating in our programs to opt in or out of signing our
photo release, however, even with a photo release on file, we never identify
the youth in a photo by more than a first name.
ONLINE PROFILE
UPDATES AND DONATIONS
If you complete the Profile Update
Form and share your personally identifying information, this
information will be used only to provide you with more targeted content. We may
use your contact information to send further information about our organization
or to contact you when necessary. You may always opt out of receiving future
mailings. Our site provides users the opportunity to opt out of receiving
communications from us. You may choose to receive only specific communications
or none at all. You can not remove yourself from our
database, but you can prevent unwanted communication.
QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR
POLICIES
Please contact us if you have questions.
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
1800 Lakeside Avenue
Richmond, Virginia 23228
(804) 262-9887
ContactUs@lewisginter.org