Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights

View the Terms and Conditions of Website Use.

Privacy Policy last revised March 1, 2016.

We are strongly committed to letting you know how we will collect and use your personal information.  The policies below are applicable to the Sierra Club’s network of websites, including sierraclub.org, and its affiliated websites (including any versions optimized for viewing on a wireless or tablet device); all email newsletters published or distributed by the Sierra Club; all apps published by the Sierra Club; and all other interactive features, services, and communications provided by the Sierra Club (“Sites”), however accessed and/or used, that are operated by us, made available by us, or produced and maintained by the Sierra Club (collectively “Sierra Club” or “we”, “us”, or “our”).  We have established this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to let you know the kinds of personal information we may gather during your visit to these Sites, why we gather your information, what we use your personal information for, when we might disclose your personal information, and how you can manage your personal information.

This Privacy Policy is part of the terms and conditions which are set forth in our Terms and Conditions By using our Sites, you are accepting the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Sites. The Sierra Club reserves the right to modify or amend the terms of our Privacy Policy from time to time without notice to you. If you continue to use our Sites after we post changes to this Privacy Policy, it will mean that you accept those changes. If we intend to apply the modifications or amendments to this Privacy Policy retroactively or to personal information already in our possession, we will provide you with notice of the modifications or amendments.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or don’t see your concerns addressed here, you should contact us by email at privacy@sierraclub.org.

We collect two basic types of information from you in conjunction with your use of the Sites, personal information and non-personal information.  Personal information is information that you may supply to us, as described more fully below, i.e., when you subscribe, place an order, complete a survey, register for a Site or any part thereof, enter a contest, upload content, participate in a community, or provide your e-mail address.  Personal information is any information that can individually identify you and includes, among other things, your name, e-mail address, telephone number, postal address, credit card, billing and contact information.  Non-personal information includes information that does not personally identify you, but it may include tracking and usage information about your location, demographics, use of the Sites and the Internet.

NORMAL WEBSITE USAGE

The Sierra Club has a firm commitment to internet privacy. You can visit most portions of our Sites without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information.

Collection of Personal Information From or Through Social Media Sites

When you interact with any Sierra Club property page or account on a social media platform, such as Facebook, we may collect the personal information that you make available to us on that page or account including your account ID or “handle.” However, we will comply with the privacy policies of the corresponding social media platform and we will only collect and store such personal information that we are permitted to collect by these social media platforms.  If you choose to link or login to your Sierra Club account with or through a social networking service, Sierra Club and that service may share certain information about you and your activities. With your consent, we also may share information about your activities, including what you view on the Sites, with that social network’s users.

Collection and Use of Personally Identifiable Information 

The Sierra Club may collect email addresses and other personally identifiable data about you when such data is voluntarily submitted to our Sites. There are a number of circumstances in which you may supply us with your personal information.  The following lists the most common ways in which we may collect your personal information.

  • Registration for an account on the Sites
  • Sign up to receive e-mail newsletters or e-mail alerts from us
  • Request for customer service or other assistance
  • Participation in surveys, panels, or market research
  • Participation in special events and promotions
  • Purchases on the Sites, including subscriptions to the Sierra Club publications and services
  • Placing an order
  • Making a donation, joining, or renewing your Sierra Club membership
  • Entry in contests or sweepstakes
  • Participation on social media accounts involving the Sierra Club, our Sites and our brands
  • Participation in communities, chat rooms and comment threads, other fora, and other interactive services
  • Submission of user generated content on any part of the Sites that permit it
  • Any other place on the Sites where you knowingly volunteer personal information

For example, our Sites may require submission of personally identifiable data for visitors to request information, products, and services, or to become a member of the Sierra Club or join other Sierra Club activities or programs (such as AddUp). Such information is used to send orders and information about the Sierra Club to our visitors. Financial information is used to bill visitors in connection with their orders. Some of the activist functions of our site also require registration of personal information. We use this information to make these functions more effective and provide participants with additional information about conservation issues.  If you submit personally identifiable information to the Sierra Club some information, such as your name and mailing address, may be exchanged with other organizations. Members may opt out of such membership list exchanges by following the Opt-Out Procedures, below

Collection and Use of Non-Personally Identifiable Information

We may also collect certain information that does not identify you individually and our servers may automatically keep an activity log of your use of our Sites (“Non-Personal Information”). We may collect and store any of the following categories of Non-Personal Information:

  • Non-identifiable demographic data such as age, gender, and five digit zip code as part of collecting personal information
  • Device information about your computer, mobile device, or other device that you use to access the Sites.  This information may include IP address, geolocation information, unique device identifiers, device type, browser type, browser language, and other transactional information.
  • Analytics and usage information about your use of the Sites.
  • Additional “traffic data” and log files such as time of access, date of access, software crash reports, session identification number, access times, and referring website addresses.
  • Other information regarding your use of the Sites.

Collection of Your Source IP Address/Location Information 

We may also collect and store location information about you on the Sites and associated with your account that you volunteer on the site or enable through the site.  We also collect and store your computer’s source IP address which may disclose the location of your computer at the time you access the Sites. 

Google Analytics

We also use Google services, including Google Analytics and Google AdWords which uses cookies and other, similar technologies to collect information about Site use anonymously and reports website trends, without identifying individual visitors. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/, and opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

ExactTarget Services

We also use ExactTarget services which collect personal information in connection with Sierra Club emails and newsletter campaigns, including email delivery and click through data. This information may be aggregated and/or associated with your other personal information. You can learn about ExactTarget’s practices by going to http://www.exacttarget.com/privacy-policy.

Is Personal Information Collected From Children?

Unless otherwise disclosed during collection and with parent or guardian consent (for instance, in some of the educational areas on our Sites), Sierra Club does not knowingly collect personal identifiable information from children under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age you should not provide personally identifiable information to the Sierra Club without providing us with consent from your parents. If the Sierra Club discovers that a child under the age of 13 has provided the Sierra Club with personally identifiable information and we do not have parental consent, the Sierra Club will immediately delete that child’s information from the Sites.

HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use the information we learn from you to help us personalize and continually improve your experience on the Sites.  We may use your Personal and Non-Personal Information in the following ways:

General Uses

  • Provide you with the content, products and services you request
  • Track your purchases and donation information
  • Post your user generated content to our Sites as you request
  • Communicate with you about your account or transactions with us and send you information about features and enhancements on or to our Sites
  • Communicate with you about changes to our policies
  • Communicate with you about your comment to a story or topic
  • Personalize content and experiences on our Sites, including providing you recommendations based on your preferences
  • Send you newsletters, offers and promotions for our products and services, third party products and services, or special events by e-mail, text, or other another medium
  • Provide you with advertising including advertising based on your activity on our Sites or activity on third party sites and applications
  • Administer contests, sweepstakes, promotions, and surveys
  • Optimize or improve our products, services and operations
  • Detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal
  • Perform statistical, demographic, and marketing analyses of users of the Sites and their purchasing patterns

Combination of Your Personal Information

We use the information from one portion of the Sites on other portions of Sites in our network of Sites, all of which are owned and operated by the Sierra Club, and we may combine information gathered from multiple portions of the Sites into a single user record.  We also use and/or combine information that we collect off-line or we collect or receive from third party sources to enhance, expand, and check the accuracy of your records.

Disclosure to Third Parties

We occasionally have third parties perform services on our behalf, such as data processing, marketing, analytics, advocacy and outreach, hosting, billing, social media integration, fraud protection, etc. These third parties have access to your personal information only as needed to perform their services for the Sierra Club and are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of the personal information.

We sometimes partner with other advocacy organizations on Sierra Club endorsed activities. When we do, we shall endeavor, but shall not be required, to present you with the option to “opt-in” by sharing your email and personal information with the partner organization, or to opt-out of such program(s).  We may also share your Personal Information with third parties that provide products and services that we think you may be interested in.  Although our treatment of your Personal Information is governed by this Privacy Policy, the business partner or third party’s treatment of your Personal Information will be governed by the business partner or third party’s privacy policy.  You may withdraw your consent to our sharing of your Personal Information with business partners and third parties at any time by following the opt-out process described below. We may also use or disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to applicable law or comply with legal process served on us or this site; (b) protect and defend our rights or property, this site or our users, and (c) act under emergency circumstances to protect the personal safety of us, our affiliates, agents, site users, or the public.

We may disclose or share Non-Personal Information (or other information, other than Personal Information) in any other manner that we deem appropriate or necessary. Among other things, we will disclose Non-Personal Information to third parties to help us determine how people use parts of the site and who our users are so we can improve our site.  We will also disclose Non-Personal Information to our partners and other third parties about how our users collectively use the site.

Retention of User Information

Following termination or deactivation of your account, Sierra Club, its affiliates, or its service providers may retain information (including your profile information) and any submitted for a commercially reasonable time for backup, archival, and/or audit purposes. 

Security

The Sierra Club uses industry accepted data collection and encryption methodologies in an attempt to ensure the secure collection and transmission of sensitive user information. While we try our best to safeguard your personal information once we receive it, no transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

"Remember me" feature

On some of our forms, we offer an optional "remember me" feature that can recall your information for greater ease on subsequent visits to the site.

Use of cookies and tracking technology

When clicking on links on the Sites, third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your browser for the purposes of tracking users referred by Sierra Club, and using web beacons or other tracking technology. A "cookie" is a small string of text that is sent to your computer or device that can collect data regarding your operating system, browser type, device type, mobile device ID, screen resolution, IP address and other technical information. These cookies are placed in connection with our participation with third party affiliate networks (such as AvantLink, Commission Junction, Google, Facebook and LinkShare). These cookies do not collect personally identifiable information; however, by clicking on a logo or link for a third party offer or website, you will leave the Sierra Club Sites and will be redirected to that party's site, where you will be subject to that site's terms of use and privacy policy. You can remove, block, or disable cookies using the settings in your web browser.  For more information on cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information provided by the Interactive Advertising Bureau at www.allaboutcookies.org

YOUR OBLIGATIONS TO KEEP YOUR ACCESS RIGHTS SECURE

You promise to: (a) provide true, accurate, current and complete information as prompted by a Site’s registration form, order form or otherwise (such information being the "User Data") and (b) maintain and promptly update the User Data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or the Sierra Club has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, the Sierra Club has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Sites (or any portion thereof).  You are entirely responsible for the security and confidentiality of your password(s) and account(s). Furthermore, you are entirely responsible for any and all activities that occur under your account(s).

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I LINK TO OR FROM ANOTHER WEBSITE?

These Sites may contain links to other websites operated by affiliates of Sierra Club or third parties. Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Policy do not apply to information gathered through these other websites. We are not responsible for the actions and privacy policies of third parties and other websites. 

WHAT ABOUT CONTESTS, SWEEPSTAKES, OR GAMES?

When we run a contest or sweepstakes or game relating to our Sites, it will be accompanied by a set of rules. The rules for each contest, sweepstakes or game will specify how the information gathered from you for entry will be used and disclosed if it is different than as described in this Privacy Policy.  In conjunction with your entry in such contest or sweepstakes, Personal Information will be collected only if you voluntarily submit it to. 

PUBLIC AREAS, CHAT ROOMS, REVIEWS, AND COMMUNITY AREAS

Please remember that any information you share in public areas, such as message boards, feedback sections or campaign sites such as Addup.org, becomes public and anyone may take and use that information.  Please be careful about what you disclose and do not post any Personal Information that you expect to keep private.  Please consult the applicable guidelines, if any, for use of our chat rooms and other community areas for more information.

GOVERNING LAW

These Sites are published in the United States. We attempt to protect the Personal Information of all users of our Sites and we attempt to comply with local data protection and consumer rights laws to the extent they may apply to the Sierra Club services, but our family of Sites are located and targeted to United States citizens and our policies are directed at compliance with those laws.  If you are uncertain whether this privacy policy conflicts with the applicable local privacy laws where you are located, you should not submit your Personal Information to the Sierra Club. 

NOTICE TO NON-US USERS

If you are located outside the United States of America, you should be aware that your personally identifiable information will be transferred to the United States of America, the laws of which may be deemed by the your country to have inadequate data protection. If you are located in a country outside the United States of America and voluntarily submit personal information to us, you thereby consent to the general use of such information as provided in this privacy policy and to the transfer of that information to, and/or storage of that information in, the United States of America.

ASSIGNMENT

We may change corporate organization while providing the Sites and services.  We may also sell certain assets associated with the Sites.  As a result, please be aware that in such event we may transfer some or all of your information to a company or other entity acquiring certain of our assets.  Under such circumstances we would, to the extent possible, require the acquiring party to follow the practices described in this Privacy Policy, as it may be amended from time to time.  Nevertheless, we cannot promise that an acquiring company or entity will have the same privacy practices or treat your information the same as described in this Privacy Policy.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

As our Sites continue to develop, we may add new services and features to our Sites. In the event that these additions affect our Privacy Policy, this Privacy Policy will be updated appropriately.  We will post those changes prominently so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information and whether we will disclose it to anyone.  We do, however, recommend that you read this Privacy Policy each time you use our Sites in case you missed our notice of changes to the Privacy Policy.  We will not, however, materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of Personal Information we have previously collected from you without your express consent.

YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

Residents of the State of California have the right to request a list of all third parties to which a company conducting business in California has disclosed personal information during the preceding year for direct marketing purposes. In turn, businesses (including the Sierra Club), must respond to such requests unless they have a comprehensive privacy policy that gives residents an Opt-out or Opt-in choice for use of their personal information by third parties for their direct marketing purposes and a cost-free means to exercise that right.

This Privacy Policy is intended to provide you a comprehensive overview of how we collect, use and share your information.  The following section explains the choices you have with respect to how your information is used and shared, including opting out of the use of your personal information by third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Therefore, we are not required to maintain or disclose a list of the third parties that received your personal information for marketing purposes during the preceding year.

OPT-OUT, CORRECTION, AND “UNSUBSCRIBE” PROCEDURES

To opt out of having your information exchanged with other organizations, or to correct any information, send us email or postal mail as follows:

Email to membership.services@sierraclub.org.

Send postal mail to:

Sierra Club

85 Second Street, 2nd Floor

San Francisco, California 94105

In your letter or email, make sure to give us your:

  • Full Name
  • Mailing address (including City, State and Zip Code)
  • Indication that you do not wish to have your membership information exchanged with other organizations,  or correction instructions.

The Sierra Club may contact you by email to communicate advocacy and educational messages, and other information that may be of interest to users of this site. There are several ways in which you can opt-out of receiving such future email communications from us:

We provide you with the opportunity to opt-out at the point where we request information from you, such as when you take action through our site.

When you set up an account on our Member Center, you also have the opportunity to specify the email subscriptions that you wish to receive or not receive. You can update your email subscription preferences through your account at the Member Center at any time. We also permit you to correct or update certain personal information that you have provided by editing your profile on your account at the Member Center.

You also have an opportunity to opt-out of receiving future email communications from us by following the "unsubscribe" or "remove" instructions contained in emails we send you.

We may continue to contact you via email for administrative or informational purposes, including follow-up messages regarding the administration of your account, renewal of your membership, contests you have entered or other transactions you have undertaken.

COMPLAINT PROCEDURE

If you suspect that we have handled your personal information in a manner that doesn't comply with the Privacy Policy, please contact us by e-mailing an explanation to privacy@sierraclub.org.

View the Terms and Conditions of Website Use.