SUSTAINABLE OCEAN ALLIANCE PRIVACY POLICY

Effective Date: May 5, 2025

This Privacy Policy describes the privacy practices of Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Inc. (“SOA,” “we," “our,” “us”) in relation to our websites, programs and related services. SOA is a non-profit organization that promotes the conservation of the world’s oceans. Through our sustainability and global outreach programs, we connect researchers, investors, partners, donors and other members of our global network to achieve our mission (collectively, the “Services”).

Personal information we collect

Information that you provide to us:

• Contact and account information, such as your first and last name, email and mailing addresses, location, phone number, and any other personal information you provide in connection with our Services.

• Demographic information, such as your birthday, race, and ethnicity if you choose to provide such information, which we use in order to help us understand and better engage our community of supporters.  

• Donation information, such as your credit card number and billing address. Credit card numbers are processed by our payment service provider, Donorbox. To learn about our Donorbox’s data practices, please read their Terms of Service here and Privacy Policy here.

• Feedback or correspondence, such as information you provide when you contact us with questions, feedback, or otherwise correspond with us online. 

• Marketing information, such as your preferences for receiving communications about our Services, and details about how you engage with our communications.

• Other information that we may collect which is not specifically listed here, but which we will use in accordance with this Privacy Policy or as otherwise disclosed at the time of collection.

Information we obtain from third parties:

• Social media information. We may maintain pages on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and other third-party platforms. When you visit or interact with our pages on those platforms, the platform provider’s privacy policy will apply to your interactions and their collection, use and processing of your personal information. Please read these privacy policies carefully. You or the platforms may provide us with information, such as your biographical, educational, and professional experience, and we will treat such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. 

• Other sources. We may obtain your personal information from other third parties, such as marketing partners, publicly-available sources and data providers. 

Automatic data collection. We, our service providers, and advertising partners may automatically log information about you, your computer or mobile device, and your interaction over time with our Services, our communications and other online services, such as:

• Device data, such as your computer’s or mobile device’s operating system type and version, manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, RAM and disk size, CPU usage, device type (e.g., phone, tablet), IP address, unique identifiers (including identifiers used for advertising purposes), language settings, mobile device carrier, radio/network information (e.g., WiFi, LTE, 4G), and general location information such as city, state or geographic area.

• Online activity data, such as pages or screens you viewed, how long you spent on a page or screen, browsing history, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about your activity on a page or screen, access times, and duration of access, and whether you have opened our marketing emails or clicked links within them.

We collect this information using cookies and other similar technologies. For more information, see our Cookie Policy available at https://soalliance.org/cookies

How we use your personal information

To provide our Services. If we have a contract with you (such as if you are a corporate partner or program partner), we use your personal information to operate, maintain, and provide our Services in order to fulfill our contractual obligations.

To communicate with you about our Services. It is in our legitimate interests to use your personal information to  respond to your requests and communicate with you about our Services, including by sending you announcements, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages.

To improve, monitor, and personalize the Services. We use your personal information where it is in our legitimate interests to improve our Services, including by understanding your needs and interests, and personalizing your experience with the Services.

For research and development. We may use personal information for our legitimate interests to carry out research and development, including to analyze and improve our Services and our organization. As part of these activities, we may create aggregated, de-identified, or other anonymized data from personal information we collect. We may use this anonymized data and disclose it to third parties for our lawful purposes, including to analyze and improve our Services and promote our organization.

For marketing and advertising. We, our service providers and our advertising partners may collect and use your personal information for marketing and advertising purposes, with your consent where required under applicable law, but otherwise where we have a legitimate interest to do so, including:

• Direct marketing. We may send you direct marketing communications as permitted by law, including, but not limited to, notifying you of initiatives and events via email. You may opt out of our marketing communications as described in the “Opt out of marketing communications" section below.

• Interest-based advertising. We may engage advertising partners, including third party advertising companies and social media companies, to display ads around the web. These companies may use cookies and similar technologies to collect information (including the data described in the Automatic data collection section above) about your interactions over time across our Services, our communications and other online services, and use that information to serve online ads that they think will interest you.  

For Compliance and protection. We may use personal information where it is in our legitimate business interest to comply with legal obligations, and to defend SOA against legal claims or disputes, including to:

• Protect our, your or others’ rights, privacy, safety or property (including by making and defending legal claims).

• Audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements and internal policies.

• Enforce the terms and conditions that govern the Services.

• Prevent, identify, investigate and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity, including cyberattacks and identity theft.

• Comply with applicable laws, lawful requests and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities.

How we disclose your personal information

Affiliates. We may disclose your personal information to our partners, subsidiaries, and affiliates, for purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Service providers. We may disclose your personal information to third party companies and individuals that provide services on our behalf or help us operate our Services (such as user support, hosting, analytics, email delivery, donation processing, marketing, and database management services).

Advertising partners. We may disclose your personal information to third party advertising companies, including for the interest-based advertising purposes described above.

Professional advisors. We may disclose your personal information to professional advisors, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.

Authorities and others. We may disclose your personal information to law enforcement, government authorities, and private parties, as we believe in good faith to be necessary or appropriate for the compliance and protection purposes described above.

Business transfers. We may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of our business or assets, including your personal information, in connection with a business transaction (or potential business transaction) such as a corporate divestiture, merger, consolidation, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, or in the event of bankruptcy or dissolution. 

Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily make your personal information available for viewing by third parties or the public on or through our Services, that information can be seen, collected and used by others. We are not responsible for any use of such information by others.

Your choices

Opt out of marketing communications. You may opt out of marketing-related emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email. You may continue to receive service-related and other non-marketing emails. 

Online tracking opt-out. You can opt out of third-party cookies and other similar technologies as described in our Cookie Policy, available at https://soalliance.org/cookies.

Personal information requests. Depending on your location and the personal information processed, we also offer you choices that affect how we handle your personal information. You may request the following in relation to your personal information: 

• Information about how we have collected and used your personal information. 

• Access to a copy of the personal information that we have hold about you. Where applicable, we will provide the information in a portable, machine-readable, readily usable format.

• Correction of personal information that is inaccurate or out of date.

• Deletion of personal information that we no longer need to provide the Services or for other lawful purposes.

• Withdrawal of consent, where we have collected and processed your personal information with your consent. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

• Additional rights, such as to object to and request that we restrict our use of your personal information, and to complain to a regulator where you are based or where you feel a violation has occurred.

To make a request, please email us as provided in the “How to contact us” section below. We may ask for specific information from you to help us confirm your identity. 

Other sites, mobile applications and services

Our Services may contain links to other websites, mobile applications, and other online services operated by third parties. These links are not an endorsement of, or representation that we are affiliated with, any third party. In addition, our content may be included on web pages or in mobile applications or online services that are not associated with us. We do not control third party websites, mobile applications or online services, and we are not responsible for their actions. Other websites and services follow different rules regarding the collection, use and sharing of your personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of the other websites and mobile applications and online services you use.

Security 

We employ a number of technical, organizational, and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information we collect. However, no security measures are failsafe and we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.

Retention of personal information

We retain personal information as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected and processed, in accordance with applicable laws. 

Children 

Our Services are not intended for use by children under 16 years of age. If we learn that we have collected personal information through the Services from a child under 16 without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian as required by law, we will delete it.

International data transfers

We are headquartered in the United States. To provide our Services and operate our website, it is necessary for us to process personal information in the United States.  

If we transfer your personal information internationally, these countries may not provide the same protections as the data protection laws where you are based. We will ensure that safeguards are in place to afford reasonable protection of your personal information and we will comply with applicable data protection laws. Please contact us for further information about any such transfers.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on the website.

How to contact us

SOA is the entity responsible for the processing of personal information under this Privacy Policy (as a controller where provided under applicable law).

Please direct any questions or comments about this Policy or our privacy practices to information@soalliance.org.