Privacy Policy
We, at SowGood, value your privacy and treat all information regarding any transaction you engage in with the Foundation as highly confidential. Our collection, retention and usage of information that the users provide on our website is completely ethical.
The policy (“Privacy Policy”) will elaborate on the personal data or information that the SowGood collects and the usage and sharing of such data when you visit the Website or use the services of the Foundation. This Privacy Policy will also elaborate on the measures that we take to protect the security of the data collected.
The options which you have with respect to our usage of information or data shared by you on the Website will also be described. Reach out to us at connect@sowgood.org.in for purposes of updating your contact information, removing your name from our mailing lists, or for general enquiries related to our privacy practices.
Information We Collect and How We Use It
We will not use or disclose (share, sell or divulge) any of your personal information to third parties unless we have been authorised by you, or are required or authorised to do so by law.
We may use your personal information:
- for purposes related to our research, planning, program development and management;
- for purposes connected with the operation, administration, development or enhancement of our services and the Website; and
- where we suspect that fraud or unlawful activity has been, is being or may be engaged in.
Donations
When you make a donation through our Website, we may ask you to submit certain personal information that is necessary for us to process the transaction (“Donor Data”). We will not make any other use of Donor Data other than as prescribed hereinbelow.
Donor Data may be used for the following purposes:
a) Distributing receipts and thanking donors for donations
b) Informing donors about upcoming fundraising and other activities of our organization
c) Internal analysis, such as research and analytics
d) Record keeping
e) Reporting to applicable governmental agencies as required by law
f) Surveys, metrics, and other analytical purposes
g) Other purposes related to the fundraising operations
Cookies and Web Beacons
We use cookies and other tracking mechanisms to track information about your use of our Website. We may combine this information with other personal information we collect from you. Cookies are pieces of electronic information which will be sent by SowGood to the user for record-keeping purposes when you log onto our Website. These will be placed in your computer’s hard disk and enable us to recognise you as a user when you next visit. Some cookies allow us to make it easier for you to navigate our Website, while others are used to enable a faster login process or to allow us to track your activities on our Website.
Third Party Cookies
We use cookies and other tracking mechanisms to track information about your use of our Site or Services. We may combine this information with other personal information we collect from you. Cookies are pieces of electronic information which will be sent by the Foundation for record-keeping purposes when you log onto our web site. These will be placed in your computer’s hard disk and enable us to recognise you as a user when you next visit. Some cookies allow us to make it easier for you to navigate our Site and Services, while others are used to enable a faster login process or to allow us to track your activities at our Site and Service.
Disabling Cookies
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can edit your browser options to block them in the future. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie or how to disable cookies altogether. Visitors to our Website who disable cookies will be able to browse certain areas of the Website, but some features may not function.
Information We Share
The Foundation does not sell, rent, trade or otherwise disclose personal information about our Website visitors (nor our offline donors), except as described herein. We share information provided by our Website visitors with service providers that we have retained to perform services on our behalf ― for example, to process donations, send direct mails, emailers, greeting cards, making phone calls, and others. We may share your information like phone numbers, email address, etc. with these agencies so that they can perform these activities efficiently. These service providers are not authorized by us to use or disclose the information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or to comply with legal requirements. However, since we do not have complete control over these third parties, such third parties’ usage of your data/info shall be governed by the terms of their privacy policy, over which SowGood has no control.
We reserve the right to transfer any information we have about you in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our ownership or assets. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to try to direct the transferee to use personal information you have provided through this Website in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy.
Other Disclosures
In addition, we may disclose information about you (i) if we are required to do so by law; (ii) in response to a request from law enforcement authorities or other government officials; (iii) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity; (iv) as needed to protect our rights, interests, privacy, safety, property, donors, or users; or (v) to our affiliates or subsidiaries.
Security
We are committed to protecting Donor Data and other personal information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. Amongst other things, we undertake a range of security practices, including measures to help secure web access to sensitive data and undertake efforts to address security vulnerabilities for various tools and databases. The Foundation has the necessary security mechanisms in place and only designated employees have access to your personal information. We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect against unauthorized disclosure, use, alteration or destruction of the personal information in our possession. All online transactions are done on a secure server. You’ll know that you’re in a secure area of our Website when a “lock” icon appears on your screen and the “http” portion of our URL address changes to “https.” The “s” stands for “secure.”
Version 1.1 SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY: SOWGOOD
SowGood is a non-profit organization that works to empower children and to transform teaching and learning practices within government schools, private schools and our learning farm, with the ultimate mission of bringing children closer to the soil and the act of growing their own food.
Policy Objective
Social media is a platform where people exchange information, express opinions and share experiences in order to learn, for development, or purely for entertainment. The importance of social media as a platform to influence and inspire positive change cannot be understated and hence, employees of most organizations, including ours, rely significantly on social media in the course of their work.
Whether employees are handling a corporate account or using one of their personal accounts, they must ensure that they remain productive and avoid unnecessary conflict by careless use of social media in the workplace. This social media policy provides a framework for use of social media by the employees of SowGood.
Scope
We expect all our employees to follow this policy.
Policy elements
“Social media” refers to a variety of online communities including, inter alia, blogs, social and professional networks, chat rooms and forums. This policy covers all of them.
Usage of social media governed by this policy has two elements
- Using personal social media at work; and
- Representing the Organization through social media.
Using personal social media
We don’t bar our employees from accessing their personal social media accounts at work, however we expect them to act in a responsible manner and ensure that their productivity is not compromised. Excessive use of social media at work can cause a significant drop in efficiency and hampers concentration and it is easy for an employee to get sidetracked by the vast amount of content available online. Hence, we advise our employees to-
i. Use their common sense while logging on to or browsing any social media. Employees must understand that neglecting their duties and decline in productivity will adversely affect their performance reviews.
ii. Ensure others are aware that personal account or statements or opinions don’t represent the Organization and belong to the employee, in his personal capacity. Employees must not state or even imply that their personal opinions are authorized or endorsed by the Organization. To avoid any misunderstanding, it is advisable to use disclaimers, such as “The views expressed on this site are my own and not those of SowGood”.
iii. Avoid sharing intellectual property on their personal accounts without prior approval. The internal Organization policies and rights as well as statutory laws shall apply to all confidential information and intellectual property of the Organization.
iv. Steer clear of any defamatory, offensive or derogatory content, whether directed towards colleagues, clients, partners or stakeholders.
Using social media to represent SowGood
At times, employees represent the entire Organization by handling the corporate social media accounts or speak on the Organization’s behalf. In such instances, we expect the employees to exercise utmost precaution as they are shouldered with the responsibility of protecting the image and reputation of the Organization. We expect our employees to
i. Be respectful, polite and patient, when engaging in conversations on behalf of the Organization. They must exercise due care, especially when making declarations or promises on behalf of the Organization.
ii. Avoid speaking on matters that fall outside their area of expertise. Instead, the employee should try to direct the matter to the expert on the matter.
iii. Follow the confidentiality policy and the data protection and privacy policy of the Organization as well as observe the laws on intellectual property and fair use.
iv. Inform the PR/Marketing Head/Director when they are about to share any content slated to create a major impact on the audience and route the content through the appropriate channels.
v. Take criticism in their stride and in a positive manner. Employees must avoid deleting or ignoring comments without reason.
vi. Never post any discriminatory, offensive or defamatory content or commentary.
vii. Remedy or take down any misleading or false content as quickly as possible.
Disciplinary consequences
Where applicable law permits, the Organization reserves the right to monitor use of social platforms and take appropriate action to protect against misuse that may be harmful to its reputation. We may have to take disciplinary action leading up to and including termination if employees do not follow this policy. Examples of non-conformity with the employee social media policy include, but are not limited to-
- Disregarding job responsibilities and deadlines to use social media
- Disclosing confidential information through personal or corporate accounts
- Engaging in making derogatory remarks, bullying, intimidating, harassing members of the online community, using insults, or posting content that is hateful, slanderous, threatening, discriminating, or pornographic.
- Misusing personal data belonging to other employees or clients, stakeholders, partners, etc.