Privacy Policy

Effective 4/20/2012

This Privacy Policy applies to all web sites of RAFT Bay Area namely www.raft.net, www.raftbayarea.org, www.raftbayarea.info, www.raftstore.net , and www.myraft.net, (the “Site” or “Sites”), which is owned and operated by Resource Area For Teaching  (“RAFT,” “we” or “our”).  At RAFT, we recognize and respect your privacy.  This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and disclose personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) gathered through our Sites.  This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected through our Sites.  It does not address our collection of Personal Information from other sources.  

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. You should check here periodically to review our current Privacy Policy, which is effective as of the effective date listed above.  Your use of our Sites and submission of Personal Information online constitutes acceptance and understanding of the Privacy Policy as in effect at the time of your submission to or use of the Site.

Types of Personal Information We Collect Through our Sites

In general, we may collect the following types of Personal Information through the Site:

Customer Information. We request personal information when you sign up as a customer, such as name, address, phone number, email address, and credit card number, and other information.

We may also collect certain optional information, including:
  • The subject(s) you teach
  • The name, address, and phone number of the organization at which you teach
  • Proof of your membership eligibility/affiliation with a qualifying educational or child care institution or program (proof of affiliation includes a pay-stub, current Teachers Association card, school ID, child care license, business card, or note on letterhead from an eligible organization, such as a school, community program, or licensed childcare facility)
  • Your preferred RAFT location
  • Information about how you were referred to our Site
  • The principal of the school at which you teach
  • Additional contact information,  (mentioned above), mobile number or fax number

We will use the information that you provide to us to confirm your eligibility for membership with RAFT.  Upon confirmation, we will assign a RAFT ID number to you.

If you are renewing your membership to RAFT, we ask for your first and last name and RAFT ID number.

Donor Information.  We request personal information when processing donations, such as name, address, phone number, email address, and credit card number, and other information.

Events, Program & Volunteers.  When you register for an event or program, or sign-up to be a volunteer, we collect certain information from you, including your name, email address, address, phone number and other contact information, as well as the name of your school or organization, the grade and subject you teach.

Other Sources.  We also may collect information about you from our affiliates and non-affiliated third parties and sources.  For example, we may collect information about current or potential members or donors from public records, public sources and third parties.  We may combine this information with the Personal Information we have collected directly from you.

Information We Collect Automatically.  We may use cookies, web beacons, and other similar technologies to collect information about you when you visit our Site.  Specifically, we may collect the following information about your use of our Site via these technologies:  your browser type and operating system; web pages you view; links you click; your IP address; your interaction with the Site; length of time you are logged in to our Site; and websites visited before our Site.  Please see the section “Cookies and Analytics” below for more information about our use of cookies.  We may use the information gathered through these methods in anonymous or aggregated form to analyze ways to improve our Site or services.  We may also associate this information with the other Personal Information that we collect about you.

How We Use Personal Information

We use the Personal Information we collect about you for the following types of purposes:

  • to respond to your requests or inquiries, and for similar customer-service-related purposes;
  • to administer events, surveys, questionnaires and programs;
  • to evaluate your eligibility for membership;
  • to process payments, including membership payments and donations;
  • to adjust our offerings or services to you and to tailor the information we send or display to you;
  • to provide you with information that we believe you may find of interest, including to send you marketing and promotional e-mails and to solicit donations;
  • to communicate with you about your membership;
  • to authenticate visitors to our Site; or
  • to improve our Site, offerings or services and to better understand how users access and use our Site and offerings, on an aggregated and individualized basis.

Notwithstanding anything else in this Privacy Policy, we also may use aggregate or non-personally identifying information about users for market analysis, research, marketing or other purposes.

How We Disclose Personal Information

We may disclose Personal Information collected online to third parties for the following sorts of purposes: 

  • to our contractors or service providers (such as service providers who help us to administer our website) who provide services or perform functions on our behalf; 
  • in response to a subpoena or other legal process by a governmental entity or third party, or if otherwise required by law;
  • to protect or enforce our rights or property; and
  • in the event of the transfer or dissolution (bankruptcy) of assets, in whole or in part, of RAFT or any of its affiliates. 

Notwithstanding anything else in the Privacy Policy, we may share aggregate or non-personally identifying information about users with third parties for marketing, advertising, research or other purposes.  

Cookies and Analytics

When you interact with our Sites, we strive to make your experience easy and meaningful.  We or our third party service providers may use cookies, web beacons (clear GIFs, web bugs) and similar technologies to track user activity and collect site data.  We may combine this data with the Personal Information we have collected from you.

Cookies.We (or our third party service providers) use cookies to track visitor activity on the Site.  A cookie is a text file that a website transfers to your computer's hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Our cookies assign a random, unique number to each visitor's computer. They do not contain information that would personally identify the visitor, although we can associate a cookie with any identifying information that is or has been provided us while visiting our Site. We or our third party service providers use cookies that remain on your computer for a specified period of time or until they are deleted (persistent cookies).  These cookies record clickstream information (data reporting the URLs, or names of the pages, on our Site that have been visited). We may also use cookies that exist only temporarily during an online session (session cookies) – these cookies allow us to identify you temporarily as you move through the Site. Most browsers allow users to refuse cookies, but doing so may impede the functionality of some portions of our Site. We also use cookies in our restricted client and sales representative limited-access portions of our Site. 

Web Beacons.  Web beacons are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, that are used to track the online movements of Web users.  In contrast to cookies, which are stored on your computer's hard drive, Web beacons are embedded invisibly on webpages and may not be disabled or controlled through your browser.

Third Parties. As noted, we may also engage third parties to track and analyze Site activity on our behalf.  To do so, these third parties may place cookies or web beacons to track user activity on our Site.  We use the data collected by such third parties to help us administer and improve the quality of the Site and to analyze usage of the Site. We do not provide these third parties with your Personal Information. 

Surveys and Questionnaires

We may administer surveys and questionnaires to members.  Your participation in such is entirely voluntary.  If you do participate, we may/will not combine your responses with the other information we have collected about you.  We will not share your individual responses with third parties, other than our service providers who help us to administer and analyze the results, unless we notify you first and obtain your consent. 

Third-Party Links

At times, our Site may contain links to other, third-party websites.  Any access to and use of such linked websites is not governed by this Privacy Policy, but, instead, is governed by the privacy policies of those third party websites.  We are not responsible for the information practices of such third party websites.  

Newsletters & Marketing Communications

We may send you emails from time-to-time, about information that we believe may be of interest to you, including our newsletter.  If, at any time, you would like to stop receiving these e-mails, you may follow the opt-out instructions contained in any such e-mail.  Please note that it may take up to 10 business days for us to process opt-out requests.  If you opt-out of receiving emails or promotions from us, we still may send you e-mails about your account, your membership or any products or services you have requested or received from us, or for other non-commercial purposes.

We may also send you direct mail to your postal address for reasons related to your RAFT member account.  You may also receive periodic mailings from us with information on new products and services or upcoming events.

Security

We use physical, technical and administrative measures to protect the security of the Personal Information that you provide to us. Despite our efforts, no data security measures can guarantee 100% security all of the time.  You should take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your password, computer and web-enabled devices, among other things, by signing off after using a shared computer, choosing a password that nobody else knows or can easily guess, and keeping your password private.

Children Under 13

Our Site is designed for, and membership available to, educators, not students.  We do not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under 13.  If we become aware that we have received any such data, we will take immediate steps to delete the data.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Policy from time to time, so be sure to check back periodically.  We will post any changes to our policy to our Sites, at http://www.raft.net/privacy-policy.  If we make any changes to this Policy that materially affect our practices with regard to the personal information we have previously collected from you, we will endeavor to provide you with notice in advance of such change, by highlighting the change on the Sites or by sending an email to you at the email address that you have registered with us. 

Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.