Privacy

CleanTech Alliance Privacy Policy                                                                                    Updated 1/15/2026

Privacy Commitment

The CleanTech Alliance is committed to respecting the privacy of our members, partners, participants, attendees, and volunteers. We only collect personal information with your consent. We maintain a database of members, partners, and participants in order to conduct our business and stay in touch with our community.

Information We Collect

We may collect personal information in the course of operating our programs, events, and services. This may include:

• First name
• Last name
• Email 
• Address
• Photographs
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Higher education and work details
• Participation in our events, emails, competitions, surveys and other activities 
• Donations made to the Cascadia CleanTech Prize
• Geo-location data (your geographical location based on your IP address)
• Log-ins and activity on the website
• A record of payments made via the website (but we do not store your credit/ debit card details as these are processed securely externally by a third-party payment provider) which could include event tickets, shop purchases or online donations
• Consent options and communication preferences
• Content (such as announcements, stories, photos, documents, comments, events, jobs) that you post on this website or provide to us by other means
• Messages that you send to other community members via the direct messaging system when logged in to this website
   

We collect personal information when you:

• visit this website
• create or update your online profile
• post content on to this website or other websites and social media sites managed by XXXXXXXXX
• take part in an event
• attend a meeting with us and provide us with information
• contact us in any way including online, email, phone, SMS, social media or post
• open an email sent from this website
• send a message via the direct messaging system on this website

Some areas of our website require users to log in. We may use cookies to enhance your experience and support website functionality. See our cookies policy for more information.

How We Use and Share Information

We will use your personal information in a number of ways, always with a legal basis for processing your data. These may include:

• providing you with the information or updates that you have asked for
• sending you communications (with your consent if required) that may be of interest, including invites to events, programs, and meetings, newsletters and fundraising campaigns
• delivering our obligations under any contract between us
• seeking your views on the services or activities we carry out, so that we can make improvements
• updating our database records and ensuring we know how you prefer to be contacted
• analyzing your engagement with our website and other content to help us improve our services for you
• running our events, projects, committees, and mentoring programs
• displaying your name as a list of potential ‘matches’ when you (or someone with similar details) signs-up for an event, makes a donation or joins the online community and the system is trying to match your information to an existing record stored in our database
• Your name, employer, and email may be shared with event sponsors or marketing partners
• Donor Information may be shared with grant recipients or in our annual report unless the donation is anonymous
• Third-Party Services: We may use third-party providers to manage communications, events, and surveys, and we may run events or programs in conjunction with third-parties, partners, and vendors. These providers may process your data under their own privacy policies
• Where data can be aggregated and anonymised, our website provider (ToucanTech) might use this for research purposes without restriction. For example, they may monitor traffic patterns, site usage, response rates and data trends to help make improvement to the website software. They are entitled to do this because the resulting data will not personal identify you and will therefore no longer constitute personal data for the purposes of data protection laws

Other than this, we will not share your information with other organizations without your consent.

Our legal basis for processing your information

The use of your information for the purposes set out above is lawful because one or more of the following applies:

• you have given us your consent for the information to be used,  or it is implied by your working group and committee participation
• it is necessary for us to hold and use your information to carry out our obligations under a contract entered into with you
• it is necessary for our legitimate interests to hold and use your information and we are not impacting your privacy by doing so

Updating your consent preferences

If you have an online profile on this website you can update your consent options by logging-in and clicking on “My Settings” in your profile. Scroll down to find your ‘Consent options’ where you will see a list of consents and the options “opt-in”, “opt-out” and “unspecified”. 

Via ‘My Settings’ you can also choose to hide your profile from Google, limit access to your profile so that it’s only viewable to your connections and adjust some of the automatic notifications that you receive from this website.  Please note that your name (but not full profile) may appear in various places around the community website, such as a ‘Recent Joiners’ box and in ‘Search’ results irrespective of the privacy settings you have selected.  

If we are using legitimate interests as our legal basis for processing your data, we will process your data responsibly in a way that you would reasonably expect, and you can opt-out at any stage.

If you click ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of one of our emails sent you will be automatically opted-out of these types of email communications in the future.

If you want to contact us about your consent preferences please contact our staff by email at admin@cleantechalliance.org.

Data Protection

We take reasonable measures to protect the data we collect. We understand the importance of keeping your personal information secure and take appropriate steps to safeguard it.

Your data is stored on a dedicated, secure cloud server hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the EU and managed by our website provider, ToucanTech.  Industry standard firewalls, anti-virus, encryption and back-up methods are in place, as well as strict data handling protocols.

We always ensure only authorized persons have access to your information, which means only our approved employees and contractors, and that everyone who has access is appropriately trained in data management.   

If you have an online profile for this website you are responsible for keeping your login details (email and password) confidential and we ask that you do not share your password with anyone.

No data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. So, whilst we strive to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you provide online and you do this at your own risk.

Data Retention

We retain personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law.

Voluntary Information

Any additional information collected—such as through surveys—is voluntary and used to improve our programs. Survey results are published only in aggregate and do not include personally identifiable information.

Children’s Privacy

Our services are not directed to individuals under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have rights under applicable data protection laws, including the right to access, correct, or delete your personal information, and to opt out of certain communications.

Access and Updates

You may request to review or update the personal information we have on file for you at any time by contacting us at info@cleantechalliance.org.

Please would you let us know if your contact details change. Online members can update your details directly by logging-in to the website and clicking on ‘My Settings’ under your profile.  

Policy Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time and will notify members of significant changes.

How long we keep your information for

We will hold your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the relevant activity Where we rely on your consent to contact you for direct email marketing/ fundraising purposes, we will treat your consent as lasting only for as long as it is reasonable to do so. We may periodically ask you to renew your consent.

If you ask us to stop contacting you, we will keep a record of your contact details and limited information needed to ensure we comply with your request. If you ask us to remove your personal data from our database we will delete all the information we hold in our community portal operated by Toucan Tech.

Your rights

You have the right to request details of how we use your personal information through making a subject access request. Such requests have to be made in writing by contacting [details].

You also have the following rights:

• to request rectification of information that is inaccurate or out of date;
• to erasure of your information (the “right to be forgotten”);
• to restrict the way in which we are dealing with and using your information; 
• to request that your information be provided to you in a format that is secure and suitable for re-use (the “right to portability”);
• in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
• Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), individuals residing in the EU/EEA have the right to:
  • Access their personal data
  • Correct inaccuracies
  • Request deletion ('right to be forgotten')
  • Restrict or object to processing
  • Receive a copy of their data in a portable format
• Data Protection Officer -We currently do not require a Data Protection Officer under GDPR. However, we are committed to alignment with applicable data protection standards.

All of these rights are subject to certain safeguards and limits or exemptions.  To exercise any of these rights, you should contact The CleanTech Alliance at the above address or at admin@cleantechalliance.org

If an individual believes that The CleanTech Alliance has not complied with this policy or acted otherwise than in accordance with Data Protection Laws, please contact admin@cleantechalliance.org.

If you feel your complaint has not been addressed satisfactorily, you can also make a referral to or lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): https://ico.org.uk or the appropriate jurisdiction.