FIRE Privacy Policy

Freelance Investigative Reporters and Editors (FIRE) respects the privacy of visitors to our site. Please read this privacy policy carefully so that you understand our privacy practices. If you have questions about the policy, please contact us at privacy@firenewsroom.org. 

 

Collection and use of personal information 

FIRE, a fiscally sponsored project of the 501C3 corporation Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE), collects your personal information to fulfil our contractual obligations, our statutory obligations and/or the legitimate interests of FIRE and for other purposes for which FIRE has a lawful basis under applicable privacy laws. We collect the following personal information from you: 

  • Contact Information such as name, email address, mailing address, phone number and affiliation (e.g. employer or university). 

  • Order information such as event registrations and item purchases. 

 

Children’s Privacy Protection 

Children should always get permission from their parents before sending any information about themselves such as their names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers over the Internet, to us or to anyone else. We won't knowingly allow anyone under 13 to provide us any personally identifying information.  

 

Log files and cookies

We may use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user visits to our site, and gather broad technical information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.  

 

Personal information 

The only personally identifying information that FIRE gathers online is information that visitors to our site provide voluntarily, for example, when they fill out the Contact form or sign up for e-newsletters.  

Except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy, we will not sell, rent, or otherwise share personally identifying information about visitors to our site without their consent. 

You may request, review, update, or change your personal data that we have on file by emailing privacy@firenewsroom.org. 

If you would like to request access, modification, correction or deletion of personal information that you have provided to us or that you believe we may have collected about you, please contact us at privacy@firenewsroom.org.

We may not be able to delete your personal information without also deleting your access to FIRE services. 

You will not be permitted to examine the personal information of any other person or entity. In order to verify your identity, you may be required to provide us with personal information prior to accessing any records containing information about you. We may not accommodate a request to change or delete personal information if we believe doing so would violate any law or legal requirement, or cause the information to be incorrect. 

We will honor any legal right that you have to access, modify or erase your personal information. To request access and to find out whether any fees may apply, if permitted by applicable state, federal, or national law (outside of the United States), please contact privacy@firenewsroom.org. 

FIRE aims to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your Personal Data. 

If you wish to be informed what Personal Data we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems or amended, please contact us at privacy@firenewsroom.org.

You have the right: 

  • To access and receive a copy of the Personal Data we hold about you

  • To rectify any Personal Data held about you that is inaccurate 

  • To request the deletion of Personal Data held about you 

You have the right to data portability for the information you provide to TPRF. You can request to obtain a copy of your Personal Data in a commonly used electronic format so that you can manage and move it. 

 

Transfer of Data 

Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction. FIRE does not sell or exchange your Personal Data with third parties, and any sharing of your data is described in the “Third Party Service Providers” section of this policy. You have the right to have any personal data shared with those Third Party Service Providers deleted. 

 

Third-Party Service Providers 

We employ certain third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service (“Third-Party Service Providers”), to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services, or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used. 

These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and may not disclose or use it for any other purpose. You can have any of your Personal Data removed from these Third-Party Service Providers by sending an email to privacy@firenewsroom.org.

We use the following Third-Party Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service:

  • Emma (e-newsletter) 

    • Stores data to facilitate mailing of e-newsletters. Also allows FIRE to track whether an individual recipient may have opened an emailed newsletter and may have clicked on any hyperlinks in it.
    • For matters related to your data as stored in Emma, email privacy@firenewsroom.org.

  • Dropbox (file management) 

    • Stores your data to facilitate usage in accordance with this policy.

    • For matters related to your data as stored in Dropbox, email privacy@firenewsroom.org.

    • Additional information from Dropbox:

      • "If you believe that Dropbox has no lawful basis for using your personal data, believe there are other inaccuracies in your personal data, or wish to object to the use of your personal data, please let us know by contacting us privacy@dropbox.com and we’ll look into it. To request that your personal data be deleted, please fill out this form."

      • More at https://www.dropbox.com/privacy.

 

How we use your information 

We use your information to help us personalize and continually improve your experience on the website, including fulfilling your orders and requests for information, analyzing and compiling trends and statistics, and communicating with you. We also may use your information to provide customer support; communicate with you about services we provide or transactions with us, or changes to our policies or terms; send you information about features and enhancements on or to our website; send you newsletters or other materials that you have requested; send you offers or other communications about our products and services; detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be fraudulent or illegal; and perform statistical, demographic and marketing analyses of users of the website and their viewing patterns. 

 

Security 

The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. 

You can help protect the privacy of your own information by using encryption and other techniques to prevent unauthorized interception of your personal information. 

 

Information releases 

We may occasionally release information about our visitors when release is appropriate to comply with the law or to protect the rights, property or safety of visitors to our site, the public or FIRE. In the unlikely event that FIRE or substantially all of its assets are acquired by another organization or company, information on our visitors would be among the transferred assets.  

 

Links 

This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that FIRE is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage those leaving our site to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website.  

 

Other important information 

Users Outside of the United States: If you use our Website outside of the United States, you understand and consent to the transfer of your personal information to, and the collection, processing, and storage of your personal information in, the United States and elsewhere. The laws in the U.S. and these countries regarding personal information may be different than the laws of your state or country.  

 

Your California Privacy Rights: If you are a California resident, California law permits you to request certain information regarding the disclosure of your personal information by IRE to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send your request to FIRE via email at privacy@firenewsroom.org.  

 

Retention of Data 

FIRE will retain your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy policy. We will retain and use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies. 

FIRE will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our Service, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods. 

 

“Do Not Track” Signals 

We do not support Do Not Track (“DNT”). Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked. 

You can enable or disable Do Not Track by visiting the Preferences or Settings page of your web browser.

 

Notification of changes 

We may update this privacy policy to reflect changes to our information practices and/or applicable law. If we make any material changes, we will notify you by email (sent to the e-mail address we have for you) or by means of a notice on this website prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices. 

 

This document was last updated December 20, 2022.