Effective January 1, 2019

This privacy policy describes why and how we collect and process information provided to or collected by us through the websites and applications where this privacy policy is posted. We take great pride in the relationship of trust we have built with our members, leaders, volunteers, donors and others over many years and we are dedicated to treating your personal information with care and respect. We follow this policy in accordance with local law in the places where we operate. This policy is effective as of the date above and may be changed by us in accordance with the procedures described in the Changes section.

Who We Are

As used in this privacy policy, “we”, “us” or “our” refers to Heart of New England Council, Boy Scouts of America and its affiliated entities.

Note regarding the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): We do not contemplate offering goods or services to individuals in the European Union.

To the extent we collect or process personal information of individuals in the European Union, we will do so in accordance with this policy. Should you have questions or concerns regarding your personal information, or to submit a data subject request regarding your personal information please send an email to hne@scouting.org. For further information consistent with the requirements of GDPR, please see the Region-Specific Disclosures section below.

Note regarding definitions: The following terms, as used in this policy, have the following meanings:

• “Personal information” means information that identifies (whether directly or indirectly) a particular individual, such as the individual’s name, postal address, email address, telephone number, and birth date. When anonymous information is directly or indirectly associated with personal information, the resulting information also is treated as personal information.
• “Anonymous data” means information that does not directly or indirectly identify, and cannot reasonably be used to identify, an individual person.
• “Aggregate data” means information about groups or categories of people, which does not identify and cannot reasonably be used to identify an individual person.

What We Collect

We collect two basic types of information – personal information and anonymous data – and we may use personal information and anonymous data to create a third type of information, aggregate data. For example, we collect:

• Membership information you provide when you join the Boy Scouts of America, either as a youth member or adult volunteer, including your first name and last name, physical address, email address, phone number, birth date, and gender
• Registration information you provide when you create an account or sign up to participate in one of our events or activities, including your first name and last name, physical address, email address, username and password, and, in some cases, health and medical information
• Transaction information you provide when you request information, purchase a product, service or subscription from us, or make a monetary donation to us, whether on our sites or through our applications, including your postal address, telephone number and payment information
• Information about awards, advancements, recognition, and training you have received in connection with your participation in our programs
• Information you provide in public forums on our sites and applications
• Information sent by you either one-to-one or within a limited group using our message, chat, post or similar functionality, where we are permitted by law to collect this information
• Information you provide to us when you use our sites and applications, our applications on third-party sites or platforms such as social networking sites, or link your profile on a third-party site or platform with your registration account
• Location information when you visit our sites or use our applications, including location information either provided by a mobile device interacting with one of our sites or applications (including through beacon technologies), or associated with your IP address, where we are permitted by law to process this information
• Usage, viewing and technical data, including your device identifier or IP address, when you visit our sites or use our applications, how much time you spend on our sites or using our applications, and when you open emails we send

How we Collect Information

We collect your personal information when you provide it to us in the course of requesting or ordering products, services or information from us, registering with us (e.g., for a program, an event, or an activity), entering a contest or promotion, subscribing to our services, participating in public forums on our sites and applications, responding to surveys, or otherwise interacting with us through our websites and applications. We collect anonymous data through technology, such as cookies, and Web beacons, that we use to operate our websites and applications. 

How we Use Information

Consistent with applicable law and choices and controls that may be available to you, we may use information collected from you, or from devices associated with you, to:

• Provide you with the products, services, and/or information you have requested, purchased, or won (e.g., in a contest or promotion)
• Communicate with you about your membership (or your expressed interest in membership), your account, or transactions with us and to send you information about features on our sites and applications or changes to our policies
• Manage, accommodate and administer your needs (e.g., medical treatment, physical limitations) and choices (e.g., programming) as a participant in our events
• Deliver relevant offers and promotions for our programs, events, products and services or those of a third party, based on your activity on our websites or applications
• Personalize content and experiences for you that reflect your choices and preferences
• Provide useful features to simplify your experience when you return to our sites and applications
• Operate, understand, optimize, develop or improve our products, services, events, programs, communications, and operations
• Administer and enforce our policies concerning health and safety, including our Youth Protection Training requirements and our Annual Health and Medical Record requirements
• Detect, investigate and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal
• Send you information related to your charitable contributions.

Sharing Your Information with Others

We do not share any lists of current or former registered members or leaders of the BSA or lists of BSA donors with any third party for its direct marketing purposes.

In addition, we may share your personal information:

• With third parties providing services for us or on our behalf, such as order and prize fulfillment, package delivery, customer service, event registration management, payment processing, financing and advertising, marketing, or data analytics services; however, such service providers are prohibited from using your personal information for their marketing purposes or any other purpose not specified by us or required by law.
• With others associated with your Scouting unit, including approved users of our application programming interfaces (APIs), for the purposes of efficient unit administration. This might include sharing information about the awards, advancements, recognition, and training you have received in or through our programs.
• With third parties to enforce our policies and regulations, to ensure the safety and security of our members, volunteers, donors, employees and third parties, to protect our rights and property and the rights and property of our members, volunteers, donors, employees and third parties, to comply with legal process or in other cases if we believe in good faith that disclosure is required by law.

Your Controls and Choices

You always have the choice to not provide your personal information to us or change your communication choices, but consequently you may not be able to receive certain goods or services or participate in certain programs or activities. If you need assistance  please contact our council service center by calling 978-534-3532 or submitting a request at hne@scouting.org.

• Marketing. As a matter of BSA policy, lists of current and former registered members and leaders of the BSA and lists of BSA donors may not be used for commercial purposes, such as selling or renting such lists to other businesses for their direct marketing purposes. We may send you offers and promotions for our products, programs, and events, or those that we think may be of interest to you, and you may opt-out or unsubscribe from such offers by either following the instructions provided in our communications to you or changing your preferences in your account.
• Tracking Technologies. We use cookies to track user activity on our websites and online services, but we do not collect personal information about your online activities over time as you move across other websites and online services. Web browsers can transmit Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals that indicate that a user does not wish to have activity tracked. Currently, no universally accepted standard exists for how to interpret such signals, and we do not respond to Do Not Track signals. Thus, whether or not you have turned on your DNT setting should not affect your experience or interaction with our websites or online services. Learn more about Do Not Track.

Children’s Privacy

Digital privacy is a component of BSA’s commitment to youth protection and safety. As such, we do not collect the personal information of children under the age of 13 unless a child’s parent or legal guardian provides it to us through the online membership registration process or a child provides it to us to enter a contest or promotion. In any event, consistent with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a parent may review or have deleted their child’s personal information, and prohibit its further collection or use. If you have a request in relation to the personal information of your child below the age of 13, please send an email to hne@scouting.org.

For contests and promotions, we typically require only the information necessary for a child to enter, such as first name (to distinguish among family members) and his or her online contact information. We will only use the child’s online contact information to enter him or her into the contest or promotion and contact him or her once when the contest ends. If a contest or sweepstakes asks the child to submit his or her own created content with the entry and that content contains the child’s personal information, then we will either pre-screen the submission to remove any personal information or seek parental consent by email for the collection. To facilitate delivery of the contest’s prize, we may ask a child at the time of entry to also provide her or her parent or legal guardian’s online contact information, which we will only use to notify the parent or legal guardian if the child wins the contest or promotion.

Our sites and applications that are age-gated are not intended for use by children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through those sites and applications. In the unlikely event we discover that we have collected personal information from a child other than as described in this section, we will either delete the information immediately or promptly seek the parent or legal guardian’s consent to use the information.

Data Security, Integrity and Retention

The security, integrity and confidentiality of your information are extremely important to us. We have implemented technical, administrative and physical security measures that are designed to protect guest information from unauthorized access, disclosure, use and modification. From time to time, we review our security procedures to consider appropriate new technology and methods. Please be aware though that, despite our best efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. We will retain your personal information for the length of time needed to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

Changes

From time to time, we may change this privacy policy to accommodate new technologies, industry practices, regulatory requirements or for other purposes. We will provide notice to you if these changes are material, either by direct notice or posting an announcement on the websites where this policy is posted, and, if required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent.

Comments and Questions

If you have a comment or question about this policy or our treatment of your information, you may contact our council service center at 978-534-3532. Our sites and applications may contain links to other sites not owned or controlled by us and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our sites or applications and to read the privacy policies of other sites that may collect your personal information.