Member Data Collection and Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last updated on April 11, 2019 and is effective from April 11, 2019.

HomeGrid Forum (“HomeGrid Forum”, “we”, “us”, “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

This privacy policy will inform our Member companies and their representatives (“Member companies and their representatives”, “you”, “your”) as to how we look after your personal information. This policy is separate from our website (homegridforum.org, www.homegridforum.org) Privacy Policy, and from the member site (members.homegridforum.org) Privacy Policy.

ABOUT US

Although HomeGrid Forum is headquartered in the US, HomeGrid Forum is a global membership organization driven by the collaboration and cooperation of its members, including our promoters, contributors, adopters and liaisons (“Members”).

Some personal information (primarily the member profile and information provided as part of membership with us) may be shared with other Members of our organization.

Purpose of this privacy policy

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how HomeGrid Forum collects and processes your personal information when you become a member, or when you use or apply to our services.

We do not knowingly collect information relating to children.

It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your information. This privacy policy supplements the other policies and is not intended to override them.

Controller

HomeGrid Forum is the controller and responsible for information it collects on Member companies and their representatives.

We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below.

Contact details

Our full details are:

Full name of legal entity: HomeGrid Forum
Contact person: Data Privacy Manager
Email address: privacy@homegridforum.org
Postal address: 3855 SW 153rd Drive, Beaverton, Oregon 97003 USA
Telephone number: +1 503-619-0679

INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

Personal information, or personal data, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal information about you which we have grouped together follows:

  • Identity Data includes first name, last name, company name, username or similar identifier, title, job title, gender and photograph.
  • Contact Data includes address, email address, telephone numbers.
  • Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
  • Profile Data includes your username and password, the level of your membership, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
  • User Contribution Data includes information about you and which is provided as part of your participation and contributions to working groups, product reviews, blogs, articles, video interviews, forums, or other contributions as part of your membership.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal information but is not considered personal information in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal information so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal information which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal information about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offenses.

If you fail to provide personal information

Where we need to collect personal information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, when you apply to become a member or to use our services). In this case, we may not be able to accept your application for membership or provide you with our services but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

HOW YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS COLLECTED

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms (for example our Membership Agreement) or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal information you provide when you:
    • apply to become a member;
    • submit any items to us;
    • register for an account on our members website;
    • subscribe to our service or publications;
    • register for and attend an event or take part in a survey;
    • participate in forums, discussion boards, expos; or
    • give us some feedback.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal information about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
    • User Contribution Data from other Members.
    • Contact and Identity Data from social media channels, including Twitter and LinkedIn if you connect with us on these channels.
    • Contact and Identity Data from our affiliate partners and sites, including Vital Technical Marketing, Inc., who power the Causeway membership platform.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal information other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Purposes for which we will use your personal information

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal information, what information we process for this activity and the legal bases we rely on to do so.

Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal information where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Purpose/Activity Type of information Basis for processing
To process your application to become a member and to register you as a new member (a) Identity
(b) Contact
(c) Financial
(d) Transaction
(e) Marketing and Communications 		(a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for the administration of our business)
To process and fulfill your submissions and orders including: (a) Manage payments, fees and charges (b) Collect and recover money owed to us (a) Identity
(b) Contact
(c) Financial
(d) Transaction
(e) Marketing and Communications 		(a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us)
To manage our relationship with you which will include: (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy (b) Asking you to provide feedback or take a survey (a) Identity
(b) Contact
(c) Profile
(d) Marketing and Communications 		(a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
(c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services)
To provide you with website features and functionality and enable you to partake in and contribute to email reflector discussions, forums, or other areas where you can communicate with other Members. Identity Profile User Contributions (a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for the administration of our website)
To enable you to register for and attend an event or complete a survey (a) Identity
(b) Contact
(c) Profile
(d) Marketing and Communications 		(a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them and grow our business)
To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) (a) Identity
(b) Contact
(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganization or group restructuring exercise)
(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you (a) Identity
(b) Contact
(c) Profile
(d) Marketing and Communications
(e) Technical 		Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our organization and to inform our marketing strategy)
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you (a) Identity
(b) Contact
(c) Profile 		Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our organization)

MARKETING

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal information uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We have established the following personal information control mechanisms:

Promotional offers from us

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us, are or have applied to be a member and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Third-party marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal information with any third party for marketing purposes.

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or contacting us at any time.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal information provided to us as a result of your membership with us, a submission or a product/service purchase.

WHO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH

We may have to share your personal information with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.

  • Fellow Members.
  • Our suppliers and contractors where necessary to provide our services, including Vital Technical Marketing, Inc., who power the Causeway platform and are our providers of membership payments, IT and event management services, and Proactive International PR, who are our providers of marketing and PR services.
  • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal information in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal information and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal information for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal information for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

WHERE YOUR INFORMATION IS ACCESSED

Our website and database is based and hosted in the US. Any personal information you submit to us will be held here. Additionally, HomeGrid Forum is a global membership organization.Our Members are based all around the world and the personal information you provide may be accessed by our Members worldwide.

If you are based in the EU, this means your personal information may be transferred outside of the European Economic Area to another jurisdiction. Where this is the case and we are responsible for making such a transfer, we will ensure that these are made subject to appropriate safeguards as required by applicable data protection laws, to ensure that a similar degree of protection is afforded to your personal information. These will include the use of EU Commission approved standard contractual clauses; or transfers to countries deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal information by the European Commission; or where we use providers based in the US (such as Mail Chimp), we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal information between Europe and the US. You can obtain further information about the safeguards in place for your international transfers of personal information by contacting us.

HOW WE SECURE YOUR INFORMATION

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal information breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In general, HomeGrid Forum will retain your information for as long as we continue to have a business relationship, or active engagement with you. For example, you continue to renew your membership, attend our events, participate in our forums/discussions, receive our marketing communications, or otherwise contribute to our organization.

If your membership lapses, we will retain minimum membership data, such as original join date, membership category, number of member payments and your email address. This is to allow us to reconnect your membership account and reinstate your previous membership privileges should you return to membership at a future date. We will retain this information for 6 years.

If you wish for your information to be deleted completely, please contact us.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

In certain circumstances you have rights under data protection laws in relation to the personal information we hold about you. You can request to:

  • access information held about you.
  • rectify any incorrect or incomplete information we hold about you. It is both in our interest and yours that any personal information we hold about you is accurate, complete and current. If the information we hold about you is inaccurate in any way, please contact us to have your personal information corrected. You can update any incorrect contact information yourself by accessing the HomeGrid Forum Members Area (Causeway).
  • delete, restrict or remove the data we hold about you.
  • transfer the data we hold about you to another party.
  • object to any further processing of your data.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

We will endeavor to respond to your requests within one month and free of charge. Please note that in respect of all these rights, we reserve the right to:

  • refuse your request based on the exemptions set out in the applicable data protection laws.
  • request for proof of your ID to process the request or request further information.
  • charge you a reasonable administrative fee for any repetitive, manifestly unfounded or excessive requests.

If we refuse your request to exercise these rights, we will give reasons for our refusal and allow you to challenge our decision.

If you have any concerns about how we handle your information, please contact us. If you are not satisfied after we’ve tried to resolve your issue, you’ll be entitled to lodge a complaint with the data protection regulator for your country of residence.