Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Privacy Policy

Last updated October 11, 2023

This Privacy Policy describes the manner in which the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and its affiliates, including the Center for Geospatial Solutions (collectively, the “Lincoln Institute,” or “we,” “our,” “us”) use information in operating our websites and related services (collectively, the “Site”). This Privacy Policy describes who we are and how and why we collect, use, store, and share your personal information. When we collect, use, store, and share personal information about you we are subject to various laws in the United States and the General Data Protection Regulation which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom), and we are responsible as “controller” of that personal information for the purposes of those laws. This Privacy Policy also explains your rights in relation to your personal information. If you do not agree to your information being used in the manner described in this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Site.

The Lincoln Institute will occasionally update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in the Lincoln Institute’s practices and services. Your access to and use of the Site indicates your acceptance and agreement to the terms of the then-effective Privacy Policy.

  1. Who We Are. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a non-profit private operating foundation. We seek to improve quality of life through the effective use, taxation, and stewardship of land. Through education, training, publications, and events, we integrate theory and practice to inform public policy decisions worldwide.

  2. Personal Information We Collect and Receive. Personal information is any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual. We may collect, receive, and use the following categories of information:
    1. Information You Provide Directly. We receive the information you choose to provide when using the Site. You may be asked to provide information about yourself such as your first and last name, mailing address, email address, mobile phone number, language spoken, and gender. You may provide us personal information when you join our mailing list; register for an event; submit a job application; submit information through any contact form on our websites; request customer support; respond to surveys; and make use of Lincoln Institute’s Social Media Widget features.
    2. Information We Collect or Receive When You Use the Site. We also collect or receive information when you use the Site. We collect some of this information using cookies, web beacons (small pieces of code that communicate information about your browser and device), and other technologies.
      1. We use cookies on our websites to improve the quality of the websites and services to you. One of the features of cookies is to save you time. A cookie is a small text file on your computer which a website sends to your computer to allow the website to store information which uniquely identifies Lincoln Institute’s users. Our cookies do not collect or store personally identifiable information. Rather, the cookie stores a token which uniquely identifies a particular user at a particular time. That token is then linked to the user information in Lincoln Institute’s secured databases. You can always delete the cookies and reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to display a message when a cookie is being sent.
      2. Information that we collect automatically may be combined with other information about you in order to personalize content, communications, and advertising based on your interests. Depending on how you access and use the Site, we may receive:
        1. Internet or other electronic network information. This is information we automatically collect and store when you use and interact with our websites, including, for example: information about your interactions with our websites, including the content you view, the products you purchase, the amount of time spent on our websites, the date on which you accessed our websites, and information in cookies and similar technologies; and information about how you access our websites, including your browser or operating system, your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, and browsing history.
        2. Device information. This is information we collect and store concerning the device you use when you access our websites. Device information may include, for example: the type of device you are using; certain device identifiers which may be unique to your device; and your Internet service provider.
        3. Location information. This information may include specific geolocation data drawn from your device’s GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi signals and nearby cell towers.
        4. Inferences. We may generate inferences about your preferences and characteristics based on your use of the Services and other information we have about you.
    3. Information from Third-Party Sources. We may receive information from partners and other third parties, publicly or commercially available sources, and social networking services.
      1. Partners and Other Third Parties. We may receive information about you from third parties or referral partners where you have given your consent for your information to be shared or expressed an interest in learning more about us.
      2. Publicly or commercially available sources. We may receive information about you that is publicly or commercially available, including from data vendors where we are permitted to do so.
      3. Social networking services. If you choose to connect with social networking services while using our websites, we may receive certain information about you, such as your user name.
  1. How and Why We Use the Information We Collect and Receive. We will always treat your personal information with the utmost respect and never sell it to other organizations. We use each of the categories of information we collect and receive for the following business purposes:
    1. To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
    2. To provide our websites and other services. We use the information we collect and receive to provide you with the services you use or request. For example, we use this information to:
      1. Process your registration for events;
      2. Process transactions, including purchases and donations;
      3. Provide technical support and respond to user inquiries;
      4. Notify you about updates to the Site or send other communications that are relevant to your use of the Site; and
      5. Enhance our ability to detect and prevent fraud and potentially illegal activities in connection with the Site and otherwise enforce our Terms of Service.
    3. To improve our operations and the Site. We also use the information we collect and receive to provide content you may find relevant and interesting and to maintain and upgrade our operations and the Site. For example, we may use this information to:
      1. Solicit input and feedback about our websites and services;
      2. Identify and address technical issues on our websites;
      3. Better understand the visitors who come to our websites and the content of interest to them; and
      4. Customize your experiences on our websites.
    4. To provide effective communications. We use the information we collect and receive to provide information about our services and to send you communications. For example, we may use this information to send you electronic and other marketing messages about us that may be tailored to your preferences, characteristics, interests and interactions with our websites.
    5. Where you give consent. We also may use the information we collect and receive for other purposes that may be described to you at the point of collection or for which you provide your consent.
  1. Who We Share Your Personal Information With.
    1. We may share your personal information with the following, but only for the purposes described in this Section and the prior Section:
      1. Our affiliates and related entities;
      2. Service providers we use to help deliver our products and services to you, such as payment service providers, warehouses, and delivery companies;
      3. Other third parties we use to help us run our business, such as marketing agencies or website hosts;
      4. Third parties approved by you, including social media sites you choose to link your account to or third-party payment providers;
      5. Credit reporting agencies;
      6. Our insurers and brokers; and
      7. Our banks
    2. We only allow our service providers to handle your personal information if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal information. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal information to provide services to us and to you. We may also share personal information with external auditors. We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. We may also release information to outside parties when such release is necessary or appropriate to enforce or apply the terms of any of our user or license agreements; investigate or respond to allegations of fraud, intellectual property infringement, or other unlawful activity; protect the rights, property or safety of the Lincoln Institute, the Lincoln Institute’s users, or others; to protect the Lincoln Institute’s operations; or to permit the Lincoln Institute to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that the Lincoln Institute may sustain.
  1. Your Choices About How We Handle Information We Collect and Receive About You.
    1. You may opt out of receiving future email communications from us by:
      1. Using the “Update Subscription Preferences” link in emails; or
      2. Contacting us at cgs@lincolninst.edu
    2. Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. DNT is a way for users to inform websites and services that they do not want certain information about their webpage visits collected over time and across websites or online services. The Lincoln Institute is committed to providing you with meaningful choices about the information collected on the Site for third party purposes. However, the Lincoln Institute does not recognize or respond to browser-initiated DNT signals, as the Internet industry is currently still working toward defining exactly what DNT means, what it means to comply with DNT, and a common approach to responding to DNT. The below links may not represent all opt-out options available or third parties collecting information via the Site.
      1. To opt-out of the double click and other Google advertising cookies, please visit the Google advertising opt-out page.
      2. To opt-out of analysis via the Google Analytics cookie, please visit the Google Analytics opt-out page.
  1. How Long Your Personal Information Will Be Kept. We will keep your personal information for as long as we need it to provide our products and services to you. Thereafter, we will keep your personal information for as long as is necessary to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf; to show that we treated you fairly; and to keep records required by law. We will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.

  2. Your Rights Under the GDPR. If you are a citizen of the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, please refer to our GDPR Statement. Your personal information may be held at our offices and those of our third-party service providers and agents as described above. We are based outside the EEA, and some of these third parties may be as well. To deliver services to citizens of the EEA, it may be necessary for us to share your personal information outside the EEA, for example, with service providers located outside the EEA. We will ensure the transfer complies with data protection law and all personal information will be secure.

The following outlines your rights under the GDPR.

Right to Access: The right to be provided with a copy of your personal information.

Right to Rectification: The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal information.

Right to be Forgotten: The right to require us to delete your personal information in certain situations.

Right to Restriction of Processing: The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data.

Right to Data Portability: In certain situations, the right to receive the personal information you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party.

Right to Object: The right to object: at any time to your personal information being processed for direct marketing (including profiling) and in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information, e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.

Right Not to be Subject to Automated Individual Decision-Making: The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

  1. How to File a GDPR Complaint. We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information, but you also have the right to lodge a complaint in relation to the processing of your data. If you wish to lodge a complaint, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

  2. Keeping Your Personal Information Secure. We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorized way. For example, we use an SSL Protocol to secure our websites. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorized manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

  3. When Accessing Third-Party Websites. The Lincoln Institute cannot control and cannot be held responsible for the content that appears on third-party websites, and as such, links do not constitute an endorsement, authorization, or representation of the Lincoln Institute’s affiliation with that third party. Furthermore, the Lincoln Institute is not responsible for the privacy policies of any third-party site or for how they treat information about their users. These third-party sites may place their own cookies on your computer, collect data, or solicit personal information.

  4. How to Contact Us. Please contact us by mail, email, or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you. Our contact details are:
    113 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA 02138
    privacy@lincolninst.edu
    617-661-3016 or 800-LAND-USE