Privacy for Free the Ocean, LLC
Free the Ocean has created this privacy policy to disclose our information gathering and dissemination practices. Free the Ocean does not sell, rent, trade, or share Personal Information with third parties except as disclosed within this privacy policy. Our terms of service cover all visitors to, uses of or interactions with Free the Ocean. Any information sent to Free the Ocean is subject to these terms and policies.
For more information about our privacy practices or if you have questions, please contact us by e-mail at info@freetheocean.com
This privacy policy and terms of service covers the following:
Answering the Daily Trivia Question
Answering the daily trivia question on the homepage of Freetheocean.com, is free to the visitor. Advertising revenue is generated from your visits and Free the Ocean uses the funds to directly support organizations removing plastic from the ocean and coastlines. You are not required to provide any personal information to visit the Site, or to answer the daily trivia question.
Site visitors may also help protect the environment, ocean and marine species, by signing petitions and taking other actions. Visitors may voluntarily provide personal information to sign a petition, enter a giveaway, share a testimonial with the Free the Ocean community, sign up for a daily email reminder, or participate in other site activities as we offer them. See below for how we use this information.
Petitions
Signing a petition gives you a way to impact public policy in ways that connect to the core issues of Free the Ocean. When you sign a petition, you are required to provide certain personal information such as name and mail address so it can be shared with the target of the campaign in order to influence the outcome of legislation or change policies in order to help animals or the environment. This personal information is required to validate your campaign signature. All personal information you provide when signing a petition or participating in a petition, including name, address, city, state, country, and comments are considered public information and will be provided to the target of the campaign (Specific targets for a petition will be clearly identified within each petition). We will not display street or email addresses entered into the proper “Email” or “Address” fields during signing. We are not responsible for the personal information or comments you choose to submit in these petitions.
At the time of signing you will have an opportunity to indicate whether or not you wish to receive communication from Free the Ocean, or any third-party sponsor of the campaign. If you opt-in to such communications, we will add you to their email list and send your contact information to the third-party sponsor, if there is one. If you opt-out of receiving such online offers, we will not add you to their email list, nor share your name, email address, or other signing information with the 3rd party sponsor. We provide unsubscribe options to the Free the Ocean email list.
Share Your Testimonials/Comments/Reviews
When we post visitor stories, testimonials, comments, or reviews on our Site, these may contain personal information such as name, city, and state. We obtain consent in the submission form prior to posting the story, testimonial, comment, or review. If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, you can contact us at info@freetheocean.com.
Communications from the Site
Email Product or Petition to a Friend
If you choose to email a product description to a friend, we will ask you for your name and email address, and for your recipient’s name and email address. If you choose to send a petition description to a friend, only the friend’s email address is required. We will automatically send your chosen recipient(s) a one-time email to view the product or petition. We do not store, sell, trade or otherwise use any name or email address you share here for any purpose other than to deliver your message.
E-newsletters
If you wish to subscribe to our e-newsletter(s), we will use your name and email address to send a periodic email to you. We provide unsubscribe options with each and every email sent in this manner.
We don’t sell or rent our email lists.
Special Offers and Updates
Once you’ve shopped with us, we will periodically send you information on products, services, special deals, and promotions. You may opt-out of receiving these types of communications at any time. Subscribers are the first to be notified of start dates of major sales and other promotions, and periodically receive subscriber-exclusive offers such as sales and free products available only to active subscribers.
Accounts
You do not need an account to answer the free daily trivia or to purchase anything from our store. If you choose to create an account, we will ask for and store your name, email address, and a password to give you access to and to protect your account.
Updating/Accessing/Amending/Correcting personal information
Upon request, we will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your personal information. If your personal information changes, you may contact us to amend or correct it. Or, if you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services, please contact us at, info@freetheocean.com.
Shopping
When you purchase something at the Free the Ocean sustainable shopping store, shop.freetheocean.com, we use the Order Information that we collect to fulfill any orders placed through the shop.freetheocean.com store (including processing your payment information, arranging for shipping, and providing you with invoices and/or order confirmations). Additionally, we use this Order Information to:
Communicate with you; Screen our orders for potential risk or fraud; and when in line with the preferences you have shared with us, provide you with information or advertising relating to our products or services.
We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).
Links/Social Media Widgets/Electronic Log Files/Tracking Technologies/Retargeting
Our site may contain links to other Web sites, including sponsor sites and other philanthropic sites. Free the Ocean is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such sites and encourages you to review these companies’ privacy policies.
Social Media Widgets
Our Site may include social media features such as the Facebook “Share” button and widgets. These features collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it. By using our web sites and their features, you consent to the collection, storage and use of such information to augment your user experience and facilitate the programs being offered.
Electronic Log Files
As is true of most sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in electronic log files. This information includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data.
We use this information to understand how our websites are used to better meet the needs of our visitors and customers. We use IP addresses to identify and block malicious behavior like click fraud or denial of service attacks. By using our Site, you consent to the collection and use of this information to increase user satisfaction and combat harmful activities.
Tracking Technologies
Free the Ocean uses cookies or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the website, track users movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. You can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level, but if you choose to disable cookies, it may limit your use of certain features or functions on our website or service. Your continued use of cookies on our Site authorizes us to use that information to better inform and serve our users.
Behavioral Targeting/Retargeting
Free the Ocean partners with a third party ad network to display advertising on our Site. Our ad network partner uses cookies or similar technologies to collect non-personal information about your activities on our Site in order to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests, and to provide you relevant advertising through retargeting when you leave our Site. By using, you consent to the use of cookies to collect such data from you. If you do not want this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt-out by using the NAI opt-out mechanism (https://optout.networkadvertising.org).Please note that this does not opt you out of being served advertising — you will continue to see general ads that are not targeted to your interests.
Sharing Your Personal Information
We share your Personal Information with third parties to help us use your Personal Information, as described above. For example, we use Shopify to power our online store–you can read more about how Shopify uses your Personal Information here: https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy. We also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site–you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
We may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.
We will use information that we have about your shopping or clicking behavior to provide you better quality offers and promotions, and to help us understand and serve our customers better.
Collection of Personal Information from Children
Free the Ocean does not knowingly collect individually identifiable information from or about children under 13. If we later learn that we have personal information about a child under 13, we will take steps to remove that child’s information from our databases. If you have questions or concerns, please contact us at info@freetheocean.com
Changes to this Privacy Statement
We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you by means of a notice on this Site or by email prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.
This Privacy Policy was last updated on January 12, 2023.
