Privacy Policy

Last updated: December 23, 2020

Lambda Literary Foundation (“Lambda Literary,” “we,” or “us”) wants you to be familiar with how we collect, use and disclose information.  This Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with information that we collect through:

• Our websites currently located at https://lambdaliterary.org/ and any other websites operated by us from which you are accessing this Privacy Policy (the “Websites”);
• Our social media pages and apps located at https://www.facebook.com/LambdaLiterary, https://twitter.com/lambdaliterary, https://www.instagram.com/lambdaliterary/,  https://www.youtube.com/user/LambdaLliterary,  and https://www.linkedin.com/company/lambda-literary/ (collectively, our “Social Media Pages”);
• HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you that link to this Privacy Policy or other communications with you; and
• Offline interactions you have with us, such as our events and programs.

Collectively, we refer to the Websites, Social Media Pages, emails, and offline business interactions as the “Services.”

Personal Information

“Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual.  The Services collect Personal Information, including:

• Your name
• Email address
• Postal address
• Telephone number
• If you make a donation, card holder name, payment card number, expiration date and security code
• IP address (we may also derive your approximate location from your IP address)
• Profile picture
• Social media account ID
• Manuscript, book or other submission provided in connection with an application for one of our programs
• Demographic information such as race/ethnicity and gender, if you choose to provide it to us, in connection with an application for one of our programs
• Photographs and videos taken at events

Collection of Personal Information

We and our service providers collect Personal Information in a variety of ways, including: 

• Through the Services. 
  • We collect Personal Information through the Services, for example, when you sign up for newsletters or to receive information about one of our programs (such as the Writer’s Retreat, Lambda LitFest and Writers in Schools).
• From Other Sources. 
  • We receive your Personal Information from other sources, for example, an author’s publishing company may submit an author’s Personal Information to us in connection with the Lambda Literary Awards.

We need to collect Personal Information in order to provide the requested Services to you.  If you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able to provide the Services. If you disclose any Personal Information relating to other people to us in connection with the Services, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Use of Personal Information

We use Personal Information for the following purposes:

• Providing the functionality of the Services and fulfilling your requests.
  • To provide the Services’ functionality to you.
  • To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, when you contact us via one of our online contact forms or otherwise, for example, when you send us questions, or when you request information about our Services.
  • To complete your donations, verify your information, and provide you with related customer service.
  • To send administrative information to you, such as changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.

• Providing you with our newsletter and/or other information and materials relevant to our mission or organization and facilitating social sharing.
  • To send you emails with information about our services and other information relevant to our mission or organization.
  • To facilitate social sharing that you choose to use, including through the Social Media Pages.
• Analyzing Personal Information for reporting and providing personalized services.
  • To analyze or predict our users’ preferences in order to prepare aggregated trend reports on how our digital content is used, so we can improve our Services.
  • To better understand your interests and preferences, so that we can personalize our interactions with you and provide you with information and/or offers tailored to your interests.
  • To better understand your preferences so that we can deliver content via our Services that we believe will be relevant and interesting to you.
• Aggregating and/or anonymizing Personal Information.
  • We may aggregate and/or anonymize Personal Information so that it will no longer be considered Personal Information. We do so to generate other data for our use, which we may use and disclose for any purpose, as it no longer identifies you or any other individual.
• Accomplishing our business purposes.
  • For data analysis;
  • To address legal, regulatory, or contractual requirements, and for security monitoring purposes and undertaking quality and safety assurance measures;
  • For maintaining or modifying our current services or developing new services;
  • For identifying usage trends and determining the effectiveness of our campaigns; and
  • For operating and expanding our activities. 

Disclosure of Personal Information 

We disclose Personal Information:

• To our panel of judges and evaluators who assist us with evaluating Writer’s Retreat applications and submissions to the Lambda Literary Awards
• To our third party service providers, to facilitate services they provide to us.
  • These can include providers of services such as donation processing, submission management software, website hosting, information technology and related infrastructure provision, customer service, email delivery, auditing, and other services.
• By using the Services, you may elect to disclose Personal Information.
  • If you make a donation, with your consent, your name will be shared on a donor wall.
  • On message boards, chat, profile pages, blogs, and other services to which you are able to post information and content (including, without limitation, our Social Media Pages).  Please note that any information you post or disclose through these services will become public and may be available to other users and the general public.

Other Uses and Disclosures

We also use and disclose your Personal Information as necessary or appropriate, in particular when we have a legal obligation or legitimate interest to do so:

• To comply with applicable law and regulations.
• To cooperate with public and government authorities.
  • To respond to a request or to provide information we believe is necessary or appropriate.
• For other legal reasons.
  • To enforce our terms and conditions; and
  • To protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, you or others.

Other Information

“Other Information” is any information that does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to an identifiable individual. The Services collect Other Information such as:

• Browser and device information
• Information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies
• Information that has been aggregated in a manner such that it no longer reveals your specific identity

Collection of Other Information

We and our service providers may collect Other Information in a variety of ways, including: 

• Your browser or device. 
  • Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Mac), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language and Internet browser type and version.  We use this information to ensure that the Services function properly.
• Cookies. 
  • Cookies are pieces of information stored directly on the computer that you are using.  Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the Services, pages visited, language preferences, and other traffic data. We and our service providers use the information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience.  We also gather statistical information about use of the Services in order to continually improve their design and functionality, understand how they are used, and assist us with resolving questions regarding them. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, most browsers allow you to automatically decline cookies or be given the choice of declining or accepting a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular website.  You may also wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html. If, however, you do not accept cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of the Services.   
• Pixel tags and other similar technologies. 
  • Pixel tags (also known as web beacons and clear GIFs) may be used to, among other things, track the actions of users of the Services (including email recipients), measure the success of our marketing campaigns, and compile statistics about usage of the Services and response rates. 
• Analytics.
  • We use Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Services and report on activities and trends.  This service may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps and online resources.  You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/‌partners/, and exercise the opt-out provided by Google by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• Adobe Flash technology (including Flash Local Shared Objects (“Flash LSOs”)) and other similar technologies.
  • We may use Flash LSOs and other technologies to, among other things, collect and store information about your use of the Services.  If you do not want Flash LSOs stored on your computer, you can adjust the settings of your Flash player to block Flash LSO storage using the tools contained in the Website Storage Settings Panel.  You can also go to the Global Storage Settings Panel and follow the instructions (which may explain, for example, how to delete existing Flash LSOs (referred to as “information”), how to prevent Flash LSOs from being placed on your computer without your being asked, and  how to block Flash LSOs that are not being delivered by the operator of the page you are on at the time).  Please note that setting the Flash Player to restrict or limit acceptance of Flash LSOs may reduce or impede the functionality of some Flash applications. 

Uses and Disclosures of Other Information

We may use and disclose Other Information for any purpose, except where we are required to do otherwise under applicable law.  In some instances, we may combine Other Information with Personal Information.  If we do, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information as long as it is combined.

Security

We seek to use reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect Personal Information within our organization.  Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section below.

Choices and Access

We give you choices regarding our use and disclosure of your Personal Information for marketing purposes.  You may opt out from: 

• Receiving emails from us.  If you no longer want to receive emails from us on a going-forward basis, you may opt out by clicking the email footer link to unsubscribe.

We will try to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable.  Please note that if you opt out of receiving marketing related emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages, from which you cannot opt out.

If you would like to request to access, correct, update, or delete Personal Information, you may contact us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section below.  We will respond to your request consistent with applicable law. Please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any requests or donations that you began prior to requesting a change or deletion. 

Retention Period

We retain Personal Information for as long as needed or permitted in light of the purpose(s) for which it was obtained and consistent with applicable law. 

Third Party Services

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of any third parties, including any third party to which we refer you, such as Amazon or Bookshop.org. We are an Amazon Associate and Bookshop.org partner and earn from your qualifying purchases. The inclusion of a link on the Services does not imply our endorsement of the linked site or service.

In addition, we are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure, or security policies or practices of other organizations, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social media platform provider, including with respect to any Personal Information you disclose to other organizations through or in connection with our Social Media Pages.

Use of Services by Minors

The Services are not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13).

Jurisdiction and Cross-Border Transfer

We are located in the United States. Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in the United States and any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers. By using the Services you understand that your information may be transferred to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have data protection rules that are different from those of your country.  In certain circumstances, courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies or security authorities in those other countries may be entitled to access your Personal Information.

Third Party Payment Service

We may use third party payment services to process donations made through the Services. If you wish to make a donation through the Services, your Personal Information will be collected by such third parties and not by us, and will be subject to the third party’s privacy policy, rather than this Privacy Policy.  We have no control over, and are not responsible for, this third party’s collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information.

Updates to this Privacy Policy

The “Last Updated” legend at the top of this Privacy Policy indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised.  Any changes will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Services.  In some cases, we may notify you of changes to our Privacy Policy or seek your consent to a change. 

Contacting Us

Lambda Literary Foundation, located at P.O. Box 20186, New York, NY 10014 is the organization responsible for collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information under this Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at admin@lambdaliterary.org, or:

Lambda Literary
P.O. Box 20186
New York, NY 10014

Because email communications are not always secure, please do not include sensitive information in your emails to us.