Effective: May 30, 2024

The American Chemical Society (“ACS,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) has created this Privacy Statement for the Green Chemistry for Sustainability site (“GCS platforms”) to demonstrate its firm commitment to privacy. This Privacy Statement will help you understand how and why we collect, use, share, and otherwise process your Personally Identifiable Information (as that term is defined below) is collected on GCS platforms and in email or text messages between the American Chemical Society (“ACS”) and you (these may be referred to collectively as "Services"). Additionally, this Privacy Statement also covers offline interactions that ACS may have with you. Privacy practices of the Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale (www.greenchemistry.yale.edu) and Beyond Benign (www.beyondbenign.org) are provided at their respective website links.

For United States users only - by visiting GCS platforms and using the Services you are accepting the policies described in this statement and consenting to disclosure of certain Personally Identifiable Information as further described herein to trusted third parties including collaborative partners to permit them to send you marketing communications, consistent with your choices.

For users outside the US – Services are controlled and operated from the United States and are not intended to subject us to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than that of the United States. Your Personally Identifiable Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have offices or in which we engage service providers. By visiting GCS platforms and using the Services, you consent to the transfer of information to country/ies outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have data protection rules that are different from those of your country. Where appropriate, clarifying information and terms may also be provided below.

Information We Collect and Share
In this Privacy Statement we use the term “Personally Identifiable Information” to describe information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, to you. If you disclose any Personally Identifiable Information about another person(s) to our partners or our service providers in connection with Services, you represent that you have the authority to provide and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

Personally Identifiable Information Collected:
The Personally Identifiable Information that may be collected on GCS platforms include:

• First and Last Name;
• Username for GCS platforms;
• Title;
• Photographic headshot;
• Business affiliation;
• Business address (including country, state, and city);
• Educational information;
• Practice demographics;
• Social Media Profile(s); and
• Email address.

Additionally, you may be asked to provide optional Personally Identifiable Information that includes:

• Gender (optional);
• Pronouns (optional);
• Biography (optional); or
• Language (optional).

Information You Provide
ACS and our service providers use Personally Identifiable Information for legitimate business purposes and to comply with legal obligations, including:

• Providing the functionality of the Services and fulfilling your requests.
  • Process and respond to inquiries and for the purposes for which you provided the information, such as new user account registration, management of your user account on GCS platforms.
  • Respond to your questions and comments.
  • Alert you to administrative information such as information regarding the Services' features, and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
  • Ensure your usage and viewing of GCS platforms via your browser's cookies.
• Providing personalized services.
  • Personalize the content, improve the navigability of the Services, and customize your experience on Services, including targeted content and offers on Services or via email.
  • Notify you about special programs, offers, products and services that we believe will be of interest to you, from ACS or on behalf of our partners or other third parties. You may choose to decline receiving future mailings by following the instructions in the “Opting Out” section below.
• Allowing you to participate in special programs, activities, events, or promotions.
  • Facilitating the upload of Content on GCS platforms, or your feedback in comments, forums, contact forms on GCS platforms, or by email to ACS. Some of these activities may have additional obligations, which could contain additional information about how we use and disclose information, including your Personally Identifiable Information. We suggest that you read any such provided information, as applicable.
• Accomplishing our business purposes.
  • Protect the security or integrity of the Services and ACS, such as by protecting against fraud, unauthorized transactions, claims and other liabilities, and managing risk exposure, including by identifying potential hackers and other unauthorized users.
  • Conduct surveys to measure your satisfaction with aspects of GCS platforms.
  • Analyze data, usage trend identification, program development, audit, fraud monitoring or prevention, new service development, Services' enhancement, interaction improvement, or operating and expansion purposes.
  • To enforce the Terms of Use or other conditions and obligations.
• Aggregating and/or anonymizing Personally Identifiable Information.
  • If we aggregate and anonymize Personally Identifiable Information the data will no longer be considered Personally Identifiable Information, and we may use it for any purpose.
• As otherwise described to you at the point of collection to interact with GCS platforms.

Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information
We disclose Personally Identifiable Information in the following instances:

• To our service providers: We disclose the information we collect from you to third parties who perform functions on our behalf such as website hosting, data analysis, information technology and related infrastructure provisions, aggregate analysis and marketing activities, as well as professional advisors such as auditors and attorneys.
• To our partners: We may share information with our partners listed on www.chemistryforsustainability.org for the purposes detailed in this Privacy Statement. Please review their respective websites for information on their privacy practices.
• To other organizations: We share your information, excluding e-mail address and phone number, with unaffiliated third parties for their own uses. You may choose to opt out as described in "How You Can Control the Collection and Use of Your Information" below.
• You may elect to disclose Personally Identifiable Information: If you post information or materials on GCS platforms. Please note that any information you post or disclose through GCS platforms will become public and may be available to other users and the general public. We urge you to be incredibly careful when deciding to disclose any information.
• To comply with applicable law: This can include laws outside your country of residence.
• To respond to requests from public and government authorities: This can include authorities outside your country of residence.
• To cooperate with law enforcement: For example, when we receive law enforcement requests and orders.
• For other legal reasons: To enforce the Terms of Use and other terms and conditions; and to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others.
• In connection with a sale or other business transaction: We have a legitimate interest to disclose or transfer your information to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our operations, assets (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

Disclosure of Other Information
"Other Information" is any information that does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to an identifiable individual. If we are required to treat Other Information as Personally Identifiable Information under applicable law, then we use and disclose it for the purposes for which we use and disclose Personally Identifiable Information as detailed in this Privacy Statement. In some instances, we may combine Other Information with Personally Identifiable Information (such as combining your name with your location), but we will treat the combined information as Personally Identifiable Information as long as it is combined. Otherwise, we may use and disclose Other Information for any purpose, except where we are required to do otherwise under applicable law.

Examples of Other Information

• Common Practices: we collect might include data such as IP address, browser type, mobile device type, content visited while on GCS platforms, Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, Internet browser type and version, or the duration of the use of GCS platforms. Collecting browser activities or IP addresses, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that were visited, are common practices, and are often performed automatically by many websites, applications and other services for such purposes as calculating usage levels, helping diagnose server problems, improving and administering the Services.
• Mobile Device and Geographic Location: we collect information that can identify the physical location of your mobile device or geographic location of your device by, for example, using satellite, cell phone tower or Wi-Fi signals to provide you with personalized location-based services and content. Location Information. You may be able to adjust the settings of your device so that information about your physical location is not sent to us or third parties by (a) disabling location services within the device settings; or (b) denying certain websites or mobile applications permission to access location information by changing the relevant preferences and permissions in your mobile device or browser settings. Please note that your location may be derived from your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other device settings. See your device settings for more information.
• Cookies: ACS and our service providers and advertising partners use cookies and tracking technologies on GCS platforms. Cookies are small data files that are sent from a website’s server and are stored on your device’s hard drive to enable us to recognize repeat visitors, facilitate your use of the site, and to track access to and use of GCS platforms. GCS platforms use necessary, analytics, statistics, and marketing cookies. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it. You may also change your cookie settings through preferences options in our products and/or services, where applicable. If you elect to browse GCS platforms with the cookies option turned off, you may not be able to access restricted content and the shopping cart may not perform correctly. For more details on the use of cookies in CGS platforms, please visit the Policy on Cookies.
• Web Beacons: GCS platforms contain electronic images known as web beacons (sometimes called single-pixel gifs), which are used along with cookies to compile aggregated statistics to analyze how our website is used and may be used in some of our emails to let us know which emails and links have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of communications and marketing campaigns.
• Log Files: we may collect information to analyze traffic on GCS platforms. Such information includes, but is not limited to, browser type, IP address, access time, and files accessed are collected in log files.
• Analytic Tools: we employ common analytics tools, such as Google Analytics which use Cookies and other similar technologies to collect information about use of Services anonymously and report Website trends. You can learn about Google's practices by visiting google.com/policies/privacy/partners/, and you may opt out by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• Aggregate information: we share aggregate statistics and other non-personally identifiable information with third parties for marketing, advertising, research, analysis or similar purposes. These aggregate statistics will not allow anyone to identify you.

How You Can Control Collection and Use of Your Information
We strive to keep our records as accurate as possible. You may, under applicable laws, have a right to access, correct, restrict, update, modify or delete your Personally Identifiable Information that you have previously provided to us at any time. To do so, or to request to receive an electronic copy of your Personally Identifiable Information for purposes of transmitting it the data (to the extent this right to data portability is provided to you by applicable law), please email us at [email protected].

In your request, please make clear what Personally Identifiable Information you would like to have changed, whether you would like to have your Personally Identifiable Information suppressed from our database or otherwise let us know what limitations you would like to put on our use of your Personally Identifiable Information. For your protection, we may only implement requests with respect to the Personally Identifiable Information associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable.

Retention Period
We retain Personally Identifiable Information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Statement unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

The criteria used to determine our retention periods include:

• The length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide the Services to you;
• Whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject; or
• Whether retention is advisable in light of our legal position.

Please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting a change or deletion. There may also be residual information that will remain within our databases and other records, which will not be removed.

Cross-Border Transfer
GCS platforms are controlled and operated by us from the United States and are not intended to subject us to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than that of the United States. Your Personally Identifiable Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, and by using GCS platforms you consent to the transfer of information 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 Personally Identifiable Information.

If you are located in the European Economic Area ("EEA"): Some of the non-EEA countries are recognized by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of data protection according to EEA standards. For transfers from the EEA to countries not considered adequate by the European Commission, we have put in place adequate measures, such as standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission to protect your Personally Identifiable Information. You may email us at [email protected] for information about these measures.

Sensitive Information
Unless explicitly requested, we ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any Personally Identifiable Information that you consider to be sensitive or is defined as sensitive under the applicable law in which you are located (e.g., social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, religion, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through the Services or otherwise to us. Information provided in connection with applications for employment are not covered by this statement and would be subject to the privacy terms of the third-party partners who provide such services.

Third-Party Website Links
GCS platforms may contain links to other third-party websites. GCS is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of other websites. If you submit Personally Identifiable Information to those websites, your information is governed by those websites’ privacy statements. Please carefully read the privacy statements of the websites to which we link, as their privacy practices may differ from those of GCS’s platforms.

Email Address Listings
Email addresses are only viewed based on the actions of the user. The GCS platforms direct messaging system will allow a user to contact other users by clicking on a link their respective profiles, which will open a contact form. The contact form message is then sent to the user’s email address. When a user replies to the contact form message, their email address will be visible to the recipient of the email. Users may also opt-out of this feature on the GCS platforms, see the “Opting Out” section below.

Opting Out
GCS platforms provide users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving certain communications from GCS and any third parties at the point where the information is submitted. Choosing to opt out of emails currently means you will NOT receive ANY email from ACS or its partners. Users who do not want to receive mailings or emails can also choose one of the methods provided below in the “Accessing My Account to Opt-Out” section.

Users may delete their own user accounts at any time through their profile on GCS platforms. However, deletion of a user account only disables the account. All Content previously submitted by the user to GCS platforms will still be visible to other users (and to the public, depending on the permissions associated with that Content).

Data will continue to be stored in the system until a request is made to delete it in accordance with one of the following methods:

Accessing My Account to Opt-Out
Users may opt-out of certain features or Services on GCS platforms online at the Manage Email Preferences link located at https://chemistryforsustainability.org/form/email-settings. From this link users can select their preferences to opt-out of GCS platforms emails, marketing emails, and direct messaging, as well as elect to potentially receive updates for submitted Content, forum and group activity, comments and digests, and newsletters.

Users may also email [email protected].
 

Changing Information
Users also can change information previously provided such as name, address, telephone, and e-mail address by the following means to make or request the change:

Accessing Change of Address
Email: [email protected]

Postal mail:
Green Chemistry for Sustainability
c/o American Chemical Society
1155 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036

Transfer and Storage of Your Information
GCS Platforms are owned and operated in the United States. Your use of any GCS Platforms will result in the collection, storage, and processing of your information in the United States and in any country to which we may transfer your information in the course of our business operations. If you are visiting this site from a country other than the United States, your information will cross an international boundary. The level of protection for your information in the United States may not be the same as the level of protection in your country. 

Security
Maintaining the integrity of data collected on GCS platforms is of utmost importance to us. Personally Identifiable Information is stored behind password protection. We follow generally accepted best practices to reasonably protect the information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no transmission or electronic storage of information can be completely secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. We will retain your information for as long as your online user account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you wish to cancel your online user account or request that we no longer use your information, please notify us as described in the "Questions/Contact Information" section below.

Children’s Online Privacy
GCS platforms are not intended to be used by anyone under the age of 13 and, as such, we do not knowingly collect Personally Identifiable Information from anyone under the age of 13. If a parent or legal guardian becomes aware that their child under the age of 13 has provided us with Personally Identifiable Information without parental or legal guardian consent, the parent or legal guardian should contact us, and we will delete such information from our files.

Questions/Contact Information
If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions regarding this Privacy Statement, ACS’s privacy practices, or your use of the GCS platforms, please contact us at:

Email: [email protected]

Postal Mail:
Green Chemistry for Sustainability
c/o American Chemical Society
1155 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036

For questions regarding the privacy practices of the Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale (www.greenchemistry.yale.edu) or Beyond Benign (www.beyondbenign.org) please contact them at the information provided in their respective website links.

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

Updates to the Privacy Statement
ACS reserves the right to amend this Privacy Statement at any time and without notice, and it is your responsibility to review this Privacy Statement for any changes. When ACS updates the Privacy Statement, ACS will update the “Effective Date” date at the top of this page. Any changes to this Privacy Statement will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Statement on www.chemistryforsustainability.org. Your continued use of the GCS platforms or in the Interactions after we implement such changes will also constitute your affirmative consent to the revised Privacy Statement.

Additional Information for Individuals in the EEA
If you are located in the EEA, you also may:

• Contact us at [email protected].
• Lodge a complaint with a data protection authority for your country or region, or where an alleged infringement of applicable data protection law occurs.
• We hold your information and use it as described in this Privacy Statement and will use reasonable measures to ensure that your Personal Identifiable Information is only transferred to third parties who also maintain at least the standard of protection required under the GDPR.
   

Effective: May 30, 2024

This Cookies Policy (the “Cookies Policy”) is designed to assist you in understanding how and why the Green Chemistry for Sustainability (“GCS)” site (www.chemistryforsustainability.org) and any related platforms (hereinafter referred to as “GCS platforms”) uses cookies and other similar technologies (“Tracking Technologies”) to collect and develop data. We use Tracking Technologies to allow the GCS platforms to operate, to increase their functionality and efficiency, to enable the efficient operation of GCS platforms, to enhance the ease of use of GCS platforms, to display advertisements on the Sites and elsewhere online, to gather statistics on how you use GCS platforms, and to fulfill other legitimate purposes as described below. This Cookies Policy describes the different types of cookies used on GCS platforms, and how you can manage them, according to your browser and device used to browse GCS platforms.

To the extent that any information collected by the Tracking Technologies, either on its own or in combination with other information, constitutes Personally Identifiable Information as the term is defined in the Privacy Statement, both the Privacy Statement and this Cookies Policy shall apply to the processing and transferring of such Personally Identifiable Information.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

Cookies: A cookie is a small text file stored on your device (computer, phone, tablet, etc.) that contains information about your browser and online activity. This information often consists of a string of numbers and letters that uniquely identifies your device.

Use of Cookies
We collect cookies on GCS platforms:

• for sign-in authentication;
• to link to information those visitors provide when signing up for an account; and
• to improve the functionality of GCS platforms and the experience for those who use the GCS platforms.

GCS does not require that you accept cookies; however, some functionality on GCS platforms may be disabled if you decline to accept cookies. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it. If you choose to e-mail us and provide personally identifiable information about yourself, we will use this information only to respond to your inquiry or to provide to our partners and relevant service providers. We will not sell, rent or otherwise disclose that information to other third parties unless such disclosure is necessary for the purposes set forth in this Cookies Policy, by law or a policy or notice contained or associated with a specific service on GCS platforms.

We may also use:

Local storage: Local storage enables GCS platforms to store information locally on your device. Local storage may be used to improve your experience with GCS platforms; for example, by enabling features, remembering your preferences, and speeding up GCS platforms’ functionality.

Tracking pixels and web beacons: A tracking pixel, or web beacon, is a small, nonvisible graphic file used for the purpose of keeping track of user behavior, web traffic, and site conversions. A tracking pixel allows us to collect data relating to the use of GCS platforms. Tracking pixels are also used to help inform advertisements on third-party platforms based on the activity tracked from your browser or device, to identify return traffic from third-party platforms such as social media applications, and for third-party web analytics.

Other similar tracking technologies: We may also use other tracking technologies, such as mobile advertising IDs and tags or conversion application programming interface (API) tracking software or technology, for similar purposes as described in this Cookies Policy. As noted above, we refer to all of these technologies collectively as “Tracking Technologies” in this Cookies Policy.

How We Respond to Do Not Track Signals
"Do Not Track" is an optional browser setting that you can use to express your preferences regarding tracking by advertisers and other third parties. Please note, however, that GCS platforms do not take action in response to “Do Not Track” signals received from web browsers at this time.

Types of Cookies
We use session cookies and persistent cookies on GCS platforms The session cookies are deleted or removed when you close your browser. The persistent cookies may remain on your device after you close your browser, but they have an expiration date.

Some of the cookies placed on your device through GCS platforms are first-party cookies, meaning they are placed directly by us. Others are third-party cookies, meaning they are placed on your device through GCS platforms by third parties such as YouTube. In other words, when you visit GCS platforms certain third parties may place cookies on your device to collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites or online services. Please refer to the privacy notices of those third parties to learn more about the ways in which they collect and process personal data about you.

How We Use Tracking Technologies on Our Websites
The cookies that are used on GCS platforms can be grouped into four categories as described below:

Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are necessary for GCS platforms to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually set only in response to actions made by you that amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in, or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the GCS platforms may not then work. These cookies do not store any information that identifies you directly.

Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources to measure and improve the performance of GCS platforms and allow third parties such as YouTube to maintain statistics about the viewing of videos hosted on their platform. They help us to understand which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around GCS platforms. All information that these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies, we will not know when you have visited our site and will not be able to monitor its performance.

Functional Cookies
These cookies enable GCS platforms to provide enhanced functionality and personalization, like automatically setting language preferences. They may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to GCS platforms. If you do not allow these cookies, then some or all of these services may not function properly.

Marketing Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on GCS platforms. They do not store directly personal information but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Managing Cookies Preferences and Opting Out
You can manage and change your cookie preferences for GCS platforms at any time. When you first visit GCS platforms, you can "Accept ", and so you will be agreeing to use GCS platforms to its fullest potential. If you do not wish to enable all cookies, this is likely to mean that your experience of GCS platforms will be impacted.

In addition to managing your cookie preferences through GCS platforms, you can alter the configuration of your browser directly to reject certain types of Tracking Technologies, including cookies. Please note, however, that if you reject certain cookies, you may not be able to access and use all of the features on GCS platforms. For more information about how to directly manage cookies, please visit https://www.aboutcookies.org/.

You may also control your online behavioral advertising preferences and opt out from having your data processed by certain marketing companies by visiting http://www.youronlinechoices.com/ and http://optout.aboutads.info/. Please note, however, that managing these preferences will not turn off internet advertisements in general. You will still receive the same number of advertisements, but those advertisements will be less reflective of your interests, as indicated by your web browsing habits. In addition, please note that the opt-out preferences that you set using these tools may be nullified if you delete your cookies after setting them.

Disabling Cookies
You can also disable cookies by changing your website browser settings to reject cookies. You can also set your browser to issue a warning when a server intends to save a cookie on your device. How you do this will depend on the browser you use. Details on how to disable cookies for the most popular browsers are set out in the following links:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Safari
• Microsoft Edge
• Microsoft Explorer

If certain cookies are disabled, not all of GCS platforms’ functionalities may be available.

Exercise Your Rights
You can exercise your rights through the email address [email protected]. You can also withdraw your consent to the use of cookies at any time and manage the use of cookies through your browser as indicated above.

Update to the Cookies Policy
ACS reserves the right to review this Cookies Policy periodically to ensure its validity and compliance with the law. When ACS updates this policy, ACS will update the “Effective Date” date at the top of this page. For further information on how ACS processes your information, please review the GCS Privacy Statement.