Privacy Policy
Updated February 7, 2024
This Web site is owned and operated by Girl Scouts of the USA, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in 420 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018, USA ("Girl Scouts of the USA" or "we"). Our online properties include, but are not limited to, all pages found on our main corporate site (www.girlscouts.org), the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace site (www.juliettegordonlowbirthplace.org), USA Girl Scouts Overseas (www.usagso.org), our official online store (www.girlscoutshop.com), and certain partner sites. This Privacy Policy applies to these sites and other sites, mobile apps or other services we provide that link to this policy (collectively referred to below as the "site").
Girl Scouts of the USA is committed to respecting and protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy discloses how we collect, protect, and use Personal Data we collect online or that you provide to us in other ways, as well as how we protect children's privacy. “Personal Data” is any information relating to an identified or identifiable person, for example, your e-mail address, name, or phone number. If our policy practices change in the future, we will let you know by posting our revised privacy policy on our site. By using the pages on this site or other services covered by the posted Privacy Policy, you are accepting the practices described in the Privacy Policy.
PERSONAL DATA COLLECTION
You may visit our site without having to register an account or provide information, although please note that our sites automatically collect certain information, including Personal Data, via cookies, as further described below..
Girl Scouts of the USA collects Personal Data directly from you to the extent you voluntarily provide it to us. You may choose to provide us with your name, address, zip/postal code, email address, phone number, information regarding race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, information regarding children under the age of thirteen, your preferences, and order information. Once collected, we may combine this information with other information collected from external sources, where permitted by applicable law.
Girl Scouts of the USA may automatically collect certain technical information from your computer such as your Internet service provider, your Internet Protocol address, your browser type, your operating system, the web pages viewed, the web pages viewed immediately before and after accessing the Web site, and the search terms entered to get to our site. This information may contain Personal Data. We, whether directly or via a third-party provider, may collect this information using "cookies," which are small text files that many websites save on your computer, or similar technologies. See the section on "Use of Cookies and Similar Technology" below for more information.
USE AND SHARING OF PERSONAL DATA
The Personal Data we collect is used and processed by Girl Scouts of the USA and other entities we involve in the operation of this site or who provide support for the Girl Scouts of the USA mission and programs, for general business purposes and for the purposes for which you provided the information. General business purposes are Girl Scouts of the USA membership activities, program participation, marketing, promotions, sales, merchandising, and fundraising activities and communications. The purposes for which you provide information includes, for example, our use of your Personal Data to process online transactions, purchases, and donations, facilitate participation in Girl Scouts of the USA programs, promotions and services, or process job applications.
We may share any of the Personal Data we collect with the following categories of third parties: (i) Girl Scout Councils; (ii) service providers (e.g., email providers, shipping services, advisors, data storage providers, and data security vendors) in furtherance of our operations or the operation of the site, for instance, to process a purchase or other transaction you make, facilitate participation in Girl Scouts of the USA programs, promotions, and services, or engage in Girl Scouts fund raising, marketing communications and promotions; (iii) with law enforcement, government agencies, and other entities as necessary to comply with legal processes such as a subpoena or court order or to otherwise protect your or our legal rights; (v) advertising vendors (which may receive names, email addresses, information about transactions and online activities, and demographic information that does not include race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation); or (vi) other third parties at your direction or for other purposes for which you provided the information.
We do not sell Personal Data to third parties in exchange for money and we do not sell your information in a way that most people would think of as a sale. However, we may make certain Personal Data available to third parties, which those third parties can use for their own purposes. This may qualify as a “sale” under the Colorado Privacy Act and potentially other laws that have very broad definitions of "sell" or "share". These third parties, such as advertising vendors (e.g., Google, Facebook), will use your Personal Data in accordance with their own privacy policies, which we do not control. If you visit the site and request to be connected to a local Girl Scout troop or other local Girl Scout activities, you are asking us to share your Personal Data with the relevant Girl Scout Council, which will then be subject to the Council’s privacy policy.
Your Personal Data is collected through, stored, and processed by us or our vendors in the United States of America or other countries that may not be your home country and that might not be deemed to provide protections equivalent to your home country.
CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
Girl Scouts of the USA is committed to providing a safe, secure, and fun experience for children who visit our site or otherwise participate in our services. We are dedicated to safeguarding any Personal Data collected and to helping parents and children have positive experiences on and off the Internet.
We will never knowingly request Personal Data directly from anyone under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. With parental consent, we may collect Personal Data from children under the age of 13 such as: name, address, email address, account information, and user generated content. This information allows us to fulfill a requested transaction, facilitate participation in programs, keep records, undertake certain marketing activities (only in accordance with applicable law and any required consents), or to otherwise customize or enhance the Web site experience for children.
Children under the age of 13 may be able to make certain content such as user generated content visible to others or the public. This could include, for example, a webpage or parts of webpages operated by children that have been designed for group or public viewing. However, absent parental consent, children under 13 would be allowed to display only limited information such as a first name or unique user name or other information that does not allow for online contacting by third parties.
Regardless of what information is displayed, parents can revoke their consent and ask that information about their children be deleted from the site by contacting our offices by phone at (800) GSUSA.4.U or through our customer service form. To do this or to review Personal Data collected from children, we must verify the identity of the requesting parent. When a parent revokes consent, we will stop collecting, using, processing, or disclosing information from that child. To respect the privacy of parents, information collected and used for the sole purpose of obtaining verifiable parental consent or providing notice is not maintained in retrievable form by the site if parental consent is not obtained after a reasonable time.
The Personal Data and other information collected from or about children under the age of 13 or otherwise may be collected by or shared with the child's Girl Scout Council and troop. To find contact information for the relevant Council with whom information may be shared, please visit our Council Finder.
Submissions
Girl Scouts of the USA welcomes children to learn more about our organization and, where appropriate, participate in polls and surveys, as well as submit comments, artwork, writings, and other submissions for posting on our Web site. For this reason, Girl Scouts of the USA follows the guidelines for interactive electronic media published by the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Better Business Bureau for pages targeted to children under 13. However, we encourage this be done only with their parent's knowledge and supervision. We also encourage children to use an alias (e.g., "Bookworm", "Skater", etc.), first name, nickname, initials, or other alternative to full names or screen names which correspond with an email address for any activities which will involve public posting.
In keeping with CARU's Principle regarding respecting and fostering the parents' role in providing guidance for their children, we encourage parents to check and monitor their children's use of email and other online activities regularly.
Visitors should be aware that Personal Data, non-personal information, and other data may be automatically collected by the Girl Scouts of the USA Web site through the use of "cookies" or other similar technologies such as web beacons. "Cookies" are small text files a Web site can use to recognize repeat visitors, facilitate the visitor's ongoing access to and use of the site, and allow a site to track usage behavior and compile aggregate data that will allow content improvements. Generally, cookies work by assigning a unique number to the visitor that has no meaning outside the assigning site. If a visitor does not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows the visitor to deny or accept the cookie feature. "Web beacons" are a small snippet of code embedded in webpages typically used to monitor activity on a webpage and transfer or collect information, such as information about your Internet Protocol address, the URL of the page on which the beacon is located, the browser type that is accessing the site, and the ID and number of cookies placed on your computer.
Girl Scouts of the USA uses "cookie" technology only to obtain information including Personal Data from its online visitors, in order to improve visitors' online experience and facilitate their visit within our site. Girl Scouts of the USA may use web beacons to improve website services, conduct website analytics, first party advertising relating to us and our sponsors, and to optimize the browsing experience.
Cookies expire after they have fulfilled their purpose. Our websites use cookies that expire when you close your browser (i.e., session cookies) or that expire after a set period of time (i.e., persistent cookies). Cookies that are stored by third parties will have their expiration period determined by the third party, not us.
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our site. These companies may use Personal Data and other information (but not your name, address, email address, or telephone number, or information about your race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you on this or other websites. Read more information about this practice at https://www.networkadvertising.org and https://www.aboutads.info/choices to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies.
LINKS TO OTHER WEB SITES AND SERVICES
This site may be linked to other sites and services that are not maintained by Girl Scouts of the USA. These websites have their own privacy policies, which you should review prior to visiting them. We have no responsibility for linked websites and provide these links solely for the convenience and information of our visitors.
OUR SECURITY SAFEGUARDS
The safety and security of your experience is of the utmost concern to us. We take measures to implement reasonable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect.
We retain your Personal Data for only as long as we need to achieve the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or any other notice provided at the time of collection, taking into account applicable statute of limitations and records retention requirements under applicable law. We may retain your Personal Data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or in reasonable anticipation of litigation.
Credit Card Safety
Protecting the safety of your credit card information is also important to us. For card transactions we process, we use Transport Layer Security (TLS) technology to protect the security of your credit card information as it is transmitted to us. TLS is an Internet encryption technology, and a method of scrambling data as it travels from your computer to our Web site servers. We also encrypt your credit card number when we store your order and whenever we transfer that information to participating merchants.
To make sure you are accessing our secure server before you submit sensitive information, check the document for your browser for indication of a TLS connection (most browsers utilize an unbroken or closed padlock). Verify that TLS is active before submitting sensitive information to our server. To double-check, verify that the TLS or Address line of your browser for our site begins with "https."
It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when finished using a shared computer.
Children
If you are under 18, you need parent/guardian permission to use a credit card to make purchases online.
Your Right to Opt Out from Receiving Marketing Communications
You may opt out from our using your Personal Data to send marketing communications to you. For example, e-mail messages will contain instructions on how to “unsubscribe” from receiving the e-mail in question. Please also visit our SMS Messaging Privacy Policy and SMS Terms and Conditions for more information, including information on how to opt-out.
Your Rights Concerning Your Personal Data
Subject to certain exceptions, residents of Colorado (and potentially certain other jurisdictions) have the right to make the following requests, at no charge:
- Access/Data Portability: You may request confirmation regarding whether Girl Scouts of the USA is processing your Personal Data and, up to twice per calendar year, to receive a copy of your Personal Data delivered electronically in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily useable format that allows you to transmit this information to another entity without hindrance;
- Correction: You may request to correct of your Personal Data if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
- Deletion: You may request the deletion of your Personal Data;
- Opt-Out: You may request that we not sell your Personal Data or process your Personal Data for targeted advertising.
You have the right to be free from unlawful discrimination for exercising your rights under applicable state law.
To exercise the rights above, please contact us via our Girl Scouts Privacy Portal or by email to Girl Scouts of the USA at info@girlscouts.org.
Only you or a person that you authorize to act on your behalf may make a request related to your Personal Data. A request to exercise any of these rights must (1) provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify that you are the person about whom we collected Personal Data (or an authorized representative of that person); and (2) describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to understand, evaluate, and respond to your request. We will verify your identity by comparing the information you provide us with information we have in our records. In certain cases, we may need to ask for more information. We may not be able to respond to your request or provide you with the information you requested if we are unable to verify your identity (or establish the authority of an authorized agent acting on your behalf).
You may also have a right to appeal a decision we make relating to requests to exercise these rights. To appeal a decision, please follow the instructions we provide in our communication to you regarding the status of your request.
Additional Information for European and UK Residents
This section provides European and UK residents with additional information about their rights and our privacy practices associated with respect to their Personal Data.
Legal Bases for Processing:
- We may process the Personal Data we obtain about you in accordance with our legitimate interests in operating the site; providing our programs, promotions, and services; and maintaining our business, as described in the “Use and Sharing of Personal Data” section above. You may use the contact information in the “How to Contact Us” section below to request a copy of the balancing test we conduct when relying on our legitimate interests.
- In certain instances, we may also process your Personal Data to enter into agreements with you or carry out our contractual obligations with you.
- In certain instances, we may process your Personal Data for purposes of complying with our legal obligations.
- To the extent we rely on consent for the processing of your Personal Data, we will seek such consent at the time we collect your Personal Data.
Your Rights: You have the right to request to: (1) update, amend, or erase your Personal Data; (2) restrict or object to the processing of your Personal Data; (3) receive a copy of your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and transmit Personal Data to another data controller; and (4) withdraw any consent you have given regarding the use of your Personal Data. If you withdraw consent, we will apply your preferences going forward as appropriate, which will not affect the lawfulness of our processing based on your consent prior to such withdrawal. You also have the right to file a complaint with a regulator if you have concerns regarding our processing of your Personal Data. You may exercise any of your rights by contacting us using the instructions in the “Your Rights Concerning Your Personal Data” section above.
Data Transfers: In connection with the site, your Personal Data may be transferred to us or our service providers in countries other than the country in which you reside, including in the United States. Those countries may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the Personal Data. When your Personal Data is transferred to these other countries (such as the United States), we will protect that information as described in this Privacy Policy, including, to the extent required by applicable law, by using a legally valid transfer mechanism or other data transfer safeguards. You may request a copy of these safeguards by contacting us as described in the “How to Contact Us” section below.
Girl Scouts of the USA is the controller of the Personal Data we process about you pursuant to this Privacy Policy.
HOW TO CONTACT US
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, you can contact us at:
Email: info@girlscouts.org
Phone: (800) GSUSA4U [(800) 478-7248]
Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
If needed, we can guide you through the Language Line Service, which provides telephone interpretation in 140 languages.
You can also contact us via this customer service form. Send us your question and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you for visiting our site.
