This Privacy Policy describes the information we collect, use, and store via the Our Wave platform. Our Wave is built for survivors, by survivors. We understand that sharing any information about unwanted sexual contact or sexual harm is difficult and can create risks for survivors. We weave privacy and information security into every design decision of our platform.
1. What Information We Collect and Store
The type of information we collect and store depends on your activity on the platform. The description below details the information we collect at various stages of use of our platform. For additional information on who has access to your information and how we protect it, you can refer to the “Who Has Access to Your Information” and “How We Keep Your Information Safe” sections below.
This website is intended for an audience over the age of 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 18 years old.
A. You Visit www.ourwave.org, the Our Wave Stories Platform, or One of Our Partner Communities
When you visit the www.ourwave.org website, the Our Wave Stories Platform, or One of Our Partner Communities, we collect certain data by automated means, including:
- Your IP address (automatically assigned to the computer that you are using by your internet service provider).
- Information from your device and browser (e.g. device type, operating system, screen resolution, language, web browser type and version, and language setting of your browser).
- The last website you visited before clicking to our website (referrer information).
- The parts of Our Wave you visit (URL of the specific website pages) and features you use.
- The exact time when you visited each of our website pages or took actions within the page, and the total time spent on each page.
- The Google reCaptcha score detailing your interaction with specific actions on the website, including when submitting a story. Usage of Google reCaptcha is governed by Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
- An approximate geographic location, including information like country, city, and geographic coordinates, calculated based on your IP address or mobile device’s location.
- Other information about your activity on our website.
Collectively, the data above is called Visitor Data. We collect and store this information even if the "Do Not Track" function of your browser is turned on.
B. You Sign Up for Updates or Sign Up to Receive Our Newsletter
If you choose to join our community, we collect your email address to send periodic updates about our mission, activities, resources to survivors and their allies, impact reports, as well as messages regarding our fundraising efforts. We may also add you to our subscriber list if you register for one of our events, or otherwise share your contact information with us via means other than our website.
You can "opt out" of receiving our emails at any time via the unsubscribe link in the footer of each of our email messages.
C. You Share Your Story
If you choose to share your story, you have the option to share as much as you are comfortable about the following:
- The details of the story. (We remove identifying information for any party involved in your story prior to posting.)
- What healing means to you.
- A message of hope for other survivors.
- A name or title for your story.
- General location (i.e. bar, home), relation to the perpetrator, the feeling you hope to convey to other survivors, minority status, or other such tags of your choosing to help others similarly impacted find your story.
- Your email.
Sharing any of the foregoing is completely optional and does not limit your ability to participate in the community and learn from the stories of other survivors. We ask that you share your email so that you remain in control of your story. If you choose to allow us to share your story on a third-party social media platform, information posted will be governed by the social media platforms’ respective privacy policies.
D. You Contact Us Directly
You may contact our support team via the “Contact Us” form on our website or via any email listed on our website. When you do, we collect and store your email address and the content of your message so that we can respond to your question, feedback, or request.
Because email communications are not always secure, and because we tie your messages to your email address, please do not include sensitive information in your messages to us. There is no need to provide to us, and we strongly discourage you from providing, details about any sexual harm or coercion that you experienced, your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, or information about your health.
E. You Make a Donation
If you choose to use the donation feature to financially support our mission, we direct you to a third-party partner who may collect data. Please refer to our third-party partner’s data privacy policy for information regarding the data they collect. Our Wave does not collect nor access any donor credit card data. This data is processed by our third-party provider on our behalf.
The donation page may allow you to share information about our fundraising campaigns on social media. These social media features may allow the third-party social media providers to collect your data. Your interactions with these features are governed by the social media websites’ respective privacy policies.
F. You Apply for a Job at Our Wave
If you chose to apply for a job at Our Wave, you will share your application information (which may include your name, contact information, citizenship or immigration status, resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letter, names of you references, and other information you submit). We will only use this information to process your job application.
G. You Opt-In To Receive Text Messages from Our Wave
If you chose to share your phone number with Our Wave and opt-in to receive text messages from us, we will receive basic contact information from our third-party SMS service provider. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.
2. Why We Collect and Store Your Information
A. To Improve Support for You and Our Community
Our platform aims to build a safe community for survivors. We use the information collected to operate our website and to provide our services.
We utilize stories collected on the Our Wave platform to perform secure, anonymous research and analysis on patterns presented in stories and experiences, with the primary goal of developing better prevention strategies, support resources, and pathways for healing. This includes anonymous tagging of data in stories (including names and locations provided in stories), sentiment analysis, and working with third-party research experts to further analyze anonymous stories.
B. To Measure Our Effectiveness and Impact
We analyze usage trends to understand how our users are using our websites and platform and determine which features or content appear to be more useful and have the most impact. In doing so, we may examine (i) how many visitors we have; (ii) whether a visitor is new or returning; (iii) how our visitors use our website; and (iv) what content, resources, and features they access. This helps us in our decisions to develop new products, features and services, and to create a better website, platform, and set of services.
C. To Prevent and Address Technical Issues
We collect data (for example, the data about your computer device) to ensure that our websites function properly and are optimized for your computer or device. We also use this data to facilitate the service’s technical functioning, including security, troubleshooting, and resolving issues.
D. To Comply with Legal Requirements and other Policies
We may use or share your data (i) if we are legally obligated to disclose information; (ii) if we believe in good faith that the law requires disclosure; (iii) with government entities conducting an investigation or making a lawful request; (iv) to verify or enforce Our Wave’s policies; or (v) to otherwise protect the rights, property, safety, or security of third parties, visitors to the our website, or the public.
3. Who Has Access to Your Information
A. Our Wave Employees
A limited number of senior technical employees at Our Wave have access to limited information about you, including:
- Your visitor ID and platform ID, linked to all of your activities on Our Wave.
- Any information you provide when you email Our Wave’s support team will be visible to staff members of that team.
Access to this data is granted only for platform debugging purposes and is not shared between employees via insecure channels.
B. Other Partners and The Public
Our Wave partners with other entities, including our Board, our funders, advocacy organizations, policy makers, and stakeholders. We may share aggregate platform usage information with these partners, or the general public, but we strive to ensure the anonymity of any particular user or perpetrator.
C. Our Service Providers
Like all other technology and web platforms, we cannot do it all alone. We work with vendors and service providers to help us run our website and platform. We share non-identifying data about our users with our service providers, including:
- Cloud-based data hosting providers to host the user data we collect and store as well as to securely store encryption key information.
- Third party research experts to analyze stories and help us provide better support resources.
- Vendors to help with our website infrastructure and network protection from third-party attacks.
- Customer relationship management software to keep track of potential partners interested in implementing Our Wave in their community.
- Customer support software to help us receive and answer your messages asking for help with our products or services.
- Google reCaptcha to ensure that real people are using our services and not bots or suspicious parties.
- Internal communications tools.
- Google Analytics as our analytic service to help us gauge and improve our services. Google Analytics may recognize you when you visit other sites via their cookies and other tracking technology. We do not combine the information generated through the use of Google Analytics with any other information you may provide to us. Google's ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the www.ourwave.org and community.ourwave.org sites and other sites is governed by the Google Analytics Terms of Use. To see an overview of privacy at Google and how to opt out of certain Google practices, visit Google’s Privacy Policy.
We intend for all third parties to respect your privacy and to treat your information in accordance with the law. Our agreements with third parties are designed to ensure that your personal data is only processed for these specified purposes.
4. How We Keep Your Information Safe
Our Wave was built by survivors, for survivors. We understand that reporting unwanted sexual contact or sexual assault creates risks for survivors, and we care deeply about the privacy and security of our users.
To stop the spread of sexual harm while still protecting the privacy of survivors, our website/software is designed to encrypt all information you submit. Encryption is the process of converting data to an unrecognizable or "encrypted" form. It is used to protect sensitive information so that only authorized parties can view it with a password or private key.
Unfortunately, no internet-enabled 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 (for example, if you feel that the security of any of the information you submitted to Our Wave has been compromised), please immediately notify us by contacting us at [email protected].
5. Updates to This Policy and How to Contact Us
A. Modifications to This Privacy Policy
From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy. We will notify you through a notification posted on the website, or as required by applicable law.
If you continue to use our website, platform, and services after the effective date of any change, then your access and/or use will be deemed an acceptance of our revised Privacy Policy. The revised Privacy Policy supersedes all previous Privacy Policies.
B. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns regarding our Privacy Policy or the way in which we process or protect your information, please contact us at [email protected].
Updated January 11, 2021
