THE FQ PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy (“Policy”) only pertains to visitors and users of the official FQ site at thefemalequotient.com and the web pages, applications, platforms, products, and services offered therein (“the site”). It does not govern offline activities. It also does not govern activities on third-party sites linked to our site. By using the site, you the user (“you”) agree to be bound by the Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the site in any way. 

To effectively advance our advocacy of equality in the workplace, some necessary tracking and data collection of the site’s visitors and users does occur. The what, how and when of these practices are explained below. As our practices evolve, we may update the Policy and will alert you that changes have been made by indicating the date it was last updated at the bottom of the Policy. We also encourage you to periodically review this Policy. By continuing to use the site after any changes are made, you are accepting these changes.

What Types of Data Do We Collect?

First, thank you for visiting our site, and please know that we value your privacy. We try to limit the data we collect and, when possible, delete or anonymize it. Typically, data containing any personally identifiable information comes directly and voluntarily from you. Data that contains your “personal information” refers to information that directly identifies you or information that can be used to personally identify you. This may include:

  • Information and Content Provided Directly and Voluntarily by the Site’s User: We collect the information and content that you voluntarily provide, at your sole discretion, when you choose to use the site, access its features, make purchases, and join our public online forum for discussing important socioeconomic issues. For instance, you may choose to provide your name, contact information (address, email, and phone number), employer, title, industry, interests, gender, photos, videos, messages, and financial information (credit card number, billing address, etc.), where applicable.  

We may also collect some personal information passively, while you are visiting or interacting with the site. We refer to this collection practice as “passive,” because it is automated and collected just by your visit to and browsing of the site. Generally, this data collection practice does not include collection of your person information aka information identifying you personally.  Rather, it collects and aggregates data on user and visitor activity on the site (“Aggregated Information”). The passive data collection practices we may use consist of:

    • Data Collected by Cookies, Web Beacons, and Similar Technologies. We may use cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies to improve the overall performance of our site and the quality of your experience on our site.  A cookie is a small piece of data stored on your device that remembers information about your activity. Similarly, a web beacon is a small file stored online that monitors your usage of our site. Cookies and web beacons work together to enable our site to personalize your visit and make it more user friendly, for instance, by allowing our site to remember your preferred settings and activities so you won’t need to resubmit certain information. Check your browser settings to determine if and where cookies are stored and whether and how they may be deleted. 
    • Data Passed Along from Third-Party Referring Sites.  Our site may also collect information from third-party referring sites. This means from the URL or web browser from which you came. When you reach our site from a third-party site, that third-party referring site may pass along to our server information it collected from your use of its site, such as the “IP address” (a number used by computers online to identify your computer), the type of web browser, operating system or platform you use, the internet address and domain of the site you left to visit our site, and when and how many times you were referred by this third-party to our site.
  • Data Collected from Analytics Tools. We may utilize Google Analytics or other third-party data analytics tools to identify and track how our users engage with the site. Such analytics tools utilize cookies, described more fully above, to collect information and trends on how people engage with our site. For example, they might collect and summarize information on the number of visitors to the site, how many visitors are new or returning, how long visitors stay on the site, and which webpages of the site get the most online traffic. This, in turn, allows us to evaluate and improve the site’s features. 

Why do We Collect this Data?

The mission of our site is to facilitate a global, online, public forum for activism on the issue of gender equality and related socioeconomic matters. Our site is designed to help users connect with others and to publicly share their own experiences, related information, and news. All the data collected, directly or passively, is lawful and serves an important purpose. Our users decide what content and personal information they want to share in a public forum as part of our activism movement. All the data we collect is used to benefit our users, improve our site, and promote its underlying mission. In sum, we use the collected data to: communicate with you, fulfill your requests, provide you with requested services, promote the site, process transactions, facilitate your ease of use and our administration and operation of the site, provide you with information you request or information that we think will be of interest to you, respond to your submissions, monitor and analyze site usage and trends, and personalize and improve the site based on our users’ preferences and analysis of site usage and trends.

How is this Data Shared?

Sometimes we need to rely on third-party partners and vendors to help us operate and improve our site. We share our data with them on an as-needed basis. To be clear, we do not sell any of our data, especially data containing your personal information, to anyone.  Data may be shared with analytics vendors. We may need to provide information to vendors and service providers who support our business and the functionality of our site, such as by providing technical infrastructure services and facilitating payment processing. The USPS and other shipping couriers may receive necessary personal information to fulfill product orders. We might be forced to share data with law enforcement in response to legal requests. We expressly reserve the right to transfer any data to a successor in interest that acquires rights to that information because of a sale. Finally, if you choose to share your information publicly, it is no longer in our control.

Our site is also connected in a variety of ways to content on other platforms. For instance, we provide links to content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and to content on other sites, such as news and press release sites.  Our site also features embedded media, such as videos, that may be hosted on these other platforms but viewable from links on our site.  The providers of such external content might place their own cookies on your device or otherwise collect user data, which is subject to their, not our, respective online privacy policy.

How is the Data Protected?

Any data we have that contains your personal information is stored on our secure server and not publicly accessible (unless, as discussed above, you have chosen to publicly disclose information about yourself). Additionally, all data transmitted to and from our website, when and where applicable, is encrypted using industry standard security measures. We store our data for as long as necessary for the purpose for which we originally collected it. We may retain certain data for legitimate business purposes or as required by law. 

We are based in the United States, and we process and store our data in the United States. It is possible that we and our service providers may process, transfer, access, store, or receive data from foreign jurisdictions with different data protection laws. We recommend you consult the data privacy protection laws in your home jurisdiction if you are not from the United States. In certain circumstances, local data protection laws (such as the GDPR) may give you rights with respect to personal information if you are located in or are a resident of that country, state, or territory (including if you are located in the EU/EEA).

We will take all reasonable steps and measures to ensure that our data receives an adequate level of protection to prevent loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Please be aware, however, that despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse. To protect the confidentiality of personal information, you also have a duty to keep any passwords confidential and actively prevent unauthorized use of your devices and site log-ins.    

Notice to California Residents of California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

This California Privacy Notice is for California residents and supplements this Policy. Under the CCPA, you have the following rights:

  • Right to Know: You have the right to request disclosure of any personal information we may have collected;
  • Right to Request Deletion: You have the right to request deletion of any personal information we may have collected;
  • Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

To request disclosure or deletion of any personal information you believe may have been collected and saved by us, please submit a written request to info@thefq.com (to the attention of: “Data Privacy Team”). Note that, to protect the privacy rights of our users, we will need to verify your identity before processing your request.

Children’s Privacy

Our site is intended for professionals and/or individuals over eighteen (18) years of age. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of thirteen (13). 

Governing Law

Any dispute or controversy relating to this Policy shall be resolved under the laws of the State of California, including all matters of construction, validity, performance, and enforcement, without giving effect to the principles of conflict of laws, and any action brought by any party hereto shall be brought within the State of California, County of Los Angeles, in the state or federal courts located in Los Angeles, California.

Procedure for Updating Your Preferences 

Contingent on the applicable data protection laws that apply to you, you may request changes to your preferences by submitting a request by email to the attention of “Data Privacy Team” at info@thefq.com.

Last Updated: August 25, 2020