The City Habitats Policy Notice

Last Updated: October 3, 2025

This website available at www.cityhabitats.org (“the site”) is a cross-sector coalition City Habitats Network, Green Infrastructure Workforce Collaborative, and related efforts comprised of the Nature Conservancy (“TNC”), Urban Systems Design, and Tacoma Tree Foundation, and the organizations and individuals listed on https://www.cityhabitats.org/partners/ (collectively, “the Coalition”). The Coalition takes your privacy very seriously and cares about how your information is collected, used, stored, and shared. We are providing this Privacy Notice to explain our practices and the choices that you can make about the way your information is used by the Coalition. This Privacy Notice applies to the processing of personal information by the Coalition, including on the site, our social media pages, email messages that we send to you, and our other online or offline offerings which link to, or are otherwise subject to, this Privacy Notice (collectively, the “Services”).

UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE
PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
HOW WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION
HOW WE DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION
YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES AND RIGHTS
INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
CHILDREN’S PERSONAL INFORMATION
THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES/APPLICATIONS
CONTACT US

SUMMARY

For ease of reference, a summary of our practices with respect to personal information is set forth below.

Personal Information Collected. We may collect personal information directly from you, automatically when you use our Services, and from third parties. See the section “Personal Information We Collect” for more information.

Uses of Personal Information. We may use your personal information for administrative, technical, and marketing purposes. See the section “How We Use Personal Information” for more information.

Disclosures of Personal Information. We may disclose personal information to service providers, partners, affiliates, and advertising partners. See the section “How We Disclose Personal Information” for more information.

Retention of Personal Information. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we may consider factors such as applicable legal requirements, and the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information. See the section “Retention of Personal Information” for more information.

Additional Information. For more information on our privacy practices, please review this Privacy Notice. Importantly, the section of our Privacy Notice titled “Your Privacy Choices and Rights” includes important details about how you can exercise some of the rights you may have under applicable laws.

1. UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time in our sole discretion. If we do, we’ll let you know by posting the updated Privacy Notice on our website, and/or we may also send other communications about such updates.

2.PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect personal information that you provide to us, personal information we collect automatically when you use the Services, and personal information from third-party sources, as described below.

A. Personal Information You Provide to Us Directly

We may collect personal information that you provide to us.

Engagement with Our Services. We may collect personal information in connection with your engagement with our Services. This personal information may include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, other contact information, and other information that you voluntarily provide to us.

Your Communications with Us. We may collect the information you communicate to us, such as through phone, postal mail, or email.

Interactive Features. We and others who use our Services may collect personal information that you submit or make available through our interactive features (e.g., messaging features, commenting functionalities, forums, blogs, and social media pages). Any information you provide using the public sharing features of the Services will be considered “public.”

B. Personal Information Collected Automatically

We may collect personal information automatically when you use the Services.

Device Information. We may collect personal information about your device, such as your Internet protocol (IP) address, user settings, cookie identifiers, other unique identifiers, browser or device information, Internet service provider, and location information (including, as applicable, approximate location derived from IP address).

Usage Information. We may collect personal information about your use of the Services, such as the pages that you visit, items that you search for, the types of content you interact with, information about the links you click, the frequency and duration of your activities, and other information about how you use the Services.

Cookie Notice (and Other Technologies). We, as well as third parties, may use cookies, pixel tags, and other technologies (“Technologies”) to automatically collect personal information through your use of the Services.

- Cookies. Cookies are small text files stored in device browsers.

- Pixel Tags. A pixel tag (also known as a web beacon) is a piece of code embedded in the Services that collects personal information about use of or engagement with the Services. The use of a pixel tag allows us to record, for example, that a user has visited a particular web page or clicked on a particular advertisement.

- Web Beacons. Web beacons are the result of a tag’s code firing. We may include web beacons in e-mails to understand whether messages have been opened, acted on, or forwarded.

See “Your Privacy Choices and Rights” below to understand your choices regarding these Technologies.

3.HOW WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use personal information for a variety of purposes, including to provide the Services, for administrative purposes, and to provide you with marketing materials, as described below.

A. Provide the Services

We use personal information to fulfill our contract with you and provide the Services, such as:

Managing your information;
Providing access to certain areas, functionalities, and features of the Services;
Communicating with you;
Sharing personal information with third parties as needed to provide the Services; and
Managing your communication preferences and requests regarding your personal information.

EU/UK GDPR Lawful Bases: If the EU GDPR or the UK GDPR applies to our processing of personal information under this section, our lawful bases may include performance of a contract, legitimate interest, consent, and/or compliance with legal obligations.

B. Administrative Purposes

We use personal information for various administrative purposes, such as:

Pursuing our legitimate interests such as network and information security and fraud prevention;
Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity;
Carrying out analytics;
Measuring interest and engagement in the Services;
Improving, upgrading, or enhancing the Services;
Creating de-identified and/or aggregated information. If we create or receive de-identified information, we will not attempt to reidentify such information, unless permitted by, or required to comply with, applicable laws;
Ensuring internal quality control and safety;
Authenticating and verifying individual identities, including requests to exercise your rights under this Privacy Notice;
Debugging to identify and repair errors with the Services;
Auditing, legal investigations, transactions, and other compliance activities;
Enforcing our agreements and policies; and
Carrying out activities that are required to comply with our legal obligations.

C. Marketing

We may use personal information to tailor and provide you with marketing and other content. We may provide you with these materials as permitted by applicable law.

California Shine the Light. If you are a California resident and have provided personal information to us, you are entitled by California law to request information once per calendar year regarding certain categories of personal information we shared with third parties for their direct marketing purposes in the past calendar year. To make a request, please contact us at any time as set forth in “Contact Us” below.

If you have any questions about our marketing practices, you may contact us at any time as set forth in “Contact Us” below.

EU/UK GDPR Lawful Bases: If the EU GDPR or the UK GDPR applies to our processing of personal information under this section, our lawful bases may include legitimate interest and/or consent.

D. With Your Consent or Direction

We may use personal information for other purposes that are clearly disclosed to you at the time you provide personal information, with your consent, or as otherwise directed by you.

4.HOW WE DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION

We disclose personal information to third parties for a variety of purposes, including to provide the Services, to protect us or others, or in the event of a major transaction such as a merger, sale, or asset transfer, as described below.

A. Disclosures to Provide the Services

We may disclose any of the personal information we collect to the categories of third parties described below.

Service Providers. We may disclose personal information to third-party service providers that assist us with the provision of the Services. This may include, but is not limited to, service providers that provide us with hosting, customer service, analytics, marketing services, IT support, and related services.

Third-Party Services You Share or Interact With. The Services may link to or allow you to interface, interact, share information with, direct us to share information with, access and/or use third-party websites, applications, services, products, and technology (each a “Third-Party Service”).

Any personal information shared with a Third-Party Service will be subject to the Third- Party Service’s privacy policy. We are not responsible for the processing of personal information by Third-Party Services.

Affiliates. We may share your personal information with our corporate affiliates.

B. Disclosures to Protect Us or Others

We may access, preserve, and disclose any information we store associated with you to external parties if we, in good faith, believe doing so is required or appropriate to: comply with law enforcement or national security requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety; enforce our policies or contracts; collect amounts owed to us; or assist with an investigation or prosecution of suspected or actual illegal activity.

C. Disclosure in the Event of Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers

If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, purchase or sale of assets, transition of service to another provider, or other similar corporate transaction, your personal information may be disclosed, sold, or transferred as part of such a transaction.

5.YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES AND RIGHTS

Your Privacy Choices. The privacy choices you may have about your personal information are described below.

Email Communications. If you no longer want to receive emails from us, you can request by emailing info@cityhabitats.org.. Please allow ten (10) business days for us to respond to your request.

“Do Not Track.” Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. Please note that we do not respond to or honor DNT signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers.

Cookies. You may stop or restrict the placement of Technologies by taking the following steps:

Using your preferred browser, navigate to www.cityhabitats.org.
Depending on how you have previously interacted with our sites, a cookie banner may or may not pop up.
1. At the bottom of the screen, you may see a banner at the bottom labeled “Your cookie preferences.” If you see this banner, click the blue “Cookies Settings” button.
2. If you do not see this banner, click the blue cookie icon at the bottom left of the screen to bring up the Cookie Settings.
In the Cookie Settings, confirm that all non-essential categories are denied.
1. Alternatively, you can toggle on specific cookie types using the toggles, and then clicking “Confirm My Choices.”

Please note you would need to follow the above steps for any browser you use. For example, if you only use Google Chrome, then you can just take the steps above in Google Chrome. However, if you sometimes use Google Chrome and sometimes use Microsoft Edge, you would need to complete the steps above for each browser to opt out of all but necessary cookies.

You may also stop or restrict the placement of Technologies on your device or remove them by adjusting your preferences as your browser or device permits. Please note that depending on how you adjust your cookie preferences, certain Services may not work properly.

Please note that cookie-based opt-outs are not effective on mobile applications. However, you may opt out of certain tracking on some mobile applications by following the instructions for Android, iOS, and others.

The online advertising industry also provides mechanisms that may allow you to opt out of receiving targeted ads from organizations that participate in self-regulatory programs. To learn more, visit the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, and the European Digital Advertising Alliance.

Please note you must separately opt out in each browser and on each device.

Your Privacy Rights. In accordance with applicable law, you may have the right to:

Confirm Whether We Are Processing Your Personal Information;

Request Access to or Portability of Your Personal Information;

Request Correction of Your Personal Information;

Request Deletion, Anonymization, or Blocking of Your Personal Information;

Request Restriction of or Object to our Processing of Your Personal Information;

Request to Opt-Out of Certain Processing Activities; and

Be informed about third parties with which your information has been shared; and

Withdraw Your Consent to our Processing of Your Personal Information. Please note that your withdrawal will only take effect for future processing and will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us as set forth in “Contact Us” below. We will process such requests in accordance with applicable laws.

Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf in certain jurisdictions, may make a request to exercise the rights listed above regarding your personal information. If your personal information is subject to a law that allows an authorized agent to act on your behalf in exercising your privacy rights and you wish to designate an authorized agent, please provide written authorization signed by you and your designated agent using the information found in “Contact Us” below and ask us for additional instructions.

To protect your privacy, we will take steps to verify your identity before fulfilling requests submitted under applicable privacy laws. These steps may involve asking you to provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative. Examples of our verification process may include asking you to confirm the email address we have associated with you.

Some laws may allow you to appeal our decision if we decline to process your request. If applicable laws grant you an appeal right, and you would like to appeal our decision with respect to your request, you may do so by informing us of this and providing us with information supporting your appeal.

If your personal information is subject to the applicable data protection laws of certain jurisdictions, such as Australia, Brazil, the European Economic Area, or the United Kingdom, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority if you believe our processing of your personal information violates applicable law.

6.INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

All personal information processed by us may be transferred, processed, and stored anywhere in the world, including, but not limited to, the United States or other countries, which may have data protection laws that are different from the laws where you live. These countries may or may not have adequate data protection laws as defined by the data protection authority in your country. For example, if you visit our website from outside the US, your personal data (e.g., your IP address) may be transferred into the US.

If we transfer personal information from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and/or the United Kingdom to a country that does not provide an adequate level of protection under applicable data protection laws, one of the safeguards we may use to support such transfer is the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

For more information about the safeguards we use for international transfers of your personal information, please contact us as set forth below.

7.RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We store the personal information we collect as described in this Privacy Notice for as long as you use the Services, or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide the Services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we may consider applicable legal requirements, the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, certain risk factors, the purposes for which we process your personal information, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means.

8.CHILDREN’S PERSONAL INFORMATION

The Services are not directed to children under 18 (or other age as required by local law), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children without consent of a parent or guardian. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has uploaded personal information to the Services in violation of applicable law, you may contact us as described in “Contact Us” below.

9.THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES/APPLICATIONS

The Services may contain links to other websites/applications and other websites/applications may reference or link to our Services. These third-party services are not controlled by us. We encourage our users to read the privacy policies of each website and application with which they interact. We do not endorse, screen, or approve, and are not responsible for, the privacy practices or content of such other websites or applications. Providing personal information to third-party websites or applications is at your own risk.

10.CONTACT US

The Coalition is the controllers of the personal information we process under this Privacy Notice.

If you have any questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Notice, or to exercise your rights as detailed in this Privacy Notice, please contact us by sending us an email at: info@cityhabitats.org.