Privacy Notice
Privacy Summary
We (BuildingTransparency.org) protect Personal Information you provide to us when you use websites and services we manage (BuildingTransparency.org, and the cqd.io API). Together these are referred to as “Services” in this Privacy Notice. “EC3” refers to the embodied-carbon calculation services provided via buildingtransparency.org and cqd.io.
We comply with applicable legislation that is meant to protect Personal Information where we do business, including the State of California, the State of Washington, and the Province of British Columbia. We are subject to British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), and Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) where Personal Information crosses provincial boundaries and international borders.
Our services are for professional use by adults. If you are under 19 years of age, or are using an email that is not ‘business contact information’, do not use this service.
When you use our Services, you are agreeing to our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use. Please don’t use our Services if you don’t agree.
Personal Information is any information about an identifiable individual.
Information about a company can sometimes constitute personal information about an individual and some privacy and data protection laws cover business contact information that uniquely identifies an individual. For this reason, we include business contact information in our definition of “Personal Information”.
We collect Personal Information directly from you when you visit our websites, contact us via mail or email, or register for our Services. This information may include your name, email address, mailing address, and other information that you choose to provide to us. You have the option to upload your personal image for your profile avatar on BuildingTransparency.org.
We treat anything that can identify a specific person, including business contact information, as Personal Information.
We have a separate policy on commercially sensitive information that belongs to your employer.
2. Use of Personal Information
BuildingTransparency.org uses your Personal Information to:
- Create your BuildingTransparency.org account.
- Contact you with updates and notifications relating to our Services. For example, we use your email address to let you know about EC3 new features and upgrades.
- Provide technical support or respond to inquiries, at your request.
- Provide you with notifications and information, for example email alerts, when we have your consent to do so.
- Monitor usage of the system, investigate issues, and for research and sustainability purposes.
BuildingTransparency.org does not knowingly or intentionally process Personal Information from individuals who are under the age of 13.
We may also use anonymous information, data that does not identify an individual, for our own business purposes.
For more information on how we manage confidential commercial information see our Terms of Use.
We use your Personal Information to communicate with you and deliver the Services.
3. Consent
You provide either explicit consent (e.g., where you must tick a box to indicate your consent) or implicit consent (e.g., where the reason for the collection is obvious and voluntary, for example to receive email alerts) for BuildingTransparency.org to use and disclose the Personal Information you provide.
BuildingTransparency.org collects, uses and discloses your Personal Information with your consent.
You can withdraw your consent to the use and disclosure of your Personal Information at any time by contacting us at privacy@buildingtransparency.org or, in the case of email alerts, by clicking on the unsubscribe link found in the alert.
As long as you are using our Services, we may still contact you for administrative purposes (e.g., change to Services, service interruption, etc.).
You can withdraw your consent.
You can remove your Personal Information from your accounts at any time by contacting us at privacy@buildingtransparency.org. If you later decide to use our Services again, you must create a new account.
You can remove your Personal Information from your account.
BuildingTransparency.org may use or disclose Personal Information without knowledge or consent in certain circumstances, including but not limited to:
- When the collection, use or disclosure of Personal Information is permitted or required by law;
- In an emergency that threatens an individual’s life, health, or personal security;
- When the Personal Information is available from a public source;
- When we require legal advice from a lawyer;
- For the purposes of collecting a debt;
- To protect ourselves from fraud; or
- To investigate an anticipated breach of an agreement or a contravention of law.
- To investigate an anticipated breach of an agreement or a contravention of law.
BuildingTransparency.org may need to use or disclose your Personal Information when required by law or to help protect the rights and safety of you, others or ourselves.
4. Disclosure
BuildingTransparency.org will only disclose Personal Information where necessary to fulfill the purposes identified at the time of collection or for a purpose reasonably related to those purposes.
BuildingTransparency.org doesn’t sell, rent, or trade Personal Information.
We will not sell, rent, trade or otherwise disclose your Personal Information to any third parties or outside companies for any purpose other than those specified at the time of collection unless we obtain your consent to do so.
We don’t disclose your Personal Information without your consent.
EC3 is for professional use by adult persons only.
- The name, nickname, employer and avatar you use on BuildingTransparency.org are effectively public within the system. This includes to members of User Groups you create or join.
- Personal Information in the system, other than your password, is visible to the designated Manager of your organization.
- Most documents you create are labeled with your name, nickname and employer to everyone who has access to that document. You have control over how the documents are shared.
EC3 is for professional use by adult persons only.
Some Personal Information is effectively public on the system, including the name, nickname, employer and avatar you use.
We may disclose Personal Information as part of a sale, merger or change in control, or in preparation for any of these events. An entity that buys BuildingTransparency.org will have the right to continue to use your Personal Information, but only as set out in this Privacy Notice.
We may disclose your data if our business is sold, but it must continue to be used in accordance with this Privacy Notice.
5. Retention
BuildingTransparency.org will retain Personal Information only as long as necessary to fulfill the identified purpose or as permitted or required by law. When we have no ongoing legitimate business need for your Personal Information, we will delete it, anonymize it or securely store it until deletion is practical.
BuildingTransparency.org keeps your Personal Information for as long as there is a legitimate business need.
6. Individual Access and Accuracy
You are responsible for providing accurate information to BuildingTransparency.org. You may request access to, make corrections to, or delete the Personal Information we hold about you at any time, subject to limited exceptions.
You are responsible for providing BuildingTransparency.org with accurate information.
BuildingTransparency.org account holders can update their User Profile any time by logging in and opening their personal profile.
You can contact us any time for access to the Personal Information we hold about you.
Upon written request, we will provide you with a list of entities (e.g. third party service providers) to which we have disclosed your Personal Information, if applicable.
You can log in and update your profile information at any time.
7. Security
BuildingTransparency.org has taken appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your Personal information. We have developed a Privacy Code for our team that outlines expected rules of conduct when processing Personal Information. We use contracts to ensure that third parties acting on our behalf also maintain reasonable and appropriate safeguards.
Even so, it is important to remember that the Internet is not an absolutely secure medium of communication and no system can be guaranteed 100% secure, not even ours.
BuildingTransparency.org takes appropriate security measures to protect your Personal Information.
8. Location
All data is hosted on Microsoft Azure in the United States, unless otherwise specified. Your information may also be securely stored for archival and development purposes under the control of our developer(s) in Canada and Ukraine.
All data is stored in the United States. Our developer holds additionalbackup copies.
9. Cookies
We use functional cookies on our website to deliver the desired functionality and user experience and analytics cookies to collect and analyze aggregate visitor behaviour data. Cookies help us better understand how our site is used and to improve it, as well as providing visitors the benefit of not having to re-enter the same data over and over again. You can disable cookies and still obtain access to most of our Services.
BuildingTransparency.org makes minimal use of cookies on our websites, and you can turn them off.
10. Employee Personal Information
When you apply for a job with BuildingTransparency.org, we will collect Personal Information related to your application. In the event you are hired, we will collect information required to manage the employment relationship. Please contact our Privacy Officer for more information about our management of applicant and employee Personal Data.
Contact our Privacy Officer for information on how we manage Personal Information during the hiring process and employee Personal Information.
11. Additional Information
Guard your privacy when you are online. Our Services may contain contains links to other websites which we have no control over. Whether we have posted those links or other organizations or individuals have, you should read their privacy notices and make an informed decision about using those websites or their services.
Guard your privacy when online.
BuildingTransparency.org may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. We will post the date of the most recent changes and provide previous versions upon request. If we make significant changes, we will provide notification via email as well.
When BuildingTransparency.org updates this Privacy Notice, we will provide information about the changes.
12. Questions and Complaints
You may send your privacy-related questions, concerns or complaints to our Privacy Officer who is responsible for ensuring our compliance with this Notice and privacy legislation, at privacy@buildingtransparency.org
BuildingTransparency.org will reply to complaints within 30 calendar days of receipt.
If our Privacy Officer is unable to resolve your concern, you may also contact the Washington State Office of Privacy and Data Protection.