Surfrider Foundation Privacy Policy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The Surfrider Foundation puts high priority on protecting your privacy. 

When you register for special services on one of our sites (to get personalized content or free subscriptions, use our Action Network, enter contests, etc.), you give us personal information about yourself (such as name, address, zip code, email address, etc.). We use this information to provide you with services from ourselves and our partners and affiliates which we think may be of interest to you. You can always “opt-out” now or at any time later, to keep from getting any unwanted messages or solicitations. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact our Membership Department directly at any time, membership@surfrider.org. 
 

1. What Personally Identifiable Information of Yours is Collected?

This means information that tells us something about who you are, such as your name, phone number, email address, mailing address, or even credit card number (if you use a credit card to make a donation). If you visit our sites to read or download information, such as consumer brochures or press releases, we collect and store only the following information about you: the name of the domain from which you access the Internet (for example, aol.com, if you are connecting from an Earthlink account, or duke.edu, if you are connecting from Duke university's domain); the date and time you access our site; and the Internet address of the web site from which you may have linked directly to our site.

2. What organization is collecting my information?

We are the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit, tax-deductible environmental grassroots organization. We are responsible for any information collected on our web sites. Our organizational site is surfrider.org. We use Google Analytics to help us obtain traffic information about our site. 

3. How will my information be used?

We use your personal information to be able to give you personalized service (for example, information about your neighborhood, or your favorite subjects); to send you email alerts or text messages via SMS; to answer your requests; to let you become a member online, etc. You can easily opt-out at any time, to stop any further contact from us, by emailing membership@surfrider.org and/or setting your communications preferences here: https://www.surfrider.org/preferences. 

We also use it to track your and others' use of our web sites; this lets us see which of our features are the most popular so we can better serve our users' needs. We may also use this information to suggest other web site services to you, ask you to become a member of Surfrider Foundation, or to solicit donations. At any time you can opt-out, so that we will not contact you by email, mail, fax, or telephone.

4. Mobile Messaging

Surfrider Foundation may ask for your mobile phone number in order to share news and action alerts with you via text message. By subscribing to Surfrider alerts, you consent to receiving recurring automated text messages from Surfrider, and may opt out at any time by emailing membership@surfrider.org or setting your communications preferences here: https://www.surfrider.org/preferences.

There is no fee from Surfrider to receive text messages, but message and data rates may apply. You can check this with your mobile service provider. Charges are billed and payable to your mobile service provider or deducted from your prepaid account. Consent is not a requirement for purchase.

Data obtained from you in connection with this Short Message Service (“SMS”) may include your mobile phone number, your carrier’s name and the date, time and content of your messages. Surfrider may use this information to contact you and provide the services you request from us. Alerts sent via SMS may not be delivered if the mobile phone is not in range of a transmission site, or if sufficient network capacity is not available at a particular time, or because of other factors beyond the control of Surfrider and the wireless operator. Wireless operators do not guarantee message delivery and will not be held liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

Surfrider will not be liable for any delays in the receipt of any SMS message as delivery is subject to effective transmission from your network operator.

You can opt-out of text messages at any time by emailing membership@surfrider.org or setting your communications preferences here: https://www.surfrider.org/preferences.

5. What choices are available to me regarding collection, use, and distribution of my information?

Now, or at any time in the future, you can correct or update information about you by contacting us at membership@surfrider.org, and you can opt-out so that we do not send you any messages or solicitations at all. You can also set your communications preferences and opt out of postal mail and/or text messages here: https://www.surfrider.org/preferences.

6. What kind of security procedures are in place to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of my information?

We store your personally identifiable information on secure servers. We also use other “anti-hacking” security measures and employ security consultants. We accept credit card donations only via a secure server. 

7. How can I access, update, or delete my information?

You can update our records of your personal information by contacting our Membership Database Administrator at membership@surfrider.org to obtain, change, update or delete our records of your personal information, or to change your privacy options.

8. How are “cookies” used?

Some of our web sites use “cookie” messages to automatically help provide better services. They remind us who you are and how you like to use our web site, based on what you've done and told us before. The “cookie” is placed in your computer and is read when you come back to our web site. Cookies let us take you to the information and features you're particularly interested in. They also let us track your and others' usage, so we know which parts of our sites are most popular. You can reject cookies or very easily cancel them later.

If you would like your browser to reject cookies, you can instruct your browser to do so. 

9. Changes In Our Privacy Policy

Should our practices change, this notice will be immediately updated. Regardless of later updates, we will never use the information you submit under this current notice in a new way (in a way not described in this notice) without first providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prevent that use. See Official Terms and Conditions of using our website. 

10. Official Terms And Conditions

The Surfrider Foundation hereby grants a non-exclusive license to any person to copy and use individual pages or portions of the State of the Beach Report or other web sites for non-commercial purposes, and to any member of the media for media purposes, on the condition that the appropriate copyright notice is displayed. Example: 

“Copyright © 2024 Surfrider Foundation. Used by permission. The State of the Beach Report is available at www.surfrider.org.” 

Disclaimer. We do our very best to make all our information accurate. But we do not and cannot guarantee its accuracy. This means that if you rely on it, you cannot hold us at fault for any inaccuracies. 

The Surfrider Foundation makes no warranties, express or implied, about the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any of the information it provides to the public. 

Changes without notice. We may change any part of this policy, without any separate notice to users. The current policy will always be posted here. We will not change the overall purpose of this policy, which is to protect your privacy consistent with our goals as a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the environment.

11. Opt-Out

To opt-out from receiving content from Surfrider Foundation or its chapters, please do the following: if you want no contact about anything from the Surfrider Foundation or its chapters, partners and affiliates please email membership@surfrider.org and write “REMOVE ALL” in the Subject line of the email.

To opt out of postal mail and/or text messages, you may set your communications preferences here: https://www.surfrider.org/preferences