Knock for Democracy Terms of Service & Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Introduction
Knock for Democracy, Inc. (“KFD”, “we”, or “us”) provides volunteer training, opportunities, and event matching for individual volunteers, political organizations, and political campaigns. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to, interactions with, and use of KFD’s website, services, and any other technology we offer (collectively, our “Services”) as well as any events organized through the Services or accessed through the Services (“Events”), except where expressly stated that separate terms apply. By accessing or using our Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms.
Privacy Policy
By using KFD’s Services, you agree we can access and use your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy, defined below. This includes your interactions and communications with KFD on other websites, services, and platforms. As a general rule, we don’t collect any information unless we absolutely have to and don’t share it with anybody for any purpose unless required by law.
Our Services
We provide and operate the infrastructure to recruit, train, and deploy energized volunteers and provide them with valuable volunteer opportunities. We are always trying to improve our tools to make the volunteering process easier. As such, we may add, remove, change, or discontinue certain capabilities of our Services and require volunteers to follow a different process to complete registrations or participate in events. In some cases, volunteers may be required to register on other platforms or provide information directly to campaigns in order to participate in certain volunteer opportunities. We have no control over this, but you are always free to cancel an event registration.
Your Eligibility to Use the Services
Age Requirements. You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in your state of residence, to use our Services. If we become aware that you are under this minimum, we will cancel any outstanding event registrations, suspend access to our services and/or delete any account you may have made on our website. We are very excited that you are interested in volunteering, but will need to wait until you’re old enough.
Correct Information. To ensure the safety and accountability of our community and relationships with campaigns and other volunteers, you must truthfully represent yourself when using our Services. You must provide us with accurate information when registering for an event or setting up an account.
Restricted Users. You cannot use our Services if we have previously disabled your account or restricted your participation due to violation of these Terms or other terms and policies, unless we specifically permit you to do so.
Your Participation and Conduct
We expect you to help keep the KFD community a safe, accepting, and respectful place for people to volunteer. Your conduct using the Services or participating in Events must comply with these Terms and any policies herein. We reserve the right to suspend access to our Services and Events, delete accounts, or take other reasonably necessary steps to address a violation of these Terms.
Violations of Law. Your use of our Services must comply with all applicable local, state, national, and international laws, rules, and regulations.
Respecting the Community and the Public. You may not use our Services or Events to do anything that infringes or violates someone else’s rights, including their privacy and intellectual property rights, whether they are a member of the public you encounter through an Event, another volunteer, or member of KFD staff. You cannot use our Services to abuse or harm or harass others, including threatening or encouraging such abuse or harm. For example, you cannot use the Services or Events to mislead, defraud, illegally impersonate, defame, bully, harass, or stalk others.
Respecting KFD. You cannot abuse, harm, interfere with, or disrupt our Services, including KFD’s technology and infrastructure. For example, you cannot access or use our Services in unpermitted ways, introduce malware or spam, or attempt to circumvent our security, integrity, and other protective measures.
Indemnity
You agree, to the extent permitted by law, to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless KFD and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against any and all complaints, charges, claims, damages, losses, costs, liabilities, and expenses (including attorney’s fees) due to, arising out of, or relating in any way to: (i) your access to or use of our Services or Events, or any action by a third party in connection with our Services or Events; (ii) your breach of these Terms or any applicable law or regulation, or (iii) your negligence or willful misconduct.
Disclaimer
Our Services and Events are provided “as is” and “as available” and to the extent permitted by law without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. In addition, while we attempt to provide a good volunteer experience, we do not represent or warrant that: (i) the Services and Events will always be secure, error-free, or timely, (ii) the Services and Events will always function without delays, disruptions, or imperfections, (iii) that any information made available on or through the Services will be timely or accurate; (iv) that voters you may encounter through our Events will be nice. KFD does not take responsibility or assume liability for any content or information that you, another user, or a third party shares, uploads, provides, or otherwise makes available on or through our Services or Events. You understand and agree that you may be exposed to content or information that might be offensive, illegal, misleading, or otherwise inappropriate, none of which KFD will be responsible for. To the maximum extent permitted by law, KFD disclaims responsibility and liability for the conduct or actions of the general public (including voters you may come in contact with). You understand and agree that you may be exposed to or come in contact with members of the public, none of whom KFD will be responsible for.
Limits on Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, KFD and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or multiple damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting from: (i) your access to or use of or inability to access or use our Services or participation in Events, or (ii) the conduct or content of other users or third parties on or through our Services or Events. In no event will our aggregate liability for all claims relating to our services exceed the greater of $100.00 USD or the amount you paid us, if applicable, in the 12 months preceding the date of the activity giving rise to the claim.
Governing Law and Venue
These Terms will be governed by the laws of New York without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any claims will be litigated exclusively in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York or the state courts within New York City, New York. You and KFD consent to submit to personal and exclusive jurisdiction in those courts.
General Provisions
These Terms, including any additional terms and policies referenced within, comprise the entire agreement between you and KFD and supersede any prior agreements. If we do not enforce a provision in these Terms, it will not be considered a waiver of our rights to enforce these Terms. We reserve the right to transfer our rights under these Terms and provide the Services using another entity. You may not transfer any of your rights or obligations under these Terms without our consent. We reserve all rights not expressly granted to you.
Termination. KFD reserves the right at any time to modify, suspend, discontinue, or terminate, temporarily or permanently, some or all of the Services (or any part thereof) or Events, with or without notice and without liability to you or any third party. KFD may terminate or suspend your right to access some or all of the Services and Events, without prior notice or liability, if you breach any of the terms or conditions of these Terms or the Privacy Policy, including using the Services in violation of any applicable law such as trade controls or anti-terrorism laws. Should KFD suspect that an individual or entity is using its Services or Events in violation of said laws, we reserve the right to investigate the suspected unlawful conduct. KFD will immediately suspend or terminate an individual or entity determined to have violated applicable law. In the event of termination of these Terms, all sections which by their nature should survive termination shall survive.
Privacy Policy
Information we collect
We will always collect as little information as possible from you through your interactions with the Services or participation in Events. When you visit our website, sign up for an event, create an account, or otherwise interact with KFD and our Services and Events, we may collect information that identifies you, relates to you, or could reasonably be linked to you, including:
Contact information. Your name, email address, phone number, and any other information we may require to accept a donation or that may be required by a campaign or partner organization for your participation in Events, such as your zip code or address, occupation, or information about your employer, if applicable.
Transaction Information. Information related to your donations to KFD (if applicable) or purchases from our merch store (if applicable).
Participation information. Information related to your participation in our Events, including what events you signed up for and whether you attended.
Usage Information. If you create an account, we collect information about how you use the Services, such as your activity on our website, dates and times of access, performance of the Services, and other diagnostic data. See “Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies” below for more information about how we collect and use some of this information.
Device Information. Data from and about the devices you use, such as your browser type and language, operating system, and IP address. Vendors we rely on to provide the technology infrastructure may generate a unique identifier relating to your activity on the Services.
Location Information. Information that relates to or could reveal your location, such as an address you provided, or a coarse location based on your IP address (similar to how your area code indicates the general region your phone number was originally registered). We do not collect precise geolocation data, such as a GPS-based location.
Other information you provide. Other information you provide through your interactions with KFD, including your communications with KFD and our social media accounts.
How we use your information
First and foremost, we use your information to communicate with you about the events you have signed up for so that you know where to go, what to do, and when to do it.
Providing our Services. If you create an account on our website, we may collect information necessary to understand how the Services are functioning to ensure they work properly, to detect fraud, troubleshoot errors, and provide technical support.
Communicating with you. We use information like your email address and phone number to communicate with you directly, including when you contact us. We may reach out if we need additional information regarding your participation in an event, to remind you about an event or provide logistical support, or to provide important information about out Services, Events, terms, and policies. You can opt-out of receiving any non-transactional communications via email and phone.
Text Messaging. If you provide your mobile phone number to us when signing up for an event, we will not share your number (unless required by law as described elsewhere in this policy). We will use your number to communicate with you only about the events you have signed up for, including a reminder as the event is approaching, RSVP confirmation, or to respond to any questions you may have. For example, if you sign up for one event in one week, we may send you 1-2 messages to confirm your registration and make sure you have the information you need. You can opt out of text messages at any time. Message and data rates may apply.
Complying with the Law. We use information to comply with applicable laws and to support the campaigns and organizations we work with to comply with applicable laws. This may include satisfying regulatory reporting obligations (particularly for donors) or answering governmental requests.
When we share your information
We will only share your information as required by law, as required in order to facilitate your ability to participate in an Event (i.e. if a campaign needs an advance list of volunteers who will be canvassing or phonebanking), or in order to perform the basic functions of the Services and Events.
Vendors. KFD shares information with vendors and other firms who provide us with services, including managing our merch store (e.g. we use Squarespace to host the store and handle payments), sending messages (e.g. we use Twilio to send text messages and Mailchimp to send emails), our web monitoring provider (Sentry.io), cloud computing services, legal counsel, and tax and compliance vendors. When personal information is shared with vendors, it is exclusively for the purpose of providing us with tools to operate our Services and Events safely. Such vendors are expressly prohibited from using any of your information for their own purposes, unless required by law.
Partner Organizations and Campaigns. In certain instances, KFD may be required to share your information with organizations and campaigns whose events you sign up for. Such information is only shared for the specific purpose of facilitating your attendance at the specified event, or for the partner organization or campaign to satisfy their legal requirements.
When Required. We may also be required to share your information for purposes of legal compliance or to respond to legal process, including government requests. For example, we are required to report donor information about each contribution made to KFD to the Federal Election Commission.
Other Circumstances. We may disclose your information in cases where we have a lawful and necessary basis to do so; if we determine in our good faith it is reasonably necessary to enforce our terms and policies or other contracts; to protect our users, employees, others, and our services; to establish, exercise, and defend our legal rights; or in the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale.
KFD does not sell your information to third parties or participate in any kind of information monetization (like collecting data for advertising or user profiling), nor do we contract with any vendors that do.
Privacy questions and data requests
KFD takes your privacy seriously. IF you have a question about this policy or KFD’s data practices or if you wish to exercise your data rights under applicable laws, you can contact us at hey@knockfordemocracy.org.
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have certain rights with respect to your information, including the ability to request: (i) access to and/or a copy of certain personal information we hold about you; (ii) correction of inaccurate information we have about you; and (iii) deletion of certain personal information we have collected from you. While your legal rights may vary based on your state or country of residency, our commitment to your control over your information does not. Even if you are not in a jurisdiction that obligates us to fulfill a specific request, we will operate to the best of our ability as if you are (for example, internet users in California enjoy more rights online than internet users in Georgia, but we will honor requests from users in Georgia just the same as we would for someone in California).
We will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity when you make a request. Certain information may be exempt from such requests under applicable law such as information we retain for legal compliance and to secure our services. We may need certain information in order to provide our services to you; accordingly, if you ask us to delete it, you may no longer be able to use our services.
Cookies and other technologies
KFD’s websites and services may use “cookies” or other technologies. Some of these tools are necessary to provide a specific service or feature that you accessed or requested or to store your preferences, such as authenticating your account or remembering your preferred settings. We may also use these technologies to understand how people interact with us and to help us reach potential volunteers on other platforms, including to understand the effectiveness of our communications or advertisements. You can usually influence or decline certain of these technologies through your web browser, but removing or disabling cookies and other technologies could affect the availability and functionality of our services. To disable Google analytics and advertising cookies, you can also use their individual analytics opt-out mechanism (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout) and change Google advertising settings (https://myadcenter.google.com/). You can also make choices about interest-based ads at Digital Advertising Alliance (https://optout.aboutads.info/).
You must take this action on each device or browser where you want your choices to apply.
Minors
Our services are not intended for—and we don’t direct them to—minors under the age of 18 or anyone under the age of majority under applicable law. If we become aware that a minor is using our platform, we will suspend their use of our services and delete their account in accordance with our Terms of Service.
Updates to the Privacy Policy
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will let you know by revising the date at the top of the Privacy Policy. In some cases, we may add an additional early notice on our website or send you an email if you provided us with that information.