Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy last revised September 21, 2023.

We are strongly committed to letting you know how we will collect and use your personal information.  The policies below are applicable to the Sierra Club’s network of websites, including sierraclub.org and other Sierra Club websites; all digital materials and apps published or distributed by the Sierra Club; and all other interactive features, services, and communications provided by the Sierra Club (“Sites”), however accessed and/or used, that are operated by us, made available by us, or produced and maintained by the Sierra Club (collectively “Sierra Club” or “we”, “us”, or “our”).  We have established this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to let you know the kinds of personal information we may gather during your visit to these Sites, why we gather your information, what we use your personal information for, when we might disclose your personal information, and how you can manage your personal information.

This Privacy Policy is part of our Terms and Conditions. By using our Sites, you are accepting the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Sites. 

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or don’t see your concerns addressed here, you should contact us by email at privacy@sierraclub.org.

We collect two basic types of information from you in conjunction with your use of the Sites, personal information and non-personal information.  Personal information is information that you may supply to us, as described more fully below, i.e., when you subscribe, place an order, complete a survey, register for a Site or any part thereof, enter a contest, upload content, participate in a community, or provide your e-mail address.  Personal information is any information that can individually identify you and includes, among other things, your name, e-mail address, telephone number, postal address, credit card, billing and contact information.  Non-personal information includes information that does not personally identify you, but it may include tracking and usage information about your location, demographics, use of the Sites and the Internet.

NORMAL WEBSITE USAGE

The Sierra Club has a firm commitment to internet privacy. You can visit most portions of our Sites without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information.

Collection of Personal Information From or Through Social Media Sites

When you interact with any Sierra Club property page or account on a social media platform, such as Facebook, we may collect the personal information that you make available to us on that page or account including your account ID or “handle.” However, we will comply with the privacy policies of the corresponding social media platform and we will only collect and store such personal information that we are permitted to collect by these social media platforms.  If you choose to link or login to your Sierra Club account with or through a social networking service, Sierra Club and that service may share certain information about you and your activities. With your consent, we also may share information about your activities, including what you view on the Sites, with that social network’s users.

Collection and Use of Personally Identifiable Information 

The Sierra Club may collect the following personal information about you when such data is voluntarily submitted to our Sites: 

  • Title
  • First and last name
  • Email addresses
  • Mailing address
  • Mobile number

​​In conjunction with registering for some Outings activities, we may collect the following voluntarily submitted personal information: age, gender, and fitness-related information.

The Sierra Club and partners working on our behalf may automatically collect the following information from the device you use to interact with our Sites: 

  • Device information about your computer, mobile device, or other device that you use to access the Sites.  This information may include IP address, geolocation information, unique device identifiers, device type, browser type, browser language, and other transactional information.

There are a number of circumstances in which you may supply us with your personal information.  The following lists the most common ways in which we may collect your personal information.

  • Registration for an account
  • Sign up to receive e-mails, alerts, or other communications
  • Request for customer service or other assistance
  • Participation in surveys, panels, or market research
  • Participation in activities, events, and promotions
  • Purchases, orders, and subscriptions, including subscriptions to the Sierra Club publications and services
  • Applying for a job, internship, or volunteer position
  • Making a donation, joining, or renewing a membership
  • Entering contests or sweepstakes
  • Participation on social media accounts involving the Sierra Club, our Sites and our brands
  • Participation in communities, chat rooms and comment threads, audio or visual calls or conferences, and other interactive services or activities
  • Submission of user generated content
  • Any other place on the Sites where you knowingly volunteer personal information

Our Sites may require submission of personally identifiable data for visitors to request information, products, and services, or to become a member of the Sierra Club or join other Sierra Club activities or programs (such as AddUp or Team Sierra). Such information is used to send orders and information about the Sierra Club to our visitors. Financial information is used to bill visitors in connection with their orders. Some of the activist functions of our site also require registration of personal information. We use this information to make these functions more effective and provide participants with additional information about conservation issues.  If you submit personally identifiable information to the Sierra Club some information, such as your name and mailing address, may be exchanged with other organizations. Members may opt out of such membership list exchanges by following the Opt-Out Procedures, below

Collection and Use of Non-Personally Identifiable Information

We may also collect certain information that does not identify you individually and our servers may automatically keep an activity log of your use of our Sites (“Non-Personal Information”). We may collect and store any of the following categories of Non-Personal Information:

  • Non-identifiable demographic data such as age, gender, and five digit zip code as part of collecting personal information
  • Analytics and usage information about your use of the Sites.
  • Additional “traffic data” and log files such as time of access, date of access, software crash reports, session identification number, access times, and referring website addresses.
  • Other information regarding your use of the Sites.

Google Services

We also use Google services, including Google Analytics and Google AdWords which uses cookies and other, similar technologies to collect information about Site use anonymously and reports website trends, without identifying individual visitors. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/, and opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Salesforce Services

We also use Salesforce services which collect personal information in connection with Sierra Club emails and newsletter campaigns, including email delivery and click through data. This information may be aggregated and/or associated with your other personal information. You can learn about Salesforce’s practices by going to https://www.salesforce.com/company/privacy/.

Is Personal Information Collected From Children?

Unless otherwise disclosed during collection and with parent or guardian consent (for instance, in some of the educational areas on our Sites), Sierra Club does not knowingly collect personal identifiable information from children under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age you should not provide personally identifiable information to the Sierra Club without providing us with consent from your parents. 

HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use the information we learn from you to help us personalize and continually improve your experience on the Sites.  We may use your Personal and Non-Personal Information in the following ways:

General Uses

  • Provide you with the content, products and services you request
  • Track your purchases and donation information
  • Post your user generated content as you request
  • Communicate with you about your account or transactions with us and send you information about features and enhancements
  • Communicate with you about changes to our policies
  • Communicate with you about your comment to a story or topic
  • Personalize content and experiences on our Sites, including providing you recommendations based on your preferences
  • Send you newsletters, offers and promotions for our products and services, third party products and services, or special events by e-mail, text, or other another medium
  • Administer contests, sweepstakes, promotions, and surveys
  • Optimize or improve our products, services and operations
  • Detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal
  • Perform statistical, demographic, and marketing analyses, including purchasing patterns
  • Send your messages and comments to public officials, corporations, and others through our services providing online action opportunities
  • Post your comments through our service providing online actions

Combination of Your Personal Information

We use the information from one portion of the Sites on other portions of Sites in our network of Sites, all of which are owned and operated by or on behalf of the Sierra Club, and we may combine information gathered from multiple sources into a single user record.  We also use and/or combine information that we collect off-line or we collect or receive from third party sources to enhance, expand, and check the accuracy of your records.

Disclosure to Third Parties

We occasionally have third parties perform services on our behalf, such as data processing, marketing, analytics, advocacy and outreach, hosting, billing, social media integration, fraud protection, etc. These third parties have access to your personal information only as needed to perform their services for the Sierra Club and are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of the personal information.

We sometimes partner with other advocacy organizations on Sierra Club endorsed activities. When we do, we shall endeavor, but shall not be required, to present you with the option to “opt-in” by sharing your email and personal information with the partner organization, or to opt-out of such program(s).  We may also share your Personal Information with third parties that provide products and services that we think you may be interested in, such as other non-profit organizations  who serve important missions.  This may be considered a “sale” of Personal Information under some laws, and therefore we provide you the right to opt out of such sharing.  Although our treatment of your Personal Information is governed by this Privacy Policy, the business partner or third party’s treatment of your Personal Information will be governed by the business partner or third party’s privacy policy.  You may withdraw your consent to our sharing of your Personal Information with business partners and third parties at any time by following the opt-out process described below. We may also use or disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to applicable law or comply with legal process served on us or this site; (b) protect and defend our rights or property, this site or our users, and (c) act under emergency circumstances to protect the personal safety of us, our affiliates, agents, site users, or the public.

We may disclose or share Non-Personal Information (or other information, other than Personal Information) in any other manner that we deem appropriate or necessary. Among other things, we will disclose Non-Personal Information to third parties to help us determine how people use parts of the site and who our users are so we can improve our site.  We will also disclose Non-Personal Information to our partners and other third parties about how our users collectively use the site.

Retention of User Information

Following termination or deactivation of your account, Sierra Club, its affiliates, or its service providers may retain information (including your profile information) and any submitted for a commercially reasonable time for backup, archival, and/or audit purposes. 

Security

The Sierra Club uses industry accepted data collection and encryption methodologies in an attempt to ensure the secure collection, transmission, and storage of sensitive user information. While we try our best to safeguard your personal information once we receive it, no transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

"Remember me" feature

On some of our forms, we offer an optional "remember me" feature that can recall your information for greater ease on subsequent visits to the site.

Use of cookies and tracking technology

When clicking on links on the Sites, third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your browser for the purposes of tracking users referred by Sierra Club, and using web beacons or other tracking technology. A "cookie" is a small string of text that is sent to your computer or device that can collect data regarding your operating system, browser type, device type, mobile device ID, screen resolution, IP address and other technical information. These cookies are placed in connection with our participation with third party affiliate networks (such as Google, Facebook and LinkShare). By clicking on a logo or link for a third party offer or website, you will leave the Sierra Club Sites and will be redirected to that party's site, where you will be subject to that site's terms of use and privacy policy. You can remove, block, or disable cookies using the settings in your web browser.  For more information on cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information provided by the Interactive Advertising Bureau at www.allaboutcookies.org

Mobile Services

By subscribing to the Sierra Club mobile alerts, you consent to receive recurring automated text messages to donate and support our fight for the Earth’s natural resources.  There is no fee charged by Sierra Club for text messages we send you.  However, message and data rates may apply. 

Data obtained from you in connection with this SMS service may include your mobile phone number, your carrier’s name and the date, time and content of your messages.  Sierra Club may use this information to contact you and provide the services you request from us.  This data is not shared with third parties except as necessary to 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.  Even within a coverage area, factors beyond the control of your mobile services provider may interfere with message delivery, including your equipment, terrain, proximity to buildings, foliage, and weather.  Mobile services providers do not guarantee message delivery and will not be held liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Sierra Club is also not liable for any delays in the receipt of any SMS message as delivery is subject to effective transmission from your mobile service provider.

If you have any questions, text HELP to the number from which you receive Sierra Club text messages or contact us at or member.care@sierraclub.org. To stop receiving messages, text STOP.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I LINK TO OR FROM ANOTHER WEBSITE?

These Sites may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Policy do not apply to information gathered through these other websites. We are not responsible for the actions and privacy policies of third parties and other websites. 

WHAT ABOUT CONTESTS, SWEEPSTAKES, OR GAMES?

When we run a contest or sweepstakes or game relating to our Sites, it will be accompanied by a set of rules. The rules for each contest, sweepstakes or game will specify how the information gathered from you for entry will be used and disclosed if it is different than as described in this Privacy Policy.  In conjunction with your entry in such contest or sweepstakes, Personal Information will be collected only if you voluntarily submit it. 

PUBLIC AREAS, CHAT ROOMS, REVIEWS, AND COMMUNITY AREAS

Please remember that any information you share in public areas or in submitting public comments, such as information shared on message boards, feedback sections or campaign sites such as Addup.org, becomes public and anyone may take and use that information.  Please be careful about what you disclose and do not post any Personal Information that you expect to keep private.  Please consult the applicable guidelines, if any, for use of our chat rooms and other community areas for more information.

GOVERNING LAW

These Sites are published in the United States. We attempt to protect the Personal Information of all users of our Sites and we attempt to comply with local data protection and consumer rights laws to the extent they may apply to the Sierra Club services, but our family of Sites are located and targeted to United States citizens and our policies are directed at compliance with those laws.  If you are uncertain whether this privacy policy conflicts with the applicable local privacy laws where you are located, you should not submit your Personal Information to the Sierra Club. 

NOTICE TO NON-US USERS

If you are located outside the United States of America, you should be aware that your personally identifiable information will be transferred to the United States of America, the laws of which may be deemed by your country to have inadequate data protection. If you are located in a country outside the United States of America and voluntarily submit personal information to us, you thereby consent to the general use of such information as provided in this privacy policy and to the transfer of that information to, and storage of that information in, the United States of America.

ASSIGNMENT

We may change corporate organization while providing the Sites and services.  We may also sell certain assets associated with the Sites.  As a result, please be aware that in such an event we may transfer some or all of your information to a company or other entity acquiring certain of our assets.  Under such circumstances we would, to the extent possible, require the acquiring party to follow the practices described in this Privacy Policy, as it may be amended from time to time.  Nevertheless, we cannot promise that an acquiring company or entity will have the same privacy practices or treat your information the same as described in this Privacy Policy.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

As our Sites continue to develop, we may add new services and features to our Sites. In the event that these additions affect our Privacy Policy, this Privacy Policy will be updated appropriately.  We will post those changes prominently so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information and whether we will disclose it to anyone.  We do, however, recommend that you read this Privacy Policy each time you use our Sites in case you missed our notice of changes to the Privacy Policy.  We will not, however, materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of Personal Information we have previously collected from you without your express consent.

YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

Residents of the State of California have the right to request a list of all third parties to which a company conducting business in California has disclosed personal information during the preceding year for direct marketing purposes. In turn, businesses (including the Sierra Club), must respond to such requests unless they have a comprehensive privacy policy that gives residents an Opt-out or Opt-in choice for use of their personal information by third parties for their direct marketing purposes and a cost-free means to exercise that right.

This Privacy Policy is intended to provide you a comprehensive overview of how we collect, use and share your information.  The following section explains the choices you have with respect to how your information is used and shared, including opting out of the use of your personal information by third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Therefore, we are not required to maintain or disclose a list of the third parties that received your personal information for marketing purposes during the preceding year.

YOUR CHOICES REGARDING YOUR INFORMATION

You have choices about your data and how we collect, use or disclose it. We want to send you only the communications to which you have agreed. You can unsubscribe at any time.

We provide many ways for you to manage your information. For example, you may be given options about how you would like your information to be used, at the time you are providing it. User accounts may also provide options to update your own information. Many kinds of communications will include directions to “unsubscribe” or “remove” you from the mailing list, and text messages can be stopped by responding “STOP.”

You have the following rights regarding the personal information we collect:

  • Opt out of “sales” of personal information and use of your personal information for “targeted advertising,” as those terms are defined under applicable law.  
  • Opt out of “profiling” under certain circumstances, as defined under applicable law.
  • Confirm processing of and access to personal information under certain circumstances.
  • Correct personal information under certain circumstances. 
  • Delete personal information under certain circumstances.

Residents of these states can exercise their rights by contacting us at using one of the methods listed below.

You may request to exercise your rights by submitting the form on this page or making a request using the contact information below. Phone: 1-415-977-5500

Email: member.care@sierraclub.org

Mail: Sierra Club; 2101 Webster Street, Suite 1300; Oakland, California 94612

In certain limited cases, we may still need to contact you for legal or administrative purposes, or to follow up on existing orders, contest entries, or membership matters. 

COMPLAINT PROCEDURE

If you suspect that we have handled your personal information in a manner that doesn't comply with the Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@sierraclub.org.

Appeals

Your have the right to appeal a denial of your request by contacting us as described in the notice of denial.