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Terms + Privacy

Terms of Use

This Agreement, sometimes referred to as 'Terms of Use', comprises the terms governing your use of our websites ('Website'). By continuing to use the Website, you accept and agree to the following terms and conditions, as the same may be revised from time to time:

1. 'We', 'us', 'our' and 'Filene refer to the Filene Research Institute, Inc.

2. You agree to use the Website in a manner consistent with these Terms of Use.

3. You may not transfer, sell, or otherwise assign your rights or obligations under this Agreement.

4. We may terminate your access to and use of the Website at any time.

5. This Agreement incorporates the Privacy Policy set forth on this Website as the same may be modified from time to time.

6. You acknowledge that Filene or its licensors own and hold all intellectual property and proprietary rights, title and interest in the Website, and that your use of the same does not transfer any rights in the same to you. You agree:

  • not to copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, display, perform, modify, or create derivative works from the Website. You may only download material from this Website for your own use as follows: you may make one machine readable copy and/or one print copy that is limited to occasional items of individual interest only. You may not remove or amend any trademark, copyright or other proprietary notice. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you may not distribute any part of this Website over any network, nor sell or offer it for sale. You may not copy, de-compile reverse-engineer, disassemble, modify, or create derivative works of the Website. Open Source software used in the Website is provided in accordance with the terms of the applicable Open Source Software license, and Filene is not a party to the same. We reserve all rights that are not specifically granted to you.
  • That you are expressly prohibited from presenting the Website in a setting created by you or a third party (e.g., through framing), particularly (but not exclusively) where that setting includes advertising or other materials that we have not expressly authorized to be displayed with the Website.
  • That any of your questions, comments, or suggestions for improvements regarding the Website or the services that you email, post, or otherwise transmit to Filene (your "Communications") will become the property of Filene. You hereby relinquish and assign to Filene the worldwide, royalty free, right and title to run, use, re-use, implement, copy, display, and create derivative works from, those Communications, including any ideas, concepts, know-how, or techniques contained in your Communications for any purpose.

7. All content and functionality displayed, provided, reproduced, or distributed by us on the Website are for information purposes only and are not intended as, and are not a substitute for advice, including, without limitation, a professional's advice on legal, tax, insurance or investment matters.

8. Where we provide or enable links to third party sites, we do so for information purposes only and we accept no liability for your use of the same.

9. We reserve the right to monitor all Communications and to remove any which we consider in our absolute discretion to be offensive, defamatory, or otherwise in breach of these Terms of Use. You agree that we have no obligation to monitor Postings by you or others, however.

10. You will be responsible for all charges and obligations incurred, and liabilities for harm caused, and for all actions taken, through your use of this Website.

11. You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from and against all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting from use of this Website, including, but not limited to, any violation of this agreement, or the failure to fulfill any obligations relating to use of the Website.

12. You warrant that: you will not use any electronic communication feature of the Website for any purpose that is abusive, tortious, intrusive on another's privacy, harassing, libelous, defamatory, obscene, threatening, hateful, or otherwise unlawful; you will not post any materials that infringe on rights of third parties; and, you will not upload or transmit any virus or other malware.

13. The Website, any information provided from it and these Terms of Use are given and made in Wisconsin, U.S.A. This agreement is subject to Wisconsin law, without regard to its choice of law provisions, and suit, if any, must be brought exclusively within the courts of the State of Wisconsin, Dane County. You agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts located in the State of Wisconsin.

14. THIS WEBSITE AND ALL SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMS USED OR PROVIDED AS PART OF THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." WE HEREBY SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE WEBSITE CONTENT, FUNCTIONALITY, OR MATERIALS PROVIDED BY US HEREUNDER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION OF THE FOREGOING, ANY WARRANTY REGARDING OWNERSHIP, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, AND AVAILABILITY, AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR THOSE ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR COURSE OF PERFORMANCE.

15. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAWS, WE DISCLAIM LIABILITY, AND YOU AGREE THAT WE ARE NOT LIABLE, FOR ANY LOSSES AND EXPENSES OF WHATEVER NATURE AND HOWSOEVER ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE OR ANY WEBSITE WITH WHICH IT IS LINKED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF DATA, LOSS CAUSED BY A VIRUS, CLAIMS OF THIRD PARTIES, OR OTHER LOSSES OF ANY KIND OR CHARACTER, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR LOSSES. THE FORGOING SHALL APPLY NOTWITHSTANDING THE FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY REMEDY YOU MIGHT HAVE. No action, regardless of form, arising out of the transactions under this agreement may be brought by you more than twelve (12) months after the cause of action first arose.

16. You and we agree, pursuant to the E-Sign Act ('the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act', as it may be amended from time to time), to treat electronic tokens of assent from you and from us, as binding expressions of assent by you and by us to contracts.

17. We may revise the Terms of Use from time to time by posting changes to this Website. Any such revisions shall be effective when posted and made available for your review. Your continued use of the Website following such changes is your expression of assent to the modified terms.

18. These Terms of Use and ancillary agreements you have signed in connection with the use of the Services provided through this Website contain the entire understanding between us with respect to any use of the Website. Should any part of the Terms of Use be declared invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, this shall not affect the validity of any remaining portion and such remaining portion shall remain in full force and effect as if the invalid portion of the Terms of Use had been eliminated.

19. Unless otherwise specifically noted, images, trademarks, service marks, logos, and icons displayed on this Website are the property of Filene or its licensors and may not be used without our prior written consent. We and our licensors retain all rights with respect to any of our respective trademarks, service marks, and logos appearing on this Website. Any unauthorized use of the images may violate copyright, trademark, privacy and publicity laws and regulations.

Privacy Policy

Filene values our members’, contributors’ and visitors’ personal information and understands the need for security and trust surrounding such information.

Filene Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as “Filene,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) provides this privacy policy which describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit Filene’s website www.filene.org (our “Website”) or donate to Filene, and our practices for collecting, using, protecting and disclosing that information.

Filene may work with selected third parties to provide certain features on the Website such as social sharing functions. This privacy policy does not govern any information you choose to provide directly to such third parties. Such third parties have their own privacy policies that govern how they may collect, use, and disclose the information that you provide.

Information Collection & Use

When using our site, you may voluntarily provide “personal information” that identifies you as an individual, including your name and contact information. In order to use certain features of The Filene Institution’s web and mobile properties you may be asked to register by creating a user name, and/or password. We may use the personal information that you provide for our operational purposes, including the activities described below. We may also use the information that you provide to contact you with offers or items that may interest you. You may, however, use many features of the Website without providing personal information.

When you choose to provide us with personal information, we may combine it with other information about you that we receive from third parties.

Contributions, Research Products & Services

If you choose to become a member, make a contribution, download research materials or inquire about Filene products and services, we may request certain personal information from you, including your name, contact information, and payment information. We use this information to complete the transactions you request, including for billing purposes and to contact you if we have trouble processing your request. We may contact you to discuss the terms of your contribution, and/or to invite you to renew your membership to Filene.

Surveys

Occasionally, we may provide you the opportunity to participate in surveys on our site or through a third-party service provider. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary. Other than as described in this policy, we will not share the personal information you provide through a survey with third parties unless we give you prior notice and a choice to opt out.

Automatically-Collected Data

We and our service providers may use various technologies to collect data automatically about your use of our Website. We use this automatically-collected data for our operational purposes such as to administer and improve the site. We also use these technologies to personalize your experience with Filene and to provide functions such as storing your password or recording other preferences.

Filene may use service providers, such as Google Analytics, that may use cookies to collect information about your online activities across this and other sites over time for non-advertising purposes. Refer to Google’s privacy policy to learn more about how Google Analytics collects and processes data and the choices Google may offer to control these activities.

Children Under the Age of 13

Our Website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe that we may have collected or received personal information from a child under 13, please contact us at Filene to request deletion of that information.

Communications from the Website and Your Choices

If you provide your contact information, including by subscribing to our electronic newsletter(s) or asking to receive other materials, we will use your email address to send the requested materials. We may also send emails notifying you of Filene events, research reports and products that may be of interest to you. If you make a contribution through the Website, we may contact you for our development purposes using the email address that you provide.

Choice/Opt-out

Newsletters and Promotional Communications: We provide you the opportunity to opt out of receiving newsletters and promotional email communications from us. If you no longer wish to receive electronic newsletters and/or promotional communications, you may opt out of receiving these communications by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication. After you opt out, we may continue to send messages related to your transactions or relationship with Filene, and we may also continue to send invitations to contribute to Filene unless you opt out separately from contribution invitations as described in the paragraph below.

Contributions: Filene may use your email address to invite you to donate to us. If you prefer not to receive such correspondence, you can opt out by emailing Membership or calling 608 661 3740. Please note that opting out of contribution emails will not affect your other Filene subscriptions.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

Aggregate Information

At times, we share aggregated demographic information about our user base with selected third-party partners. We may also share de-identified information in our discretion. This aggregated or de-identified information does not identify individual users.

Non-Donor Personal Information

We may disclose non-donor personal information that we collect in the following ways:

  • To contractors, agents, or service providers that we use to support our business and provide our services, in which case we make reasonable efforts to ensure that they are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal information confidential and use or share it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
  • As part of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of Filene’ assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by Filene about our Website users is among the assets transferred.
  • To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
  • For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information or with your consent.
  • As required by law; when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, property, or safety of Filene, our customers or others; and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order or legal process served on the Filene Institution.

Donors

We will not trade, share or sell a donor’s personal information to anyone else, nor send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations, unless we have the donor’s specific permission to do so.

Links to Other Sites

This website contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by The Filene Institution. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such other sites.

Correcting or Updating Personal Information

You may ask to correct, update or deactivate your personal information by emailing us at Filene.

Security

The security of your personal information is important to us. Filene uses commercially reasonable safeguards to help protect the security of your personal information. For example, we may encrypt information using technologies such as Secure Sockets Layer technology (SSL).

Changes in this Privacy Statement

We may periodically modify this privacy statement without further notice to you. It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified on the page. Please revisit this page to check for any changes.