Privacy Policy

Acceptance of the Ten Strands Privacy Policy

Welcome to the Data Initiative for Environmental and Climate Action in California’s TK-12 Schools (“Data Initiative”). Ten Strands (“we,” “us,” or “our”), a California nonprofit organization, owns and operates sites.google.com/tenstrands.org/ca-envlit-scrs-data-project (“Website”). We are pleased to have you as a member of the community and provide you with access to our Website, as well as access to our newsletter, resources, content, and any other current or future offerings (collectively, “Services”). We know you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference into our Terms of Use.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect and use user information, including how we treat personally identifiable information. It does not apply to websites or practices of companies that Ten Strands does not own or control.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully before accessing the Website. By using the Website, you accept and agree to be bound by and abide by this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. If you do not agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, promptly leave the Website. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at info@tenstrands.org.

Data Collection

Information you provide us

We may collect personally identifiable information from you with your consent when you submit a contact form, questions, or feedback on the Website. 

Ten Strands may collect certain information about our contributing organizations and partners, such as the organization’s legal name, logo, contact information, and other details provided.

This information is collected for the purpose of identifying and recognizing contributing organizations and partners, displaying member names and logos on the Website and related materials, administering Data Initiative activities and communications, and promoting the mission and work of the Data Initiative.

Logos and trademarks of contributing organizations and partners remain the intellectual property of their respective owners. Ten Strands uses such logos and names with permission, solely for purposes related to the Data Initiative. If a contributing organization or partner withdraws or requests removal of its information, we will take reasonable steps to remove the identifying information from public-facing materials.

Information collected automatically

To enable form-based features, we use cookies to store session information for your convenience. A cookie is an identifier that a browser stores on the user’s computer. The Website’s cookies do not generate personal data, do not read personal data from your computer, do not store personally identifiable information, and are not attached to anything that can be used to identify you. 

You can set your web browser software to disable cookies. To do so, please refer to the help section of your specific browser for more information on how to manage or disable cookies. If you disable cookies, you may still view our site, but some areas of the Website may not work properly.

We collect data from every visitor to the Website to monitor traffic and fix bugs. This information includes web requests, the data sent in response to such requests, the Internet Protocol address, the browser type, the browser language, and a timestamp for the request.

What choices do I have? You can view, change, and remove the data associated with your profile. Should you choose to delete your profile, please contact us at info@tenstrands.org, and we will honor your request.

Data Use

Personal Information: We use your personal information to communicate with you and/or to provide you with our Services.   

Identification of Authors: We may offer opportunities for users to comment on content found on the Website, engage in dialogue, share information, and submit original content. When you make a contribution to the Website (such as posting a comment), you will be identified by whatever social network or social sharing profile you provide, if using a feature offered by a third party website, or you can elect to remain anonymous.

Usage Information: We may use data to enable us to determine the frequency of users to our Website and its pages so that we can improve and customize our Website and Services. 

Data Sharing

Personal Information: We will not sell your personal information to third-party organizations for any reason.

Partners: We will sometimes share personal information with other organizations with whom we collaborate to develop and distribute our products and services. Those partners may send you email correspondence about information and services they find interesting or helpful using the email address you have provided. When your personal information is submitted to our partners, they will have no rights to share it with any third parties, and we require them to exercise reasonable care to protect your personal information.

Other required sharing: We do not otherwise share personal information you have provided to us without your consent unless we have a good faith belief that doing so:

• is appropriate to carry out your request;

• is necessary to enforce our Terms of Use;

• is necessary to detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues;

• is necessary to otherwise protect our property, legal rights, or that of others; or

• is required by law, is necessary to comply with the law or legal process, or is pertinent to judicial or governmental investigations or proceedings.

Usage Information: Aggregated, anonymized data is periodically transmitted to external services, such as Google Analytics (traffic analysis) and WPEngine (website hosting and data storage), to help us improve the Website and service. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and/or practices of these third-party services, and you are responsible for reading and understanding these third parties’ privacy policies.

Third parties may extract data such as those listed below.

• Google Analytics: anonymous (ad serving domains, browser type, demographics, language settings, page views, time/date), pseudonymous (IP address)

• WPEngine: hosts some Website applications and stores related data

• Google Drive: hosts some downloadable Website resources and stores related data

• YouTube: hosts some audio/video Website resources and stores related data

Hyperlinks: Information available on this Website may include links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and/or practices of the websites you visit through these links, and you are responsible for reading and understanding these third parties’ privacy policies.

Agents: We employ and contract with people and other entities that perform specific tasks on our behalf and who are under our control (our “Agents”). We may need to share personal information with our Agents so that we can provide services to you. Unless we tell you differently, our Agents do not have any right to use personal information or other information we share with them beyond what is necessary to perform their functions. You hereby consent to our sharing of personal information with our Agents.

Business Transfers: If Ten Strands or some or all of its assets are acquired by or otherwise transferred to another company, or if Ten Strands goes out of business, or if Ten Strands changes its tax status, personal information provided by the user and information concerning the user’s use of the Website may be transferred to or acquired by a third party.

Public Data Notice

As part of our Data Initiative, we collect, aggregate, and publish data from publicly available sources to provide transparency and support decision-making for educators, policymakers, and community stakeholders.

The data published through this initiative consists of publicly available, district-level and county-level information such as environmental and climate action indicators, demographic and equity indicators, and environmental justice indicators.

We do not collect any personal or student-level information. All data is drawn from publicly available sources and agencies. We use this information to visualize and track environmental and climate actions within California’s school system, support equity-focused decision-making and advocacy, and enable analysis for research and policy initiatives.

Data compiled by this initiative is made publicly available via dashboards, maps, and downloadable reports. We may also share aggregated data with research or advocacy partners for educational and policy purposes. Because this data originates from public sources and is presented in aggregated form, it does not include personally identifiable information.

We strive to maintain accurate and current information. Districts or other stakeholders may request review or correction of their data through the mechanisms provided on the website. 

Data Security

We intend to protect against unauthorized access to data about you that we store, including personal information. You can protect against unauthorized access to your personal information by limiting access to your computer and browser and closing your browser after your session. We are not liable for unauthorized disclosures of personal information due to no fault of our own, including errors in transmission, acts we did not authorize, and/or acts by third parties. While we have safety measures in place, be mindful that security over the Internet cannot be 100% guaranteed. Any personal information you provide is at your own risk.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Disclosure

We may use AI-based tools to sort and analyze personal information (such as names and email addresses) to improve our Services, facilitate internal workflows, or provide relevant content. All such processing is conducted in accordance with applicable privacy laws, and we maintain appropriate human oversight. These tools do not make final automated decisions that affect users without review.

Children’s Policy

We do not solicit, intend to collect, or knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of 13 through our Website. If we become aware that we collected personal information from a child under the age of 13, we will promptly delete the information from our records (subject to applicable law). If you believe a child under the age of 13 has provided us with personal information, please notify us at info@tenstrands.org.

General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”)

Although our organization is based in the United States and our services are not specifically targeted to individuals in the European Union (“EU”), we recognize that EU residents may occasionally access our website or interact with us.

If you are an individual located in the EU, you may have certain rights under the (GDPR), including the right to access, correct, delete, or restrict the processing of your personal information, as well as the right to object to certain processing and to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

To the extent applicable, we will make reasonable efforts to accommodate valid requests from EU residents regarding their personal information. You may contact us at info@tenstrands.org to make such a request or for more information.

Our lawful basis for processing any personal data from EU residents, if and when collected, will typically be based on your consent or our legitimate interests in operating the Website and communicating with users.

Ten Strands Communications

We may contact you by email or other means. For example, we may communicate with you about your use of the Ten Strands website. We deliberately keep unsolicited communications with users to a minimum. In compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act, any promotional email you receive from us will include an unsubscribe link that will allow you to opt out of receiving future promotional emails.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. Use of information we collect is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is collected. You are bound by any changes to the Privacy Policy when you use the Website after such changes have been first posted, and it is your responsibility to check this Privacy Policy periodically for changes. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, the most recent revision date will be indicated above and below.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at info@tenstrands.org.

This Privacy Policy was last revised in September 2025.