Effective date: January 1, 2021
HELPS-AUSTIN is a Texas company. We respect and protect the privacy of visitors to our website and our customers who use our product, and related services (together with the Sites, the “Service”).
This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect visitors’ and users’ information as part of the Service. Any discussion of your use of the Service in this Policy is meant to include your visits and other interactions with the Sites and Services, whether or not you are a user of HELPS-AUSTIN .
By accessing and using our Service, you signify your acceptance to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with or you are not comfortable with any aspect of this Privacy Policy, you should immediately discontinue access or use of our Services.
In this Policy, “Personal Information” means information or an information set that identifies or could be used to identify an individual directly or indirectly. Except as described in this Policy, HELPS-AUSTIN will not give, sell, rent, or loan any Personal Information to any third party.
Personal Information does not include “Usage Data” which we define as encoded or anonymized information or aggregated data we collect about a group or category of services, features, or users which does not contain personally identifying information. Usage Data helps us understand trends in usage of the Service so that we can better consider new features or otherwise tailor the Service. In addition to collecting and using Usage Data ourselves, we may share Usage Data with third parties, including our customers, partners and service providers, for various purposes, including to help us better understand our customers’ needs and improve the Service as well as for advertising and marketing purposes.
When you register for the Service, we may ask for Personal Information such as your name, email address. Credit card transactions for sales and donations are processed by a third party financial institution. HELPS-AUSTIN does not record or maintain any sensitive credit card information. When required, the credit card processor will share your address so the artist may complete the transaction and ship a product to you.
You may also provide at your own discretion certain related information like your personal website name, social media websites, a list of your skills and a description of yourself. Additionally, as you employ the sites, the software may save changes made by you. The purpose is to allow you to revisit favorite artworks later.
We may also retain the contents of any messages you send to us or through the Service, and we may collect information you provide in user content that you post or upload to the Service (“User Content”).
HELPS-AUSTIN may use personal Information provided to operate, improve upon, and personalize the service, for billing identification and authentication, to contact and communicate with you about the Service and your use of the Service, to support use of the Service, to send marketing materials for research purposes, and to generally improve the content and functionality of the Service.
We may also combine your Personal Information with third-party analytics information to build a broader profile of our individual users so that we can serve you better and provide custom, personalized content and information. Additionally, we may use the Personal Information we collect for identification and authentication and fraud prevention, to analyze Site usage and improve the Service, for internal market research, troubleshooting problems, to enforce our Terms of Service, and as otherwise set forth in this Policy.
Note that we will never email you to ask for your account information. If you ever receive such an email, please forward it toprivacy@HELPS-AUSTIN .com. For more information about our procedures in this regard, please review our Terms of Service.
We use financial information solely as authorized by you in accordance with the Service. While HELPS-AUSTIN does not store your credit card information and will use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of all credit card and all other Personal Information, we expressly disclaim any liability for any unauthorized access to or use of our secure servers and/or any and all personal and/or financial information stored therein, and you agree to hold HELPS-Austin harmless for any damages that may result therefrom.
We may now or in the future receive Personal Information about you from third parties. For example, if you access our Site or Service through a third-party connection or log-in or connect an application to HELPS-Austin, that third party you connected with may pass certain information about your use of its service to HELPS-AUSTIN . This information could include, but is not limited to, the user ID associated with your account, an access token necessary to access that service, any information that you have permitted the third party to share with us, and any information you have made public in connection with that third-party service. You should always review, and if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third-party websites and services before linking or connecting them to the Service.
HELPS-AUSTIN may also share Personal Information with its third-party service providers (such as its credit card processors and hosting partners) to provide the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and other service we use to operate the Service and maintain a high-quality user experience. We do not permit our service providers to use the Personal Information we share for their marketing purposes.
d. Log file information
We collect certain technical information from the visitors to our customers’ websites. The information that our web servers log about our Service customers’ site visitors includes Internet Protocol (IP) address; the date/time a webpage or feature is accessed; the user agent string that identifies the browser or operating system to the server; installed fonts; mime-types; browser language and time zone; Silverlight data; installed plugins; HTTP headers; and screen resolution.
e. Other information sharing
We may be required to disclose Personal Information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, and law enforcement or governmental requests or investigations, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims. We may also share Personal Information if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations or our Terms of Service, or as otherwise required by law.
We use or may use information collected by cookies, logfiles, device identifiers, and clear GIFs information to:
(a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site
(b) provide custom, personalized content and information
(c) to provide and monitor the effectiveness of our Service
(d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns
(e) diagnose or fix technology problems
(f) help you efficiently access your information after you sign in
(g) to provide advertising to your browser or device, and
(h) automatically update the HELPS-Austin application on your mobile devices.
For more information about cookies, please see HELPS-Austin’s Cookie Policy. We may share Personal Information with any member of the HELPS-Austin team, which includes any entity that controls, is controlled by, or under common control with HELPS-Austin.
"Unregistered charities" typically refer to charitable organizations or groups that have not formally registered with a government authority or regulatory body designated to oversee and provide legal recognition to nonprofits and charitable entities. The specific definition and legal status of unregistered charities may vary depending on the country or jurisdiction. If your organization is NOT a 501 c(3) then you would fall into this catagory and are prohibited from seeking a charitable donation on HELPS-AUSTIN.
In many countries, nonprofit organizations and charities are required to register with government agencies or regulatory bodies to obtain legal recognition and certain benefits. These benefits can include tax exemptions, eligibility for government grants, and enhanced credibility and transparency.Examples of unregistered charities can include:
1. Informal Community or Neighborhood Initiatives: Small-scale charitable efforts or community initiatives that operate on a grassroots level, such as neighborhood food drives or local volunteer groups, may not have formal registration with regulatory authorities.
2. Religious or Faith-Based Groups: Some religious or faith-based organizations engage in charitable activities without registering as separate legal entities. They may operate under the umbrella of a religious institution or association.
3. Crowdfunding or Personal Fundraising Campaigns: Individual fundraising efforts or crowdfunding campaigns organized by individuals or groups for a charitable cause may not always be associated with registered charitable organizations. These initiatives may aim to support specific individuals or address immediate needs without establishing a formal charity.
4. Advocacy or Awareness Groups: Organizations dedicated to advocacy, awareness, and social change, such as certain environmental or human rights groups, may operate without formal registration as charitable entities.It's important to note that the legal requirements and regulations surrounding unregistered charities can vary significantly across jurisdictions.
What Stripe has to say about prohibitions and restrictions.
Restricted Businesses
You must not use Stripe’s services for the following activities, unless you have received our prior written approval. Restricted Business categories may be imposed through card network rules, requirements of financial partners, or due to compliance and legal obligations.
1) Regulated industries such as:
Financial products and services, Investment and brokerage services, Lending services, Buy Now Pay Later services. Crowdfunding. Debt collection agencies, Insurance services including medical benefit packages, Money transmitters, currency exchange services and other money services businesses, Neobanks / challenger banks, Other financial institutionsGovernment services
2) Government grants
Embassy, foreign consulate, or other foreign governments
3) Cannabidiol
(CBD) CBD products containing negligible amounts of THC, Pharmaceuticals, medical devices and telemedicine
4) Online pharmacies
Prescription-only products including card-not-present pharmaceuticals, Prescription-only and regulated medical devices, Telemedicine and telehealth services, Tobacco
5. Tobacco products including
e-cigarettes and e-liquid, Others
6. Credit card and identity theft protection services
Other age restricted goods or services
Businesses that may pose elevated financial risk such as: Travel, Travel reservation services and clubs, Airlines and cruises, Timeshare services, Non-fiat currency and stored value