Privacy Policy

As a nonprofit founded in Texas in 2010 and a mission-driven youth-serving organization, we are compelled to understand who we are serving, how our programs are performing, and make improvements so that we can achieve our goals of making FIRST in Texas accessible to any youth who wants to be part of the fun, exciting and life-changing experience. Thus, we need to collect certain pieces of data from you to ensure we are meeting our goals and responsibilities as a youth-serving nonprofit organization.

This FIRST in Texas Privacy Policy describes how FIRST in Texas (“FIRST in Texas,” “our,” “we,” “us,”) collects and processes  personal data that users (“user,” “your,” or “you”) provide to us at any of our websites where this Policy is posted (the “Sites”). This Privacy Policy also applies to personal data which FIRST in Texas obtains by other means, as described below.

Treatment of Data for Minor Youth

We are a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization founded and solely operating in the state of Texas. We are exempt from compliance with the United States Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), but have chosen to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13 within the spirit of COPPA. We are exempt, as a nonprofit, from the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA) which generally takes effect in July, 2024, but we have chosen to incorporate it generally in how we store and use your personal data.

Persons under the age of 16 are not permitted to create accounts or provide personal data on our Sites. If we learn that we have personal data obtained directly from a child under 16 (without parental / guardian authorization) we will delete that data as soon as possible.

1. Agreement to the Policy

By accessing or using any of our Sites, you agree to be bound by all of the Sites’ terms and conditions including this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to any of the Sites’ terms and conditions or this Privacy Policy, please do not access or use any of our Sites in order to avoid inadvertent data collection.  In the event you believe data was collected without your consent please see article 18 for instructions on how to contact us.

2. What personal data does FIRST in Texas Collect:

In the instances and for the reasons outlined in section 4, FIRST in Texas collects the following personal data categories:

Name, mailing address, email address, phone number, date of birth, gender, race, ethnicity, employer, your affiliations with sponsors, alumni status, program history, secondary or emergency contacts, credit card information, and your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address.  For youth participants, we may also collect data on grade in school, student ID number, school name and Title 1 school status, in addition to generalized team data on counts gender, race, ethnicity, free or reduced lunch eligibility, homeschool status, military base status, and foster youth status.

FIRST in Texas does not collect or use biometric data of any participant, volunteer or customer.  We may, for data security, require / use staff’s or key volunteer biometric data to secure portable data devices which may contain personal data of its customers, volunteers or sponsors. This data will not be stored centrally on any system and will be deleted as soon as access is revoked or no longer necessary.

FIRST in Texas will not collect data related to a persons religion, mental health diagnosis, sexual orientation or citizenship status, genetic data that identifies you as a person, and precise geolocation data of more than 1,750 ft radius.

3. How does FIRST in Texas collect the data:

We collect data when you provide it to us directly or indirectly through a third party and by “cookies” (as described in section 8, below). You may provide certain data to us when you: (a) register through www.firstinspires.org for any FIRST program or event supported by FIRST in Texas; (b) register for an event through FIRST in Texas registration sites; (c) apply for directly or your team applies for grants; (d) subscribe to our newsletter; (e) send e-mail messages; (f) submit forms; (g) transmit information by telephone or letter; (h) submit your credit card or other payment information; (i) access certain forms or request information on our Sites; (j) visit other points on the Sites that state that such information is being collected; (k) attend a FIRST in Texas event / activity; (l) complete a FIRST in Texas Consent and Release form; (m) complete a survey or evaluation; and/or (m) make a donation to FIRST in Texas.

When you engage in certain activities on any of our Sites, we may ask you to provide data by filling out and submitting an online form. Depending upon the activity, some of the data may be mandatory and some may be voluntary.  If you do not provide the mandatory data with respect to a particular activity, you may not be able to engage in that activity.

4. How does FIRST in Texas use the data:

By entering personal data into FIRST in Texas Sites or providing it to FIRST  in Texas (directly or indirectly through third parties), you agree to allow FIRST in Texas to collect and use the data for the following purposes:

a. To register you as a program / activity participant or volunteer.

b. To manage events: We use personal data to identify your region for program participation, event registration, badging, volunteer management and general event management. Our Volunteer Coordinators and Event Managers may use personal data to assign roles, communicate with volunteers, and manage events.

c. To process and administer grants: FIRST in Texas may use your personal data to process and manage grants.  Grants applications may require personal information such as name and contact information, demographics, etc. and may be submitted by an individual or on behalf of individuals in the case in order to verify a team’s eligibility for the grant funds.

d. To communicate with you as a participant in programs / activities / events: FIRST in Texas uses personal data to communicate with you about program information and related opportunities.

e. To process transactions:  FIRST in Texas uses personal data to engage in interactions with you including to communicate with you about your registration status, payment of team registration, processing of sponsorship information, event information and to process orders, registration fees, grants, or donations.

f. To provide support or other services: FIRST in Texas uses personal data to provide you with support or other services that you have requested.  We may use your data to respond directly to your requests for information including registering for newsletters, registering a team, registering for training or webinars, and other specific requests.  We may provide your information to our staff and sub-contractors for the sole purpose of conducting official FIRST in Texas business.

g. To improve our programs, products and services: FIRST in Texas uses data to evaluate and improve our programs, understand who we are serving, assess program impact, report aggregate/de-identified data, monitor growth, improve the delivery of programs, improve our marketing and promotional efforts, improve our product and service-offerings, customize and improve our Sites’ content, layout, and services, diagnose problems with our servers, software, and administer our Sites, often with the assistance of our vendors. FIRST in Texas sometimes uses third parties to help implement, manage and evaluate programs and efforts, and may share personal data with those third parties only for the purposes outlined in this Policy.

h. To improve quality and facilitate use of our Sites. FIRST in Texas may use your personal data, including the information gathered as a result of site navigation and electronic protocols and cookies, to help create and personalize website content, improve website quality, track marketing campaign responsiveness, evaluate page response rates, conduct usability testing, and facilitate your use of our Sites (for example, to facilitate navigation and the login process, enhance security, and preserve order information between sessions).

i. To solicit donations for FIRST in Texas or participants in our programs / events / activities. FIRST in Texas may use your personal data, including name, email and mailing address to solicit donations to support the FIRST in Texas mission.

j. For contractually required insurance purposes: FIRST in Texas is required to collect and share information including name, address, phone number, guardian/parent name, date of birth, and details about the nature of the injurious event and care provided with our insurance company if you are injured while participating in one of our programs / activities / events.

5. How long does FIRST in Texas retain data:

FIRST in Texas will retain your data for as long as needed or permitted to fulfill the purposes and uses described in this Policy. When we no longer need your data, and there is no need to keep it to comply with our legal obligations or protect our legal rights, we will either delete it from our systems or depersonalize it so we can’t identify you.

If you wish to understand how to request your personal data be deleted, please refer to article 12 for more information.

6. How does FIRST in Texas share data:

FIRST in Texas does not rent or sell data to others. We share personal data only when required with vendors, services providers, and other third parties (collectively, “Service Providers”) who are acting on our behalf to help operate our Sites, handle communications, implement, manage or evaluate  programs and events, or complete transactions you request.

Except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy, FIRST in Texas will keep your personal data private and will not share it with third parties, unless such disclosure is necessary to: (a) comply with the law or legal process served on us; (b) provide you the products, services and/or information that you may have requested; (c) protect our rights or property; (d) enforce our rights; (e) protect the interests of users of the Site or any other person; (f) operate or conduct maintenance and repair of our equipment; (g) detect, prevent and/or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, as authorized by law; and/or (h) otherwise comply with applicable federal / state laws.

FIRST in Texas will not sell your personal information without first asking your permission to do so.

7. How does FIRST in Texas protect information:

FIRST in Texas uses technical and organizational measures to protect data including, but not limited to: conducting third-party security audits, firewalls, maintaining security patches on external systems, a log auditing system to identify breaches, and ensuring that all web connections are over HTTPS.  Access to personal data is available through your user identification and password selected by you. This password is encrypted. We recommend that you do not divulge your password to anyone and no one at FIRST in Texas or who represents FIRST in Texas will ever ask for your password. In addition, your personal data resides on a secure server to which only select FIRST in Texas personnel and Service Providers have secure access.

FIRST in Texas has an annual ‘Threat Assessment’ conducted by a third-party and will disclose its ‘risk’ level to similar entities on its website. FIRST in Texas will invest annually to improve data security and strive to always improve.

8. Cookies:

When you use any of our Sites, we may store cookies on your computer in order to facilitate and customize the experience. A cookie is a small data text file, which a website stores on your computer’s hard drive (if your Web browser permits) that can later be retrieved to identify you to us.

Our cookies store randomly assigned user identification numbers, the country where you are located, and your log-in name to welcome you back to a Site. Our cookies: (a) make your use of our Sites easier; (b) make our Sites run more smoothly; (c) track authenticated users visiting our Sites; and (d) help us to maintain secure Sites.

You may decline our cookies, but some parts of our Sites may not work properly as a result. You can at any time use your browser setting to delete our cookies from your system. We may use a third party to display information on our Sites. As part of the third-party service, they may place a separate cookie on your computer.

9. Privacy Policies of Third-Party Sites:

We may maintain links to other websites on our Sites. Links to alliances and sponsoring organizations are examples of these links. This Privacy Policy only applies to FIRST in Texas.  Other sites accessible through our Site have their own privacy policies and data collection use and disclosure practices.  Please consult each site’s privacy policy.

10. How you can rectify incorrect information:

You have the ability to access and edit the personal data you provide to us. Data may be changed by logging into your FIRST in Texas user’s account, or by requesting a change in writing.  Requests in writing should be sent to privacy@FIRSTinTexas.org.

Please include your name, address, e-mail address, and/or phone number when you contact us regarding an update or correction to data.  We reserve the right to confirm your identity before updating or correcting personal data.  We encourage you to promptly update your personal data if it ever changes.

11. How you can object to certain uses of your data:

We may, from time to time, use your name or email to send you information regarding our programs, services and related opportunities as outlined in section 4.

If you do not wish to receive email from FIRST in Texas you may “opt-out” of receiving these communications by exercising your right to “opt out” by using the unsubscribe feature available in some emails or emailing info@firstintexas.org.

You also have choices with respect to cookies, as described in Section 8. By modifying your browser preferences, you generally have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. If you choose to reject all cookies, some parts of our Sites may not work properly.

12. How you can exercise your right to be forgotten:

You may request that your personal data at FIRST in Texas be deleted, by emailing info@firstintexas.org.  You will need to provide certain pieces of information so that we can confirm your identity at the time of your request.  We reserve the right to confirm your identity before taking any action to delete your data.  FIRST in Texas will assess each request to be forgotten on a case by case basis to determine the extent to which data can be deleted.  FIRST in Texas will comply with all requests to be forgotten except where FIRST in Texas has a legal obligation to retain your data.

13. How you can exercise your right to data portability:

You have the right to receive a copy of the personal data you have provided to FIRST in Texas in a machine readable format by emailing info@firstintexas.org.

14. Transfer of data to other countries:

FIRST in Texas will not store or distribute your personal data outside of the United States.

15. FIRST in Texas Donor Privacy Policy:

This section applies to all donor-related information received by FIRST in Texas, both online and offline, from any donor.

FIRST in Texas collects and stores donor information including name, address, email address, phone number, and donation amounts. Unless authorized by the donor, mandated by law or necessary for the processing and analyzing of donations, FIRST in Texas will not share donor information with any other entity.  If the donor notified us that the donor’s employer will match the donation and the donor requests that we reach out to obtain the matching gift, we may disclose the donor’s contact information (name, postal address, email address and telephone number) and donation information (donation amount and supported projects) to the employer. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of donors’ employers. For more information regarding the handling of information by an employer, please refer to the employer’s privacy policies.

16. Changes to this Privacy Policy:

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time.  Such changes, modifications, additions, or deletions shall be effective immediately upon notice thereof, which may be given by means including, but not limited to, posting the revised Privacy Policy at any of our Sites. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review the Site you are using and this Policy periodically, and to be aware of any modifications.  Your continued use of a Site after any such modifications will constitute your; (a) acknowledgment of any modified Policy; and (b) agreement to abide and be bound by any modified Policy. To the extent that any modifications to this Policy materially alters how FIRST in Texas will use information collected under prior version of the Policy, FIRST in Texas will provide you notice by email using your email on file, and where required by law, will obtain your consent.

17. How to contact us and how to lodge a complaint:

FIRST in Texas has a Senior Leadership Team who represents FIRST in Texas and will lead investigative action, complaint handling and data breach notification. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of any of our Sites, or your dealings with any of our Sites, contact us via email privacy@firstintexas.org or by sending a letter to:

FIRST in Texas
2186 Jackson Keller Rd. Suite 2132
San Antonio, Texas 78213

Or you may call us at (512) 953-7701