Privacy Policy

Introduction

We collect information to provide better services to all our users — from figuring out basic stuff like which language you speak, to more complex things like which volunteer activities you find most relevant. The information Scout collects, and how that information is used, depends on how you use our services and how you manage your privacy controls.

When you’re not signed in to a Scout Account, we store the information we collect with unique identifiers tied to the browser, application, or device you’re using. This allows us to do things like maintain your preferences across browsing sessions, such as your preferred location or whether to show you more relevant search results based on your activity.

When you’re signed in, we also collect information that we store with your Scout Account, which we treat as personal information.

Things you create or provide to us

When you create a Scout Account, you provide us with personal information that includes your name, password, city/state/zip. You can also choose to add a street address to your account. Even if you aren’t signed in to a Scout Account, you might choose to provide us with information — like an email address to communicate with Scout or receive updates about our services.

Information we collect as you use our services

When you search for volunteer opportunities, we collect your search terms and location preferences.

We use data to build better services

We use the information we collect from our services for the following purposes:

Provide our services We use your information to deliver our services, like processing the terms you search for in order to return results or the details in your profile in order to suggest volunteer opportunities.

Maintain & improve our services We also use your information to ensure our services are working as intended, such as tracking outages or troubleshooting issues that you report to us. And we use your information to make improvements to our services — for example, understanding which search terms are most frequently misspelled helps us improve spell-check features used across our services.

Develop new services We use the information we collect in existing services to help us develop new ones. For example, understanding the keywords people pair with filters can help us adjust our filter taxonomies.

Provide personalized services, including content and ads We use the information we collect to customize our services for you, including providing recommendations, personalized content, and customized search results.

Measure performance We use data for analytics and measurement to understand how our services are used. For example, we analyze data about your visits to our sites to do things like optimize product design.

Communicate with you We use information we collect, like your email address, to interact with you directly. For example, we may send you a notification if we detect suspicious activity, like an attempt to sign in to your Account from an unusual location. Or we may let you know about upcoming changes or improvements to our services. And if you contact Scout, we’ll keep a record of your request in order to help solve any issues you might be facing.

Protect Scout, our users, and the public We use information to help improve the safety and reliability of our services. This includes detecting, preventing, and responding to fraud, abuse, security risks, and technical issues that could harm Scout, our users, or the public.

Categories of information we collect

Identifiers and similar information such as your name and password, email, and address, as well as unique identifiers tied to the browser, application, or device you’re using.

Internet, network, and other activity information such as your search terms; views and interactions with content; information about the interaction of your apps, browsers, and devices with our services (like IP address, crash reports, and system activity.

Geolocation data, such as may be determined by IP address and location searches depending in part on your device and account settings. Depending on these settings, this may include precise location data.

Professional, interest, skill information you provide in your profile.

Business purposes for which information may be used or disclosed

Auditing and measurement We may use information for analytics and measurement to understand how our services are used. We may disclose non-personally identifiable information publicly to promote volunteerism and for auditing purposes.

Maintaining our servicesWe may use information to ensure our services are working as intended, such as tracking outages or troubleshooting bugs and other issues that you report to us.

Protecting against security threats, abuse, and illegal activity We may use and disclose information to detect, prevent and respond to security incidents, and for protecting against other malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity. For example, we may receive or disclose information about IP addresses that malicious actors have compromised.

Legal reasons We may also use information to satisfy applicable laws or regulations, and disclose information in response to legal process or enforceable government requests, including to law enforcement. We will provide information about the number and type of requests we receive from governments in a publicly-available report accessible from our website each year.

Changes to this policy

We change this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent. We always indicate the date the last changes were published and we offer access to archived versions for your review. If changes are significant, we’ll provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email notification of Privacy Policy changes).