Privacy Policy

1. About This Privacy Policy

Pledge4Peace.org is a nonprofit platform that promotes peace, democracy and human rights through community-driven campaigns, the Peace Seal certification program, a job board and related services. The platform is operated by Cool Deeds Inc., a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit doing business as Pledge4Peace.org, which is the controller responsible for the personal information described in this policy.

This policy applies to the Pledge4Peace.org website and the services offered through it. It does not apply to third-party websites or services that we link to but do not operate.

2. Information We Collect

(a) Information you provide to us

• Account information: your name, email address, a password (which we store only as a secure one-way hash, never in plain text), your user type (for example citizen, politician, organization, nonprofit or student) and, optionally, a profile photo and affiliation details.
• Content you create: pledges, proposed solutions, comments, company reviews and replies, and similar contributions, along with the information needed to associate them with your account.
• Peace Seal information: when you apply for, claim, review or manage a company profile, we collect company details, questionnaire responses, uploaded supporting documents, contact details for company claims and team invitations, and details of calls you book with our agents.
• Reviews: when you submit a company review, we may collect your name and email for verification purposes. Reviewer identities are kept private and are not shown publicly, and reviews may be submitted anonymously.
• Job applications: your name, email, phone number, location, resume/CV file and cover letter, which may be made available to the employer whose listing you apply to.
• Donations: your name, email and donation amount. Payment card and bank details are entered directly into our payment processor and are never received or stored on our servers (see Section 6).
• Contact, volunteer and newsletter forms: the name, email and any message or details you submit so we can respond to you or, where you ask us to, add you to our mailing list.

(b) Information we collect automatically

• Usage and device data: pages viewed, actions taken, approximate location (country), browser and device information, and similar analytics data.
• IP address: used for security purposes such as bot and spam protection (via Cloudflare Turnstile) and rate limiting, and included in error-monitoring data.
• Cookies and similar technologies: see Section 4 and our Cookie Policy. Some analytics tools may record session activity (for example page interactions) to help us diagnose issues and improve the site.

(c) Information from third parties

If you use LinkedIn to verify your identity (for example when submitting or verifying a Peace Seal review), we receive limited profile information from LinkedIn, such as your LinkedIn identifier, name, email and whether your email is verified. We use this only to confirm your identity and do not post to your LinkedIn account.

Content you choose to share — such as pledges, comments and reviews — is voluntary, and you are responsible for the information you post. Our team moderates content and removes material that violates our rules. Where a feature involves more sensitive details (for example documents you upload for verification), that information is accessible only to the people involved in that specific process and is not published.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To create and manage your account and authenticate you.
• To provide our services — campaigns and pledges, the Peace Seal program, reviews, the job board and donations.
• To send you transactional messages (for example email verification, password resets, notifications and receipts).
• To send newsletters and campaign updates and to manage your communication preferences. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email.
• To protect the security and integrity of the platform, including bot/spam prevention and abuse handling.
• To understand and improve how the site is used through analytics, subject to your cookie choices.
• To comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms.

Where laws such as the GDPR or UK GDPR apply (for example for visitors in the EEA or the United Kingdom), our legal bases for the above are: performing our contract with you (to provide your account and services); your consent (for newsletters and optional analytics/marketing cookies); our legitimate interests (for security, fraud and abuse prevention, error monitoring and understanding site usage); and compliance with legal obligations. These bases apply where the GDPR or UK GDPR is relevant.

4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use strictly necessary cookies to run the site, plus optional functional, analytics and marketing cookies. Optional cookies are controlled by your consent choices. In regions that require prior consent (such as the EEA, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Brazil), non-essential cookies and tags load only after you opt in; elsewhere we honor your choices and recognized browser signals such as Global Privacy Control.

We also record error and diagnostic logs to keep the platform secure and to detect and fix problems; these may process technical information such as your IP address. These logs are kept within our hosting infrastructure (Cloudflare) and are not shared with a separate error-monitoring provider.

You can review categories and change your choices at any time on our Cookie Preferences page, and read more in our Cookie Policy.

5. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information for money. We share it with service providers who process it on our behalf to operate the platform, and where required by law. Some optional advertising cookies (such as the Meta Pixel) may, when you opt in, involve "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising under certain laws (for example the CCPA/CPRA); you can decline these in Cookie Preferences, and we honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signal as an opt-out of such sharing. Our service providers include:

• Cloudflare — hosting, database, file storage and security (including bot protection).
• Brevo — sending transactional and newsletter emails and managing mailing lists.
• Braintree (a PayPal service) — processing donations and Peace Seal payments (including PayPal and Venmo options).
• LinkedIn — optional identity verification.
• OpenAI — automated verification of uploaded documents and translation of user-generated content (see Section 7).
• Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Meta (Facebook) Pixel — analytics, session analysis and marketing measurement, subject to your cookie choices.
• Sanity — our content management system for editorial content and author profiles.

We may also disclose information to comply with legal process, to protect our rights, users or the public, or in connection with a merger, acquisition or reorganization of the organization.

6. Payment Processing

Donations and Peace Seal fees are processed by Braintree. When you pay, your card, PayPal or bank details are entered directly into Braintree's secure fields and are tokenized by Braintree — they are never transmitted to or stored on our servers. We receive only a payment token together with your name, email and the amount. One-time and recurring donation records are held by Braintree; for Peace Seal payments we retain limited records such as payment status, amount, transaction identifier and date. Braintree's handling of your payment data is governed by its own privacy terms.

7. Automated and AI Processing

To operate the Peace Seal program and support multiple languages, we use OpenAI to (a) help assess the authenticity of documents you upload for verification and (b) translate user-generated content such as reviews, comments and solutions. The relevant content is sent to OpenAI for processing. These automated tools assist our team; they do not, by themselves, make legally significant decisions about you without human involvement.

8. Data Storage, Security and International Transfers

Your information is stored on Cloudflare infrastructure (databases, file storage and caching) and with the third-party providers listed above. We use technical and organizational measures to protect your data, including encrypted connections and storing passwords only as secure hashes. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a personal-data breach affects your information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities where required by applicable law.

Because we and our providers operate globally, your information may be processed in countries other than your own, including the United States. Where personal data of visitors in the EEA or the United Kingdom is transferred abroad, we rely on the standard legal safeguards our providers offer for such transfers (for example Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework), where applicable.

9. Data Retention

We keep personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide our services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. In practice:

• Account and profile data is kept while your account exists. When your account is deleted, we anonymize your personal details (for example replacing your name and email) rather than performing a hard deletion, and your past contributions are archived or shown as coming from a deleted user.
• Short-lived security tokens expire automatically — email verification links within 24 hours and password reset links within 1 hour.
• We do not store your payment card or bank details; donation records are held by our payment processor. For Peace Seal payments we keep limited records (status, amount, transaction identifier and date).
• Cookies and similar technologies expire according to the durations listed in our Cookie Policy.
• Uploaded files (such as documents and résumés) and content you post are kept while they remain relevant to the service.

We do not currently run an automated deletion schedule beyond the expiries above; formal per-category retention periods will be set as this policy is finalized.

10. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or export your personal information, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to withdraw consent. You can:

• Update your name and profile photo in your account settings.
• Reset your password at any time.
• Manage cookie and analytics choices on the Cookie Preferences page.
• Unsubscribe from marketing emails using the link in any such email, and adjust your notification preferences.
• Request account deletion, a copy of your data, or other privacy requests by contacting us (see Section 13).

We will respond to requests as required by applicable law. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. If you are in the EEA, the United Kingdom, Switzerland or Brazil, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority — though we encourage you to contact us first so we can help.

11. Children's Privacy

Our services are intended for adults (18 years or older) and are not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Your continued use of the platform after an update means you accept the revised policy.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us:

• Privacy inquiries: privacy [at] pledge4peace.org
• General inquiries: info [at] pledge4peace.org
• Mailing address: 3392 NY-8, South New Berlin, NY 13843