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Statement of Policy
This website is owned and operated by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission (the Commission). Our intention is to provide information and services in support of a land trust accreditation program. We recognize that visitors to our site may be concerned about the information they provide to us and how we treat that information. The Commission is committed to honoring our constituents’ privacy preferences.

This policy covers www.landtrustaccreditation.org, which is owned and operated by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. We encourage you to take the time to read this privacy policy and those of any website you visit.

Information Collected
Public Comments and Complaints
In order to submit a public comment on a current applicant, a complaint against an accredited land trust, or a complaint against the Commission on www.landtrustaccreditation.org, you must provide at a minimum your name, phone number, and e-mail address. For information about the handling of public comments and complaints, please see the Applicant Handbook.

Registration
In order to apply for accreditation, an organization must first register for a particular application round. Organizations are asked to provide contact information (name, address, phone number, e-mail address), along with information that allows to Commission to confirm the organization’s eligibility. This information, along with any other information received from applicants as part of the application process, is protected by our confidentiality policy.

Internet Protocol Address
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is the number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet. We collect an IP address from all visitors to our website. We may use IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, administer our website, analyze usage trends, and gather broad demographic information.

Subscribing to eNewsletters
To sign up for eNewsletters you are in most cases only required to provide us with your full name and e-mail address. 

Signing up for Webinars
To sign up for webinars you are in most cases only required to provide us with your full name and e-mail address. We use this information to provide you with information on how to access the webinar, and to help us better understand our audience.

Other Information
There are occasions when we will ask for additional information, such as your title, or your organizational affiliation. We do this to better understand and respond to your needs, and provide you with services that may be valuable to you. Information received from applicants as part of the application process is protected by our confidentiality policy.

Mail Sent to Us Containing Personal Information
You may decide to send the Commission personally identifying information, for example, in an e-mail message requesting information about accreditation. We will use this information to determine how to respond to you and, depending on the nature of your communication, we may add your information to our database and/or may forward your information to the Land Trust Alliance. At your request, the record may be marked to receive no other mailings.

Use of Information
The information provided to us by you voluntarily will be used to send information to you about the Commission and the accreditation program and other information relevant to the program and land trusts. You may opt-out of mailings (both postal and e-mail) at any time if you do not wish to receive non-business critical information (that is, information related to your organization’s application for accreditation or maintenance of your accredited status, if applicable) from us. The Commission will not sell your e-mail address for commercial purposes. Commentators will not be added to any e-mail or mailing lists unless requested.

How to Opt Out
eNewsletters
If at any time you wish to stop receiving an electronic newsletter from the Commission, you can select the unsubscribe link located at the bottom of every eNewsletter, or by contacting us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 518-587-3143. Please provide enough information for us to be able to identify you and the specific eNewsletter you wish to unsubscribe from so that we may comply with your request.

All Non-Essential Business E-mail
You may choose to opt-out of all non-essential business e-mail from the Commission. To do so, please send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your contact information and your request, or send a written letter to Land Trust Accreditation Commission, Attn: Opt-Out E-mail, 36 Phila St, Suite 2, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. Please help us serve you better by including a brief explanation of why you are making this request.

Postal Mail
The Commission rarely sends postal mail to organizations that are not current applicants. You may choose to opt-out of all non-essential business postal mail from the Commission. To do so, please send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your contact information and your request, or send a written letter to Land Trust Accreditation Commission, Attn: Opt-Out Postal Mail, 36 Phila St, Suite 2, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. Please help us serve you better by including a brief explanation of why you are making this request.

To receive a print copy of your personal information or to request the removal of your personal information from our records, please send a letter to the address above.

If your record contains information concerning donations, we legally cannot remove it from our database. If you have not made a donation, if you request that we remove all of the personal information stored in your profile, we will promptly do so.

Security of Your Information
We will take appropriate steps to protect the security of your personal information. We will also protect your personal information in storage. We have implemented security policies, rules, and technical measures to protect the personal data that we have under our control from: unauthorized access; improper use or disclosure; unauthorized modification; and unlawful destruction or accidental loss. All sensitive information (such as comments on applicants) provided to the Commission through our website is transmitted directly to Commission employees. All of our employees who have access to, and are associated with processing of personal data, are obliged to respect the confidentiality of our visitor's personal data. All staff sign a confidentiality agreement that binds them to the Commission’s confidentiality policy.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can ever be 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information to the fullest extent, we cannot ensure or completely guarantee the security of such information.

Links to Third Party Sites
We provide links to third party sites. Since we do not control those websites, we encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these third party sites.

Cookies 
'Cookies' are small files sent from a web server to your computer through your browser program. There are two types of cookies: non-persistent and persistent cookies.

Session, or transient cookies enable a website to temporarily keep information on your computer as you travel from one page to another on our site. This cookie is automatically deleted from your machine when you close your browser. These cookies usually store a session ID that is not personally identifiable to users, allowing the user to move from page to page without having to log-in repeatedly. Session cookies are never written on the hard drive and they do not collect any information from the user's computer. Session cookies expire at the end of the user's browser session and can also become no longer accessible after the session has been inactive for a specified length of time, usually 20 minutes.

Permanent, persistent, or stored cookies are stored on the user's computer and are not deleted when the browser is closed. Permanent cookies can retain user preferences for a particular web site, allowing those preferences to be used in future browsing sessions. You can manually delete these cookies using commands specific to your browser and computer system. These cookies store information that would generally not change from session to session. They also contain information that would need to be reentered by you each time you visit the website. For example, a common use of persistent cookies is to allow a registered site visitor to enter the site without having to specify their user-id and password.

Use of Cookies
We use only session cookies to help analyze broad website usage information. We do not use permanent cookies.

Our Compliance with Federal Law
Children's Guidelines
The Commission complies fully with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA).

None of the websites covered by this policy knowingly collect identifiable personal information from children under age 13. If we discover that a person under the age of 13 has provided us with any personally identifiable information, we will delete that information from our systems. We are unable to reply to information requests from children under the age of 13, if so identified. A parent or guardian must initiate any requests for information from children under the age of 13 on their behalf. We encourage parents to supervise children when they browse the internet.

Spam
The Commission complies fully with the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM Act). To this end, the Commission:

Always offers recipients of e-mail marketing and eNewsletters a clear means of opting-out from the receipt of future messages;

Always includes a link to the Commission's physical address within the body of all e-mail messages; 

Never uses false or misleading header information in any e-mail message;

Never attempts to deceive e-mail recipients by using deceptive subject lines;

Never uses automated means to harvest e-mail addresses from websites or web services; and,

Never generates e-mail addresses using programmatic methods.

Questions and Contact Information
The Land Trust Accreditation Commission welcomes comments and questions on this policy. We are dedicated to protecting your personal information, and will make every reasonable effort to keep that information secure.

If you have any questions, please contact us at
Land Trust Accreditation Commission
36 Phila St, SUite 2
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
phone: (518) 587-3143 between 9 am and 5 pm ET, Monday through Friday.
fax: (518) 587-3183

The information you provide to us will also be covered by this policy.

Changes to the Privacy Policy and Changes in Ownership
We may change or supplement this privacy policy from time to time. We will post an appropriate notice of changes to the privacy policy on our site. Privacy policy changes will apply to the information collected from the date we post the revised privacy policy to the site, as well as to existing information held by us.

If we decide to change this policy in a material way, we will obtain the necessary consents required under applicable privacy laws if we seek to collect, use or disclose personal information for purposes other than those to which consent has been obtained, unless otherwise required or permitted by law. If any proposed change is unacceptable to you, you may request that we remove your personal information from our records, as described in How to Opt Out.