PRIVACY POLICY AGREEMENT

Leading Cities, Inc. (Leading Cities), is committed to keeping any and all personal information collected of those individuals that visit our website and make use of our online facilities and services accurate, confidential, secure and private. Our privacy policy has been designed and created to ensure those affiliated with Leading Cities of our commitment and realization of our obligation not only to meet but to exceed most existing privacy standards.

This Privacy Policy Agreement shall apply to Leading Cities, and thus it shall govern any and all data collection and usage thereof. Through the use of http://www.LeadingCities.org you are herein consenting to the following data procedures expressed within this agreement.

Collection of Information
This website collects various types of information, such as:
  • Voluntarily provided information which may include your name, address, email address, billing and/or credit card information etc., which may be used when you purchase products and/or services and to deliver the services you have requested.
Please rest assured that this site shall only collect personal information that you knowingly and willingly provide by way of surveys, completed membership forms, and emails. It is the intent of this site to use personal information only for the purpose for which it was requested and any additional uses specifically provided on this site.

Leading Cities may have the occasion to collect anonymous demographic information, such as age, gender, household income, political affiliation, race, and religion at a later time.

It is highly recommended and suggested that you review the privacy policies and statements of any website you choose to use or frequent as a means to better understand the way in which other websites garner, make use of and share information collected.

Use of Information Collected
Leading Cities may collect and may make use of personal information to assist in the operation of our website and to ensure delivery of the services you need and request. At times, we may find it necessary to use personally identifiable information as a means to keep you informed of other possible products and/or services that may be available to you from http://www.LeadingCities.org. Leading Cities may also be in contact with you with regards to completing surveys and/or research questionnaires related to your opinion of current or potential future services that may be offered or research that may be conducted.

Leading Cities may disclose your personal information, without prior notice to you, only if required to do so in accordance with applicable laws and/or in a good faith belief that such action is deemed necessary or is required in an effort to:
  • Remain in conformance with any decrees, laws and/or statutes or in an effort to comply with any process which may be served upon Leading Cities and/or our website;
  • Maintain, safeguard and/or preserve all the rights and/or property of Leading Cities; and
  • Perform under demanding conditions in an effort to safeguard the personal safety of users of http://www.LeadingCities.org and/or the general public.
Data may be collected for a variety of purposes as defined by your relationship and engagement with Leading Cities. The various purposes are outlined below:
  • We may process data about your use of our website and services (“usage data”). The usage data may include your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency, and pattern of your service use. The source of the usage data is our analytics tracking system. This usage data may be processed for the purposes of analyzing the use of the website and services. The legal basis for this processing is your consent to this Privacy Policy Agreement.
  • We may process your account data (“account data”). The account data may include your name and email address. The source of the account data is you. The account data may be processed for the purposes of operating our website, providing our services, ensuring the security of our website and services, maintaining back-ups of our databases and communicating with you. The legal basis for this processing is your consent to this Privacy Policy Agreement.
  • We may process your information included in your personal profile on our website (“profile data”). The profile data may include your name, address, telephone number, email address, profile pictures, gender, date of birth, relationship status, interests and hobbies, educational details and employment details. The profile data may be processed for the purposes of enabling and monitoring your use of our website and services. The legal basis for this processing is your consent to this Privacy Policy Agreement.
  • We may process your personal data that are provided in the course of the use of our services (“service data”). The service data may include your name, email address, employment details, contact information, public data shared by you and/or other data as deemed necessary for the completion of services your or your organization have requested. The source of the service data is you or your employer. The service data may be processed for the purposes of operating our website, providing our services, ensuring the security of our website and services, maintaining back-ups of our databases and communicating with you. The legal basis for this processing is your consent to this Privacy Policy Agreement.
  • We may process information that you post for publication on our website, partner sites or through our services (“publication data”). The publication data may be processed for the purposes of enabling such publication and administering our website and services. The legal basis for this processing is your consent to this Privacy Policy Agreement.
  • We may process information contained in any inquiry you submit to us regarding goods and/or services (“inquiry data”). The inquiry data may be processed for the purposes of offering, marketing and selling relevant goods and/or services to you. The legal basis for this processing is your consent to this Privacy Policy Agreement.
  • We may process information relating to our customer relationships, including customer contact information (“customer relationship data”). The customer relationship data may include your name, your employer, your job title or role, your contact details, and information contained in communications between us and you or your employer. The source of the customer relationship data is you or your employer. The customer relationship data may be processed for the purposes of managing our relationships with customers, communicating with customers, keeping records of those communications and promoting our products and services to customers. The legal basis for this processing is your consent to this Privacy Policy Agreement.
  • We may process information relating to transactions, including purchases of goods and services, that you enter into with us and/or through our website (“transaction data”). The transaction data may include your contact details, your card details, and the transaction details. The transaction data may be processed for the purpose of supplying the purchased goods and services and keeping proper records of those transactions. The legal basis for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract and our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business.
  • We may process information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters (“notification data”). The notification data may be processed for the purposes of sending you the relevant notifications and/or newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is your consent to this Privacy Policy Agreement.
  • We may process information contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us (“correspondence data”). The correspondence data may include the communication content and metadata associated with the communication. Our website will generate the metadata associated with communications made using the website contact forms. The correspondence data may be processed for the purposes of communicating with you and record-keeping. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business and communications with users.
  • We may process any of your personal data identified in this policy where necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, or obtaining professional advice. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper protection of our business against risks.
  • Please do not supply any other person’s personal data to us, unless we prompt you to do so.

Providing your Personal Data to Others
In some circumstances, depending on the nature of your engagement with Leading Cites, we may disclose your personal data to one or more entities. These circumstances are as follows:
  • We may disclose your personal data to our insurers and/or professional advisers insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice, or the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.
  • We may disclose contact information and other pertinent details to connect you with one or more members of our network of consultants to assess their ability to partner with Leading Cities to meet your needs for a consultancy project.
  • Financial transactions relating to our website and services may be handled by our payment services provider, We will share transaction data with our payment services providers only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing your payments, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds. You can find information about the payment services providers’ privacy policies and practices at https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.
  • We may disclose your inquiry data to one or more of those selected third party suppliers of goods and services identified on our website for the purpose of enabling them to contact you so that they can offer, market and sell to you relevant goods and/or services. Each such third party will act as a data controller in relation to the inquiry data that we supply to it; and upon contacting you, each such third party should supply to you a copy of its own privacy policy, which will govern that third party’s use of your personal data.
  • In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data set out in this section, we may disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.
  • We may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.

Unsubscribe or Opt-Out
All users and/or visitors to our website have the option to discontinue receiving communication from us and/or reserve the right to discontinue receiving communications by way of email or newsletters. To discontinue or unsubscribe to our website please send an email that you wish to unsubscribe to Privacy@LeadingCities.org with the subject of “Unsubscribe.” If you wish to unsubscribe or opt-out from any third-party websites, you must go to that specific website to unsubscribe and/or opt-out.

Your Rights
Below is a summary of the rights that you have under data protection law. Some of the rights are complex, and not all of the details have been included in our summaries. Accordingly, you should read the relevant laws and guidance from the regulatory authorities for a full explanation of these rights.
  • You have the right to confirmation as to whether or not we process your personal data and, where we do, access to the personal data, together with certain additional information. That additional information includes details of the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned and the recipients of the personal data. Providing the rights and freedoms of others are not affected, we will supply to you a copy of your personal data. The first copy will be provided free of charge, but additional copies may be subject to a reasonable fee. You can request your personal data by an email inquiry sent to Privacy@LeadingCities.org.
  • You have the right to have any inaccurate personal data about you rectified and, taking into account the purposes of the processing, to have any incomplete personal data about you completed.
  • In some circumstances, you have the right to the erasure of your personal data without undue delay. Those circumstances include: the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed; you withdraw consent to consent-based processing; you object to the processing under certain rules of applicable data protection law; the processing is for direct marketing purposes; and the personal data have been unlawfully processed. However, there are exclusions of the right to erasure. The general exclusions include where processing is necessary: for exercising the right of freedom of expression and information; for compliance with a legal obligation; or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
  • In some circumstances, you have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data. Those circumstances are: you contest the accuracy of the personal data; processing is unlawful but you oppose erasure; we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of our processing, but you require personal data for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims; and you have objected to processing, pending the verification of that objection. Where processing has been restricted on this basis, we may continue to store your personal data. However, we will only otherwise process it: with your consent; for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims; for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person; or for reasons of important public interest.
  • You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data on grounds relating to your particular situation, but only to the extent that the legal basis for the processing is that the processing is necessary for: the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of any official authority vested in us; or the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party. If you make such an objection, we will cease to process the personal information unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
  • You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes (including profiling for direct marketing purposes). If you make such an objection, we will cease to process your personal data for this purpose.
  • You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes on grounds relating to your particular situation unless the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest.
  • To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal data is consent; or that the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract, and such processing is carried out by automated means, you have the right to receive your personal data from us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. However, this right does not apply where it would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.
  • If you consider that our processing of your personal information infringes data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection. And we encourage you also notify Leading Cities in advance to give time and opportunity to correct any issue that exists by emailing us at Privacy@LeadingCities.org.
  • To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.
  • You may exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data by written notice to us at Privacy@LeadingCities.org in addition to the other methods specified in this section.

Use of Cookies
A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies. Leading Cities reserves the right to use Cookies at its discretion.

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can, however, obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:

Blocking all cookies may have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.

Links to Other Web Sites
Our website does contain links to affiliate and other websites. Leading Cities does not claim nor accept responsibility for any privacy policies, practices and/or procedures of other such websites. Therefore, we encourage all users and visitors to be aware when they leave our website and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. The aforementioned Privacy Policy Agreement applies only and solely to the information collected by our website.

Security
Leading Cities shall endeavor and shall take precaution to maintain adequate physical, procedural and technical security with respect to our offices and information storage facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure or modification of the user’s personal information under our control.

Changes to Privacy Policy Agreement
Leading Cities reserves the right to update and/or change the terms of our privacy policy, and as such we will post those changes to our website homepage at http://www.LeadingCities.org, so that our users and/or visitors are always aware of the type of information we collect, how it will be used, and under what circumstances, if any, we may disclose such information. If at any point in time Leading Cities decides to make use of any personally identifiable information on file, in a manner vastly different from that which was stated when this information was initially collected, the user or users shall be promptly notified by email. Users at that time shall have the option as to whether or not to permit the use of their information in this separate manner.

Acceptance of Terms
Through the use of this website, you are hereby accepting the terms and conditions stipulated in the aforementioned Privacy Policy Agreement. If you are not in agreement with our terms and conditions, then you should refrain from further use of our sites. In addition, your continued use of our website following the posting of any updates or changes to our terms and conditions shall mean that you are in agreement and acceptance of such changes.

How to Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Privacy Policy Agreement related to our website, please feel free to contact us at the following email, telephone number or mailing address.

Email: Privacy@LeadingCities.org
Telephone Number: 617-506-3499
Mailing Address:
Leading Cities
50 Milk Street, 15th Floor
Boston, MA 02110

Updated: January 1, 2021