Rutherford Unplugged

Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 25, 2026

Rutherford Unplugged respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share information when you visit our website, sign the Rutherford Unplugged pledge, contact us, ask to receive updates, share a testimonial or parent experience, volunteer, attend an event, or otherwise interact with Rutherford Unplugged online.

Rutherford Unplugged is a community group based in Rutherford, New Jersey. We advocate for more intentional, balanced, and developmentally appropriate use of technology and screen time in Rutherford schools.

This Privacy Policy is intended to explain our privacy practices in plain language.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect information that you choose to provide to us, information generated when you use the website, and limited technical information needed for the website to function securely.

A. Pledge information

When you sign the Rutherford Unplugged pledge, we may collect information such as:

  • First name and last name;
  • Email address;
  • School connection;
  • Relevant school level;
  • Whether you want to share a testimonial or parent experience;
  • Whether you checked “Keep my name anonymous” or provided another anonymity-related preference;
  • Any optional comments, testimonial text, or other information you choose to provide.

We use this information to record community support for Rutherford Unplugged’s goals, administer the pledge process, understand general school-community support, communicate with supporters where appropriate, and prepare aggregate or anonymized summaries of pledge participation.

Signing the pledge does not automatically mean that your name, email address, contact information, or testimonial will be shared publicly.

B. Testimonials, parent experiences, and stories

If you choose to submit a testimonial, parent experience, story, comment, or similar information, we may collect and review the information you provide.

Testimonials, parent experiences, stories, or comments submitted through the website are treated as private to Rutherford Unplugged unless you affirmatively consent to public use.

If you check the optional consent box allowing Rutherford Unplugged to publicly share your testimonial anonymously, we may review and use your testimonial in public-facing website, advocacy, or community materials. We will not publish your name, email address, phone number, or direct contact information with an anonymous testimonial.

We may use non-identifying themes, summaries, or general observations from submissions to help inform Rutherford Unplugged’s advocacy, but we will not knowingly include details that identify a child, student, family, or individual without appropriate permission.

We may edit testimonials for length, clarity, spelling, formatting, or to remove unnecessary identifying information, but we will not knowingly change the meaning of your submission.

Please do not include unnecessary identifying information about a child or student. In particular, please do not submit a child’s full name, student ID, date of birth, medical information, disciplinary information, or other sensitive student information.

C. Contact form information

When you contact us through the website, we may collect information such as:

  • Name;
  • Email address;
  • Phone number, if provided;
  • Reason for contacting us;
  • Message content;
  • Whether you consent to our storing your submitted information so we can respond;
  • Whether you ask to receive occasional updates from Rutherford Unplugged.

We use this information to respond to your inquiry, route your message to the appropriate volunteer, manage volunteer or media inquiries, consider resource suggestions, respond to parent experiences, and communicate with you where appropriate.

D. Updates and communications

If you ask to receive updates, we may use your email address to send occasional messages about Rutherford Unplugged, including community updates, events, resources, volunteer opportunities, and advocacy-related information.

You may ask to stop receiving updates at any time by contacting us or by using any unsubscribe option included in our emails.

E. Events

If Rutherford Unplugged posts or manages events through the website, we may collect information related to event interest, registration, attendance, volunteer coordination, or event communications if those features are enabled.

If an event is hosted or managed by a third-party service, that service may have its own privacy practices.

F. Website, device, security, and functionality information

Like many websites, our website and service providers may collect limited technical information needed to operate, secure, and improve the site. This may include:

  • IP address;
  • Browser type;
  • Device type;
  • Pages visited;
  • Referring page or link;
  • Date and time of visit;
  • General location inferred from IP address;
  • Cookies or similar technologies;
  • Security logs;
  • Spam-prevention, bot-detection, CAPTCHA, or challenge-response information;
  • Information needed for website caching, performance, troubleshooting, and reliability.

We use this information to keep the website functioning, protect against spam or misuse, improve website reliability, troubleshoot technical issues, and maintain website security.

2. How We Use Information

We may use information for the following purposes:

  • To operate, maintain, secure, and improve the website;
  • To process and manage pledge submissions;
  • To count pledge support and understand general community participation;
  • To respond to inquiries;
  • To communicate with people who ask for updates;
  • To coordinate volunteers, events, media inquiries, resource suggestions, or community engagement;
  • To prepare aggregate or anonymized summaries of community support, parent concerns, or common themes;
  • To manage testimonials or parent experiences according to the permission provided;
  • To protect the website from spam, fraud, abuse, or security risks;
  • To comply with legal obligations;
  • To maintain reasonable records of communications and advocacy activity.

We do not sell personal information.

We do not use personal information for targeted advertising or automated profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

3. Pledge Names, Testimonials, and Public Sharing

Rutherford Unplugged may use pledge counts, community themes, anonymized feedback, and aggregate summaries to support its advocacy goals.

Individual pledge signer names are not displayed publicly on the website. We will not publicly share your email address, phone number, private message content, or direct contact information.

When you sign the pledge, your support may be counted anonymously as part of overall community support for Rutherford Unplugged’s goals. We may retain your pledge information internally for pledge administration, verification, recordkeeping, website integrity, and related operational purposes.

If you provide a testimonial, parent experience, story, or comment, we will not publish it publicly unless you have affirmatively agreed that Rutherford Unplugged may do so. If you agree to public use, we will publish the testimonial anonymously unless we separately obtain your consent to use identifying information.

We may edit testimonials for length, clarity, spelling, or formatting, but we will not knowingly change the meaning of your submission.

Please do not include a child’s full name, student ID, date of birth, medical information, disciplinary information, or other sensitive student information in any testimonial or form submission.

4. Sharing With Volunteers, School Stakeholders, and Others

A. Rutherford Unplugged volunteers

We may share pledge, contact, testimonial, event, or related submission information with authorized Rutherford Unplugged volunteers who need access to help administer the website, manage pledge submissions, respond to inquiries, coordinate communications, organize events, or support Rutherford Unplugged’s community advocacy efforts.

B. School district, administration, Board of Education, media, and other outside stakeholders

We may share aggregate, anonymized, or non-identifying summaries of pledge support, testimonials, or community feedback with the school district, school administration, Board of Education, media, community organizations, or other stakeholders.

We will not share your email address, phone number, private message, or other direct contact information with the school district, school administration, Board of Education, media, or other outside stakeholders without your consent.

If an outside stakeholder asks to speak with a pledge signer, testimonial provider, volunteer, or community member, we may contact you first to ask whether you would like to be introduced. You are not required to agree.

C. Service providers and website tools

We use third-party service providers and website tools to help operate, secure, and maintain the website. These may include:

  • Website hosting, domain, and infrastructure providers;
  • Website platform, theme, and design tools;
  • Form, pledge, and petition tools;
  • Email delivery and communications tools;
  • Event calendar or event-management tools;
  • Content delivery, caching, website performance, security, bot-protection, CAPTCHA, or challenge-response tools;
  • Backup, logging, analytics, or troubleshooting tools, if enabled.

These providers may process information such as form submissions, email delivery information, IP address, browser or device information, security logs, cookies, or other technical information as needed to provide their services.

We use these providers to operate the website, process submissions, send communications, improve reliability, protect against spam and abuse, and maintain website security.

D. Legal, safety, and security reasons

We may disclose information if we believe it is reasonably necessary to comply with law, respond to legal process, protect the rights or safety of Rutherford Unplugged, protect website users, investigate misuse, or address security issues.

5. Children and Student Information

Rutherford Unplugged’s website is intended for parents, caregivers, educators, volunteers, community members, and other adults interested in school technology and screen-time issues. The website is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly seek or collect personal information directly from children under 13.

Because our work relates to schools and children, adults may refer to children or school experiences when contacting us or submitting a testimonial. Please avoid submitting unnecessary identifiable information about any child or student.

Please do not submit a child’s full name, student ID, date of birth, medical information, disciplinary information, or other sensitive student details unless specifically requested and appropriate.

If we learn that we collected personal information directly from a child under 13 without appropriate consent, we will take reasonable steps to delete it. If you believe a child has submitted personal information to us, please contact us.

6. Sensitive Information

Please do not submit sensitive personal information unless it is necessary for your inquiry. Sensitive information may include health information, financial information, government identification numbers, precise location information, immigration or citizenship information, biometric information, or information about a known child.

If you voluntarily provide sensitive information, we will use it only as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was provided or as otherwise required by law.

7. Cookies, Caching, CAPTCHA, and Similar Technologies

Our website may use cookies or similar technologies for website functionality, form operation, security, spam prevention, bot detection, CAPTCHA or challenge-response services, caching, analytics, or basic website performance.

You can adjust your browser settings to block or delete cookies. Some website features may not function properly if cookies, scripts, or similar technologies are disabled.

If we use a CAPTCHA, challenge-response, or bot-protection service, that service may process limited technical information to help determine whether a visitor is a person or an automated bot.

If you are an authorized website administrator, editor, or volunteer with login access, the website platform may use additional cookies to support login sessions, security, and display preferences.

8. Third-Party Websites and Social Media

Our website may link to third-party websites, resources, articles, school documents, social media platforms, books, research, community resources, or other external services.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices, security, or content of third-party websites or services. If you visit or interact with those services, their own privacy policies and terms may apply.

If you interact with Rutherford Unplugged through social media platforms, your interaction may also be governed by those platforms’ privacy policies and terms.

If we embed content from another website, such as a video, image, article, social media post, map, or similar content, that embedded content may behave as if you visited the third-party website directly. The third party may collect information about your interaction with the embedded content according to its own privacy policy.

9. Your Choices and Privacy Requests

You may contact us to request that we:

  • Confirm whether we have information about you;
  • Correct inaccurate information;
  • Delete information you provided;
  • Remove you from update emails;
  • Update your pledge submission where reasonably possible;
  • Update your anonymity or public display preference;
  • Withdraw or modify permission to use a testimonial in identifiable form;
  • Ask that we not use your testimonial or submission publicly.

We may need to verify your identity before acting on certain requests.

Some information may be retained where necessary for security, legal compliance, dispute resolution, backup integrity, or legitimate recordkeeping.

To make a privacy request, contact us at:

privacy@rutherfordunplugged.com

10. Data Retention

We keep personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law.

In general:

  • Contact inquiries are retained for as long as needed to respond and maintain reasonable records;
  • Pledge information may be retained for the duration of the Rutherford Unplugged advocacy effort and a reasonable period afterward;
  • Update email information is retained until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove it;
  • Event-related information may be retained for event administration and reasonable recordkeeping;
  • Technical logs and security records are retained according to the practices of our website platform and service providers.

We may retain aggregated or anonymized information that does not identify you.

11. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures to protect personal information. However, no website, email system, or online service is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Please do not submit information through the website that is highly sensitive or unnecessary for your inquiry.

12. Data Breach Notification

If we become aware of a security incident involving personal information, we will evaluate the incident and take steps required by applicable law, which may include notifying affected individuals and appropriate authorities.

13. New Jersey Privacy Notice

Rutherford Unplugged is based in New Jersey and primarily serves the Rutherford, New Jersey community.

Depending on the nature and scale of our activities, New Jersey privacy laws may provide certain residents with rights regarding their personal information. Even where a specific privacy law does not apply to Rutherford Unplugged, we will make reasonable efforts to honor privacy requests consistent with this Privacy Policy, applicable law, and our operational needs.

We do not sell personal information. We do not knowingly process personal information for targeted advertising or automated profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date above.

If we make material changes, we will provide notice in a reasonable way, such as by posting an updated version on the website or by providing another appropriate notice.

15. Contact Us

To ask questions about this Privacy Policy or make a privacy request, please contact us at:

Rutherford Unplugged
Email: privacy@rutherfordunplugged.com
Website: Rutherford Unplugged