The Foundation for Private Enterprise Education, doing business as Washington Business Week,(“Washington Business Week,” “we,” “our,” and/or “us”) values the privacy of individuals who use our website (https://www.wbw.org/) and related services (collectively, our “Services”). This privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) explains how we collect, use, and disclose information from users of our Services (“Users”), including donors. By using our Services, you agree to the collection, use, disclosure, and procedures this Privacy Policy describes. Beyond the Privacy Policy, your use of our Services is also subject to our Terms of Service (https://www.wbw.org/terms-of-service).
Personal Information We Collect
We collect a variety of Personal Information from or about you or your devices from various sources, as described below.
In this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual.
Where applicable, we indicate whether and why you must provide us with your Personal Information, as well as the consequences of failing to do so. If you do not provide Personal Information when requested, you may not be able to benefit from our Services if that information is necessary to provide you with them or if we are legally required to collect it.
A. Personal Information You Provide to Us.
Communications. If you contact us directly, including through the webform on our contact page, we may receive additional Personal Information about you, such as your name, email address, phone number, the contents of a message or attachments that you may send to us, and other information you choose to provide.
Newsletter. If you subscribe to our newsletter to receive emails or information about our Services, then we will collect Personal Information from you, such as your email address and your first and last name. When we send you emails, we may use embedded pixels or other technologies to track Personal Information about your receipt and interaction with our emails, such as whether and when you open them, whether you access any links included in our emails, how long you read our emails, whether you forward our emails and to whom, your Location Information (described below), and your Device Information (described below), to learn how to deliver a better customer experience and improve our Services.
Participant Applications. If you complete one of our forms to apply for our programs, we may collect Personal Information such as name, email, address, phone number, current grade level, high school, gender, family information (names, email, phone numbers), medical & special needs, and any other information that you choose to provide.
Scholarship Application. If you complete the form to apply for a Washington Business Week Scholarship, we will collect Personal Information such as your name, email, address, current grade level, high school, gender, family income, and any other information that you choose to provide.
Ambassador Applications. If you complete the form to apply to be a Washington Business Week Ambassador, we will collect Personal Information such as your name, email, current grade level, current school, personal statements, and any other information you choose to provide. A third party vendor may store that information on our behalf.
Volunteer Information. If you decide that you wish to volunteer with us, we will collect Personal Information such as your name and contact information. A third party vendor may store that information on our behalf.
Purchase Information. If you purchase something from Washington Business Week, such as by paying a student deposit, your payment-related Personal Information, such as credit card or other financial information, is collected by a third-party payment processor on our behalf.
Donation Information. If you donate to Washington Business Week, your payment-related Personal Information, such as credit card or other financial information, is collected by a third-party payment processor on our behalf.
B. Personal Information We Collect When You Use Our Services.
Location Information. When you use our Services, we receive your location information. For example, we infer your location information by using your IP address.
Device Information. We receive Personal Information about the device and software you use to access our Services, including IP address, device type, device identifiers, web browser type and version, and operating system version.
Usage Information. We automatically receive Personal Information about your interactions with our Services, like the pages or other content you view, referrer information (the website you visited before coming to our Services), and the dates and times of your visits.
Personal Information from Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies. We and our third-party partners collect Personal Information about your activities on our Services using cookies, pixel tags, SDKs, or other tracking technologies, (collectively, “Cookies”). Our third-party partners, such as analytics, advertising, and security partners, may also use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across different services. We may use both session Cookies and persistent Cookies. A session Cookie disappears after you close your browser. A persistent Cookie remains after you close your browser and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to our Services.
Please review your web browser’s “Help” file or click “Cookie Settings” on our webpage to learn how you may modify your Cookies settings. Please note that if you delete or choose not to accept Cookies from the Service, you may not be able to utilize the features of the Service to their fullest potential.
We use the following Cookies on our Services:
- Strictly Necessary Cookies: Some Cookies are strictly necessary to make our Services available to you and you cannot use them without this type of Cookie. We use this information to provide you with our Services, prevent misuse, and ensure our Services are working properly.
| Cookie Name | Provider | Purpose | Expiry |
| apbct_headless | Clean Talk Spam Project | Spam Prevention | 1 Week |
| ct_checked_emails | Clean Talk Spam Project | Spam Prevention | 1 Week |
| ct_checkjs | Clean Talk Spam Project | Spam Prevention | Session |
| ct_fkp_timestamp | Clean Talk Spam Project | Spam Prevention | Session |
| ct_mouse_moved | Clean Talk Spam Project | Spam Prevention | Session |
| ct_pointer_data | Clean Talk Spam Project | Spam Prevention | Session |
| ct_ps_timestamp | Clean Talk Spam Project | Spam Prevention | Session |
| ct_screen_info | Clean Talk Spam Project | Spam Prevention | Session |
| ct_timez | Clean Talk Spam Project | Spam Prevention | Session |
- Functional Cookies: These are used to recognize you when you return to our Services. This enables us to personalize our content for you, to provide you with a customized experience on our Services, and remember your preferences and various settings (for example, your choice of language or region).
| Cookie Name | Provider | Purpose | Expiry |
| cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | Self | Track cookie acceptance | Session |
| cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary | Self | Track cookie acceptance | 1 Week |
- Analytics or Performance Cookies: We also use Cookies for analytics purposes to better understand how you use our Services, to measure the effectiveness of our customer communications, to diagnose and fix technology problems, and otherwise enhance our Services. We may use our own analytics Cookies or third-party analytics providers to collect and process certain data analytics on our behalf.
| Cookie Name | Provider | Purpose | Expiry |
| _ga_GNXHLLZQXN | User analytics | 1 Week |
- Advertising Cookies: We or our third-party advertising partners place Cookies to show you ads we think may interest you. For example, we may show you ads about our products and services on third party websites and apps or show you ads about third parties’ products and services on our websites and apps.
| Cookie Name | Provider | Purpose | Expiry |
| _gcl_au | Ad tracking & identification. | 1 Week |
C. Personal Information We Receive from Other Sources.
Background Checks. Weconduct background checks using third parties including Sterling, Checkr, and the Washington State Patrol, these may include criminal history, sex offender status, and SSN verification. These checks are only done with individual consent and are conducted in line with applicable laws including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Other Third Parties. We may receive information about you including your name, employer, email, and phone number from ZenLeads Inc. and J2 Martech Corp.
How We Use the Personal Information We Collect
We use the Personal Information we collect:
- To provide, maintain, improve, and enhance our Services;
- To understand and analyze how you use our Services and develop new products, services, features, and functionality;
- To communicate with you, provide you with updates and other information relating to our Services, provide information that you request, respond to comments and questions, and otherwise provide customer support;
- For marketing and advertising purposes, such as developing and providing promotional and advertising materials that may be relevant, valuable or otherwise of interest to you;
- To generate anonymized or aggregate data containing only de-identified, non-personal information that we may use for any lawful purposes such as to publish reports;
- To send you text messages;
- To facilitate transactions and payments;
- To find and prevent fraud and abuse, and respond to trust and safety issues that may arise;
- For compliance purposes, including enforcing our Terms of Service or other legal rights, or as may be required by applicable laws and regulations or requested by any judicial process or governmental agency; and
- For other purposes for which we provide specific notice at the time the Personal Information is collected.
Legal Bases for Processing European Personal Information
If you are located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), Switzerland or the United Kingdom (“UK”) (together “Europe”), we only process your Personal Information when we have a valid “legal basis,” including as set forth below.
- Consent. You have consented to the use of your Personal Information. For example, we may process your Personal Information to send you marketing communications or to use Cookies where you have consented to such use.
- Contractual Necessity. We need your Personal Information to provide you with our Services. For example, we may need to process your Personal Information to respond to your inquiries or requests.
- Compliance with a Legal Obligation. We have a legal obligation to use your Personal Information. For example, we may process your Personal Information to comply with tax, labor and accounting obligations.
Legitimate Interests. We or a third party have a legitimate interest in using your Personal Information. Specifically, we have a legitimate interest in using your Personal Information for service development and internal analytics purposes, and otherwise to improve the safety, security, and performance of our Services. We only rely on our or a third party’s legitimate interests to process your Personal Information when these interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.
How We Disclose the Personal Information We Collect
Affiliates. We may disclose any Personal Information we receive to our current or future affiliates for any of the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
Vendors and Service Providers. We may disclose any Personal Information we receive to vendors and service providers retained in connection with the provision of our Services.
Marketing. We may disclose any Personal Information we receive to our marketing partners with your direct consent,
Analytics Partners. We use analytics services such as Google Analytics to collect and process certain analytics data. You can learn more about Google’s practices by visiting https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.
Advertising Partners. We work with third-party advertising partners to collect and process your Personal Information in order to show you ads that we think may interest you. Some of our advertising partners are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (https://optout.networkadvertising.org) or the Digital Advertising Alliance (https://optout.aboutads.info) and serve ads through cookie-based technologies. Please visit their opt-out pages to learn about how you may opt out of receiving certain web-based personalized ads from member companies. These opt-outs will apply only to our third-party advertising partners that are members of these organizations.
As Required By Law and Similar Disclosures. We may access, preserve, and disclose your Personal Information if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to: (a) comply with law enforcement requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; (b) respond to your requests; or (c) protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety. For the avoidance of doubt, the disclosure of your Personal Information may occur if you post any objectionable content on or through the Services.
Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers. We may transfer your Personal Information to service providers, advisors, potential transactional partners, or other third parties in connection with the consideration, negotiation, or completion of a corporate transaction in which we are acquired by or merged with another company or we sell, liquidate, or transfer all or a portion of our assets. The use of your Personal Information following any of these events will be governed by the provisions of this Privacy Policy in effect at the time the applicable Personal Information was collected.
Consent. We may also disclose your Personal Information with your permission.
Your Choices
Location Information. You can prevent your mobile device from sharing precise location information at any time through your device’s operating system settings. [However, location is core to our Services and without it, you may not be able to successfully use our Services].
Marketing Communications. You can unsubscribe from our promotional emails via the link provided in the emails. Even if you opt out of receiving promotional email messages from us, you will continue to receive administrative messages from us. You can opt out from our promotional SMS messages by replying “STOP” to our message.
European Privacy Rights
If you are located in Europe, you have the additional rights described below:
- You may request access to the Personal Information we maintain about you, update and correct inaccuracies in your Personal Information, restrict or object to the processing of your Personal Information, have your Personal Information anonymized or deleted, as appropriate, or exercise your right to data portability to easily transfer your Personal Information to another company. In addition, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, including in your country of residence, place of work or where an incident took place.
- We do not engage in automated decision-making, including profiling, for the data subject with legal or similarly significant effects.
- You may withdraw any consent you previously provided to us regarding the processing of your Personal Information at any time and free of charge. We will apply your preferences going forward and this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before you withdrew your consent.
You may exercise these rights by contacting us using the contact details as indicated in the “Contact Information” section below. Before fulfilling your request, we may ask you to provide reasonable information to verify your identity. Please note that there are exceptions and limitations to each of these rights, and that while any changes you make will be reflected in active user databases instantly or within a reasonable period of time, we may retain Personal Information for backups, archiving, prevention of fraud and abuse, analytics, satisfaction of legal obligations, or where we otherwise reasonably believe that we have a legitimate reason to do so.
Data Retention
We take measures to delete your Personal Information or keep it in a form that does not permit identifying you when your Personal Information is no longer necessary for the purposes for which we process it unless we are required by law to keep your Personal Information for a longer period. When determining the specific retention period, we consider various factors, such as the type of service provided to you, the nature and length of our relationship with you, and mandatory retention periods provided by law and the statute of limitations.
Third Parties
Our Services may contain links to other websites, products, or services that we do not own or operate. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties. Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to your activities on these third-party services or any Personal Information you disclose to these third parties. We encourage you to read their privacy policies before providing any Personal Information to them.
Security
We make reasonable efforts to protect your Personal Information by using physical and electronic safeguards designed to improve the security of the Personal Information we maintain. However, because no electronic transmission or storage of Personal Information can be entirely secure, we can make no guarantees as to the security or privacy of your Personal Information.
Children’s Privacy
We do not knowingly collect, maintain, or use Personal Information from children under 13 years of age, and no part of our Service(s) is directed to children under 13. If you learn that a child has provided us with Personal Information in violation of this Privacy Policy, then you may alert us at [email protected].
International Visitors
Our Services are hosted in the United States (“U.S.”). If you choose to use the Services from Europe or other regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, then please note that your Personal Information is processed and stored in the U.S. We may also transfer your Personal Information from the U.S. to other countries or regions in connection with its storage and processing, fulfilling your requests, and operating the Services, including to France and the Phillipines.
For more information about how we transfer outside Europe, or to obtain a copy of the contractual safeguards we use for such transfers, you may contact us using the contact details as indicated in the “Contact Information” section below.
Update Your Personal Information
If you need to update your Personal Information in our records, please contact us using the information in the “Contact Information” section below.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We will post any adjustments to the Privacy Policy on this page, and the revised version will be effective when it is posted. If we materially change the ways in which we use or disclose Personal Information previously collected from you through the Services, we will notify you through the Services, by email, or other communication.
Contact Information
The Foundation for Private Enterprise Education is responsible for processing your Personal Information. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about our processing activities, please email us at [email protected] or write to us at 2226 Eastlake Ave East, Unit #676, Seattle, WA 98102, United States.
Last Updated: February 13, 2025