Privacy Notice

Effective Date: September 1, 2022.

We have created this Notice to let you know what information we collect when you use our Services, how we use and share the information we collect associated with those Services, and how we protect your privacy when you use those Services. We know that your privacy is important to you. Please note that different privacy notices or in some cases, Supplemental Notices or other Additional Terms may be applicable to certain Services.

If you have any questions about this Notice or our privacy practices, please contact us by e-mail at legalnotice@noble.org.

This Notice forms part of the terms of use for our Sites, our Services, and other agreement(s) into which this Notice is incorporated by reference.

This Notice does not apply to our intellectual property, including any data or content, that we own or license from third parties, nor does it apply to data which is publicly available, except as otherwise described herein.

1. Definitions

“Additional Terms” refers to the terms, conditions, and obligations of other agreements in which this Notice is incorporated by reference. Such agreements may include, but are not limited to, service agreements, terms-of-use documents, end-user license agreements, subaward agreements, or purchase terms, which govern the use of our Sites, use of our Services, or our other formal interactions.
“Affiliated Entity” refers to any entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with Noble, where “control” means beneficial ownership of more than fifty percent (50%) of the outstanding shares or securities or the ability otherwise to elect a majority of the board of directors or other managing authority.
“Noble,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Noble Research Institute, LLC.
"Notice" refers to this privacy notice.
"Personal Information" refers to information that can be used to identify you personally, alone or in combination with other information available to us. Examples of Personal Information include, but are not limited to, your name, physical address, and e-mail address and/or various other types of information we collect and process as described in Paragraph 4 below.
"Site" refers to any of our websites, including those on which this Notice is posted or linked.
"Services," refers to, but is not limited to, our various Sites, mobile applications, agricultural technology tools, portals, platforms, programs, educational events or products, and other services, which may be provided to customers, consumers, retailers, ranchers, or others. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features that augment or enhance the current Services shall be subject to this Notice.
"User-Generated Content" means any content you create or own that you post or otherwise provide to us (i) for the purpose of having such content made available on one of our Sites, or (ii) for the purpose of sharing it publicly through one of our Services or otherwise making such content publicly available.

2. Ownership/Your Consent

Further, by using any of our Services, you are consenting to the collection, use, and disclosure of information as set forth in this Notice. If you do not agree to be bound by this Notice, you may not continue to access or use our Services.

3. Supplemental Privacy Notices

This Notice may be supplemented from time to time by additional “Supplemental Notices” posted on or in connection with any of our Services. These Supplemental Notices provide a level of detail applicable to specific Services that we cannot provide in this more general notice of our privacy practices. For example, certain pages of a Site may contain privacy notices providing details about the Personal Information we collect on those pages, why we need that Personal Information, and choices you may have about the ways we use and disclose that Personal Information, if different from what we have stated in this more general Notice.

4. Categories of Information We Collect

The information we collect (and the sources from which we collect it) depends on what you do when using our Services. The following list includes, but is not limited to, the categories of information we collect, and the sources from which we collect such information. Some of these categories may include Personal Information.

When you use our Services, we, our third-party partners, or our third-party service providers may collect the following categories of information:

Audio/Visual data, including, but not limited to, recordings and images of you collected by our photographers when you visit our events, images of your property collected for consultation or in furtherance of research, as well as audio files and records, such as voice mails, recordings of our educational events, and the like;
Employment data, such as information you provide in relation to your place of employment, or related to your employees, depending on your role and your interaction with us and our Services;
Event/Program registration information, such as information you provide when filling in e-registration forms or surveys related to our various Services (e.g., events, products or programs);
Financial information, such as your credit card or other financial account information for the purpose of facilitating your purchase of Services (e.g., events, products, or programs);
Inference data, including, but not limited to, information used to create a profile about you reflecting your preferences, characteristics, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, market segments, likes, favorites and other data or analytics provided about you or your account by social media companies or data aggregators, including household data such as income, number of children, occupation, social grade, home ownership status, the products and services you use or intend to use or purchase, and your interests;
Identity data, such as your name, e-mail address, fax number, mailing address, physical address, or phone numbers;
- Location data, such as data obtained from GPS when you have certain Services (e.g., mobile application) activated on your mobile device or data obtained from instrumentation taking ecological or weather data from your property in furtherance of research and/or monitoring activities;
- Marketing and communications data, including, but not limited to, your marketing preferences and your subscriptions to or permissions to receive our publications, emails, and SMS messaging or campaigns;
Ranch/Production/Ecosystem data, including, but not limited to, (i) ranch management data (such as data related to land boundaries, soil types, production and soil health, climate and weather data, wildlife activity, ecosystem data, animal health and herd data), and (ii) other related financial or production data (such as data related to your financial goals, agricultural and agronomic practices, production performance, revenue, pricing data, government program participation, expenses, profits, and related operational data);
- Recruitment data, such as information you submit in connection with a job application or inquiry;
- Registration data, such as information you provide when you register for an account to use one of our Services, including your encrypted account usernames and passwords (please note that if you permit a third party to create your account for you, we may collect the registration data from that third party);
- Transaction data, including, but not limited to, your inquiries about and orders for our Services (e.g., events, products, or programs), Noble goods, and details of payments to and from you; and
- Your feedback, such as feedback from you about our Services as well as our Services (e.g., events, products, or programs) generally.

In addition to the above, when you use any of our Services, we may automatically collect the following categories of information:

Usage data, including, but not limited to, information about how you use our Services, what pages you view, the number of bytes transferred, the links you click, the materials you access, the date and time you access the Services, the website from which you linked to one of our Sites and other actions taken within the Site(s) or Services; and
Technical data, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, your device ID, your browser type, capabilities, language, and your operating system. An “IP address” is a unique identifier that is automatically assigned to your computer when you connect to the Internet. It is used to identify your computer’s “location” in cyberspace, so that the information you request can be delivered to you.

We may collect the above categories of information from any of the following sources:

Information You Volunteer. We collect information you and others knowingly and voluntarily provide when you use our Services or otherwise interact with us. For example, we collect the Personal Information you provide when you subscribe to one of our newsletters or alert services, review, or comment on one of our products, or contact us with questions. If you post any User-Generated Content to our Services, please note that it may be visible to other users of our Services, and it must comply with our terms outlined in Section 5 below, as well as any Additional Terms. We may also collect information you volunteer if you enter into an agreement with us, such as to provide us with products or services (e.g., if you have entered a contract to provide us with services or products, we would collect your tax ID number and bank account information to facilitate your payment).
Information Provided by Partners. In some circumstances, we or you may have a relationship with a third party who provides us information about you. For example, if you are a rancher and your retailer has registered you for one of our Services, that retailer may provide us information about you or provide Ranch/Production/Ecosystem data in connection with that Service.
Service Providers, Aggregators, and Advertisers. We may receive Personal Information and other data from various individuals or entities that provide services on our behalf, including but not limited to ad networks, behavioral advertising vendors, market research, and similar companies that provide us with additional Personal Information such as Inference data.
Social Media Companies. We receive data from social media companies that may transfer Personal Information to us when you register for one of our Services or interact with that social media company on or in connection with our Services (e.g., events, products, or programs).
Data We Create and Infer. We, in combination with certain partners, social media companies, and third parties operating on our behalf, create and infer Personal Information (such as Inference data) or aggregate data based on our observations or analysis of other Personal Information processed under this Notice or Supplemental Notices, and we may correlate this data with other data we process from/about you. We may combine any Personal Information (or other information) about you that we receive from you, from other companies within our family of companies, and from third parties.
Information Sent to Us by Your Web Browser. We collect information that is sent to us automatically by your Web browser. This information typically includes, but is not limited to, your IP address, the identity of your Internet service provider, the name and version of your operating system, the name and version of your browser, the date and time of your visit, and the pages you visit. Please check your browser if you want to learn what information your browser sends or how to change your settings.
Information Sent to Us by Mobile Applications. If you have one of our mobile applications installed on your mobile device, we will collect information regarding the mobile device on which you install the application, as well as your registration data if you register for the application. If necessary for the Services provided, we may, subject to notification or consent if required by law, track the location of your device, and other data you may scan or log into the mobile application as well as information relating to your use of the mobile application.
Cookies and Other Technologies. We use “cookies” and other technologies to collect information and support certain features of our Services. For example, we may use cookies and other technologies to:
- Collect information about the ways visitors use our Services, for example, which pages they visit, which links they use, and how long they stay on each page;
- Support the features and functionality of our Services, for example, to save you the trouble of reentering information already in our database or to prompt the settings you established on previous visits; and
- Personalize your experience when you use our Services.

In addition to the cookies and similar technologies we use, our partners or third-party service providers may also use cookies and similar technologies. For example, our partners may deliver cookies through our Services that allow them to recognize you in future Web sessions as someone who has expressed an interest in that Service or in our other Services. Likewise, links in e-mails sent to you by our partners or third-party service providers may be designed so that we can identify recipients who click on them and/or measure the effectiveness of an e-mail campaign.

Generally, if you do not wish to receive cookies, you may set your browser to reject cookies or to alert you when a cookie is placed on your computer. Although you are not required to accept cookies when you visit our Site(s), you may be unable to use all of the functionality of our Site(s) (or some of our other Services) if your browser rejects our cookies.

We may use the following categories of cookies in our Services:

Strictly Necessary Cookies. These cookies are essential to enable you to move around our Services and use their features. Without these cookies, certain functionality such as maintaining a record of your purchased items (e.g., a shopping cart), cannot be provided.
Performance Cookies. These cookies collect anonymous information on how you use our Services, to help us understand, for example, how you arrive at one of our Sites, how you may browse or use our Sites, and highlight areas where we can improve, such as navigation.
Functionality Cookies. These cookies remember certain choices you make when you use one of our Services, such as if you select content for a specific region, livestock, or management topic, and your search parameters. This information can then be used to provide you with an experience more appropriate to your selections and to make your visits to our Services more tailored to your preferences. The information in these cookies may be anonymized. These cookies cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.
Targeting Cookies or Advertising Cookies. These cookies collect information about your browsing habits to make advertising more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. The cookies are usually placed by third-party advertising networks. These cookies remember the websites you visit and that information may be shared with other parties such as advertisers.

We may also use other tracking technologies on or in connection with our Services:

Google Analytics and/or Adobe Analytics. Our Services may send aggregated, non-Personal Information to these service providers for the purpose of providing us with the ability to conduct technical and statistical analysis on the performance of our Services. For more information on how these organizations use information sent from us, please review Google’s privacy policy available at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites and/or Adobe’s privacy policy available at https://www.adobe.com/privacy.html.
Web Beacons. A Web Beacon is an electronic image that can track certain events from your computer and can report activity back to a web server allowing us to understand some of your preferences or behavior. If you choose to receive emails from us, we may use Web Beacons to track your reaction to our emails. We may also use them to track if you click on the links and at what time and date you do so. Some of the third-party marketers we engage with may use Web Beacons to track your interaction with online advertising banners on our Sites. This information is only collected in aggregate form and will not be linked to your Personal Information. Please note that any image file on a webpage can act as a Web Beacon.
Embedded Web Links. Links provided in our emails and, in some cases, on third-party websites may include various tracking technology embedded in the link. The tracking is accomplished through a redirection system. The redirection system allows us to understand how the link is being used by email recipients. Some of these links will enable us to identify that you have personally clicked on the link and this may be attached to the Personal Information that we hold about you. This data is used to improve our Services, our service to you, and to help us understand the performance of our marketing campaigns and delivered messages.

5. User-Generated Content

User-Generated Content you submit on or through our Services may be available to others who visit our Services. In addition, we may use User-Generated Content you submit on or through our Services in advertising campaigns, donor solicitations, and other promotions. We may or may not use your name (or an abbreviation of your name) in connection with such use, and we may or may not seek your consent before using the User-Generated Content for such purposes. Therefore, you should have no expectation of privacy with respect to User-Generated Content you submit on or through our Services. You should not submit any User-Generated Content you do not wish to make available to the public, and you must take special care to make sure your submissions comply with any Additional Terms.

All terms and conditions of applicable Additional Terms apply to User-Generated Content submitted on or through our Services. Your submissions must not violate the privacy or other rights of others. Users submitting User-Generated Content through our Services are responsible for the content of the same. Noble has no responsibility for the User-Generated Content posted by users. Noble retains the right, which it may or may not exercise, to review, edit, or delete any such submissions that Noble deems, in its sole discretion, to be illegal, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate.

6. Use of Information Collected

We may use the information (including your Personal Information) that we collect through our Services, or which is otherwise provided to us as described within this Notice to accomplish any and all of the following purposes:

verify your identify;
provide the Services you request;
for security, credit, or fraud prevention;
provide you with effective customer service;
help inform your decisions or the decisions of those assisting you;
send you statements and invoices;
provide you with a personalized experience when you use our Services;
contact you with special offers and other information we believe may be of interest to you (in accordance with any privacy preferences you have expressed to us);
contact you with information and notices related to your use of our Services;
invite you to participate in programs or surveys and provide feedback to us (in accordance with any privacy preferences you have expressed to us);
better understand your (and your company’s or your ranch’s, or your customers’ companies’ or ranches’) needs and interests;
test, populate, improve or enhance the content, functionality, usability, efficiency, or other aspects of our Services or our operations;
generate and review reports and data about candidates for and participants in our various Services, or to analyze the accuracy, effectiveness, usability or popularity of our Services;
improve our Services (e.g., events, products, or programs), or to shape and better define our agricultural research and development activities;
improve our marketing and promotional work, including to send marketing materials via postal mail, email, and push notifications within our Services, and to facilitate marketing related to our partners and/or third-party service or technology providers whose products are integrated with our Services;
in collaboration with you, conduct scientific research involving you and/or your operations;
comply with legal or regulatory obligations; or
for any other purpose identified in an applicable privacy notice, click-through agreement or other agreement between you and us, including but not limited to any Supplemental Notices or Additional Terms.

In addition to the uses described above, we may de-identify or otherwise anonymize your Personal Information; in such form, it shall not be Personal Information and cannot be used to identify you. We may use the de-identified or anonymized data, whether alone or aggregated with other data, for the purposes listed above or for other business and analytical purposes, including creating reports, predictive models and benchmarks, deriving insights and conducting market research. Noble owns any and all such de-identified, anonymized and/or aggregated information and any derivatives thereof.

Some of the information we collect using cookies and other Web technologies include Personal Information (such as your IP address) and other information that may be linked to your IP address. For example, if you have registered with one of our Services, we may link the Personal Information you have provided with information we collect using cookies and other Web technologies to determine whether you have visited the Site before and, if so, to make your experience more useful.

Also, if your Web browser sends us your IP address and you register with one of our Services, we may link that IP address to the Personal Information you provided as part of such registration. We may also provide your IP address to our third-party service providers who can use it to identify your state and zip code. This gives us valuable demographic information about the individuals who use our Services. In addition, if we suspect fraud or a threat to the security of any of our Services, we may share our server logs—which contain users’ IP addresses—with the appropriate investigative authorities, who could use that information to trace and identify individuals.

Some of our Services may track users over time and across third-party websites, typically with regard to marketing. Our Services do not currently respond to web-browser Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals. However, you can exercise other choices related to marketing as further described below.

7. Sharing of Information

Noble will not sell your information, including Personal Information, to third parties. In the following limited instances, we may share any of the Personal Information or other information you provide, we collect or which is otherwise provided to us through our Services for the purposes described above (Paragraph 6):

Our Affiliated Entities. We may share information, including Personal Information, with Affiliated Entities, if any, to accomplish our business purposes.
Third-Party Service Providers. We may share information, including Personal Information, with third-party vendors who act for or on behalf of Noble or our customers. For example, we use third-party vendors to design and operate our Site(s); to process payments when you make purchases on our Sites; to conduct surveys; to perform audits (including to confirm information required in connection with participation in certain Services); to develop and facilitate various programs for us (including facilitating scientific research), including but not limited to Services, for us; and to help us with our promotional efforts (which may include social media companies). We may also use third-party service providers to perform data collection, social sharing, marketing, site analytics, relationship management, confirming your information is accurate, soil sampling, imaging, verification, functions related to analyzing and improving the usefulness, reliability, user experience, and operation of our Services, storing data, and as otherwise described in this Notice. These third-party vendors may need information about you to perform their activities for Noble.
We may share certain information, including Personal Information, with third parties with whom we have various types of written agreements or relationships. For example, if your retail partner requires your use of certain Services, we may share with them processed data from and reports generated through those Services. In such instance, we may inform your retailer regarding your consideration of or application to participate in certain Services, and then in connection with your actual participation in the Services, if applicable. We may also share certain information with third party programs or service providers who are integrated with, or with whom we collaborate in the provision of our Services, or with whom we otherwise do business including to generate information from products and services offered by such third-party service providers. For certain Services, we may share information with registries in connection with tracking, verification and certification of our Services. If we have entered into agreements with third parties and we receive a complaint or inquiry regarding their products or services, we will forward that information to them so that they may respond. We may also share information, including Personal Information, with these partners for their direct marketing and promotional purposes and so they can provide services to you.
Compliance with Laws and Protection of Our Rights and the Rights of Others. We may disclose the information we collect when we, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law, a court order, or a subpoena. We may also disclose the information we collect to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft, to protect the security of our Services, to enforce or apply any Additional Terms or other agreements, or to protect our own rights or property or the rights, property or safety of our users or others.
As Described in a Supplemental Notice. We reserve the right to disclose the information we collect as described in any Supplemental Notice or other privacy notice posted on or in connection with our Services where you provide that information. By providing the information, for example, on a web page, you will be consenting to the disclosure of the information as described in that privacy notice, if any.
As Described in an Agreement. We reserve the right to disclose the information we collect as described in any agreement or Additional Terms.

8. Your Choices

You have the right to make choices about the ways we collect, use, and share the information we collect. In some cases, we will ask you to indicate your choices at the time we collect the information. For example, if you sign up for any of our emails notices, or register for certain Services, we provide you with an opportunity to select those specific communications you will receive from us. In addition, we will include an opt out link in each electronic newsletter or other promotional e-mail we send you, so that you can inform us that you do not wish to receive such communications from us in the future. You may discontinue receiving our email alerts by taking the steps indicated in the email alert you received, by following instructions on our Service related to the specific campaign, or by using our data request form located here.

9. How to Access, Update, Delete, or Correct Personal Information

If you wish to access, update, delete, or correct certain Personal Information, please contact us via the link above to access our data request form. We will respond to you within 5 business days and, in any case, within the time limits established by applicable law. We may ask you for additional information to verify your identity. In most cases, we will provide access and correct or delete any Personal Information. In some cases, however, we may limit or deny your request if the law permits or requires us to do so or if we are unable to verify your identify. Your information does not have to be deleted or removed from Noble-produced de-identified, anonymized and/or aggregated information. Additionally, if we create archived backup copies of your information during the course of providing Services, we may retain such copies in our archives until such time as our internal document retention policies require record destruction. You may also have additional rights related to your Personal Information depending on the state or country you live in. To exercise such rights, please identify your specific request in the applicable section of the data request form in the link above.

10. Verifying Data Requests

Any request relating to your Personal Information must:

Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected Personal Information or an authorized representative thereof.
Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

If we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the Personal Information relates to you, we will not be able to process your request or provide you with any Personal Information. We will only use Personal Information provided in a verifiable request to verify the requestor's identity or authority to make the request.

We may decline to process requests that are frivolous, jeopardize the privacy of others, are impractical, or for which access is not otherwise required by local law. We may also decline aspects of deletion or access requests if we believe doing so would undermine our legitimate use of the Personal Information for anti-fraud and security purposes as described earlier, or for other reasons as permitted by applicable law. Once a request is either confirmed or denied, an email notification will be sent to the email submitted as part of the request.

11. Steps We Take to Safeguard Information

We maintain reasonable administrative, physical, and technological measures to protect the confidentiality and security of Personal Information you submit on or through our Services. Unfortunately, no website, server or database is completely secure and we cannot guarantee that your Personal Information or other information will not be disclosed, misused or lost by accident or by the unauthorized acts of others.

12. Children Under the Age of Sixteen

Our Services are not intended for anyone under 16 years of age. No one under age 16 may provide any Personal Information on our Services. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from anyone under 16 years of age. If you are under 16 years of age, do not use or provide any information on our Services. If we learn that we have collected or received Personal Information from a person under 16 years of age without verification of parental consent and supervision, we will delete such Personal Information. If you believe that a person under 16 years of age has submitted Personal Information on or through any of our Services without the consent and supervision of a parent or guardian, please contact us at legalnotice@noble.org.

13. Other Sites

Our Services may contain links to websites operated by other organizations, including but not limited to websites operated by our third-party service providers and other third parties. For example, if you click on an advertisement on a Site, you may be taken to a website that we do not control. We may also host or operate websites as a service for others. This Notice does not apply to information collected on any of these third-party websites. When you access third-party websites through a link on our Services, please take a few minutes to review the privacy policy posted on that website.

14. This Notice May Change

This Notice describes our current policies and practices regarding the information we collect through our Services.

We are continually improving and adding to the features and functionality of our Services (e.g., events, products, or programs). As a result of these changes (or changes in the law), we may need to update or revise this Notice. Accordingly, we reserve the right to update or modify this Notice at any time, without prior notice, by posting the revised version of this Notice behind the link marked “Privacy Notice” at the bottom of each applicable page of our Services. Your continued use of any of our Services after we have posted the revised Notice constitutes your agreement to be bound by the revised Notice. However, when required by applicable law, we will provide you with notice of proposed new uses of collected information.

For your convenience, whenever this Notice is changed, we will also alert you by posting a notice on our home page. We will also update the “Effective Date” at the top of this page. If significant time has elapsed since your last visit to our Services, be sure you check the Effective Date to see if this Notice has been revised since your last visit.