Policies

Privacy Policy

Ponder Diversity Group (“PDG”) is committed to maintaining your online privacy. The PDG’s online Privacy Policy applies to data collected from the Social Equity in Cannabis website in connection with the Social Equity in Cannabis application (“Application”) of the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (“WSLCB”).  We do not collect personal information without your permission. Any information that you volunteer, or that we send to you in response, is transferred using industry standard encryption technologies. Never share your username and password with anyone to protect against unauthorized access to your accounts. Never share more information than what is required to complete your Application. The following explains the PDG’s privacy policy for all applicants to the Social Equity in Cannabis website.

Information Gathering and Cookies

If you visit PDG’s website to read or download information, we only capture and store the domain name of your computer (for example, gmail.com) and other related information to speed up the performance of web page delivery. We collect no other personal information. We may use analytic and security tools hosted by third parties or managed within PDG as part of maintaining our web presence. These tools help us measure traffic and usage trends for our web site and help ensure that this service remains available to all users. We use cookies to deliver website functionality and enhance your experience. For example, cookies allow us to provide you with a secure log-in, maintain continuity during interactions with the website and collect statistics that help us optimize speed and performance. You may see evidence of these tools stored as cookies on your personal computer after visiting PDG’s website.

On-line Transactions

For online government transactions conducted on the PDG’s website, you will be asked to enter certain information about yourself and/or the organization with which you are affiliated. The specifics of this information will vary as required by the type of transaction. Our goal is to collect only enough information as is reasonable to review, score and rank your social equity application. Please be aware that fraudulent email scams called "phishing" have been increasing in frequency. "Phishing" involves a victim receiving an email appearing to be from a legitimate business. The "from" line is often forged and the email usually contains authentic looking graphics making it appear to be legitimate. The email may also contain what appears to be a legitimate link to that organization . When the victim clicks on this link, they are then taken to what appears to be a legitimate looking website. Criminals can even make your browser's address bar contain the address of the legitimate organization even though the website is a forgery. Victims are then encouraged to enter personal information including credit card numbers and expiration dates.  Ponder Diversity Group will not request confidential personal or financial information from Applicants via an unsolicited email. PDG will also never send you an unsolicited email containing a link to a WSLCB website where confidential personal or financial information is requested. If you receive such an email, purportedly from PDG, you are encouraged to immediately report it.   For more general information about "phishing" visit the Federal Trade Commission web site.

Data Sharing

Ponder Diversity Group understands the value of personal information and works to protect the personal information we collect from applicants. PDG does not sell or rent data, including personally identifiable information. We will never share this information with other nonprofit organizations or governmental entities, including the WSLCB.  PDG contracts with WSLCB, a governmental entity in the State of Washington, is subject to the Local Records Act, which defines how records should be managed. Further, almost all information that government entities and their contractors collect are subject to public disclosure request. This ensures that the public can find out what information has been collected about them and provide a way to know more about how our government operates. The State of Washington Freedom of Information Act outlines legal requirements that govern requests for government records, and specifies which records are exempt.

Disclaimer Policy

Ponder Diversity Group ("PDG”) makes no representation, warranty or guarantee regarding the use of the Social Equity in Cannabis website (“website”) and the information and materials accessed through the website.  The materials and information accessed are provided on an “as is”, “as available” and “with all faults” basis, without any representations, warranties, guarantees, or conditions of any kind, express, implied or statutory.   PDG does not guarantee that access to the website will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that the website is free of viruses, bugs, or other harmful components. 

PDG may change, modify, substitute, suspend, or remove without notice any features on, or materials and information accessed through, the website from time to time. Access to the website and/or its services may also be occasionally restricted to allow for repairs, maintenance, or the introduction of new information or services. PDG will attempt to restore such access as soon as is reasonably possible.

PDG does not endorse, sponsor, or provide preferential treatment to, any third-party websites or persons or other entities associated with third-party websites. PDG does not control third-party websites and, therefore, does not warrant that third-party websites are accurate or reliable or have operational links.  By selecting a link to a third-party website, users leave the website and become subject to the terms of use, privacy, and security policies of the owners/sponsors/operators of the third-party website.  By selecting a link to a third-party website, users release PDG from any liability for any injury to any person or property caused by the user's or users' accessing a third-party website via a link on the website.

PDG may suspend or terminate your Social Equity in Cannabis application (“Application”) account and refuse any and all current or future use of such accounts (or any portion thereof) if PDG believes you have misused the website, including without limitation the following: 1) if you provided any information that is untrue, inaccurate, offensive, not current or incomplete, or PDG has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, offensive, not current or incomplete; or 2) if you imposed, in the PDG’s sole judgment, an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the PDG’s  technology infrastructure or otherwise make excessive traffic demands on the website.