Privacy policy

Effective date: October 18, 2026

We wrote this in plain language. If something isn't clear, email us at info@crisprnow.org.

1. Who we are

CRISPR Collective ("CC," "we," "us") is a Pennsylvania nonprofit and a 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 42-2789961). Our address is 139 Aspen Drive, Auburn, PA 17922. This policy covers our website, crisprnow.org, our email addresses, our Contact form, and our CRISPR News newsletter.

2. The short version

• You can read our website and our online textbook without giving us any personal information. There are no accounts or logins.
• We only get personal information when you choose to send it: by email, through our contact form, or by signing up for CRISPR News.
• We do not sell your information, and we do not share it for advertising.
• We don't use advertising or analytics trackers on our website.
• If you're under 18, check with a parent or guardian before writing to us. If you're under 13, please have a parent or guardian write to us for you.

3. Emails and contact-form messages

This section covers any message you send to a CRISPR Collective email address (for example, info@crisprnow.org) or through the Contact form on our website.

Ages. Many of our readers are students.

• Under 18: please check with a parent or guardian before you write to us.
• Under 13: please have a parent or guardian write to us for you. If we learn that a message came directly from a child under 13, we will reply once (to ask that a parent or guardian write to us) and then delete it. We won't keep a child's information.
• Please don't send things you wouldn't want an adult staff member to read, like your home address, phone number, school name, photos of yourself, or health information. You don't need to include any of that.

What we get. Your email address, your name if you include it, and whatever you write in your message.

What we do with it.

• An adult at CRISPR Collective reads every message, and we'll do our best to write back.
• We never add your address to a mailing list or to CRISPR News because you wrote to us. You'd have to sign up for that yourself.
• We never share your email address or what you tell us with anyone outside CRISPR Collective, except the service providers that store and deliver our email and form messages for us (see Section 6), or if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.
• We won't publish your name, words, or story anywhere unless you (and, if you're under 18, your parent or guardian) give us permission in writing first.

How long we keep it. We keep your CRISPR News subscriber information for as long as you stay subscribed, and we keep contact-form and email messages for as long as we need them to respond. After you unsubscribe or we last hear from you, we delete that information within 2 years (sooner if you ask). If you unsubscribe, we keep just your email address on a do-not-send list so we don't email you again. Messages from children under 13 are deleted after we reply to a parent or guardian, and we may keep records longer if the law requires it.

Deleting your messages. Email info@crisprnow.org with "Delete my messages" and the email address you used. We'll delete them and let you know, usually within 30 days.

4. CRISPR News (our newsletter)

Signing up. You can sign up for CRISPR News on our Get Involved page. The form asks for your email address and, if you want, your first name. You must be 13 or older to sign up. Children under 13 may not subscribe; if we learn a subscriber is under 13, we'll remove them.

Confirming. When you sign up, we send a confirmation email, and you're not subscribed until you click the link in it. Brevo records when you confirmed so we can show you agreed.

Brevo. We use Brevo (brevo.com) to run the signup form and send the newsletter. Brevo stores your email and first name for us and only uses them to provide its service to us. Our newsletter emails contain a small image and links that go through our email service, which counts total opens and clicks. We've set it to keep those counts anonymous, so we don't see which individual subscribers opened an email or clicked a link.

Unsubscribing. Every issue has an unsubscribe link. You can also email info@crisprnow.org. When you unsubscribe, we stop sending right away (and always within 10 business days).

We don't sell or rent our list, and we don't share it with other organizations.

5. Our website, contact form, and cookies

Browsing. Our website is a simple informational site. It has no accounts, logins, ads, or analytics or social-media tracking pixels.

Contact form. Our Contact page form asks for your name, email, and message. It's delivered to us by Formspree (formspree.io), which processes it on our behalf. Section 3 explains how we handle these messages, including from students under 18 and under 13.

Things that happen automatically when you visit:

• Hosting and security. Our site is hosted by GoDaddy and protected by Cloudflare. Like all websites, their servers receive basic technical information (such as your IP address, browser type, and the page you asked for) to deliver the page and block attacks. Cloudflare may set a short-lived security cookie (__cf_bm, lasting about 30 minutes) to tell people from bots. Our website host and security service keep standard technical logs (like IP address and browser type) for a short time to keep the site running and secure, under their own policies.
• Newsletter form. The CRISPR News signup box on the Get Involved page is loaded from Brevo (sibforms.com), so Brevo's servers receive basic technical information when that page loads.
• Your cookie choice. When you answer the notice at the bottom of the page, your browser saves that choice on your own device (in "local storage") so we don't keep asking. It isn't sent to us.

We don't use cookies for advertising or analytics, and we don't track you across other websites, so we don't respond differently to "Do Not Track" browser signals. You can clear cookies and site data in your browser at any time.

6. Service providers we use

We use a few companies to run our website and email. They handle information only to provide their service to us:

We may also share information if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.

7. We don't sell or share your information for ads

We do not sell personal information, rent it, trade it, or share it for targeted advertising. Ever.

8. Keeping information safe

We limit who at CRISPR Collective can see messages and subscriber information, and our site uses encrypted (HTTPS) connections. We use reasonable safeguards, like strong passwords and two-step sign-in where available, to protect your information. No system is perfectly secure. If a security problem ever affects your personal information, we'll tell you as the law requires.

9. Children's privacy

Our website and books are for a general audience, with a focus on high school students. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without a parent's or guardian's involvement.

• Children under 13 should not email us, use our contact form, or sign up for CRISPR News. A parent or guardian can write for them.
• If we learn we've received personal information from a child under 13, we'll delete it, except that we may use a parent's contact details to reply to the parent.
• Parents and guardians: you can ask us what information we have about your child, ask us to delete it, or tell us to stop contacting your child. Email info@crisprnow.org.

10. Your choices and requests

Anyone can ask us to:

• tell you what personal information we have about you,
• correct it,
• delete it, or
• stop emailing you.

Email info@crisprnow.org. We may ask you to confirm it's really your email address. We'll respond within 30 days. We won't treat you differently for asking.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use information we already have, we'll tell newsletter subscribers by email before it takes effect.

12. Contact us

CRISPR Collective
139 Aspen Drive, Auburn, PA 17922
info@crisprnow.org