The Privacy Policy of the ACLU of Southern California
Those who visit our web site and do not choose to sign up as members or as electronic activists will not have any personally identifiable information or data gathered concerning them, though we do gather anonymous web site statistics, such as referring ISPs (e.g., "earthlink" or "aol").
Those who visit our site and choose to sign up as electronic activists or as members of the organization give us personal information, and we treat that information in the following manner:
1. Take Action Network Privacy Policy.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. To make your experience on this website more convenient, we gather information from you. We maintain the privacy of your information using security technologies and adhere to policies that prevent unauthorized use of your personal information.
What personal information do we collect, and how is it used?
We collect personal information from visitors when they register to join the ACLU/SC's Take Action Network or take action on an issue using our service. The personal information we collect is always voluntarily submitted by you. This information is used by us to communicate with you in the future (if you have given your permission for such contact), to send messages (when authorized by you) from you to policymakers, and to understand your interests and activities. We keep confidential all personal information entered during registration.
If, for any reason, you would like to be removed from any or all of our email lists, you can unsubscribe by simply visiting your subscription management page on our website and clicking the unsubscribe button, or you can opt-out of future mailings by simply stating this desire in a reply to any email we send you.We may also monitor and track information such as visitor usage patterns of our website.
We compile this information into a statistical aggregate that we use for internal purposes including improving our web service and our client service.
Protecting your privacy
As part of our commitment to ensuring the privacy of our visitors, we do not sell or exchange names or any other personally identifiable information about our online visitors and members with, for example, mass marketers. We may also provide personal information to third parties on a completely confidential basis to enable such third parties to perform certain tasks, such as maintain a membership database or send email alerts and/or newsletters, on our behalf or in partnership with us. These third party providers are committed to protecting the privacy of our members and subscribers, and will utilize your information only to provide the services that we contract for. We may share aggregate information about website usage and traffic patterns, stripped of any personally identifiable information, to third parties to comply with various reporting obligations and for business or marketing purposes.
2. ACLU Member Privacy Policy: Exchange of ACLU Member Addresses
Individual information about website visitors, including e-mail addresses, is never shared with third parties except as provided for in the section above. However, the names and postal addresses of ACLU members, including those who join through the ACLU/SC website, may be exchanged or rented to other organizations or publications under the procedures outlined below. Members who join through the ACLU/SC website are provided with an opportunity to opt out of this exchange. Like most other non-profit membership organizations, the ACLU obtains the names of potential new members by renting the membership lists or subscriber lists of like-minded organizations and publications. Sometimes, instead of paying the rental fee, ACLU exchanges its list with that of another organization. Whether by exchange or rental, the lists are governed by very strict privacy procedures, as recommended by the U.S. Privacy Study Commission. All exchanges are made on a "blind" basis, as follows: Lists are never given into the physical possession of the organization which has rented or exchanged them. This safeguard is necessary to prevent one organization from knowing who the members of any other organization are. Instead, usually through a list broker, the list, either in the form of labels or tape, is sent to a mail house which prepares the mailing without our ever seeing who is addressed. The only time we get possession of a name from one of these lists is when the person receiving our invitation to join responds by sending our return envelope back to us.
If the receipt of duplicate mailings is too burdensome, you may wish to consider writing to each of the organizations to which you belong and publications to which you subscribe, requesting that your name be eliminated from lists made available for exchange or rental. The ACLU always honors such requests, and we believe that the organizations with which we exchange or rent lists honor them also, although of course we can't guarantee the actions of outside organizations.
3. Donor Research Privacy Notice
Competition for philanthropic dollars has never been more intense. In order to raise money both effectively and efficiently, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, like most major non-profit organizations, on occasion will conduct research to identify potential donors who are interested in the work of our organization and who have the financial means to provide significant support. The research we do is limited to the use of a "search engine" (for example, Google) to find documents or Web pages on the internet that contain the person's name. This kind of search typically yields newspaper articles, annual reports and other publicly available materials. The ACLU Foundation is committed to the ethical collection and use of such information, always respecting the individual's fundamental right to privacy. In that spirit, the information we collect does not exceed that which is necessary and relevant to cultivating and soliciting prospective donors and maintaining good relations with current donors. Moreover, access to the information is available only to the Executive Director and employees in, or board members working with, the Development Department, all of whom have signed a legally binding agreement to keep this information strictly confidential. Note that the ACLU Foundation of Southern California is required to provide the national office of the ACLU with the names of our donors, their addresses, and amounts raised. For any policies of the national ACLU, please contact the national ACLU office.
