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The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California (collectively, "ACLU-NC") are committed to protecting the personal information that you provide to us when using the ACLU-NC Site. This Online Privacy Statement describes how we treat all user data collected during your visit to the ACLU-NC Site, both anonymous data and personally-identifying data. (The ACLU-NC is comprised of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California. To learn more about the differences between the two organizations, read more here. The ACLU-NC may occasionally update this Statement. We will post any changes on this Web page, so be sure to check back periodically. If we do make material changes, we will post a notice on our home page that the Online Privacy Statement has been modified and provide a link to the revised Online Privacy Statement. Any information that you submit after a change has been posted will be subject to the new provisions. User Data We Collect Anonymous Data Personal Data
If you join the ACLU or make a donation to the ACLU from a Web site link, we may also identify the source of that link, so that we can evaluate what content is persuading Web users to contribute to the ACLU. Cookies We use Long-term Cookies only when you select a "remember" option on the ACLU-NC Site, for example the "remember my login" option offered when you log on to the ACLU-NC Site, or the "remember me" option offered on the Write Your Elected Representative page. If you select these options, a Long-term Cookie will be stored on your computer's hard drive solely for the purpose of automatically filling in the remembered information, for example, automatically filling in your password when you log in to the ACLU-NC Site or your postal address when you write a letter to your representative. These "remember" options are offered only for your convenience and are completely voluntary. If you do not select a "remember" option, no Long-Term Cookie will be stored on your computer's hard drive. We use Session Cookies whenever you visit the ACLU-NC Site to run the Site's interactive applications, such as the shopping cart. Session Cookies last only as long as your session on the ACLU Site. They expire when the session ends and are not written onto your computer's hard drive. We also use Session Cookies in e-mails containing the HTML-format ACLU online newsletter. If you select "text-only" format for the online newsletter, it will not contain any Session Cookies. How We Use The Data We Collect We use your Personal Data for various purposes:
The ACLU-NC Site is hosted by servers in the United States. Accordingly, if you are located outside of the United States, the Personal Data you provide to us will be transferred to the United States. By submitting your Personal Data, you consent to its transfer and storage in the United States and its use in accordance with the purposes for which it was originally collected (see below regarding third-party sharing of Personal Data from non-U.S. residents). If you are a U.S. resident, we may also from time to time combine your Personal Data with some publicly available data collected from third parties (such as addresses or phone numbers) to improve our services to you and for our own internal marketing, communications, and fundraising purposes. The ACLU-NC holds itself to a high standard; we believe in protecting the privacy of our members, donors and website users. For this reason, there are many types of publicly available data that we refuse to collect for any reason (motor vehicle, driver license or credit history information, for example). Third-Party Sharing If you are a U.S. resident and member/donor to the ACLU, we also share your Personal Data with our local chapters in order to permit them to contact you regarding any local activities or events we think may interest you. We also share your Personal data with the national ACLU office. We may also share the Personal Data of members and donors who are U.S. residents with other non-profit organizations and publications ("Sharing Organizations"), but never to any partisan political groups or to groups whose programs are incompatible with ACLU policies. We never give your Personal Data directly to the Sharing Organizations; instead we send the list to a third-party service provider that prepares the mailing for the Sharing Organization (and that is contractually bound to use your Personal Data only for this purpose and not to share it with any other third parties). The Sharing Organizations never see our list and never know what names are on it unless you respond to the Sharing Organizations' mailing. If you respond to the mailing, the Sharing Organization may be able to deduce that your name came from the ACLU list. Exchanging lists enables the ACLU to expand our membership base and encourage e-activism. However, if you have signed up as a member or donor on the ACLU-NC Site, you can choose to opt out of having your data shared. To learn more, read the section on "Your Ability to Choose" below. Finally, we may disclose and use Personal Data regardless of where you reside, in special circumstances when it is necessary to enforce our User Agreement or this Online Privacy Statement, or when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires us to disclose your Personal Data to third parties. We will make every effort to protect your privacy and will only turn over such data pursuant to a subpoena or other form of legal compulsion. Except as described in this Online Privacy Statement, we will not disclose your Personal Data to any third party unless we first notify you --unless we are prohibited by law from doing so-- and we will offer you an appropriate choice to consent to such further use, for example, through an opt-out or opt-in request. Your Ability to Choose Children Security Updating Your Data Comments and Questions |
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