Website Privacy Policy
Last Updated: November 24, 2019
Introduction
This privacy policy (this “Privacy Policy”) covers personal and other information that Operation Dignity (“Operation Dignity”, “we”, “our”, “us”) obtains:
- (i) from you (or any representative acting as an agent on your behalf, collectively, “you”) when you use services or features of our websites, such as operationdignity.org (together with any blogs, domains or subdomains associated therewith and mobile versions thereof that are owned or controlled by Operation Dignity, collectively, the “Website”),
- (ii) when you make a donation to Operation Dignity,
- (iii) when you contact us or provide information to us (for example, when you sign up for our newsletter, inquire about an event we are sponsoring, organizing, or promoting, or otherwise provide information to us via our “Contact Us” form or any other Website form);
- (iv) when you sign up to volunteer with us;
- (v) when you provide information to use in connection with becoming affiliated with Operation Dignity as a partner landlord or employer for providing services to people seeking assistance; and
- (vi) when you provide information to us to use in connection with seeking assistance as a potential client of Operation Dignity.
This Privacy Policy governs your use of the Website regardless of whether you are accessing it with a computer, mobile phone, iPad or other device, and applies to information we collect:
- (i) on the Website;
- (ii) in email, text, and other electronic messages between you and the Website or Operation Dignity;
- (iii) when you sign up to receive emails, newsletters or other materials from Operation Dignity via our Website; and
- (iv) when you provide information or feedback to us via the Website and any of its forms, respond to surveys, or otherwise post comments on the Website.
Operation Dignity also likes to interact with you on third party sites, including on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (collectively, the “Third Party Sites”) where we post messages, images and other content, and invite feedback. Except as otherwise described below, this Privacy Policy does not cover the privacy practices of those Third Party Sites, or any other entities, platforms or services that Operation Dignity does not own or control. You should check the privacy policies of Third Party Sites when providing personal information to or through Third Party Sites. This Privacy Policy describes the information Operation Dignity collects when you visit the Website or otherwise contact us (including via email or the telephone), and how Operation Dignity uses, shares and protects that information. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by:
- Us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by Company or any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries); or
- Any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries), including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible on the Website.
Operation Dignity does not sell, trade, borrow, transfer or license any information about our donors, volunteers, people seeking assistance, or anyone else who contacts us through the Website. We protect donor and client privacy in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy, and only share your information as contemplated under this Privacy Policy, otherwise with your authorization (e.g., if a veteran in our programs signs a release of information allowing us to coordinate with another provider regarding their care), or, in limited cases, as may be required by law, or as may be deemed appropriate or necessary by Operation Dignity or law enforcement personnel or agencies including in order to prevent potential imminent threats to bodily harm.
Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. BY USING THE WEBSITE AND/OR PROVIDING PERSONAL INFORMATION TO US OVER EMAIL OR THROUGH A WEBSITE FORM, THE TELEPHONE OR OTHERWISE, YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF OUR PRIVACY POLICY THEN IN EFFECT AND GRANT US PERMISSION TO PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF OUR PRIVACY POLICY THEN IN EFFECT. If you do not agree with the terms of our Privacy Policy, you should not use our Website or otherwise provide personal information via the Website or otherwise to us.
This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of the Website after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically to see if we have made any changes.
Note on Children Under the Age of 16
Our Website is not intended for children under 16 years of age. No one under age 16 may provide any personal information to, on or through the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you are under 16, do not use or provide any information on the Website or through any of its features, register to volunteer on the Website, use any of the interactive or public comment features of the Website, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 16 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 16, please contact us at info@operationdignity.org.
Note on Health and Wellness-Related Information
The Website is not intended to collect personal information relating to healthcare, physical health, mental health or wellness (collectively, “Health Information”). No one may provide any personal Health Information to, on or through the Website. We do not knowingly collect Health Information through the Website or through any of its features. However, Operation Dignity may incidentally collect and/or access Health Information offline or from third parties in connection with our affiliations including but not limited to our affiliations with the Department of Veterans Affairs (the “VA”) and Alameda Countywide InHOUSE Homeless Management Information System (the “Alameda HMIS”) in connection with provided services to people seeking assistance (the “Clients”). Information collected or accessed offline or from third parties in connection with working with the VA or Alameda HMIS, including Health Information, may include but is not limited to name, social security number, physical address, alias, date of birth, gender, race, ethnicity, veteran status, education, employment, disability, household relationships, living situation, income, benefits, health coverage and type, assessments, services needed and provided, outcomes of services provided, health insurance, disability, health conditions, mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual information, and criminal history. Our collection and/or use of such Health Information and other information from the VA or the Alameda HMIS may not be subject to protection under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). For further details regarding the collection of such information, please contact or visit the website of the Department of Veterans Affairs (available at https://www.va.gov/privacy-policy/) or the Alameda Countywide InHOUSE HMIS (available at http://www.acgov.org/government/legal.htm).
1. Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It
We collect several types of information from and about users of our Website, including information:
- By which you may be personally identified, such as your name, mailing address, email address, telephone number, and other identifiers by which you may be directly or indirectly identified or contacted online or offline (collectively, your “personal information”);
- That is about you but does not individually identify you, such as the type of browser you are using, the actions that you take while you visit our Website (including search terms you enter on the Website and web pages you view) and the geographic location of your IP address; and
- About your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website, and Website usage-related information such as your IP address, and information collected through cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies, as further described below. We collect this information directly from you when you provide it to us, automatically as you access and navigate through the Website, and from third parties, for example, our business partners and service providers.
- Information You Provide to Us
The information we collect on or through our Website may include:
- Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website or contacting us via the telephone, email or the Website. This includes information you provide when you send questions or comments to us via email or in response to a survey, subscribe to our newsletter or sign-up to receive information and other communications from Operation Dignity (including regarding our mission and activities). We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our Website;
- Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us;
- Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes; and
- Any information that you provide when you make a donation through our Website or otherwise, or purchase a ticket to a fundraiser or any other event we are organizing, sponsoring or promoting. This information could include your email and billing address, telephone number, and payment details (including your credit card information) and other information we need to process the applicable transaction.
- Information We Collect Using Automatic Data Collection Technologies
As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and Website usage patterns, including:
- Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, information recorded on website logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website; and
- Information about your computer or mobile device and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.
The information we collect automatically may include personal information, and we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to learn more about how people use our Website and estimate our audience size and usage patterns, speed up your searches and recognize you when you return to our Website.
The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:
- Cookies (or browser cookies). Cookies are small text files that websites and other online services use to store information about users on the users’ own computers. Cookies may be used to store a unique identification number tied to your computer so that a website can recognize you as the same user across different visits to the Website. You can configure your Internet browser to warn you each time a cookie is being sent or to refuse cookies completely. We and the third parties that provide content, functionality, or business services on the Website may use cookies to collect information about your browsing activities in order to provide you with more relevant content, on and off the Website, and help us understand your interests and improve the Website. Cookies might also enable a third party to analyze your use of the Website or Third Party Sites;
- Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Website may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Website. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies.; and
- Web Beacons. We, along with our third-party partners, may also use technologies called web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that communicate information from your Internet browser to a web server. Web beacons can be embedded in web pages, videos, or emails, and can allow a web server to read certain types of information from your browser, check whether you have viewed a particular web page or email message, and determine, among other things, the time and date on which you viewed the web beacon, the IP address of your computer, and the URL of the web page from which the web beacon was viewed. We and our partners use web beacons for a variety of purposes, including to analyze the use of the Website and in conjunction with cookies to improve the Website and to provide you with more relevant information and content.
Operation Dignity may use automated devices and applications provided by third parties, such as Google Analytics and other tools provided by third parties, to evaluate usage of our Website and the services offered through our Website. We use these tools to help us improve our services, performance, communication and user experiences. These entities may use cookies and other tracking technologies which collect information to perform their services. We do not share personal information that we collect directly with these third parties. However, these third parties may collect personal information directly through the use of cookies and other tracking technologies on or through our Website. For an explanation of the information collected by these third parties and their respective privacy policies, please consult the Google Analytics privacy policy and/or the privacy policies of the applicable Third Party Sites.
Operation Dignity may use cookies, web beacons and other automated technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across Third Party Sites. For additional information about your choice regarding how we use and disclose information collected from you, please see Section 4 below entitled “Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information”.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:
- To present our Website and its functionality and contents to you.
- To provide you with (a) information regarding our mission and the events and activities that we sponsor, promote and/or organize, and (b) promotional materials regarding Operation Dignity’s mission;
- To invite you to support Operation Dignity through donations and/or the purchase of tickets to events that we are sponsoring or organizing, through volunteering, or through joining our employer or landlord network;
- To fulfill the purposes for which you provided us with the information (such as processing a donation transaction);
- To provide you with information regarding your donations and other transactions with Operation Dignity;
- To ensure the functionality and usability of the Website, and to install and monitor elements for information security and/or fraud prevention purposes;
- To improve the Website by, for example, learning more about what information users find interesting or useful and analyzing and learning about the Website’s user base as a whole;
- To analyze trends and track users’ movements around the Website and referral websites;
- [To ensure compliance with the terms of use for the Website][1];
- To carry out our obligations and enforce our legal rights;
- To notify you about changes to our Website;
- To allow you to participate in any interactive features on the Website; and
- For any other purpose disclosed to you at the time Operation Dignity collects your information, or otherwise with your consent.
We may store information subject to this Privacy Policy ourselves, or it may be included in databases owned and maintained by our respective affiliates, agents and/or service providers. We may use such information and pool it with other information to determine, for example, the total number of visitors to the Website, the number of visitors to each page of the Website and the domain names of our visitors’ internet service providers. To better serve you and improve our Website, we may conduct (and we may engage third parties to conduct) research on demographics, interests, and behavior based on personal information and other information provided via the Website or otherwise. This research may be compiled and analyzed on an aggregate basis and we may share de-identified aggregate information with our affiliates and service providers. This aggregate information does not identify you personally.
3. Disclosure of Your Information
We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.
We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this Privacy Policy:
- To entities that are owned by or affiliated with Operation Dignity;
- To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support the Website and our operations. For example, Operation Dignity may share your information with entities and persons that provide services to Operation Dignity, including web hosting, web analytics, data analysis, advertising, marketing, accounting and tax preparation services, credit card processing, market research, risk management and other services, software and technologies. Whenever possible, Operation Dignity restricts the ability of these entities and persons to use information about you that Operation Dignity provides to them for purposes other than providing services to Operation Dignity and complying with applicable laws. Please note that personal information of Website users is stored on servers owned by other companies, and in databases that are managed by other companies, but are made available to us through user services or contractual agreements. Operation Dignity does not sell or license for a fee your personal information. In addition, Operation Dignity processes credit card transactions through third party payment gateways which are managed by reputable third parties;
- To a buyer or successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Operation Dignity’s assets, in which personal information held by Operation Dignity about our Website users is among the assets transferred. If Operation Dignity makes a sale or transfer of assets to any third party, or is otherwise involved in a merger, acquisition, change of control or asset transfer, Operation Dignity may transfer your information to one or more third parties as part of, or in connection with, that transaction;
- For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information; and
- With your consent.
We may also disclose your personal information to:
- Protect and enforce the legal rights of Operation Dignity, its licensors and services providers, and of the users of the Website;
- Protect the safety and security of users of the Website, and that of Operation Dignity’s employees, affiliates, agents, licensors and service providers;
- Prevent fraud and for risk management purposes;
- Comply with applicable law or respond to legal process or a request for cooperation by a government entity, whether or not legally required; and/or
- To ensure your compliance with our policies, and to enforce our [Website terms of use] and other applicable agreements.
4. Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information
We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe’s website. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the Website may then be inaccessible or may not function properly.
If you do not want Operation Dignity to use your email address and other contact information to solicit donations or update you regarding events and activities we are sponsoring or promoting, you can opt-out by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link in the applicable electronic communication or by sending us an email stating your request to info@operationdignity.org.
To prevent Google Analytics from using your information for analytics purposes, you may install the Google Analytics Opt-out Brower Add-on by clicking here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
If you are interested in more information about tailored browser advertising and how you can generally control cookies from being put on your computer to deliver interest-based advertising, you may visit the following websites to opt-out of receiving tailored advertising from companies that participate in each of the programs listed below:
- Network Advertising Initiative’s Consumer Opt-Out link, available at: http://optout.networkadvertising.org/;
- Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA’s) Consumer Opt-Out link, available at http://optout.aboutads.info/; and
- TrustArc’s Advertising Choices Page, available at http://preferences-mgr.truste.com/.
We are committed to providing you with meaningful choices about the information collected on our Website for third-party purposes, and that is why we provided the information above regarding the Google opt-out link, the Network Advertising Initiative’s Consumer Opt-out link, Digital Advertising Alliance’s Consumer Opt-Out Link, and TrustArc’s Advertising Choices page. However, we do not recognize or respond to browser-initiated Do Not Track signals, as the Internet industry is currently still working on Do Not Track standards, implementations and solutions.
5. Accessing and Correcting Your Information
You may send us an email at info@operationdignity.org to request access to, correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect. In addition, we may not be able to accommodate a request to delete certain personal information from our records in the event we need to retain such information to comply with applicable law or for business, tax and accounting reasons. By using the Website you consent to our retention of such personal information.
In the event we make it possible to publicly post comments, reviews or other user-generated content on the Website (collectively, “User Contributions”), and you later ask us to delete User Contributions that you have made publicly available, we will use reasonable efforts to delete such User Contributions from the Website, but copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, and might have been copied or stored by other Website users. [Proper access and use of information provided on the Website, including User Contributions, is governed by our Website terms of use available at [www.operationdignity.org/termsof use].]
- Links to Third Party Websites
The Website may contain links to certain third party websites or applications. We do not own, control or operate such linked sites and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of such linked sites. Privacy policies and practices for such linked sites may differ from this Privacy Policy and our practice. Your access and use of such linked sites is entirely and solely at your own risk. We urge you to read the privacy policies of such linked sites before disclosing your personal information on such sites. Similarly, we cannot control how your data is collected, stored, used or shared by Third Party Sites. Please be sure to review the privacy policies and privacy settings of such Third Party Sites (including social networking sites) to make sure you understand the information they are sharing. If you do not want a Third Party Site to share information about you, you must contact that site and determine whether it gives you the opportunity to opt-out of sharing such information. Operation Dignity is not responsible for how these third parties may use information collected from or about you.
- Third-Party Content, Functionality and Services
Some of the content, functionality, and services on the Website may be provided by third parties that are not affiliated with Operation Dignity. For example, Operation Dignity’s newsletter database, Website and email are maintained on third party servers owned by companies with different privacy policies from that of Operation Dignity. These types of entities may collect or receive certain information about your use of the Website or functionality linked to the Website and other information, including through the use of cookies, web beacons and similar technologies. These entities may collect this information over time and combine such information with information collected from different websites, third parties and online services. This Privacy Policy does not cover the use of any cookies or any other information gathered by such third parties on, through or in connection with the Website. Operation Dignity is not responsible for the privacy practices of these entities and Operation Dignity has no control over, and Operation Dignity expressly disclaims any liability for, how they use your personal information.
- Sensitive Personal Information
We ask that you not send us, and that you not disclose to us, any sensitive personal information (e.g., social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through the Website. In the event we send you a survey requesting such sensitive personal information, you do not need to answer such questions.
- Data Security
Operation Dignity uses reasonable physical, technical, and administrative measures to safeguard information in Operation Dignity’s possession against loss, theft, unauthorized use, disclosure, and/or modification or any transactions. Please note, however, that no data transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website. There is always a risk that third parties may unlawfully intercept transmissions. For example, we cannot ensure the security of your data during transmission to us or the security of your data on an iPhone or android or other device or on your Twitter page or on another computer. This is true of all Internet and data transmissions. As a result, while Operation Dignity strives to protect the information it maintains, Operation Dignity cannot and does not ensure, represent, warrant or guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to Operation Dignity or its affiliates (whether through the Website or otherwise, including over email or the telephone).
By disclosing your email address to us for any reason, you are expressly consenting to receive electronic (including email) notice from us in the event of any security breach.
We or our third party payment processors use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), the industry-standard encryption technology for internet transmission of credit card information you provide to us through our Website. When the letters “http” in the URL change to “https”, the “s” indicates that you are in a secure area employing SSL. Also your browser may give a pop-up message stating that you are about to enter or leave a secure area. Using a browser that is SSL capable will ensure that your information is encoded/encrypted when it is sent over the Internet.
The safety and security of your information also depends on you. In the event we give you (or where you have chosen) a password to access certain parts of our Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential and for maintaining the security of your account. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. In order to protect the security of your account, you should also sign off your account and close your browser window when you have finished your visit in order to prevent other people from accessing your account without your permission. Please also let us know in a timely manner if there is any unauthorized use of your account or password. We reserve the right to delete any user account that we believe in good faith and in our sole discretion presents a security risk or is not in compliance with our policies. We also urge you to be careful about giving out personal information in public areas of the Website if applicable. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Website. [Please also see our Website terms of use for additional information regarding the terms and conditions applicable to your use of the Website].
- International Users
The Website is intended to be used only by persons located in the United States. If you are visiting the Website from outside the United States, please note that any data you provide will be transferred outside the European Union or such other non-United States territory for use by us for any of the purposes described herein. By providing any data to us, and using the Website, you hereby consent to such transfers of your data to the United States and the treatment of such data in accordance with applicable law.
11. Changes to Our Privacy Policy
It is our policy to post any changes we make to this Privacy Policy on this page with a notice that this Privacy Policy has been updated on the Website home page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you through a notice on the Website home page or other reasonable method. You can determine when this Privacy Policy was last revised by referring to the “Last Updated” legend at the top of this page. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective upon posting of the updated Privacy Policy. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to ensure your familiarity with the most current version of it. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.
12. Our Contact Information
To ask questions or comment about this Privacy Policy and our privacy practices, or to register a complaint or concern, please contact us at:
Operation Dignity
318 Harrison St., Ste. 302
Oakland, CA 94607
Telephone: (510) 287 – 8465
Fax: (510) 287 – 8469
Email: info@operationdignity.org