Donor Online & Offline User Privacy Policy
Policy Approved: January 7, 2004 (amended October 20, 2015)
Houston Audubon is strongly committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe online/offline experience for all our visitors and members. This policy applies to information collected online through Houston Audubon's Internet website and all donor information collected online and/or offline. Please read the complete Houston Audubon Online/Offline Privacy Policy below and contact us if you have any questions.
Our Commitment to Privacy
Our Online/Offline Privacy Policy was developed as an extension of our commitment to conservation and environmental preservation. The Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect, use and safeguard the personal information you provide to us and to assist you in making informed decisions when using our site and our products and services. This statement will be continuously assessed against new technologies, business practices and our customers' needs.
Houston Audubon is concerned about our visitor's Internet privacy and is committed to honoring their privacy preferences. We recognize that visitors to our site may be concerned about the information they provide to us and how Houston Audubon treats that information. Be assured, Houston Audubon will never misuse the information you provide.
What Information Do We Collect?
When you visit our site, you may provide us with two types of information:
- Website use information collected as you and others browse the pages on our site.
- Personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis.
Website Usage Information
You can visit most portions of houstonaudubon.org without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information. In general, when you visit our website and access information, you remain anonymous. We do not require you to register or provide personal information to us to view our site. The only information we collect from a typical website visit does not identify you. Rather, it is the name of your Internet service provider (ISP), the browser and type of machine you are using, the website that referred you to us, the pages you request and the date and time you request them. We use this information to generate statistics and measure site activity to improve the usefulness of the site to our visitors. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.
Houston Audubon does not sell, trade or lease such donor online and offline user information outside the organization.
Website Use of Cookies
Similar to other nonprofit and commercial websites, our website has the capability to utilize a standard technology called cookies (see explanation below, What Are Cookies?). Houston Audubon uses cookies written by our site, but not to obtain information on other websites that you may visit. Cookies help us by providing some history about the parts of our site that you have visited. This enables us to help you navigate our site more easily, to determine what pages are most attractive to our visitors, and to alert you to related pages on our site that may interest you.
At present (i.e., the current date that this policy was put into effect), the cookies feature is not in effect. We are spending more time developing new content rather than analyzing the data we could get from cookies. However, we may enable them in future, without notice, in order to gather this useful information.
What Are Cookies?
A cookie is a small text file sent to your computer's hard drive by a website's server. Each time you return to the site that "set" the cookie, the server retrieves its cookie from your computer and thereby knows you are a previous visitor who has returned. Cookies may contain information about your ISP, operating system, browser type, screen resolution and number of colors, your computer's processor type, your ISP's server, your Internet protocol address, and what server you were last on. Other information can be added to a cookie, but only information that you give to us.
Personal Information You Choose to Provide
If you choose to make online donations, obtain or renew membership in Houston Audubon, or purchase products from our online store, you may need to give personal information and authorization to obtain information from various credit services. For example, you may need to provide the following information:
- Name
- Mailing address
- E-mail address
- Credit card number
- Home and business phone number
- Other personal information (e.g., gift recipient information, memorial gift information, etc.)
How Do We Use the Information That You Provide to Us?
Broadly speaking, we use personal information for purposes of administering our activities, providing customer service and making available other services to our visitors, members and prospective members. Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. The lists used to send you product and service offers are developed and managed under our traditional Society standards designed to safeguard the security and privacy of our members' personal information. When you start or renew your membership online, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these communications.
Security of Your Credit Card Information
We have made every effort to insure the secure collection and transmission of sensitive user information using industry accepted data collection and encryption methodologies.
If you are still concerned about the safety of your credit card information online, you may also submit contributions or other payment to Houston Audubon by mailing a check as directed by instructions on the appropriate pages of our website.
How Do We Secure Information Transmissions?
When you send confidential personal credit card information to us on our website, a secure server software encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. The information is scrambled en route and decoded once it reaches our website.
Other e-mail that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmitting the information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security or account numbers to us through an unsecured e-mail.
Our Internet Hosting Service Provider
Our site is hosted on (i.e., installed on) Firespring, an Internet hosting service. The secure server software used to encrypt forms and shopping information is provided by Firespring.
E-mail Information
In addition to providing the foregoing information, if you choose to correspond further with us through electronic mail, we may retain the content of your e-mail messages together with your e-mail address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
Links to Third Party Sites
We provide links to third party sites. These links are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that may be useful to the users of our website. Because we do not control those websites, we encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these third party sites. That another website is linked to our site does not constitute an endorsement by Houston Audubon of the owner of the other site, the content of its site, or its products or services.
Children 13 and Under
Visitors 13 years of age and under need to obtain permission from a supervising adult before supplying personal information. Houston Audubon's online/offline policy is to be child-friendly as much as possible.
Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties?
We may provide aggregate information about our sales, website traffic patterns and related website information to our affiliates or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this Online/Offline Privacy Policy.
What About Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information?
We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.
Questions
Houston Audubon welcomes comments and questions on this policy. We are dedicated to protecting your personal information, and will make every reasonable effort to keep that information secure. If you have any questions, please contact us.
Due to the rapidly evolving technologies on the Internet, we may occasionally update this policy. All revisions will be posted to this site. The revised Online/Offline Privacy Policy will apply to all data collected by Houston Audubon, both prior to and subsequent to the revised policy's effective date.
