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The Alliance has created this policy to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. The following only discloses our information-gathering and dissemination practices for information collected through the Alliance for the Great Lakes websites including, but not limited to, greatlakes.org, takeaction.greatlakes.org, greatlakesadopt.org and thisismywater.com.
By using the Alliance websites you consent to our privacy policy.
Non-Personal Information When you visit an Alliance website, we Alliance automatically collects information about your internet connection via a third party provider (currently Google Analytics), including but not limited to: • Domain Name • IP Address • Date and Time visited • The pages of our web site that you visited
This information does not identify you personally to the Alliance or the third party provider. We use this information to monitor the effectiveness of the web site and to consider potential improvements to the site.
Personal Information To make an online donation or purchase, or request information from the Alliance, we request that you provide certain personal information which may include your name, address, e-mail address, etc. By providing personal information, you consent to our collection and use of it, as described in this privacy policy.
You may be able to access portions of certain Alliance websites using an ID from a third party site such as a Facebook. The Alliance will not use the Facebook connection to collect additional personal information on the user or their acquaintances. However, please refer to the relevant third party’s privacy policy for more information on any data the third party may collect or share when using its ID to connect to an Alliance site. The Alliance is not responsible for data that may be collected or shared by these third parties.
Communications
The Alliance will use the information that you provide to send acknowledgement letters, donation receipt letters, and information about the Alliance as appropriate. The Alliance may also use your contact information to get in touch with you if and when necessary. If contact information is provided for an individual through the Tell-A-Friend feature of an Alliance site, the information is stored solely for the purpose of sending a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. Credit card information that is collected is used only to either charge the donation or to make a purchase, as indicated by the individual entering the credit card information into our system. Opt Out The Alliance gives users the following options for removing their information from our database to not receive future communications: • E-mail us at alliance@greatlakes.org • Send mail to: Alliance for the Great Lakes, 17 N. State St., Suite 1390, Chicago, IL 60602 • Call us at 312-939-0838 • Click the “unsubscribe” link in your email and tell us you want to be removed from the Alliance’s email list. Change/Modify This site gives users the following options for changing and modifying information previously provided: • E-mail us at alliance@greatlakes.org • Send mail to: Alliance for the Great Lakes, 17 N. State St., Suite 1390, Chicago, IL 60602 • Call us at 312-939-0838 • Click the “unsubscribe” link in your email to change which types of email you would like to receive. Click the “update your contact information” link to update your contact information. Anti-Spam Policy We do not send spam. We only send e-mails to people who have a relationship with our organizations or to whom we reasonably analyze may want to have a relationship with our organization. This relationship can start in the following ways. The individual: • Opted onto one of our e-mail lists or a third-party e-mail list at either one of our sites or one of our partner sites, or through another mechanism for collecting email addresses. • Made a donation to one of our programs. • Purchased a ticket for one of our events. • Entered a drawing or contest either online or in-person at a live event
Credit card information that is collected is used only to either charge the donation or to make a purchase, as indicated by the individual entering the credit card information into our system.
Opt Out The Alliance gives users the following options for removing their information from our database to not receive future communications: • E-mail us at alliance@greatlakes.org
• Send mail to: Alliance for the Great Lakes, 17 N. State St., Suite 1390, Chicago, IL 60602 • Call us at 312-939-0838 • Click the “unsubscribe” link in your email and tell us you want to be removed from the Alliance’s email list.
Change/Modify This site gives users the following options for changing and modifying information previously provided: • E-mail us at alliance@greatlakes.org
• Send mail to: Alliance for the Great Lakes, 17 N. State St., Suite 1390, Chicago, IL 60602 • Call us at 312-939-0838 • Click the “unsubscribe” link in your email to change which types of email you would like to receive. Click the “update your contact information” link to update your contact information.
Anti-Spam Policy We do not send spam. We only send e-mails to people who have a relationship with our organizations or to whom we reasonably analyze may want to have a relationship with our organization. This relationship can start in the following ways. The individual: • Opted onto one of our e-mail lists or a third-party e-mail list at either one of our sites or one of our partner sites, or through another mechanism for collecting email addresses. • Made a donation to one of our programs. • Purchased a ticket for one of our events. • Entered a drawing or contest either online or in-person at a live event
Sharing Information with Third Parties
When you provide personal information such as your name, street address, e-mail address and phone number, the Alliance will NOT give or sell this information to any outside company for any use. The Alliance will never rent, sell, trade, or share your personal information with other people or nonaffiliated organizations, except when we have your permission (i.e. to provide specific products or services you’ve requested), or under the following circumstances:
• We may provide your information to trusted partners who work on behalf of or with the Alliance under confidentiality agreements. These organizations may use your personal information to assist with Alliance purposes. However, these organizations do not have any independent right to share this information.• We may provide organizations and/or individuals with your information as required by law.
The Alliance may provide opportunities for individuals to voice their concerns or opinions on issues affecting the Great Lakes via petitions, letters, or similar documents. For these documents which you have signed or completed, we may treat your name, city, state and comments as public information. Though we will not make your street address public, it may be shared with members of Congress or other officials as part of the document you signed or completed.
CookiesSome areas of our websites may use cookies. Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to a computer that is browsing the website in order to enhance the user’s experience and track site usage. If you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can adjust your browser settings to reject or cancel cookies. If you choose to disallow cookies, however, it is possible that some areas of the website will not function properly on your browser.
The Alliance's websites are designed to give you control over the privacy of your credit card information when conducting an online transaction with us. We offer industry standard security measures available through your browser called SSL (secure socket layer) encryption on Alliance websites that collect credit card information. When you place an order or make a donation via an Alliance website with SSL, you will be asked for certain personal and credit card information to process your order. The credit card information is sent electronically to the Alliance via SSL encryption to complete the processing of your order.
When purchasing a product or making a donation, security measures are in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Our shopping cart is run on a secure server. Electronic purchases and donations should be made via the secure server rather than other methods such as e-mail.
Please note that SSL is NOT provided on Alliance websites that solely collect information that is not related to an online transaction, including the Adopt–a–Beach™ website and thisismywater.com. These websites do not collect credit card information, but do collect names, email addresses and other information. If you do not feel comfortable sending your name, email address or other similar information through a website that does not have SSL, do not submit it via these unencrypted websites.
The Alliance welcomes users of all ages. Because we are a nonprofit organization, we are not required to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). However, we strongly encourage users ages 13 years and under to use our services only with parental consent.
This site contains links to other sites. Neither the Alliance's websites -- including, but not limited to, greatlakes.org, takeaction.greatlakes.org, greatlakesadopt.org and thisismywater.com -- nor the Alliance, are responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites.
While we use industry-standard efforts such as Secure Socket Layers and firewalls to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information, “perfect security” does not exist on the Internet. Even though we are giving our best effort to protect your privacy, we simply cannot guarantee that some third party will never unlawfully intercept transmissions of private information. Such a security breach remains a possibility despite every precaution, and so you are advised to use caution and common sense to protect yourself and the privacy of your information.
This policy was last modified on July 20, 2011.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this Web site, please contact:
Alliance for the Great Lakes17 N. State St., Suite 1390Chicago, IL 60602(312) 939-0838alliance@greatlakes.org