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Privacy Policy

(Updated 6-1-17)

The National Park Foundation, publisher of nationalparks.org and its related content and services, believes that electronic privacy is crucial for the ongoing success of the Internet as a communications medium. On occasion, The National Park Foundation will make available to potential partners aggregated results from research it has conducted on the nationalparks.org visitor base. The National Park Foundation will only provide such demographic information on an aggregated basis and as a policy does not disclose individual visitor information.

Donor Privacy

The National Park Foundation is committed to respecting the privacy of our donors. We will not sell or rent your personal information to any third party. Your credit card, banking, and/or other financial information will not be used outside of our organization. You may choose to remain an anonymous donor at any time. We subscribe and adhere to the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Bill of Rights, which you may view online at www.afpnet.org.

The National Park Foundation protects your personal information from loss, misuse, alteration, or unauthorized disclosure by encrypting the data which you provide us with current encryption tools, including HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocols and by requiring employees with access to personal data to comply with our privacy policy. We operate secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our customers.

Use of Third Parties

On occasion, the National Park Foundation may supply personal information with third parties to perform services on our behalf, such as data processing, marketing support, analytics, etc. Your personal information is provided to these third parties only as needed to perform services on behalf of the National Park Foundation. These partners may also combine your email information with other information they have access to such as mailing address so that we may serve relevant marketing offers to you via email and direct mail. These third parties are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of all personal information supplied.

Exchange with Other Organizations

We sometimes partner with other, similar organizations to enable fundraising for the National Park Foundation. We will honor opt-out requests from donors to be removed from exchanges with other similar organizations. To request to be removed from future exchanges, please contact our Donor Services group through the contact information below. All above categories exclude originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third party.

If you have comments or questions regarding the Foundation’s Donor Privacy Policy, please contact us at 202-796-2500 or [email protected].

The Information We Collect

We are committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to this Site. Physical, electronic and managerial procedures have been employed to safeguard the security and integrity of personal information. Except for the use of cookies as discussed below, we collect personal information from you on this Site only when it is specifically and knowingly provided by you. The National Park Foundation does not currently collect or archive any/all personal information sent to us on an individual basis. All information is collected and analyzed solely on an aggregated basis.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, whenever The National Park Foundation sponsors any contest or sweepstakes or other promotion (each a "Promotion"), any personally identifiable information ("PI") you may submit as a participant in such Promotions will be used and archived in accordance with the rules of each such Promotion. National Park Foundation may use the PI to contact you to (i) provide you with information and news from the National Park Foundation, (ii) to request charitable donations or (iii) to advertise other Promotions. National Park Foundation may share the PI with third parties who are involved with the Promotion. Such third parties will be identified in the rules associated with the individual Promotion, and these third parties may contact you in accordance with their own privacy policies. By entering the Promotion, you agree to the foregoing description of how PI may be used. If you read the rules of any given Promotion and do not wish to be contacted by the National Park Foundation or the third parties involved in the Promotion, you may opt-out by not entering the Promotion. The National Park Foundation will not sell PI or otherwise transfer PI to third parties except as stated in this Policy. If, in the future, The National Park Foundation collects or archives PI on an individual basis in circumstances other than for Promotions, such a Policy change will be posted on the Site. If at any time you wish to correct/add/remove the PI submitted to this Site, please contact us at [email protected].

The National Park Foundation will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on The National Park Foundation or the Site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of The National Park Foundation or the Site; and (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the Site or the public.

Child Privacy

The National Park Foundation does not knowingly solicit or collect personally identifiable information online from children under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent except where otherwise permitted under The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and FTC Rule; e.g., for contests, online newsletters, homework help and electronic postcards.

If The National Park Foundation learns that a child under the age of 13 has submitted personally identifiable information online, in contravention of these measures, it will take all reasonable measures to delete such information from its databases and to not use such information for any purpose (except where necessary to protect the safety of the child or others or as required by law).

Use of Cookies

The nationalparks.org Web site uses cookies to improve its visitors' experience and to help you personalize your online experience. The use of cookies is common throughout the Internet. Cookies are small data files that are placed on your hard drive disk by a Web page server to maintain session information or identify a user. The use of cookies allows us to make improvements and updates to this Site based on actual usage. They are used to maintain general session information and are not used for identification purposes. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. Our site does not access any existing cookies from our visitors' systems that may be shared by advertising servers, etc.

The National Park Foundation and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies and third-party cookies together to report how ad impressions, third-party audience data, other uses of ad services, and interactions with these ad impressions and ad services are related to site traffic, and to advertise online using Remarketing with Google Analytics and the Google Display Network. Site visitors can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads using the Ads Settings.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to save you time because it tells the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. Although most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, you have the ability to accept or decline cookies. If you prefer, you can set your browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent to your hard drive. The user's manual or online help that comes with your browser software should provide you with information on how to configure your browser software to detect cookies. Please be aware, however, that cookies are necessary to use some of the features offered on nationalparks.org. Therefore, if you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the features of the Site. If you have any questions regarding this statement, please contact us via email at [email protected].

Traffic Data

Each time a visitor comes to nationalparks.org, information is collected to improve the overall quality of this Site. The National Park Foundation collects the visitor's domain name/IP Address (e.g., whether the user is logged on from netscape.com or yale.edu or 255.255.255.0), referral data (e.g., we record the address of the last URL a user visited prior to clicking through to nationalparks.org), and browser and platform type (e.g., a Netscape browser on a Macintosh platform). The National Park Foundation also counts, tracks, and aggregates the visitor's activity into our analysis of general traffic flow at nationalparks.org (e.g., tracking where traffic comes from and how traffic flows within this Site).

The National Park Foundation may merge this information into group data, which may then be shared on an aggregated basis with potential partners. This non-identifying site usage data is used for internal purposes and may also be provided to others, but again, the statistics contain no personal information and cannot be used to gather such information. Except as stated in this policy, The National Park Foundation will not disclose your individual identity or personal data. When The National Park Foundation does present aggregated information to potential partners, no one will be able to identify you or contact you.

User Registration

Registration on this Site is strictly voluntary. The National Park Foundation secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use of disclosure. All personal information required for registration, subscriptions or purchases on this Site is maintained strictly confidential on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure, and National Park Foundation does not share your personal information with any third parties.

Credit Card Security

All consumer transactions and purchases on this Site are transmitted in a secured environment using VeriSign 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. This ensures that all transactions and purchases you send to us via the World Wide Web will be encrypted. If any other Internet user intercepts the communication, he/she will only be able to see it in an encrypted (garbled) form.

Mobile Terms and Conditions

  1. By subscribing to National Park Foundation mobile alerts, the user consents to receive automated, recurring news, donation requests, and recurring messages. Message & data rates may apply.
  2. There is no fee from The National Park Foundation to receive text messages. Message and data rates may apply- this can be checked with your mobile service provider. Charges are billed and payable to your mobile service provider or deducted from your prepaid account. Consent is not a requirement for purchase.
  3. Data obtained from you in connection with this SMS service may include your mobile phone number, your carrier’s name and the date, time and content of your messages. We may use this information to contact you and provide the services you request from us. Alerts sent via SMS may not be delivered if the mobile phone is not in range of a transmission site, or if sufficient network capacity is not available at a particular time. Even within a coverage area, factors beyond the control of the wireless operator may interfere with message delivery, including the customer’s equipment, terrain, proximity to buildings, foliage, and weather. Wireless operators do not guarantee message delivery and will not be held liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
  4. We will not be liable for any delays in the receipt of any SMS message as delivery is subject to effective transmission from your network operator.
  5. If you have any questions, text HELP to the number you received a text message from or contact us at [email protected]. To stop receiving messages reply STOP.

Changes to this Statement

The National Park Foundation will occasionally update this Statement of Policy to reflect company and customer feedback. When The National Park Foundation posts changes to this Statement, you will see the word “updated” next to the Privacy Statement link on the front page of the Site. If there are material changes to this Statement or in how The National Park Foundation will use your personally identifiable information, The National Park Foundation will prominently post such changes prior to implementing the change. The National Park Foundation encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how The National Park Foundation is protecting your information.