Privacy Policy

Initiative for Equality is committed to protecting the privacy of people who join our network, donate to the organization, or participate in our projects.

 

Initiative for Equality (IfE) has always been committed to protecting the privacy of the people who join our network, donate to the organization, or participate in our projects. We, IfE staff and volunteers, are first and foremost IfE members as well, and we treat your privacy as we do our own. When you communicate with us, we collect and store some personal information about you, but only what is necessary to broaden and to strengthen the IfE network and to serve the IfE mission.

We wrote this Privacy Policy to let you know how we treat your information – for example your name, contact information, the issues that you have expressed interest in, the areas in which you would like to volunteer, etc. – to show you how we work hard to keep it safe and private, and to explain how you can view and revise it. We encourage you to take the time to read it.

 

Table of contents

Privacy Policy

  • Why do we collect your information?
  • What information do we collect from you?
  • What do we do with your information?
  • Do we share your information?
  • How do we keep your information safe?
  • How can you update and correct your personal information?
  • What is the lawful basis for processing your information?
  • Links to third party websites
  • How can I unsubscribe?
  • How can I get more information?

Cookie Policy

  • What are cookies?
  • Cookies connected with browsing the IfE’s website
  • Strictly Necessary Cookies
  • Statistics Cookies
  • Third party service cookies
  • Managing cookies from your browser

 

Why do we collect your information?

Initiative for Equality (IfE) is a global network of individual activists and partner organizations working to build more equal and participatory societies around the world. The participation of people like you is crucial to achieving our mission. To keep the network thriving, growing, and effective, we collect information from members so we can more efficiently and creatively communicate with and mobilize our members; create, promote and fund our projects and campaigns; interface with decision-makers, campaign targets, and the media; and develop new, more effective methods of outreach to grow the IfE network.

 

What information do we collect from you?

We collect, store, and use the following personal information that you directly give us when you subscribe to our email updates, make a donation, sign a petition, volunteer for our activities, RSVP for an event, sign up for or engage with one of our projects, respond to our optional polls or surveys, or contact us asking for information.

Personal information we collect and store (if you provide them to us):

  • The only data we have for all of you is your email address.
  • For some, we also have your name (or alias) or the country in which you reside.
  • For those who have donated to us, we have a record of the amount(s) given and of the year(s) in which you donated. We do not store your credit card information or banking details — we do not even see that information, since payments are handled through our payment processors.
  • For those who have signed up to participate in our activities, either by filling out a form on the website, responding to a poll, or contacting us in other ways, we may also have a record of which activity or issue you are interested in.
  • For those who have signed our petitions, we may have the history of the petitions you signed.
  • For those who join and participate in IfE groups, committees, meetings or online events, we may have a record of your past and present activities within IfE and your contact details you gave us to participate in these activities.

If you are under the age of 13 (US) or 16 (EU & elsewhere), please ask your parent/guardian for their consent before submitting your personal information to us. If we have reason to believe that someone is underage and we have collected their personal information without proper consent, we will delete that information in a reasonable period of time.

Further information that is not connected to any personal record:

  • Images, photographs, or videos you may have shared with us to be uploaded to the website.
  • Statistical and anonymous information about visitors’ use of our website, browser type and version, and operating system is gathered via cookies by google analytics, but we do not keep it.  We may use this information to analyze traffic to and through our web-pages, in order to improve our website. This information does not identify you personally and it is never stored in your record in our database. Please see our Cookie Policy for further information.
  • Responses to optional polls or surveys about various issues, for which we keep your responses (along with those of others) to use in any reports summarizing poll results (which are always anonymized); and (2) to mark the appropriate column in our member database showing that you indicated an interest in this topic
  • Our website uses only cookies that do not store any personal information about you. Furthermore, you can choose to allow or to block any types of cookies by changing your browser settings at any time. We also use third party processors to handle special input from you; for example, we use PayPal to handle your donations, and we use the Google Forms application to get your volunteer preferences. Both Paypal and Google use their own cookies to manage those payments and inputs.  Please see our Cookie Policy for further information.

 

What do we do with your information?

We use the information we collect from you to communicate with you, to inform you of our mission, projects, campaigns and developments, and to ask for your input, support, and donations.

If you subscribe to our email updates, we use your personal information to send you occasional emails with:

  • information about IfE’s work;
  • reports on our activities;
  • opportunities to participate; and
  • calls for your support.

If you sign a petition, send us feedback, questions, or input for our discussions or campaigns, or if you donate to IfE, we may use your personal data to:

  • send you an email thanking you for signing, participating or donating and answering your questions or replying to your issues
  • send you further information related to an issue you expressed interest in

We may use the aggregate information of all visitors to the website to:

  • Administer & improve the website and optimize our technology.
  • Analyze how you use the website using tools (like Google Analytics) to help us test the performance of content and website functionality, understand traffic patterns, and know if there are problems with the website.

 

Do we share your information?

IfE does not ever rent or sell your personal information, and we will only share it with the parties described below, as required by law, or with trusted third parties with your permission.

  • IfE volunteers, group coordinators, and event hosts: if you have indicated a specific interest, or signed up to participate in an activity or event, or expressed your willingness to join an IfE group, then from time to time IfE volunteers, group coordinators, or event hosts may have access to your contact information, including your name (or alias) and your email address, in order to reach out to you about a specific campaign, group, activity, or event. They may contact you directly under IfE’s direction. These volunteers are trusted collaborators who are committed to protecting your privacy and who will be instructed on how to handle your information securely.
  • Targets of an IfE Petition: When you sign an IfE petition, the target of the campaign may be sent a final list of everyone who signed. Depending on the target and purpose of the petition, this list may need to include more details about each individual signee than what we normally keep in our database (for example, your educational degree). We will collect this information for the specific purpose of the petition, but we will not store these extra details in our permanent records unless you specifically consent to it.
  • Service providers: We work with a wide range of service providers, notably cloud computing services for our server with the website and our mass email system (Digital Ocean – Data Processing Agreement), our fiscal sponsor (FJC, which is a 501(c)(3) public charity in the US) and payment processors (such as PayPal) for the donations. These providers work under strict confidentiality agreements. We do not authorize them to use or disclose your personal information except in connection with providing their services. Please note that we also use survey applications on external platforms such as SurveyMonkey and Google Forms, to collect information from those who voluntarily fill out our surveys on these platforms. The personal information of survey participants or from people who fill in our Google forms is transferred from these platform to us, and it is subject to this Privacy Policy.
  • Protection of IfE and others: We will share personal information with organizations, or individuals outside of IfE if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of your personal information is reasonably necessary to detect or protect against fraud or security issues, enforce our Terms of Use, meet any enforceable government request or court order, defend against legal claims, or protect against harm to the legal rights or safety of IfE, the IfE staff, or members of the IfE community.  We believe you should have a reasonable expectation of privacy in information you disclose online that is not clearly intended for public dissemination. Where possible, we will attempt to defend this principle, even though most jurisdictions currently take the opposite position. We will attempt not to disclose material in response to overzealous or inappropriate requests. However, when we have a good faith belief that the law compels us to do so or when we think justice would be served, we may cooperate with law enforcement authorities or court orders requesting or directing us to disclose personal information in our database . Should this happen we will attempt to provide you with notice before we disclose your personal information, unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise as described above.

 

How do we keep your information safe?

IfE is a global organization with members and volunteer staff around the world, so your information may be transferred and stored across borders.

We use standard industry practices, such as antivirus, firewalls, and encryption, to safeguard your personally identifiable information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, misuse, or destruction. All donations, including the transmission of payment details and other personal information, are handled by payment processors over secure, encrypted connections.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that cross-border data transfers comply with existing data protection laws.

We hold on to your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was collected, unless otherwise required by law. If you request that we stop sending you updates and other communications or delete your information, we will honor your request and keep the minimum amount of information possible to prevent fraud and to help ensure that you are not contacted again.

 

How can you update and correct your personal information?

You can review and update your personal information by contacting us by email at info@initiativeforequality.org. We can send you a list of all the information that we have about you and you can request any updates and changes to it. You can also change your personal Cookie Settings at any time. For users in the European Union, European Economic Area, and Switzerland, you also have the right to:

  • Restrict or Erase: You can ask us to limit our use of your information or ask us to delete your personal information from our records if there is no compelling reason for us to hold on to it.
  • Object: You can object, on legitimate grounds, to the processing of your personal information, including our use of your information to decide which emails to send you.
  • Access or Take your data: You can ask us to confirm whether we are processing your personal information. You can also make a reasonable request for a copy of that information or to have it transferred to another data controller (to the extent possible).
  • Complain: You can complain to your country’s data protection authority.

Please note that where we rely on your consent to use your personal information, all users worldwide have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This includes the option to unsubscribe from our email list at any time or to contact us to request to be excluded from our online campaign promotion lists, or to have your information erased from our database.

 

What is the lawful basis for processing your information?

When we process your personal information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, we may rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

  • Consent: We will ask for your consent to use your information to send you details about our campaigns, fundraisers, and action opportunities, and to invite you to participate in specific projects and groups you may have indicated to be interested in.
  • Contractual relationships: When you donate to us, volunteer, apply for employment, are a member of one of our boards, groups, or committees, or otherwise enter into a contract with us, we’ll need to process your personal information.
  • Legal obligations: When strictly necessary, we’ll process your personal information due to a binding legal obligation on us.
  • Legitimate interests: So long as our use is fair, balanced, and doesn’t unduly impact your rights, we will collect and process your personal information when we have a legitimate interest that serves the IfE mission, our projects, or our activities.

 

Processing your Sensitive Personal Data

We do not seek to collect or otherwise process your sensitive personal information (i.e. about race or ethnicity, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, etc.) except where:

  • the processing is required or permitted by applicable law; or
  • we have obtained your prior explicit consent — for example, when you volunteer to complete an opinion survey.

 

Links to third party websites

We may provide links to other websites. This Privacy Policy covers only IfE websites and activities. We have no control over external websites and are not responsible for their content or privacy practices. Please read the terms of use and privacy policies for any third party websites you visit via links from the IfE website or obtained via IfE activities.

 

How can I unsubscribe?

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from our email list, you may do so by following the unsubscribe link, which is included in every update or campaign email that you receive from us. Furthermore you may always contact us by email at info@initiativeforequality.org requesting to be unsubscribed.

 

How can I get more information?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, your personal information, or data protection on the IfE website, you can contact our Data Protection Officer.

For your protection, we may only share and update the personal information associated with the specific email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before doing so. We will comply with such requests in a reasonably timely manner. Please do not send sensitive personal information, passwords, banking details, or credit/debit card details via email.

Our Data Protection Officer can be reached by contacting us by email at info@initiativeforequality.org.

 

Cookie Policy

 

What are cookies?

When you visit any web site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. These cookies are small text files that are stored on your device either temporarily or persistently. The information stored in these cookies might be about you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience.

 

Cookies connected with browsing the IfE’s website

While browsing on the initiativeforequality.org website you will see cookies of three types:

  • Cookies that are necessary for the website to work better
  • Cookies that allow us to collect and analyse anonymous statistics about website traffic in order to improve our website
  • Cookies that are used by third party processors to provide specific services (for example Paypal donation payments or Google Form data input)

You can always choose to allow or to block some types of cookies by changing your browser settings. See the section below about managing cookies from your browser.

Read on for details and explanations about the cookies in IfE’s website.

 

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation. The website cannot function properly without these cookies. You can set your browser to block these cookies, but some parts of the site may not work properly if you do. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information, and they expire as soon as your session ends.

List of Necessary Cookies

PHPSESSID Used to identify a single visitor session across different website pages – it expires when the browsing session ends.

 

Statistics Cookies

These cookies are not essential, but they allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and to see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.

List of Statistics Cookies

_ga Registers a unique ID used to collect statistical data about how a visitor uses the website in particular to count returning visitors – it expires in 2 years

_gid Registers a unique ID used to collect statistical data about how a visitor uses the website – it expires in 1 day

_gat Used by Google Analytics (our statistics analysis processor)  to throttle request rate (limiting the collection of data in high traffic situations) – it expires in 1 day

collect Used by Google Analytics (our statistics analysis processor) to track a visitor’s device and behavior – it expires when the browsing session ends.

 

Third party service cookies

IfE uses PayPal to receive donations from website visitors, and PayPal uses cookies to handle these payments. Specifically, one PayPal cookie, called PYPF, gets installed when reaching the IfE donation page (which carries the PayPal donate button). It is a PayPal Cookie used to recognize its customers and to shorten the time users need to log in to their PayPal accounts – it expires in 4 weeks.

After clicking the donate button, visitors are transferred to a PayPal web-page where they will encounter several PayPal related cookies used to handle the payments. These PayPal cookies are outside IfE’s own control, and you need to manage them directly via PayPal (you can read their Cookie Policy here: https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/cookie-full).

Similarly, cookies appear when IfE visitors follow the volunteer form link they find in the IfE “Join us” page (at this address: https://www.initiativeforequality.org/get-involved/join-with-us/). We use the Google Forms web application to collect your preferences about how you want to contribute some of your time to IfE.  When you click on the form link, you are transferred outside of IfE’s website and into the form in Google Drive space. We at IfE have no control on how Google manages these cookies (please refer Google Cookie Policy here: https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies?hl=en).

 

Managing cookies from your browser

Most modern browsers allow you to manage cookies saved on your computer. For example, you may wish to accept all cookies or reject all cookies.

Google Chrome

See here: http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=95647

Internet explorer 8, 9 and 10

See here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/delete-manage-cookies#ie=ie-10

Mozilla Firefox

See here: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences

Safari

See here: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11913

Other browsers

With new devices being created all the time, including tablets and phones, it is not possible to list every browser for every device. The best advice is to consult the manufacturer’s website for further instructions regarding cookies.

 

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