Privacy

The HOW Institute for Society (HOW-IS) understands that privacy is important to you, and we are committed to respecting your privacy when you visit our web site (www.thehowinstitute.org). The following Privacy Policy is designed to help you better understand what information we gather from you through our website, how we use and disclose this information, and who we might share this information with. This Privacy Policy may be changed or updated from time to time. By visiting our website, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

General Information Collection and Use
Our primary goals in collecting personal information are to provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized experience, to send you information upon your request, and to thank you for your support. In addition, we may use such information to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, to analyze site usage, to improve our content and product offerings, and to customize our website’s content, layout and services.

Personally Identifiable Information
We collect additional information from you when you are interested in donating money to HOW-IS or when you wish to provide us with comments or feedback via our website.

If you volunteer to make a donation of money or resources, we will request personally identifiable information about you, such as your name, address, phone number and email address. We seek such information to communicate with you and to facilitate the transactions as well as for the more general uses described above. If you agree by clicking “yes” when prompted, we may use the information that you provide to contact you and deliver information to you through, for example, email updates.

When you make a donation on-line, information about you, including your credit card number, will be requested.  To the extent any donations are processed through a third-party service provider, our donors’ information will be used for purposes necessary to process the donation and will not be shared with others for their own commercial purposes. The privacy of information that is provided by a donor through a third-party service provider is governed by such service provider’s privacy policies.

For donors, unless you specify that a gift be “anonymous” or otherwise request that your name not be listed, we may include your name in lists of donors that appear on the website or in other HOW-IS materials. We do not sell our donor lists to anyone, nor do we include the donor lists in any direct mail solicitations.

Third Party Uses
We may share some of your personally identifiable information with our consultants and service providers for the purpose of improving the Site and facilitating the services that it offers to you. In addition, we sometimes employ other companies and individuals to perform promotional, marketing and data analysis functions on our behalf, such as sending postal mail, removing repetitive information from donor lists, analyzing data, processing credit card payments and providing customer service. These companies and individuals have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for any other purpose.

Aggregate Data
The demographic information you provide is collected by us and may be disclosed in aggregate to third parties. This aggregate information cannot be used to personally identify you or your computer.

Cookies
“Cookies” are small files placed on your hard drive; each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser preferences allow it. You can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, although in that case you may not be able to use certain features on our website.

Cookies help us to provide customized services and information that is targeted to your interests. We use cookies to tell us how and when pages in our website are visited, what our users’ technology preferences are (such as what type of video player they use) and whether our website is functioning properly.

Additionally, you may encounter cookies or other similar devices on our site that are placed by third parties. We do not control the use of cookies by third parties.

Security
We care about the security of your transactions and use standard industry practices to safeguard your credit card information. We use high-grade encryption and the secure https protocol to communicate with your browser software, which guards against interception of the credit card information you give us. We also employ security techniques to protect your personally identifiable information from unauthorized access by users inside and outside the organization. You should be aware, however, that “perfect security” does not exist on the Internet; third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. You should not expect that your personally identifiable information will remain private.

Sharing Information
As a matter of policy, we will not sell or rent information about you and we will not disclose information about you in a manner inconsistent with this Privacy Policy except as required by law or government regulation. We cooperate with law enforcement inquiries, as well as other third parties, to enforce laws such as those regarding intellectual property rights, fraud and other personal rights. We can (and you can authorize us to) disclose any information about you to law enforcement or other government officials that we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement or other activity that is illegal or may expose us, or you, to liability.

Providing Us with Information About You
Although young people may be interested in our work, we ask that children under 13 do so only with parental supervision. We will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with personally identifiable information without verifiable parental consent, we will use our best efforts to remove such information from our files. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with personally identifiable information without verifiable parental consent, he or she should contact us at info@thehowinstitute.org.

Other Information Collectors
Please note that this Privacy Policy applies only to our website and not to other companies’ or organizations’ websites to which we link or to the websites of our partners. We do not control the privacy policies of others. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.

Accessing Your Information
We work to process and maintain accurately the information that you share with us. You are invited to contact us at info@thehowinstitute.org to review your information, let us know of any errors or request to be removed.

Governing Law
You agree that your use of our website this Privacy Policy and any disputes relating thereto, shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the State of New York. Any dispute relating to this Privacy Policy shall be resolved solely in the state or federal courts located in Manhattan, New York.

Thank you for visiting our site. Please contact us at info@thehowinstitute.org if you have any questions about our website or our Privacy Policy.