The privacy and confidence of our users and donors is important to Alliance Defending Freedom (“ADF”), so we want you to know how we collect, store, and use your personal information. This privacy notice governs all ADF websites intended for use in the United States as well as all donor information from any source. This notice includes:
- What information ADF collects.
- How ADF uses the information.
- How ADF communicates with users.
- With whom ADF may share user information.
- What choices are available to users regarding collection and use of personally identifiable information.
- What types of security procedures are in place to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information under ADF control.
- How users can correct any inaccuracies in the information.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, call 1-800-835-5233 or email CorporateCounsel@ADFlegal.org.
Information Collection
ADF obtains contact details and other personal information regarding media contacts and influencers from a variety of sources including Cision. If you wish to know more about how such information is collected and used, please refer to Cision’s privacy notice at www.cision.com/us/legal/privacy-policy/.
ADF collects information from our users at several different points on our websites.
Registration
In order to fully access ADF training or community websites, a user must first complete registration and application forms. During registration and the application process, a user is required to give personal information related to qualifications for the training as well as contact information.
Information Requests
ADF also collects personally identifiable contact information when users request information or services or sign up for newsletters. Voluntarily providing personal information about a legal matter does not create an attorney-client relationship with ADF. Please see the disclaimer on the ADFlegal.org Legal Help page before submitting information about a personal legal matter.
Online Donations
Users must provide contact information (such as name, email, and shipping address) and financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date) to make an online donation. Please call 1-800-TELLADF (1-800-835-5233) if you wish to donate to a specific program, project, or location, or if you have questions about a gift.
Enhancement of Marketing Profile
We may purchase third-party marketing data and add it to our existing registered user database to better target our advertising and provide pertinent information that we think our users would be interested in. We use this information to enhance or overlay the “profile” of registered users. This aggregate marketing data is therefore tied to the users’ personally identifiable information. (See also the “Profile” section below.)
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on your computer tied to information about your use of a website. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. A session ID cookie is a temporary file that remains on your computer during a site visit, but expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on your hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site. See the “Profile” section. Persistent cookies can be removed by following internet browser help file directions. For general information about cookies see https://allaboutcookies.org/cookies/.
By allowing a persistent cookie for our site, you will not have to re-type your contact information more than once when filling out forms. You may set your browser not to accept cookies and still use our site; however, some of our website features may not function properly.
Log Files
Like most standard website servers, we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
We employ (or our third party affiliated contractors employ) a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users. The main difference between the two is that clear gifs reside on the website and are triggered by a user’s visit, while cookies reside on the user’s computer.
Clear Gifs can "work with" existing cookies on a computer if they are both from the same website or organization. That means, for example, that if a person visited “www.companyX.com”, which uses an advertising company's clear gif, the website (or advertising company) would match the clear gif's identifier and the advertising company's cookie ID number, to show the past online behavior for that computer. This collected information would then be given to the advertising company (or website). This website does not use other organizations’ clear gifs.
We also use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by the recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If you have signed up for emails and would like to opt-out of these emails, please see the Opt-out section.
Information Use
We have a legitimate interest in using cookies, log files, and clear gifs to enhance your experience on our websites and offer information in which you may be interested. Cookies allow us to track traffic patterns, speed up searches, and make it easier for you to find things related to previous visits. We also have a legitimate interest in using donor information to contact donors about their gifts. With your consent, we will use your information to keep you updated on the work of ADF and to seek support.
Registration/Application
We use personally identifiable information collected during registration and any application process to select attendees, plan your training experience, contact you about your application or event, and maintain a relationship subsequent to the training or event. We also use this information to contact you with information pertinent to your membership in ADF online communities.
Information Requests
We use personally identifiable information related to requests for information, services, or newsletters to contact users about the events, information, or services about which they have inquired.
Donor Information
We or our trusted partners use personally identifiable information collected in connection with donations for billing purposes, to process donations, or to contact the user if we have trouble processing a donation. We will not use this information to contact the donor for other purposes absent express consent. Credit card information is deleted after a transaction is complete unless a donor has agreed to recurring gifts.
We will not use personally identifiable information for purposes other than those covered by the respective lawful bases on which the data is processed. We will not sell or otherwise share donor personal information with non-ADF affiliated/contract organizations, nor will we send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations. We will not authorize the use of donor personally identifiable information by any outside third party for any form of fundraising or solicitation.
Profile
We may store information that we collect through cookies, log files, and clear gifs to create a profile of our users. A profile is stored information that we keep on users that details their viewing preferences. This profile is used to tailor a user’s visit to our website and to direct pertinent information to them.
We do not connect this information to identified individuals for unregistered users. The information for registered users is tied to their personally identifiable information to provide offers and improve the content of the site for the user.
We will share your profile in aggregate form only.
Communications from the Site
Special Offers and Updates
We may send a welcoming email to all users who register to verify password and username. Established users who consent to do so will occasionally receive information on products, services, urgent issues, and our newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users, you may opt to stop receiving these types of communications at any time. Please see the Choice/Opt-out Section.
Newsletter/Marketing Communications
We will send our newsletters or other marketing communications only to those who have expressly requested them or granted permission for such contacts through their preferred channel(s). Our newsletters and marketing communications include updates on our latest projects, victories, and giving opportunities.
If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletter or other information sources, we ask for contact information, such as name and email address. You may opt out of these communications at any time. Please see the Choice/Opt-out Section.
Service Announcements
It may become necessary to send out a strictly service-related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send users an email. Generally, registered users may not opt out of these communications, although they can deactivate their account.
Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services. In regards to issues relating to their account, we reply via email or phone in accordance with the user's wishes.
Sharing
Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order, or legal process.
Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)
We may share aggregated demographic information with others. This is not linked to any personally identifiable information.
Third Party Intermediaries
We may use a third party shipping company to ship orders, a credit card processing company to process gifts or bill users for goods and services, and a cloud-based system such as Salesforce for customer relationship management. These companies do not retain, share, store, or process personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.
Service Providers
We may partner with other third parties to provide specific services. When the user signs up for these particular services, we may share names or other contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these services. These third parties are not allowed to process personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.
Business Transitions
In the event ADF goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users’ personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred.
Choice/Opt-out
Our users are given the opportunity to opt in to receiving our newsletters or other information from ADF. Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter and informational communications may opt out of receiving these communications by logging in to their user profile, calling 800-TELLADF (800-835-5233), or emailing CorporateCounsel@ADFlegal.org. Users of our site are generally notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties, such as with donor information. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether or not they should proceed with services that require an outside party.
Links
This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that Alliance Defending Freedom is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy notice governs only ADF websites intended for use in the United States as well as all donor information from any source. See Terms & Conditions.
Surveys
From time to time, our site may request information from users via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary, and the user therefore has a choice whether to disclose the requested information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as job title or zip code). Survey information generally will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site and other services we may provide to users.
Chat Rooms, Message Boards, and Public Forums
Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online – for example on the community sites, message boards, through email, or in chat areas – that information can be collected and used by others. In particular, by posting personal information online that is publicly accessible, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return.
SMS Text Messaging
Data obtained through the SMS short code program will not be shared with any third-parties for their marketing reasons/purposes.
Security
ADF takes every precaution to protect our users’ information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, we take great effort to ensure their information is protected both online and offline. When our registration/donor form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as a credit card number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software we are aware of in the industry – SSL.
While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also aggressively protect user-information offline. We restrict access to personal information on a need-to-know basis to ministry employees, who are subject to discipline or termination for violating confidentiality, and to contractors or agents who are subject to confidentiality agreements (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative, or for the communities, employees who work with the community sites). Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment.
Supplementation of Information
In order for this website to properly fulfill its obligation to users it is necessary for us to supplement the information we receive with information from third-party sources.
ID Verification
We may use software to verify a user’s address to avoid session hijacking, hacking attempts, or other attacks.
Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a registered user’s personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, the person should log into the user account and use the “Edit Profile” function, email CorporateCounsel@ADFlegal.org or call 1-800-835-5233 to update or delete/deactivate the personally identifiable information.
Notification of Changes
If we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the home page, and/or other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
This policy was updated on June 28, 2022.