AIDS Foundation Houston Email and Website Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us. AIDS Foundation Houston has created this Privacy Policy to explain why we collect particular information and how we will protect your personal privacy within our website. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for the website located at the URL www.AIDShelp.org.

In order to fully understand your rights we encourage you to read this Privacy Policy.  AIDS Foundation Houston reserves the right at any time and without notice to change this Privacy Policy simply by posting such changes on our site. Any such change will be effective immediately upon posting.

Because we want to demonstrate our commitment to your privacy, this Privacy Policy notifies you of:
    1. what personally identifiable information of yours is collected through the site;
    2. who collects such information;
    3. how such information is used;
    4. with whom your information may be shared;
    5. what choices you have regarding collection--including use and distribution of your information as well as how to opt-out, request copies of your personal information, or have your information removed;
    6. what kind of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under our control; and
    7. how you can correct any inaccuracies in your information.

Questions regarding this statement should be directed to AIDS Foundation Houston by sending an e-mail to info@afhouston.org. Please reference this Privacy Policy in your subject line.

What Information We Collect and How We Use That Information:
We collect information on our website registration form, newsletter sign-up form, donation forms, and event registration forms. The information collected on our website registration form includes the following or a subset thereof:

    First and last name
    Email address
    Zip code

The information collected on donation forms includes:

    First and last name
    Mailing address
    Email address
    Credit card/debit number, expiration date, and security code
    Credit card/debit billing address and phone number

The information collected on event registration forms includes:

    First and last name
    Mailing address
    Email address

If an event requires a ticket purchase, we may also collect:
    Credit card/debit number, expiration date, and security code
    Credit card/debit billing address and phone number

Donation and event registration forms may additionally request:

    Email format preference (HTML vs. Text)
    Preferences and sizes for premiums or fundraising incentives
    Your interests

How We Use Your Information:
Information collected on the website registration form enables you to log in on our website. It may also be used to add you to the mailing list for our agency newsletter and other electronic mailings related to agency events and fundraising campaigns.

Information collected on the newsletter sign-up form is used to add you to our main mailing list. When you sign up on this list, you are giving us explicit consent to send you our e-newsletter as well as periodic emails about events, fundraising campaigns, and HIV/AIDS-related information. The newsletter is sent out no more frequently than once a month. The frequency of other mailings varies from once a month to twice a week depending on seasonal activities of the agency.

Information collected on our donation forms is used to process your gift and mail you any premiums or incentives for which you may qualify. (Credit and debit card issuers require your billing addresses and phone number before they will authorize a transaction.)

Information collected on our event registration forms is used to anticipate attendance, arrange seating, obtain your choices for event options (e.g., vegetarian/vegan meals), establish how you wish to be identified in event promotional materials (if you are a sponsor), and--if a ticket purchase is required--to process the ticket sale transaction.

We do not store sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, from our visitors. Once your donation or transaction has been processed, all but the last four digits of your credit card number are irretrievable by us. Your credit card security code is also irretrievable.

We use return email addresses to respond to email you send us. Such addresses are not used for any other purpose unless it is at your request, and they are not shared, exchanged, or sold to others.

Email addresses collected on these forms may be used to add you to our mailling list. You may opt out of our email messages at any time by logging in to our website and visiting your profile settings page. There you will also find settings to opt in or out of receiving text messages from us or to connect or disconnect your profile to your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts. You may also opt out by sending email to info@afhouston.org with the word "Unsubscribe" as the subject.

We use non-identifying and aggregate information to better design our website and to share with cause-related marketing partners. For example, we may share with a partner that X number of individuals visited a certain area on our website, or that Y number of men and Z number of women filled out our registration form, but we would not disclose anything that could be used to identify those individuals.

We do not sell, exchange, or share your personal information or identity with others. We do not use or share personally identifable information you provide online in ways unrelated to those described above without also providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such unrelated uses.

Privacy of Children:
We believe protecting the privacy of young children is critical. We never collect or maintain information at our website from those we actually know to be under 13, and no part of our website is stuctured to attract anyone under the age of 13.

Internet Protocol Address:
We collect an IP address from all visitors to our site. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet. We use IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, administer our website, analyze trends, track users' movement, gather broad demographic information for aggregate use in order for us to improve the site, and deliver customized, personalized content. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Security:
All information provided to AIDS Foundation Houston is transmitted using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption. SSL is a proven coding system that lets your browser automatically encrypt, or scramble, data before you send it to us. We also protect account information by placing it on a secure portion of our site that is only accessible by certain qualified employees of AIDS Foundation Houston. Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of such information.

How You Can Access or Correct Your Information:
You can access all of your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain by logging into your account on the website. This may be accomplished by clicking on the "Account Login" link at the top of any page of the website. Once logged in, you may find basic information about your account by clicking on the "Welcome..." link at the top of the page and then on the "Settings" option on the sub-menu that appears. Information about donations and fundraising for specific events or personal fundraising pages may be obtained by visiting those pages within your profile. If you need assistance with your account credentials, please send email to info@afhouston.org.

Alternatively, you may send an email requesting your information--along with your account username or email address--to info@afhouston.org. We use this procedure to better safeguard your information.

You may correct factual errors in your personally identifiable information by sending us a request that credibly shows error.

To protect your privacy and security, we may take additional reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.

Opting-Out, Requesting Copies of Your Personal Information, and Removal of Your Personal Information
You may opt-out of our mailing list by clicking the Unsubscribe link or the Change Subscriber Options link at the bottom of any email the organization sends you. These links will take you to your Subscriber Information screen. To unsubscribe, click the Unsubcribe radio button and then click on the button labeled "Same My Subscriber Settings". You may also unsubscribe by sending email with the subject linke UNSUBSCRIBE to info@afhouston.org.

You may request copies of your personal information or have your personal information completely removed from our systems by sending email to: info@afhouston.org. For copies of personal information, please use the subject line PERSONAL INFORMATION REQUEST. To have your personal information removed, please use the subject line REMOVE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION.

Use of "Cookies":
Our site may use cookies to enhance your experience while using the site. Cookies are pieces of information that some websites transfer to the computer that is browsing that website and are used for record-keeping purposes at many websites. Use of cookies makes Web-surfing easier by performing certain functions such as saving your passwords, your personal preferences regarding your use of the particular website and to make sure you don't see the same ad repeatedly. Many consider the use of cookies to be an industry standard.

Your browser is probably set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our site will not function properly when you view them.

Other Websites:
Our site contains links to other websites. Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are entering another website for which AIDS Foundation Houston has no responsibility. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on all such sites as their policies may be different than ours.

Mailing lists:
AIDS Foundation Houston respects donor information and handles it with the utmost confidentiality while using every means possible to protect donor information. 

• Donor information is used to process contributions, communicate with donors, and update events or programs.
• AFH will not share donor information or mailing lists with other organizations.
• Donors may remove their name from AFH the mailing list and/or email list by contacting us via email at info@afhouston.org, phone at 713.623.6796, or writing us at:

    AIDS Foundation Houston
    6260 Westpark, Suite 100
    Houston, TX 77057

How To Contact Us:
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, you can email: info@afhouston.org