Privacy Policy

Welcome to HIAS’ Website Privacy Policy

This Website Privacy Policy (“Policy”) applies to HIAS’ website and governs how we collect and use personal information.

In this Policy, personal information means any information that lets us identify you or the device you use when you access and interact with our website including your name, address, phone number, email address, identification number (for you or your device), location data, or any attribute that may be linked to you as an individual.

HIAS’ website is not intended for use by children 13 years old or younger.

As used in this Policy, “we,” “us,” and “our” refers to HIAS. The terms “you,” “your”, “yours” and “user” refer to you as the individual accessing or using the HIAS website.

Please note that certain links on our website may lead to resources maintained by third parties over which we have no control, including websites maintained by our humanitarian and resettlement partners. Third party collection, use and processing of your information is governed by their privacy policies.

By using our website, you consent to the collection and usage of your personal information as described in this Policy.

Collection and Use of Your Personal Information

We collect personal information for specific and necessary purposes and we strive to only collect information that is relevant to carrying out our work and interacting with you and others who are interested in our mission and organization.

Donor Registration and Management

We collect information about our donors and their pledges. To donate through HIAS’ website, you will need to provide registration information, such as name, e-mail address, home or work address, phone number, credit card number and other relevant data. We use this information to identify you as the donor, provide you with donation receipts, mailings and communications, and process authorized donations.

Communication with Registered Users

When you complete one of our web forms (Sign Up form or Donation form, etc.) or register for an event, we may use your personal information to send you our newsletter or to solicit funds. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Automated Data Collection

Certain information about the device you use to access our website will be automatically collected. Such information may include your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by HIAS in the aggregate for the operation of our services, to maintain the quality of our website and to provide general information.

We may send targeted social media posts to users based on user analytics and user activity. We may also use information about donations, actions taken or users’ content preferences to generate custom email or solicitations for donations. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time.

HIAS does not collect, use or disclose your sensitive personal information, such as race, religion or political affiliation, without your explicit consent.

Use of Cookies

A “cookie” is a small text file that is placed on a user’s computer or other device (such as smart phone or tablet) by web browser software. Our website uses cookies for several purposes including to ensure that the site functions properly, to report on site activities and trends, and to facilitate your web experience. For instance, a cookie can save your language choice, help you return to the page you left off on your previous site visit, retrieve your billing address upon repeat donation, etc.

If you don’t want information collected through the use of cookies, most browsers allow you to configure your browser setting to automatically decline cookies or be given the choice of declining or accepting them.

You may wish to refer to allaboutcookies.org for more general information about cookies. In order to use the site optimally, you will need to ensure that your browser is configured to accept cookies from the site. If, however, you do not accept HIAS’ cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of this site. You can delete cookies after each visit, if you wish to.

Protecting Confidentiality

Keeping your information confidential is important to us. We restrict access to personal information collected about users to our employees or others on a need-to-know basis to provide services to you or in the course of conducting our business operations. HIAS binds all of its employees to its confidentiality requirements.

Sharing of Your Personal Information

We will only share your personal information with trusted partners and service providers for specific and necessary purposes. Partners and service providers are under contractual obligation to have in place privacy and confidentiality safeguards similar to ours. Personal information may be shared for the following main purposes:

• With trusted partners or non-profit organizations for them to reach out to new prospective supporters.
• To third-party service providers solely to provide services to us, such as website hosting, email or postal distribution, data analysis, technology or infrastructure troubleshooting.
• To fulfil a legal requirement, enforce our Terms of Use, or protect anyone’s rights, privacy, safety, or property and for other lawful purposes.

Your Right to “Opt-Out”

HIAS operates a strict “opt-out” policy for individuals. This means we will stop sharing your contact information with partners or sending you information upon your request. For instance, if you are a donor or HIAS email list subscriber, you may unsubscribe or update your email preferences at any time by following the instructions contained within the email or by contacting development@hias.org. You may likewise contact development@hias.org to request removal of your name and contact information from any lists HIAS shares, rents or sells to trusted partners.

Donors and HIAS listserv subscribers can view and modify settings relating to the nature and frequency of promotional communications that they receive from us by accessing HIAS’ website. For businesses, HIAS will continue to contact businesses with news and information until we are informed that this communication is no longer required.

Security of Your Personal Information

We maintain appropriate physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to secure your personal information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other websites, such as a third-party payment processor, the information is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Retention of Your Personal Information

We will only use and store your personal information for so long as it is required for the purposes for which it was collected. We use your personal information, as necessary, to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements and rights.

Changes to this Policy

If we make changes to our privacy practices, we will post a notification to our site alerting that the Privacy Policy has been amended. Those changes will be effective immediately upon posting. For this reason, we encourage you to check our Website Privacy Policy frequently. The “Last Updated” date at the bottom of this page indicates when this Policy was last revised.

Contact Information

HIAS welcomes your comments regarding this Website Privacy Policy. If you believe that HIAS has not adhered to the commitments made in this Policy, please contact HIAS’ Data Protection Officer at dpo@hias.org We will use reasonable efforts to respond to and promptly determine and remedy your concerns.

Revised August 25, 2022