Avaaz Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

Introduction

Effective Date: 5/5/2018

This website, Avaaz.org, along with all translated versions, is operated by Avaaz, a nonprofit organization incorporated as Avaaz Foundation in the State of Delaware, United States, and with a registered branch office in the UK (No. FC031321).

By accessing this website or submitting any forms on this site, you agree to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use and consent to the collection and use of any information you provide. If you don’t agree to this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use, please do not access or use our services.

We may update these policies from time to time, and if we make any significant changes to the rules that govern this site or the way we treat your personal information, we will add a prominent notice to the website. Your continued use of the site following the posting of changes to the Terms will mean that you accept and agree to the changes. We encourage you to visit this page regularly to review it.

These policies apply to everyone who uses this website worldwide.

If you have any questions about our policies, your personal information, or the practices of this website, you can contact us.

Privacy Policy

Avaaz is committed to protecting your privacy online. The Avaaz staff are members too, and we treat your privacy as we do our own. When you use our website or communicate with us, we collect and store personal information from you so we can better serve you and the Avaaz mission.

We wrote this Privacy Policy to let you know how we treat that information -- like your name, contact information, and issues that are important to you – and to show you all the ways we work hard to keep it safe and private. We encourage you to take the time to read it.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 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 information?
• What is our legal basis for processing your information?
• Protection of Avaaz and Others
• Links to third party websites
• How can I unsubscribe?
• How can I get more information?

Why do we collect your information?

Avaaz is a global civic movement and 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 and website users so we can more efficiently and creatively communicate with and mobilize our members, create, promote and fund our campaigns, interface with decision-makers, campaign targets, and the media, and develop new, more effective methods of outreach to grow the Avaaz network.

What information do we collect from you?

We collect, store, and use the following personal information you directly give us when you take action online or by SMS, donate, create your own petition, volunteer, RSVP for an event, or contact us.

Personal information we collect when you take action:

• Your name, email address, zip code, country, language preference, IP address, comments, personalized messages to targets, and any other information you share when you join Avaaz or sign a campaign, like your postal address and telephone number.
• Details of any donations you make to Avaaz, including the amount, currency, and method of payment. We do not store your credit card information or banking details -- that’s done through our payment processors.
• The history of petitions you sign or share with others and petitions you create on our Community Petitions platform.
• Your responses to optional polls or surveys that we may ask you to complete.
• Other information you voluntarily submit in a form on the site or that you share when you contact us.

We may also collect:

• Information you choose to save by signing up for the EasyDonate function, which allows you to instantly donate to a campaign.
• Your social media account IDs and information shared with us via your social media accounts.
• Your third-party authentication status if you visit the website from a mobile application, (i.e. whether you are presently logged into Facebook or other social media accounts).
• Data relating to whether you open our emails, click our email links, sign or share petitions, and if the people you shared with sign our petitions.
• Images, photographs, or video you upload to the site.
• Your geolocation based on your IP address in order to send you targeted content about campaigns in your area.

We also collect from all visitors:

• Technical information about your use of the website, browser type and version, and operating system.
• Your IP Address.
• Our Cookie Policy describes how we collect information via cookies, pixel tags, and other technologies and how to control your Cookie Settings .

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 this site. 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.

What do we do with your information?

We use the personal information we collect from you to shape Avaaz campaigns, communicate with decision makers & the media, refine your experience, improve the site, innovate our technology, and optimize ways to forward the Avaaz mission.

Namely, if you sign, share, or donate, we use your personal information to:

• Send you information about our work via any channels you’ve consented to: email, phone/SMS, and/or social media messaging. Since achieving our mission so often relates to who controls the government, our updates and opportunities may include information related to elections or political campaigns.
• Highlight your participation in a campaign by displaying your first name and first initial of your last name, country, and the campaign you took action on in our live activity feeds.
• If you do not wish to have your name and country publicly associated with a particular campaign, please do not sign or post on that campaign.
• Give you opportunities to get involved in campaigns, fundraisers, and special projects, to provide you information about Avaaz’s work, and to make it easier for you to share with your social networks.
• Notify decision makers, political candidates, news publications, and the general public when you sign a petition, send a message using our tools, or otherwise join a petition campaign.
• Create targeted marketing campaigns to promote our work and engage the public with particular campaigns and petitions.
• Verify your identity and send you an email to thank you for signing or donating.
• Give you the opportunity to sign campaigns directly from your inbox with one click.

We may use the personal information of all visitors of the site to:

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

Please note that when you sign a petition, send a message, make a donation, or take any action on this site, we create a virtual user account for you where you can update your personal contact information and preferences so that we can better communicate with you to achieve the Avaaz mission. You can control your preferences on your profile page.

Do we share your information?

Avaaz does not 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.

• Targets of Avaaz campaigns : When you sign an Avaaz petition, the target of the campaign is sent a final list including the name, city, country, and any comments of everyone who signed. Where the target is a government body or official that requires petition signers to be constituents, we may also provide your postal code and full address.
• Avaaz volunteers and event hosts : From time to time, Avaaz volunteers or event hosts may have access to your contact information, including your name, email address, telephone number, and social media account IDs, to reach out to you about a specific campaign or event. They may contact you directly or through an Avaaz or third-party contact tool at Avaaz’s direction.
• Avaaz Community Petition creators : When you sign a petition created on the Avaaz Community Petitions platform, we provide your name, city, and country to the petition creator so they can deliver it to the campaign target. Sometimes, we allow petition creators to use an email tool we control to contact signers.
• Collaborating organizations & the media : Sometimes we work with the media or other groups to amplify our impact. In these cases, we may share your name, city, country, and any comments you have made when signing a petition with our partners to submit to a campaign target. If you live in the UK, we may contact you on behalf of Avaaz Campaigns UK, a UK-registered company limited by guarantee, about UK-specific campaigns.
• Service providers : We work with a wide range of service providers, notably our database administrators, cloud computing services, help desk services, advertising services, data analysts, application service providers, bulk SMS services, voter phone banking services, and other non-governmental organizations. 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 Wufoo, to collect information from those who voluntarily fill out our surveys on these platforms. The personal information of survey participants will be transferred to Avaaz and is subject to this Privacy Policy.
• Payment processors : We work with PayPal, Global Collect, and Stripe to help process credit card transactions and other payment methods when you donate to Avaaz. These payment processors will store certain personal information about you. Please refer to their privacy policies to learn more about how they use your personal information. If you choose to become an Avaaz sustainer, or select the EasyDonate option, your payment information will be stored with your chosen payment processor, and you will give Avaaz explicit permission to trigger donations. Avaaz does not store your credit card account number or banking details. You can edit your EasyDonate preferences on your profile page .
• Facebook marketing : We may use your email address and Facebook ID to participate in Facebook’s Custom Audience and Lookalike Audience programs, which enable us to display campaign promotions to both existing and prospective members when they visit. To do this, we first send a digital fingerprint of your data to Facebook -- not your actual personal information -- and they check if it matches a fingerprint of their data. If you’re a match, Avaaz campaign promotions may then appear when you access Facebook. Facebook deletes this information (a) if it does not match with a Facebook account or (b) after they confirm you are a registered account holder. For more detailed information please see https://www.facebook.com/business/help/744354708981227 and Facebook’s data policy at https://en-gb.facebook.com/policy.php .
• Other marketing : Based on your use of this site, we may use cookies to target you for other campaign promotions on Facebook, Google, or other online services. You can read more in our Cookie Policy and control your Cookie Settings .
• Affiliated Third Parties : In the future, we may transfer your personal information to a third party as a result of a merger, acquisition, reorganization or similar transaction. We will continue to ensure the confidentiality of any personal information and give you notice before personal information is transferred. If there are material changes in relation to the processing of your personal information, we will give you an opportunity to consent to such changes.
• Election Officials : We take our obligation to comply with local election rules seriously. If you donate to an Avaaz election or referendum-related campaign, we ask that you donate only if you are a citizen or eligible voter of the relevant country. We may need to make your name, address, postal code, occupation, and the amount and date you donated available to election officials in order to comply or show compliance with the relevant election law. The specific donation page will give you full information.
• Protection of Avaaz and others : We will share personal information with companies, organizations, or individuals outside of Avaaz 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 Avaaz, the Avaaz staff, or members of the Avaaz community. See more below .

How do we keep your information safe?

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

We use standard industry practices, such as 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 over secure, encrypted connections. We take reasonable steps to ensure that cross-border data transfers comply with existing data protection laws, such as working with third party processors certified in the EU-US Privacy Shield and Swiss-US Privacy Shield frameworks or with those that use standard contractual clauses that bind parties to protect the privacy and security of data.

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 via your profile page . You can also change your personal Cookie Settings at any time. For users in the European Union and 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 direct marketing and profiling.
• 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 the UK Information Commissioner’s Office or 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 text messaging.

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, for targeted advertising and profiling, and if you ever share sensitive personal information with us.
• Contractual relationships : When you donate to us, apply for employment, 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 Avaaz mission, our services, 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 that includes your voting intentions.

More on Protection of Avaaz and Others

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 may attempt to defend this principle even though most jurisdictions currently take the opposition position.

We may attempt not to disclose material in response to overzealous or inappropriate requests. 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 of any user of this site. 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 in Do We Share Your Information?

Links to third party websites

We may provide links to other websites. This Privacy Policy covers only Avaaz sites. 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 sites you visit via links from this site.

How can I unsubscribe?

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from our email list, you may do so via your profile page or by following this link, which is also included in every campaign email that you receive from us.

How can I get more information?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, your personal information, or data protection on this site, 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 when you Contact Us, or when you write to:

Avaaz “Data Protection Officer” / 27 Union Square West, Suite #500 / New York, NY 10003 / USA.

Terms of Use

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Member Accounts
• Donations
• User Contributions
• Content Standards
• Prohibited Uses
• We Are Not Responsible for User Contributions
• Enforcement of Terms
• Links to other Sites
• Intellectual Property
• Additional Provisions
• Your Comments and Concerns

Member Accounts

There are sections of the Avaaz site where you can update your personal information, adjust your communication and donation preferences, manage petitions, events, and other content you create.

To access some of these tools, we may ask you to provide certain registration details or other information including user account name and password. It is a condition of your use of the site that all the information you provide is correct, current, and complete, and you keep your password and account access secure.

In order to ensure we can protect the community, the website and other users, we have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or provided by us, at any time and for any reason, including, if in our opinion, you have failed to comply with any provision of these Terms of Use.

Donations

Avaaz is funded exclusively by our members. We work with the payment processors Stripe, Global Collect, and PayPal to help facilitate your donations. If you make a donation, the processor you select will store on our behalf certain information about you. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

For all donations you will specify the amount you would like to give and whether you would like to give an individual or recurring donation. You agree to use a valid and authorized payment method and agree to be charged the amount you specify using the payment method you select. Donations made to Avaaz are not tax-deductible.

For election or referendum-related fundraisers, we can only accept donations from citizens or eligible voters of the relevant country. If you decide to donate to such a campaign, we may need to record and report your information to local election officials, see Do We Share Your Information? in our Privacy Policy for more information.

User Contributions

In order to help you make your voice heard and share ideas with others, this site may contain tools that allow you to post your original contributions on this site or elsewhere.

These tools may include online petitions, announcements, letter-writing tools, message boards, chat rooms, personal web pages or profiles, forums, bulletin boards, and other interactive features (“Interactive Services”) that allow you to post, submit, publish, display, or transmit to other users or other members of the public your content or materials (“User Contributions”).

We consider any User Contribution you post to the site to be non-confidential. The content you post belongs to you, and you grant us the right to display, reuse, and share it to further the mission of Avaaz. In legal terms, by posting a User Contribution on the site, you confirm and warrant that you own or control all rights to that content and grant Avaaz and its affiliates a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, copy, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, transmit, display, and distribute your content using any existing or future developed distribution methods or media.

Commitment to accuracy. Avaaz has a Commitment to Accuracy that applies to our official posts, and we ask you to similarly commit to accuracy in your independent User Contributions. You understand and acknowledge that you are responsible for any User Contributions you submit or contribute, and you, not Avaaz, have fully responsibility for such content, including its legality, reliability, accuracy, and appropriateness.

Content Standards

You are solely responsible for any content you post or actions you take via this site and their consequences.

All User Contributions must comply with these Content Standards and with all applicable national, regional, federal, state, local, and international laws and regulations. These Content Standards apply to any and all User Contributions and Interactive Services.

In addition, User Contributions must not:

• Contain any material which is defamatory, obscene, indecent, abusive, offensive, harassing, violent, hateful, inflammatory, endangers Avaaz’s broader mission, or is otherwise objectionable.
• Promote sexually explicit or pornographic material, violence, or discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
• Infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other intellectual property rights of any other person.
• Violate the legal rights (including the rights of publicity and privacy) of others or contain any material that could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under applicable laws or regulations or that otherwise may be in conflict with these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
• Be likely to deceive any person.
• Promote any illegal activity, or advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act.
• Be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or organization.
• Involve commercial activities or sales, such as contests, sweepstakes and other sales promotions, barter or advertising.
• Give the impression that they emanate from us or any other person or entity, if this is not the case.

Prohibited Uses

You may use this website only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms of Use. You agree not to use this site:

• In any way that violates any applicable national, regional, federal, state, local, and international law or regulation.
• For the purpose of exploiting, harming or attempting to exploit or harm minors in any way by exposing them to inappropriate content, asking for personally identifiable information or otherwise.
• To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or reuse any material which does not comply with the Content Standards set out in these Terms.
• To transmit, or procure the sending of, any advertising or promotional material, including any "junk mail," "chain letter," "spam," or any other similar solicitation.
• To impersonate or attempt to impersonate Avaaz or an Avaaz employee, another user, or person or entity (including, without limitation, the use of email addresses or screen names associated with any of the foregoing), or to register to use the site on behalf of any group or entity.
• To harvest or collect email addresses or other personally identifiable information of users from this site by electronic or other means for any purpose.
• To engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone's use or enjoyment of this site, or which, as determined by us, may harm Avaaz or users of the site or expose them to liability.
• For any commercial purpose.

Additionally, you agree not to:

• Use this website in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the site or interfere with any other party's use of this website, including their ability to engage in real time activities through the site.
• Use any robot, spider or other automatic device, process or means to access the website for any purpose, including to monitor or copy any of the material on this site.
• Use any manual process to monitor or copy any of the material on this website or for any other unauthorized purpose without our prior written consent.
• Use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of this website.
• Introduce any viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to, interfere with, damage or disrupt any parts of this website, the server on which the this is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to this website.
• Attack this website via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.
• Otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of this website.

We Are Not Responsible for User Contributions

We cannot review everything that is posted by users in advance, so any content and/or opinions uploaded, expressed or submitted to the site, and all User Contributions, including, articles, responses to questions, and other content, other than the content officially provided by Avaaz, are solely the opinions and the responsibility of the person or entity submitting them and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Avaaz. We are not responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any materials posted by you or any other user of this website and you agree to bear full responsibility for the content you post to the site. While we try to investigate all credible complaints about objectionable User Contributions, we cannot ensure individual responses or removal of such content.

Enforcement of Terms

Because the purpose of this website is to serve the Avaaz mission on behalf of the Avaaz community, in order to ensure that it is used only for its intended purpose and that no use of the site endangers Avaaz’s broader mission, Avaaz has the right to:

• Remove or refuse to post any User Contributions for any or no reason. This is a decision Avaaz will strive to make fairly, but ultimately it is a decision that is solely up to Avaaz to make. It will be our general practice, however, to consult with our members including through randomized polling to determine what user contributions our membership views as advancing our mission. At all points in this process we will welcome feedback from the community on how we make these decisions as it is the community’s ability to achieve our mission that we are here to serve. But in the end, Avaaz has a legal obligation to ensure that all of our activities advance our mission and we therefore must reserve final judgment on upholding this requirement.
• Take any action with respect to any User Contribution that we deem necessary or appropriate in our sole discretion if we believe that such User Contribution violates the Terms of Use, including the Content Standards, infringes any intellectual property right or other right, threatens the personal safety of users of this website and the public or could create liability for Avaaz.
• Disclose your identity to any third party who claims that material posted by you violates their rights, including their intellectual property rights or their right to privacy. We will not do this lightly, but if we think it has the potential to facilitate a fair and just resolution of the dispute, or will protect Avaaz from liability for which we are not responsible, we may take this step. See More on Protection of Avaaz and Others in our Privacy Policy.
• Take appropriate legal action, including without limitation, referral to law enforcement, for any illegal or unauthorized use of this website when we determine law enforcement is the proper and appropriate means for addressing the offending use.
• Terminate your access to all or part of this website for any violation of these Terms of Use.

You waive and hold harmless Avaaz from any claims resulting from any action taken by Avaaz during or as a result of its investigations and from any actions taken as a consequence of investigations by either Avaaz or law enforcement authorities.

Links to other Sites

As is typical online, this site and user posts may contain hyperlinks to other sites. If there are other websites and resources linked to on this site, either by Avaaz or by you, these links are provided only for the convenience of our users. We have no control over the contents of those websites or resources, and therefore cannot accept responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to this site, you do so entirely at your own risk and subject to the privacy policies and terms and conditions of use for such websites.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS

The foregoing does not affect any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Indemnification

Should there be a problem as a result of your use of the website, we cannot be responsible for that. By agreeing to these terms, you agree to be responsible for the consequences flowing from your use of the site. That means that you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Avaaz, its affiliates and licensors and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors and suppliers from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses or fees (including reasonable attorneys' fees) resulting from your violation of these Terms of Use or your use of the website, including, without limitation, any use of the website's content, services and products other than as expressly authorized in these Terms of Use or your use of any information obtained from the website.

Jurisdiction

Any legal suit, action or proceeding arising out of, or related to, these Terms of Use or the website shall be instituted exclusively in the federal courts of the United States or the courts of the State of New York, in each case located in the City of New York and County of New York, although we retain the right to bring any suit, action or proceeding against you for breach of these Terms of Use in your country of residence or any other relevant country. You agree to waive any and all objections to the exercise of jurisdiction over you by such courts and to venue in such courts.

Waiver and Severability

No waiver of these Terms of Use by Avaaz shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or any other term or condition, and any failure of Avaaz to assert a right or provision under these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

If any provision of these Terms of Use is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Terms of Use will continue in full force and effect.

Binding & Entire Agreement

By using this site you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. These Terms of Use constitute the sole and entire agreement between you and Avaaz with respect to the website and supersede all prior and contemporaneous understandings, agreements, representations and warranties, both written and oral, with respect to the website.