Privacy Policy

Introduction

This website, Avaaz.org, along with all translated versions, is operated jointly by Avaaz Foundation, a company limited by guarantee with no share capital, incorporated in England and Wales and registered under company number 9475510 (“Avaaz”, “we” or “us”) and Avaaz Foundation, a nonprofit organisation incorporated in the United States in the State of Delaware (“Avaaz Foundation US”).

Avaaz is committed to protecting your privacy online. This Privacy Policy applies to anyone who interacts with us, including when you visit our website, support a campaign, or start your own campaign. By supporting our campaigns or creating your own, you become an Avaaz member. The Avaaz staff are members too, and we treat your privacy as we do our own. When you use our site, take action on our website, donate, communicate with us through any channel (such as email, WhatsApp or SMS), create your own petition, volunteer, RSVP for one of our events or contact us (collectively referred to as our “Services”), we collect and store personal data about you so we can better serve you and the Avaaz mission.

We wrote this Privacy Policy to let you know how we treat your personal data – 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. This Privacy Policy will apply when you use our Services, including when you access this website, submit any forms on this site or engage with us. We encourage you to take the time to read it.

Parental consent. 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 data to this site. If we have reason to believe that someone is underage and we have collected their personal data without proper consent, we will delete this data in a reasonable period of time.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, your personal data, or how we process it, you can contact us.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Why do we collect your data?
• What data do we collect from you?
• What do we do with your data?
• What is the lawful basis for processing your data?
• With whom do we share your data?
• How do we keep your data safe?
• How long do we retain your data?
• How can you unsubscribe?
• How can you update and correct your data?
• What rights do you have regarding your data?
• International data transfers
• Links to third party websites
• Changes to this Privacy Policy
• How to contact Avaaz

Why do we collect your data?

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 data from members and website users so we can more efficiently and creatively communicate with and mobilise 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 data do we collect from you?

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

Personal data we collect when you take action includes:

• Your name, email address, postal code, country, language preference, IP address, comments, personalised 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.
• Data relating to whether you open our emails through the use of email tracking pixels, as well as data relating to whether you 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 general geographic location, for example city, postal code, state and country shared with us 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.
• As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect technical data about your browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive technical data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Our Cookie Policy describes how we collect information via cookies, pixel tags, and other technologies and how to control your Cookie Settings.

Special categories of personal data

Certain activities you may engage in, such as signing petitions, sharing messages or supporting campaigns on politically sensitive topics, may reveal or allow the inference of special categories of personal data (for example, your political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, health, sexual orientation, or race or ethnicity). In some cases, we may also ask you questions or collect information that could reveal such data in order to better tailor our campaigns, content, and recommendations to your interests and priorities. For example, your responses to questions about issues such as climate change or social justice may be used to personalize the actions and information we present to you.

Where we process special categories of personal data, we do so only where permitted under applicable law. This may include asking for your explicit consent to collect this data where required, or relying on specific exemptions that apply to non-profit organizations like Avaaz in some countries, provided appropriate safeguards are in place and the processing relates only to our members as part of our internal activities.

We apply additional safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of this data, including restricting access to authorized personnel, using technical measures such as pseudonymisation, and limiting further disclosure. We do not share special categories of personal data with third parties without your consent, unless required by law.

Data collected from third parties

We also receive personal data indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios:

• 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).

What do we do with your data?

We use the personal data we collect to support and advance Avaaz’s mission. This includes shaping Avaaz campaigns, communicating with decision makers and the media, improving your experience, enhancing our website and technology, and increasing our impact.

If you sign a petition, share content, or make a donation, we may use your personal data for the following purposes:

• Campaign Updates. We may use your data to keep you informed about the progress and outcomes of the campaigns you participate in. This processing is based on our legitimate interest in keeping supporters informed. You can object to receiving these updates at any time by using the unsubscribe link in our messages.
• Communications about other campaigns and work that may be of interest to you. We may use your data to send you information about Avaaz campaigns, activities and opportunities to get involved through the channels you have consented to, such as email, phone, WhatsApp, SMS, and/or social media messaging. We typically send one or two messages per week about Avaaz campaigns or fundraising efforts. We use tracking pixels in emails to measure open rates, identify active recipients, improve personalization and optimize our campaigns. Where required by law, we rely on your express consent to send you these communications. You may withdraw your consent at any time by using the unsubscribe link in our messages. We may also tailor these messages based on your previous interactions, such as petitions you have signed. As part of our mission, some communications may relate to elections or political campaigns.
• Public activity feeds. To highlight your participation in a campaign, we may display limited information about your participation in our live campaign activity feeds, such as your first name, the initial of your last name, your country, and the action you took. If you prefer not to have this information displayed, you should not participate in that specific campaign. If you prefer not to have this information publicly associated with a particular campaign, you should not participate in that campaign.
• Engagement opportunities. We may contact you with opportunities to get involved in campaigns, fundraisers or special projects, and provide tools that make it easier for you to share content within your social networks.
• Audience segmentation. We may use your data to better understand our members by grouping audiences based on factors such as interests, age, location, or other information you provide, so that we can tailor campaigns more effectively.
• Campaign impact and advocacy. We may 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.
• Outreach and promotion. We may use your data to create targeted outreach and promotional campaigns that raise awareness of our work and engage broader audiences with particular campaigns and petitions.
• Verification and acknowledgements. We may use your contact details to verify your identity and to send confirmation or thank-you messages after you take action, such as signing a petition or making a donation.
• Service updates. We may notify you about changes to our website, services or operations where relevant.
• Platform features. We may use your data to enable your participation in our website's interactive features, social media (for example Facebook or X) or other similar features. We may also provide functionality that allows you to sign campaigns directly from your inbox with a single click.
• Legal and contractual obligations. We may process your data where necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations with you, such as to process your donations. We may also process your data to comply with legal requirements. This includes, where required by law, disclosing your personal details to third parties to protect against fraud or security issues, to enforce our Terms of Use, or to respond to valid legal requests, such as complying with court orders and requests from public authorities, or to bring or defend legal action.

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

• Answer your queries.
• Administer & improve the site, and optimise our technology.
• Analyse 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.
• Protect our website, employees or operations, including by bringing or defending legal action.

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.

What is the lawful basis for processing your data?

When we process your personal data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, we may rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

• Consent: Where required, we will ask for your consent to use your data, such as to send you information about our campaigns, fundraising activities, and opportunities to take action; to carry out targeted advertising and profiling, or where you choose to share sensitive personal data 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 data.
• Legal obligations: When strictly necessary, we’ll process your personal data due to a binding legal obligation on us.
• Legitimate interests: To the extent permitted by law and so long as our use is fair, balanced, and doesn’t unduly impact your rights, we will collect and process your personal data when we have a legitimate interest that serves the Avaaz mission, our services, or our activities.

With whom do we share your data?

Avaaz does not rent or sell your personal data, 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 may be sent a final list that includes the name, city, country, and any comments submitted by 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 and country to the petition creator so they can deliver it to the campaign target.
• With other Avaaz organisations: We may share your data with other organisations in the Avaaz family, including affiliates based in different jurisdictions. Where this involves an international transfer of personal data, we implement appropriate safeguards in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including, where appropriate, Standard Contractual Clauses or other approved transfer mechanisms. For more information, please consult the International data transfers section of this Privacy Policy.
• Collaborating organisations & 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.
• Service providers and data processors: We work with a wide range of service providers and data processors to support our operations, 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 organisations. These providers and data processors work under strict confidentiality agreements. We do not authorise them to use or disclose your personal data except in connection with providing their services to us. Please note that we also use survey applications on external platforms, such as SurveyMonkey, to collect data from those who voluntarily fill out these surveys. Any personal data collected through these platforms is transferred to Avaaz and governed by this Privacy Policy.
• Payment processors: We work with PayPal and Stripe to help process credit card transactions and other payment methods when you donate to Avaaz. These payment processors will store certain personal data about you. Please refer to their privacy policies to learn more about how they use your personal data. 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 name, email address and Facebook ID to participate in Facebook’s Custom Audience and Lookalike Audience programmes, 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 data -- 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 data (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 data to a third party as a result of a merger, acquisition, reorganisation or similar transaction. We will continue to ensure the confidentiality of any personal data that is transferred. If there are material changes in relation to the processing of your personal data, we will provide notice and 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 campaign related to an election or referendum, 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. Full details and requirements will be provided on the specific donation page.
• Protection of Avaaz and others: We will share personal data with companies, organisations, or individuals outside of Avaaz if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of your personal data is reasonably necessary to protect Avaaz or to comply with legal requirements, including sharing with governments or law enforcement authorities or third parties to comply with a court order. When we are asked to disclose your data to a law enforcement authority, we will consider the extent that this is required and notify you, if permitted to do so.

How do we keep your data safe?

We use standard industry practices, such as firewalls and encryption, to safeguard your personally identifiable data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, misuse, or destruction. All donations, including the transmission of payment details and other personal data, are handled over secure, encrypted connections by our payment providers. Please see the privacy policies and terms of use for these providers for more information.

How long do we retain your data?

We hold on to your personal data 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 that we delete your personal data, we will honor your request and keep the minimum amount of data possible to prevent fraud and to help ensure that you are not contacted again.

Avaaz retains the data we collect for different periods of time depending on what it is.

• Data will be kept no longer than necessary for the purpose for which it was processed, unless a longer period is required to comply with applicable laws or bequests.
• Data is deleted or anonymised automatically after a set period of time, depending on its type. User and member data is typically retained for seven years, unless a legal requirement necessitates a longer retention period.
• Some data may be retained for longer periods of time when necessary for legitimate business or legal purposes, such as security, fraud and abuse prevention, financial record-keeping or fulfilling bequests.

How can you 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. You may also use the unsubscribe link in our messages.

How can you update and correct your data?

You can review and update your personal data via your profile page, or simply contact us if you have other data access requests. You can also change your personal Cookie Settings at any time. 

What rights do you have regarding your data?

Under applicable data protection laws, you have rights, including:

• Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal data.
• Your right to correct - You have the right to ask us to correct personal data you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete data you think is incomplete.
• Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Your right to restrict processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Your right to data portability - In certain circumstances, you have the right to ask that we transfer the personal data you gave us to another organisation, or to you.

Please note that where we rely on your consent to use your personal data, you 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 campaign messages by email, SMS or WhatsApp.

You are normally not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we will respond as soon as possible and within any time limits required by law.

However, we may not be able to comply with a request where these rights are subject to an exception, for example where we are processing data for journalistic or academic purposes. Other exceptions include where the use of the personal data is in connection with the prevention and detection of crime or where it is legally privileged.

International data transfers

As Avaaz is a global organisation with members, volunteers and staff around the world, your personal data may be transferred to and processed outside your country of residence. Wherever your data goes, we are committed to protecting it and respecting your rights.

We carry out international data transfers in order to operate our campaigns, manage our platform, communicate with members, provide services, comply with legal obligations, and support our global activities. In certain circumstances, we may be required to disclose personal data internationally to comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, or lawful requests from public authorities.

These transfers may involve countries where Avaaz operates or where our service providers and partners are located, including jurisdictions that may have different data protection standards than your country of residence. Where your personal data is transferred internationally, we take appropriate measures to ensure that it is protected in accordance with applicable data protection laws. In particular, where we use service providers or data processors, we ensure that adequate protection is in place by relying, where required, on recognized safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by relevant authorities, or by transferring data to countries that are legally recognized as providing an adequate level of data protection.

Links to third-party websites

We may provide links to other websites. This Privacy Policy only applies to 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.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, and will post any revisions on our website. If we make significant changes to the rules that govern this site or the way we treat your personal data, we will post a prominent notice on our website. If you continue to use our Services after an updated Privacy Policy takes effect, we will process your personal data in accordance with the updated Privacy Policy. We encourage you to visit this page regularly to review it.

How to contact Avaaz

We are committed to protecting your personal data and complying with applicable data protection laws worldwide. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, how we handle your personal data, or data protection on this site, you can contact us using the details listed below, based on your location.

European Union:

If you are located in the European Union, in accordance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you may contact our designated EU representative:

Andersen Tax and Legal Iberia, S.L.P.

Attn: GDPR / Data Protection – EU Representative Services
Address: Avenida Diagonal 618, Floor 8, 08021, Barcelona, Spain
Email: barcelona@es.andersen.com
Telephone: +34 931 31 14 44

Other Regions:

If you are based in any other jurisdiction, you may contact our Data Protection Officer directly:

Avaaz “Data Protection Officer”
c/o Sayer Vincent Llp, 110 Golden Lane
London, England, EC1Y 0TG
dataprotection@avaaz.org

For your protection, we may only share and update the personal data 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 data, passwords, banking details, or credit/debit card details via email.

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