The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Website Privacy Policy
Respecting user privacy over the Internet is of utmost importance to us. This Privacy Policy describes the current policies and practices with regard to personal data collected by the Presbyterian Mission Agency (“PMA”) and the Office of the General Assembly (“OGA”) (collectively “we,” “us,” “our”) through our Websites (http://www.pcusa.org/ https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ http://oga.pcusa.org/ ). The term “Personal Data” refers to personally identifiable information, including your name, birth date, email address, mailing address, social security number, and the last four digits of your credit card number. To see the privacy policy for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Investment and Loan Program, Inc., please go to www.pcusa.org/pilp.
In general, you can visit our Websites without telling us who you are or providing any information about yourself. In some areas of our Websites, programs have been designed to perform specific functions for you directly though our Websites. Within these programs we may ask you to provide information that will enable us to process an order, offer services that require registration for a gathering or event or assist you with technical support issues or to follow up with you. In some instances, the information sought may include Personal Data.
This Privacy Policy applies to Personal Data submitted by you and/or collected online by us except through the student financial aid programs.
Your Consent
By using our Websites, you consent to our use of your Personal Data as described in this Privacy Policy.
Use of Personal Data Collected Through Our Websites
Information, including but not limited to Personal Data, that we collect will not be sold, rented, lent, exchanged or used by an individual or entity other than the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (“PCUSA”) entities and governing bodies of the PCUSA (including PMA and OGA) unless otherwise indicated. This includes, for example, the information you provide when you register for an event or conference, order resource materials, request other services, or when you send us your comments or requests for information.
We use the Personal Data you provide for the purposes for which it was originally collected, for example, to respond to your email or to provide the programs or services you requested. We may also use Personal Data to help us improve the content and functionality of our Websites, to better understand the needs and interests of the people and organizations that use our Websites, and to improve our programs and services. This Personal Data may be used to contact you in the future to tell you about organizations within the PCUSA, programs and services.
Unless we have your permission or are otherwise required by law to release, the Personal Data provided by you online will be shared only with other PC(USA) entities and governing bodies to enable them to contact you regarding services, benefits, or mission opportunities; with other third parties who act on our behalf to further process or analyze the data or protect the security or integrity of our databases or our Websites; and with our successors in interest through corporate merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar event. In the event of a release to a PC(USA) entity or third party described above, your Personal Data will not be released until the PC(USA) entity, governing body, or third party has agreed in writing to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy.
We, and others with whom we share your Personal Data, may retain your Personal Data on file to better serve you. Any destruction of Personal Data will be done in a manner consistent with the intent of this policy.
Anonymous Data Collected Through PC(USA) Websites
In addition to the Personal Data you provide when you use our Websites, we use technology to collect anonymous information about the use of our Websites. For example, we use technology to track how many visitors access our Websites, the date and time of their visit, the length of their stay, and which pages they view. We also use technology to determine which web browsers our visitors use and the address from which they accessed the site.
This technology does not identify you personally. It simply enables us to compile statistics about our visitors and their use of our Websites. We use this anonymous data and may share it with third parties for various reasons; for example, to improve the content and functionality of our Websites, to better understand the needs and interests of our visitors, to improve our programs and services.
Cookies
To collect the anonymous data described in the preceding paragraph, we may use temporary “cookies” that collect the first level domain name of the user. For example, if your email address is “name@xyz.com,” the cookie collects the “xyz.com” portion of your email address and the date and time you accessed our Websites. Cookies by themselves cannot be used to discover the identity of the user. A cookie is a small piece of information that is sent to your browser and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies do not damage your computer. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. This enables you to decide if you want to accept it or not. Our Websites only use temporary or “session” cookies. These “session” cookies expire when your browser window is closed.
For certain applications on the pcusa.org Website to function properly, if at all, it is necessary for your computer to accept cookies.
Online Advertising Through Remarketing
At times, we use Google Remarketing to advertise Presbyterian Mission or PCUSA across the Internet. The Google Remarketing platform will display relevant ads tailored to you based on what parts of presbyterianmission.org you have viewed by placing a cookie on your machine. This cookie does not in any way identify you or give access to your computer. The cookie is used to say “this person visited this page, so show them ads relating to that page.” Google Remarketing allows us to tailor our marketing to better suit your needs and only display ads that are relevant to you.
If you do not wish to participate in our remarketing, you can opt out by visiting Google’s Ads Preferences Manager
You can also opt out of any third-party vendor’s use of cookies by visiting www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.
Minors
We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from minors under the age of thirteen. If you are age thirteen or under, please do not give us any Personal Data. If you have reason to believe that a child has provided Personal Data on our Websites, please contact us at webmaster@pcusa.org and we will endeavor to delete that Personal Data. If you are a child age thirteen or under and using our Websites, please do not give any Personal Data about yourself, such as your name, address, birth date, phone number, school or email address. As we develop online programs for children, we will adopt appropriate policies and practices to protect the privacy of children.
When we obtain photographs and images of minors, we notify their parents or guardians and ask for a written and signed release before we publish them on our Websites (at some events with a large youth presence, we request signed permission forms as a part of the event registration process). When third parties send us photographs or images of minors, we ask that they do the same and have some form of permission to have taken those photographs and images and permission to use them. We ask users who send photographs and images of minors to our Websites not to send images for which they do not have permission of the parents or guardian or send photographs or images in violation of local, state or federal law.
Links to Other Sites
This Privacy Policy applies only to our Websites which are owned and administered by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation. This site contains many hyperlinks to websites that are not operated by us. These hyperlinks are provided for your reference and convenience only and do not imply any endorsement of the activities of these third-party websites or any association with their operators. We do not control these websites and are not responsible for their data practices. We urge you to review the privacy policy posted on any site you visit before using the site or before providing any Personal Data about yourself.
Governing Law
This Privacy Policy forms part of our Website Terms of Use Agreement, which shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Questions About Our Privacy Policy
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or concerns about the way we use Personal Data, please contact webmaster@pcusa.org.
Notification of Changes to This Policy
We are continually improving and adding new functionality and features to our Websites. Because of these ongoing changes, changes in the law, and the changing nature of technology, we may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. When the Policy changes, we will post a dated notice in this Policy informing you that a change has been made. The Privacy Policy was last updated on October 6, 2017.