COPD Alliance Privacy Policy
Last updated on October 28, 2011
Welcome to the COPD Alliance Privacy Policy
Thank you for visiting COPD Alliance. Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy, we provide this Privacy Policy (the “Privacy Policy”) setting forth our information practices and the choices you can make about the collection and use of your personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy governs our information practices related to the Services, as that terms is defined in our Terms of Service Agreement located at: http://www.copd.org/terms-service
Tracking Activity on Our Website
When you view our website located at http://www.copd.org or any other websites owned, operated or controlled by us, as well as our social media networking webpage(s), we may store some information on your computer in the form of a “cookie.” A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. Cookies do not spy on you, and they cannot invade your hard drive and steal information. Rather, they help you navigate a website as easily as possible. We use cookies to identify user preferences, track click streams, and for load balancing. Because we use cookies, we can deliver faster service, updated results, and a more personalized site experience. You have the option of setting your browser to reject cookies. However, doing this likely will hinder performance and negatively impact your experience our website and/or social media networking webpage(s). If cookies are not enabled on your browser, please adjust your security preferences to enable them, see the following link for simple instructions for several types of browsers: www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35851.
2. Collecting Personally Identifiable Information
When you browse our website and do not interact with the site for any service, you browse anonymously. Personally identifiable information--such as your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address--is not collected as you browse. We collect only aggregate data, such as the number of hits per page, and use this aggregate data only for internal and marketing purposes.
3. Using Personally Identifiable Information
We may use e-mail to send materials advising of the availability and quality of products, programs, and other offerings of COPD Alliance. Such mailings might include, for example, COPD Alliance newsletters and e-mails from program partners.
Except under special circumstances, we do not share, sell, trade, exchange, or rent your e-mail address to vendors or any other organization for them to market their products or services to you. If and when we hire vendors to deliver e-mails to you on our behalf, they are prohibited from using your e-mail address for any other purpose.
4. Sharing Personally Identifiable Information
We may share personally identifiable information with our affiliates, partners, or other organizations in order to provide them an opportunity to offer products or services that may be of interest to you. In addition, if we determine, in good faith and using our best judgment, that an organization’s mission is so similar to, or aligned with, COPD Alliance’s mission that users of our Services could benefit from learning about such organization’s products or services, then we may share users’ mailing addresses and/or e-mail addresses. However, we require that these organizations use any personally identifiable information only to market and provide their products or services. Furthermore, except under special circumstances, we allow these organizations to use such information only for a one-time mailing.
We also occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, including, but not limited to, packaging, data modeling, printing, and mailing. We will only provide those companies the information they need to deliver the service. They are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose your personally identifiable information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to legal requirements or comply with legal process served on COPD Alliance; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of COPD Alliance; or (c) protect the personal safety of COPD Alliance personnel or members of the public in urgent circumstances.
5. Opting Out
To opt out of a COPD Alliance e-mail list and/or postal mailing, please send an e-mail to info@copd.org requesting removal from the email and/or postal mailing list. You can also call COPD Alliance at (847) 498-8306 to request removal from our email and/or postal mailing list. Please keep in mind that any opt out request will only be effective after a reasonable period of time for processing.
6. Links to Third Party Websites
The Services may contain links to websites operated and maintained by third parties, and third party websites might link to our website and/or social media networking webpage(s). We have no control over third party sites or their content, and privacy policies on such linked sites may be different from this Privacy Policy. You acknowledge and agree that your access to such linked sites is at your own risk. You should always read the privacy policy of a linked site before disclosing any personally identifiable information on such site.
7. Security
We take precautions, including use of sophisticated encryption and authentication tools, to protect the security of personally identifiable information that you share with us. In addition, certain areas of the Services may require the use of a user ID (or e-mail address) and password as an additional security measure that helps protect your information. Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and your browser software might “cache” a page as you look at it, meaning that some pages are saved on your computer’s temporary memory even after you “log out” to end a secure session. As a result, while we strive to protect your personally identifiable information, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to or from the Services, and you do so at your own risk.
THIS PRIVACY POLICY MAY BE CHANGED AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE.