The Quality Improvement Center on Helplines and Hotlines (“the Center,” “we,” “us,” “our”) is administered by Evident Change in partnership with Social Current and the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance as part of a cooperative agreement with the Children’s Bureau. We are committed to transparency and to protecting the privacy of your personal information. This privacy policy is designed to let you know how we collect, use, and disclose information through the websites, mobile applications, social media pages, and other online services and products (collectively, “services”) that link to this policy. We want you to know that we do not sell your personal information or share it with third parties for commercial gain or marketing purposes.
Information We Collect
You may provide personal information directly to us in a number of ways. “Personal information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual. For example:
- When you register for or use our services (such as requesting to be on our mailing list or joining a discussion group or message board), we may ask you for personal information, such as your name, email address, postal address, zip code, telephone number, or your social media account ID.
- When you use our interactive online features (such as forums, blogs, or other services that allow you to post content), we receive whatever you post, which may include personal information.
- When you contact us for assistance (for example, to learn more about the Center or to use our material), we receive any personal information you send us in that correspondence.
- When you respond to one of our surveys, we receive and may capture any personal information you disclose in your response.
We may also receive your personal information from third parties and may combine this information with any information we have collected directly from you; For example, we may receive information from providers of mailing lists.
We need to collect personal information to provide the requested information to you. If you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able to complete your request. If you disclose any personal information relating to other people to us, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this privacy policy.
Use of Personal Information
To the extent permitted by applicable law and any applicable contract to which we are a party, we use personal information for legitimate purposes that support and further our mission. These purposes include the following.
- To provide you with products, services, and information, and to fulfill your requests.
- To respond to your inquiries and correspondence.
- To send administrative information to you, such as legal notices; changes to our terms, conditions, or policies; and other information that may be relevant to your use of our services.
We may engage in activities to manage a relationship with you in the following ways.
- To send you newsletters, materials, or surveys.
- To inform you about important public policy issues that relate to our stated purpose or that might affect our services.
We may aggregate and/or anonymize personal information so that it will no longer be considered personal information. We do so to generate other data, which we may use and disclose for any purpose, including for research and analysis.
- To support and further our stated purpose.
- For data analysis; for example, to improve the efficiency of our services.
- To verify that our internal processes function as intended.
- For fraud and security monitoring purposes; for example, to detect and prevent cyberattacks or attempts to commit identity theft.
- For developing new products and services.
- For enhancing, improving, or modifying our current products and services.
- For identifying usage trends and operating and expanding our organizational activities; for example, to understand which parts of our services are of most interest to users.
Sharing of Personal Information
We are committed to maintaining your trust, and we want you to understand when and with whom we may share your personal information. To the extent permitted by applicable law and any applicable contract to which we are a party, your personal information will be disclosed:
- To our third-party service providers, to facilitate services they provide to us. These can include providers of services such as information analysis, email delivery, auditing, and other services.
- By you, if you choose to use interactive features of our services. If you choose to use message boards, chat, blogs, and other services to which you are able to post information and content. Any information you post or disclose through these services may become public.
We may also use and disclose your personal information as necessary or appropriate, especially when we have a legal obligation or legitimate interest to do so:
- To protect our legal rights, privacy, safety, security, or property and/or that of you or others.
- To enforce the terms of use of our services.
- To prevent fraud.
- For risk management purposes.
- To prevent copyright infringement.
- To comply with applicable law, which can include laws outside of your country of residence.
- To comply with or respond to law enforcement or legal process or a request for cooperation by a government or other legal entity. If we intend to disclose a user’s personal information to law enforcement or in response to a legal process, we will make reasonable efforts to promptly notify the user (and, if we know that the user is under 18, the user’s parent or legal guardian) unless directed not to by a court of law. Please note that such legal obligations or requests may arise under laws outside of your country of residence.
Other Information
We may receive certain “other information” automatically when you use our services. Other information does not reveal your specific identity or directly relate to an identifiable individual. We may use and disclose other information for any purpose. If we are required to treat other information as personal information under applicable law, then we may use and disclose it for the purposes for which we use and disclose personal information as detailed in this privacy policy. We and our service providers may collect other information in a variety of ways, including:
- Through your browser or device. Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device, such as your computer type (Windows or Mac), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, internet browser type and version, and the name and version of the services you are using. We use this information to ensure that our services function properly.
- Using cookies. Cookies are pieces of information stored directly on the computer that you are using. Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the services, pages visited, language preferences, and other traffic data. We and our service providers use the information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience. We also gather statistical information about use of the services to continually improve their design and functionality, understand how they are used, and assist us with resolving questions regarding them. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, most browsers allow you to automatically decline cookies or be given the choice of declining or accepting a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular website. You may also wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html. If, however, you do not accept cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of our services.
- Using pixel tags and similar technologies. Pixel tags (also known as web beacons and clear GIFs) may be used to, among other things, track the actions of users of our services (including email recipients), measure the success of our marketing campaigns, and compile statistics about use of the services and response rates.
- Analytics. We use third-party providers of analytics services, including Google Analytics, which use cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the services and report on activities and trends. These services may also collect information regarding the use of other online services. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/ and opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
- IP address. Your IP address is automatically assigned to your computer by your internet service provider. An IP address may be identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever a user accesses our services, along with the time of the visit and the pages visited. Collecting IP addresses is standard practice and is done automatically by many websites, applications, and other services. We use IP addresses for purposes such as calculating usage levels, diagnosing server problems, and administering our services. We may also derive your approximate location from your IP address.
Do Not Track
Some web browsers may transmit “do-not-track” signals to the websites with which the user communicates. The Center does not take any specific action in response to these signals. In order to provide a positive user experience, the Center may maintain information about your usage history across multiple channels. The Center respects your privacy and will use this information only as described in this privacy policy.
Information Security
Protection of our users’ personal information is important to us, so we seek to maintain security safeguards designed to protect against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of your personal information within our organization. Please note, however, that no information transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any personal information you disclose or transmit to us online and cannot be responsible for the theft, destruction, or inadvertent disclosure of your personal information. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us by contacting us at privacy@helplinesandhotlines.org.
Choices and Access
You may request to review, correct, update, suppress, restrict, or delete your personal information, object to the processing of personal information, or request to receive an electronic copy of your personal information for purposes of transmitting it to another organization (to the extent this right to data portability is provided to you by applicable law), by contacting us at info@helplinesandhotlines.org. We will respond to your request consistent with applicable law. For your protection, we may only implement requests with respect to the personal information associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that we may need to retain certain personal information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any activity that you began prior to requesting a change or deletion. Please note that your request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or personal information, as, for example, some of your content may have been reposted by another user.
Children’s Privacy
The privacy and protection of children is of great importance to us. We do not knowingly collect, use, or disclose personal information from children under the age of 18 without obtaining consent from a parent or legal guardian, except as otherwise permitted by applicable law. We do not knowingly allow users of the services who are under the age of 18 to make personal information publicly available through our services. If a member under the age of 18 (or their parent or legal guardian) wishes to review, modify, or delete the minor member’s personal information and refuse to permit further collection or use, please contact us using the contact information below.
Retention Period
We retain personal information for as long as needed or legally permitted in light of the purpose(s) for which it was obtained and consistent with applicable law. The criteria used to determine our retention periods include the following.
- The length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide the services to you; for example, for as long as you have an account with us or keep using our services;
- Whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject; for example, certain laws require us to keep records for a certain period of time before we can delete them; or
- Whether retention is advisable in light of our legal position; for example, in regard to applicable statutes of limitations, litigation, or regulatory investigations.
Social Networking and Third-Party Sites
Social Networking Services
You may use other third-party social media providers in conjunction with our services, including in certain instances to access our services. For example, you can use third-party social networking services, including but not limited to Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google, and X, to share information about your experience on our services with your friends and followers on those social networking services. The third-party social networking services may be able to collect information about you, including your activity on our services. The third-party social networking services also may notify your friends, both on our services and on the social networking services themselves, that you are a user of our services or about your use of our services, in accordance with applicable law and their own privacy policies. If you choose to access or make use of third-party social networking services, we may receive information about you that you have made available to those social networking services, including information about your contacts. We are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure, or security policies or practices of other organizations, such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, X, or any other application developer, application provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider, or device manufacturer.
Links to Third-Party Sites and Services
Our services may contain links to other websites or online services that are operated and maintained by third parties and that are not under our control or maintained by us. This privacy policy does not apply to such third-party services. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any such third-party services.
Updates to This Privacy Policy
We may change this privacy policy from time to time. To the extent permitted by applicable law and any applicable contract to which we are a party, any changes will become effective when we post the revised privacy policy on the services.
Communications Preferences
You may choose to receive promotional emails, newsletters, and similar communications from us. Even if you have opted in, you may opt out of receiving these communications by clicking on the opt-out or “unsubscribe” link included in the promotional emails. Please note that opt-out requests may take up to 10 business days to be effective. Your opt-out request will not apply to messages that are not promotional in nature.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, or about any other aspect of the services, please contact us at:
Evident Change
717 John Nolen Dr.
Madison, WI 53713
privacy@helplinesandhotlines.org
(800) 306-6223