CFC Privacy Policy

—updated February 18, 2016

The Consumer Federation of California (CFC); the Consumer Federation of California Education Foundation (CFC Education Foundation); and PrivacyRevolt.com, a website run by the Consumer Federation of California Issues Committee that is a partner of CFC and the CFC Education Foundation, do not collect personally identifiable information on our website unless you choose to give it to us via an email message, an online form, by responding to an Action Alert, or by making an online contribution. This privacy policy applies to all websites run by these entities, and to our employees, volunteers, and contract personnel.

As a leading consumer advocate, we respect your privacy. We collect two types of user data: (1) technical data that is automatically collected from visitors to our websites, and (2) data that you voluntarily submit to us.

Automatically Collected Data. We automatically collect and store Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses and domain names of the visitor’s computer on our server and may know some information you have previously provided through cookies. We also track the number and frequency of hits per page, and length of website visit, and related information about visits to our websites, and to help us diagnose problems with our server, using IP addresses and/or cookies. If you arrive at our websites from a website link, we may also identify the source of that link. Our Web servers may place cookies on your computer containing information you have given us (for example, your address or ZIP code). These cookies are designed to allow us to provide you more focused information on issues (for example, information on how to contact your lawmakers, based on your address or ZIP code).

These cookies are not essential to the viewing of the site, and you may block them from being placed on your computer without any loss of site functionality.

Voluntarily Submitted Data. We may collect and store personal data that you voluntarily provide, such as your name, mailing address, phone number, email address, and similar information, and transactional information, such as donation and action-taking history, data required to complete a donation that you initiate, and tell-a-friend data, when you participate in certain activities on our websites, including taking action in an online campaign, completing a survey or petition, donating, or similar participation in a campaign on our websites, or by contacting us via email or online form.

We also may collect data concerning your use of our websites, such as by using an embedded image in an email in order to track whether you open our email communications and using a URL contained in an email we send to you that enables us to identify that you have taken an action using a Web page. We may use this data to identify your interests in our work in order to enable us to offer you opportunities to take action on the issues you care about, and to simplify the process of your signing messages and petitions, taking surveys, and donating.

Information Sharing. PrivacyRevolt.com, operated by CFC Issues Committee, and the CFC and the CFC Education Foundation, collaborate on consumer issues and may share information with each other regarding persons who contact our websites or our offices, who take action, fill out surveys and petitions, or who make donations. We do not share with third parties any personally identifiable information about individuals who contact us, except as outlined in this policy.

When you take action by signing a petition, an email message or similar advocacy message on one of our campaigns, you grant us permission to send your message, or include you in a petition, along with your name, and/or ZIP code and/or email address, to the elected or appointed government officials, business or civic leaders, or other decision makers whom we identify as the targets of that campaign.

We may on occasion refer persons who contact us regarding a consumer or privacy issue to a lawmaker, regulatory agency, an attorney or the news media, provided you specifically authorize us to share your contact information.

Information that you provide to us is stored on databases maintained by third-party service providers, subject to restrictions on their sharing it with other parties. Information from online donors is shared with our bookkeeping and accounting service providers, with our auditor, with third-party online merchant account transaction processors, with our banks, and on occasion with contract personnel, also with restrictions on their sharing it with other parties. We may share with our attorneys or law enforcement agencies personally identifiable information that is connected with activities that we suspect may be unlawful. We cannot guarantee that your personally identifiable information will not be shared due to a subpoena, search warrant, court order, or other lawful form of legal process.

We may disclose personally identifiable information to the extent we reasonably believe it necessary to protect the security or integrity of our operations; to take precautions against liability; in the event of a security breach, or to take action to prevent, minimize, or remedy any harm from the breach; or to the extent permitted by law, to provide information to a law enforcement agency or for an investigation on a matter related to public safety.

We send occasional printed newsletters, donation appeals and related materials to persons who provide us with a mailing address. We provide names and mailing addresses to our printers and mailers for the purpose of preparing and sending these mailings, with restrictions on their sharing it with other parties.

On occasion, we may conduct a coordinated campaign with one or more allies. In a coordinated campaign, we may share with allies who direct their correspondents to an Action Alert on our website the names and email addresses of individuals who took action using our website. We would disclose in the Action Alert the names of allies participating in a coordinated campaign.

We do not sell, rent, share, or otherwise disclose personally identifiable information regarding persons who contact us, unless required by law or for the limited purposes outlined above, except that we may share your information with other nonprofit allies who are compatible with our policies and purposes, by sending your contact information to a third-party service provider that prepares the communication for the other nonprofit organization, with restrictions on the service provider’s sharing it with other parties, including with the nonprofit organization for whom it prepares the communication.

You may unsubscribe from our email or print mail lists at any time. Look for the “Safe Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the emails we send or call us at 916-498-9608. [Salsa Alerts just say “Click here to unsubscribe.”]

Except as described in this Privacy Policy, we will not share your Voluntarily Submitted Data with any third party unless we first notify you and offer you an appropriate choice to consent to such further use, for example, through an opt-out or opt-in request. Our privacy policy only applies to our websites. If you click on a link on our site that takes you to a different organization’s website, you need to read that site’s privacy policy. For example, if you interact with us on Facebook or Twitter, your information is subject to their respective privacy policies.

We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. We will post any changes on this Web page, so be sure to check back periodically. If we make substantive changes, we will post a notice on our home page that the Privacy Policy has been modified and provide a link to the revised Privacy Policy.