Privacy Policy

Updated March 12, 2017

American Oversight takes your privacy seriously. This policy outlines how we collect, use, maintain, and disclose information gathered from users of our website.

Information we collect:

  • Personal Information You Provide – Personally identifiable information (such as names, mailing addresses and email addresses) from users when they voluntarily provide such information to us, including, for example, when users sign up to join our email list or make a financial donation to American Oversight.
  • Non-Personal Information Collected Automatically – Non-personally identifiable information about visitors to our website, which may include your IP address, your Internet service provider, the browser you used, the time you visited the website, and which pages you viewed.

How we use the information we collect:

  • Aggregate non-personally identifiable information is used to understand how users interact with our website and to improve our services. This information may be shared with third parties such as funders or journalists.
  • Personal information will be used for the purpose for which it was provided – such as subscribing you to our email list, sending you newsletters and other updates to keep you informed about various issues, soliciting donations, processing a donation, or responding to your questions.
  • American Oversight may use third party service providers to help operate our organization and website or to administer activities such as collecting donations on our behalf. We may share user information with these third parties for those limited purposes, but American Oversight requires that such third parties protect the confidentiality of your information and use it for no other purpose.
  • We do not share users’ personally identifiable information with other third parties (other than as specified in this policy).
  • We will never sell your information.

Subscribing (and unsubscribing) to our contact lists
You may unsubscribe from our email list at any time. If you provide American Oversight with your email address and/or mailing address, we will add you to our email and/or mailing list, and we may contact you with information that we think will be of interest to you. If at any time you wish to stop receiving communications from American Oversight, please follow the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of any email we send you. If you continue to receive communications from us after attempting to unsubscribe, please send us an email at info@americanoversight.org and ask to be removed from our distribution lists.

How we use web browser cookies and beacons:
We may use “cookies” and “web beacons” to enhance your experience with the Website. A cookie is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user’s web browser while the user is browsing that website. Every time the user loads the website, the browser sends the cookie back to the server to notify the website of the user’s previous activity. A web beacon (or pixel tag) is an often transparent graphic image (usually no larger than 1 pixel x 1 pixel) that is placed on a website or in an e-mail that is used to monitor the online behavior of the user visiting the website or sending the e-mail. American Oversight uses cookies and web beacons to measure aggregate web statistics, such as collecting the number of users to the Website, the number of repeat users and the most popular webpages, the location and time when users visit the Website, and for other purposes.

American Oversight does not use cookies or web beacons to track user activity on an individual basis. You may choose to set your web browser to refuse cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent.

Protecting Your Information
As noted on the tips page of our site, no system of communication is completely secure and no organization can resist every effort to discover sources. Please visit that page to learn more about how protect your privacy when communicating with American Oversight.

American Oversight adopts appropriate data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures to help protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction of your personal information, but American Oversight cannot guarantee that your information is 100% secure.

American Oversight may release personal information if required to do so by law, or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws or to respond to a court order, subpoena, or search warrant.

Third Party Websites
American Oversight may provide links from our website to other websites. American Oversight does not control the content or links that appear on these third party websites and is not responsible for the practices or privacy policies employed by websites linked to or from our site.

Changes to this Privacy Policy
American Oversight may update this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do, we will revise the updated date at the top of this page. We encourage users to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about what information we collect and how we use that information. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this Privacy Policy periodically and become aware of any modifications since your last visit.

Contacting American Oversight
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or anything relating to the website, please contact American Oversight here.