1. General Statement
The United States Senate Youth Alumni Association (“USSYAA,” “we” or “our”) respects your privacy and we are committed to protecting it. This Privacy Statement explains our policies and practices regarding the information we collect from and about you. It is through this Privacy Statement that we intend to provide you with a level of comfort and confidence in how we collect, use, and safeguard personal and other information we collect and obtain, or that you provide through this website, and how you can contact us if you have any questions or concerns. It is our sincere hope that by explaining our data handling practices we will develop a trusting and long-lasting relationship with you. By using this website, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Statement.
2. Information About USSYAA and This Website
This Privacy Statement applies to the website located at USSYAA.org, its related mobile website, and its applications (collectively, the “Site”), which are owned and operated by The United States Senate Youth Alumni Association, PO Box 1798, Washington, D.C., 20013-1798. If you navigate to USSYAA.org, you will be redirected to this Site. USSYAA also manages certain micro-sites or social media profiles which may be administered by a third-party on our behalf, such as https://secure.qgiv.com/for/?key=ussyaa, and our accounts on Facebook, Twitter Instagram, etc.
The purpose of the Site is to provide members with: (1) knowledge of the features and benefits of being a member or affiliate of the Alumni Association; (2) purchase-related information, such as available events, incentives, services, benefits and USSYAA contacts; (3) the ability to interact with other alumni of the United States Senate Youth Program; (4) the ability to update your contact information and communication preferences; (5) to purchase products, join and renew USSYAA memberships, register for events, review product, service and experience information; (6) the opportunity to enter sweepstakes and purchase items; and (7) the opportunity to share your story or feedback regarding USSYAA products, services and experiences.
USSYAA makes every effort to ensure that information available through the Site and functionality of the Site is consistent and accessible across all devices, however certain features that are available on the website may not be available on the related mobile site or app, and vice versa.
Information We Collect From and About You
Information You Provide to USSYAA
For purposes of this Privacy Statement, “personally identifiable information” is information that identifies you as an individual, for example, your name, street address, telephone number, e-mail address or credit card number. When you visit the Site, we will not collect any personally identifiable information about you unless you provide it to us voluntarily. If you opt not to provide us with personally identifiable information you can still access the Site, however you will be unable to participate in certain promotions, such as sweepstakes, create login credentials in order to use certain functionalities on the Site, activate or use a service, interact with USSYAA member-exclusive info through the Site, have a purchase order fulfilled or receive product information.
USSYAA and our service providers may collect personally identifiable information from you when, for example, you create account credentials, purchase an event admission or other products, participate in certain Site activities, such as promotions and sweepstakes, and post information on Site Communities.
When you create account credentials for the Site, you may be provided the opportunity to use the same account identification (email address) for one or more USSYAA or its affiliates’ websites, or you may choose to create a new account. To facilitate this for you, when you provide your email address to us on registration or certain portions of this Site, we may check whether there is already an existing account with this email address and advise you.
Certain pages of the Site may allow you to create login credentials by typing in your user name/ID or email address and password and other information, or by using one of the available social media authentication methods such as Facebook, Google +, and Yahoo. If you choose to create login credentials using your account with one of the available social media authentication tools, you allow us to access your information that is publicly available on the social media website (e.g., name, user ID, profile picture), and information you “Allow” the social media website to access and share with USSYAA. By authenticating through one of the social media options, you allow us to receive this information about you. We encourage you to review the privacy statement and any terms and conditions of the social media website to determine the method you choose to utilize for authentication on this Site.
Information USSYAA May Collect Automatically
The Site and its service providers may collect “non-personally identifiable information” from you. “Non-personally identifiable information” is information that does not identify you on an individual basis, but rather is collected and maintained on an aggregate or anonymous basis that includes all Site visitors. Non-personally identifiable information may include Site activity information that tracks the Site pages that are visited, the amount of time spent on the Site, clicks, mouse movements, scrolls, page views, events (which online features you interacted with), and anonymous information such as the zip codes where our visitors live. It also may include aggregate data provided by a third-party that surveys Site visitors on our behalf.
Tools We Use to Collect Non-Personally Identifiable Information
A “cookie” is a small text file that helps us to make your visit to the Site more enjoyable and meaningful to you. For example, cookies avoid you having to log in every time you come back to one of our websites. They also allow us to tailor a website or advertisement to better match your interests and preferences. There are a couple different types of cookies:
- A “session” cookie is stored only in your computer’s working memory (RAM) and only lasts for your browsing session. When you close all your browser’s windows, or when you shut down your computer, the session cookie disappears forever.
- A “persistent” cookie is stored on your computer’s hard drive until a specified date, which could be tomorrow, next week, or 10 years from now. Persistent cookies stay on your computer until either a) they expire, b) they are overwritten with newer cookies, or c) you manually remove them.
Most browsers can be configured not to accept cookies; however, this may prevent you from having access to some Site functions or features.
The Site may use conversion pixels and tags which are Site instrumentation tools that help us to determine, for instance, whether a page has been viewed or not and, if so, how many times. Emails or electronic newsletters we send may use tools (e.g., pixel tags or web beacons) to gather email metrics and information to improve the reader’s experience such as how many of the emails are opened, if they were printed or forwarded, the type of device (e.g., mobile or PC) from which they were opened, and the city, state, and county associated with the applicable IP address. In general, any electronic image viewed as part of a webpage, including an ad banner, can act as a web beacon.
The Site may generate a “session log” when you visit. We use session logs to help us determine how people travel through the Site. In this way, we can structure our pages so that the information most frequently visited is easier to find. By tracking page visits, we can also determine if the information we’re providing is being used. The only data gathered is the Internet Protocol (IP) address from which you came (which contains no personal information), the website that referred you, the pages you visited and the date and time of those visits.
The Site may provide you with the opportunity to integrate with third-party social media sites, and this Site may track on an aggregate level the number of items “Liked” on this Site, or items on the Site that you choose to share with a third-party social media site.
If you visit a related mobile Site or app, or are directed to the Site via a QR Code that you scanned, we collect additional non-personally identifiable information that may include the mobile device’s service provider and operating system. We may also collect a unique device identifier assigned to your mobile device, geolocation data (including your precise location), or other transactional information for that device. If your mobile phone has the capability and the GPS feature on the mobile phone is turned on, you can utilize certain locator functionalities on the Site that may utilize your GPS data to determine your location in order to fulfill your request.
Users may be directed to the Site via banner ads, Site links or QR Codes. Ads, Site links or QR Codes may use tools such as cookies or web beacons to deliver metrics on the effectiveness of the ads or links. They do not collect personally identifiable information from the user.
Service Provider and Partner Collection of Information on the Site
The Site may use third party service providers to activate and/or deliver a service, or deliver Site functionality such as fulfilling your request to purchase a product or service, including items from our online store. In performing this function, the third party may place a persistent cookie on your computer or have to gather personal information from you in order to activate and deliver the service, or facilitate the processing of your purchase.
We may use an unaffiliated payment service to allow you to purchase a product or service offered through the Site (“Payment Service”). If you wish to purchase or service, or make a payment, using a Payment Service you will be directed to a Payment Service webpage. Any information you provide to a Payment Service is subject to the applicable Payment Service’s privacy statement, rather than this Privacy Statement. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, any Payment Service’s use of information collected through any Payment Service.
This Site may use a third-party click tracking analytics tool (such as Google Analytics and the Salesforce Marketing Cloud) to capture clickthrough statistics.
3. How USSYAA Uses Your Information
USSYAA may use the personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information collected from and about you to:
- Fulfill Site user requests (e.g., create log in credentials, send marketing or promotional materials including e-mails, change newsletter preferences, etc.)
- Create an online directory of United States Senate Youth Program alumni
- Respond to your comments or requests for information
- Contact you about promotional offers, service opportunities, marketing programs, or communications from USSYAA, the United States Senate Youth Program, or the Hearst Foundations.
- Track, measure and analyze your use of and activity relating to the Site, and your engagement with USSYAA and our programs, services and activities, in order to enhance USSYAA’s relationships with you
- Fulfill a request for or to develop new products or services
- Contact you if necessary in the course of processing or shipping an order for products or services
- Generate analytics that improve the Site layout, content, product offerings and services
- Make inferences and predictions about your potential areas of interest
- Comply with legal requirements
- Compile aggregate and statistical data to help in website design and to identify popular features
- Measure site activity to allow us to update the Site to better meet user wants and needs
4. Sharing Your Personally Identifiable Information
Alumni data is the property of the United States Senate Youth Alumni Association, which has final authority over decisions about the sharing of that information.
USSYAA does not share, sell, or rent personally identifiable information with unaffiliated entities for their own use without providing you a choice.
Personally identifiable information that you provide to us in the course of using Site features or requesting a product or service through the Site may be stored in one or more of our secure databases, accessibly only by members of the USSYAA Board of Directors. We may share personally identifiable information that we collect about you with associated organizations like the Hearst Foundations, but only when the Board determines that sharing that information would be in the best interest of the USSYAA membership. Non-personally identifiable information collected from and about you may also be shared with other associated organizations.
Service providers, contractors or subcontractors that have access to your personally identifiable information in connection with providing services for the Site are required to keep your information confidential and are not permitted to use this information for any other purpose than to fulfill the services they are performing for USSYAA or the Site.
If you are providing personally identifiable information in connection with a contest or sweepstakes through the Site, and if you are selected as a winner, we may include your personally identifiable information in a publicly available winner’s list.
USSYAA will disclose your personally identifiable information, without notice, only if has a good faith belief that such use or disclosure is necessary in order to: (i) protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, or property of USSYAA, our affiliates or their employees, agents and contractors (including enforcement of our agreements and our terms of use); (ii) protect the safety, privacy, and security of users of the Site or members of the public; (iii) protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; (iv) comply with the law or legal process; or (v) respond to requests from public and government authorities.
5. Access to and Control Over Your Personally Identifiable Information
To correct, update or delete your personally identifiable information maintained by USSYAA, you may contact us through any of the options listed in Section 9 below. California residents may request that we not share personal information on a going-forward basis with USSYAA affiliates or unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes using any of these options. Please supply your name and address and specify what information you would like to correct, update or suppress so that we may be able to process your request. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable.
The scope of access available for this request is for information stored in the database that holds the data for the Site. Any personally identifiable information that has been collected from you on other associated websites will not be accessible or changeable through the processing of this request.
6. Security of Your Information
Safeguarding information of visitors to the Site is important to us. We use reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical steps to maintain accuracy of information and to protect information from loss, unauthorized use or alteration.
7. Consent to Processing
The Site is hosted in and managed from the United States. By visiting the Site and by providing your personally identifiable information to us, you understand and consent to the collection, use, processing, transfer, and disclosure of your personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information globally — including to the United States – in accordance with this Privacy Statement. Therefore, by visiting the Site and by providing such information, you consent to the transfer of such information across country borders, and to the use, processing, and disclosure of such information in global locations. Your consent shall be deemed to include your consent to transfer of the personally identifiable or non-personally identifiable information to locations that may have different levels of privacy protection than in your own country.
8. Links to Other Sites
The Site provides links to other websites. We encourage you to review the privacy statements of all sites which you visit, including those whose links are provided on the Site, so that you can understand how those sites collect, use and share your information. The Site is not responsible for the privacy statements, content or data handling practices on other websites.
9. Contacting Us
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this Privacy Statement, the Site’s privacy practices, or have any questions regarding the contents of Site, please contact us at:
USSYAA
Attention: Technology Director
PO Box 1798
Washington, D.C. 20013-1798
Info@USSYAA.org
We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair and rapid resolution of any complaints or disputes about privacy and the handling of your data. We will be happy to respond to your questions and comments.
10. Revisions to This Privacy Statement
Occasionally we may update this Privacy Statement in order to reflect any changes to the Site or our privacy practices. If we make any updates, the new Privacy Statement will be posted to the website ten (10) days prior to the changes taking effect.
The effective date of this Privacy Statement is March 1, 2021.
