Privacy Statement | American Civil Liberties Union (original) (raw)
ACLU collects your personal information to further our mission through our advocacy and organizing, litigation, and fundraising programs. When we process, use, or share that information, we apply appropriate confidentiality and security requirements (see: How We Protect Your Information and With Whom and How We Share Your Information). In addition, we aim to use only the information that is specific and necessary for the processing purpose (see: Our Data Privacy Principles).
- Advocacy and Organizing. ACLU works to advance our advocacy and organizing capacity to further our mission. To do this, ACLU uses the personal information you provide to us when you take action to share your stories and testimonials, to deliver your petitions and action messages, and to host events. We may also use your personal information to mobilize volunteers and activists in support of our work.
- Fundraising. ACLU, as a nonprofit, needs donor support to enable its operations. To do this, ACLU uses your personal information to process your donations and solicit donations.
- Legal Services. ACLUF works to win court battles and Supreme Court cases core to our issue areas, and to provide other critical legal services regarding important civil liberties and rights to ACLUF To do this, ACLU uses sources that may include your personal information to research violations of civil liberties, evaluate requests for legal representation, solicit potential clients, litigate court cases, and effectively represent ACLUF clients.
- Merchandise. ACLU provides merchandise to support our advocacy and fundraising efforts. When you order merchandise, ACLU uses your personal information to register your account with our store or process your payments.
- Outreach and Research. ACLU works to deliver information on issue areas you have identified as important to you, and to seek out new supporters of our mission. To do this, ACLU uses your personal information to communicate opportunities to support ACLU’s mission through various communication channels, including targeted advertising, based on your engagement profile, social listening, and polling.
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement. ACLU works to provide you with a secure and optimized experience engaging with our Digital Services, and to improve our programs and services to advance our work preserving and protecting civil rights and liberties more generally. To do this, ACLU uses your personal information in: user-experience testing, website performance assessment, fraud detection, account registration, and to conduct internal research to develop and improve our services, products, and technologies.
- When Required by Law, to Prevent Fraud, and Protect Our or Others’ Rights. ACLU, as a nonprofit, must submit donation reports to governmental entities and fulfill other legal obligations, such as complying with Your Choices and Rights. To do this, ACLU uses your personal information to fulfill those obligations (e.g., ensuring that your information is deleted from our systems if you so request). In addition, ACLU may need to use your personal information to prevent fraud or to protect our or others’ rights (e.g., researching your personal information if we have reason to think you may be using our name and logo without permission).
There is not a “one-size fits all” approach to how the ACLU processes and uses personal information. ACLU strives for transparency about what personal information we collect and how we use it. This chart details further our personal information processing activities and their purposes, the categories of personal information we process (see Personal Information We Collect for more information), and the categories of parties with whom we may share your information (see With Whom and How We Share Your Information for more information).
Processing Activity and Use
Purpose(s)*^
Type(s) of Information*
With Whom We May Share Information^
Processing Activity and Use
Account creation and management: To create and manage your account. Accounts may be created for our online store.
Purpose(s)*^
- Merchandise
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Account registration
- Contact
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Broadcast updates and communicate with you: To keep you informed of our priorities and opportunities to get involved, and in response to inquiries made by you. This can be through direct mail, email, phone calls, and text messages and includes any of our action or marketing lists you subscribe to.
Purpose(s)*^
- Advocacy & Organizing
- Fundraising
- Legal Services
- Outreach & Research
- Merchandise
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Contact
- Demographic
- Interaction
- Interests
- Preferences
- User-created content
- Voting
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Conduct research and analyze information to improve the effectiveness of our outreach and communications: To ensure you receive the most relevant opportunities, we use personal information to model and identify who is most likely to support an issue area or campaign and segment our messages.
Purpose(s)*^
- Advocacy & Organizing
- Fundraising
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Contact
- Demographic
- Device identifiers
- Financial
- Interaction
- Interests
- Preferences
- Voting
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Affiliates
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Deliver petitions and other message actions: To facilitate petitions and other message actions to our advocacy targets (such as messages to your member of Congress).
Purpose(s)*^
- Advocacy & Organizing
Type(s) of Information*
- Contact
- Interaction
- Interests
- Jurisdiction
- Demographic
- User-created content
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Business Partners (Coalition Partners)
- Service Providers
- Other Third Parties (Advocacy Targets)
Processing Activity and Use
Evaluate requests for and provide legal services: To assess requests for legal assistance, potential and pending legal action, and to deliver legal services to ACLUF clients.
Purpose(s)*^
- Legal Services
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Audio or visual
- Contact
- Demographic
- Financial
- Health
- Jurisdiction
- Legal
- User-created content
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Affiliates
- Business Partners (Co-Counsel)
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Host our National Advocacy Institute and other events: To plan and host in-person or virtual events, including selecting participants, awarding scholarships, coordinating travel, lodging, or other accommodations and logistical planning.
Purpose(s)*^
- Advocacy & Organizing
- Fundraising
- Legal Services
- Outreach & Research
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Contact
- Demographic
- Financial
- Health
- Interaction
- Interests
- Legal
- User-created content
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Affiliates
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Mobilize volunteers: To mobilize volunteers to canvass, phonebank, or text-bank in support of an issue area or campaign.
Purpose(s)*^
- Advocacy & Organizing
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Contact
- Interaction
- Interests
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Affiliates
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Participate in data cooperatives and list sharing arrangements to identify prospective ACLU donors and strengthen support: To grow and strengthen our donor base, we participate in list exchanges with like-minded, nonpartisan organizations, and engage in data cooperatives for nonprofits.
Type(s) of Information*
- Contact
- Interaction
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Business Partners (Data Cooperatives for non-profits, Non-partisan organizations)
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Prevent fraud: To protect ACLU against fraudulent actors making payments through our Sites.
Purpose(s)*^
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Contact
- Device identifiers
- Interaction
- IP address or information that could be derived from it
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Process payments: To process your donations or payments for other services such as registering and paying for an ACLU ticketed event. This includes managing payments, charges, and bequests from estates and financial accounts.
Purpose(s)*^
- Advocacy & Organizing
- Fundraising
Type(s) of Information*
- Contact
- Financial
- Transaction
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Research violations of civil liberties: To research and analyze the impacts of laws, policies, and government or other stakeholder actions. This may be done to prepare and bolster legal claims, ACLU advocacy campaigns, public education, and/or particular programs. For example:
- Conducting disparate impact analysis of data collected from government agencies through FOIA requests;
- Analyzing employment records we are given access to in order to monitor employer compliance with an employment discrimination settlement on behalf of our clients; or
- Analyzing data received from police departments pursuant to settlement agreements.
Purpose(s)*^
- Advocacy & Organizing
- Legal Services
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Contact
- Demographic
- Financial
- Health
- Jurisdiction
- Legal
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Affiliates
- Business Partners (Coalition Partners, Co-counsel)
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Secure and optimize our Digital Services: To make our Digital Services easier, more pleasant to use, and effective by monitoring, assessing, and conducting other research and internal operations to secure, optimize, and improve our services, technology, and products.
Purpose(s)*^
- Advocacy & Organizing
- Fundraising
- Outreach and Research
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Device identifiers
- Interaction
- IP address or information that could be derived from it
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Serve and improve targeted advertising: To deliver advertising to people who are likely to support our issues and to improve our targeted advertising we may use aggregated ad performance data like views, click, and conversions.
Purpose(s)*^
- Advocacy & Organizing
- Fundraising
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Contact
- Demographic
- Interaction
- Interests
- IP address or information that could be derived from it
- Jurisdiction
- Voting
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Business Partners (Third-party advertisers)
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Solicit requests for legal support: ACLU may solicit you directly or indirectly as a potential plaintiff if we think you may benefit from our services. You may also decide to contact ACLU for legal support, in which case, we may process your information to determine if we can help and/or refer you to organizations that can help.
Purpose(s)*^
- Legal Services
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Audio or visual
- Contact
- Demographic
- Financial
- Health
- Interaction
- Interests
- Jurisdiction
- Legal
- Voting
- User-created content
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Affiliates
- Business Partners (Co-counsel)
- Service Providers
Processing Activity and Use
Storytelling: To collect and raise your stories and testimonials of injustice that you provide to us with others as part of our movement building.
Purpose(s)*^
- Advocacy & Organizing
- Fundraising
- Legal Services
- Services Security, Optimization, and Improvement
Type(s) of Information*
- Audio or visual
- Contact
- Demographic
- Health
- Interaction
- Interests
- Jurisdiction
- Legal
- User-created content
With Whom We May Share Information^
- Affiliates
- Service Providers
- Business Partners (Coalition Partners)
In addition to the processing purposes described in this notice, we may also de-identify personal information where possible. We may de-identify existing personal information to proactively minimize the data in our possession when identifying information is no longer needed. We may also de-identify information to remove identifying information from records that must be retained for legal purposes when you request the ACLU delete your information. When we de-identify information permanently for privacy purposes, we will use it only in its de-identified form and do not attempt to re-identify the information.