FaxCongress.com.™ Privacy Policy

Updated September 16th, 2012

(Supersedes previous Privacy Policy)

Our Privacy Policy governs information that is collected through the FaxCongress.com Website (“Site”), through our company, Fax Congress (“Company,” “FaxCongress,” “FC” “we” or “us,”) through the use of the Site, software, and other services offered on or through the Site (collectively, the “Services”). This Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference into the Terms and Conditions of Use.

Please read the Privacy Policy carefully. This explains what Personal Information we will gather from you, and when and how this information is used. Our Terms of Use explains the legal obligations of FaxCongress and you, the user, and also outlines what you can and cannot do while accessing the Site and Services.

Acceptance of Privacy Policy. BY ACCESSING OUR SITE AND USING THE SERVICES, AND ANY OF THE UPDATES THEREOF, AND BY PROVIDING OR SUBMITTING INFORMATION THROUGH OUR SITE AND SERVICES, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND THIS PRIVACY POLICY, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, DO NOT ACCESS OUR SITE, USE THE SERVICES, OR PROVIDE ANY INFORMATION THROUGH THIS SITE.

“Personal Information” is information about a person that is personally identifiable to such person like the person’s name, address, email address, or phone number, as well as other non-public information. 

“Anonymous Information” or “Aggregated Information” means information that is not associated with or linked to Personally Identifiable Information. Anonymous or Aggregated Information does not permit the identification of individual persons.

U.S. Citizen and Age. Our Site and Services are designed for those who are U.S. citizens, and who are over the age of 18. Those over 13, but under age 18, may view the Site with the permission of their parents or legal guardians, and under their supervision. You must be 18 years of age to register. The Site and Services are not designed or to be accessed by anyone under thirteen (13).

Your Privacy. We understand that your privacy is very important to you. At FaxCongress we believe that our online users have a right to know our practices regarding the information we may collect when you access or use our Services. Other websites that are linked to/from the FaxCongress.com Site and entities that may deliver services for FaxCongress may have different policies that apply to their collection and management of information; therefore, please review the privacy policy notices on their respective website carefully for details.

The Information that We Collect. From time to time, we may ask for certain personal information from you so that you may enjoy our Services. Generally, we collect information in the following ways: when you submit information through your registration, and Account; when we receive information through our Services and third party providers; and when we receive information from FaxCongress submitted by you either by email, phone, or Submissions.

We will collect your Personal Information such as name, email address, physical address, and phone numbers when you register for our Site. We will also ask you to confirm that you are a U.S. citizen. If you are a Fundraiser, we will request additional information outlined on your application. This information and other information you provide to us, for example information provided through Submissions/Petitions, will be collected, used, and disclosed as outlined herein. Unless otherwise indicated, information provided will not be associated with your Personal Information and if disclosed or used by us, such information shall be in anonymous or aggregate form.

Why We Collect this Information. We collect information for a variety of reasons, including administration of our Site and Services, our effort to inform you of changes in our Service, discounts, newsletters, and other products and services that may interest you. When you submit Personal Information to us, you understand and agree that FaxCongress may access, store, and use your Account and Personal Information. You consent to the transfer of your information to and within the United States or other countries for processing and storage.

Our Use and Disclosure of Your Information. FaxCongress will use your Personal Information only for that specific purpose for which you submitted such Personal Information. We DO NOT sell or rent any Personal Information about you to any third party without your permission. Unless otherwise indicated, Personal Information provided by you to FaxCongress is for the internal use by us only and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. We may disclose your Personal Information we collect to companies that perform services on our behalf to fulfill order requirements, payment processing, or administrative requirements. We value your privacy and trust.

Our Security Procedures and Your Privacy. FaxCongress takes great care in maintaining the security of your Personal Information, and preventing unauthorized access to it, through the use of commercially reasonable technology and internal procedures. We encrypt passwords. Although we take great care in maintaining the security of your Personal Information, we do not guarantee that unauthorized access will never occur. While we have taken the measures outlined above, you can assist us by (i) creating longer, stronger passwords longer, and (ii) not posting any personal information that identifies you, others, a business or entity. Don't post anything that you may want to remove at sometime in the future. (If you do need to remove something, you will need to contact us.) For more information, see our Community Guidelines and Terms.

Notice of Sharing. We may share your Personal Information or other information under the following circumstances: (a) when you publish a petition which is faxed to your representative in Congress; (b) if you have requested to receive marketing information from third parties or from a signed petition authored by someone other than yourself; (c) within FaxCongress, including our employees, subcontractors, and agents; (d) if we believe in good faith that it is required by law, legal process or court order; (e) as may be required to respond to an inquiry, request or complaint that you have made; (f) to persons or companies that we engage to carry out or provide support for the operations of its business (which may include customer support services, hosting, and email service providers); or (g) if we believe in good faith that it is necessary to protect the personal safety, property, or interests of you, our users, the public, our licensors, the Services, or ourselves. We will share aggregate information and/or Anonymous Information about our users and visitors with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties.

Marketing, Advertising, and Contests With Others. We may disclose Anonymous or Aggregate Information to advertisers, business partners, sponsors, or other third parties but we WILL NOT intentionally disclose any information that could be used to personally identify you through Personal Information unless it is disclosed herein. For example, you may have consented to allowing us share your Personal Information with others who share similar interests and who have signed similar petitions. The Anonymous or Aggregate Information may be used to gauge the usefulness and popularity of our web pages, or certain links to or from our Site. We may disclose your Personal Information we collect to companies that perform services on our behalf to fulfill order requirements, payment processing, or administrative requirements. Please refer to their Terms of Use and Privacy Policies. If you have any additional requests regarding which companies provide administrative services, you may email us at (partnerservices at faxcongress dot com).

We may from time to time invite our users to participate in a poll, survey or a contest. The information that users provide to us under these circumstances may include Personal Information or information that is otherwise tied to your Personal Information. You understand that FaxCongress reserves the right to store the information you provide and to use such information for the general improvement of our Services, unless otherwise indicated herein. Such Personal Information shall be managed according to the Privacy Policy, unless otherwise indicated in an individual poll, survey, contest or other Service. During those times when we participate in promotions in conjunction with other companies, with the intent to share Personal Information, we will indicate this in the promotion or advertisement.

Links to Privacy Policies of Third Party Providers, Including Advertisers. You should consult the respective privacy policies of third-party providers for more information on their practices and for instructions on how to opt-out of certain practices if you desire to do so. Our third party providers include: (i) Authorize.net which processes payments (http://www.authorize.net/company/privacy/) and Paypal, (https://cms.paypal.com/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/Privacy_full&locale.x=en_US) for payment transactions (ii) Rackspace.com which provides our hosting (http://www.rackspace.com/information/legal/privacystatement/) ; and (iii) Diener Consultants (http://www.dienerconsultants.com/pp.html) which provides our email service. For any additional information please email us at (partnerservices at faxcongress dot com). These vendors generally agree to protect our data and not share it with third parties.

Social Networking Sites' Collection and Sharing of Information. We connect with and use applications provided by social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to allow you to share information or to log on to our Site through your social networking account. Each social networking site collects, aggregates, and shares your information according to their respective privacy policies. (Facebook’s privacy policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/)(Twitter’s privacy policy: https://twitter.com/privacy) Our site uses AddThis (http://www.addthis.com/privacy#services) which allows the collecting and sharing of emails and other information when you choose “Email a Friend” or “Share” through social networking sites. For more information, you can click on the Privacy Policy within the “Share” box which highlights the Privacy Policy for AddThis. Note that Facebook and other social networking sites aggregate and share information, including photos, friendships, events, your connections, and your demographics (user Profile information and data analytics) across multiple sites. Please refer to each site's Privacy Policy regarding their collection, use, and sharing of your information

Use of Cookies, and Other Technology.

Cookies. Cookies are pieces of information that some websites transfer to the computer that is browsing a website (“Cookies”), and are used for record-keeping purposes at many websites. The use of Cookies makes web surfing easier by performing certain functions such as saving your passwords, background information, and your personal preferences regarding your use of the particular website. Many consider the use of Cookies to be an industry standard. There are though, different types of cookies, with some collecting more information than others. For example, super Cookies or flash Cookies collect more than standard cookies. Your browser is probably set to accept Cookies; however, it may be set to block acceptance of cookies (such as from third party sites), erase Cookies from your computer hard drive, or receive a warning before a Cookie is stored. If you would prefer not to receive Cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse, erase, or to warn you of the use of Cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse Cookies, it is possible that some areas of our website that use Cookies will not function properly when you view them and your online experience will be limited. 

We use Cookies to administer the Site and not for tracking purposes. Our Site collects Personal Information under the following situations: (1) to the extent that you provide Information to us in an email message, or through your Account or Submissions; (2) to the extent that your web browser provides Information to our web server, like the site you linked from, the identity of your internet service provider, or the type of browser you are using; and (3) to the extent that you provide Personal Information to us in a CGI form (for example, when you subscribe to our newsletter).

GIF Files. We may use pixels, or transparent GIF files, to help manage online advertising. These GIF files may be provided by our ad management partner and enable it to recognize a unique Cookie on your web browser, which in turn enables us to learn which advertisements bring users to our Site. The Cookie was placed by us, or by another advertiser who works with our ad management partner. With both Cookies and spotlight technology, the information that we collect and share is Anonymous Information, which may be shared in aggregate form, and it is not Personal Information and therefore does not contain your name, address, telephone number, or email address. 

Monitoring Scripts. FaxCongress may use certain third party web analytics software in order to monitor the use of our Site and Services; however, the third party web analytics software provider should not use any of this data other than to administer our Site and Services.

If you have concerns about cookies or GIF Files, or need assistance on how to enable the cookies on your system, please consult your internet service provider.

Opt Outs. You may choose to opt out of receiving cookies through your browser settings. You can opt out of other network advertising and third party ad servers’ cookies either directly with the site or through the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page, http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp. Please be aware that if you choose to opt out of certain services, this may affect your use of social networking features on our Site and Services.

CAN-SPAM Compliance. If you have registered with FaxCongress, we have received consent that allows us to contact you to provide you with information concerning your Account, and your use of our Services. Email contact, for example, may include administrative emails for password retrieval or Account updates. In order to participate in our Services, you must receive these administrative emails. If you have opted in to receive newsletters, we may send you newsletters. In addition, if you have indicated that you would like to be contacted regarding other services and promotions, or by third-party political organizations with more information about their petitions which you have signed, we or they may also contact you with commercial information about products, services, promotions, or other activities or offerings that may be of interest to you. Additionally, with each commercial communication you receive from us or them, you will be given the opportunity to indicate that you wish to “Unsubscribe” from receiving such future communications. By requesting that we send an email to a Friend, through the “Email a Friend” button, you understand that you are required to send an authentic email address that is being used solely for the purpose of providing information about FaxCongress to your known friend, who would not object to receiving this email.

Information Provided to Customer Service. Whenever you communicate with customer service, you understand: (i) that a customer service representative may view and make changes to your Personal Information in order to provide the assistance that you need; and (ii) that a customer service representative may reply to you via email, or phone. 

Legal Disclosures. We may disclose information we have collected from and about you (including Personal Information) if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to (a) comply with relevant laws or to respond to subpoenas or warrants served on us; or (b) to protect and defend the rights or property of us, the users of our Services, or third parties.

Reviewing and Changing Your Personal Information. If you want to make changes, amendments and/or deletions to your Personal Information with FaxCongress you may do so in “My Account.” Please note that we may be prohibited from deleting certain Personal Information due to an applicable court order, statute, law or regulation. We may store your Personal Information that we have collected from or about you, and this information may remain in our archives.

Notice to California Residents – Your California Privacy Rights (As Provided by California Civil Code section 1798.83). A California resident who has provided Personal Information to a business with whom he/she has established a business relationship for personal, family, or household purposes (a “California Customer”) may request information about whether the business has disclosed Personal Information to any third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. In general, if the business has made such a disclosure of Personal Information, upon receipt of a request by a California Customer, the business is required to provide a list of all third parties to whom Personal Information was disclosed in the preceding calendar year, as well as a list of the categories of Personal Information that were disclosed. California Customers may request further information about compliance with this law by email at (legal at faxcongress dot com). Please note that we are required to respond to one request per California Customer each year, and we are not required to respond to requests made by means other than through this email address.

Privacy Policy Updates. The terms of this Privacy Policy will govern the use of any information collected by us or our Services. FaxCongress reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. This Privacy Policy may change as new features are added to our Site or Services. If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post these changes to our Privacy Policy on the Site. The most recent version of our Privacy Policy is always available in a link at the bottom of most pages on the site. In case of any significant or material changes to the Privacy Policy, we may replace the “Privacy Policy” link accessible under “Policy” on the home page of the website with a link entitled “Privacy Policy Updated xx/xx/xxxx” for no less than thirty (30) days. All changes to the Privacy Policy will be effective when posted, and your continued use of any of the Services after the posting will constitute your acceptance of and agreement to by bound by, the changed terms. It is your sole responsibility to periodically revisit and review our Privacy Policy for updates. If you have any questions about privacy, please email us at (legal at faxcongress dot com).

Subsequent Owner of FaxCongress Merger/Acquisition. In the event that FaxCongress goes through a business change, such as a merger, acquisition or sale, your Personal Information and Account will likely be among the assets transferred. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of FaxCongress or its assets may continue to use your Personal Information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. You hereby consent to us sharing your Personal Information under the above circumstances.

Contact Information. If you have any questions or comments about our personal information practices or about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to email us at (legal at faxcongress dot com).

Copyright 2012 FaxCongress™ All Rights Reserved.