We at the Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation (NWPF) want this site to be a safe and private place for users. NWPF will do its part by not requiring you to register or provide any information at all to use most features of this Web site. In turn, you can do your part by reading this policy and taking the steps outlined below.

 

There are certain actions and areas of the site that will require you to provide personal information, such as:

1.         becoming a member of Team Parkinson’s
2.         sending an e-mail question
3.         making a donation

 

Any time you provide personal information, you should be mindful of the terms of this privacy policy, as it will govern our use of the information you have provided.

 

We will update this privacy policy as we deem necessary, so be sure to reread it from time to time. By submitting information to us, you agree that NWPF may use the information in accordance with this privacy policy.

 

In order to gain access to certain areas of our site, you may choose to provide information. If you do submit information to us, we will use that information for the purposes for which it was submitted. We may also use your information in other ways, such as to contact you about other NWPF activities and/or fundraising campaigns or as otherwise disclosed to you at the point of collection, and we may share your information with other like-minded organizations for similar purposes. For example:

 

We will receive any other information you choose to provide, such as optional information or "personal stories" you submit. By submitting the story to us, you give us permission to edit it, post it on the NWPF website, and use it in appropriate settings designed to illustrate the importance of bringing hope and wellness to all who are touched by Parkinson’s. To protect your privacy, please do not include any identifying information in your "personal story."

 

You should be aware that we use third-party vendors to provide services on this site and in our offline business operations. The information that you submit on this site may be provided to those vendors on a confidential basis so that those vendors can provide services (such as maintaining our database, sending e-mail messages, facilitating our fundraising activities and campaigns, or processing credit card transactions) on our behalf.

 

Other than as described in this privacy policy, or as may be necessary to protect the rights, property, and safety of our organization, our donors, or others, or as may be necessary to comply with applicable law, NWPF will not give or sell the personal information you provide online.

 

If you choose to make an online donation to the NWPF, you will have to provide your credit card billing information. As this information is collected and transferred over the Internet to our secure server, it is encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, the industry standard security technology that is designed to protect sensitive information. Our donation pages display the Verisign Secure Site Seal to assure you that our Web site is authentic and that all transactions are secured by SSL encryption. If you are making a donation, the credit card information that you provide at the time of donation is used only to process your donation and will not be used for any other purposes.

 

As is true of most websites you enter, we automatically collect and store some information about your computer and your visit and store it in log files. This information includes information such as your computer's (or your ISP's) Internet Protocol (IP) address (this is not your e-mail address); the domain from which you access the Internet (e.g., "AOL.com" or "Princeton.edu"); the name, version, and specifications of your computer and your computer's operating system; the Internet address of the website, if any, from which you came to our site; the date and time you arrived at our site and how long you spent on the site; and which pages you visited.

 

We use this information to formulate statistics (possibly with the help of outside experts) that show the number of visitors to the different sections of our site and to help us make our site more useful to visitors. For example, we use the browser information to help us design our website so that as many people as possible will be able to view the pages correctly. These statistics do not reveal personal information.

 

Cookies are small text files that are either placed on your computer's hard drive ("persistent cookies") or in your computer's Random Access Memory ("session cookies"). We use both persistent cookies and session cookies on www.nwpf.org.

Session Cookies: We use session cookies to make it easier for you to navigate certain sections of our website. If you choose to provide personal information by using an interactive application on our site, such as by joining our e-mail list, or registering with Team Parkinson’s, or making an online donation to the NWPF, we place a session cookie on your computer so that you will be recognized as you move around the webpages. Unless you opt-in to change these session cookies to persistent cookies (see Persistent Cookies below), the information is only used for the duration of your browser session. For example, if you join Team Parkinson’s and then navigate through different pages of the website, the cookie will maintain the information you entered when you filled out the registration page. As you move through the site, any fields requiring information about you that has already been captured will automatically appear. However, once you close your browser window, the session cookie times out. If you open a new browser window and return to our website, your personal information fields will not be filled automatically.

 

Persistent Cookies: We use persistent cookies to provide greater accuracy in our analysis of the information that is automatically collected about your visit to our site. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. These cookies do not collect personal information. We do not link the information collected through these cookies with other personal data that you provide to us.

 

In certain circumstances, you may be given the option to turn a session cookie into a persistent cookie on your computer (e.g., "Would you like us to remember your password?" messages). If you opt to turn a session cookie into a persistent cookie, that persistent cookie will remember your personal information (e.g., user name and password) and will not time out at the end of your browser session. See "Your Help is Needed" for more information.

 

Disabling Cookies: Persistent cookies leave a record on your computer that you have visited our site. However, you have the ability to remove cookies from your computer. Your Internet browser's "Help" section will give you information on how to delete cookies. In addition, there are many websites that provide browser- and operating system-specific information on how to delete cookies. When thinking about whether you want to delete cookies, you should be aware that some sites require cookies to function properly. If you delete cookies, you may have to re-register with some sites or you may notice difficulty in browsing some sites after you delete cookies.

 

We employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons) that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user's computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. We do not link the information gathered through clear gifs with other personal data that you provide to us.

 

This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control. The security measures used on this site include, but are not limited to, industry-standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, Verisign certificates, firewalls, and internal policies to maintain the security of stored data. While we follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

 

Remember, many breaches of security occur when users are not vigilant in protecting their own information. The next section of our privacy policy suggests some actions you can take to help control the security of your personal information.

 

Although the NWPF does its best to protect your privacy on our site, we need your help.

 

You have control over your own privacy. Think carefully before providing any personal information.

 

Although this site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control, no e-mail or web transmission is completely secure against interception. If you are worried because your communication is very sensitive, do not send it via e-mail or submit it online.

 

Remember that we cannot protect your privacy once you leave our site, such as by "hyperlink." So when you visit other websites including webpages within www.nwpf.org that belong to other organizations, check each one's privacy policy yourself, and be careful about the information you offer up.

 

You should be aware that in certain areas of this site we utilize personalization measures designed to make your site experience more enjoyable (i.e., personalized links in e-mail that allow data fields to be automatically populated with certain personal information). We need your help to protect the information embedded in these links. You should always keep your e-mail account information secure and not allow others to access your e-mail account.

 

You may be given the option to turn on a persistent cookie on your computer (see Use of Cookies above). Remember that once you have set a persistent cookie that is linked to your personal information, anyone can access your personal information by using your computer.

 

In addition to the records left on your computer by cookies, your browser and operating system contain other records of your web browsing and other actions (e.g., browser history). As with cookies, you can find information about how to clear these history trails in your browser's "Help" section or through other websites that provide detailed information for each browser and operating system. See Use of Cookies — Disabling Cookies above.

 

How to Unsubscribe or Contact Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation About Your Information:

 

You may contact the NWPF by mail, e-mail, or telephone, as follows:

 

Mail:

Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation
400 Mercer Street, Suite 401
Seattle, WA 98109

 

 

E-mail: info@nwpf.org
Phone: 877.980.7500