This Privacy Policy applies to the information Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc. ("RMHC") collects, including through any website, application, feature, widget or other online service ("Site") and offline, including information collected from donors. This Privacy Policy describes our information collection practices, such as the types of information we collect regarding visitors to the Site (including donors) and how we may use that information. By using this Site, you consent to this Privacy Policy.
OVERVIEWPlease review our full Privacy Policy below before using the Site. This initial summary of our Privacy Policy highlights some important points regarding our and third parties' collection, use, and sharing of your information when you visit the Site.
Information you Provide RMHC may gather personal information, which is information that is linked to a specific, identifiable individual (such as, but not limited to, first and last names, home addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers) ("Personal Information"). If the Site offers an account or personal profile, we may require that you supply us with Personal Information to set up such an account. We may also collect payment information if you make a transaction, such as a donation. And, we may collect other information about you, such as demographic information (e.g., your age or gender), and information about your preferences and interests. If we combine demographic or other non-Personal Information with Personal Information, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information under this Privacy Policy.
We and our third-party service providers (including any third-party content, advertising, and analytics providers) may use a variety of technologies that automatically or passively collect certain information about your use of the Site whenever you visit or interact with the Site ("Usage Information"). Usage Information may include the browser and operating system you are using, the URL or advertisement that referred you to our Site, the search terms you entered into a search engine that led you to our Site, all of the areas within our Site that you visit, and the time of day you visit the Site, among other information. Usage Information also includes the IP address, mobile device identifier, or other unique identifier ("Device Identifier") for any computer, mobile phone, or other device used to access the Site. A Device Identifier is a number that is automatically assigned to your device and our servers identify your device by its Device Identifier.
We may use Usage Information for a variety of purposes, including enhancing or otherwise improving the Site and our services, and to target content or offers to users. The Usage Information we collect is generally non-identifying, but if we associate it with you as a specific and identifiable person, we will treat it as Personal Information.
"Cookies" and local storage are pieces of information (data files) transferred to an individual's browser on their device when the device is used to visit a site. These technologies are able to store a unique identifier for a device to allow a certain Internet site to recognize the device whenever the device is used to visit the site, and may be used for many purposes, including remembering information that will make your use of the site more convenient. Like most Internet sites, the RMHC Site uses these technologies for a variety of purposes. For example, we use these technologies to serve targeted advertising elsewhere online, to track the total number of visitors to our site on an anonymous, aggregate basis, and to remember you when you return to the Site and remember your preferences. We may associate Personal Information with a data file. You can find more information about cookies and how they work at All About Cookies.org. A Flash cookie is a data file placed on a device via the Adobe Flash plug-in that may be built into or downloaded by you onto your device. Flash cookies may be used for various purposes, including, without limitation, enabling a Flash feature and remembering your preferences. For more information about Flash and the privacy choices Adobe offers, visit the Adobe's Flash Player Settings Manager page. If you choose to disable cookies or to adjust your Flash privacy settings on your device, some features of the Site may not function properly.
Use the options in your Internet browser if you do not wish to receive a cookie or if you wish to set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. If you disable all cookies or adjust your Flash privacy settings on your device, you may not be able to take advantage of all the features of the RMHC website.
Web Beacons. Small graphic images or other web programming code called web beacons (also known as "pixel tags," "1x1 GIFs," or "clear GIFs") may be included in our web pages and email messages. Web beacons may be invisible to you, but any electronic image or other web programming code inserted into a web page or email can act as a web beacon. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count visitors to the Site, to monitor how users navigate the Site, to count how many emails that were sent were actually opened or to count how many particular links were actually viewed.
In addition, we may use a variety of other technologies that collect similar information for security and fraud detection purposes.
We may receive information about you from third parties and we may supplement the information we collect with outside records in order to provide you with information, activities or services you have requested, to tailor content, to offer you opportunities to become involved in activities that we believe may interest you, and for other purposes. We may combine the information we receive from those other sources with information we collect through the Site. In those cases, we will apply this Privacy Policy to the combined information.
We may use the information we collect, including Personal Information and Usage Information:
We employ commercially reasonable security methods and technologies to help secure the Personal Information we collect and store. However, no system can be guaranteed 100% secure. We therefore cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information that you transmit to us, or that we transmit to you, or guarantee that it will be free from unauthorized access by third parties.
We use a vendor to process credit card payments made through the Site and to store associated payment data, so RMHC does not directly collect such credit card information, nor does RMHC store or have access to credit card information submitted online. For donations made offline, RMHC may directly collect, store or have access to credit card information for processing payments.
We may share non-Personal Information, such as Usage Information and aggregated user statistics, with third parties in our discretion. RMHC does not share personal information with unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We may share the information we have collected about you (including Personal Information): (i) as disclosed at the time you provide your information, (ii) with your consent, (iii) as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, or (iv) in the following circumstances:
Local RMHC ChaptersEach local RMHC Chapter and the local Ronald McDonald House, Ronald McDonald Family Room and Ronald McDonald Care Mobile programs operated by a local RMHC Chapter, is an affiliated independent organization and licensee of RMHC (each a "Chapter"). Some of the local Chapters operate their own websites. When visiting the Internet site or online service of a local RMHC Chapter, the information collected by and through that Internet site or online service is governed by that Chapter's privacy policies and practices.
RMHC may share your information (including Personal Information) with Chapters for various reasons. For example, if you make a donation and designate that it should support a local Chapter, RMHC will transfer your Personal Information to the recipient Chapter in addition to maintaining your information in our donor management database. Additionally, RMHC may share your information with a Chapter if you contact RMHC with a comment or complaint about the Chapter, or to help facilitate communications or requests. Each local Chapter will treat the information RMHC shares with it according to its own privacy and security practices and policies. Chapters are independent of RMHC, so RMHC is not responsible for how those Chapters treat your information.
Companies may be engaged by RMHC to perform a variety of functions, such as assisting with donation collection, providing technical services for our Internet sites, etc. Such companies may have access to Personal Information if needed to perform certain functions. However, these companies may use such Personal Information only for the purpose of performing that function and may not use it for any other purpose.
RMHC reserves the right to use or disclose any information (including Personal Information) as needed to satisfy any law, regulation or legal request, to protect the integrity of the site, to fulfill your requests, or to cooperate in any law enforcement investigation or an investigation on a public safety matter, to protect and defend the legal rights or property of RMHC, our Site or its users, or any other party, or in an emergency, to protect the health and safety of our users or the general public.
We may offer sweepstakes, contests, and other promotions (any, a "Promotion") that may require registration. By participating in a Promotion, you are agreeing to the provisions, conditions, or official rules that govern that Promotion, which may contain specific requirements of you (including, except where prohibited by law, allowing the sponsor(s) of the Promotion to use your name, voice, likeness or other indicia of persona in advertising or marketing materials). If you choose to enter a Promotion, Personal Information may be disclosed to third parties or the public in connection with the administration of such Promotion, including, without limitation, in connection with winner selection, prize fulfillment, and as required by law or permitted by the Promotion's terms or official rules (such as on a winners list).
Functionality on the Site may permit interactions that you initiate between the Site and a third-party website or service such as Twitter or Facebook ("Social Networking Features"). Examples of Social Networking Features include enabling you to "like" or "share" content from the Site or to "like" or "share" our page on a third-party service; to automatically or selectively show your social media posts/tweets on the Site; to create a RMHC account or RMHC personal profile using existing login information from a social-network (known as a social login); and to otherwise connect the Site to a third-party website or service. If you choose to share content or to otherwise post information through the Site to a third-party site or service, or vice versa, that information may be publicly displayed. Similarly, if you post information on a third-party platform that references RMHC, for example, by using a Twitter hash tag associated with RMHC in your Tweet), your post may be published on the Site in accordance with the terms of that third party. Also, both we and the third party may have access to certain information about you and your use of the Site and the third-party site or service. In addition, we may receive information about you if other users of a third-party website give us access to their profiles and you are one of their "connections" or information about you is otherwise accessible through your "connections" web page, profile page, or similar page on a social networking or other third-party website or service. If you choose to use a social login, we may collect Personal Information including your name and email address. The information we collect in connection with Social Networking Features is subject to this Privacy Policy. The information collected and stored by the third party remains subject to the third party's privacy practices, including whether the third party continues to share information with us, the types of information shared, and your choices with regard to what is visible to others on that third-party website or service.
In the event RMHC goes through a transition (such as a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy or sale of all or a portion of its assets, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process), your Personal Information will likely be among the assets transferred. By providing your Personal Information, you agree that we may transfer such information to the acquiring entity without your further consent.
We work with network advertisers, ad agencies, analytics service providers, and other vendors to provide us with information regarding traffic on the Site (including pages viewed and the actions taken when visiting the Site), to serve our advertisements elsewhere online, and to provide us with information regarding the use of the Site and the effectiveness of our advertisements. We may share non-Personal Information (including hashed or otherwise de-identified personal information) with service providers for these same purposes. In addition, our service providers may collect certain information about your visits to and activity on the Site and other websites and services and may use this information to target our and third-party advertising to you.
These service providers may set and access their own tracking technologies on your device and may otherwise collect or have access to information about you. Some of these parties may collect personal information over time as you visit online websites and services. Cookies, including those set by third-party network advertisers, may be used to (among other things): target advertisements, prevent you from seeing the same advertisements too many times, and conduct research regarding the usefulness of certain advertisements to you. We may share Usage Information about visitors with third-party advertising companies, analytics providers, and other vendors for similar purposes.
For example, we use Google services, such as Google Analytics, to collect data about traffic across our Site, to deliver advertisements when you visit other websites, and to share data about traffic to our website with Google and other Google Analytics program participants. For more information about how Google Analytics collects and processes data, visit How Google uses data when you use our partner's sites or apps.
To opt out of: (i) Google Analytics install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on located here and (ii) Google's ad serving visit here. In addition to Google, we may use a variety of other service providers to perform advertising services. Some of these companies are members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI") or the Digital Advertising Alliance ("DAA") Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. You may want to visit The Network Advertising Initiative for Consumer Opt Out , which provides information regarding targeted advertising and the "opt-out" procedures of NAI members. You may also want to visit the Digital Advertising Alliance Consumer Choice Page , which provides information regarding targeted advertising and offers an "opt-out" by participating companies in the DAA Self-Regulatory Program.
Please note that these third party advertising companies may still collect information from you and opting out through these mechanisms does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to be served generic ads while online or on your device.
Some Internet browsers may be configured to send "Do Not Track" signals to the online services that you visit. There is no consensus among industry participants as to what "Do Not Track" means in this context. Like many websites and online services, the Site does not alter its practices when it receives a "Do Not Track" signal from a visitor's browser. To find out more about "Do Not Track," please visit All About Do Not Track (DNT) .
If at any time, you would like to correct the Personal Information we have about you or if you would like to change your preferences for contacts from us, you can let us know by contacting us at the following addresses: Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc., Department 014, Attn: Privacy Department, One Kroc Drive, Oak Brook, IL 60523 or email: donations@rmhc.org. RMHC will make good faith efforts to implement requested changes in our active databases. Note, however, that we may keep information you update or change for RMHC's administrative purposes. Also, it is not always possible to completely remove or delete all of your information from our databases, and residual data may remain on backup media or for other reasons. If you would like to unsubscribe from our email list, please use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our newsletter emails or contact us through the postal address listed above. However, please note that even if you opt-out of receiving marketing communications or donor requests, we reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to your use of our Site, service announcements, notices of changes to this Privacy Policy or other Site policies, or similar administrative or transactional messages. These transactional messages may be unaffected if you choose to opt-out from marketing communications.
We may offer links to sites that are not operated by RMHC, including without limitation the Chapters. If you visit one of these linked sites, you should review their privacy and other policies. We are not responsible for the policies and practices of others.
The Site is operated in the United States. If you are located in another jurisdiction, please be aware that information you provide to us will be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using the Site or providing us with any information, you consent to this transfer, processing, and storage of your information in the United States, a jurisdiction in which the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as those in the country where you reside or are a citizen.
From time to time, RMHC may change this Privacy Policy and will notify you of material changes by posting the changed or modified Privacy Policy on our Site. We may also provide notice to you in other ways in our discretion, such as through contact information you have provided. Any changes will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Privacy Policy unless otherwise specified and your continued use of the Site after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy (or such other act as specified in the revised Privacy Policy) will constitute your consent to those changes. Rest assured, however, that unless we obtain your consent, any changes will not alter how we handle previously collected information.
If you have any questions about the RMHC Privacy Policy, or wish to review your information or be removed from our database for mailings, please contact us at: Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc.
This Privacy Policy was posted on June 11, 2016 and is effective upon posting for new users and any use of the website as of that date. For existing users, this Privacy Policy will take effect with regard to previously collected personal information on July 2, 2016. Click here to review the previous version of our Privacy Policy.