Equality Illinois has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. It discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for http://www.eqil.org.
This site contains links to other sites. EQIL is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.
General Information Collection and Use
EQIL is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. We collect information from our users at several different points on our site.
Log Files
We use IP addresses to help analyze trends, administer the site, track user movements and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Cookies
Our site uses “cookies.” A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s hard drive containing information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. For instance, by setting a cookie on our site, the user would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If a user rejects the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. Cookies can also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.
Various Registrations
In order to receive certain updates or use certain features of this website, a user may have to first complete a registration form. During registration a user is required to give their contact information (such as name and email address). This information is used to contact the user about the services on our site for which they have expressed interest. If asked for, it is optional for a user to provide demographic information (such as income level and gender), and unique identifiers (such as social security number), but it is encouraged so we can provide a more personalized experience on our site.
eNewsletter
If a user wishes to subscribe to our enewsletter, we ask for contact information such as name, mailing address and email address.
Orders
Our site uses an order form for customers to request information, products, and services. We collect visitor’s contact information (like their email address) and financial information (like their account or credit card numbers if needed). Contact information from the order form is used to send information about our company to our customers. The customer’s contact information is also used to get in touch with the visitor when necessary. This information is not shared or resold in any circumstance except under requirement by law or judgment. Users may opt-out of receiving future mailings; see the choice/opt-out section below.
Our online surveys ask visitors for contact information (like their email or mailing address). We use contact data from our surveys to send the user information about EQIL and its activities. Users may opt-out of receiving future mailings; see the choice/opt-out section below. Other data collected by online surveys is used to educate EQIL about the interests and concerns of its supporters and general site visitors concerning EQIL’s mission. This information is not shared with other organizations. EQIL operates email discussion, and contact lists to reach its members who request such information. Such services are run both by EQIL and contracted vendors. These email addresses, whether housed on EQIL servers or those of our third-party contractor, are never shared with any other organization and users may opt out of participating or receiving email information from EQIL at any time. Instructions are contained within each email sent as well as on our site help page.
Sharing
We will share aggregated demographic information with our partners and advertisers. This is not linked to any personal information that can identify any individual person.
We use an outside shipping company to ship orders, and a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.
We partner with another party to provide specific services. When the user signs up for these services, we will share names or other contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these services. These parties are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.
Tell-a-Friend
If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend’s name and email address. EQIL will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. EQIL stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email. The friend may contact EQIL at info@eqil.org to request the removal of this information from the database.
Security
This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. This includes a firewall and 24-hour monitoring of site activities by our hosting service provider as well as 128-bit SSL encryption (where allowable by law) on all transaction-oriented operations between you and EQIL via our transaction service provider.
While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. All of our user information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Our employees must use password-protected screen-savers when they leave their desk. When they return, they must re-enter their password to re-gain access to your information. Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our customer information is protected. Finally, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment, behind a locked cage.
Security
Because we care about the safety and privacy of children online, we comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying FTC regulation establish United States federal law that protects the privacy of children using the Internet. We do not knowingly collect contact or personal information from children under 13. Our sites are not intended to solicit information of any kind from children under 13, and we have designed our sites to block our knowing acceptance of information from children under 13 whenever age related information is requested.
It is possible that by fraud or deception by others we may receive information given to us or pertaining to children under 13. If we are notified of this, as soon as we verify the information, we will immediately obtain parental consent or otherwise delete the information from our servers. If you want to notify us of our receipt of information by children under 13, please do so by e-mailing us at info@eqil.org.
Correction/Updating Personal Information
If a user’s personally identifiable information changes (such as your zip code), or if a user no longer desires our service, we will endeavor to provide a way to correct, update or remove that user’s personal data provided to us. This can usually be done by emailing our Customer Support at info@eqil.org.
Choice/Opt-Out
Our site provides users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us and our partners at the point where we request information about the visitor.
This site gives users the following options for removing their information from our database to not receive future communications or to no longer receive our service.
Send an email to info@eqil.org.
Direct mail to the following postal address:
Equality Illinois
17 N. State St. #1020
Chicago, IL 60602
Call the following telephone number: tollfree: 888-434-7888
Correct/Update
This site gives users the following options for changing and modifying information previously provided.
Send an email to info@eqil.org.
Direct mail to the following postal address:
Equality Illinois
17 N. State St. #1020
Chicago, IL 60602
Contacting the Web Site
If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this Web site, you can contact:
Equality Illinois
17 N. State St. #1020
Chicago, IL 60602
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes here so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.