Effective Date: March 25, 2011

National Council on Aging (“NCOA”, “we” or “us'”), created this Privacy Policy in support of our commitment to the user’s online privacy. This Privacy Policy discloses our information-gathering and disseminating practices for its OneAway.org web site (the “Web Site”). We urge you to read this Privacy Policy carefully.  For an explanation of capitalized terms used in this Privacy Policy, please refer to the definitions at the end.

The Goal of the Web Site

OneAway is meant to be an open advocacy site in which people are encouraged to share their stories of economic struggle.  NCOA and its local advocacy partners wish to encourage an open dialogue with the public and members of Congress to draw attention to the plight of aging Americans and give voice to the impact of government action on low income older adults.  For these reasons, information placed on the Web Site is intended to be freely available to others as described in this Privacy Policy.  If you do not agree with these terms, please do not use the Web Site.

Applicability of Privacy Policy

NCOA values and respects your trust and believe you have a right to know about how we collect and secure information we collect about you on the Web Site.  

This Privacy Policy applies to this Web Site only. The Web Site contains links to other web sites. Once you enter another web site (whether through a service or content link), be aware that NCOA is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other web sites. We encourage you to look for and review the privacy statements of each and every web site that you visit through a link on NCOA’s Web Site.

What Information is Collected and How Is It Used or Disclosed?

NCOA collects Personal Data, such as name and mailing address and zip code and email address from you when you register on the Web Site and when you update your user profile.  You may also provide other personally identifiable information concerning your health, economic status, income, government benefits and living expenses.  In addition, you may provide opinions and suggestions concerning certain government programs and actions and the impact of those programs and actions on your personal wellbeing and financial status.

While NCOA encourages users to share personal experiences and opinions, doing so is entirely voluntary and you are not obligated to disclose anything about yourself.  This Privacy Policy does not apply to content, business information, ideas, concepts or inventions that you send to NCOA by email or post on the Web Site in a community or blog discussion.

If you want to keep content or business information, ideas, concepts or inventions private or proprietary, do not send them in an email to NCOA or post them in a public forum.

NCOA collects and may use Personal Data you provide though use of the Web Site to conduct advocacy activities in support of its mission to improve the lives of older adults.  NCOA may disclose Personal Data to its advocacy partners and others as described in this Privacy Policy. Except as described in this Privacy Policy, NCOA will not sell or share your Personal Data for marketing purposes without your consent.

NCOA may combine, in a non-identifiable format, the Personal Data you provide with information from other users to create aggregate data that may be disclosed freely to third parties and used by NCOA for any lawful purpose.  Aggregate data does not contain any personal identifiers that could be used to contact or identify you, such as name, address, or telephone number.

Disclosure of Personal Data

The Web Site contains online communities and public forums such as wall posts, “tell Congress” and “Discuss Solutions”.  Our communities are open to the public and should not be considered private.  Personal Data you post in these forums will be available to third parties and may be disclosed by NCOA and its representatives to third parties for any lawful purpose.

Whenever you voluntarily disclose Personal Data on the Web Site (such as on message boards, discussion forums, personal video, email, etc), that information may be collected and used by others.  By posting Personal Data online, you make that information accessible to the public.  You may receive unsolicited messages from third parties in response to these posts.  NCOA has no control over, and no responsibility or liability for, these parties.

Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy or as specifically agreed to by you, NCOA will not disclose any Personal Data it gathers from you on the Web Site, provided that NCOA may release Personal Data to third parties: (1) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, subpoena or court order; (2) to certain advocacy partners, elected officials and third parties as described in this Privacy Policy or (3) with your consent.  In the event that we are legally compelled to disclose your Personal Data to a third party, we will attempt to notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order. In addition, we may disclose Personal Data as described below.

Advocacy Activities

NCOA may disclose your Personal Data to its advocacy partners and members of its aging network in order for these parties to conduct advocacy activities on behalf of older adults.  NCOA and its advocacy partners may disclose Personal Data to government officials and representatives in order to conduct advocacy activities on behalf of older adults. 

Representatives of NCOA or these parties may, but will not have any obligation to, contact you to inform you of certain programs or other benefits to which you may be entitled in response to the content of the Personal Data you share on the Web Site.  If you do not wish to receive such information, you can opt out on the Web Site. 

Third party Service Providers

NCOA operations and other third party contractors sometimes have limited access to your Personal Data in the course of providing products or services to NCOA. These contractors include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services (such as web site hosting), and/or content related to operation and maintenance of the Web Site.  Access to your Personal Data by these contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary for the contractor to perform its function for NCOA. NCOA will also require that our operations and maintenance contractors 1) protect the privacy of Personal Data consistent with this Privacy Policy, and 2) not use or disclose Personal Data for any purpose other than providing NCOA with products and services.

Linked Sites

The Web Site may contain links to other web sites operated by parties other than NCOA ("Third Party Web Sites").  These Third Party Web Sites have their own, independent, privacy and data collection practices.  NCOA has no responsibility or liability for these Third Party Web Sites, their privacy policies or actions.  NCOA does not endorse any Third Party Web Sites.

Security

The Web Site and database servers are hosted in a secured physical and network environment maintained by a third party hosting provider.  Reasonable efforts are made to secure web servers, networks, host operating systems and databases against unauthorized access.  We use a variety of security measures to protect Personal Data when stored or transmitted by NCOA, including Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Encryption.  In order to take advantage of encryption, you must have an Internet browser that supports 128-bit Encryption.

Despite NCOA's efforts to protect your Personal Data, there is always a risk that an unauthorized third party may find a way around our security systems or that transmissions of your information over the Internet will be intercepted. NCOA cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit over the Internet and you do so at your own risk.

Please remember that no security measures are foolproof; and NCOA cannot guarantee that information will be protected in all situations. We will make reasonable efforts to protect your Personal Data from unauthorized access.

Cookies

The Web Site may use cookies to enhance your experience using the Web Site. Cookies are pieces of information that some web sites transfer to the computer that is browsing that site and are used for record-keeping purposes at many sites.  Use of cookies makes Web surfing easier by performing certain functions such as saving passwords, or your personal references regarding your use of a particular Web site to make sure you don’t see the same add repeatedly. The information collected by NCOA by use of cookies will be used to improve the design of the Web site in the future.  Note that if you chose to disable cookies on your web browser, you may be unable to use certain features of the Web Site.

Advertising networks serving ads onto the Web Site may also use cookies.  NCOA has no control over information collected by advertising networks, nor can NCOA access this information.

Terms of Use

This Privacy Policy co-exists with our Terms of Use, and together both policies govern your use of this Web Site. By accessing, browsing or using the Web Site you acknowledge that you have read, understand and agree to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with both this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. The Web Site Terms of Use may be found as a link on the page where this Privacy Policy is posted.  If you do not agree with these terms (including any revisions to them), please do not use the Web Site.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy at any time by posting revisions to our Web Site. Your use of this Web Site means that you accept the terms of this Privacy Policy and your continued use after such changes are posted means that you accept the revised Privacy Policy.

Privacy Policy for Children

This Web Site is not designed to attract or be used by children under the age of 13.  NCOA does not knowingly collect Personal Data from anyone under the age of 13, unless we first obtain permission from that child’s parent or legal guardian.

How to Contact Us

For more information about our privacy practices (including compliance with applicable law) contact us by email at privacy@ncoa.org or write to us at 1901 L Street NW, 4th Floor, Washington DC 20036.

Definitions

”Encryption” means the translation of data into a secret code. Encryption is the most effective way to achieve data security. To read an encrypted file, you must have access to a secret key or password that enables you to decrypt it.

“Firewall” means a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a public or private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private portions of public networks. All messages entering or leaving the network pass through the Firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.

“Personal Data” means information that is identifiable to a particular individual. Examples of Personal Data include your name, likeness (such as in video or photographs), street address and zip code, telephone number, and email address, demographic information, educational level, income and occupation. If other pieces of information are linked to Personal Data, they may also become Personal Data.

“Secure Sockets Layer” (SSL) means a security protocol for transmitting private information via the Internet. SSL works by using a private key to encrypt data that's transferred over the SSL connection. URLs that utilize an SSL connection start with https: instead of http.

“Cookie” means a data file that is stored on the hard drive of the computer you use to view a web site. Cookies are placed by that site or by a third party with a presence on the site and are accessible only by the party or site that placed the Cookie (i.e. a Cookie placed on your computer by NCOA isn't accessed by any other site you visit but a Cookie placed on your computer by an advertiser may be accessed by any site on which that same advertiser has a presence). Cookies can contain pieces of Personal Data.  Cookies are used to make the site easier to use. For example, if you check a box to ask that we store your user name on your computer so that you don't have to enter it each time you visit the site, it's stored in a Cookie on your computer.