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Privacy Policy

National Peace Corps Association’s Websites and Online Communities Privacy Policy

Updated 10/4/17 based on original 11/15/10 policy from old website. Effective October 4, 2017.

INTRODUCTION

National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is committed to maintaining the privacy and trust of its registered Members and all other visitors to its online services. Accordingly, this Privacy Policy (“Policy”) explains how NPCA collects, protects, uses and shares information about you or any other visitor who chooses to visit NPCA’s website platform (https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org).

NPCA intends that this policy information will increase visitor confidence in NPCA’s web-based platform and enhance the experience on NPCA’s website services. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the National Peace Corps Association Terms of Use Agreement (the “Agreement”). Each time that you as a visitor use the website or database, you acknowledge that you agree to be bound by the Policy and Agreement. If you do not agree to the Policy and Agreement, you must stop using NPCA’s website.  This includes deleting your online profile.

This Policy is subject to all applicable privacy laws, both US and foreign, having sufficient jurisdictional basis. If any provision of this Policy is determined to be illegal or unenforceable, then such provision will be enforced in such jurisdiction if and only to the maximum extent possible and the other provisions will remain fully effective and enforceable in that and any other jurisdiction.

You are an NPCA Member only when you sign up to become an NPCA Member on the National Peace Corps Association website (directly or via an affiliate group) or submit your information to NPCA on an NPCA or affiliate group Membership form or similar means.  Your basic membership is free, regardless of your past, current or future Peace Corps service. If you do not renew your Membership when it comes due, you are no longer an NPCA Member and do not receive your NPCA Membership Benefits.

It is free to create a Member Profile on NPCA’s online community directory.

I. ABOUT NPCA’S WEBSITE AND ONLINE COMMUNITY

The National Peace Corps Association website is a web portal for the current and returned Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV and RPCV) community, current and former Peace Corps staff, friends and family of PCVs and RPCVs, and any others interested in NPCA’s mission and goals.

NPCA community members are encouraged to set up unique personal profiles and, through those profiles, network with other PCVs and RPCVs or those interested in the Peace Corps and development, capacity building, or engagement in any country. Members can view each others’ profiles, communicate with old contacts and make new ones on the platform. To enrich the members’ experience, NPCA requests and displays some personal information to other members and visitors, respectively (as outlined in this document), which allows the users to identify each other and expand their networks of friends and contacts. NPCA Members may change their profile information at any time and may control how other members and NPCA communicates with them.

II. INFORMATION NPCA COLLECTS WHEN YOU SIGN UP AS A MEMBER

User Provided Information for the Online Communities. National Peace Corps Association collects personal information from you when you register on its website, update your profile, interact with other Members, and use features of the site.

By using the privacy settings on your profile, you can control which members have access to certain of your personal profile data. Keep in mind, however, that your profile data cannot be hidden from NPCA and relevant affiliate group administrators.

NPCA also may collect information regarding your interaction with other Members and your use of the website platform. From time to time NPCA may ask you to respond to surveys or other requests for information and the organization collects the information you provide. NPCA may also collect information about you through other methods, including research surveys or information NPCA obtains from third parties, including verification services, data services, as well as public sources. NPCA uses this information to endeavor to offer you the richest experience as National Peace Corps Association community Members. All personally identifiable information (i.e., information that can be used to identify or contact you) that NPCA collects may become part of your National Peace Corps Association online profile and may be used by National Peace Corps Association as provided in this Policy or as disclosed at the time you provide the information or as otherwise agreed by you.

User Provided Information for National Peace Corps Association Members. National Peace Corps Association collects personal information from you when you sign up to become an NPCA Member.  When you sign up to become a National Peace Corps Association Member by going to (https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/signup) and filling out your information or signing up using an NPCA Membership sign-up form, you can create an NPCA Member profile and your contact information goes into the database.  Once you are a Member, you are considered a Member, and are subject to the rights and responsibilities of Members as outlined in the NPCA bylaws until your Membership term expires.  NPCA encourages you to renew your Membership upon or before its termination date to ensure that you continue to receive NPCA Membership benefits and access to the Membership communities.

Web Logs. Like most standard website administrators, NPCA processes information from all visitors to its websites. This information may include the browser you are using, the internet address from which you linked to our websites, the operating system of your computer, time/date stamp info, the unique IP address of the computer you used to access our websites, and usage and browsing habits. NPCA uses this information to help diagnose and troubleshoot server malfunctions, to analyze trends, track user movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information. NPCA also may use individual information it collects through web logs to send you invitations to events or campaigns and other communications.

Cookies.To help make sure you receive information that is relevant to you, NPCA’s websites use data “cookies.” These cookies are small data files stored on your computer which identify you as a previous visitor to the websites and help NPCA to personalize your experience when you arrive. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies. You can instruct your browser not to accept cookies. However, if you disable this function, you will not be able to use some of the features on NPCA’s website.

Website Analytics. NPCA’s Web pages and e-mail newsletters contain “website analytics.” Website analytics are used as a tool to capture cookies, some of which may identify a user and therefore include personally identifiable information. This allows NPCA to learn what pages are most attractive to visitors, which parts of the websites are the most interesting and what kind of offers Members like to see. Some of the website analytics that are in place on NPCA’s website are used only by NPCA and its consultants.  In addition, NPCA has agreements with various affiliate networks that promote NPCA on their affiliate websites. These affiliate advertisers may use website analytics in their advertisements to track users who click through from the affiliate website to NPCA’s online communities.  Personal contact information, such as names and email addresses, is not shared with outside affiliate organizations unless expressly disclosed to the user.

Children. NPCA is committed to protecting the privacy of children. NPCA’s website is not designed or intended to attract children under the age of 18. NPCA does not collect personal information from any person NPCA actually knows is under the age of 18.

III. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

When you Register on the Online Community. When you register on the NPCA site, you create your own profile and your own visible privacy settings. Unless you set your privacy settings to “private” (administrator access only), your profile information and photo are displayed to people in the network to allow you to connect with other NPCA Members.

Telephone Numbers. If you supply NPCA your telephone number, you may receive telephone contact from NPCA with information regarding any orders you have placed, program updates, solicitations, or information on upcoming opportunities or events. You have the right to opt-out of receiving telephone solicitations from NPCA. To opt out of solicitations, you can select “No” under “May NPCA contact you about making a contribution?” in your profile settings. NPCA does not sell, rent, or otherwise release your telephone number to any third party, nor does NPCA use it for any purpose other than as stated above. To opt out of all telephone calls, please contact NPCA at [email protected].

Postal Addresses. If you supply it to NPCA, NPCA collects postal mailing address information from you so that the organization may fulfill the orders and solicitation requests you submit and inform you of NPCA programs, products, services, and events in which you may be interested. You have the right to opt-out of receiving postal mailings from NPCA. To opt out of receiving solicitations, mailing or otherwise, you can select “No” under “May NPCA contact you about making a contribution?” in your profile settings. NPCA selectively makes a postal mailing address list available to other carefully screened organizations whose product or service offerings may be of interest to you. You have the right to opt-out of the sharing of your postal address with these third parties. To opt out of special offers from our partners completely, mailed or otherwise, you can select “No” under “May NPCA send you occasional special offers from our partners?” in your profile settings. To manage your preferences for how NPCA may share your contact information, update your profile settings for “May NPCA share your contact information?” to either “Yes,” “No,” or “With Peace Corps Community only,” which includes only official and forming NPCA Affiliate Groups and the Peace Corps government agency. If you have questions about this or want to change your information sharing options, please send an email to [email protected].

Credit Card Information. NPCA uses a payment gateway to collect your credit card information when you make a payment or a donation by that method. This information is used by NPCA only to obtain payment for the NPCA donation or other purchase. NPCA does not store your credit card information and therefore does not share this information with any third parties.

Your Real Name. Unless you have made your profile private, your real name is displayed on the NPCA online community site and will be included in emails that you send via the site. On the site, you can choose to allow members to search for you by using your real name, country/years of service, or most other information you have entered in your profile.

Personal Profiles. Please be aware that, if you opt to display your profile in the NPCA online community site, certain personal profile information (specifically, your real name) is displayed for all Members and cannot be hidden from other members who have created a profile on the site. In addition, because this information is publicly displayed on websites, it may appear in the results of searches conducted on Internet search engines. By using the search functionality on the websites, people who create profiles on the NPCA site can find other NPCA members with similar background. When you find other NPCA members, you can view their personal profile information to find out more about them based on what they have decided to share on the site.

Stories, Photos, Documents. As an NPCA member, you can share personal content, such as stories, photos, and documents. Please be aware that by using any of these features, you may make your personally identifiable information accessible to the respective community’s members, and NPCA has no control over how those users may use your personally identifiable information. You therefore have no right to privacy in your activity on the NPCA website or in the content that you post or send on or through the sites. NPCA has the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any activity and content associated with the public and private forums and interactive areas on its websites.  If NPCA believes any activity on the website may constitute a crime or any content may be evidence of a crime, NPCA may provide information about such activity or content to law enforcement.  If NPCA believes any activity on the website violates the Agreement or is otherwise inappropriate, NPCA reserves the right to terminate your access to the site.  Please review the Agreement for more information regarding your appropriate use of the site.

Your Email Address. NPCA collects email address information from you when you become a Member of NPCA, or provide your email address when communicating with one of NPCA’s staff. NPCA collects email address information from you to confirm your NPCA Membership; communicate with you regarding your registration; and alert you of other NPCA programs, products, solicitations, services and opportunities that may be of interest to you. Many of our programs are only advertised through email. Any recipient of such email notices may opt out of receiving them at any time. To opt out of receiving emails, you can change your communications preferences under “Settings” or send an email to [email protected].

NPCA Newsletters and Emails. NPCA may send you announcements and emails from time to time through any of its web platforms. For instance, if an NPCA Member sends you a message, you may receive an email alerting you to that fact. After you submit your email address to NPCA when creating a Member profile, NPCA may use your information to send you e-newsletters, updates and communications about National Peace Corps Association. NPCA may ask you which newsletters you wish to receive. At any time, you may change your newsletter preferences by (i) simply updating your NPCA Membership account and changing your communication preferences under “Settings,” (ii) sending an email to [email protected] to opt out of receiving future emails, or (iii) by following the procedures as described at the bottom of each communication from NPCA.

Spam. NPCA does its best to prevent and delete spam on its website.  From time to time, spam profiles are created and may send out a message to your profile.  Sometimes, these spam profiles send messages to other Members.  Once NPCA knows about these occurrences, NPCA staff Members delete the profiles and all associated content.  NPCA never releases Member information, including email addresses, to other online community Members on any NPCA website platform. NPCA monitors the site for spam and deletes it whenever possible.  If you see spam before it has been deleted, you may contact NPCA at [email protected].

Third Party Offers. On occasion, we are able to offer NPCA Members special services from or mailings on behalf of an organization with similar aims. This may be to promote a specific event or activity that we deem of interest to these groups. National Peace Corps Association staff generally performs these mailings, in which case the Members’ contact information is not provided to such organizations. If you accept an offer or attend an event, however, you will become a client of the organization that is fulfilling the offer and we will not have control over their use of the personally identifiable information that you provide to them when you accept the offer or attend the event.  If you would prefer that your address not be released under these circumstances, please indicate this desire on your NPCA profile by selecting “No” under “May NPCA send you occasional special offers from our partners?” in your profile settings.

Other Third Party Recipients. NPCA may provide to third parties non-personal information about you that does not allow you to be identified or contacted and that is combined with the non-personal information of other users. For example, NPCA may inform third parties regarding the number of users of the website and the activities they conduct while on the website. NPCA may or may not charge third parties for this information. NPCA may not impose on such third parties any limitation regarding the use of such information, except that NPCA does require third parties to whom NPCA discloses such non-personal information to agree that they will not attempt to make this information personally identifiable by combining it with other databases or otherwise.

Legal Matters. NPCA may, without your consent, access and disclose your information, any communications sent or received by you, and any other information that NPCA may have about you or your account as may be permitted or required by law (including, but not limited to, law, regulation, court order, subpoena, or search warrant), or to prevent or investigate suspected fraud, violations of the Agreement, or activity that appears to NPCA to be illegal or may create legal liability. Additionally, NPCA may disclose your information in situations that NPCA believes to be emergencies involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person or property if NPCA believes that your information in any way relates to that threat. In the event that NPCA is legally compelled to disclose your Private Information (as defined below) to a third party, NPCA will notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order.

IV. PRIVACY SETTINGS

All content and information on the public section of the website will be publicly available and searchable with the exception of certain fields on the member profiles. Within profiles, the default setting will be that certain information is public and everything else unless designated is private, per the descriptions below.

All users in the database select their privacy settings upon creating or activating their accounts and can update the privacy preferences at anytime in their Settings. These privacy options include Public (visible by any visitor to the website), Members (only visible by other logged-in members), and Private (not visible to anyone but administrators). NPCA’s Member Directory is members-only, so only other members can search for members in NPCA’s database, even if some users choose to make their profiles public. In the member directory, the following information may be displayed for members who choose to make their profiles public or visible to other members: Name, City, State, Headline (sentence or two about member, as entered by member), Personal Overview (longer introduction to member, as entered by member), Social Links (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), and Company as well as a profile picture and documents. Their membership plan and work contact information can also be made visible. Their email address, phone number, and home address are never made visible.

Private Information. NPCA exercises all reasonable internal controls to maintain the confidentiality of Private Information.  Nevertheless, although NPCA makes every reasonable effort to protect your Private Information from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk in transmitting information over the Internet.  It is also possible that someone could find a way to breach NPCA’s security systems employed to protect your Private Information. Consequently, NPCA neither warrants nor guarantees the security of Private Information.

Communication with other Members. As on social networking sites such as Facebook, any member can “blindly” contact another member profile on the NPCA website to ask permission to communicate.

You may always change your Settings and edit your Profile or contact NPCA by emailing [email protected] to (1) delete your Public and Private Information from our systems, (2) update the Public or Private Information you have previously submitted, or (3) change your preferences with respect to contact information or other activities. Such changes will not have any effect on other information on the website.

You should know that it may not be technologically possible to remove each and every record of the Public or Private Information you have provided on the NPCA website from its servers because of the need to back-up its systems to protect information from inadvertent loss. Therefore, a copy of your Public or Private Information may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible to locate. Nevertheless, NPCA represents that upon receiving your request, all Public and Private Information stored in the databases NPCA actively uses for daily business activities, and other readily searchable media, will be deleted as soon as it may be reasonably done on a nondisruptive basis.

V. IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES, PRACTICES AND CONTACT INFORMATION

National Peace Corps Association website contain links to other sites. Some of the pages on the NPCA website server may contain links to information created and maintained by other organizations. Please note that the NPCA does not manage and cannot guarantee the appropriate nature of these outside materials. Once you are on these sites, any data that you supply to these partners is beyond NPCA’s control and will be the responsibility of the linked-to entities and not NPCA. These links are provided as a convenience to you and do not necessarily reflect endorsement by National Peace Corps Association. NPCA is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these Websites or any other sites linked to or referenced on NPCA’s website.

Security. The NPCA database and website platform uses bank grade security technology. This includes state-of-the-art encryption, physically secure servers, and SSL tunnels, which all contribute to making sure your data remains secure. The platform is hosted on a redundant infrastructure with automatic failover capabilities, and our database is backed up daily. Passwords are not stored in the database. New and changed passwords are “hashed” using industry-standard encryption techniques (SHA1 or MD5). Only hashed versions of passwords are stored. They cannot be decrypted. However, despite its efforts, no system can completely guarantee that there will never be unauthorized access to your personally identifiable information, and your use of the websites indicates that you are willing to assume this risk entirely.

A Note About International Users. National Peace Corps Association is located in the United States and the website is hosted in Canada. If you are using the website from outside the United States or Canada, by providing your information to this website, you are consenting to the transfer of your information to the United States and Canada for processing and maintaining in accordance with this Policy and the Agreement. You are also consenting to the application of United States and Canada law in all matters concerning these websites.

Updating Your Personal Information. If you are an NPCA Member, you can update your personally identifiable information at any time on NPCA’s platform. NPCA is unable to update or delete any of your personally identifiable information that has been shared with a third party.

Changes to the Privacy Policy. NPCA reserves the right to make changes to this Policy from time to time. If NPCA does so, it will attempt to notify you by email of any significant changes concerning NPCA’s use of your Private Information and provide you the opportunity to opt-out of such significant new uses of your Private Information if it was obtained from you prior to a significant change in this Privacy Policy. NPCA further reserves the right to make non-significant changes to our Privacy Policy that generally will not affect its use of your Private Information. In such cases, NPCA will not notify you of these non-significant changes and invite you to check this posted Privacy Policy for any such non-significant changes. The most recent version of the Privacy Policy will always be posted on the main website, with the “Effective Date” posted at the top of the Policy.

Contacting Us. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or the practices of these websites, please contact us at [email protected].

Or write to NPCA at:

National Peace Corps Association
1900 L Street, NW, Suite 610
Washington DC 20036-5002

If you have a complaint or a problem you may email NPCA at: [email protected] at which time your complaint will be dealt with for a response or resolution. NPCA staff members attempt to answer every email in a timely manner but are not always able to do so. If you do not receive adequate resolution of a privacy-related problem, you may write to NPCA at the above-indicated address.