Privacy Policy
Website Privacy Policy of Bethany Christian Services
Bethany Christian Services (“Bethany”, “we” or “us”) has adopted this Privacy Policy to inform you about our policies with the collection, use, and disclosure of information collected from its website, Bethany.org, which provides information about services offered from Bethany Christian Services (the “Site”).
We value your privacy, and we do not sell your personal information. The information that we collect is used for providing our services and improving the Site. We will only use and share your personal information with anyone as set forth in this Privacy Policy or with your consent. If you choose to visit our Site, then you agree to the collection and use of information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.
Please review this Privacy Policy periodically as we may update it from time to time. Each time you visit the Site, or provide us with information, you are, by doing so, accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy at that time.
Information Collection and Use
This Site collects personal information that you provide us directly as well as information that your browser routinely shares with websites and information that your mobile device shares when you access the Site from a mobile device. We have several legal grounds for collecting and using your information, including: (a) as necessary to perform a transaction (such as when you request information from us); (b) as necessary to comply with a legal obligation (such as for record keeping); (c) consent (where you have provided your consent for us to use your information for a particular purpose); and (d) as necessary for our legitimate interests (such as when we act to maintain our business generally).
Log Data
You do not need to provide us with any personal information if you simply want to browse through our Site or learn more about our services. However, whenever you visit our Site, we collect information that your browser or mobile device routinely shares, called “Log Data.” This Log Data may include information such as your computer's Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, geographic location, browser version, pages of our Site that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, and other statistics. We use this information to understand more about our Site visitors generally and to improve the Site and our services. We will not try to associate any Log Data with the personal information that you provide to us, except to investigate apparent fraud or a threat to our Site, our business or our users.
Statistical Analysis of Information
We use Google Analytics and HubSpot to help us gather statistical information about the visitors to our Site and how they use the Site on an anonymous, aggregate basis (“Aggregate Information”). We will not associate this Aggregate Information with personally identifiable data unless required to do so to cooperate with law enforcement activity or other governmental request or to comply with law. We may use this information to gain a better understanding of the users of our Site, to improve our Site, and to improve our services and product offerings. Depending on the type of browser and device that you use, you may have the ability to control the type of information that these services use. To understand how Google Analytics collects and processes data, click here. To understand how HubSpot collects and process data, click here. We reserve the right to license or sell Aggregate Information about the visitors to our Site, but this information will not contain your personal information or otherwise be individually identifiable.
Personal Information
We collect personal information that you choose to provide to us on a voluntary basis. For example, you can contact us through our Site, register for events and contests or sweepstakes, or sign up for newsletters or e-mails. You can also donate through our Site to help support our mission, and we will collect the personal information you provide in connection with your donation.
When we ask for your personal information, it is so that we can provide services to you and communicate with you. Specifically, we use your personal information you provide to register you for events and contests/sweepstakes, respond to your requests and comments, process your donations, and to market our services to you. If we send you newsletters, promotions or other marketing communications, you may opt out of receiving them at any time.
Note that if you make a donation through this Site, your payment information, including your credit card information, will be captured and processed by a third party provider that will manage the transaction. We will not have access to any payment information. Currently we utilize Blackbaud and Authorize.net for these services.
It will always be your choice whether to provide your personal information to take advantage of these features. You are not required to provide any personal information identified in this Privacy Policy to use our Site or to interact with us offline, but certain functionality will not be available if you do not provide personal information. For example, if you do not provide personal information, we may not be able to respond to your request, perform a transaction with you, or provide you with marketing that we believe you would find valuable.
Cookie Policy
As is commonly done on websites, this Site may use cookies, web beacons, and similar technology to customize your Site experience and keep track of those using the Site. Cookies are files with a small amount of data that is commonly used as an anonymous unique identifier. These are sent to your browser from the website that you visit and are stored on your computer's hard drive. Specifically, the cookies we use on this Site (Bethany.org) are:
- Postal code
- Preferred location
- Preferred service
If you sign up to receive our informational e-mails, we will also use cookies in conjunction with these emails. When your browser downloads any graphic content in the e-mail, we will also place a cookie on your computer that will tell us if you come to our website later.
Web beacons (also known as an action tags, clear gifs or pixel tags) are pixel images embedded in a website page used to transparently collect information. We use web beacons (or similar technology) help us track the effectiveness of our communications. For example, we may use a web beacon to count the number of visits to the pages of this Site.
You consent to our cookies and other tracking technology if you continue to use our Site. If you do not wish to allow cookies, please disable cookies by changing your browser settings before continuing to use this website. If you choose to refuse our cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Site.
In addition to our own cookies, we collaborate with third-party service providers who also use cookies to help us optimize our website and understand more about the visitors to our Site. For example, we use Google Analytics to provide us with demographic information about our visitors and to help us analyze how people use our Site. Our third-party service providers include Google Analytics, HubSpot, and Cloudflare. To learn more about how these providers use cookies, please click the links above or visit their respective websites to view their privacy policies.
Sharing Your Information with Affiliates and Other Third Parties
We may share your information with our affiliates and partner agencies, as well as third-party companies and individuals whom we engage to provide services, including those to:
- help us design and operate the Site;
- perform services to support the Site, process your information, or engage in marketing activities on our behalf; and
- assist us in analyzing how our Site is used.
These third parties may have access to your personal information to perform the tasks we have assigned to them. However, we will have contractual provisions or other appropriate protections in place to ensure that these third parties are obligated not to disclose or use the information for any other purpose and that they comply with this Privacy Policy.
Other Disclosures of Your Information
We may release your information without prior notice when we believe it is appropriate to prevent fraud; to comply with law or to cooperate with law enforcement activity or other governmental request; to respond to subpoenas, court orders or administrative agency requests for information; to enforce our policies; to protect the rights, property and safety of our business and of others; or when required or otherwise permitted by law. For example, we may share information with law enforcement to reduce the risk of fraud or if someone uses or attempts to use our site for illegal reasons. If there is a sale or merger of our organization, we may also transfer the information we have collected in connection with such sale or merger.
Do-Not-Track
At this time, the Site does not recognize automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include “do not track” instructions. However, you can change your privacy preferences regarding the use of cookies and similar technologies through your browser or mobile device.
Links to other sites
Our Site may contain links to other sites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site. Note that these external sites are not operated by us. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of these websites. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
Security
We value your trust in providing us your personal information, and we maintain technical and organizational measures to protect the integrity of this Site and the personal information we collect from you from loss, misuse, alteration or unintentional destruction. There are multiple facets to our security policy and procedures to ensure the best possible outcome to protect personal information you share with us. Firewalls and network segmentation protect Bethany's systems and applications to prevent outside intruders from directly accessing the data. Bethany systems and applications utilize encryption of data in transit and at rest. Bethany uses 3rd party credit card providers (Authorize.net and Stripe) for processing payments. Bethany staff only have access to data specifically required for their position. Bethany staff train regularly about data security and general cyber security to help protect our data systems. Employees utilize Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to help protect their accounts from being compromised. But remember that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and reliable. We cannot provide absolute assurances against, and will not be liable for, any breaches of data security or confidentiality due to system failures or unauthorized access by third parties, or other causes beyond our reasonable control. You also have an important role in in protecting your information.
Data Retention
We typically retain your personal information related to marketing activities for as long as you accept marketing communications from us, and we will securely delete such data in accordance with, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, upon request. For personal information that we collect and process for other purposes, we typically retain such personal information for no longer than for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy and as otherwise specified in applicable record retention policies and procedures. We may retain your personal information even after you have unsubscribed from our communications if reasonably necessary to comply with our legal obligations (including law enforcement requests), meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, maintain security, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce our terms and conditions. We will retain de-personalized information after we have otherwise deleted your personal information.
Cross Border Transfers of Information
Any information you provide to us by using the Site may be stored, processed, transferred among, and accessed from the United States and other countries that may not guarantee the same level of protection of personal information as the one in which you reside. However, we will handle your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy regardless of where your personal information is kept. Regarding transfers from the European Economic Area ("EEA") to the United States, we rely on the derogations for transfers that are necessary to perform the transaction with you. Where required by law, you may request a copy of the suitable mechanisms we have in place by contacting us as detailed below. If you reside in other non-US jurisdictions outside the EEA, your use of the Site or provision of any personal information constitutes your consent for the transfer of such data to the United States for the purposes identified above. If you have questions about cross-border transfers, please contact us as detailed below.
Additional Notices for Various Individuals
Children: Our Site is not directed at children under the age of 13 and we will not knowingly collect information about children under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, please do not submit your personal information. If you are a parent who believes that we have collected information about a child under age 13, please contact us as detailed below and we will be happy to delete the information.
Clients: If you are a client of Bethany Christian Services, the information we collect about you in connection with our provision of services is subject to additional privacy policies and requirements. Please see our Client Rights and Privacy for additional information regarding our privacy practices and your rights.
Donors: Bethany Christian Services is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), and will only process donations in accordance with these standards. We maintain board approved, documented policies and procedures related to fundraising practices, donor protections and relations, and donations, including our Fundraising Guidelines and Practices and our Donor Confidentiality and Communications Policy. See our Fundraising Policies and Standards of Excellence page for more information.
European Residents: Under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), residents in the EEA, United Kingdom and Switzerland have the right to request: access to personal information we collect and share about you, corrections to or deletion of such personal information, restriction or suspension of our processing of your personal information, and a copy of the personal information we have about you. If you have provided consent for the processing of your personal information, you may have the right (under certain circumstances) to withdraw that consent at any time, which will not affect any processing before your consent was withdrawn.
If you wish to invoke any of your rights under the GDPR, you may contact us using the contact details below. Please include in your email a sufficiently detailed description of the GDPR right with which you seek assistance. We may need to contact you for further information, and we reserve the right to charge a fee for certain requests. We will notify you if your request has been granted or declined, or if exemptions apply. Please note that you always have the right to make privacy complaints directly to a supervisory authority in your country.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Thus, we advise you to review this page periodically for any changes. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. These changes are effective immediately after they are posted on this page.
Verifying, Changing, and Deleting Your Information
If the information you provided us is incorrect or if you have an issue with your information that we have collected, you can contact us as detailed below and ask us to change, update or fix your information in certain cases. You can also request that we erase or delete all or some of your personal information or otherwise object to, limit, or restrict the use of such information if we have no legal right or legitimate business interest in retaining such information.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or suggestions about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us using our online form or the information below. You may also file a complaint or ask to review any of the information that we have retained about you, how we have used it, or to whom we have disclosed it at any time by contacting us.
Bethany Christian Services 901 Eastern Ave NE Grand Rapids, MI 49503 (800) 238-4269 info@bethany.org
Last updated: December 1, 2020