Privacy Policy
Last revised December 5, 2023
Public Citizen respects individual privacy. We have established this privacy policy to explain what information we collect through our website and the uses and protections of that information. This policy applies to the citizen.org website.
Cookies and IP Addresses
To advance our programs and provide you with a more user-friendly experience on our website, we automatically collect some information and allow some tracking to take place. The information that we collect with these automated methods may include information such as cookie information, browser type, and referring URL. Our website uses cookies for these reasons:
- so that you don’t have to reenter information on action, donate, or payment pages,
- for tracking traffic so that we can evaluate and improve the website, and
- to facilitate outreach based on visitors’ interests.
For systems administration and troubleshooting, we log the IP address (the location on the Internet) of the computer or network from which someone visits the website. We also use IP addresses in the aggregate to track traffic so that we can evaluate and improve the website.
If, while on the citizen.org website, you click on links to other websites, you will leave citizen.org. To find out how those other websites treat the data they collect, see their respective online privacy policies.
Information You Submit Directly
Some pages on our website invite you to share personally identifying information, such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, payment information (to complete a transaction), or other information. You may choose to share this information to enable you to make a donation, join our email list, sign a petition, register for an event, or participate in other activities through our website.
If you choose to provide personally identifying information, we may store that information and use it to contact you about our work.
Except as outlined below, we do not disclose to outside entities any information provided by people who visit or interact with the website.
Taking Action
Certain pages on our websites invite visitors to take action — such as signing a petition, registering for an event, sending a message, or participating in other online activities. We may disclose the information you enter on an action page in the following circumstances:
- If you sign a petition, your name and state may be included in an electronic file or hard-copy printout delivered to legislators or other policymakers.
- If you take an action that generates a communication to an outside entity (such as emailing a member of Congress or other policymaker, submitting a comment to a government agency, or sending a letter-to-the-editor), the information you enter on the action page may be passed along to that outside entity.
- We may offer to connect action-takers to other activists or volunteer organizers. Before doing so, we will notify you by email with an option to decline.
- We may give consultants and organizations working with us on specific projects temporary access to information about our online action-takers. They will not contact you and will not retain the information after the project is complete.
- From time to time, we may partner with another organization to promote one of our online actions to supporters of that organization. In those instances, we may share with that organization the information you entered on an action page. When we do that, we will give you a heads up by noting on the action page that the information may be shared with the other organization.
- We may share information about action-takers with organizations that we think may interest our action-takers. If you prefer that we not include your information for sharing in this manner, contact our Member Services team at 1-800-289-3787 or member@citizen.org. (Allow up to 30 days for your information to be removed.)
- We may also disclose your data if required to do so by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, court order, or government reporting obligation.
Once you take action, we will send you emails about our work. To stop receiving emails, complete this form.
Making Donations or Payments
The information you enter on a donation or payment page may be shared with third-party service providers (such as services that verify credit card data).
We may share some donor information (but not information about your credit card or other form of payment) with organizations that we think may interest our donors. If you prefer that we not include your information for sharing in this manner, contact our Member Services team at 1-800-289-3787 or member@citizen.org. (Allow up to 30 days for your information to be removed.)
We may give consultants and organizations working with us on specific projects temporary access to information (but not credit card information) about people who make donations or payments; they will not retain the information or contact the people whose information they have access to.
Security
Public Citizen takes steps to protect information collected online from unauthorized access and improper use. Public Citizen is fully compliant with PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and does not maintain credit card information on any of our servers. Other personally identifiable information, such as your name and address, is stored on secure servers. Public Citizen’s network is protected at the perimeter by firewalls that include intrusion detection and prevention capabilities, and all servers and workstations have centrally managed antivirus software. Servers and workstations are patched regularly and monitored for signs of suspicious activity. Access to Public Citizen’s network is restricted to Public Citizen-owned devices. Data transmitted to and from our website are encrypted.
Children’s Privacy
Our website is not intended for children under age 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under age 13. If we become aware that we have collected any personal information from children under 13, we will promptly delete that information. If you believe that we might have personal information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at member@citizen.org.
Updates to this Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will post changes on this page. We will also keep prior versions of our online privacy policy available for your review in this section.
Recent revisions:
December 2023 revision (updated link to stop receiving emails)
August 2021 revision (additions regarding our data sharing practices and to users’ ability to choose how we use their data)
Questions
If you have questions about this privacy policy, contact member@citizen.org.