Privacy Policy

AD COUNCIL PRIVACY POLICY

Last Updated: June 15, 2022

The Advertising Council, Inc. (“Ad Council”) operates, hosts, and manages a number of websites and related online services (collectively, “Websites”). This Privacy Policy applies where it is referenced or posted and describes, among other things, the types of information Ad Council collects, how we may collect and use the information, with whom it is shared and what rights you may have regarding such information.

PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY, YOU MAY NOT USE OUR WEBSITES.

1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect contact information. For instance, we may collect your name, street address, telephone number, e-mail address and other contact information. We also may collect household information that you share with us when completing questionnaires or surveys in connection with certain campaigns or other Ad Council initiatives.

We collect commercial, financial and preference information. For example, we collect information about your donations and financial pledges. We also collect your comments, reviews, questions, suggestions and responses that you post or submit to us. We may collect information about which types of services you are interested in, your participation in certain events or programs, or your preferences. We may further collect information related to your retirement plans, including household information and financial practices that you submit to us in connection with certain campaigns.

We collect device, internet and network activity information. When you use or access the Websites, we may collect information about the browser, device and operating system you are using, such as your device identifiers, MAC address, and IP address. We might collect information about the site you came from, or the site you visit when you leave us. We may collect site interaction information and other electronic communications and content from your use of the Websites (such as the date, time, and location of your visit, what areas of Websites you visit and for how long, and what services, content, and links you view and click on). We may also embed technologies (which may include, for example, web beacons, tags, and pixels) in the emails and other communications we or our vendors send to you to help us understand how you interact with those messages, such as whether and when you opened a message or clicked on any content within the message.

We collect location information. We may collect information about your location when you visit the Websites, such as your IP address. We may also collect your zip code, such as when you submit it to search for services, facilities, or activities near you in connection with certain campaigns.

We collect demographic information/protected classifications. For example, in connection with certain campaigns, we may collect your age, gender or race submitted by you when interacting with our Websites.

We collect employment-related information. For example, we collect the name of your employer and information about your profession that you submit in connection with campaign surveys or questionnaires on the Websites.

2. HOW WE USE INFORMATION

We use information to provide our services. For instance, we may use your information to register or subscribe you for certain features, functions, services, activities, contests, and content on our Websites. We may also use your information to provide you with requested public service announcement assets via our asset registration form.

We use information to communicate with you about our relationship. For example, you may contact us with a question or for more information and we will use your contact information (which includes personal information such as an email address) to respond to your question or request.

We use information for marketing purposes. For example, we may use your information to notify you of updates, opportunities, or other information about our Websites, services, campaigns and/or the services of our campaign sponsors.

We use information to test, analyze, develop, improve, and provide our Websites and services. When you access or visit any of our Websites, we and our vendors may use technology that can recognize, collect and/or transmit information that is associated with your device. Although the term “cookie” specifically refers to a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes, we will use the term “cookie” to refer generically to any technology that can recognize, collect and/or transmit information about your visits to our Websites, including web beacons, pixels, tags and other trackers. The information collected includes the web domain that referred you, the type of operating system and browser you are using, the date and time of your visit, data relating to activities on our Websites and other technological attributes about your visit to our Websites. This information may be used by us or our vendors, to analyze trends, administer our Websites, track user movements on our Websites and to gather aggregate demographic information about visitors so we can provide and continually improve our Websites and services.

We use information to comply with our obligations, administer our Websites and services, or as otherwise required or permitted by law. For example, we may use information to administer the Websites, such as troubleshooting, data analysis, testing and for internal operations. We may also use your information for general compliance purposes and to operate our business on a day-to-day basis.

We use information for security, safety, and due diligence purposes. For example, we may use information to protect our organization, business partners, sponsors and their respective personnel. We may also use information to protect our Websites and services, as well as to detect and investigate unlawful, prohibited or harmful activities.

We may also use information as we may notify you from time to time.

3. SOURCES OF INFORMATION

We collect information directly from you. For example, we collect information if you create an account, participate in a program, contact us, sign up for our communications, make a donation or pledge, or complete a survey, questionnaire or test in connection with a campaign.

We collect information from your devices. We and our vendors use tracking tools such as browser cookies and web beacons to automatically collect information about you and your devices. We collect information using these tracking tools when you interact with our Websites (including our emails) that we or our vendors send to you. To learn about your choices for these tracking tools, please read Section 5 of this Privacy Policy.

We receive information from vendors we engage to work on our behalf. For example, vendors that host or maintain our Websites, or send emails for us may give us information. Our advertising technology vendors and analytics providers may also provide us with information.

We receive information about you from other sources. Other parties may indirectly or directly give us information about you. These other parties might include analytics providers, social media platforms, and/or campaign sponsors that provide us with information they have collected either directly or indirectly from you.

We combine information. We may combine information that we have collected from multiple sources. For example, we may combine information we get from another party with information we already have on file. We may also aggregate your information with other information to understand and analyze preferences and trends over time.

4. DISCLOSURES TO OTHER PARTIES

We share your information with vendors and service providers who perform services on our behalf. We may disclose your information to our vendors we engage for the purpose of administering, operating, hosting, developing, configuring, maintaining and providing internal support for our Websites. We may also share information with vendors we engage to send emails for us, provide advertising or marketing services, provide analytics, investigate unlawful or harmful activity or provide digital security services.

We share your information with our business partners. For example, we might share information with our campaign sponsors for the purpose of promoting certain campaigns. Some of these partners may send you information about a particular campaign or our services. We may also share information with companies that help us with our marketing efforts, including social media platforms, advertising networks, and ad tech companies. For example, we may share email information with social media platforms so they can serve promotional content to you on their platform. We may share information with other parties so they can provide you with information and content that may interest you. These parties may use the information for their own marketing purposes or the marketing purposes of others. Information received by our partners and other parties may also be subject to their privacy policies.

We will share your information for safety and security purposes, if we think we are obligated to do so to comply with the law, or to protect ourselves, or others. For example, we may share your information when we are compelled by a governmental agency, law, regulation, a court or other legal process; in order to enforce any law, regulation, or our Terms of Use; to safeguard against a threat to safety, property, interests or rights of us or others; and to investigate, respond to or resolve problems or inquiries or defend our interests.

We may share your information with a successor to all or part of our organization. If there is a change in our corporate structure, such as with a merger or acquisition, we may include information as part of that transaction and/or the negotiation and diligence related to that transaction or our organization in general.

We may share information for other reasons we may describe to you from time to time or as permitted or required by law.

5. COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKERS

We may use cookies, web beacons, pixels and other trackers as described in this Privacy Policy, to recognize a user’s device each time it is used to visit a particular Website and to keep count of how often you return to a particular Website. Cookies can also track how you use our Websites, your preferences for features and functions and, for Websites that have registration or similar features, cookies can help store information such as your username and password, so you do not have to re-enter your credentials each time you return to the Website.

You can disable or turn off certain cookies by changing the settings on certain Internet browsers or devices. If you block cookies, however, certain functionality of the Websites may become impaired or disabled. For instance, by changing these settings you may later be required to re-enter certain information each time you visit or attempt to use our Websites. The way to control your cookies settings depends on the tool. Certain browsers can be set to reject browser cookies. See the “Help” section of your particular web browser for more details on rejecting, blocking, and/or deleting cookies.

We or our advertising providers may use cookies and other trackers to collect data about your activities on our Websites, as well as non-affiliated sites over time across multiple websites and platforms for interest-based advertising purposes and to otherwise help determine advertising content that may be of interest to you. You may choose not to participate in certain interest-based advertising by opting out. In order to do this, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices and https://optout.privacyrights.info/ to opt out of certain uses of cookies for advertising purposes. If you use multiple devices or browsers, you will need to opt-out on each one.

Please keep in mind that if you choose to delete cookies from that browser or if you clear your cache, you will delete settings associated with that browser and will need to opt-out again. Opting out does not mean you will no longer receive online advertising. It means that the companies from which you opted out may no longer customize ads that are relevant to you based on data on your interests and web usage patterns.

Do Not Track Requests. Some web browsers have a “Do Not Track” preference that transmits a signal to the websites you visit with information indicating that you do not want your online activity to be tracked. Ad Council currently does not process or respond to these “Do Not Track” signals as there is no uniform standard for how online services should respond to such signals. As standards develop, we will revisit this issue and update this policy if our practices change.

6. THIRD PARTY CONTENT AND SERVICES

Our Websites may contain or display information from third parties, including certain of our sponsors. These parties may make information, goods or services available on our Websites, provide opportunities to participate in promotions on our Websites, or engage in activities that link or redirect your browser to their websites or platforms. You should be aware that even if you encounter advertisements or any other content of, or a link or reference to a third party website on one of our Websites, and even if we have a relationship with them, we are not responsible for the practices or policies of their websites or any rules they have in place regarding the collection, disclosure or use of information (including personal information), and their privacy policies will govern and apply.

You should also be aware we are a public service organization and simply because a website or web page includes our logo, name or otherwise refers to us, does not mean the website or web page is ours or under our control. We work with sponsors, advertisers, government agencies, and other parties to bring you public service advertising and if you enter, provide or submit information on or to a co-branded website or web page you will be subject to the terms, conditions and privacy policies of such third party.

7. SECURITY

While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information and your communications when using our Websites.

8. YOUR CHOICES

In general, we offer you the ability to opt out of receiving promotional emails and other communications from us in the future. Our email communications will provide you with instructions and the procedures you can use to opt out when applicable. Even if you opt out of receiving marketing messages, we still may send you messages in connection with the provision of our services that you engage with respect to a specific campaign, including but not limited to responses to your questions or inquiries.

9. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

California law permits users who are California residents to request and obtain from us information about the personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. If applicable, this information would include a list of the categories of personal information that was shared and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared information in the immediately preceding twelve calendar months. At this time, we do not disclose your personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes, so this requirement does not apply to us.

10. OUR SITES ARE NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN

Our Websites are not intended for children under 13 years of age. You may not submit your personal information unless you are at least 13 years old. If you are a parent or legal guardian and believe your child under the age of 13 has provided their personal information to us, please notify us at privacy@adcouncil.org. You may be required to provide verifiable identification that you are the child’s parent or legal guardian.

11. CHANGES TO PRIVACY POLICY

We may edit, amend, modify and update our Privacy Policy at any time by posting updated text on or links to our Websites. When we make material changes to our Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting a notice on our Websites. Your continued use of our Websites after any such changes constitutes your acceptance to the modified terms and conditions set forth herein.

12. WE PROCESS AND STORE INFORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Information we collect may be transferred to, processed in, or stored in the United States. Our Websites are subject to United States laws, which may not afford the same level protection as those in other countries.

13. CONTACT US

For questions about this Privacy Policy please email us at privacy@adcouncil.org or write to us at Ad Council, Legal Department, 815 Second Avenue, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10017 and please specify if you are inquiring about a specific website to help us better assist and respond to your questions.

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