Privacy Policy
Effective Date: August 8, 2023
The Spear Fund, a dba of Liberty and Light (“The Spear Fund,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of all donors and constituents, including visitors to our website (www.thespearfund.org) Outlined below is our privacy policy for information collected as a result of engagement with our various constituents, including by: (1) connecting with us on our websites; (2) making a donation; (3) registering for or provided it to us at our events; (4) filling out an inquiry form; or (5) contacting us. If you have questions about these policies, we encourage you to contact us by email. For privacy-related inquiries, contact us at privacy@thespearfund.org
By accessing our website on any computer, mobile phone, tablet, or other device, or otherwise interacting with us, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the policy, please do not use the website.
Collection and Use of Information
We collect information that you choose to provide to us, such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, and company or organization name. We may combine the information we collect from you with information we receive about you from other sources, such as address update services.
Like other website operators, The Spear Fund analyzes our website logs to improve the value of our website. We use external services, like Google Analytics, to provide real-time reporting to us and our authorized agents of browser access to our site. This reporting includes page views, unique views, unique visitors, repeat visitors, frequency of visits, and peak-volume traffic periods. This helps us understand traffic patterns and know if there are problems with our website. We automatically may collect your IP address, cookie information, and other browser and device identifiers as part of this process. We do not respond to web browser “Do Not Track” signals.
We may also use embedded images in emails to track open rates for our mailings so that we can tell which mailings appeal most to The Spear Fund visitors, including online and offline donors and constituents. URLs contained in emails may contain an ID that enables us to correctly identify the person who takes an action using a web page. We use these URLs to simplify the process of conducting our operations, including signing petitions and filling out surveys. We may occasionally present a shortened URL that references a longer URL which contains an ID in order to simplify the display, to prevent links from becoming broken when copied, and to ensure compatibility with email programs which do not handle long URLs. When a shortened URL is displayed in an email, you will see the full URL in the browser’s address bar when you access the page.
We may use the information that we collect to provide the site and services to you, to communicate with you (including to send you promotional materials), to analyze and improve the site and services, to prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities and enforce our Terms of Use or rights, and otherwise as disclosed to you at the time of collection or with your consent. If you sign up for our mailing list, we will send you informational emails about us. At any time, you can ‘unsubscribe’ yourself from our email list simply by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ button.
Personalization of Content
The Spear Fund and our external service providers use “cookies” and other similar technologies to help personalize and maximize your online experience and time online. We also use these technologies to better understand how our visitors — including donors and constituents — use our site. Your browser preferences may allow you to control the use of cookies, but these browser controls might not apply to all technologies. Please note that if you reject some or all cookies, your experience on this and on other sites throughout the Internet may not be complete. In addition, if you do not allow cookies or other similar technologies, you may not be able to take advantage of personalized content delivery offered by us. Note that browser-management tools for cookies are outside of our control and we cannot guarantee their effectiveness.
Sale or Disclosure of Information to Third Parties
Except as provided in this privacy policy, The Spear Fund does not share, sell, exchange or otherwise disclose any personal information with other unaffiliated organizations, nor do we share, sell or exchange lists of donors or other constituents with unaffiliated organizations.
We may also disclose your information with our service providers; when required by law or to respond to legal process, law enforcement requests, or government inquiries; and to defend the rights, interests, safety, and security of us, our affiliates, constituents, or the public. We may disclose your information in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our assets to a third party, such as in connection with a merger or in the event of a bankruptcy reorganization or liquidation. We may also disclose your personal information with your express consent. We may share aggregate, non-personally identifiable information about website users with third parties.
Updating or Correcting Your Information
You may review, correct, update or change information at any time. Simply contact The Spear Fund at the email address above. You may also exercise your rights, subject to applicable laws, to request that we delete or restrict access to your personal data. We may need to retain it for legally permitted purposes and this will be explained to you if necessary.
Retention of Personal Information
Personal information that we collect, access or process will be retained only as long as necessary for the fulfilment of the purposes for which it was collected, unless otherwise provided in agreements between you and us or as required or authorized by law. Personal information that is no longer required to fulfill the identified purposes will be destroyed, erased or made de-identified.
Your Privacy is Important to Us
Our website is scanned on a regular basis for security holes, known vulnerabilities and Malware in order to make your visit to our site as safe as possible.
How We Protect Your Privacy
Your personal and identifiable information is contained behind secured networks and it is The Spear Fund’s internal policy to keep that information confidential, except as may be necessary to carry out our mission and purposes. We will never sell your information and we do not share your information with 3rd party vendors or organizations outside of The Spear Fund’s direct work.
In addition, all sensitive/credit information you supply is encrypted adhering to PCI Compliance regulations and via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology as provided by our payment processor. All transactions are processed through a gateway provider and are not stored or processed on our servers. Even though we follow reasonable procedures to try to protect the information in our possession, no security system is perfect and we cannot promise, and you should not expect, that your information will be secure in all circumstances.
Sending Emails via the The Spear Fund Website
In certain cases, we enable you to send individual emails to the President, legislators, and other targets, as well as Letters-to-the-Editor to various news publications, through our website. These messages are sent in your name, with your email address as the return address and your full name and contact information is provided as part of the submission. These messages will only be sent out under your name as you approve them on an individual basis using our email tool. You are solely responsible for the specific message(s) you send using our email tool.
Links to Other Websites
The Spear Fund may provide links to third-party websites, and other websites may provide links to our websites. Third-party websites operate according to their own terms of use and privacy policies. The Spear Fund has no control over such third-party websites and, by using our websites, you acknowledge and agree that The Spear Fund is not responsible for the availability of such third-party sites and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such sites. You further acknowledge and agree that The Spear Fund is not responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use or reliance on any content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such sites.
Financial Donations
If you choose to make a donation to The Spear Fund, your credit card, debit card or bank account information will be used only for this transaction through our secure online payment system. In the case of a recurring (e.g., monthly) donation or pledge, information will be retained securely in order to process each recurring gift. We do not otherwise retain credit card information or transmits credi card information to other parties. The Spear Fund will provide an acknowledgement of such gifts if a method of contacting each donor, such as an email address or a mailing address, is provided to us by the third party website.
Children
The Spear Fund does not knowingly solicit personal information from children, and our websites are not directed to children under the age of 13. Visitors who are under 13 years of age should ask their parent or legal guardian for assistance when using the site and should not submit any personal information to the site. For example, visitors under 13 years of age should not make donations or use the The Spear Fund email tool. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 13, we will delete that information. These practices are in place to ensure child privacy and safety, and in compliance with prevailing federal laws.
Changes to Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post the updated policy here and a link on our website home page so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information, and to whom we will disclose it. We will not change our policies and practices to make them materially less protective of personal information collected prior to the effective date of any changes without the consent of affected users. We encourage users to visit this page periodically to review our current policy.
Your California Privacy Rights
California law permits our customers who are California residents to request certain information about our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. This request is free and may be made once a year. To make such a request, please contact us at the email address or number above.
Visitors from Outside the United States—Cross-Border Transfer
We maintain information in the United States of America and in accordance with the laws of the United States, which may not provide the same level of protection as the laws in your jurisdiction. By using our websites and providing us with information, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to and stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction and, to the extent you are a resident of a country other than the United States, that you consent to the transfer of such data to the United States for processing by us in accordance with this privacy policy.
