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Privacy Policy

Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A.'s Commitment to Protecting Your Privacy

Protecting the security and privacy of your Personal Information is important to AKF USA and to the way we conduct our business in compliance with laws on privacy, data protection and data security in the countries in which we maintain Web sites. We hope the policy outlined below will help you understand what information AKF USA may collect, how AKF USA uses and safeguards that information and with whom that information may be shared.

What information do we collect? Non-personal information collected automatically
When you access our Web sites, we may automatically (i.e., not by registration) collect information that is not personally-identifiable (e.g., type of Internet browser and computer operating system used; domain name of the Web site from which you came; number of visits, average time spent, pages viewed). We may use this information and share it with our worldwide affiliates to measure the use of our Web sites and improve their content.

"Cookies" - Information Placed Automatically on Your Computer
When you view one of our Web sites, we may store some information on your computer in the form of a "Cookie" to automatically recognize you the next time you visit. Cookies can help us in many ways, for example, by allowing us to tailor a Web site to better match your interests or to save your password so that you do not have to re-enter it each time. If you choose not to be recognized, please refer to your Internet browser to erase Cookies from your computer hard drive, block all Cookies or receive a warning before a Cookie is stored.

Personal Information
Through our Web sites, AKF USA will not collect any personally-identifiable information about you (e.g., your name, address, telephone number or e-mail address ("Personal Information")), unless you voluntarily choose to provide it to us. If you do not want your Personal Information collected, please do not submit it to us.

Children
No Personal Information should be submitted to AKF USA's Web sites by children without the consent of their parent or guardian. AKF USA encourages all parents or guardians to instruct their children in the safe and responsible use of their Personal Information while using the Internet. AKF USA will not knowingly collect or use any Personal Information collected from children for any purpose whatsoever, including disclosure to third parties.

How do we use your information? Purposes and Consent
When you do provide us with Personal Information, we usually use it to process a donation or event registration, issue a charitable tax receipt or send you information you have requested. Also, to support our relationship with you: we may store and process Personal Information and share it with our worldwide affiliates to better understand your needs and how we can improve our services; or we (or an affiliate or an authorized third party on our behalf) may use Personal Information to contact you about an upcoming AKF USA event or to conduct online surveys to better understand our donors' needs and profiles. If you choose not to have your Personal Information used to support our relationship (especially direct-marketing or market-research), we will respect your choice. We do not now (and do not intend to) sell, rent or otherwise market your Personal Information to third parties. We limit the collection, use, retention and disclosure of your personal information to that which is reasonably necessary for these purposes. By using this Site or submitting personal information to AKF USA, you consent to our collection from, verification with, and communication to any third party for these purposes. You consent to the collection, use, disclosure and processing of your information by AKF USA and its affiliates, and their respective agents and service providers, for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

Your ability to opt-out
We may communicate and disclose your information with our affiliates to offer you other services that may be of interest to you unless you notify us of your intention to opt-out. If you do not want AKF USA to share your personal information with our affiliates or third parties for the purpose of offering you other services, please notify us by sending an e-mail to pwalk@akfusa.org and ensure that you include "Opt-Out" in the subject matter field of the email. It may take approximately five days for your opt-out request to become effective. Occasionally, we will send you e-mail communications with information which may be useful to you, including information about our services or about upcoming events offered by AKF USA or our affiliates. We will include instructions in our e-mail messages on how to unsubscribe if you decide you do not want to receive any future marketing or promotional e-mails from AKF USA. However, if you are a donor to AKF USA, to ensure that you receive important donor information, you agree that we may continue to send you non-marketing related information when necessary.

How do you access and upadte your information?
You can access the personal information we hold about you by sending us an e-mail at pwalk@akfusa.org. We will advise you in advance of any charges for copies of your file. We may be unable to provide you with some information in certain circumstances, such as if the information also refers to other individuals, is subject to legal privilege, contains confidential information, cannot be retrieved using your name or account number, or as otherwise permitted or restricted by law. If you wish to notify us of any changes to your personal information, or if you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, please send us an e-mail at donorservices@akfusa.org.

What if we change our privacy policy?
AKF USA reserves the right to modify or supplement this Privacy Policy statement at anytime. If we make any material change to this Privacy Policy, we will update this Site to include such changes and post a notice on our home page with a link to the updated Privacy Policy. Please read any such notice and the new policy statement. Your continued use of this Site after we post such notice will constitute your acceptance of the new terms and their application to your use of this Site and the information disclosed for such use, including information previously furnished us, as if they were the initial terms. However, we will seek your consent if we want to use your personal information for purposes other than those you have agreed to previously.

Website Links
This Site may contain links to other websites, including those of our business partners, vendors and advertisers. While we try to link only to websites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, please understand that we are not responsible for the content of the privacy practices employed by other websites.

Your Privacy Concerns
If you have any questions or comments about AKF USA's Privacy Policy (e.g., to review and update your Personal Information), please contact us at donorservices@akfusa.org. As the Internet matures, so will our Privacy Policy. We will post changes to our Privacy Policy on this page as soon as the commitment has been made to alter any existing policy. AKF USA has engaged Kintera as its online fundraising software provider. Your privacy is important to Kintera. Kintera collects the data you submit through this Internet-based tool (personal information, answers to survey questions, donor data, etc.) and distributes it to AKF USA. We owns this data. Kintera does not sell any personal information that it collects. AKF USA is committed to the protection of your personal information.  Kintera uses industry accepted encryption for the transmission of your personal information to ensure that it is secure, accurate, and complete.

 Please see the Kintera Policy for further details on the security measures taken to protect your personal data.