Privacy Policy

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Privacy Policy

Updated April 27, 2023

Not only does American Humane (“American Humane”) care about the welfare of animals, we care about your privacy.  This Privacy Policy explains how we gather, collect, use, share and protect your personal information across all of our websites and mobile applications, including but not limited to www.americanhumane.org, www.humaneheartland.org, www.humaneconservation.org, www.humanehollywood.org and www.herodogawards.com (the “Websites”). That way, you can make informed choices about the way American Humane processes and uses your personal information. In addition, this Privacy Policy explains how you can opt out of receiving communications from our affiliates and from us, regardless of where we obtained your information.

In order to fully understand your rights we encourage you to read this Privacy Policy.  American Humane reserves the right at any time and without notice to change this Privacy Policy simply by posting such changes on our Websites. All changes will be effective immediately upon posting.

By visiting our Websites you agree that no information you submit to the Websites shall contain libelous or otherwise unlawful, abusive or obscene material. You are solely responsible for the content of any information you provide to American Humane.

What Information We Collect

When you visit our Websites, request additional information about American Humane, make a donation or participate in any other program or service of American Humane (including through our Websites, direct mail, telephone, mobile or text message), American Humane and our third-party service providers may collect Personal Information that you provide. Personal Information is information that identifies you as an individual or that relates to an identifiable individual person, and includes your name, mailing address, e-mail address, user name and password, telephone number, birthday or birth year, format preference (e.g., HTML vs. Text), interests, payment information (including credit card and bank information) or similar information.

In addition, when you use our Websites, we collect information that is sent to us automatically by your web browser. This information includes but is not limited to IP addresses, web browser information, information about your device, content visited while on our Websites, pages you visit before and after using our Websites, and when you visited the Websites.

How We Collect Information

American Humane and our service providers collect Personal Information in a number of ways:

Information Provided Directly by You

American Humane collects Personal Information that you provide to us by e-mail or while using the Websites, including information you provide when you fill out forms, request information or newsletters, make a donation, complete a survey or other similar activities.

Information We Collect Automatically

American Humane and our service providers may also use cookies, pixel tags and other similar technologies to automatically collect certain types of Personal Data when you use our Websites. For detailed information about this, please see our Cookie Policy below.

Social Media Platforms

We may receive information about you when you interact with us through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. The information we receive depends on your privacy settings on those platforms.

Referral Programs

American Humane may participate in referral programs. Through these programs, you may have the opportunity to purchase products that generate royalties for American Humane. When you make such purchases, you become a customer of the company selling the product and are subject to that company’s privacy policies. American Humane does not collect information about you in these transactions, however companies taking part in our referral programs may choose to share their customer lists back with American Humane.

Surveys, Polls, Promotions, Sweepstakes and Contests

American Humane may request information from you as part of surveys, polls, promotions, sweepstakes or contests. Your participation in these surveys, polls, promotions, sweepstakes or contests is completely voluntary. Personal information collected as part of surveys, polls, promotions, sweepstakes or contests may be added to our databases for use by American Humane and American Humane-approved third parties as described below.

How We Use and Share Your Information:

American Humane may use your Personal Information for the purposes described below, but we do not store your credit card or other payment information. We use your information:

  • To customize the content and communications you receive from us, including your Websites experience and your e-mail content, based on your interests
  • To fundraise and to process donations and other contributions
  • To respond to your questions and fulfill your requests
  • To provide you information about American Humane, our activities and our programs
  • To notify you about programs, offers, products and services that we believe will be of interest to you, either from American Humane or from other third parties
  • To send you invitations to take part in events in your local area
  • To organize events that you have registered for and to provide you with information and other materials about those events
  • To help us engage with people who may wish to donate to American Humane
  • To enable you to take part in surveys, polls, promotions, sweepstakes and contests and to administer them
  • To send you information about any changes to our terms, conditions and policies that may impact you
  • For data analysis, troubleshooting, to enhance or improve our Websites and services, to help keep our Websites secure, to identify trends, and to understand the effectiveness of our advertising and outreach
  • As otherwise disclosed at the time of collection or use.

Sharing with American Humane-Approved Third Parties 

We may share your Personal Information with other companies and organizations that may be of interest to you, including the sharing of donor lists. To learn how you may opt out of this sharing, see the section “Your Rights and Choices” below. We may share your information with:

  • Other companies owned by or affiliated with American Humane
  • Third-party vendors and service providers that perform work on our behalf, including work required to operate the Websites, fundraising, targeted advertisements, billing, payment processing, analytics and other similar services

American Humane assumes no responsibility for the data collection and use practices of third parties not affiliated with us, or for the enforcement of their privacy policies.

Other Uses and Disclosures

We may also use and disclose your Personal Information when we have a legal obligation or legitimate interest in doing so. This may include

  • Compliance with applicable laws,
  • Responding to requests from government authorities
  • Cooperation with law enforcement
  • For other legal reasons

Cookie Policy

Our Website uses cookies and other related technologies (for convenience all technologies are referred to as “cookies”). Cookies are also placed by third parties we have engaged. In the section below we inform you about the use of cookies on our website.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small simple file that is sent along with pages of this website and stored by your browser on the hard drive of your computer or another device. The information stored therein may be returned to our servers or to the servers of the relevant third parties during a subsequent visit.

What are scripts?

A script is a piece of program code that is used to make our website function properly and interactively. This code is executed on our server or on your device.

What is a web beacon?

A web beacon (or a pixel tag) is a small, invisible piece of text or image on a website that is used to monitor traffic on a website. In order to do this, various data about you is stored using web beacons.

Types of Cookies that we may use

  • Technical or functional cookies

Some cookies ensure that certain parts of the website work properly and that your user preferences remain known. By placing functional cookies, we make it easier for you to visit our website. This way, you do not need to repeatedly enter the same information when visiting our website and, for example, the items remain in your shopping cart until you have paid. We may place these cookies without your consent.

  • Statistics cookies

We use statistics cookies to optimize the website experience for our users. With these statistics cookies we get insights in the usage of our Websites. We ask your permission to place statistics cookies.

  • Advertising cookies

On this website we use advertising cookies, enabling us to personalize the advertisements for you, and we (and third parties) gain insights into the campaign results. This happens based on a profile we create based on your click and surfing on and outside the Websites. With these cookies you, as website visitor are linked to a unique ID, so you do not see the same ad more than once for example.

  • Marketing/Tracking cookies

Marketing/Tracking cookies are cookies or any other form of local storage, used to create user profiles to display advertising or to track the user on this website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.

Social media

On our website, we have included content from Facebook and Twitter to promote web pages (e.g. “like”, “pin”) or share (e.g. “tweet”) on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. This content is embedded with code derived from Facebook and Twitter and places cookies. This content might store and process certain information for personalized advertising.

Please read the privacy statement of these social networks (which can change regularly) to read what they do with your (personal) data which they process using these cookies. The data that is retrieved is anonymized as much as possible. Facebook and Twitter are located in the United States.

Enabling, disabling and deleting cookies

You can use your internet browser to automatically or manually delete cookies. You can also specify that certain cookies may not be placed. Another option is to change the settings of your internet browser so that you receive a message each time a cookie is placed. For more information about these options, please refer to the instructions in the Help section of your browser.

Please note that our website may not work properly if all cookies are disabled. If you do delete the cookies in your browser, they will be placed again after your consent (if applicable) when you visit our websites again.

Children’s Privacy:

American Humane does not knowingly collect Personal Information from anyone under the age of 13. If we learn that we have collected Personal Information from a child under the age of 13 without parental consent, we will delete it as quickly as possible. We encourage parents and guardians to review in advance both this privacy policy – which discusses our information collection and disclosure practices – and any areas of our Websites, to evaluate the site’s appropriateness for their children. Any parent or guardian who believes we might have collected Personal Information from a child under age 13 may contact us at [email protected] and request that we delete it. 

How We Protect Your Information:

All information provided to American Humane is transmitted using industry-standard security systems, software, and encryption technologies. All payment information, including donations, is processed using industry-standard SSL technology to secure your data. Sensitive financial information is never stored on American Humane servers, but they are sent directly to our payment processor’s PCI-compliant servers through SSL. We also protect your personal information in a secure operating environment only accessible by authorized personnel. While we employ appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard the information we collect online, unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the security of your such information due to inherent security risk in all internet transactions. If you suspect an unauthorized use or security breach of your information, please contact us as soon as possible as described in the “How to Contact Us About Your Privacy Preferences” section below.

Other Web Sites:

Our Websites may contain links to other websites. Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are entering another website for which American Humane has no responsibility. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on all such sites as their policies may be different than ours.

Your Rights and Choices

How to Contact Us About your Privacy Preferences

If you wish to opt-out of receiving communications from American Humane, do not want us to share or exchange your personal information with unaffiliated third parties, and/or wish to request deletion from our contact databases, please send an email to us at [email protected].  Opt-out requests will be honored within ten business days.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, our Cookie Policy, the practices of the Websites, or your dealings with this Websites, or would like to modify information you have previously provided us, you can contact:

American Humane
1400 16th Street NW, Suite 360
Washington DC 20036
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: (800) 227-4645

European Rights under GDPR

Under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), if you reside in a European country subject to GDPR you have the right to ask us not to process your Personal Information for marketing purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your Personal Information. You can also exercise the right by contacting us using the Contact Us section on our Site.

Under the GDPR, in certain circumstances you have the right to:

  • Request access to your Personal Data
  • Request correction of your Personal Data
  • Request erasure of your Personal Data
  • Object to processing of your Personal Data
  • Request restriction of processing your Personal Data
  • Request transfer of your Personal Data
  • Withdraw your consent

If you believe that American Humane has not complied with its obligations under this Privacy Notice or European law, you have the right to make a complaint to an EU Data Protection Authority.

You can exercise any of these rights by contacting us using the Contact Us section of our Websites. You can also send an email to: [email protected].  Please reference this Privacy Policy in your subject line.

Updated effective April 27, 2023