Our commitment to privacy
International Rescue Committee (“we” or “IRC”) is committed to maintaining the security, confidentiality and privacy of your personal information. This is our Privacy Policy. It documents our on-going commitment to you.
Scope of policy
This Policy applies to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. This Policy does not impose any limits on the collection, use or disclosure of the following information by IRC:
- business contact information; and
- certain publicly available information.
Accountability
We have designated a Privacy Officer who is responsible for our compliance with this Policy. The Privacy Officer may be contacted as described below.
Purposes
When collecting personal information, we will state the purpose of collection and will provide, on request, contact information for the Privacy Officer who can answer questions about the collection.
We collect, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:
- to provide information regarding our projects, causes and initiatives;
- to solicit and collect donations and other support, to issue receipts for donations, and to disclose the information as necessary to facilitate the foregoing;
- to provide and administer products and services requested, and to disclose the information for any purpose related to operation of accounts and provision of requested products and services;
- to authenticate your identity;
- to monitor your compliance with any of your agreements with us;
- to provide personal information to third party suppliers of products and services;
- to protect us, yourself and others from fraud and error and to safeguard our business interests; and
- to comply with legal and regulatory requirements.
When your personal information is to be used for a purpose not previously identified, the new purpose will be disclosed to you prior to such use, and your consent will be sought unless the use is authorized or required by law.
Cookies
We may also use cookies to collect your personal information. Cookies are unique identifiers which are used to customize your website, mobile application or social media site experience. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually change your browser to prevent or notify you whenever you are sent a cookie. This gives you the chance to decide whether or not to accept the cookie. We use the information in cookies to help us improve our website, mobile application, social media site and our services, and to provide our visitors with a better visit. If you don’t accept a cookie you can still access many of the features on the site, but there may be limitations on your use of some site functions.
Cross-border transfers
We may transfer your personal information across provincial or national borders to fulfil any of the above purposes, including to the United States and other jurisdictions outside of Canada, which may make that information subject to applicable disclosure laws in those jurisdictions. You may contact our Privacy Officer (whose contact information is provided below) to obtain information about our policies and practices regarding our transfer of personal information outside of Canada, or to ask questions about the collection, use, disclosure or storage of personal information by us or our foreign service providers.
Consent
We will obtain your consent to collect, use or disclose personal information except where we are authorized or required by law to do so without consent. For example, we may collect, use or disclose personal information without your knowledge or consent where:
- the information is publicly available, as defined by statute or regulation;
- we are obtaining legal advice; or
- we reasonably expect that obtaining consent would compromise an investigation or proceeding.
Other exceptions may apply.
Your consent can be express, implied or given through an authorized representative such as a lawyer, agent or broker.
Consent may be provided orally, in writing, electronically, through inaction (such as when you fail to notify we that you do not wish your personal information collected/used/disclosed for various purposes after you have received notice of those purposes) or otherwise.
You may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal, contractual and other restrictions, provided that you give reasonable notice of withdrawal of consent to us. On receipt of notice of withdrawal of consent, we will inform you of the likely consequences of the withdrawal of consent, which may include the inability of we to provide certain services for which that information is necessary.
Limits on collecting personal information
We will not collect personal information indiscriminately but will limit collection of personal information to that which is reasonable and necessary. We will also collect personal information as authorized by law.
Limits for using, disclosing and retaining personal information
Your personal information will only be used or disclosed for the purposes set out above and as authorized by law.
We will keep personal information used to make a decision affecting you for at least one year after using it to make the decision.
We will destroy, erase or make anonymous documents or other records containing personal information as soon as it is reasonable to assume that the original purpose is no longer being served by retention of the information and retention is no longer necessary for a legal or business purpose.
We will take due care when destroying personal information so as to prevent unauthorized access to the information.
Accuracy
We will make a reasonable effort to ensure that personal information we are using or disclosing is accurate and complete.
If you demonstrate the inaccuracy or incompleteness of personal information, we will amend the information as required. If appropriate, we will send the amended information to third parties to whom the information has been disclosed.
When a challenge regarding the accuracy of personal information is not resolved to your satisfaction, we will annotate the personal information under our control with a note that the correction was requested but not made.
Safeguarding personal information
We protect the personal information in our custody or control by making reasonable security arrangements to prevent unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal or similar risks.
We will take reasonable steps, through contractual or other reasonable means, to ensure that a comparable level of personal information protection is implemented by the suppliers and agents who assist in providing services to us. Some specific safeguards include:
- physical measures such as locked filing cabinets;
- organizational measures such as restricting employee access to files and databases as appropriate;
- electronic measures such as passwords and firewalls; and
- investigative measures where we have reasonable grounds to believe that personal information is being inappropriately collected, used or disclosed.
Note that confidentiality and security are not assured when information is transmitted through e-mail or other wireless communication. Please notify IRC’s Privacy Officer in writing if you do not want IRC to communicate with you through these means.
Providing access
You have a right to access your personal information held by IRC.
Upon written request and authentication of identity, we will provide you your personal information under our control. We will also give you information about the ways in which that information is being used and a description of the individuals and organizations to whom that information has been disclosed. We may charge you a reasonable fee for doing so.
We will make the information available within 30 days of receiving a written request or provide written notice where additional time is required to fulfil the request.
In some situations, IRC may not be able to provide access to certain personal information (e.g., if disclosure would reveal personal information about another individual, the personal information is protected by solicitor/client privilege, the information was collected for the purposes of an investigation or where disclosure of the information would reveal confidential commercial information that could harm the competitive position of IRC). IRC may also be prevented by law from providing access to certain personal information.
Where an access request is refused, we will notify you in writing, document the reasons for refusal and outline further steps which are available to you.
Complaints
We will, on request, provide information regarding our complaint procedure.
Any inquiries, complaints or questions regarding this Policy should be directed in writing to IRC’s Privacy Officer (contact information follows).
Contact Information:
Privacy Officer, Supporter Services
International Rescue Committee
122 East 42nd Street
New York, New York 10168-1289
Phone: +1 855 9RESCUE (973-7283)
Email: [email protected]