Last Updated: December 15, 2020

The Henry L. Stimson Center (the “Center,” “Stimson,” “we,” or “us”) wants you to be familiar with how we collect, use, and disclose information.  This Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with information that we collect through:

• The website we operate, www.stimson.org, and any other Stimson-affiliated website from which you are accessing this Privacy Policy (the “Websites”).
• Our social media pages that we control (collectively, our “Social Media Pages”), from which you are accessing this Privacy Policy.
• HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you that link to this Privacy Policy or other communications with you.
• Stimson-conducted research.

Collectively, we refer to the Websites, Social Media Pages, emails, and Stimson-conducted research as the “Services.”

Personal Information

“Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual.  The Services collect Personal Information, including:

• Name
• Postal address (including shipping addresses)
• Telephone number
• Email address
• IP address (we may also derive your approximate location from your IP address)
• Bank account information or financial account information (e.g., when you make a donation via check or other, non-payment card methods)

How Stimson Collects Personal Information

We and our service providers collect Personal Information in a variety of ways, including:

Through the Services.  We collect Personal Information through the Services. We do this, for example, when you:

• sign up to receive emails from Stimson;
• register an account to access the Services;
• RSVP for or attend one of our events;
• make an inquiry over the phone;
• contact Communications;
• make a donation; or
• participate in a research project or activity.

From Other Sources. We may receive your Personal Information from other sources, for example:

• research partners, event co-sponsors, and other organizations we collaborate with to implement our programs;
• publicly available databases; and
• joint marketing partners, when they share the information with us.

We need to collect Personal Information in order to provide the requested Services to you.  If you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able to provide the Services. If you disclose any Personal Information relating to other people to us or to our service providers in connection with the Services, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

How Stimson Uses Personal Information

We and our service providers use Personal Information for many reasons, including the following purposes:

Providing the functionality of the Services and fulfilling your requests.

• To provide the Services’ functionality to you, such as arranging access to your registered account and providing you with related service and support.
• To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, when you contact us online or otherwise, for example, when you send us questions, suggestions, compliments or complaints, or when you request other information about our Services.
• To execute research projects, such as by collecting a name in order to verify an account or an event relevant to a research project.
• To complete your donation transactions, verify your information, and provide you with related service and support.
• To send administrative information to you, such as changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
• To allow you to send messages to another person through the Services if you choose to do so.

Providing you with our newsletters and/or other marketing materials and facilitating social sharing.

• To send you emails with information about our services, new stories or events, and other news about the Center.
• To facilitate social sharing functionality that you choose to use.
• To send you Stimson research products.
• To inquire about your interest in Stimson research, services, events, and activities or in financially supporting Stimson.

Analyzing Personal Information for Center reporting and providing personalized services.

• To analyze or predict our users’ preferences in order to prepare aggregated trend reports on how our digital content is used, so we can improve our Services.
• To better understand your interests and preferences, so that we can personalize our interactions with you and provide you with information tailored to your interests.
• To better understand your preferences so that we can deliver content via our Services that we believe will be relevant and interesting to you.

Aggregating and/or anonymizing Personal Information

We may aggregate and/or anonymize Personal Information so that it will no longer be considered Personal Information. We do so to generate other data for our use, which we may use and disclose for any purpose, as it no longer identifies you or any other individual.

Accomplishing our general institutional purposes.

• For data analysis, for example, to improve the efficiency of our Services;
• For audits, to verify that our internal processes function as intended and to address legal, regulatory, or contractual requirements;
• For fraud and security monitoring purposes, for example, to detect and prevent cyberattacks or attempts to commit identity theft;
• For developing new programs and services;
• For enhancing, improving, repairing, maintaining, or modifying our current programs and services, as well as undertaking quality and safety assurance measures;
• For identifying usage trends, for example, understanding which parts of our Services are of most interest to users;
• For determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, so that we can adapt our campaigns to the needs and interests of our users; and
• For operating and expanding our institutional activities, for example, understanding which parts of our Services are of most interest to our users so we can focus our energies on meeting our users’ interests.

With Whom Does Stimson Share Personal Information

We disclose Personal Information:

To our research partners.

These can include think tanks, non-profit organizations, and government entities. This information is shared pursuant to research partnerships, or co-sponsored publications and events or similar activities.

To our third-party service providers, to facilitate services they provide to us.

These can include providers of services such as website hosting, data analysis, donation processing, information technology and related infrastructure provision, email delivery, auditing, and other services.

By using the Services, you may elect to disclose Personal Information.

On message boards, chat, profile pages, blogs, and other services to which you are able to post information and content (including, without limitation, our Social Media Pages).  Please note that any information you post or disclose through these services will become public and may be available to other users and the general public.

Other Uses and Disclosures

We may also use and disclose Personal Information as we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) to comply with applicable law, to respond to requests from public and government authorities, to cooperate with law enforcement, or for other legal reasons; (b) to enforce our terms and conditions; and (c) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you, or others. We may use, disclose or transfer your information to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our assets (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

Other Information

“Other Information” is any information that does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to an identifiable individual. The Services collect Other Information such as:

• Browser and device information.
• Information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies.
• Demographic information and other information provided by you that does not reveal your specific identity (e.g.,  the organization with which you are affiliated, whether you are a member of the media, your job or occupation, your policy interests, and how you learned about a Stimson event, product, or website).
• Information that has been aggregated in a manner such that it no longer reveals your specific identity.

Other Information Stimson Collects

We and our service providers may collect Other Information in a variety of ways, including:

Your browser or device.

Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Mac), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, Internet browser type and version and the name and version of the Services (such as the App) you are using.  We use this information to ensure that the Services function properly.

Cookies.

Cookies are pieces of information stored directly on the computer that you are using.  Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the Services, pages visited, language preferences, and other traffic data.  We and our service providers use the information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience.  We also gather statistical information about use of the Services in order to continually improve their design and functionality, understand how they are used, and assist us with resolving questions regarding them. Cookies further allow us to select which of our advertisements or offers are most likely to appeal to you and display them while you are on the Services.  We may also use cookies or other technologies in online advertising to track responses to our ads.We do not currently respond to browser do-not-track signals. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, most browsers allow you to automatically decline cookies or be given the choice of declining or accepting a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular website.  You may also wish to refer to https://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html. If, however, you do not accept cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of the Services.

Pixel tags and other similar technologies.

Pixel tags.

Pixel tags (also known as web beacons and clear GIFs) may be used to, among other things, track the actions of users of the Services (including email recipients), measure the success of our marketing campaigns, and compile statistics about usage of the Services and response rates.

Analytics.

We use Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Services and report on activities and trends.  This service may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps and online resources.  You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/‌partners/, and exercise the opt-out provided by Google by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We also use Hotjar, which collects and analyzes information about your use of the Services. You can learn more about Hotjar’s practice by going to https://www.hotjar.com/privacy/, and exercise the opt-out provided by Hotjar by visiting https://www.hotjar.com/privacy/do-not-track.

Uses and Disclosures of Other Information

We may use and disclose Other Information for any purpose, except where we are required to do otherwise under applicable law.  If we are required to treat Other Information as Personal Information under applicable law, we may use and disclose it for the purposes for which we use and disclose Personal Information as detailed in this Policy.  In some instances, we may combine Other Information with Personal Information.  If we do, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information as long as it is combined.

Security

We seek to use reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect Personal Information within our organization.  Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section below.

Choices and Access

Your choices regarding our use and disclosure of your Personal Information

We give you choices regarding our use and disclosure of your Personal Information for marketing purposes.  You may opt out from receiving newsletters and other promotional emails from us.  If you no longer want to receive newsletters and promotional emails from us on a going-forward basis, you may opt out by following the unsubscribe link provided in all marketing emails. You may choose to unsubscribe from messages related to specific topics, or from all marketing emails. We will try to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable.  Please note that if you opt out of receiving certain newsletters or promotional emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages, from which you cannot opt out.