Democratic National Committee Privacy Policy
At the Democratic National Committee (DNC), we are committed to protecting your privacy online. While using our website, you do not have to identify yourself or divulge personal information. If you should choose to give us your personal information, you decide the amount of information you provide.
The Democratic Party is continually trying to expand online activism and to give voters the information they need in a timely manner. As a result, we may periodically ask you to provide information such as your name, address, phone number and email address in an effort to enhance our ability to work with you as an online activist. If you choose not to give us any information, we may not be able to provide you with timely information regarding events and issues important to you as a politically interested and active citizen.
The Democratic Party maintains several interconnected websites at any given time. The principal website, democrats.org, is permanent. Other issue-specific websites are created and removed as needed to highlight important national issues and events. All websites owned and operated by the Democratic Party are identified by the text "Paid for by the Democratic National Committee".
Our privacy policy explains the information practices we use at democrats.org and other Democratic Party websites related to:
- How we protect your information
- How we use your information
- How to correct information you provided
- How to contact us about privacy
Our site links to a limited number of other websites. The DNC is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of these websites.
This privacy policy may be amended by the DNC at any time without notice other than posting of such amendments on this site.
How do we protect your information?
Our website has security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of the information under our control. Our servers are located in a locked, secure environment.
When you contribute online, the DNC uses state-of-the-art security protocols to protect sensitive data, such as personal information and credit card numbers. The privacy of this data is ensured with a keyed symmetric encryption algorithm. While this data is being transferred, it is protected by the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) using a 128-bit signed certificate. Encryption keys are secured by Verisign. For more information on SSL and web security, see http://www.verisign.com.
How do we use the information you provide the DNC?
When you volunteer online:
Our volunteer forms ask you to give us contact information (such as your name and email address) and geographic information (such as your zip code and state). We use this information to send you customized content about campaigns and to help match your interests to campaign activities. If you provide your phone number, we may call you. If you choose to subscribe to an email newsletter, we use your email address to send you that newsletter. You may remove your email address from that subscriber list by visiting the unsubscribe page for that list.
When you contribute money online:
We are required by federal law to collect and report to the Federal Election Commission the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employers of individuals whose contributions exceed $200 in a calendar year. These records are available to the public. However, they cannot be used by other organizations for fund raising. For additional information, visit the FEC website at http://www.fec.gov. We also make a note of your telephone number and email address, which helps us to contact you quickly if follow-up on your contribution is necessary under Federal election law.
When you sign up for one of our mailing lists:
We collect your name, contact information, and email address, and certain other information. We use your email address to send you the email newsletter to which you subscribed. You may remove your email address from that subscriber list by visiting the unsubscribe page for that list.
The DNC respects your privacy. We will not give, sell or rent your email address to any other organization unless you specifically authorize us.
The DNC will not sell, rent, or disclose email addresses or other information about persons obtained solely from members of the eCaptains program when creating their ePrecincts.
When you sign one of our petitions:
We treat your name, city, state, and any comments as public information. We may, or example, provide compilations of petitions, with your comments, to national leaders, without disclosing email addresses. We may also make comments along with your city and state available to the press and public online.
When you fill out one of our surveys:
Your opinion matters to the Democratic Party and we want your input. As a result, we use surveys to help us understand which issues you are interested in. These aggregate survey results are used to help inform lawmakers, while individual survey results help us deliver to you customized web content.
Cookies:
A cookie is a tiny text file that is stored on your computer by democrats.org. We use cookies to tailor your experience on our site according to the preferences you have specified. When you visit democrats.org and other Democratic Party websites, we only access the cookie file that we have stored on your computer. We cannot and do not access any information stored in a cookie by other, non-DNC, websites. Our cookies do not contain any personal identifiable information.
IP Addresses and Log File Data:
We log IP address, which is the location of your computer or network on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We also use page hits in the aggregate to track the popularity of pages that people visit in order to improve the quality of the site. There is no personal identifiable information collected in our log files.
Information on Children:
Because we care about the safety and privacy of children online, we comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying FTC regulations establish United States federal law that protects the privacy of children using the Internet. We do not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under 13. Our site is not intended to solicit information of any kind from children under 13, and we have designed our sites to block our knowing acceptance of information from children under 13 whenever age-related information is requested.
Correcting Your Information:
In order to modify the information you have provided to us, you need to register on the website and be issued a password. With your password to verify your identity, you may access your account securely and add or change your personal information. The DNC encourages all website users to register and take personal responsibility for the quality of the information they provide. Website registration also allows users to take advantage of the full range of online services we offer.
Click here to log in. If you do not have a password, or have forgotten it, we can email it to you.
Contacting us about privacy:
If you have any questions about our privacy policy, the information we have collected from you online, the practices of this site or your interaction with this website, send email to: webmaster@democrats.org.
You can also reach us via US Mail at:
Privacy
Internet Operations Division
Democratic National Committee
430 South Capitol St SE
Washington, DC 20003