1. Scope and Acceptance of Policy

We at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue (referred to in this Policy as “Stephen Wise” or “we,” “us,” “our” and other similar pronouns) know that your privacy is important to you, and we want you to know that it is important to us too. We created this privacy policy (the “Policy”) to explain the types of information we collect on www.swfs.org, all pages within this domain that are owned or operated by us, including but not limited to text, content, photographs, video, audio, graphics, and services therein, and the various social media platforms that we use (each, a “Site”), how we will use, disclose and protect this information once it is collected, and how you can opt out of some of our uses and disclosures of your information.

Here are a few general principles to keep in mind as you read through this Policy:

• The Site is owned and operated by Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, referred to as “we,” “us,” “our” and other similar pronouns, throughout this Policy.
• As our business evolves, this Policy may change so check back to this page periodically to make sure you understand how your Personal Information will be treated.
• This Policy does not apply to information that you may provide to us, or that we may obtain, other than through the Site, such as over the phone, by mail, in person or from our third-party service provider, Eventbrite. For information about our use of Eventbrite’s services for event ticketing and fundraising and Eventbrite’s collection of information through its web site, see the “Linked-To” Websites & Embedded Third Party Forms section (Section 11), below.
• Information you provide on the Site on web-forms powered by third party service providers (such as Wufoo or Formstack) or on pages that collect payment information is processed differently than other information you provide on the Site.  For information about this, see the “Linked-To” Websites & Embedded Third Party Forms section (Section 11), below.
• If you are located outside of the United States, you should know that the information you provide to us is being transmitted to us and processed in the United States and will be protected subject to this Policy and United States laws, which may not be as protective as the laws in your country. Also, this Site places cookies and local shared objects on your computer or device which are further described below. By using this Site, you agree to this.
• Advertisements displayed to you on the Site and elsewhere may be customized to your interests and preferences based on your Personal Information and website usage collected through the Site unless you opt out by following the instructions that can be found here or here. (You have to opt out using each of your web browsing applications and devices separately.) However, if you opt out, we may still suggest offerings to you on the Site based on your history at the Site.
• This Policy does not apply to any web site or areas of any web sites that are directed to children under 13.

2. Opting In or Out of Communications

You may have the right to opt in to or opt out of certain of our uses and disclosures of your Personal Information. For example, when you are asked to provide Personal Information on the Site, you may have the opportunity to elect to, or not to, receive messages from us by e-mail.You may tell us that you do not want to receive a particular newsletter, e-brochure or other promotional messages from us by sending us your name, address, e-mail and phone number to: info@swfs.org. Please indicate whether you are writing to request that you no longer receive a particular media notification from us or from all newsletters or promotional communications from us. You can also opt out of our promotional emails by clicking on the opt-out or unsubscribe link within the email you receive. Please understand that it may take us a few days to process any opt-out request and that even if you opt out of receiving promotional correspondence from us, we may still contact you in connection with your relationship, activities, transactions, and communications with us.

3. Changes to Policy

We may change this Policy from time to time. When we do, we will let you know by posting the changed privacy policy on this page with a new “Effective Date.”  In some cases (for example, if we significantly expand our use or sharing of your Personal Information),we may also tell you about changes by additional means, such as by sending an e-mail to the e-mail address we have on file for you. In some cases, we may request your consent to the changes.

4. What information is collected on the Site and how?

“Personal Information” is information that can be used to identify you as an individual or allow someone to contact you, as well as information attributed with such information. We collect different categories of Personal Information from different sources, including User-Provided Information and Usage Information. We also collect Personal Information from social media and blogging platforms, which may provide both User-Provided Information and Usage Information. For more on social media platforms, see the Social Media section, below.

User-Provided Information.We collect Personal Information such as your name; mailing address; email address; phone number; information about other members of your family, such as a potential or current student in the Early Childhood Center; membership application information; social media usernames; credit card and other payment information; donation information (such as donation category and tribute details); log-in information for password-protected areas of the Site, if applicable; and other information you elect to include in your comments or questions to us. For example, we collect Personal Information when you share it with us; sign up for our newsletters; make a donation or conduct another transaction on the Site; contribute to a social forum on the Site; participate in a survey or contest; log-in to a password-protected area of the Site, if applicable; or submit a comment or question to us using a “contact us” or similar feature on the Site.

A “tell-a-friend” or online greeting card tool may be provided on the Site and/or in our e-mails that allows you to send information about the Site and offerings to another person. If you use these offerings, we may ask you for the name and information of the other person, and that information will be treated pursuant to this Policy.

If you submit a request through the Site for a memorial inscription or engraving or inclusion in our memory book or if you otherwise make a donation in honor or memory of another individual, information you provide about such other individual(s) will be published as part of the applicable memorial or donation publication, including as described on the request form you submit.  The Personal Information you provide about yourself (such as your name, contact information and payment information) on such a request or donation form through the Site will be treated pursuant to this Policy.

Usage Information. We or our service providers collect additional information about your usage of and visits to the Site (collectively, “Usage Information”). As is the case with many websites, the servers we use automatically collect your IP address when you visit the Site, and we may associate that with your domain name or that of your Internet access provider. We may also capture certain “clickstream data” pertaining to your Site usage. Clickstream data includes, for example, information about your computer or device, web browser and operating system and their settings, the referring page that linked you to the Site, the pages, content or ads you see or click on during your visit and when and for how long you do so, items you download, the next website you visit when you leave the Site, and any search terms you have entered on the Site or a referral site.

In addition, we may deploy various tracking technologies on the Site to collect additional information about your Site visits.  For example:

• Cookies are small data files stored on your computer or device at the request of a web site. A cookie assigns a unique numerical identifier to your web browser, and may enable us to recognize you as the same user who was at the Site in the past, and relate your use of the Site to other information about you, such as your Site usage information and Personal Information. Cookies may also be used to enhance your experience on the Site (for example, by storing information you’ve previously entered on forms, storing your username so you can log in easily, and keeping you logged into the Site after you have provided your password) or to collect general usage and aggregated statistical information and detect and prevent fraud. Most browsers can be set to detect cookies and give you an opportunity to reject them, but refusing cookies may, in some cases, inhibit or preclude your use of the Site or its features.
• Local shared objects, such as “Flash cookies,” may be stored on your computer or device using a media player or other software installed on your computer or device. Local shared objects operate a lot like cookies, but cannot be managed in the same way. Depending on how local shared objects are enabled on your computer or device, you may be able to manage them using software settings.  For information on managing Flash cookies, for example, click here.
• A pixel tag (also known as a “clear GIF” or “web beacon”) is a tiny image – typically just one-pixel – that can be placed on a web page or in our electronic communications to you in order to help us measure the effectiveness of our content by, for example, counting the number of individuals who visit us online or verifying whether you’ve opened one of our emails or seen one of our web pages. The Site may also include pixel tags that allow social media platforms we use to access the referral URL, browser information, social media username, or other information about individuals who visit the Site.
• HTML5 (the language some websites are coded in) may be used to store information on your computer or device about your Site usage activities. This information can be retrieved by us to determine how our Site is being used by our visitors, how it can be improved, and to customize it for our users.

These tracking technologies may be deployed by us and/or by our service providers or partners on our behalf. These technologies enable us to assign a unique number to you, and relate your Usage Information to other information about you, including your Personal Information. These technologies also enable us to recognize you when you access the Site using different web browsers and different computers or devices.

Among other things, this information enables us to generate analytics reports on the usage of the Site. To opt-out of your Usage Information being included in our Google Analytics reports, you may follow these instructions. We may also use third-party applications and services, such as Google Analytics, to collect and analyze this information. This information enables us and third parties authorized by us to figure out how often individuals use the Site so that we can analyze and improve them. Some Usage Information may be associated with the IP address used to access the Site, and some may be associated with your account (if applicable), such as the topics you search for and the help pages that you visit. This information helps us to improve the content of the Site. For information on Google Analytics, please visit http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

By using the Site, you consent to our use of these tracking technologies as described above.

5. How do we and our service providers use your information?

We or our service providers may use the Personal Information we collect from and about you on the Site, including User-Provided Information, Site Usage Information and/or any information collected through social media platforms, to perform the following business functions:

• help us operate, analyze, develop, deliver, maintain, administer and improve the Site, its products, services, content, advertising, communications, and features;
• administer, process and fulfill your transactions, such as donations made through our portal, requests for memorial inscriptions or engravings or your participation in surveys or contests;
• contact you regarding information relevant to our organization, events, services, initiatives, or offerings, or respond to your requests, inquiries, and concerns;
• develop new features and offerings on the Site;
• send you newsletters, e-brochures, marketing and other communications, including information about our organization as well as events, services, initiatives or offerings, of ours or others, that we think might interest you. You may opt out of receiving such newsletters or marketing communications from us by following the instructions in Opting In or Out of Communications section above (Section 2);
• protecting our rights and property;
• recovering debt and preventing fraud;
• customizing the Site to your interests and history with us;
• tailoring ads displayed to you on the Site and elsewhere to your interests and history with us;
• market research;
• engage in ordinary business, fundraising, marketing, and relationship-building communications with you; or
• other purposes disclosed when Personal Information is submitted to us.

To perform the above functions, we may match information collected from you through different means or at different times, including both Personal Information and Usage Information, and use such information along with information obtained from other sources (including third parties) such as demographic information and updated contact information. We or our service providers may also use your information to assess the level of interest in, and use of, the Site, our e-mails, and our other messaging campaigns both on an individual basis and in the aggregate.

For our service providers (such as Wufoo or Formstack) that administer forms embedded on the Site into which you provide information, your information generally goes directly to that third party and not directly to us.  This Policy applies to how we handle the information we receive from these service providers about you, but these third parties also have their own terms of use and privacy policies that apply to the information they collect about you.  In addition to using your information to provide services to us, they may use your information to improve their services and for other purposes set forth in their privacy policies.  For information about this or about third-party websites to which you are redirected after clicking a link on the Site, see the “Linked-To” Websites & Embedded Third Party Forms section (Section 11), below.

6. Do we share Personal Information and Usage information with others?

We share information we collect on the Site with third-party vendors and others for a variety of reasons. In addition to the kinds of information sharing you might expect, such as sharing with third parties who need your information in order to provide services to us (or on our behalf), we may share your information:

• for purposes you request or that are disclosed when Personal Information is submitted to us;
• when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our interests, rights or property, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud or respond to a government, judicial or other legal request, or to comply with the law; and
• in connection with an organizational change or dissolution, including for example a reorganization, consolidation, merger, bankruptcy, liquidation, sale of assets or wind down of the organization.

In addition, we may share Usage Information (including aggregate data) with others, for their own use, in a form that does not include your name or contact information.

7. Security of Your Information

While we endeavor to protect the security and integrity of sensitive Personal Information collected via the Site, due to the inherent nature of the Internet as an open global communications vehicle, we cannot guarantee that any information, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our system or otherwise in our care, will be absolutely safe from intrusion by others, such as hackers.

If you correspond with us by e-mail, or using web forms like a “contact us” feature on the Site, you should be aware that your transmission might not be secure. A third party could view the information you send in transit by such means. We will have no liability for disclosure of your information due to errors or unauthorized acts of third parties during or after transmission.

If you create an account to access a password-protected area on the Site, you are responsible for maintaining the strict confidentiality of your account password, and you shall be responsible for any activity that occurs using your account credentials, whether or not you authorized such activity. Please notify us of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security. 

If at any time during or after our relationship we believe that the security of your Personal Information in our care may have been compromised, we may seek to notify you of that development. If a notification is appropriate, we will endeavor to notify you as promptly as possible under the circumstances. If we have your e-mail address, we may notify you by e-mail to the most recent e-mail address you have provided us that is associated with your membership profile or relationship with us. Please keep your e-mail address on file with us up to date. You can change that e-mail address anytime by emailing us at info@swfs.org, or by changing it in your account on the Site if and when that becomes an option. If you receive a notice from us, you can print it to retain a copy of it. To receive these notices, you must check your e-mail account using your computer or mobile device and email application software. You consent to our use of e-mail as a means of such notification. If you prefer for us to use the U.S. Postal Service to notify you in this situation, please e-mail us at info@swfs.org. You can make this election any time, and it will apply to notifications we make after a reasonable time thereafter for us to process your request. You may also use this e-mail address to request a print copy, at no charge, of an electronic notice we have sent to you regarding a compromise of your Personal Information.

8. Your Access Rights

You can access, modify or delete certain of the Personal Information that we have collected about you by contacting us using the “Contact Us” information below. We may ask you to verify your identity and to provide other details before we are able to provide you with any information, correct any inaccuracies, or delete any information. Your right to delete your information is subject to our records-retention policies.

9. Do Not Track Requests

Some web browsers may transmit “do-not-track” (DNT) signals to the web sites with which the user communicates.Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. We currently do not change our tracking practices (which are explained in more detail under “Usage Information” above) in response to DNT settings in your web browser.

Our third-party partners, such as Google Analytics and Google AdWords, collect information about your online activities over time and across the Site and other online properties. These third parties may not change their tracking practices in response to DNT settings in your web browser and we do not obligate these parties to honor DNT settings. We utilize Google Analytics for our web analytics and you can opt out of the Site usage data being included in our Google Analytics reports by visiting https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

10. Third-Party Ad Servers and Networks

We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads to you online.  These companies may use information about your visits to the Site and other web sites, the region of the country or world where your IP address indicates you are located, as well as other information about you in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.  These advertisements may appear on the Site and on other online properties.  These companies may employ cookies, clear GIFs, and other tracking technologies to cause relevant ads to be displayed to you. We encourage you to read these businesses’ privacy policies to learn about how they treat your information.  For more information about third-party advertisers and how to prevent them from using your information, visit the NAI’s consumer website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ or Aboutads.info at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/.

11. “Linked-To” Websites & Embedded Third Party Forms

The Site may contain links, banners, widgets or advertisements that lead to other websites. We are not responsible for these other sites, and so their posted privacy policies (not this Policy) will govern the collection and use of your information on them. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each website visited after leaving the Site to learn about how your information is treated by others.

We use Eventbrite, a third-party service provider, for event ticketing and fundraising.  If you click a link on the Site to register for an event or make a donation, you will be redirected to Eventbrite’s web site.  Eventbrite collects information about visits and transactions on its web site, such as contact information (including name, email address, and phone number), billing information (including billing address), credit card information, and other information submitted by registrants.  Any information that you provide to Eventbrite will be subject to its terms of use and privacy policy, rather than this Policy. In accordance with Eventbrite’s terms of use and privacy policy, certain of this information is also shared by Eventbrite with us. We encourage you to read Eventbrite’s terms of service and privacy policy to understand how your information will be collected and handled by Eventbrite.

We also use third-party service providers to administer web-forms on or linked from the Site (such as Formstack and Wufoo) and to process payments for transactions initiated on the Site (such as PayPal and/or Authorize.net).  Information you provide on these forms or payment pages is processed differently than other information you provide on the Site.  In most cases (including if you are redirected to the service provider’s website), information you provide on these forms or payment pages goes directly to the third-party service provider for processing and hosting, rather than directly to us.  In accordance with each of these third parties’ applicable terms of use and privacy policies, certain of this information is also made available to us by these service providers.   This Policy applies to how we handle the information we receive from these service providers, but these third parties also have their own terms of use and privacy policies that apply to the information they collect about you.

12. Social Media

We have a presence on several social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, and we also incorporate some third-party social media features onto the Site.  Through these platforms and features, we receive some Personal Information and some Site Usage Information about you, and this Policy applies to that information as well.  In addition, third-party social media platforms have their own privacy policies that explain how the third parties that provide them will use and protect your information, and we encourage you to read those policies.  In accordance with those policies (and your privacy settings within your social media accounts), your interactions with our social media accounts (such as “liking,” “favoriting,” commenting, etc. on posts) may be visible to the public and/or to your social networks.  We may also include tools on the Site that allow you to share and/or publicly post content or information from the Site to your social media account. If you decide to use third-party social media features on the Site or interact with us on social media, we encourage you to review the privacy policies of any such social media platforms.

13. International Users

Stephen Wise and the Site are operated in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that any information you provide will be collected in or transferred to the United States. By using the Site and/or providing us with your information, you consent to that collection and transfer.

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Policy, our practices, or your dealings with the Site, you can contact us at:

Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
30 W 68th St.
New York, NY 10023
Email:  info@swfs.org
Phone: (212) 877-4050, ext. 267

15. Effective Date

This Policy was last updated on September 6, 2019