Privacy Policy

Last modified: 6/10/2024

The International Institute of New England (“IINE”) is committed to protecting individual privacy and online safety. This IINE Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how we use personal information on our website, https://iine.org/ (“Site”). This Policy does not apply to information collected by (1) us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by IINE or any third party or (2) any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or through the Site. Please read this Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Site.

This Policy describes the type of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the Site, and how IINE collects, uses, protects, stores, and discloses that information. Any information voluntarily disclosed to IINE by users of the Site is held with the utmost care and security and will not be used in ways other than as permissible pursuant to this Policy.

The Site may provide links to one or more third-party websites that IINE does not control, and therefore are not covered by this Policy, for example, the career application page or certain fundraiser forms. If you have any questions about the information practices of such third-party pages, you should contact the responsible provider directly.

Children Under the Age of 13

Our Website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 may provide any [personal] information to or on the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under age 13. If you are under age 13, do not use or provide any information on this Website or through any of its features, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or username you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under age 13, please contact us.

We collect several types of information from and about users of our Site, including information:

• By which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, email address, or telephone number (“personal information”);
• That is about you but individually does not identify you; and/or
• About your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Site, and usage details.

We collect this information:

• Directly from you when you provide it to us.
• Automatically as you navigate through the site or our emails. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies that permit us to count users who visited pages of our Site or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

Information You Provide: There may be times (such as when you create an online account, make purchase, provide responses to online surveys, fill out donation forms, subscribe to our newsletter, sign up for events or mailings, etc.) when we ask you to provide certain contact information about yourself. This information typically includes username, initials, home address, other physical address, street name, city, state, zip code, e-mail address, telephone number, credit or debit card number, and information concerning your purchase or use of IINE services.

Automatic Data Collection Technology

Aside from the personal information that you provide to us, IINE may use automatic data collection technologies to collects certain information about visits to our Site, specifically traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Site. We may also collect information about your computer and internet connection, specifically your IP address, operating system, and browser type. The information we automatically collect is used to understand the performance of our Site as well as our fundraising partners’ website, improve your experience while using it, and to remind you of IINE work and how you can support us after you have left IINE website in a relevant manner. Data we collect automatically, which may not be personal information, is treated as personal information when it is attached to other personal information.

What are cookies?

Cookies (or browser cookies) are small data files made up of letters and numbers placed onto your computer or mobile devices when you access IINE website. IINE uses cookies to collect information about you to the extent necessary to ensure its website functionality and performance as well as for the purpose of targeting its audience and tailoring the content offered to the public both on its website and elsewhere. We send cookies when you visit IINE.org, respond to online surveys or polls, or request information.  

How cookies are used on IINE website

IINE wishes to be transparent with users about how cookies are used, so that you are clear on how your privacy is protected when using IINE website.

We use cookies for the following reasons:

• To improve your experience on our Site – Cookies enable us to ensure that we are providing you content that is relevant to your interests while deprioritizing content that is not relevant to you. For example, cookies can tell us if you have shown interest in learning about a specific emergency or campaign, so we could ensure that the next time you visit IINE website, information about this emergency or campaign is prioritized over other content. In the same way, cookies can tell us if, for instance, you have filled in a IINE form or signed a petition, so that we don’t present this to you the next time you visit our Site. Cookies can also provide us with an understanding about other factors relating to your visit that can help us to enhance your website experience, such as: which part of the world you are visiting from, if you came to the Site because of an email or social media post we sent you, or whether your website browser supports the different technologies used on IINE website.
• To understand how IINE website and other communication efforts are performing – Cookies help to provide us with anonymous statistics that tell us about how many users visit our Site, where they came from and how they interact with it. This information is very useful for us to be able to see which pages and content on IINE website is most popular so that we can modify it accordingly. Data gathered through cookies can also help us understand how our other activities, such as social media content and emails affect the use of IINE website.
• To improve the relevance of IINE campaign and marketing messages displayed to you after you leave our Site – Cookies can help us to ensure that you receive personalized advertising banners from advertising services when you browse other website, based on the content you interacted with on IINE website. For example, cookies can tell us if you visit a web page about a particular humanitarian emergency, so that campaign messages about this particular emergency can be displayed to you when you visit another website. None of IINE commercial partners providing such services collect or use any personally identifiable information.
• Advertising performance – We want to monitor our advertising spend carefully to make sure that we are being as cost-effective as possible. IINE uses cookies provided by online measurement platforms such as Google Analytics and DoubleClick in order to identify how many people come to our Site from different website that host our media campaigns, which campaign messages have been most effective at driving people to IINE website, and what actions people undertake after clicking on one of our ads. This information enables us to cost-effectively plan future campaigns, so that we are not wasting resources advocating for refugee protection on website with content that does not interest our potential supporters.
• Reach you on social channels and identify more supporters who want to help refugees – Through cookies, we can target messages for you on our social media platforms and identify other people on the Internet who are most likely to support IINE work and help refugees. This data is not used by service providers for any purpose other than those described above.

Disabling cookies

You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting, you may be unable to access certain parts of our Site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Site. The major browsers have attempted to implement the draft “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (“W3C”) in their latest releases. As this standard has not been finalized, our Site is not compatible with DNT and so, does not recognize DNT settings.

Third party cookies

Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Site are served by third parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Site. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different website and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content. For example, if you visit sections of IINE website that contain embedded content such as YouTube video or an X feed, or contain a plugin such as a Facebook like button, you may receive cookies delivered from these website. As detailed above, we also use third-party cookies for targeted advertising services and for tracking our Site awareness-raising and communications performance.

IINE does not control or govern these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used, so we suggest that you visit these websites for more information about their cookies and applicable privacy policies. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly.

How we use your personal information

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

• To present our Site and its contents to you.
• To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us, including our email newsletter.
• To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it, for example when you apply for a job.
• To provide you with notices about your account/subscription, including expiration and renewal notices.
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
• To notify you about changes to our Site or any products or services we offer or provide though it.
• To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Site.
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
• For any other purpose with your consent.

We may also use your information to contact you about our own goods and services that may be of interest to you. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, you can request to have your name removed from our mailing list at any time (see below how to opt out).

Through the use of personal data such as your email address, we can target messages for you on social media platforms and identify other people on the Internet who are most likely to support IINE work and help refugees. This may require uploading an encrypted list of email addresses to social media platforms of service providers such as Facebook. This data is not stored or reused by such service providers and is only held for the duration of the matching process. If you would not like your data to be used in this way, please email comms@iine.org.

Additionally, if you upload content to a IINE website or an official IINE social media account, we will be able to see certain information, for example in the EXIF data supplied when you submit photographs, we can see which type of camera you used, the time/date stamp, and location if that is available. This information might be used to perform verification checks but will not be shared beyond the IINE social media team based in Boston, Massachusetts.

This Site uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google. Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyze how users use the Site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the Site (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the Site, compiling reports on Site activity, and providing other services relating to Site activity and internet usage for us. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

We may use social media sharing and other “widgets” to enable interaction with social networks, such as Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. Some of these social networks may be able to track your visit to the Site (or any site that uses the widgets) because when you visit a social network, it may place personally identifiable cookies in your browser that are then transmitted back to the social network when you visit other Site that use that network’s widgets, even if you do not click on or interact with the widget. If you have questions about a particular social network’s information collection or cookie practices, please refer to the privacy and use policies of that social network.

Sharing your personal information

We may share your personal information (i) with our contractors, agents, or service providers including digital advertising agencies or social media companies that perform services on our behalf; (ii) with our national partners who help us raising money for refugees and other forcibly displaced; (iii) for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information; or (iv) with your consent. All payment processing on our Site is managed and operated by a third-party service provider.

We may also disclose your personal information:

• To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
• To enforce or apply our terms of use [INSERT AS LINK TO SITE’S TERMS OF USE] and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of IINE, our donors, volunteers, or others.

Opting out

Users who provide an email address and/or donate via IINE website and opt in to receive email communication from IINE may receive IINE e-newsletter and other email updates. We occasionally also communicate via direct mail, phone, and SMS. Each email or SMS sent by IINE includes an option to remove your email address or phone number from the mailing list, and you may also opt out by filling out our contact form.

If you do not want us to share your personal information with unaffiliated or non-agent third parties for promotional purposes, please email comms@iine.org to opt-out.

We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) on the NAI’s website.

User Contributions

You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted”) on public areas of the Site, or transmitted to other users of the Site or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Site with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

Notification of changes

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page with a notice that the privacy policy has been updated on the Site home page. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for periodically visiting our Site and this Policy to check for any changes.