World Vision U.S. Donor Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice describes how World Vision, Inc. (collectively, “World Vision,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, shares, and safeguards personal information. This Privacy Notice tells you about your choices with respect to your personal information, and how you can reach us to get answers to your questions. You can jump to topics by going to the headings below:
Types of Information We Collect
Use and Processing of Information
How Long We Keep Personal Information
Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
Submitting a Request to Exercise Your Rights
Types of Information We Collect
The following provides examples of the type of information we collect from you and how we use it.
| Context | Types of Data | Primary Purpose for Collection and Use of Data |
|---|---|---|
| Account Registration | We collect your name and contact information when you create an account. We also collect information relating to the actions that you perform while logged into your account. | We use this information to provide account related functionalities to our users. Accounts can be used to help manage your donations and sponsorships. |
| Cookies and first party tracking | We use cookies and clear GIFs. “Cookies” are small pieces of information that a website sends to a computer’s hard drive while a web site is viewed. | We use this information to make our website operate efficiently. |
| Cookies and Third-Party Tracking | We participate in behavior-based advertising, this means that a third party uses technology (e.g., a cookie) to collect information about your use of our website so that they can provide advertising about products and services tailored to your interests on our website, or on other websites. | We use this information to provide you with more relevant advertisements. |
| Demographic Information | We may collect or augment our records with personal information such as your age, birth month and year, gender, income level, or interests. | We may use this information to provide you with tailored information about our programs. |
| Donor Advised Fund Information, Donor Life Income Agreement information, Wills and Estate Planning Information | We may collect your Social Security Number, birth date, driver’s license Number or other form of identification, bank account data along with Donor Information and beneficiary information | We use your information to manage the agreements you have established with World Vision. |
| Donor Audio, Video, or photographs | We collect audio, video, and photographs you choose to provide to us. | We share photos with our sponsored children so they can choose their donor. We may also share audio, video, or photographs for marketing purposes with explicit donor consent. |
| Donor Information | We collect your name, billing address, e-mail address, phone number, communication preferences, prayer requests, interactions with World Vision, account information (where applicable), and credit/debit card number or bank account number when you give a donation or gift or sponsor a child. We also keep a record of your donations, including images of mailed in response documents and check images. | We use your information to bill you for donations pledged, process refunds, and provide you with receipts for tax purposes. We may use this information to contact you to resolve donor issues or answer questions. |
| Email Interconnectivity | If you receive email from us, we use certain tools to capture data related to when you open our message, click on any links or banners it contains and make purchases. | We use this information to understand how you interact with our communications to you. |
| Events and Visits | If you sign up for a World Vision event or a Vision Trip, we collect information such as your name, email address, and any other information relevant to the event, including Passport information for international travel | We use this information to facilitate travel and lodgings or register you for an event, send you fundraising incentive merchandise, aid in fundraising efforts, inform you of leadup events, and collect donations. |
| Feedback/Support | If you provide us with feedback or contact us for support, we will collect your name, e-mail address, account information (as applicable), and any other content you send us, to reply. | We use this information to receive, and act upon, your feedback or issues. |
| Mailing List | When you sign up for one of our mailing lists, we collect your email address or postal address. | We share information about our programs and services with individuals that consent to receive such information. We also use this information to share information about our programs or services. |
| Partner Promotion | We collect information that you provide as part of a co-branded program and promotions with another company. | We use this information to fulfil our programs and promotions. |
| Prayer Requests | We collect donor prayer requests. | We use this information to pray for, and with, our donors. |
| Public Health and Safety | In certain situations where a serious public health threat has been identified, we may collect information from employees, temporary workers, guests, vendors, and other individuals accessing our facilities. This may include medical and health information, such as body temperature, symptoms, and underlying health conditions. In some cases, we may also collect medical, health, and related information about an employee’s children, family member, or other individuals under the employee’s care. | We use this information to protect the health and safety of our employees and guests. In some jurisdictions we may be required by law, regulation, or governmental order to collect and retain information related to issues of public health and safety. We also use this information to comply with the laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate. |
| Surveys | When you participate in a survey, we collect information that you provide through the survey. If the survey is provided by a third-party service provider, the third party’s privacy policy applies to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information. | We use this information to understand your opinions and collect information relevant to our organization. |
| Website interactions | We use technology to monitor how you interact with our website. This may include which links you click on, or information that you type into our online forms. This may also include information about your device or browser. | We use this information to understand how you interact with our website to improve it, and to understand your preferences and interests to select offerings that you might find most useful. We also use this information to detect and prevent fraud. |
| Web logs | We collect information, including your browser type, operating system, Internet Protocol (IP) address (a number that is automatically assigned to a computer when the Internet is used), domain name, click-activity, referring website, and/or a date/time stamp for visitors. | We use this information to monitor our networks and the visitors to our websites. |
In addition to the information that we collect from you directly, we may also receive information about you from other sources, including through referrals, third parties, business partners, our affiliates, or publicly available sources. For example, if one of your contacts uses our referral feature, we may obtain your email address or, in some cases, your mailing address from them. Additionally, if you submit a job application, or become an employee, we may conduct a background check.
Use and Processing of Information
In addition to the purposes and uses described above, we use information in the following ways:
- To identify you when you visit our websites.
- To offer new ways to give.
- To improve our services and programs.
- To streamline the donation process.
- To conduct analytics.
- To respond to inquiries related to support, employment opportunities, or other requests.
- To send marketing and promotional materials including information relating to our programs and services.
- For internal administrative purposes and to manage our relationships.
Disclosure to Third Parties
We occasionally disclose, share, and exchange personal information (i.e., contact information, donation information, and demographic information) with select third parties (data brokers) for valuable consideration. Information of this kind is used to allow World Vision and similar non-profit organizations to identify others like yourself interested in partnering with us to help children and their families.
In addition, we disclose information in the following situations:
- World Vision Entities. We share information with other World Vision entities primarily to support communications with our donors and the communities that they support.
- Other Disclosures with Your Consent. We may ask if you would like us to share your information with other unaffiliated third parties who are not described elsewhere in this policy.
- Other Disclosures without Your Consent. We disclose information in response to subpoenas, warrants or court orders, or in connection with any legal process, or to comply with relevant laws. We may also share your information to establish or exercise our rights; to defend against a legal claim; to investigate, prevent, or act regarding possible illegal activities, suspected fraud, safety of person or property, or a violation of our policies; or to comply with your request for the shipment of products by or the provision of services by a third-party intermediary.
- Public. Some of our websites provide the opportunity to post comments or reviews in a public forum. If you decide to submit information on these pages, that information may be publicly available.
- Service Providers. We share your information with third-party service providers. Among other things, service providers help us to administer our website, conduct surveys, provide technical support, conduct analytics, improve our services, facilitate events, and process payments.
To opt out of third-party data sharing and/or disclosure, contact our donor service center at 1-888-511-6548 or login or create an account at https://my.worldvision.org/account/ and opt out of data sharing there.
How Long We Keep Personal Information
We keep personal Information, including sensitive personal Information, as long as reasonably necessary to advance the World Vision mission, comply with legal obligations or protect our or other’s interests. Here is what we consider when we decide:
- The need to advance our mission.
- The feature we use the personal data for, and how that feature works.
- How long do we need to retain the information to comply with legal and regulatory obligations?
- If we need it for other legitimate purposes, such as to prevent harm; investigate violations of our terms or policies; promote safety, security, and integrity; or protect ourselves, including our rights, property, or products.
Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
As with most other Internet sites, our web servers utilize “cookies” to track a user’s activity within our site as well as record the IP address of each visitor to this site. A cookie is a small data file that is stored on your computer. A cookie contains a unique identifying feature that allows our computer to recognize you when you return to the World Vision site. The recorded IP address tells us which domain you visited from (for instance, yahoo.com), but not your email address or other private and personal information. If you wish to opt out of this type of data collection, please see the section below on Submitting a Request to Exercise Your Rights. We may use the information we record for any of the following purposes:
- To help diagnose problems with our servers, and to administer this website more effectively.
- To gather broad demographic information about what countries and domains our visitors come from and their behavior on our site.
- For targeted advertising, marketing, and fundraising purposes, including through cross channel means such as email and direct mail communications.
In addition, this website is enabled with one or more add-on services such as Google Analytics to collect information about the use of this site. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit this site, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to this site. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this site by disabling cookies.
We sometimes also use third-party service providers to serve advertisements (banners, video, or test ads) on our behalf across the Internet, or to implement cross-channel communications via email or direct mail. These third parties may collect non-personally identifiable information about your interaction with us. This Privacy Policy does not cover the collection methods or use of the information collected by these vendors, as they have their own privacy policies and may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”). To remove yourself from some or all NAI member advertising programs, please visit the NAI opt out page and follow the relevant instructions. In the alternative, if you wish to opt out, please see the section below on Submitting a Request to Exercise Your Rights.
In some cases, our site uses securely encrypted contribution response forms for visitors who choose to use these forms to provide information, request information, and make donations. We collect your willingly submitted contact information (such as your email address), unique identifiers (in some cases, a World Vision donor account number), and financial information (such as a credit card type, number, and expiration date). Contact information from these response forms is used to process donations and provide receipts and other information about World Vision to our customers. The visitor’s contact information is also used to contact the visitor, when necessary, to resolve customer service issues or questions. Users may readily opt out of receiving future communications; see the “opt out” and “modifying your information” sections below. The financial information collected is used to bill the user for pledged donations. Unique identifiers (such as a World Vision account number) may be collected from website visitors to assist in matching current donation information with donor history in our record systems.
Those who choose to register through various “guestbook”-type features on our site may choose to give us certain contact information (such as their email address). These features may also request optional demographic information (such as zip code, age, or income level). Unless you opt out, we may use this contact information to send you additional information about World Vision and its programs. The voluntarily provided contact information may also be used to contact you, when necessary, to resolve customer service issues or questions. You may readily opt out of receiving future communications; see the “opt out” and “modifying your information” sections below.
Our online surveys may ask visitors for contact information (such as their email address) as well as a variety of demographic and practical questions. We may use contact data from our surveys to send the user information about World Vision. The user’s contact information may also be used to contact the visitor when necessary. Users may opt out of receiving future mailings; see the “opt out” and “modifying your information” sections below.
Online Data Security
All response forms requesting confidential information (such as credit card numbers) on World Vision’s website utilize the Internet security protocol known as “Transport Layer Security” or “TLS.” We use this technology in combination with encryption and tokenization to make using your credit card as safe as possible on the Internet.
The TLS (Transport Layer Security) technology depends on secure Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) certified by a certifying authority like Thawte. Secure URLs always begin with “https://” rather than “http://” and if you are using one from a browser that recognizes TLS, you will also receive a preceding message and/or see a symbol, such as a lock, that signifies that you are on a secure page. Any information you enter on such a page is encrypted in your browser, sent over the public Internet in encrypted form, then de-encrypted at our servers.
If your browser does not support TLS technology, you will receive an error message when trying to access our TLS page.
Your Data Privacy Rights
Depending on where you live and subject to certain exceptions, you may have some or all the following rights:
- Right to Access: The right to request that we disclose to you the personal Information we collect, use, or disclose, and information about our data practices.
- Right to Portability: The right to obtain by a secure method the personal data we collect in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable electronic format.
- Right to Correction: The right to request that we correct inaccurate personal Information that we maintain about you.
- Right to Deletion: The right to request that we delete your personal Information that we have collected from or about you.
- Right to Non-Discrimination: The right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your privacy rights.
- Right to Opt Out of targeted advertising and the sharing of personal data.
- Right to Appeal: The right to appeal actions of World Vision regarding your requests.
This site contains links to other non-World Vision sites. World Vision United States is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.
Submitting a Request to Exercise Your Rights
You can contact our donor service center at 1-888-511-6548 or send us a message. You can also send postal mail to the following address: World Vision, Inc., Mail Stop 207, P.O. Box 9716, Federal Way, WA 98063-9716.
When contacting us to change your information, be sure to include complete contact information (name, postal address, telephone number, and email address), and World Vision account number(s).
To protect your privacy and the integrity of our products, we may need to verify your identity before processing your request. In some cases, we may need to collect additional personal information to verify your identity.
Under certain U.S. Privacy Laws, you may also appoint an authorized agent to make these requests on your behalf. An authorized agent is a person or entity authorized by you to act on your behalf. If you use an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf, to protect your privacy, we will require a written notarized authorized agent appointment from you, mailed to the address above.
If you opt out of the processing of personal information, then we may no longer be able to facilitate child sponsorship for you or provide you with other services. In some cases, we will limit or deny your request to revoke consent if the law permits or requires us to do so, or if we are unable to adequately verify your identity.
The right to opt out of targeted advertising by means of capturing your browser based opt out preferences on our website(s) is currently only available to Colorado residents pursuant to the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA).
Referral Programs
World Vision may offer features which allow you to inform an individual about our ministry. If you choose to use our referral features, we will ask you for your referral’s email address or in some cases mailing address, to send them either an electronic or paper communication inviting them to participate in our ministry. We will store this information for the sole purpose of sending this email or paper communication and tracking the success of these efforts to expand the reach of our work. If you choose to participate in our referral programs, you represent and warrant that you have a personal relationship with your referral and that you are authorized to share their information with World Vision for the purpose of sending this invitation to them.
Changes to this Privacy Notice
We reserve the right to make changes to this privacy notice without advance notice.
Changes to this privacy notice were last made on July 1, 2023.
Contacting Us
If you have any questions about this privacy notice, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this website, please contact us.