Privacy Policy

AFSCME International Union has created this privacy notice to explain how information that you may provide while visiting the AFSCME.org site ("Website") is used and to demonstrate our firm commitment to Internet privacy.  By using or accessing the Website you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.  This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected online through the Website and does not describe the ways in which we may collect or use information obtained offline or through any means other than the Website.

HOW AND WHEN WE COLLECT INFORMATION

Activity That Does Not Require Registration.  You can view content on the Website without registering or providing any personal information.  When you visit in this manner, we automatically obtain information from you about the name of your Internet service provider, the browser and type of computer you are using and the website that referred you to us.  In addition, we use a “session” cookie to identify you while you are on the Website, if cookies are enabled on your computer.  This session cookie terminates once you finish using the Website and close your browser.

Mailing list.  You may provide us with your e-mail address if you wish only to join our mailing list.

Activity Requiring Registration.  Certain activities on the Website, — for example, participating in an advocacy campaign or survey, — require you to register. To become a registered user, we ask you to provide your name, ZIP code and e-mail address.  If you decide to register, we use a "persistent" cookie that stores certain information to make it easier for you to log in when you come back to the Website.  However, none of your personal information is stored in that cookie.  You may also be asked to provide certain additional information to participate in other activities that we may undertake through the Website.  For example, if you sign up to receive information by mail, we will ask for your street address.  You may update or correct your personal account information and e-mail preferences at any time by visiting your account profile page.

Usage Information.  For the purpose of improving the user experience for visitors to our Website, we may track information about usage of the Website—such as when the site is visited, areas of the site that are clicked on and/or participated in, tags that are searched for, and subscribers to the RSS feed.  If a member is logged in, we may associate that information with a user account.  A persistent cookie may be used to track this information.  We may use pixel tags and/or trackable links in HTML-based e-mails sent to our users to track open and click-through analysis data to enable us to better serve our readers.

Community Activities. In the event community activities, such as comments, are permitted on the site, any personal information or content that you voluntarily disclose online becomes publicly available and can be collected and used by others.  Your user name (not your e-mail address) is displayed to other users when you post comments.  When posting comments, you should exercise caution not to provide any personally identifying information or other information that you would not want seen by others.  Use of the community functions on the Website is at your own risk.

Tell A Friend Information. If you choose to use our invitation service to tell a friend about our site, we will request information needed to send the invitation, such as your friend's e-mail address.  We will automatically send your friend a single e-mail inviting him or her to visit the site.

Polls and Surveys. From time to time, we may conduct polls and surveys.  Information collected through our polls, surveys and questionnaires is used in the aggregate, unless we contact you to request permission to use your individual responses for a particular purpose.

Financial Information and Payments.  We use a secure server for processing payments and financial information.  AFSCME does not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

If you choose to make an online purchase or donation, you will have to provide your credit card billing information.  As this information is collected and transferred over the Internet to our secure server it is encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, the security technology that is designed to protect sensitive information.  Our purchase and donation pages display the Verisign Secure Site Seal to assure you that our Website is authentic and that all transactions are secured by SSL encryption.  If you are making a purchase or donation, the credit card information that you provide is used only to process your purchase or donation and will not be used for any other purposes.

We do not knowingly collect any information from children under the age of 13.  We encourage you to talk to your children about safe and responsible use of their personal information while using the Internet.

Uses of Personal Information

  • The personal information that we collect on the Website helps us, our affiliates and local unions and AFSCME-related organizations to efficiently and effectively represent our members, to pursue our advocacy agenda and to provide valuable member benefits.
     
  • In order to advance these goals and activities we may share the personal information that we collect about you with our affiliates and local unions and other AFSCME-related organizations, as well as third parties that perform services on our behalf and have signed a non-disclosure agreement.  Additionally, subject to applicable law, we may share any of the personal information that we collect about you with certain third parties that share our interests and have signed a non-disclosure agreement.
     
  • We will use your e-mail address to communicate with you about our activities and offerings, unless you opt out from receiving such messages.  We will also use your e-mail address for administrative purposes, such as notifying you of major Website changes, sending messages related to actions you have taken on the site or for customer service purposes.  Although we hope you'll find these communications informative and useful you may opt out of receiving future information via e-mail by using the "unsubscribe" procedures specified on the e-mail message or by sending an e-mail with the name of the list of which you are a member to: afscmepa@afscme.org.
     
  • When you send e-mail or other communications to us we may retain those communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our services.
     
  • We use both your personally identifying information and certain non-personally identifying information (such as anonymous usage data, IP addresses, browser type, clickstream data, etc.) to improve the quality of your user experience and the design of the Website, and to create new features, functionality and services by storing, tracking and analyzing user behavior, preferences, trends and actions.
     
  • If your personal information changes (such as your ZIP code), or if you wish to have your information removed from our email list, please use the subscription management page, accessible from a link in every e-mail that you receive from the AFSCME International Union.  List members can manage their profile or remove themselves from the list.  You can also contact us at afscmepa@afscme.org
     
  • AFSCME may also collect information from publicly available databases and AFSCME affiliates may also provide information lawfully provided to those affiliates. At no time is any information gathered from any source sold to third parties for marketing purposes.

Affiliate and Consumer Data Information

From time to time, we collect cell phone numbers and other information lawfully provided by members to AFSCME affiliates and aggregated from publicly available databases by consumer data vendors. This information is used to contact members about important issues and campaigns. At no time is any information collected in this manner sold or otherwise provided to any third parties for marketing purposes. Any third party receiving such information for non-marketing purposes must sign a non-disclosure agreement prior to receiving such information.

Other Disclosures

We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws.  If we receive a subpoena requesting information about you and if you have provided us with your e-mail address, we will attempt to notify you of the subpoena at the e-mail address that you have provided.  Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with the law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Website or use of our name, to prevent bodily harm, to enforce our User Agreement or to protect the rights, property or safety of visitors to our site, our members, the public or our union.  In the unlikely event that we merge with another entity, information on our visitors would be among the transferred assets.

Information Security and Data Integrity

We take security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data.  These measures include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store personal data.

It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer.  Be sure to sign off when finished using a shared computer.  If you send us an e-mail you should know that e-mail is not necessarily secure against interception. If your communication includes sensitive information like your bank account, charge card or Social Security number, and you prefer not to use one of our online contact forms, contact us by mail or telephone rather than by e-mail.

More Information

Our Website may also permit you to access other websites.  It is important to remember that, if you link to a site that is not part of AFSCME’S network of websites, that party's privacy policy and its user agreement apply to you.  We encourage you to learn about each third party's privacy policy before giving personal information to them.

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time.  We will post any changes to this Privacy Policy on this page, so we encourage you to check this page regularly.  Your continued use of this Website following any changes to this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such changes.

Contact Us

If you experience technical problems with the operation of this Website, contact us by e-mail at: webeditor@afscme.org.

Effective Date: 1-1-2009