8.4 Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Effective Date: June 1, 2015
This Online Privacy Policy is intended to describe how the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network ("RAINN", “we” or “us”) handles information gathered at
www.PCSAVESHelpline.org ("PCSAVESHelpline.org") and The PC SAVES Helpline (the “PC SAVES Helpline”), which is accessed through PCSAVESHelpline.org. By visiting PCSAVESHelpline.org, or using the PC SAVES Helpline, you agree to follow the terms and conditions of this Online Privacy Policy. RAINN may change these terms and conditions from time to time without prior notification, so please consult these terms and conditions regularly for any such changes.
Your privacy and security are very important to us. The following information will help you understand what information we collect online, and how we handle that information once we collect it. This policy will tell you if we disclose that information to anyone, and what choices you have regarding how we use that information. Please note that this Online Privacy Policy applies only to PCSAVESHelpline.org and to the PC SAVES Helpline website, and not to any other website of RAINN (including rainn.org) or of any other organizations to which we may link or that may link to us.
Collection of Information About You
Section A tells you how RAINN gathers information from users of the PC SAVES Helpline, and Section B tells you how RAINN gathers information from users of PCSAVESHelpline.org. If you are only using the PCSAVESHelpline.org website generally and are not using the PC SAVES Helpline, Section A (immediately below) does NOT apply to you; you should read Section B.
If you decide to use the PC SAVES Helpline and then use the PCSAVESHelpline.org website separately or during the same timeframe, your use of the PC SAVES Helpline cannot be connected to your use of PCSAVESHelpline.org.
Please note that the PC SAVES Helpline is intended only for the Peace Corps Volunteers and trainees. All others should visit the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline (
http://online.rainn.org) instead of using the PC SAVES Helpline.
A. PC SAVES Helpline
We operate the PC SAVES Helpline, pursuant to a contract with the Armed Forces Services Corporation and the United States Peace Corps. The PC SAVES Helpline is staffed by trained crisis support staff to help you during online sessions and RAINN provides supervisors to help monitor online sessions. Any information that you share during a PC SAVES Helpline session will be viewed by the trained staffer assisting you, and may also be viewed by one or more supervisors from RAINN for quality control purposes.
If you provide feedback through an anonymous feedback survey following your session, that feedback may be shared with the trained staffer assisting you, and with personnel at RAINN, if applicable, and Peace Corps. However, the feedback will be anonymous, and we will not ask for your name or any personal information, or attach any feedback to information that you provide during your PC SAVES Helpline session.
Personally Identifiable Information: "Personally Identifiable Information" is information about you that would identify you, such as your name or address. The PC SAVES Helpline is intended to be an anonymous service and you will
NOT be asked to provide your name, address, site, telephone number or e-mail address, at any time during your use of the PC SAVES Helpline. In fact, RAINN specifically requests, for your own safety and anonymity, that you do
not provide any such Personally Identifiable Information when you use the PC SAVES Helpline.
Note that while no Personally Identifiable Information will be asked, trained staffers may ask your post in order to provide you with referrals for ongoing support.
The information and text conveyed by you to our trained staffers during your online chat session is intended to be part of a private conversation between you and the trained staffer, and will NOT be recorded, stored, saved, or catalogued by RAINN other than any information provided that is not Personally Identifiable Information and which will only be used only in aggregate reports. Additionally, in order to determine usage levels and average session length, and for other record keeping purposes, an entry will be made in a database containing the start and stop time of each session.
You will not be required to provide your real name or exact address. This information will be stored in a secure records management system accessible only to PC SAVES Helpline staff.
Aggregate Data & Cookies: We automatically gather, or aggregate, certain usage information, such as the number of users of the PC SAVES Helpline.org, length of stay and average length of sessions. This data cannot be used to identify you personally, and helps us to determine how often the PC SAVES Helpline is being used, at what times of the day, and other useful statistics. We may use this aggregate data for internal record keeping and service improvement purposes, and also may share it with the Peace Corps
The PC SAVES Helpline does NOT place any permanent or "persistent" cookies on your computer, although PCSAVESHelpline.org does use session cookies (see below). The cookies placed by PCSAVESHelpline.org cannot be used to identify you as a user of the PC SAVES Helpline.
B. PCSAVESHelpline.org
Personally Identifiable Information:
General. In general, visitors may browse PCSAVESHelpline.org without being requested to reveal any Personally Identifiable Information. However, there are pages on PCSAVESHelpline.org where we may request Personally Identifiable Information about you, such as your phone number. This number will be used by staff to call users through the ‘Click-to-Call’ service. Once staff have dialed the phone number entered by the user the phone number will be erased from RAINN’s system.
Please note that any Personally Identifiable Information provided via PCSAVESHelpline.org cannot be connected to your use of the PC SAVES Helpline and once you agree to the PC SAVES Helpline Terms of Service (which must be agreed to prior to your use of the PC SAVES Helpline) the PC SAVES Helpline will not record or store your computer’s IP address.
Other Uses. We may use internal service providers to facilitate our services, and, therefore, may provide some of your Personally Identifiable Information directly to them. In addition, we may employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf, such as website hosting, and telephone service and texting service providers. These companies and individuals will only have access to Personally Identifiable Information needed to perform their functions, and may not use it for any other purpose. As noted above, your Personally Identifiable Information provided via PCSAVESHelpline.org cannot be connected to your use of the PC SAVES Helpline.
Aggregate Data & Cookies: We automatically gather, or aggregate, certain usage information, such as the number and frequency of visitors to PCSAVESHelpline.org, length of stay, and other anonymous data. This data helps us determine usage levels on different parts of PCSAVESHelpline.org, and to conduct other internal research. In addition, we may aggregate such data and disclose it in a non-personally identifiable manner to Peace Corps, or as required by law. In these situations, we do not disclose any information that could be used to identify you personally.
For example, PCSAVESHelpline.org uses "session ID cookies." In general, a "cookie" is a small piece of text data stored on a user's computer by a website, in order to give that computer a unique identity to the website while performing certain processes, such as calculating the number of unique visitors at a given time. Cookies may contain personal information, like email addresses, usernames, or passwords, or completely anonymous information, like a randomly generated number. They may be deleted once a user leaves the site, leaves a section of the site, or closes the browser; or they may remain, so that the website "remembers" the user when he or she next visits.
On PCSAVESHelpline.org, we use one session ID cookie. It is used to measure the amount of overall traffic on our website; we use this data only in the aggregate, meaning no individual user can be identified from the data. This cookie is
in no way linked to Personally Identifiable Information, and is deleted from the user's computer when the user closes his or her browser. We do not use permanent cookies, which retain information past a user's current visit.
How We Protect Your Security
RAINN stores any information on a secure server that is only accessible by RAINN employees or contractors, pursuant to the terms described above. However, as previously noted, we may aggregate certain information and provide such aggregate reports to third parties, including the Peace Corps. Again, we do not store transcripts of communications over the PC SAVES Helpline.
We care about the security of your personal information, and therefore have chosen to use Amazon as a security solutions provider.
We employ different security techniques to protect your personal information from unauthorized access by users inside and outside of our organization, including standard encryption practices. You should be aware, however, that "perfect security" does not exist anywhere on the Internet. ALTHOUGH WE BELIEVE WE TAKE APPROPRIATE MEASURES TO SAFEGUARD AGAINST UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURES OF INFORMATION, WE CANNOT ASSURE YOU THAT YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION OR COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE PC SAVES HELPLINE WILL NEVER BE DISCLOSED IN A MANNER INCONSISTENT WITH THIS POLICY, AND MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES REGARDING THE SUFFICIENCY OF OUR SECURITY MEASURES.
Always be careful and responsible regarding your personal information. We are not responsible for, and cannot control, the use by others of any information, which you provide or divulge to them, purposefully or inadvertently. Please note that the owner of any computer on which you access the PC SAVES Helpline (including the Peace Corps, if applicable) may have the right to access computers that it owns or has provided. We do not control the privacy policies of others (including the Peace Corps).
For more information on how to keep your computer safe, please read our User Safety Procedures above.
How We May Share Information
We will not publish, sell, share, or rent information about you in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. However, we may be forced to disclose information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances. We may be required to (and you authorize us to) reveal any information about you that we possess to law enforcement or other government officials as we, in our sole discretion, believe is necessary or appropriate, in connection with the investigation of a crime, mandatory reporting laws, fraud, intellectual property infringement, or other activity that is illegal, or may expose us, or you, to liability. Also, if we, or a trained staffer, fear that you are in danger of committing suicide, or are 17 years of age or younger, we, or the trained staffer, may be required to disclose whatever information you have provided to the appropriate authorities. It is possible that a court of law will not keep private, and may require us to reveal, information that you provide during your PC SAVES Helpline web session. If you are concerned about this possibility, please call the PC SAVES Helpline hotline instead. The data that we collect, and therefore may share, is limited in the manner described above.
Our Policy Toward Children
We are concerned about the safety and privacy of children who use the Internet. Consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, we will never knowingly request Personally Identifiable Information from anyone under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with Personally Identifiable Information through PCSAVESHelpline.org without verifiable parental consent, we will use our best efforts to remove such information from our files. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with Personally Identifiable Information through PCSAVESHelpline.org without verifiable parental consent, he or she should contact RAINN at +1 (202) 544-1034 or info@rainn.org.
Other Information Collectors
Except as otherwise expressly included in this Online Privacy Policy, this document addresses our use and disclosure of information that we collect from you. If you disclose your information to others, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of such information. We do not control the privacy policies of others. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.
Your Consent and Changes in Privacy Pledge
By using the PC SAVES Helpline or PCSAVESHelpline.org, you consent to the terms set forth in this Privacy Policy and the Website User Agreement. We may, from time to time, make changes to this Online Privacy Policy, based on your comments and our need to reflect accurately our data collection and disclosure practices. If we make any substantial changes in the way we use your personal information, this page will be updated and we will post a prominent announcement on PCSAVESHelpline.org.
If you have any questions or suggestions about this privacy policy, please contact info@rainn.org. Alternatively, you can mail RAINN at:
RAINN
Attn: PC SAVES Helpline Privacy Coordinator
1220 L St. NW
Suite 505
Washington, DC 20005
Please only address questions about the privacy pledge to the above addresses. If you are concerned about a specific page, please email info@rainn.org.