Privacy Policy

Privacy Statement

Effective as of: July 6, 2011

The Valley of Chicago, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America; its coordinate bodies, namely Van Rensselaer Lodge of Perfection, Chicago Council of Princes of Jerusalem A.A.S. Rite of Free Masonry, Gourgas Chapter of Rose Croix DE H.R.D.M.A.A.S. Rite of Freemasonry, and Oriental Consistory S.P.R.S.; the Scottish Rite Cathedral Association of Chicago; and the Scottish Rite Almoner’s Fund, Inc. (collectively, "SRCA") have a long history of protecting individual privacy, and we are particularly committed to protecting the personal information that you provide and entrust to us when using the SRCA’s websites. This online privacy statement (the "Privacy Statement") describes how we treat all user data collected by the SRCA during your visit to the SRCA Site, both technical data that is automatically collected and voluntarily submitted data.

For purposes of this Privacy Statement, the "SRCA Site" is the website whose home page is www.ScottishRiteChicago.org and www.ValleyofChicago.org, and includes all web pages whose domain name contains the following: ScottishRiteChicago.org or ValleyofChicago.org. This is not the privacy statement for any blogs, forums or social networking sites where SRCA has a presence that are on websites other than the SRCA Site. Further, this is not the privacy statement for the websites of any SRCA affiliates, including the Supreme Council NMJ, and you should refer to the privacy statements on those affiliates' websites or contact those affiliates to learn the manner in which they treat information you provide to them through their websites' (or provide to them in any manner other than through the SRCA Site).

The SRCA may occasionally update this Statement. We will post any changes on this web page, so be sure to check back periodically. If we do make material changes, we will post a notice on our home page that the Privacy Statement has been modified and provide a link to the revised Privacy Statement. Any information that you submit after a change has been posted will be subject to the new provisions.

User Data We Collect

We collect two types of user data: (1) technical data that is automatically collected from all visitors to the SRCA Site ("Automatically Collected Data"); and (2) data that you voluntarily submit to us (described below under "Voluntarily Submitted Data").

Automatically Collected Data. We may automatically collect Internet Protocol ("IP") addresses and domain names of the originating visitor's computer on our server and may know some information you have previously provided through cookies. (See the section on "Cookies" below for more information.) We may also track the number and frequency of hits per page, as well as length of website visit, using IP addresses and/or session cookies, but we do not associate any individual IP address or session information with any other personally identifying information except to detect security intrusions or certain unlawful activity. We use this information to perform website traffic analysis so we can better improve the SRCA Site experience.

In addition, if you come to the SRCA Site from a website link, we may also identify the source of that link so that we can evaluate what content is persuading web users to become involved in the SRCA’s activities.

Voluntarily Submitted Data. We may collect Voluntarily Submitted Data, including personal data, that you voluntarily provide, such as your name and postal address, phone number, e-mail address, and similar information, and transactional information, such as giving and action-taking history, when you participate in certain activities on the SRCA Site, including (but not limited to) when you:

join or renew your membership to the SRCA;
make an additional contribution to support the SRCA;
register for our message board;
register online for an event;
participate in one of our online petitions or surveys;
post a blog comment;
submit feedback to the SRCA; or
participate in any activity that requires your Voluntarily Submitted Data.

When you send correspondence to a friend, your friend's email address is only captured by us temporarily in order to complete your send request.

Cookies

We collect some data through the use of cookies. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that are transferred to your computer's hard drive and either stored permanently for future access by the transferor ("Long-term Cookies") or temporarily to facilitate the transferor's website analysis and functionality ("Short-term Cookies") or that are transferred temporarily to your computer's Random Access Memory ("Session Cookies").

We may transfer a Long-term Cookie only in circumstances in which you are notified prior to the cookie being stored, for example, when you select a "remember" option on the SRCA Site. If you select one of these options, a Long-term Cookie will be stored on your computer's hard drive solely for the purpose of automatically filling in the information you have asked to be remembered, for example, automatically filling in your password when you log in to the SRCA Site. These "remember" options are offered only for your convenience and are completely voluntary. If you do not select a "remember" option, we will not transfer a Long-Term Cookie to your computer's hard drive.

We may use Session Cookies whenever you visit the SRCA Site for our website traffic analytics application and the Site's interactive applications. Session Cookies last only as long as your session on the SRCA Site. They expire when the session ends and are not written onto your computer's hard drive. We also use Session Cookies in e-mails containing the HTML-format. If you select "text-only" format preference, emails sent to you will not contain any Session Cookies.

We also may use Short-term Cookies to facilitate some of our website analysis and functionality, such as maps and videos. These Short-term Cookies are set to expire within one hour of their being placed on your hard drive.

Some elective, third-party media functionality on the SRCA Site may also use Cookies. Please see the "Third Parties — Third-Party Functionality" section below.

How We Use The Data We Collect

In addition to the uses described above, we use Automatically Collected Data to identify the source of user traffic (for example, umich.edu, or aol.com), but we do not tie this information to individual users in our database. We use data that indicates which sections of the SRCA Site are most visited so that we can evaluate the popularity of our different web pages and continue to improve the SRCA Site. We do not link any Automatically Collected Data with the Voluntarily Submitted Data you provide to us except to detect security intrusions or certain unlawful activity.

We use your Voluntarily Submitted Data for various purposes:

To fulfill the request for which you specifically provided the data, including sharing the data with its intended recipient (e.g., delivering a petition you sign);
To analyze actions taken through our website;
To periodically communicate with you concerning SRCA matters, such as delivering to you information and updates on our activities and events, if you have not opted out of receiving such information and updates;
To indicate you as the author of any comment you post, including on any SRCA Site blog or forum, when you opt to identify yourself as the author or when posting such comment requires such identification, and to display any personally identifying or other information you voluntarily include in such comments;
To personalize the content that you see based on the activities and products that you have selected on the SRCA Site;
To allow you to set and change user preferences;
To allow you to renew your membership in the SRCA;
To offer you other ways to support the SRCA, including solicitations for additional contributions if you have not opted out of receiving such communications;
To confirm your contribution to the SRCA;
To confirm your registration to a SRCA event;
To confirm a purchase;
To respond to an inquiry or feedback you have made to the SRCA; and
To follow up with you with an email specific to an activity you have participated in or intend to participate in.

If your Voluntarily Submitted Data includes a U.S. zip code or state and you are a member, donor or subscriber to SRCA information, we may also share your Voluntarily Submitted Data with our affiliates which may use that information:

To periodically communicate with you concerning local affiliate matters, such as delivering information and updates on the local affiliate's activities, and invitations to local events, if you have not opted out of receiving that information;
To confirm your registration to an event;
To follow up with you with an email specific to an activity you have participated in or intend to participate in; and
To offer you other ways to support the SRCA, including solicitations for additional contributions, if you have not opted out of receiving such communications.

The SRCA Site is hosted by servers in the United States. Accordingly, if you are located outside of the United States, the Voluntarily Submitted Data you provide to us will be transferred to the United States. By submitting your Voluntarily Submitted Data, you consent to its transfer and storage in the United States and its use in accordance with the purposes for which it was originally collected (see below regarding third-party sharing of Voluntarily Submitted Data from non-U.S. residents).

If you are a U.S. resident, we may also from time to time combine your Voluntarily Submitted Data with some publicly available data collected from third parties to improve our services to you and for our own internal marketing, communications, and fundraising purposes.

Third Parties

Third Party Sharing

We share your Voluntarily Submitted Data with third-party service providers who fulfill your orders or transactions, contact you on our behalf, or facilitate some other aspect of SRCA activities, services or products, including those third-party service providers who collect, process, store and transmit information we collect on this website and those third-party service providers we use to assist us in our fundraising and communications efforts. These service providers have access to your Voluntarily Submitted Data solely for the purpose of providing these services to us on our behalf.

Except as described in this Privacy Statement, we will not share your Voluntarily Submitted Data with any third party unless we first notify you and offer you an appropriate choice to consent to such further use, for example, through an opt-out or opt-in request.

Third-Party Functionality

As discussed in the preceding section, to support certain functions carried out on the SRCA Site, the SRCA uses third-party service providers, such as Eventbrite. In limited instances with respect to specific optional functions on the SRCA Site, those third parties may have data collection, use or security procedures that differ from the practices outlined in this Privacy Statement and that may impact users of those optional functions.

Your Ability to Choose

When you provide us with your Voluntarily Submitted Data on the SRCA Site, you can let us know that you do not wish to receive our email communications by contacting us via postal mail sent to Scottish Rite, 1375 E. Woodfield Road, Suite 200, Schaumburg, Illinois, 60173.

Children

We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 12.

Security

The Voluntarily Submitted Data we collect about you is stored on a secure, password protected server and only authorized personnel have access to your information. We use industry-standard encryption technologies with respect to the receipt and transfer of Voluntarily Submitted Data you submit to us on the SRCA Site and only authorized personnel have access to your information. Nevertheless, despite our best efforts, no transmission over the Internet and no data storage method can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

Updating Your Data

To update your Voluntarily Submitted Data or to make corrections, you can do so by logging in to the SRCA’s websites’ member section, or by sending us the update via postal mail sent to Scottish Rite, 1375 E. Woodfield Road, Suite 200, Schaumburg, Illinois 60173.

Comments and Questions

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this Privacy Statement or our data collection practices or to request that we delete your Voluntarily Submitted Data, you can send us your questions or comments via postal mail sent to Scottish Rite, 1375 E. Woodfield Road, Suite 200, Schaumburg, Illinois 60173.