Privacy Policy

The Human Rights Campaign and Human Rights Campaign Foundation (jointly, "HRC") strongly believes in protecting the integrity and privacy of personal information gathered from our members and visitors to our Web sites ("End Users"). Since the protection of your privacy is of the greatest importance to us, we have created this privacy policy to communicate our practices regarding the collection and dissemination of personal information that can be linked to a specific individual, such as a name, address, phone number, e-mail address, or any other information, provided to us by our members and website visitors.

You do not have to share personally identifiable information to use the HRC web site. HRC does not collect personally identifiable information about people without their permission. However, please be aware that our site links to a limited number of other websites and HRC cannot control and is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of those websites.

Our privacy policy explains the information practices we use at hrc.org related to:

1. How we use the information gathered when you become a member of HRC or use one of our online services.
      1a. Disclosure requirements for contributions related to HRC PAC.  
2. How you receive e-mails and e-mail Newsletters from HRC.
3. How we track HTML newsletters.
4. How we protect your information.
5. How to unsubscribe from our mailing lists.
6. How to correct information you have provided.
7. How to contact us about privacy issues.

How we use the information gathered when you become a member of HRC or use one of our online services:

We gather contact information when you contribute to HRC online or via mail, join at pride or another event, when you sign up to use the HRC Action Center or when you sign up on one of our listservs such as FamilyNet, WorkNet or in our press room. We use this information to send you legislative updates, action alerts, press releases, information about HRC programs, events and activities, local volunteer opportunities and membership and renewal appeals.

HRC also uses information gathered via the HRC website to improve our web-based services. HRC periodically performs statistical analyses of aggregate user behavior and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of various areas on our website and to use such information to improve on our website's ability to serve you better.

Cookies: HRC uses "cookies" on some Web pages. A cookie is a small piece of data stored on an End User's hard drive but does not itself contain any personal information. Cookies enhance an End User's experience by saving the End User from having to log in or provide information each time he or she re-visits a HRC Web page and by customizing content based on an End User's interests. An End User can configure his or her browser to be alerted when a site is attempting to send a cookie and refuse the cookie. HRC also tracks End User activity and click-through behavior to provide an End User with a more personalized experience while visiting our Web pages and for more personalized e-mail alerts. HRC also uses IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the Web site, track End User movement and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.

Disclosure Requirements

The Human Rights Campaign PAC is often required to disclose some personal information to federal, state or local government authorities. For example, Federal law requires us to use our best efforts to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer of individuals whose contributions aggregate in excess of $200 in a calendar year. Similarly, when you donate to a candidate through HRC PAC, the law may require us to provide information regarding your donation to the candidates' campaign organizations for reporting purposes.

How you receive e-mails and e-mail newsletters from HRC:

You will only receive email newsletters from us if you have a) expressly signed up for a newsletter on a Human Rights Campaign or Human Rights Campaign website or b) you are a subscriber to our HRC online Action Center and/or have been invited to sign up to for the online Action Center at Prides, HRC Action Center and Stores, paid membership, and at many other hosted HRC events.

The information we gather from subscribers to our email newsletters (including email addresses) is not shared with other organizations or parties. From time to time we may send out emails on behalf of these like-minded organizations, but we do not provide them with access to any personal information that you have provided.

In order to provide you with better and more relevant information, we compile information about email response and website usage. This information helps us to better understand our members' site usage patterns and also what types of content and information may help improve your user experience on the HRC website.

All emails sent contain a link to unsubscribe or to modify your profile. You may subscribe or unsubscribe to any newsletter or e-mail communication from HRC at any time.

How we track HTML newsletters:

We make use of both "open-tracking" and "click-tracking" in our HTML newsletters (i.e. emails that contain text and images). Open-tracking allows us to find out how many people have viewed our email newsletters and click-tracking allows us to find out which links in the newsletter were clicked on. This helps us to refine and improve the editorial content of our newsletters, and to provide you with relevant information.

"HTML-sensing" is used to determine if your email client supports HTML-based emails. This is employed only if you request our system to detect whether you can receive HTML emails.

If you have any questions, please email: membership@hrc.org

How we protect your information:

HRC is extremely protective of the information gathered through its membership and website. Our web site has security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of the information under our control. Our web server is located in a locked, secure environment. All databases containing personal information are securely stored on a separate system that is not connected to the Internet.

When you contribute to HRC on-line, we use a secure server and encryption to protect your financial and other personal information during transmission.

HRC follows the Association of Fundraising Professional's (AFP) Ethical Guidelines to the Code of Ethical Principles and Standards of Professional Practice. Occasionally, HRC does exchange or rent mail lists to like-minded organizations through bonded third-party vendors. These organizations are never given information about our membership directly. We carefully screen each mailing before we allow it to be sent to our membership. Information pertaining to HRC board members, major donors, Federal Club members, Partners, and/or $250+ donors is never — under any circumstance — released to external entities for the purpose of list exchanges.

HRC does not specifically ask children under 18 for any information and we do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information about them.

How to unsubscribe from mailing lists:

All HRC communication, whether via email or US mail, provides information on how to unsubscribe quickly and easily. Those wishing to opt out of receiving communications from HRC ("do not contact"), or from being included in list exchanges with like-minded organizations ("do not exchange") can simply contact our members services at membership@hrc.org or via phone 202-628-4160, or via US mail at 1640 Rhode Island Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

How to correct information you have provided:

You may correct and/or change any information regarding your membership by contacting our member services at membership@hrc.org or by calling 202-628-4160 or 202/216-1585.

How to contact us about privacy:

If you have any questions about our privacy policy, the information we have collected from you online, the practices of this site or your interaction with this website, send email to: membership@hrc.org

You can also reach us via U.S. mail at:

Members Services
Human Rights Campaign
1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036-3278
Phone: 202/628-4160 TTY: 202/216-1572 Fax: 202/347-5323