Privacy Policy Statement: effective January 1, 2001
Introduction
The Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania (MHASP) is committed to providing a safe online environment and experience for users of its Web site, www.mhasp.org, and the Web sites of related projects of MHASP, including the Parents Involved Network of Pennsylvania, www.pinofpa.org, Mental Health and Aging Advocacy Project, www.mhaging.org, and the Child and Adolescent Coping Skills Project of the Training Education and Consultation Family Center, www.mhasp.org/coping. This policy and MHASP's Children's Privacy Policy apply to all these sites.
This policy has been developed in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA). To read more about this Act visit www.kidsprivacy.org. This Act is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Visit the FTC site on Kidz Privacy to learn more about their recommendations.
MHASP strives to protect the privacy of visitors to our sites while providing online services. Since your visit to this site enables us to ascertain certain information, and since we may ask you to provide further information about yourself in order to provide services to you, this statement will tell you what information we may collect, how we will use it, with whom it might be shared, how you may control the collection of information or edit information which has been collected, and what security measures we take to protect your information. Our Children's Privacy Policy will also tell you what special provisions are in place to protect users under the age of 13.
What information is collected:
We may collect information from users at different points in our sites. To begin with, we may collect some or all of the following information from visitors who view or download information from our Web sites, all of which is nonpersonally identifiable information: (1) The date and time of your visit; (2)Your IP (Internet Protocol) address, which is normally that of your Internet service provider; (3) HTTP Status (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) or Request URL which identifies the web page or file requested by a visitor; (4) Bytes Sent or Received - the amount of data sent or received between the visitor and the server; (5) User Agent - the type of web browser or other client software that made the request to the server; (6) Referrer - the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that referred to the requested file; or (7) Protocol Version - the version of HTTP used by the visitor's web browser software. We do not use cookies to track any nonpersonally identifiable or personally identifiable information about you while you are on one of our sites. If you choose to become a member of MHASP we will ask for personally identifiable information such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, credit or debit card information or birth date. If you choose to join an MHASP advocacy action alert electronic mailing list, we will ask for personally identifiable information such as your name and email address. If you choose to subscribe to the MHASP newsletter by postal mail we will ask for personally identifiable information such as your name and address.
Parents Involved Network Online Newsletter
If you choose to subscribe to the Parents Involved Network newsletter online, we will ask for your email address only. If you are currently receiving the newsletter by postal mail and choose to switch to an online subscription, we will ask for your name and address to remove you from the postal mailing list. You can provide us with this information online at www.pinofpa.org/sign_up.html or you can call Parents Involved Network at 215-751-1800 or 800-688-4226 and speak to one of our staff who will establish your subscription via telephone.
Why information may be collected:
Nonpersonally identifiable information is collected to help us understand how people are using our Web sites, and to make modifications, as necessary, to better serve our users. While such information may be aggregated to spot broader demographic trends, we make no attempt to link it to individuals or personally identifiable information.
Personally identifiable information may be collected for a variety of reasons. If you choose to become a member, we will ask for contact information, such as your full name, address, telephone number and email address. We will also ask for this information if you choose to make a donation online, or if you join an advocacy action alert list or other mailing lists. This enables us to contact you in the future with the information you have requested, or about renewals, or to acknowledge memberships or donations. If you choose to pay for a membership or make a donation by using a credit card online, we will ask for your credit card number and expiration date to complete that process.
From time to time, our sites may request personally identifiable information from users for purposes of surveys or contests. Participation in surveys or contests is completely voluntary, so you may choose whether or not to disclose the requested information. Such information may include contact information and demographic information (your age, for example). Contact information is necessary to notify contest winners. Survey information will be used for monitoring or improving this site or our other services.
Sharing of Information:
MHASP is the sole owner of information collected on its sites. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement.
We may share aggregated nonpersonally identifiable demographic information with third parties, such as national mental health organizations or organizations from whom we obtain funding. This information is not linked to any information which can identify an individual user. In addition, nonpersonally identifiable information and certain personally identifiable information such as email addresses are shared with the company which has developed our web sites, for the purposes we have described. That company is MasseyNet.com, Inc. and they may be contacted at nmassey@mhasp.org.
The Parents Involved Network online newsletter email notification list is powered by bCentral, so your email will be known to them, but not used by them for any purpose except to send the online newsletter to you. You may want to review bCentral's privacy policy www.bcentral.com/help/policy/privacy.asp if you subscribe online to the newsletter or intend to ask that your postal mail address be removed.
We may share any type of information as required by law.
Links - A Warning:
Our Web sites may contain links to sites other than our affiliated sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they have left one of our sites and to read the privacy policies of any new site they may enter. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by our Web sites.
Your Control: (Edit/Delete/Opt out)
If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your address), or if a user no longer desires our services, you may correct, update or delete that information by emailing us at wkrum@mhasp.org or by writing to us at Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1211 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 or by telephoning us at 215-751-1800 x 215 or by faxing us at 215-636-6300.
You may also be given the ability to "opt-out" of giving or receiving certain information. For example, if you become a member, you may "opt-out" of being on certain mailing lists by following the directions on the membership sign-up form.
Security:
Our Web sites have taken precautions to protect our users' information. If you submit sensitive information to us using our Web sites, that information is protected both online and offline. Sensitive information (such as credit card information) is encrypted and protected with encryption software called secure socket layers (SSL).
Once information has reached our offices, it is handled carefully by our staff and is only used for the purposes stated in this policy. However, your emails to us are not secure against interception. As a result, we discourage the transmission of any sensitive or confidential information through email. We also encourage users to take simple security precautions to protect information about yourselves which you disclose online by, for example, closing your browser window when you leave your computer, especially in workplaces or public internet forums.
Special Provisions related to Teens
Teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 may be required to provide the email address of a parent or legal guardian so that the parent or guardian may be notified that the teen has provided us with personal information. In notifying parents or guardians, we may identify the information which has been provided to us by the teen.
Changes to Our Policy
If we change our privacy policy at any time, we will post a prominent announcement on the home pages of our Web sites, so that you will know about the changes.
Change to Privacy Policy - Effective January 2002. In order to provide users of our sites with the ability to subscribe to the Parents Involved Network newsletter online, we created an electronic mailing list which is powered by bCentral. Accordingly, we have made changes to our privacy policy which disclose this. Please see the sections on What Information is Collected and Sharing of Information for specific changes.
Your Acceptance of These Terms/Questions and Comments:
By using our sites, you signify your assent to this policy. If you do not agree to any part of this policy, please do not use our sites. Since we hope that our policy will satisfy all of our users and enable everyone to use our site with confidence, we welcome the comments of anyone who disagrees with or has questions about our policy. You may contact us by email at wkrum@mhasp.org, or by telephoning us at 215-751-1800 x 215 or faxing us at 215-636-6300 or writing to us at Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1211 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.