Privacy Policy

Friends of Humane Society International (hereinafter “Friends of HSI”) is committed to your right to privacy and to keeping your personal information private. It is possible to visit the Friends of HSI web site without providing any personal and identifying information to us. However, because our web site includes areas in which visitors can provide personally identifying information, we have developed this privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) to inform you of our policies and practices regarding the information we collect about you.

This Privacy Policy governs the http://www.friendsofhsi.ca/ web site and certain electronic communications sent out by Friends of HSI. This web site is owned and operated by Friends of HSI for the benefit of its members and other visitors interested in the protection of all animals. Our headquarters is located at 4035 rue St. Ambroise, Suite 320, Montreal, QC. H4C 2E1. Friends of HSI reserves the right to modify or amend this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. Use of information we collect now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is used. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be preceded by a notice posted to this Privacy Policy at least ten (10) days prior to the effective date of such change. You are bound by any changes to the Privacy Policy when you use the web site after such changes have been first posted.

What Information We Collect and How We Collect It

Information You Voluntarily Provide

Friends of HSI collects and maintains certain personal information about you when you send us an e-mail or complete any of our online forms, such as when you request information from us, make a donation, subscribe to one of our online newsletters, request to become a member, or forward a web page, electronic postcard, electronic ballot, or electronic newsletter. Such information may include your name, contact information such as, but not limited to, mailing address and e-mail address; it may also include the e-mail addresses of those to whom you forward Friends of HSI electronic content, and any other information collected in the forms. You may be asked to provide credit card information to become a member of Friends of HSI, contribute to Friends of HSI, purchase certain information or materials from Friends of HSI, or subscribe to various Friends of HSI publications.

We only collect information that is relevant and consistent with the purposes of the collection.

Other Information

For online visitors, friendsofhsi.ca also collects certain other information that cannot identify you personally when you visit our web site. This information includes, but may not be limited to, your Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your domain name, the time and duration of your visit to the Friendsofhsi.ca web site and the web pages you visit within our site. Friendsofhsi.ca logs this above-mentioned information, and aggregates them for system administration and to monitor the use of our site.

Friends of HSI uses cookies in order to make your search results readily available to you. Cookies are not used for any other reason on this site. A cookie is a small text file which contains small amount of information gathered as you use a web site. That file is sent out by a web site, accepted by your browser, and placed in a file on your hard drive. You can always control cookies in your web browser and set your browser to warn you about cookies being placed, and then chose which cookies you want to accept. Friends of HSI does not match any information gathered by cookies with personal information you may have voluntarily submitted to Friends of HSI.

Friends of HSI uses remarketing with Google Adwords and Analytics to display content-specific advertisements to visitors who have previously visited our site when those visitors go to other websites that have the Google Display Network implemented. Friends of HSI also uses Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting.

Friends of HSI and other third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party and third-party cookies together to inform and serve ads based on a visitor’s past visits to our website.

You may opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting Google’s Ads Settings at any time. Alternatively, you can opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.

How We Use Your Information

We may use the information provided to manage our operations and to provide services. Some examples include:

  • contact you regarding animal-related issues we feel you may be interested in, to keep you updated regarding Friends of HSI’s programs, and to extend an invitation to you to support our programs;
  • contact the people whose e-mail addresses you provide when forwarding Friends of HSI electronic content regarding same topics. When we do so, our sole intent is to enlarge our family of informed animal advocates and organizational supporters;
  • to measure the number of visits to our site, the average time spent on our site, the number of pages viewed, and various other site statistics in order to track usage and to improve your experience. This monitoring helps us to provide a more useful and engaging online experience to friendsofhsi.ca visitors, and helps us to improve the quality of our content;
  • to register your account and authenticate you when you log into your account;
  • to notify you about updates to our website;
  • to administer surveys, contests, and promotions that you participate in;
  • to protect the security or integrity of our web site and our operations;
  • to analyze our business operations and web site performance.

From time to time, we may make such voluntary information, excluding credit card information (which will never be disclosed), available to Friends of HSI affiliate organizations or to sponsors or licensees that provide special programs or services we think you might find interesting or beneficial. Friends of HSI uses very strict standards in determining which reputable companies become sponsors and licensees, to ensure that such organizations are committed to the protection of visitors’ privacy and committed to the goals of Friends of HSI. If your volunteered personal information is used in any manner other than as stated above, such use shall be specifically posted and disclosed to you.

We may also disclose the collected information to authorized employees, agent, representatives and volunteers who need the information to complete their duties for Friends of HSI. We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties.

How Long Do We Keep Your Information

Friends of HSI keeps your information for as long as we need to for managing our web site and the services we provide you.

Other

From time to time, Friends of HSI may link to other web sites not affiliated with HSI. Friends of HSI attempts to link only to those web sites which also respect a visitor’s privacy and the goals of Friends of HSI. However, Friends of HSI cannot be responsible for the content or policies of third-party web sites. Please check with these third-party organizations or companies for their specific privacy policies. If you find inoperable links or are concerned about any of the sites that Friends of HSI currently links to, please inform Friends of HSI by contacting us at [email protected]. For more information regarding linking to Friends of HSI’s web sites, please read “Linking to friendsofhsi.ca” on our web site.

Storage Outside of Canada

Your personal information may be used or stored by us or our service providers outside of Canada and it will be subject to the laws of the country in which it is used or stored.

Security

Friends of HSI uses generally accepted, industry-standard security systems, software, and encryption technologies — Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) — for the secure transfer of personal and financial data and to protect against unauthorized access to Friends of HSI servers, equipment, and other components of our online presence. This includes using industry-standard security systems to protect credit card processing information. Our web servers are hosted off-site at multiple, physically secure facilities with limited access.

How Do You Access and Modify Your Personal Information or Make a Complaint?

You maintain control over the personal information you have provided to us. If you wish to correct, update or remove your information, or if you do not wish your information to be shared with affiliated third parties, please e-mail us at [email protected]. You may also unsubscribe at any time in every issue of our newsletters.

We may, however, retain your personal information and information about your previous transactions to provide you with future services, for audit purposes, to ensure the integrity of our data, and to fulfill legal requirements.

Every recipient of our electronic communications can quickly and easily “opt out” of future communications from Friends of HIS by following the instructions on any electronic communication we send.

Contacting Friends of HSI With Privacy Questions

If you would like to contact Friends of HSI about correcting information we might have collected, or if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please e-mail us at [email protected] or write to us at 4035 rue St. Ambroise, Suite 320, Montreal, QC. H4C 2E1.