Privacy Policy

The National Park Foundation, publisher of nationalparks.org and its related content and services, believes that electronic privacy is crucial for the ongoing success of the Internet as a communications medium. On occasion, The National Park Foundation will make available to potential partners aggregated results from research it has conducted on the nationalparks.org visitor base. The National Park Foundation will only provide such demographic information on an aggregated basis and as a policy does not disclose individual visitor information.

The Information We Collect:

We are committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to this Site. Physical, electronic and managerial procedures have been employed to safeguard the security and integrity of personal information. Except for the use of cookies as discussed below, we collect personal information from you on this Site only when it is specifically and knowingly provided by you. The National Park Foundation does not currently collect or archive any/all personal information sent to us on an individual basis. All information is collected and analyzed solely on an aggregated basis.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, whenever The National Park Foundation sponsors any contest or sweepstakes or other promotion (each a “Promotion”), any personally identifiable information (“PI”) you may submit as a participant in such Promotions will be used and archived only in accordance with, and for the purposes of, such Promotions and shared only with third parties who administer the Promotion.  The National Park Foundation will not sell PI or otherwise transfer PI to third parties except as stated in this Policy.  If, in the future, The National Park Foundation collects or archives PI on an individual basis in circumstances other than for Promotions, such a Policy change will be posted on the Site.  If at any time you wish to correct/add/remove the PI submitted to this Site, please contact us at ask-npf@nationalparks.org.

The National Park Foundation will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on The National Park Foundation or the Site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of The National Park Foundation or the Site; and (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the Site or the public.

Child Privacy:

The National Park Foundation does not knowingly solicit or collect personally identifiable information online from children under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent except where otherwise permitted under The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and FTC Rule; e.g., for contests, online newsletters, homework help and electronic postcards.

If The National Park Foundation learns that a child under the age of 13 has submitted personally identifiable information online, in contravention of these measures, it will take all reasonable measures to delete such information from its databases and to not use such information for any purpose (except where necessary to protect the safety of the child or others or as required by law).

Use of Cookies:

The nationalparks.org Web site uses cookies to improve its visitors' experience and to help you personalize your online experience. The use of cookies is common throughout the Internet. Cookies are small data files that are placed on your hard drive disk by a Web page server to maintain session information or identify a user. The use of cookies allows us to make improvements and updates to this Site based on actual usage. They are used to maintain general session information and are not used for identification purposes. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. Our site does not access any existing cookies from our visitors' systems that may be shared by advertising servers, etc.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to save you time because it tells the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. Although most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, you have the ability to accept or decline cookies. If you prefer, you can set your browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent to your hard drive. The user's manual or online help that comes with your browser software should provide you with information on how to configure your browser software to detect cookies. Please be aware, however, that cookies are necessary to use some of the features offered on nationalparks.org. Therefore, if you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the features of the Site. If you have any questions regarding this statement, please contact us via email at ask-npf@nationalparks.org.

Traffic Data:

Each time a visitor comes to nationalparks.org, information is collected to improve the overall quality of this Site. The National Park Foundation collects the visitor's domain name/IP Address (e.g., whether the user is logged on from netscape.com or yale.edu or 255.255.255.0), referral data (e.g., we record the address of the last URL a user visited prior to clicking through to nationalparks.org), and browser and platform type (e.g., a Netscape browser on a Macintosh platform). The National Park Foundation also counts, tracks, and aggregates the visitor's activity into our analysis of general traffic flow at nationalparks.org (e.g., tracking where traffic comes from and how traffic flows within this Site).

The National Park Foundation may merge this information into group data, which may then be shared on an aggregated basis with potential partners. This non-identifying site usage data is used for internal purposes and may also be provided to others, but again, the statistics contain no personal information and cannot be used to gather such information. Except as stated in this policy, The National Park Foundation will not disclose your individual identity or personal data. When The National Park Foundation does present aggregated information to potential partners, no one will be able to identify you or contact you.

User Registration:

Registration on this Site is strictly voluntary. The National Park Foundation secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use of disclosure. All personal information required for registration, subscriptions or purchases on this Site is maintained strictly confidential on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure, and National Park Foundation does not share your personal information with any third parties.

Credit Card Security:

All consumer transactions and purchases on this Site are transmitted in a secured environment using VeriSign 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. This ensures that all transactions and purchases you send to us via the World Wide Web will be encrypted. If any other Internet user intercepts the communication, he/she will only be able to see it in an encrypted (garbled) form.

Changes to this Statement:

The National Park Foundation will occasionally update this Statement of Policy to reflect company and customer feedback. When The National Park Foundation posts changes to this Statement, you will see the work “updated” next to the Privacy Statement link on the front page of the Site. If there are material changes to this Statement or in how The National Park Foundation will use your personally identifiable information, The National Park Foundation will prominently post such changes prior to implementing the change. The National Park Foundation encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how The National Park Foundation is protecting your information.

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