Blue Ridge Humane Society strongly believes in protecting the integrity and privacy of personal information gathered from our supporters and others through all our communication channels, as well as from visitors to our Website. The protection of your privacy is of great importance to us.
Your privacy is important to Blue Ridge Humane Society (BRHS). We have developed this website privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to explain how we collect, use, disclose, transfer, and store your information. BRHS is committed to protecting your privacy. By using the BRHS website, you consent to the data practices described in this Privacy Policy.
Please read this Privacy Policy in its entirety to understand how BRHS will handle the privacy of personal information that you provide through the website or through the use of the online BRHS website portals. Unless otherwise specified, this Privacy Policy does not describe how BRHS may handle your personal information in offline situations, which may be affected by additional privacy policies of BRHS not inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.
Please remember that this Privacy Policy applies only to information collected by our own website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of websites that are operated or owned by third parties, for example, links to other third-party website, including those of our corporate supporters and partners, which may be accessed from our website. Please be advised that the privacy policies of those third-party sites may not be consistent with this Privacy Policy.
BRHS may use and disclose the information that you provide through the website or through the web portals only for purposes permitted or required by law, for purposes described in this Privacy Policy, or for purposes which you might authorize. If you do not wish BRHS to use or disclose information that you provide through the website as described in this Privacy Policy, you should disconnect from the website.
BRHS may change this Privacy Policy at any time and from time to time for any reason, including to address new functionality or changes to this website or to the BRHS website portals, or to address new issues that require changes to this Privacy Policy. Please refer back to the Privacy Policy regularly, because your use of the website and/or the BRHS website portals signifies that you agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy, as it might be amended from time to time.
BRHS also has developed Terms of Use describing your responsibilities when using the website and/or the BRHS website portals. Please read the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use carefully. BRHS may revise and update the Terms of Use at any time. Therefore, please periodically review both the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use posted at the website.
We will alert you to changes in this website Privacy Policy by sending you an email at the last email address that you provided us, and/or by prominently posting notice of such amendment on the website covered by this Privacy Policy. Please note that, at all times, you are responsible for updating your personal information to provide us with your current email address. In the event that the last email address that you have provided to us is not valid, or for any other reason is not capable of delivering to you the notice described above, our sending of the email containing the notice of amendment will nonetheless constitute effective notice.
What information does BRHS collect?
In several areas of the website, BRHS collects personally identifiable information, such as your name, home address, email address, and telephone number.
BRHS also collects anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites.
We may collect information about your interaction with the website. For example, we may use website analytic tools on the website to retrieve information from your browser, such as the site you came from, the search engine(s) and the keywords you used to find the website, and the pages you view within the website. We will also use technologies, such as cookies and website beacons (both described below), to collect information about the pages you view, the links you click on and other actions you take on the website. Additionally, we collect certain standard information that your browser sends to every website you visit, such as your IP address, browser type and language, access times and referring website addresses.
Does BRHS collect information about children?
The website are directed at a general audience and BRHS does not knowingly collect or store personally identifiable information about children under the age of 13.
Any of our sites that are directed at children under the age of 13 comply with the standards of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which are in addition to this Privacy Policy.
Is my personal information secure?
We provide website visitors with a secure experience when making a donation or purchasing merchandise through our website. When personal information is transmitted by BRHS to other website, it is protected through the use of industry-standard security technology, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. To further enhance security, stored donation and order information is also encrypted to prevent unauthorized access to the data.
Although we use industry-standard safeguards to secure the privacy of your personal information, transmissions made via the Internet cannot be made absolutely secure. Users should use special caution when using publicly accessible computer terminals or transmitting personal information over unsecured wireless networks.
In addition, on certain website pages we offer visitors the opportunity to provide comments or other user-generated content on blogs and articles. Any information that you disclose when posting a message to these areas, along with the screen name or ID used, becomes public. We are not responsible for any personally identifiable information that you choose to disclose in the public areas of our website.
How does BRHS use my personal information?
Except as expressly set forth in this Privacy Policy we will not willfully disclose your personally identifiable information to any third party without first receiving your permission.
BRHS collects and uses your personal information to operate the BRHS website and deliver the services you have requested. We may use personal information collected on our website to circulate news about BRHS and its programs, to promote events, to acquire new members and subscribers, and for other internal marketing, promotional and BRHS fundraising purposes.
A visitor who receives email from us may opt out of email at any time by following the opt-out instructions contained in the email, or by sending an email to donate@blueridgehumane.org.
BRHS does not sell, rent, or exchange its donor list for direct mailing purposes, except as strictly necessary to satisfy ongoing contractual obligations resulting from contracts entered into prior to adoption of its policy prohibiting the sale, rental, or exchange of its donor list. Not all donors are impacted by these contractual commitments. If you have questions about this policy and whether your personal information may be shared as a result of these prior contractual commitments, please contact donate@blueridgehumane.org to inquire.
Except to the extent that your personal information independently falls under the paragraph immediately above, BRHS does not sell, rent or exchange personal information collected on our website with non-affiliated third parties.
BRHS may, from time to time, share personally identifiable information, including email and home addresses, with carefully selected corporate partners. These corporate partners are required to (i) protect the privacy of your Personally Identifiable Information, and (ii) not use or disclose your Personally Identifiable Information for any purpose other than providing the programs, products or services for which we contracted. If you do not wish to receive communications from those partners, you may opt out by sending an email to donat@blueridgehumane.org.
We may employ independent contractors, vendors and suppliers (collectively, “Outside Contractors”) to provide specific services and products related to our website, such as to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, send email or other messages on your behalf (such as issue advocacy emails to legislators), or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide the contracted services to BRHS and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information. These Outside Contractors may sometimes have limited access to information collected on our website, including your Personally Identifiable Information, in the course of providing products or services to us.
Access to your Personally Identifiable Information by these contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary in order for the Outside Contractors to perform their limited function for us. We also require that these Outside Contractors (i) protect the privacy of your Personally Identifiable Information consistent with this Privacy Policy, and (ii) not use or disclose your Personally Identifiable Information for any purpose other than providing us with products or services for which we contracted.
We may share aggregated demographic information with our funders, such as grant-making organizations and foundations, for the purpose of demonstrating that we are meeting our organization goals.
BRHS may release personal information if we believe that the law or legal process served on BRHS requires it, to protect and defend the rights or property of BRHS, or in an emergency, to protect the personal safety of an identifiable visitor or the public.
What about becoming a registered user or subscriber?
In order to access certain areas on our website, you must first complete certain steps to become either a registered user or a subscriber. During these steps, you may be required to provide us with information (including Personally Identifiable Information) such as your name, ZIP code and email address. This information is used to help us understand who uses our website, to operate and improve our website, and to deliver the services or carry out the transactions you have requested.
How does BRHS use cookies?
The BRHS website uses “cookies” to ensure the integrity of the registration process and to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard drive by a website page server. 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 website server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.
No personal information is ever stored in a BRHS cookie even if you have entered your name or email address on other parts of the website.
One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The cookie tells the website server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize BRHS pages, or register with a BRHS website or services, a cookie helps BRHS recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same BRHS website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the BRHS features that you customized.
To protect our visitors, cookies do not save payment or credit card information. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most website browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the BRHS services or website you visit.
How can I comment on the BRHS Privacy Policy?
BRHS welcomes your comments regarding this website Privacy Policy. If you believe that BRHS has not adhered to this policy, please contact BRHS at donate@blueridgehumane.org. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the proble
Should you have any questions about this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, the practices of this Website, or your dealings with this Website, contact Blue Ridge Humane Society at:
Postal Mail:
Blue Ridge Humane Society
1214 Greenville Highway
Hendersonville, NC
Telephone: (828) 692-2639
Updated: November 3, 2020
