Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia

Effective: 3/27/24

Scope of this Policy

Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia (“FOFL,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) values your private information and understands the need for security and trust surrounding such information. We are committed to protecting your Personal Information, which refers to any information that is used or could be used to identify you (such as your name, email address, telephone number, street address, or job title).

This privacy policy (this “Policy”) is intended to describe what we are doing with your Personal Information, how we protect it, and what privacy rights you may have under applicable data protection laws, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

1. Collection of Personal Information from Users 

When you interact with us through our website (the “Site”), we may collect information from you as described below.   

a. Information You Provide 

Some elements of the Site may ask you to submit Personal Information in order for you to benefit from the specified features or participate in a certain activity, such as email updates or donation processing.  For example, if you make a donation using the Site, we may collect your credit or debit card or other financial account information.  When you perform a search within the Site, FOFL may record information identifying you or linking you to the search performed and recording information related to the search request.  We may combine information you submit through the Site with other information we have collected from you, whether online or off-line.  We will treat the combined information in accordance with this Policy. 

b. Passive Information Collection, Use, and Choices 

As you navigate the Site, certain Personal Information may be passively collected, meaning it is gathered automatically without your actively providing it.  This is done using the following techniques in the following ways: 

IP Addresses:  An IP address is a unique identifier that certain electronic devices use to identify and communicate with each other on the Internet.  When you visit our Site, we may view the IP address of the device you use to connect to the Internet.  We use this information to determine the general physical location of the device and understand from what geographic regions our website visitors come.  We also may use this information to enhance our Site. 

Through your browser:  Certain information is collected by most browsers, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type, operating system type, version screen resolution, and Internet browser type and version. 

Social Media Widgets:  Our Site may include social media tools, including social media widgets or plug-ins, to connect you to your social media accounts.  These features may set a cookie or use other automatic collection and tracking technologies to collect information about you and your use of the social media features through and in connection with our Site.  These social media tools may be hosted by a third party.  Your interactions with these tools and the corresponding social media platforms are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide such platforms. 

Cookies:  We may use cookies set by us on the Site to tell us, for example, whether you have visited us before or if you are a new visitor.  We use third-party cookies to collect information about how visitors use the Site, including how long you spend on each page, and how you got to the Site.  We do not use data collected by cookies to identify who you are.  We do not allow any third-party service providers to use or share our analytics data.  

You can refuse cookies by turning off the use of cookies in your web browser.  If you use your browser settings to block all types of cookies you may not be able to access all or parts of our Site or functionality may be limited.  

2. How We Use the Information We Collect 

We use Personal Information submitted by you or otherwise collected through the Site and through other sources for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and as otherwise described to you at the point of collection.  Generally, we use the information you provide to us for the reason for which it was provided. For example, if you sign up to receive email notifications, we will contact you by email.  If you provide us with information to make a donation, we will use the information to process your donation.  Specifically, we may use Personal Information from or about you: 

i. to respond to your inquiries and to send you information that you request and to process your donations; 

ii. to send you important information regarding our relationship with you or regarding the Site, changes to our terms, conditions, and policies, and other administrative information; 

iii. to notify you about donations we have received and upcoming events; 

iv. to promote our mission and initiatives, and the missions and initiatives of the Free Library of Philadelphia;  

v. for our business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, recordkeeping, developing new products or services, enhancing the Site, improving our services, identifying Site usage trends, optimizing your experience on the Site, and determining the effectiveness of our fundraising methods; 

vi. if you choose to complete a survey, we may use the information for purposes of evaluating your feedback from the survey; and 

vii. if we intend to collect and use Personal Information for another purpose, we may seek your permission at the time the information is collected. 

3. Our Disclosure of Your Information 

FOFL is a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation that operates for charitable purposes, specifically, to support the Free Library of Philadelphia (the “Charitable Purposes”).  FOFL does not sell your Personal Information.  We may share your Personal Information with third parties only as described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise described at the point where we collect the information from you, including: 

i.  with our affiliates for the Charitable Purposes;

ii. to the companies or individuals that we hire to provide services to us, such as website hosting services, relationship management services, and payment processing; and 

iii. to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, or assets (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings). 

4. Uses and Disclosures to Comply with Laws 

In addition, we may use and disclose Personal Information collected through the Site as we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (i) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence; (ii) to comply with legal process; (iii) to respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (iv) to enforce our terms and conditions; (v) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (vi) to protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you, or others; and (vii) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain. 

5. Links to Third Party Sites 

The Site may contain links to other websites for the convenience of users in locating information, products, or services that may be of interest.  If you access a third-party website from a link on this Site, any information you disclose on that website is not subject to this Privacy Policy.  It is possible that these links may be used by third parties or others to collect personal or other information about you. FOFL is not responsible for the privacy practices of such websites, advertisers, or third parties or the content of such websites and it is your sole obligation to review and understand the privacy practices and policies of these other websites. FOFL does not control these third parties’ use of cookies, collection of information, or how they manage such information.  It is solely your obligation to review and understand the privacy practices and policies of these other websites, advertisers, and any third parties. 

6. Security 

FOFL will take reasonable steps to protect the information collected and provided via the Site from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. We use a variety of security measures to protect your data, including physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards. We incorporate industry standard security controls (like firewalls) and protocols (like SSL/TLS) to create a site that is resistant to standard internet-based threats. We protect the security of credit card transactions by using only large-scale third-party PCI Compliant credit card processors for the storage and encryption of all credit card data, in addition to encryption of websites directly maintained by FOFL.

No website or electronic data can ever be completely secure, but we are always working to maintain up-to-date and appropriate security mechanisms. You agree that FOFL shall not be liable to you for any modification, suspension, or discontinuance of the Site.  

7. Data Retention 

We generally retain Personal Information for so long as it may be relevant for the purposes identified in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer period of time is required by law. 

8. Lawful Basis for Processing Your Personal Information 

The laws in some countries require us to tell you about the lawful grounds we rely on to collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process your Personal Information.  To the extent those laws apply, our lawful bases for processing your Personal Information is in support of our legitimate interests, where those interests are not overridden by your fundamental rights and freedoms.   This includes: 

i. Providing a safe user experience on our Site; 
ii. Customer service; 
iii. Sending communications to you to let you know about what we are doing with your donations and to solicit additional donations; 
iv. Protecting users, our workers, and our property; 
v. Analyzing and improving our operations (e.g., optimizing the design and operation of our Site); and 
vi. Legal compliance and managing legal issues. 

This Privacy Policy is issued on behalf of FOFL as controller of your Personal Information under applicable data protection laws.  A “controller” is the person or organization who alone or jointly determines the purposes for which, and the manner in which, any Personal Information is, or is likely to be, processed. 

9. Your Data Rights and Choices

You can opt-out of the use of certain cookie-related processing by following the instructions in Section 1(b) above (Passive Information Collection, Use, and Choices).  

If you are within the European Union, you have the following rights: 

i. You have the right to request from FOFL access to your Personal Information, and the rectification of inaccurate Personal Information concerning you.   

ii. You have the right to request that FOFL not subject your Personal Information to automated processing. 

iii. You have the right to obtain from FOFL the erasure or the restriction of processing of your Personal Information in certain circumstances, including when the data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed, except when FOFL is required by law to maintain or otherwise process your Personal Information, for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims, or for the protection of the rights of another person.   

You may exercise these rights by contacting FOFL at freelibraryfriends@gmail.com. 

If you are within the European Union, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the EU Member State of your habitual residence, place of work, or place of an alleged infringement of the applicable data protection law. 

If you would like to submit a data access, correction, restriction, or deletion request, you can do so by contacting us at freelibraryfriends@gmail.com and we will process such request with respect to any Personal Information that we are able to link to you individually based on the information that you can provide to us. These rights and options that you have with respect to Personal Information are subject to limitations and exceptions under applicable law. 

10. Right to Change Privacy Policy.  

FOFL reserves the right at any time to modify, alter, or update this Privacy Policy.  Your use of the Site following any changes means that you agree to follow and be bound by the Privacy Policy as changed, subject to limitations under applicable law.  Any change to this Privacy Policy shall be effective as to any user who has visited the Site before the change was made.  Please review this policy periodically, and especially before you provide any Personal Information to us.  The Privacy Policy was last updated on the date indicated above. 

11. Contacting Us. 

For questions about this website, your privacy, or our handling of your Personal Information, please contact us at freelibraryfriends@gmail.com.

To contact us by mail: 

311 N. 20th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103