-
Home > Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
The National Peace Corps Association’s
Websites and Online Communities Privacy Policy
Effective November 15, 2010
INTRODUCTION
The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is committed to maintaining the privacy and trust of its registered Members and all other visitors to its online services. Accordingly, this Privacy Policy explains how NPCA collects, protects, uses and shares information about you or any other visitor who chooses to visit any of the NPCA website platforms. Those platforms, at present, include the following:
NPCA’s main website (http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org),
Ning social networking site (“Ning site”) (community.peacecorpsconnect.org),
Africa Rural Connect (“ARC”) (http://www.AfricaRuralConnect.org),
Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Calendar (“50th Calendar”) (http://www.PeaceCorps50.org),
RPCV Mentoring program (http://www.rpcvmentoring.org/), and
Membership Database (“Database”) (https://secure.peacecorpsconnect.org/npcassa/ssaauthmain.login_page).
NPCA trusts that this policy information will increase visitor confidence in NPCA’s web-based platforms and enhance the experience on NPCA’s website services. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the National Peace Corps Association Terms of Service. Each time that you as a visitor use a website or database, you acknowledge that you agree to be bound by NPCA’s Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to those terms or this Privacy Policy as may be in effect from time to time, you must stop using NPCA’s websites. This includes deleting your online profiles, and exiting the Ning site, ARC, the Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Calendar, and/or the Mentoring program site immediately. This Privacy Policy is subject to all applicable privacy laws, both US and foreign, having sufficient jurisdictional basis. If any provision of this Privacy Policy is determined to be illegal or unenforceable, then such provision will be enforced in such jurisdiction if and only to the maximum extent possible and the other provisions will remain fully effective and enforceable in that and any other jurisdiction.
You are an NPCA Member only when you sign up to become an NPCA Member on the National Peace Corps Association website or submit your information to NPCA in an NPCA Membership form. For Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, your first year as an NPCA Member is free and subsequent years are $35 per year. NPCA also welcomes non RPCVs at a rate of $35 per year. If you do not renew your Membership annually, you are no longer an NPCA Member and do not receive your NPCA Membership Benefits.
It is free to create a Member Profile on NPCA’s online community sites: Ning, ARC. When you create a profile on the Ning site or ARC, you become an Associate of NPCA. You remain an Associate of NPCA until you choose to delete your profile or there is cause for it to be deleted by NPCA staff.
It is free to post an event on the 50th Anniversary Calendar. All events on the 50th Calendar are subject to NPCA approval before they are posted. You do not have to be an NPCA Member or Associate to post an event on the 50th Calendar. The 50th Anniversary Calendar is sponsored by the Peace Corps and the Peace Corps will receive copies of the contact information that you submit when you add an event to this Calendar.
You must be an NPCA Member to create a profile on the Mentoring Program website.
I. ABOUT NPCA’S WEBSITES AND ONLINE COMMUNITIES
The National Peace Corps Association website, Ning community, Africa Rural Connect, and the 50th Calendar are web portals for the current and returned Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV and RPCV) community, the African Diaspora, and others interested in the sites’ goals. Ning and the ARC communities include families of PCVs and RPCVs, prospective volunteers and those interested in the international development activities of Peace Corps Volunteers, the African Diaspora, development professionals, academics, and others. When a visitor creates a profile on the Ning or ARC websites, that person becomes an Associate of the National Peace Corps Association.
Ning and ARC community Associates (“Associates”) are able to set up unique personal profiles and, through those profiles, create an online network of other PCVs and RPCVs or those interested in the Peace Corps and development, capacity building, or engagement in any country. Associates can view each others’ profiles, communicate with old contacts and make new ones on the Ning and ARC platforms, share photos, videos, and documents, post blogs or other journal commentary, post project-oriented information and stories and describe their interests, post ideas, post events, remixed ideas and business plans. To enrich the Associates’ experience, NPCA requests and displays some personal information to other Ning and ARC community Associates and visitors, respectively, which allows the users to identify each other and expand their networks of friends and contacts. Ning and ARC Associates and NPCA Members can change their profile information at any time and Ning Associates can control how other Ning Associates and the NPCA communicates with them.
The 50th Calendar is an event calendar on which information will be posted for all activities pertaining to the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps. The calendar events will focus on the Anniversary year from November 2010 through October 2011.
II. INFORMATION NPCA COLLECTS WHEN YOU SIGN UP AS A MEMBER OR AN ASSOCIATE
User Provided Information for the Online Communities. The National Peace Corps Association collects personal information from you when you register on its websites, update your profile, interact with other Associates or Members, post an event on the 50th Calendar and use various features of the sites. To register with either the Ning site, Africa Rural Connect, RPCV Mentoring or the 50th Calendar, you must provide your name, country and years of service (if applicable), and email address, and select a username on each different platform when these fields are present. The profiles created on each platform do not interact with each other and exist independently of one another.
When you submit profile information on the Ning and/or ARC sites, NPCA will send you a confirmation email that you must respond to in order to complete the registration process. Once you are registered on either site, you will be given the option to add additional personal information about you to your profile. By using the privacy settings on your profile on the Ning site, you can control which Associates have access to certain of your personal profile data. Keep in mind, however, that certain basic profile data cannot be hidden and will always be displayed on the websites once you register (see, “When You Register” below.) All profile information entered on the ARC site is visible to other ARC Associates.
NPCA also may collect information regarding your interaction with other Associates and Members and your use of the website platforms. From time to time NPCA may ask you to respond to surveys or other requests for information and the organization collects the information you provide. NPCA may also collect information about you through other methods, including research surveys or information NPCA obtains from third parties, including verification services, data services, as well as public sources. NPCA uses this information to continually offer you the richest experience as National Peace Corps Association community Associates and Members.
All personally identifiable information (i.e., information that can be used to identify or contact you) that NPCA collects may become part of your National Peace Corps Association online Associate file and may be used by the National Peace Corps Association as provided in this Privacy Policy or as disclosed at the time you provide the information or as otherwise agreed by you.
User Provided Information for National Peace Corps Association Members. The National Peace Corps Association collects personal information from you when you sign up to become an NPCA Member. When you sign up to become a National Peace Corps Association Member by going to (http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/Membership/) and filling out your information or signing up using an NPCA Membership sign-up form, you can create an NPCA Member profile and your contact information goes into the database. This is completely different from and not attached to a Ning profile, ARC profile, or Mentoring Program profile, or any other visible online community profile. Once you are a Member, you are considered a Member and not an Associate, and are subject to the rights and responsibilities of Members as outlined in the NPCA bylaws until your Membership term expires. NPCA encourages you to renew your Membership upon or before its termination date to ensure that you continue to receive NPCA Membership benefits and access to the Membership communities.
Web Logs. Like most standard website administrators, NPCA processes information from all visitors to its websites. This information may include the browser you are using, the internet address from which you linked to our websites, the operating system of your computer, time/date stamp info, the unique IP address of the computer you used to access our websites, and usage and browsing habits. NPCA uses this information to help diagnose and troubleshoot server malfunctions, to analyze trends, track user movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information. NPCA also may use individual information it collects through web logs to send you invitations to events or campaigns and other communications.
Cookies. To help make sure you receive information that is relevant to you, NPCA’s websites use data “cookies.” These cookies are small data files stored on your computer which identify you as a previous visitor to the websites and help NPCA to personalize your experience when you arrive. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies. You can instruct your browser not to accept cookies. However, if you disable this function, you will not be able to use some of the features on NPCA’s websites.
Website Analytics. NPCA’s Web pages and e-mail newsletters contain “website analytics.” Website analytics are used as a tool to capture cookies, some of which may identify a user and therefore include personally identifiable information. This allows NPCA to learn what pages are most attractive to visitors, which parts of the websites are the most interesting and what kind of offers Members and Associates like to see. Some of the website analytics that are in place on NPCA’s websites are used only by NPCA and its consultants. In addition, NPCA has agreements with various affiliate networks that promote NPCA on their affiliate websites. These affiliate advertisers may use website analytics in their advertisements to track users who click through from the affiliate website to NPCA’s online communities. Personal contact information, such as names and email addresses, is not shared with outside affiliate organizations unless expressly written.
Children. NPCA is committed to protecting the privacy of children. Its websites are not designed or intended to attract children under the age of 18. NPCA does not collect personal information from any person we actually know is under the age of 18.
III. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
When you Register on the Online Communities (Ning and ARC). When you register on the Ning site or Africa Rural Connect, you create your own profile and, on the Ning site, your own visible privacy settings. Your profile information, as well as your username and photo are displayed to people in the networks to allow you to connect with other Ning or ARC Members, respectively. Note that the Ning platform has its own privacy policy that can be found here.
Telephone Numbers. If you supply NPCA your telephone number, you may receive telephone contact from NPCA with information regarding any orders you have placed, program updates, solicitations, or information on upcoming opportunities or events. You have the right to opt-out of receiving telephone contact from NPCA. To be placed on NPCA’s Do Not Call List, please send an email to membership@peacecorpsconnect.org NPCA does not sell, rent, or otherwise release your telephone number to any third party, nor does NPCA use it for any purpose other than what is stated above.
Postal Addresses. If you supply it to NPCA, NPCA collects postal mailing address information from you so that the organization may fulfill the orders and solicitation requests you submit and inform you of NPCA programs, products, services, and events in which you may be interested. You have the right to opt-out of receiving postal mailings from NPCA. If you do not wish to receive postal mailings from NPCA in the future, please send an email to Membership@peacecorpsconnect.org. NPCA selectively makes a postal mailing address list available to other carefully screened organizations whose product or service offerings may be of interest to you. You have the right to opt-out of the sharing of your postal address with these third parties. If you do not wish for us to provide your mailing information to other mailers, please go to your NPCA Member profile, login, and select to what parties or organizations we may share your information. These include options both within and outside of the Peace Corps government agency, and/or just official NPCA Member Groups communities. If you have questions about this or want to change your information sharing options, please send an email to membership@peacecorpsconnect.org
Credit Card Information. NPCA collects your credit card information when you become an NPCA Member or when you make a donation by that method. This information is used by NPCA only to obtain payment for the NPCA donation or Membership dues that you purchase. NPCA does not store your credit card information and therefore does not share this information with any third parties.
Your Real Name. Your real name is displayed on the Ning online community site and will be included in emails that you “send to a friend.” On the Ning site, you can choose to allow Ning Associates to search for you by using your real name, country/years of service, or most other information you have entered in your profile. ARC Associates can search the site by username and ideas.
Personal Profiles. Please be aware that certain personal profile information is displayed for all Ning and ARC Associates and cannot be hidden from other Associates who have created a profile on the site, respectively. Specifically, your username, photo, current location and country of service (if applicable) entered on your profile are always displayed on these sites and, therefore, are viewable by all users. In addition, because this information is publicly displayed on websites, it may appear in the results of searches conducted on Internet search engines. By using the search functionality on the websites, people who create profiles on the Ning and ARC sites can find other Ning and ARC Associates, respectively, with similar interests, ideas, and challenges. When you find other Ning or ARC Associates, you can view their personal profile information to find out more about them based on what they have decided to share on the sites.
Stories, Photos, Videos, Documents. As Ning and ARC Associates, you can share personal content, such as stories, photos, ideas, videos, and documents. Please be aware that by using any of these features, you may make your personally identifiable information accessible to the respective community’s Associates, and NPCA has no control over how those users may use your personally identifiable information. You therefore have no right to privacy in your activity on the ARC or Ning websites or in the content that you post or send on or through the sites. NPCA has the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any activity and content Associated with the public and private forums and interactive areas on its websites. If NPCA believes any activity on the Ning or ARC websites may constitute a crime or any content may be evidence of a crime, NPCA may provide information about such activity or content to law enforcement. If NPCA believes any activity on the Ning or ARC websites violates the Terms of Service or is otherwise inappropriate, NPCA reserves the right to terminate your access to the site. Please review both NPCA’s and Ning’s Terms of Service for more information regarding your appropriate use of these areas. The Ning platform has its own policies regarding posted information that can be found here.
Your Email Address. NPCA collects email address information from you when you become a Member or Associate of NPCA, or provide your email address when communicating with one of NPCA’s staff. NPCA collects email address information from you to confirm your NPCA Membership; communicate with you regarding your ARC or Ning registration; and alert you of other NPCA programs, products, solicitations, services and opportunities that may be of interest to you. Many of our programs are only advertised through email. Any recipient of such email notices may opt out of receiving them at any time. To opt out of receiving emails, please update your NPCA Membership profile, your ARC or Ning community profile, or send an email to pcc@peacecorpsconnect.org.
NPCA Newsletters and Emails. NPCA may send you announcements and emails from time to time through any of its web platforms. For instance, if a Ning Member sends you a message or someone comments on your Ning photos or journal, you may receive an email alerting you to that fact. After you submit your email address to NPCA when creating either a Member or Associate profile, NPCA may use your information to send you e-newsletters, updates and communications about the National Peace Corps Association. NPCA may ask you which newsletters you wish to receive. At any time, you may change your newsletter preferences by (i) simply updating your NPCA Membership account, or (ii) by opting-opt out of receiving future emails as described at the bottom of each communication from NPCA.
Spam. NPCA does its best to prevent and delete spam on its websites. From time to time, spam profiles are created and may send out a message or post a comment to your profile or wall on the ARC or Ning community. Sometimes, these spam profiles send messages to other Members or post on their walls. Once NPCA knows about these occurrences, NPCA staff Members delete the profiles and all Associated content. NPCA never releases Member information, including email addresses, to other online community Members on any NPCA website platform. NPCA monitors each site for spam and deletes it whenever possible. You can control your Ning profile settings to prevent spam from being posted there under the “Settings” menu on your personal profile page. Select that you want to moderate all comments before they are posted so that none will be on your page without your approval. If you see spam before it has been deleted, you may contact NPCA using the contact form here.
Third Party Offers. On occasion, we are able to offer NPCA Members and/or Associates special services from or mailings on behalf of an organization with similar aims. This may be to promote a specific event or activity that we deem of interest to these groups. National Peace Corps Association staff performs these mailings; the Members’ contact information is not provided to such organizations. If you do accept the offer or attend an event, however, you will become a client of the organization that is fulfilling the offer and we will not have control over their use of the personally identifiable information that you provide to them when you accept the offer. If you would prefer that your address not be released under these circumstances, please indicate this desire on your NPCA profile or in an email to: membership@peacecorpsconnect.org.
Other Third Party Recipients. NPCA may provide to third parties non-personal information about you that does not allow you to be identified or contacted and that is combined with the non-personal information of other users. For example, NPCA may inform third parties regarding the number of users of the main website, Ning community, or ARC community and the activities they conduct while on the websites. NPCA may or may not charge third parties for this information. NPCA may not impose on such third parties any limitation regarding the use of such information, except that NPCA does require third parties to whom NPCA discloses such non-personal information to agree that they will not attempt to make this information personally identifiable by combining it with other databases or otherwise.
Legal Matters: NPCA may, without your consent, access and disclose your information, any communications sent or received by you, and any other information that NPCA may have about you or your account as may be permitted or required by law (including, but not limited to, law, regulation, court order, subpoena, or search warrant), or to prevent or investigate suspected fraud, violations of our Terms of Service, or activity that appears to NPCA to be illegal or may expose us to legal liability. Additionally, NPCA may disclose your information in situations that NPCA believes to be emergencies involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person or property if NPCA believes that your information in any way relates to that threat. In the event that NPCA is legally compelled to disclose your Private Information (as defined below) to a third party, NPCA will notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order.
IV. PRIVACY SETTINGS
All content and information on the public section of the main website, Ning site, ARC site, and 50th Calendar will be publicly available and searchable with the exception of certain fields on the ARC and Ning profiles. Within profiles, the default setting will be that certain information is public and everything else unless designated is private, per the descriptions below.
Public Information. Username; if a PCV or RPCV, country and year of service; if not a PCV/RPCV, country where person lived or is knowledgeable about; current location; interest areas (e.g. health, education, agricultural, environment, malaria, etc), photos, videos, documents, blog posts, comments, ideas, remixes.
Private Information. Any contact information (email, phone, address), and real name (all “Private Information”). Again, on the Ning site individuals can change settings to make these public. NPCA exercises all reasonable internal controls to maintain the confidentiality of Private Information. Nevertheless, although NPCA makes every reasonable effort to protect your Private Information from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk in transmitting information over the Internet. It is also possible that someone could find a way to breach NPCA’s security systems employed to protect your Private Information. Consequently, NPCA neither warrants nor guarantees the security of Private Information.
Communication with other Members. As on social networking sites such as Facebook, anyone (either who has an Associate profile or not) can “blindly” contact another Associate profile on that website to ask permission to communicate.
This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you post submissions on websites which contain business information, ideas, concepts or inventions. If you want to keep business information, ideas, concepts or inventions private or proprietary, do not post them to main website, the Ning or ARC website.
You may always contact NPCA to (1) delete your Public and Private Information from our systems, (2) update the Public or Private Information you have previously submitted, and (3) change your preferences with respect to contact information or other activities, by emailing NPCA at pcc@peacecorpsconnect.org. Such changes will not have any effect on other information on the websites.
You should know that it may not be technologically possible to remove each and every record of the Public or Private Information you have provided on the NPCA websites from its servers because of the need to back-up its systems to protect information from inadvertent loss. Therefore, a copy of your Public or Private Information may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible to locate. Nevertheless, NPCA represents that upon receiving your request, all Public and Private Information stored in the databases NPCA actively uses for daily business activities, and other readily searchable media, will be deleted as soon as it may be reasonably done on a nondisruptive basis.
V. IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES, PRACTICES AND CONTACT INFORMATION
National Peace Corps Association websites contain links to other sites. Some of the pages on the NPCA websites server may contain links to information created and maintained by other organizations. Please note that the NPCA does not manage and cannot guarantee the appropriate nature of these outside materials. Once you are on these sites, any data that you supply to these partners is beyond NPCA’s control and will be the responsibility of the linked-to entities and not NPCA. These links are provided as a benefit to you and do not necessarily reflect endorsement by the National Peace Corps Association. NPCA is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these Websites or any other sites linked to or referenced on NPCA’s websites.
Security. NPCA has multiple layers of security on its systems. On its database, NPCA has implemented software and hardware security, including data encryption of passwords and credit card transactions, to protect your personally identifiable information from unauthorized access. NPCA regularly reviews additional software upgrades to enhance our security measures. However, despite its efforts, no system can completely guarantee that there will never be unauthorized access to your personally identifiable information, and your use of the websites indicates that you are entirely willing to assume this risk entirely.
A Note About International Users. The National Peace Corps Association websites are hosted in the United States. If you are using any of the websites from outside the United States, by providing your information to these websites, you are consenting to the transfer of your information to the United States for processing and maintaining in accordance with this Privacy Policy and NPCA’s Terms of Use. You are also consenting to the application of United States law in all matters concerning these websites
Updating Your Personal Information. If you are an NPCA Member or Associate, you can update your personally identifiable information at any time on NPCA’s respective platforms. NPCA is unable to update or delete any of your personally identifiable information that has been shared with a third party.
Changes to the Privacy Policy. NPCA reserves the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. If NPCA does so, it will attempt to notify you by email of any significant changes concerning NPCA’s use of your Private Information and provide you the opportunity to opt-out of such significant new uses of your Private Information if it was obtained from you prior to a significant change in this Privacy Policy. NPCA further reserves the right to make non-significant changes to our Privacy Policy that generally will not affect its use of your Private Information. In such cases, NPCA will not notify you of these non-significant changes and invite you to check this posted Privacy Policy for any such non-significant changes. The most recent version of the Privacy Policy will always be posted on the main website, with the “Effective Date” posted at the top of the Policy.
Contacting Us. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or the practices of these websites, please visit NPCA’s Feedback Page.
Or write to NPCA at:
National Peace Corps Association
1900 L Street, NW, Suite 610
Washington DC 20036-5002
If you have a complaint or a problem you may email NPCA at: pcc@peacecorpsconnect.org at which time your complaint will be dealt with for a response or resolution. NPCA attempts to answer every email in a timely manner but are not always able to do so. If you do not receive adequate resolution of a privacy-related problem, you may write to NPCA at the above-indicated address.
