Privacy Policy
Step Springs (“we”) takes many steps to protect your privacy when you visit the Step Springs website. In order to advance our outreach programs and mission, and to provide you with a better experience while you are on the website, we do allow some tracking to take place. How and when we do so is explained below.
This Privacy Policy applies to all information received by Step Springs, both online and offline, on any Platform, (“Platform”, includes the Step Springs website, mobile applications, and social media), as well as any electronic, written, or oral communications.
Our Collection and Use of Information About You
Passively Collected Data
Like most websites, we may automatically receive and record information in our server logs from your browser when you visit stepdenver.org. The information that we collect with these automated methods may include your IP address, cookie information, browser type, system type, and the referring URL.
We use this type of information to measure and improve the performance of our site. On occasion we also access this type of information to investigate or maintain the stability and security of our site.
Voluntarily Submitted Data
Certain pages on the Step Springs website may invite you to share personally identifying information, such as your name, address, email address, or telephone number. Sharing that information will allow you to make a donation, join our email list, or participate in other similar online activities.
We may use that voluntarily submitted data to:
- Fulfill your orders or transactions.
- Contact you about other Step Springs activities or news, or about opportunities to support Step Springs.
- Deliver content to you on platforms such as social media, other websites, search results pages and mobile apps.
Our Email List
If you sign up for our email list, we may collect data by using an embedded image to track whether you open our email and by using a URL that enables us to identify that you have taken an action, such as clicking a link in an email.
This allows us to build a more effective outreach program and to inform you about the issues you care about.
Choice/Opt-out
Users who no longer wish to receive our electronic communications may opt out of receiving these communications by clicking the “Opt-out” or “Unsubscribe” options at the bottom of the email.
Donor Information
Step Springs is committed to respecting the privacy of its financial and in-kind donors, whether the donation is made online, by mail, or any other method. When you make a financial or in-kind donation, you provide your name and contact information. Financial donors provide standard payment information including, in many circumstances, credit card data. We use industry standard safeguards to protect your information. We work with other companies to process credit card transactions and these companies use encryption and other appropriate security measures to protect credit card information. When donations are processed through a third-party service provider, our donors’ information will only be used for purposes necessary to process the donation.
Step Springs will not sell, trade, or share our donors’ names or personal information with any other entity. We will not distribute mailings to our donors on behalf of other organizations. We will honor a donor’s request to remain anonymous. This policy applies to all online and offline information received by Step Springs.
How We Work With Third-Party Vendors
We work with a variety of vendors who help us process data, facilitate the operation of the Step Springs website and deliver messages to you on other platforms. For example, outside vendors may help us analyze traffic on our site and process credit card transactions. To the extent that any vendor has access to personally identifiable data about you, by virtue of the fact that it participates in the operation of the Step Springs website, we require that vendor to promise that it will keep that data confidential and use it only for the purpose of carrying out the functions we have engaged it to perform (with a limited exception for certain aggregated data, as described immediately below). That is true both as to passively collected data and as to voluntarily submitted data, and also as to data from any cookie or other tracking device.
In some instances, we may agree to allow a vendor to take aggregated and anonymized data about activity on the Step Springs website, and use that data for other purposes such as improvement of the vendor’s products or benchmarking for the vendor’s other clients. But we won’t agree to that unless we believe, in each instance, that the data won’t be recombined with other information to create any record about you as an identifiable individual.
Our Use of Cookies
We use cookies to improve website performance, to remember user preferences and settings, and to collect analytic data. By “cookies” we mean small text files placed on to your computer by websites you visit. “Cookies” may also refer to local storage, which is a mechanism similar to cookies where the information is stored within your web browser. In some instances, we place these cookies ourselves. In other instances, we allow outside service providers to place these cookies, but only if those providers agree to the terms described above under “How We Work with Third-Party Vendors.” We use cookies as follows:
Website Performance
Website performance cookies allow us to make the website easier and more pleasant to use. For example, they may enable us to:
- Determine how often and where you see our “breaking news” alerts or promotions.
- Save you time when filling out a form by populating it with information you provided in previous visits.
Analytics
We use analytics tools that place cookies, in order to give us a better understanding of how people engage with our website. That in turn allows us to gauge the current performance of Website features, and to develop better content. Analytics cookies provide us with information like:
- How many individual visitors we have
- How many visitors are new or returning
- How often visitors come to the website
- What content they’ve visited
- How visitors interact with particular pages or content
In addition, if you click on a link in an email we send to you a cookie may be generated that enables us to identify that you have responded.
How Certain Content Hosts May Place Cookies and Gather Information About You
Our site is connected in a variety of ways to content residing on other platforms. We provide links to content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X, and to content on other sites, such as articles posted on the sites of news organizations. Our site also features embedded media, such as videos, that are hosted on other platforms (such as YouTube) but viewable directly through the buttons we provide. When you click on links or buttons for any of these types of external content, the providers of that content may place their own cookies on your computer, access existing cookies that were set when you previously visited other websites, or otherwise gather information about you as you access their content.
To learn about how those content hosts treat the data they collect through cookies and otherwise, see their respective online privacy policies and other posted guidance.
Security Measures and Data Transmission
We have taken physical, electronic, and managerial measures to safeguard the information we collect. We work to ensure data accuracy and protect against unauthorized access to, and improper use of, information we collect online.
Information that can be readily linked to you personally, such as your name and address, is stored on secure servers and is not publicly accessible (unless, as discussed above, you have chosen to have us disclose information about you when you have signed a petition or submitted a blog comment). Additionally, all data transmitted to and from our website, including credit card numbers, are encrypted using industry standard measures to provide an additional level of security.
Important Notices to Non-U.S. Residents
It is important to note that the Platform and our servers are operated in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that any Personal Information you provide to us will be transferred to the United States. By using the Platform and by providing us Personal Information in any manner, you consent to this transfer and our use of the information and data provided by you in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us as described in the “How to Contact Us” section below. We will investigate your question, respond to your inquiry, and attempt to resolve any concerns regarding your privacy question.
External Websites
The website may contain links to third-party websites. Step Springs has no control over the privacy practices or the content of those websites and is therefore not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of those third-party websites. You should check the applicable third-party privacy policy and terms of use when visiting any other websites.
Children
We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13 through the Services. If you are under 13, please do not give us any Personal Information. We encourage parents and legal guardians to monitor their children’s Internet usage and to help enforce our Privacy Policy by instructing their children to never provide Personal Information through the Services without their permission. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 has provided Personal Information to us, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.
Procedure When We Update This Statement
Our privacy statement may change from time to time. We will post privacy statement changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice on our website. We will also keep prior versions of the Online Privacy Statement available for your review in this section.
Procedure for Updating Your Personal Information or Preferences
If you wish to withdraw or change personal information you shared with us previously or adjust personal preferences — such as your preferences regarding email lists — you may contact us to update our records. You have the following options to do this:
- Click on the link in the footer of any email you receive from Step Denver and use the preference center
- Send e-mail to: stepsprings@stepsprings.org
- Send mail to our address:Step Springs
4525 Northpark Drive
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80918
You may use these same channels to send us any other feedback.
Acceptance of Terms
By visiting our website, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and our accompanying Terms of Use.
This Privacy Policy was adopted as of April 28, 2020.
