FAF Privacy Policy

Welcome to Families Are Forever, (“FAF”) and its website, provided and maintained by Families Are Forever, Inc., ( “FAF”, or “Company,” or “We,” or “Us,” or “Our”), a not-for-profit international orphan care ministry and adoption organization, that provides a service that prepares families for international adoption through Our Hague compliant, interactive, educational courses, content, tools and training (“Services”) through Our Website located at www.familiesareforever.org (“Website” or “Site”). Our Services help give families what they need to become loving advocates for their adoptive children.

Please read this document carefully because this Privacy Policy (“Policy” or “Agreement”) and Our Terms of Use (“Terms”), incorporated by reference, describe the legally binding agreement between You (referred to hereinafter as, “You”,” or “User,” or “Your”) and Us. This Agreement has been developed by FAF to describe the way in which We collect, process, share and retain data and personal information received directly and indirectly through Our Site.

You acknowledge and agree that Your access and use of the FAF Services, and acceptance of the Policy herein, are subject to Our Terms of Use incorporated herein by reference (together the “Entire Agreement”).

By accessing the FAF Services, You agree to comply with this Agreement, and that Your visit and use of the FAF Services, and any dispute directly arising out of Your use or misuse, shall be governed by this Agreement. We may modify the terms of this Agreement (including Our Terms of Use) at any time in Our sole discretion, by posting amended terms to this Policy to the Site, or by sending You an e-mail to the email address You provided to Us upon signing up. Your continued use of the FAF Services thereafter shall constitute acceptance of all revised, modified and/or amended terms. However, You should review the most up-to-date version of this Policy from time-to-time on the Site. We will notify You of any material changes, amendments or modifications to this Policy through the Site, and through direct email communication to the email You provided upon signing up for the Services.

In the event You choose not to agree and accept the current Policy, or any new, modified or amended terms to this Policy, You shall immediately cease use of any of the FAF Services.  Nothing in this Policy shall be deemed to confer any third-party rights or benefits. Additional terms may apply to certain Services and/or products, and those additional terms shall become part of Your agreement with Us if You use those Services and/or Products.

Nothing in this Policy shall be deemed to confer any third-party rights or benefits. Additional terms may apply to certain Services and Products, and those additional terms shall become part of Your agreement with Us if You use those Software Services and/or Products. FAF’s partners, affiliates, vendors, agencies, licensors and/or third party websites may have additional privacy policy terms, restrictions, limitations and data collection and protection practices that You should review separately and independently from this Policy. We are not liable for the data collection, storage and usage practices of any third party affiliate, vendor, licensor or the like.

If You have any questions about this Privacy Policy or Our treatment of the information You provide Us, please contact us at https://familiesareforever.org/contact/ or 1400 136th Ave., Suite 201 Vancouver, WA 98684.

Last Update: March 23, 2019

a. Compliance with Our Privacy Policy

We use the information We collect only in compliance with this Privacy Policy, and/or in compliance with the law. Users, Third Parties, affiliates, agencies, agents, employees, interns, contractors and the like who subscribe to or work with FAF Services are also obligated to comply with this Privacy Policy.

b. Use of Your Information

We use the information We collect in a variety of ways, including using the information to customize features and training that appear on the Site. We also may provide Your User Information and/or Personal Information to third parties, such as service providers, and contractors, in order to operate and manage the FAF Services. The User Information and/or Personal Information We gather and collect enables Us to provide the Site and FAF Services to help You make full use of FAF Services. You hereby agree that We may use Your User Information and/or Personal Information that We collect to:

1. Provide FAF Services;
2. Contact You for customer service and/or training purposes;
3. Contact You to inform You of important changes or additions to Our Site or FAF Services offered;
4. Send You material by trusted third parties;
5. Send You administrative notices, offers and any other communications that We believe may be of interest to You;
6. Any company that acquires ownership or control of FAF or that may purchase some or all of FAF’s assets;
7. Analyze the use, design, functionality and user feedback of the Site and FAF Services;
8. Amalgamate data and information for analysis and publication;
9. Collect and segment data to optimize and improve FAF Services;
10. Operate, improve and maintain Our Products and FAF Services, including analyzing user behavior;
11. Process payments and refunds;
12. Administer promotions, offers, new feature notifications, and to provide features and display relevant content to You;
13. Enforce the Policy and Terms of Use, to comply with legal obligations, and otherwise manage Our business;
14. Provide other companies with statistical information about Our users — but this information will not be used to identify any individual user;
15. Otherwise fulfill the obligations under the FAF Terms of Use.

You hereby agree to be contacted by Us by email, office phone, mobile phone, text, chat boxes and features, social media, postal mail, chat and any future communication methods that You provide to Us through the use of FAF Services. You may, at any time and for any reason, withdraw Your consent to Our use of Your User Information and/or Personal Information by contacting Us using the contact information below.

c. Use of Navigational Information

We use Navigational Information to operate and improve FAF Services. We may also use Navigational Information alone or in combination with Personal Information to provide You with personalized information about FAF and its partners, affiliates and third parties, to which You may unsubscribe from.

d. Use of Credit Card Information

If You give Us credit card information, We use it solely to collect payment from You as necessary to complete certain trainings. We use third-party service providers to manage credit card processing. These third party service providers are not permitted to store, retain, and/or use the financial, banking and/or credit card information that You provide them, except for the sole purpose of credit card processing on Our behalf.

e. Customer Testimonials and Comments

We may post user testimonials and comments on Our Sites upon written notice to You, which may contain Personal Information. You have the right to request removal of such testimonial and/or comment(s) upon receiving Our written notice.

By accepting this Privacy Policy and Your use of FAF Services, You consent to Our sharing of User Information and/or Personal Information for the purposes described below:

a. Service Providers and Contractors

We reserve the right to disclose parts or all of the User Information and/or Personal Information that We collect online about You to service providers and contractors who assist Us in Our business purpose either through partnerships, affiliations, contractors and/or licensors. Some service providers, agencies, authors and contractors used on Our Site include, without limitation, processing payment services, maintenance of the Site, and providing educational, training and/or business services to Us or to You. In all cases where We share Your information with such partners, affiliates, and service providers, We explicitly require them to acknowledge and adhere to Our Privacy Policy and customer data handling policies. Such third parties are prohibited from using Your User Information and/or Personal Information except for these stated purposes, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of Your User Information and/or Personal Information.

b. By Law or to Protect Rights

We may disclose part or all User Information and/or Personal Information collected through FAF Services, if (1) required by law; (2) if We believe that disclosure is necessary to comply with the law; (3) to enforce Our intellectual property rights; (4) to protect the rights, property or safety of Us and Our employees or agents; and (5) if necessary to defend against third-party claims. We may also disclose User Information and/or Personal Information collected on the Site when requested to comply with a court order, investigation, subpoena or governmental request. We will notify You of such use, either by a notification on the Site or by email to Our Users.

c.  Business Transfers

If We go through a business transfer, such as consolidation, merger, restructuring, acquisition, or sale of part or all of Our assets, You acknowledge and consent to the transfer of Your User Information and/or Personal Information. You further acknowledge and consent to the continued use of Your User Information and/or Personal Information by the recipient, so long as they comply with this Privacy Policy. In this event, You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on Our Site, of any change in ownership, uses of Your User Information and/or Personal Information, and the choices You may have regarding Your User Information and/or Personal Information..

d. With Your Consent

We may share User Information and/or Personal Information when You provide Us with Your consent to do so. This may occur when You consent affirmatively or it may occur through Your use of FAF Services as provided in this Policy. For instance, when You request information or services from Our affiliates, partners, service providers, or other third parties through Us, or when You post information to Our Site, You provide Your consent for Us to share that information with others in the regular course of business.

 e. We Never Sell Personal Information

We will not sell Your User Information and/or Personal Information to any third party without Your express written permission. We will not share Your User Information and/or Personal Information directly with any third party who is not affiliated with Us, except as described in this Privacy Policy. We don’t like spam any more than You do, and We will not share Your User Information and/or Personal Information to be used for the purpose of sending You unsolicited commercial offers or promotions.

Please bear in mind that whenever You voluntarily make Your User Information and/or Personal Information available for viewing by third parties online – for example through email or registering on a website- that information can be seen, collected and used by others besides Us. We are not responsible for any unauthorized third-party use of such User Information and/or Personal Information.

If and when We share Your User Information and/or Personal Information with third parties, contractors, service providers affiliated with Us, We only provide the User Information and/or Personal Information necessary and required to perform their service(s), and We require that they protect Your User Information and/or Personal Information pursuant to the Privacy Policy, and not use it for any other purpose except for assisting the FAF Services.

We may, from time to time, contact You on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to You. In those cases, We do not transfer Your User Information and/or Personal Information to the third party unless You provide Us written approval.

Our legal basis for collecting and using the Personal Information described above will depend on the User Information and/or Personal Information concerned and the specific context in which We collect it. However, We will normally collect User Information and/or Personal Information from You only where We have Your consent to do so, where We need the User Information and/or Personal Information to perform a contract with You, or where the processing is in Our legitimate interests is not outweighed by Your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms. In some cases, We may also have a legal obligation to collect and maintain User Information and/or Personal Information from You.

You may opt-out of promotional and marketing e-mails by using the “Unsubscribe” link in Our e-mails and notifications. Under rare circumstances We may need to contact some or all Users to make an important announcement about the Site and/or FAF Services, its use, privacy or service changes. You may not unsubscribe or “opt-in/opt-out” of these announcements because they may contain very important information regarding Your legal rights, User rights, privacy concerns and/or account information. You may unsubscribe from all emails by deleting Your Account.

If We ask You to provide Personal Information to comply with a legal requirement or to perform a contract with You, We will make this clear at the relevant time and advise You whether the provision of Your Personal Information is mandatory or not (as well as of the possible consequences if You do not provide Your Personal Information). Similarly, if We collect and use Your User Information and/or Personal Information in reliance on Our legitimate interests (or those of any third party), We will make clear to You at the relevant time what those legitimate interests are.

Processing shall be lawful only if and to the extent that at least one of the following applies:

a. the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes;

b. processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract;

c. processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject;

d. processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person;

e. processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller;

f. processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in particular where the data subject is a child.

FAF works to protect Your User Information and/or Personal Information by using reasonable and appropriate technical, administrative and physical procedures to protect User Information and/or Personal Information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, destruction or alteration. We also take precautions to protect Users’ User Information and/or Personal Information off-line, and We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the information submitted to Us, both during transmission and once We receive it. However, We cannot fully ensure or guarantee the security of any information You send to Us, and You do so at Your own risk.

All of Our Users’ User Information and/or Personal Information is restricted in Our office(s) and only employees, FAF affiliated service providers, engineers, developers and/or independent contractors who need the information to perform a specific job, are granted access to Your User Information and/or Personal Information. Employees and independent contractors who violate FAF’s customer privacy safeguards are subject to disciplinary action, including termination. We use industry standard measures, including encryption where appropriate. We cannot and do not guarantee that information supplied to Us will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the Internet. Our servers are based in the United States, so Your User Information and/or Personal Information and other data will be hosted and processed by Us.

Our computer systems are hosted in a secure data center environment that uses a firewall, intrusion detection systems, and other advanced technology to prevent interference or access from outside intruders.  The data center is a highly protected environment with several levels of physical access security and twenty-four (24) hour surveillance.

However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is perfectly secure.  Therefore, We cannot guarantee absolute security.  In the event that any personally identifiable information is compromised as a result of a breach of security, We will promptly notify those persons/Users whose personally identifiable information has been compromised, in accordance with the notification procedures set forth in this Privacy Policy, or as otherwise required by applicable law.

Our Sites may include Social Media Features, such as the Facebook Like button and Widgets, such as the Share This button or interactive mini-programs that run on Our Sites. These features may collect Your IP address, which page You are visiting on Our sites, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social Media Features and Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on Our Sites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to these features.  Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy and other policies of the companies providing them.

The Site may include links to websites operated by other companies, which may or may not be co-branded. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of websites or other services operated by third parties that are linked to or integrated with Our Service or for the privacy practices of any third party. Once You leave the Site via such a link, access a third party application, or click on a third party offer, You should check the applicable privacy policy of the third party or advertiser website to determine, among other things, how they will handle any personal information they collect from You. Our provision of such links does not constitute our endorsement of these other websites, their content, their owners, or their practices.

We may offer publicly accessible message boards, blogs, and community forums. Please keep in mind that if You directly disclose any information through Our public message boards, blogs, or forums, this information may be collected and used by others. We will correct or delete any information You have posted on the Sites if You so request, as described in “Opting Out and Unsubscribing” below.

You may unsubscribe from Our marketing, sales, and promotional communications by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link located on the bottom of Our e-mails, updating Your communication preferences, or by sending Us an email at https://familiesareforever.org/contact/  or 1400 136th Ave., Suite 201 Vancouver, WA 98684

Attn: Privacy Update and Request.

However, Users cannot opt-out of receiving transactional emails related to their account with Us or FAF Services, unless they delete their Account.

Our partners are solely responsible for their own marketing emails and other communications directed to You. We cannot unsubscribe You from Our partners’ communications. You may, however, unsubscribe from Our communications regarding Our partners’ by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link located on the bottom of their emails, or by contacting them directly.

We will retain Your Personal Information and data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Information to the extent necessary to comply with Our legal obligations (for example, if We are required to retain Your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes and/or enforce Our legal agreements and policies. We will also retain Personal information, Navigation Information, and User Information for internal business analyses purposes.

When We have no ongoing legitimate business need to process Your Personal information, Navigation Information, and/or User Information, We securely delete the information or anonymize it or, if this is not possible, then We will securely store Your User Information and/or Personal Information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible. We will delete this information from the servers at an earlier date if You so request, as described above.

If You provide any information to Our partners as part of their use of FAF Services, Our partners decide how long to retain the Personal Information, Navigation Information, and User Information they collect from You. After termination, We may, unless legally prohibited, delete all Personal information, Navigation Information, and User Information.

If You have elected to receive marketing communications from Us, We retain information about Your marketing preferences for a reasonable period of time from the date You last expressed interest in Our content, Products, or Services, such as when You last opened an email from Us or ceased using Your FAF Account.  We retain information derived from cookies and other tracking technologies for a reasonable period of time from the date such information was created.

FAF may use cookies or similar technologies (such as web beacons) to analyze trends, administer the Sites, track Users’ movements around the Sites, and to gather demographic information about Our user base as a whole. Third Party Tracking Technologies and the use of cookies and web beacons by any tracking utility company is not covered by Our Privacy Policy.

If You share User Information and/or Personal Information with Us, You will have the opportunity and right to review, update, change or delete the User Information and/or Personal Information You have provided to Us (and that We continue to store) at any time. If and when You ask Us to delete or modify Your User Information and/or Personal Information, We reserve the right to retain a record of certain User Information and/or Personal Information, and to record changes in order to comply with applicable federal, state or local law(s). If You remove User Information and/or Personal Information that You have made public on the Sites, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Sites.

You have the following data protection rights:

i. You can request access, correction, updates or deletion of Your Personal Information and User Information;

ii. You can object to the processing of Your User Information and/or Personal Information, ask Us to restrict processing of Your User Information and/or Personal Information or request portability of Your User Information and/or Personal Information;

iii. If We have collected and processed Your User Information and/or Personal Information with Your consent, then You can withdraw Your consent at any time. Withdrawing Your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing We conducted prior to Your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of Your User Information and/or Personal Information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent; and

iv. You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about Our collection and use of Your User Information and/or Personal Information.

To exercise any of these rights, You may contact us at https://familiesareforever.org/contact/ or
1400 136th Ave., Suite 201 Vancouver, WA 98684.

We will respond to Your request to change, correct, or delete Your User Information and/or Personal Information within a reasonable timeframe and notify You of the action We have taken, if any.

By visiting or using the Sites, You agree to this Privacy Policy. This is the entire and exclusive Privacy Policy and it supersedes any earlier version. We may change this Privacy Policy by posting a new version of this Privacy Policy on this Site, which is effective immediately and is Your responsibility to review. Your continued use of Our Service constitutes Your agreement to this Privacy Policy and any updates, amendments and/or modifications.

By using any of FAF Services, You expressly consent to the following:

i. You consent to the collection, use, disclosure and processing of Your User Information and/or Personal Information in the manner described in this Privacy Policy, including Our procedures relating to cookies, IP addresses, log files and the like;

ii. Our servers are based in the United States., so Your User Information and/or Personal Information will be primarily processed by Us in the United States or Canada. You consent to the transfer and processing of Your User Information and/or Personal Information in the United States or Canada by Us and by Our partners and affiliates;

iii. You consent and agree that We may transfer Your User Information and/or Personal Information to data processors located in countries, including the United States, which do not have data protection laws that provide the same level of protection that exists in countries in the European Economic Area. Your consent is voluntary, and You may revoke Your consent by opting out at any time, as described above. Please note that if You opt-out, We may no longer be able to provide You with Our Service;

iv. You consent to Us sharing Your User Information and/or Personal Information with relevant persons working for service providers who assist Us to provide Our Service; and

v. If You have enabled cookies on Your web browser, You consent to Our use of cookies as described in this Privacy Policy. 

Contact 

Families Are Forever

https://familiesareforever.org/contact/

1400 136th Ave., Suite 201 Vancouver, WA 98684.

(503) 282-7652