Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Privacy Policy
1. Introduction.
At the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (“BGEA”), we are committed to maintaining the accuracy, confidentiality and security of your personal information.
This Privacy Policy applies to how we collect, use and disclose your personal information when you interact with our ministry activities. For example, you may interact with us by visiting our website, via mobile device, or by attending a ministry event.
2. Information About Us.
BGEA is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our office address is 1 Billy Graham Parkway, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28201, U.S.A.
Continuing the lifelong work of Billy Graham, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association exists to support and extend the evangelistic calling and ministry of Franklin Graham by proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all we can by every effective means available to us and by equipping the church and others to do the same. We coordinate and cooperatively carry out ministry activities with churches and other ministry partners (“Ministry Partners”) around the world.
3. Privacy Policy Effectiveness.
It is BGEA’s policy to comply with applicable privacy laws. Sometimes the privacy legislation and/or an individual’s right to privacy are different from one jurisdiction to another. Consequently, the rights and obligations contained in this Privacy Policy may not be available to everyone, everywhere. Where we share your personal information with one of our Ministry Partners in other countries outside of the United States, that partner will be responsible for your personal information and their use of your personal information will be subject to the applicable laws in that country.
4. What is Personal Information?
For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, personal information is information about you, individually, such as name, address, telephone number, email address, and your personal preferences, interests (including religious views), and other information you may share with us etc.
5. What Personal Information Do We Collect?
You can visit our website without telling us who you are or revealing personal information about yourself, including your e-mail address. Our web server may collect anonymous information related to your visit to our website, such as IP address and domain used to access our website, browser type, the website you came from to access our website, the page you entered and exited at, any website page within our website that is viewed by that IP address and the country where you are located. We use this information to monitor our website’s performance (such as number of visits, average time spent, page views, etc.) and for our operational purposes, such as working to continually upgrade our website.
In addition, we collect the personal information that you submit to our website or provide to us through ministry activities, such as your name, address and any other contact or other information that you choose to provide. Collection may occur, for example, when you:
- Use the “contact” portion of our website;
- Create a personal account;
- Make a donation or purchase order, resulting in an appropriate receipt;
- Receive and review online information about our ministries;
- Apply for a position or to volunteer through our website;
- Request resources or book/register for an event, or
- Submit a contact form in connection with this website or a BGEA event; or
- Correspond with a representative of BGEA.
Your personal information may also be given to us by third parties such as social media platforms and networks that share or allow you to share information with us. For more information about social media platform and network privacy practices, please review the privacy policies and settings of the social media platforms and networks that you use.
Where you request information from us, we may use the e-mail address that you provide to send you information about our ministry and resources that may be of interest to you. If you have agreed to receive communications from us, such as by e-mail, you may ask us to remove you from the list at any time (using the unsubscribe instructions provided with each e-mail).
6. Children’s Online Privacy
We are concerned about the privacy of young children, and we do not collect any more personal information than is reasonably necessary to enable them to participate in the activities we offer on our sites. We encourage you to become involved with your child’s access to the Internet and to our site in order to ensure that his or her privacy is well protected. To read more about online safety and how to become more involved with your child’s online experience, visit OnGuardOnline.gov.
7. How Do We Use Cookies?
When you visit our website, we may place a “cookie” on your computer to track your visit. A cookie is a small data file that can only be read by the website that placed the cookie on your hard drive. The cookie acts as an identification card and allows our website to identify you and to retain information that is relevant to interacting with our website. The cookie allows us to track your visit to the website so that we can better understand your use of our website and customize it to better meet your needs.
We may use different types of cookies on our website: persistent cookies; session cookies; and third-party cookies. (Please refer to your browser’s Help section for further information on controlling and setting cookies).
A persistent cookie remains on your computer for authentication purposes where the use of this website requires a username and password. We may use a persistent cookie to save your username, with your consent given on your computer, so you don’t have to re-enter it each time you visit one of our sites. You may choose to reject persistent cookies and use your login password each time you visit a site, and the site will still function correctly.
A session cookie is temporary, only used during a single session on this website, and is automatically deleted at the end of your visit. We may use session cookies (a) to customize your visit to this website and your online experience, (b) to deliver content consistent with your stated interests and the manner in which you browse and/or use this website, and (c) for other purposes to make your visit more convenient.
You may stop or restrict the placement of cookies on your computer or flush them from your browser by adjusting your web browser preferences. Depending on the website, the rejection of session cookies may interfere with the functionality of this website and in certain cases you may have to accept session cookies in order for the site to function at all. If your browser does not differentiate between persistent and session cookies, you may have to enable all cookies in order for this website to function properly.
In addition to cookies, we may use web beacons. Web beacons are small pieces of data that are embedded in images on the pages of websites. These may be used to send information directly to us, to another party on our behalf, or to another party in accordance with its privacy policy. We may use web beacons to bring together information we collect about you.
8. What about Online Advertising?
We promote and encourage support of our ministry activities and resources by purchasing advertising space on third-party websites. When you visit some websites, we or a third party may place one or more types of cookies on your computer in order to recognize your computer. Because we advertise about our ministry activities on third-party websites, we are able to compile anonymous information over time about the types of pages, content, and ads you or others who use your computer visited or viewed. This anonymous information is used for many purposes. For example, it helps us try to ensure that you do not see the same advertisements repeatedly. We also use this anonymous information to help select and display targeted advertisements on third-party websites that encourage support of our ministry activities.
Third-party companies also may collect anonymous information about your activity on our websites and applications and on third-party websites and applications using online tracking technologies like cookies and web beacons. Tracking data collected by these third-party companies is used to decide which advertisements you see on third-party websites and applications, but does not identify you personally.
You may choose not to receive targeted advertisements from many ad networks, data exchanges, marketing analytics and other service providers by visiting the Ad Preferences Manager.
9. What about Links to other Websites?
Our website may contain links to other websites. To allow you to interact with third-party websites on which you may have accounts (such as social media websites) or join communities on such websites, we may provide links or embed third-party applications that allow you to login, post content, or join communities from our websites.
Please note that the third party websites accessed through links on our site are subject to the third party’s privacy policy and standards. We cannot assume any responsibility for the privacy practices, policies or actions of the third parties that operate these websites, or for how they collect, use or disclose your personal information. You should review the privacy policies of these websites before providing them with personal information.
10. Why Do We Collect, Use, and Disclose Personal Information?
The personal information collected through our website is used and disclosed for our ministry purposes. For example, we may collect, use and disclose your personal information to:
- Establish, maintain and manage our relationship with you and fulfill orders that have been requested;
- Communicate with you about our ministry and resources which may be of interest to you;
- Be able to review the products and services that we provide to you so that we may work to improve our products and services;
- Be able to comply with your requests;
- Protect us against error, fraud, theft and damage to our property; and
- Enable us to comply with applicable law or regulatory process (for example, we may collect personal information to satisfy the obligations imposed on us by various regulators).
BGEA never sells, rents, leases or exchanges your personal information with other organizations. In order to fulfill the ministry and organizational purposes for which you provided us your personal information, it may be shared with our employees, Ministry Partners, and other parties who require such information to assist us with establishing, maintaining and managing our relationship with you and providing ministry products and services. For example, BGEA may provide certain information technology, data processing services, and consulting services to Ministry Partners (in the US or abroad) from time to time so that we or they may provide ministry services you have expressed an interest in. As a result, your personal information may transit through or be collected, used, processed, stored or disclosed in both the United States and other countries, including countries outside the European Economic Area, under the control of BGEA or one of our Ministry Partners. Where your personal information is provided to Ministry Partners or service providers, we restrict the use of your information to the purpose for which it is provided.
Please note that we may collect, use or disclose your publicly-available personal information without your knowledge or consent where we are permitted or required by applicable law or regulatory requirements to do so.
11. How Long Do We Keep Your Personal Information?
We retain personal information for as long as we reasonably require it for ministry or legal purposes. In determining data retention periods, BGEA takes into consideration local laws, contractual obligations, and the expectations and requirements for handling such data.
12. Your Consent is Important to Us
By interacting with our ministry (e.g., by using our website) and, if applicable, submitting your personal information, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
You may change or withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice, by contacting us at privacy@bgea.org. All communications with respect to such withdrawal or variation of consent must be in writing, and it may take us up to 30 days to process your withdrawal of consent. Please note that in some circumstances, withdrawing or changing your consent to certain uses of your personal information may affect: (i) our ability to provide you with the products or services you request; and (ii) your ability to access this website.
13. How is Your Personal Information Protected?
BGEA endeavors to maintain physical, technical and procedural safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of the personal information in question. These safeguards are designed to prevent your personal information from loss and unauthorized access, copying, use, modification or disclosure.
BGEA uses Internet Encryption Software, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Protocol or Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol, when collecting or transferring sensitive data such as credit card information. Any information you enter is encrypted at your browser, sent over the public Internet in encrypted form, and then de-crypted at our server.
Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while this website strives to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your personal information, we make commercially reasonable efforts to ensure its security on our systems. Also, if you provide us with your payment information, it is accessible only to a small number of trusted BGEA employees who have been specially trained in processing this information.
The security of your personal information is important to us. Please advise us immediately of any incident involving the loss of or unauthorized access to or disclosure of personal information that is in our custody or control.
14. Updating Your Personal Information.
It is important that the information contained in our records is both accurate and current. If your personal information happens to change during the course of our relationship, please keep us informed of such changes at privacy@bgea.org. In some circumstances we may comply with your request by appending an alternative text to the record in question.
15. Access to Your Personal Information.
You can ask about personal information we have about you. If you want to review, verify or correct your personal information, please contact us in writing at privacy@bgea.org.
When contacting us about your personal information, we may request specific information from you to confirm your identity and right to access, as well as to search for and provide you with the personal information that we hold about you.
Your right to access the personal information that we hold about you is not absolute. There may be instances where applicable law or regulatory requirements allow or require us to refuse to provide some or all of the personal information that we hold about you. In addition, the personal information may have been destroyed, erased or made anonymous in accordance with our record retention obligations and practices. In the event that we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, we will inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.
16. Your Preferences.
You may manage the types of communications you receive from us by updating your preferences here, by using the unsubscribe link found in the e-mail communication you receive from us, or by contacting us at privacy@bgea.org.
17. More Information for Those Outside the United States.
Only if you interact with us from places that have data privacy legislation such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation or substantially equivalent law, then we also want you to know the following about how we treat your personal information.
Basis for Processing. We may process your personal information typically because:
- the processing is based on a legitimate ministry interest (e.g., to protect the security and integrity of our systems or to respond to your requests, etc.);
- you provided your consent;
- the processing is necessary for our contractual relationship; and/or
- the processing is necessary for us to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations.
Your Rights. You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. You also have other rights including:
- the right to erasure;
- the right to restrict processing;
- the right to data portability;
- the right to object; and/or
- rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling (if applicable).
We consider and respond to all requests in accordance with applicable law. As mentioned above, when contacting us about your personal information, we may request specific information from you to confirm your identity and right to the request, as well as to search for your personal information and provide you with a response to your request. There also may be instances where it may not be possible to facilitate your request due to legal requirements or other obligations or practices.
Let us know about a request or concern you may have by contacting us at privacy@bgea.org. You may also take a concern about how we manage your personal information to the authority in your area.
18. Participation via Mobile Device and Text Messaging
Participating in BGEA ministry programs via mobile device, such as through text messaging, is intended to work with major wireless carriers in the United States. BGEA cannot guarantee that any particular wireless service provider will allow participation, which is also subject to the capabilities of your mobile device. Wireless service providers may charge participants for text messages, including error messages, sent and/or received in connection with BGEA’s ministry programs. BGEA will not be responsible for these charges. Participants should consult their wireless service provider’s pricing plan for details.
Data gathered through mobile device participation may include, without limitation, your response(s) to the ministry program and your cell phone number. Use of such data will be as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy. By interacting with BGEA via mobile device and/or text messaging you consent to BGEA’s use of your mobile device and cell phone number to communicate with you. BGEA will provide opt-out information that will allow you to indicate your desire to stop receiving text messages.
19. Inquiries or Concerns?
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or concerns about how we manage your personal information, please contact us at privacy@bgea.org.
20. Revisions to this Privacy Policy
BGEA from time to time, may make changes to this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in its legal or regulatory obligations or in the manner in which we deal with your personal information (the date of the last update is shown below).
21. Interpretation of this Privacy Policy
Any interpretation associated with this Privacy Policy will be made by BGEA. Unless otherwise indicated, this Privacy Policy does not create or confer upon any individual any rights, or impose upon BGEA any rights or obligations outside of, or in addition to, any rights or obligations imposed by United States federal and state laws, as applicable.
(Last updated: May 25, 2018)