Privacy Notice | Facing History & Ourselves

Privacy Notice

Facing History is committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy notice, together with our Cookie Policy, sets out how we look after your personal data when you visit our websites at facinghistory.org, and tells you about your privacy rights and how certain laws may apply to you.

Privacy

This Website (as defined below) is operated by Facing History & Ourselves, Inc. ("Facing History US") and Facing History & Ourselves CIO ("Facing History UK", together, with Facing History US, "Facing History," "we," "us," and "our." We are committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy notice (“Privacy Notice”), together with our Cookie Policy, sets out how we look after your Personal Data when you visit our website at https://www.facinghistory.org (the “Website” or “site”), describes the types of information we collect, tells you about your privacy rights, and how certain laws may apply to you when you use the Website, a software application for mobile devices (the “Application”), the data, products, services, information, tools, functionality, updates, and similar materials Facing History provides/offers (collectively, the “Service”).

Summary of This Privacy Notice

If you have any queries about this policy or how we use your personal information, contact us at privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org). For queries regarding the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“EU GDPR”) contract us at privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org), or the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”), contact us at gdpr [at] facinghistory.org (gdpr[at]facinghistory[dot]org). If you are submitting a formal data request, please be sure to include your geographic location and sufficient information to identify your account/the information that we may have collected about you.

This policy applies to information we collect:

  • On our Website.
  • In email, text, and other electronic messages between you and Facing History;
  • Through mobile and desktop applications you download from Website, which provide dedicated non-browser-based interaction between you and our Website.
  • When you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party website and services, if those applications or advertising include links to this policy.

We do not sell, rent, or license our customer or user lists to third parties. We do not sell, trade, or share any donor's personal information with any other entity, nor do we send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations.

This does not apply to information collected by any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or through the Website. For the avoidance of doubt, we do not endorse any third party whose advertising or website link appear on our Website, or the Service.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your personal information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Service. By accessing or using our Service, or other method of legal acceptance, you agree to this privacy policy. This policy may change from time to time (see Changes to this policy or your data). Your continued use of our Service, or other method of legal acceptance, after we make changes constitutes acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates. 

Table of Contents

  1. About us

  2. What personal data do we collect?

  3. How we collect personal data

  4. How and why we use personal data

  5. How we share personal data

  6. International transfers

  7. Data security

  8. Children

  9. How long we keep personal data

  10. Third party links

  11. Your rights

  12. The GDPR

  13. Your California Privacy Rights

  14. Your Nevada Privacy Rights

  15. Changes to this policy or your data


  1. About Us

    As discussed above, the Website is operated by Facing History US and Facing History UK. Facing History US and Facing History UK are joint data controllers of any information we collect under this policy.

    Our primary locations and contact information are as follows:

    Facing History & Ourselves, US
    Facing History & Ourselves
    89 South St, Suite 401
    Boston MA 02111-2676
    Email: info [at] facinghistory.org (info[at]facinghistory[dot]org)
    Phone Number: +1-617-232-1595
    Toll Free Phone Number: +1-800-856-9039

    Facing History & Ourselves, Canada
    Facing History & Ourselves, Canada
    PO Box 64025
    Royal Bank Plaza
    Toronto, ON M5J 2T6
    Email: canada [at] facinghistory.org (canada[at]facinghistory[dot]org)
    Phone Number: +1-416-901-3831
    Fax: +1-416-979-3936

    Facing History & Ourselves, UK
    Facing History & Ourselves CIO
    CAN-Borough
    7-14 Great Dover Street
    London, SE1 4YR
    United Kingdom
    Email: UK [at] facinghistory.org (UK[at]facinghistory[dot]org)
    Phone number: +44 (0)20 3096 7844

    Facing History UK is registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office under registration number ZA463293. Our Facing History UK Charity number is 1103592.

    We also have offices in Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Memphis, New England, New York, and San Francisco. For further information, please see here.

  2. What personal data do we collect?

    You can visit most pages on our site without giving us any information about yourself. But sometimes we do need information to provide services that you request, and this privacy statement explains data collection and use in those situations.

    We collect different information depending on how you use our site and how you interact with us. We use the term “Personal Data” to mean any data which can be associated with you as an individual, either directly or indirectly.

    The Personal Data we collect about you may include:

    If you are contacting us with respect to a particular event or campaign, we may ask you questions in that regard (for example, such as your goal in attending an event). We will also collect any other data that you specifically provide to us.

    You may provide information to be published or displayed (“posted”) on public areas of the site, or transmitted to other users of the site or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted on the site, and transmitted to others, at your own risk. Although we limit access to certain pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the site with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

    Our site are not intended for storing or transmitting “special categories” of Personal Data, such as details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, or health information. We do not knowingly collect information relating to actual or alleged criminal offenses.

    • Identity information, such as your name, employment information (including your (a) organization’s name, and/or (b) and your position). Specifically, if you are a teacher and are using our Service in that capacity, we may also ask for your place of employment and the grades/subjects you teach.
    • Contact data, such as your address, area (including postal or ZIP code), email address, and phone number.
    • Log-in data, if you create an account on our site, we may collect your username and other information you provide while creating the account.
    • Payment and billing details, if you choose to donate to us, or if you choose to attend a paid event, you may have to provide your payment information (including, but not limited to your debit card, bank account information, or other form of payment (“Payment Method”).  While it may appear that we are collecting your payment information, you are actually providing it to our third-party payment processor (“Payment Processor”).
    • Technical data, such as your internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access the site.
    • Usage data, which includes information about how you use the site, including traffic data, location data, logs and the resources that you access and use on the Website and any communications we may receive from you.
    • Marketing and communications data, including your preferences in receiving marketing and other communications from us.
    • Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.
    • Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
    • Details of transactions you carry out through our site and of the fulfillment of your orders. You may be required to provide financial information before placing an order through our site.
    • Your search queries on the site.
  3. How we collect personal data

    We collect Personal Data is collected in different ways.

    • We collect Personal Data directly from when you provide to us. For example, we collect Personal Data in the following circumstances:
      • If you create an account with us, you will be required to provide your identity, contact and log-in data. You may be required to create an account to access or download certain materials on our site. We collect the information provided.
      • If you register to attend one of our events, or to purchase books from us, you will need to provide your identity and contact details. In the case of event registration, we may also ask some questions which are specific to the event, and if there is a charge for attending the event, we may require payment and billing information. We collect the information provided.
      • If you wish to make a donation through our site, we will ask for your identity, contact information, and billing details. We collect the information provided.
      • If you submit a speaker request form, we will ask for your contact information and details about your identity. We collect the information provided.
      • When you sign up to one of our mailing lists, you will provide us with your identity, contact information, marketing, and communications preferences. We collect the information provided.
      • You will also provide us with Personal Data when you correspond with us or if you provide us with any feedback.
    • We collect certain Personal Data automatically. We collect your technical and usage data, as described above, as you use our site. Some of this data is collected using first-party cookies (both session and persistent), third-party cookies, beacons, and similar technologies. For full information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookie Policy.
    • Personal Data we collect from third parties. We occasionally obtain Personal Data from third party partners and collaborators and providers, but only when you have agreed to this.
    • We may also collect anonymous, non-identifying and aggregate information such as the type of operating system you are using, the date and time of any request, language preference, referring site, and the domain name of your Internet service provider.
  4. How and why we use personal data

    We will only use your information where:

    • You have given us permission to do so. For example, If you sign up to receive news alerts, administrative, promotional or other mailing lists, we will use your contact and identity information to send you updates and marketing information that you have consented to receive. Likewise, we may need your contact, identity, technical and/or usage information to respond to a question you have asked us.
    • We have a legitimate interest for doing so. We will use your information for our legitimate business reasons where our doing so will not unduly affect your rights, such as sending administrative emails in connection with your account, conducting internal analytics and improvement initiatives, including tracking usage trends on the Website and on our Service generally.
    • We will use your identity, contact, and usage information to keep our records up to date, and to customize our site's content to you. If you are a current or former user of our services, we may also use your contact and identity details to keep you up to date with our latest news.
    • We will use your technical information to:
      • provide and make improvements to the site, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data, and troubleshooting
      • ensure that the site are secure,
      • estimate our audience size,
      • analyze how users interact with the site,
      • store information about your preferences (as described in our Cookie Policy),
      • address any issues you may experience with the site,
      • We may also use any or all of the information above to administer and manage Facing History in general. If you feel that your interests and fundamental rights outweigh our business purposes, and that we should therefore stop processing your data, please let us know by contacting privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org).
    • We need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation. In certain circumstances, we may need to retain or use your data to comply with regulations and/or the law.
    • We need it to perform a contract or provide a service that you or your organization has asked for. For example, we may need your contact and log-in data to enable you to create an account on our site; your contact, identity, technical and/or usage information to respond to a question you have asked us via our site; your mailing address to send you something in the mail or by courier in relation to the services; and your billing and payment information to process any payments you have requested. Likewise, if you have subscribed to one of our events, or otherwise requested our services, we may need your contact and identity data to be able to provide that service to you.
  5. How we share personal data

    Personal Data that we collect is shared between Facing History US, Facing History Canada, and Facing History UK.

    We do not sell, rent, or lease our customer or user lists to third parties. We do not sell, trade, or share any donor's personal information with any other entity, nor do we send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations.

    We may share your information with our trusted third-party service providers (including information technology providers who assist with the maintenance of our Website and mailing list hosts, and our online learning platform providers). We will only provide those companies the personal information they need to deliver the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information and are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

    If you voluntarily submit information in connection with a special project that we are conducting with another organization, we may share your information with that organization for purposes of the project.

    On rare occasions, we may access and/or disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or regulation, or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) comply with any applicable law or with legal process; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Facing History; or (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of our employees, services, or members of the public.

    Our site may use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). For more information on how Google uses data when you use our site or Service, please follow this link: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. You may be able to opt-out of some or all of Google Analytics features by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at, https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. We may also share aggregate information with others, including affiliated and non-affiliated organizations.

    Our Service uses the “Custom Audience pixel” of Facebook, Inc., 1 Hacker way, Menlo Park, CA 94025 USA (“Facebook”) on our Website. This allows user behavior to be tracked after they have been redirected to the Website by clicking on a Facebook ad. This enables us to measure the effectiveness of Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes. The data collected in this way is anonymous to us, so we do not see your Personal Data. However, this data is stored and processed by Facebook, which is why we are informing you, based on our knowledge of the situation. Facebook may link this information to your Facebook account and also use it for its own promotional purposes, in accordance with Facebook’s Data Policy https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/. You can allow Facebook and its partners to place ads on and off Facebook. A cookie may also be stored on your computer for these purposes. You can object to the collection of your data by Facebook pixel, or to the use of your data for the purpose of displaying Facebook ads by contacting the following address: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads. For more information about interest-based ads, or to opt-out of having your web browsing information used for behavioral advertising purposes, please visit http://optout.aboutads.info.

  6. International transfers

    This site is hosted on servers located in the United States.

    If Facing History UK transfers your data outside of the European Economic Area and/or United Kingdom to a country which the European Commission, and/or the government of the United Kingdom, as applicable, does not deem to have adequate data privacy laws, we will ensure that such transfer(s) are in accordance with applicable data privacy laws.

    You can obtain further information in this respect by contacting us at privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org).

  7. Data security

    Facing History is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the personal information you provide on computer systems with limited access, which are located in controlled facilities. When we transmit highly confidential information over the internet, we protect it using encryption, including through the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. We also use encryption to protect your Personal Data when it is not being transmitted. Credit card payments are processed via a PCI DSS certified payment processor.

    However, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data.

  8. Children

    Protecting children on the internet is very important to us. For that reason, we do not intentionally collect information on our site from children under the age of 16, and we comply with all applicable privacy laws including the GDPR, and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). If you are under the age of 16, do not create an account and do not provide us with any personal information. Please contact us at privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org) if you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child without parental consent so that we may delete the information as soon as possible.

    Children's access to the internet can enable them to visit inappropriate website and be exposed to unnecessary risks. Parents can be proactive and limit website access to their children by installing filtering software. In the U.S., COPPA protects children under the age of 13 from the online collection of personal information. Learn more about COPPA at the Federal Trade Commission's website.

    Our Site will not knowingly accept personal information from anyone under 13 years old in violation of applicable laws, without consent of a parent or guardian. In the event that we discover that a child under the age of 13 has provided PII to us, we will make efforts to delete the child’s information in accordance with the COPPA. If you believe that your child under 13 has gained access to our Site without your permission, please contact us at privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org) or for GDPR queries, contact us at gdpr [at] facinghistory.org (gdpr[at]facinghistory[dot]org).

  9. How long we keep personal data

    To determine how long to retain Personal Data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Data, the purposes for which you submitted your Personal Data (whether that purpose is complete and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means), and our legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

  10. Third party links

    This site may contain links to other sites whose information practices may be different than ours. Facing History is not responsible for the information practices employed by sites linked to or from our Website, and this policy does not apply to such third-party sites.

    In most cases, links to third-party websites are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that we think may be useful to you. Since third-party websites may have different privacy policies and/or security standards, we advise you to read the privacy policies and terms and conditions of these site before you provide any personal information.

  11. Your rights

    You may send us an email at privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org) to request access to, correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We cannot delete your personal information except by also deleting your user account. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

    If you delete your User Contributions from the Website, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other Website users.

    After becoming a user of the Service, you may revise or edit your information through your account, or by sending us an email to privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org). For instructions on how you can further access your data that we have collected, or how to correct errors in such information, please send an e-mail to privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org). We will also promptly do the following: stop using your information and remove it from our servers and database; remove you from our online directory; and cease sending you promotional emails, at any time upon your e-mail request (to privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org)) to do so. To protect your privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to help verify your identity before granting access, making corrections, or removing your information.

    California residents may have additional personal information rights and choices. Please see Your California Privacy Rights for more information.

    If you are in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or if your data has been processed by Facing History UK, the GDPR gives you specific rights over your Personal Data. If the GDPR applies, you have the right to:

    In certain circumstances, you may also:

    You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”), which is the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, be grateful if you would contact us in the first instance so we can endeavor to deal with your concerns directly.

    If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at gdpr [at] facinghistory.org (gdpr[at]facinghistory[dot]org) or by writing to one of our addresses listed above.

    If you are in the European Union, or the United Kingdom and wish to exercise any of your rights under the GDPR, please contact us at privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org).

    • be informed about what Personal Data we are processing, why, and who else the data may be shared with, as are all described in this policy,
    • require us to correct any inaccurate Personal Data we hold about you,
    • request a copy of the Personal Data that we hold about you, 
    • object to our processing of your Personal Data if such processing is not consistent with the purpose for which you provided it,
    • be free from automated decision-making without any human intervention (for clarity, we do not utilize any automated decision-making), and
    • withdraw your consent to our using your Personal Data, including, but not limited to, for marketing purposes.
    • ask us to restrict how we use your Personal Data,
    • ask us to delete the Personal Data we hold about you, and
    • ask us to provide you with the Personal Data that we hold about you in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
  12. The GDPR 

    We currently process your Personal Data pursuant to the lawful bases indicated above in the ‘How and why we use personal data’ Section above.

    You can find instructions for enforcing some of these rights elsewhere in this Privacy Policy. Otherwise, if you wish to find out more about these rights, please contact us at gdpr [at] facinghistory.org (gdpr[at]facinghistory[dot]org).

  13. Your California Privacy Rights

    California law allows California residents to request information regarding our disclosures in the prior calendar year, if any, of their personally identifiable information to third parties. To make such a request, please contact us at privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org) with "Request for Privacy Information" in the subject line. Please include enough detail for us to locate your file; at a minimum, your name, email, and username, if any. We will attempt to provide you with the requested information within thirty (30) days of receipt. We reserve our right not to respond to requests sent more than once in a calendar year, or requests submitted to an address other than the one posted in this notice. Please note that this law does not cover all information sharing. Our disclosure only includes information covered by the law.

  14. Your Nevada Privacy Rights

    If you are a Nevada resident, we do not “sell” personal information as defined in the Nevada Privacy of Information Collected on the Internet from Consumers Act as amended by Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 603A. Nonetheless, you may submit a request to prohibit such sales by contacting us at privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org). Additional information on the categories of personal information collected and categories of personal information shared with third parties can be found in this Privacy Policy.  If you would like to tell us not to sell your information in the future, please email us at privacy [at] facinghistory.org (privacy[at]facinghistory[dot]org) with your name, postal address, telephone number, and email address with “Nevada Do Not Sell” in the subject line. 

  15. Changes to this policy or your data

    We may occasionally update this Privacy Notice. Any changes will be posted on these site, and if you have subscribed to our mailing lists, we will also update you of any changes. We also encourage you to review this Privacy Notice from time to time to be informed of how we are protecting your information. Your continued use of our Service, or other method of legal acceptance, after we make changes constitutes acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.

This Privacy Notice was last updated on January 5, 2024.