Collection of your Personal Information

We collect a variety of personal information about those who register on our site or use other functions or features on the site.  Personal information is information that can be directly associated with a specific person or entity such as a name, address, telephone number, email address, or information about activities that are directly linked to that person.  You may make changes to the information you have provided by contacting us at info@pacthebench.org

In addition to the information that you enter on the site, we automatically receive certain types of information whenever you interact with us online.  For example, when you visit our site, our systems automatically collect your IP address and the type of browser you use.  Information may be automatically collected through the use of “cookies” (more information below).

We do not currently accept donations at pacthebench.org; all donations are processed through ActBlue.com.  When you donate through ActBlue, you will need to provide your name, address, occupation and name of employer, credit card information, billing address, and confirm that we may legally accept your contribution.  ActBlue will provide us with your name, address, occupation, employer, and any additional contact information that you use when donating, but not your credit card information.

Use and Disclosure of your Personal Information

PACtheBench collects and uses your personal information to operate pacthebench.org and deliver the services you have requested.  These services may include the display of customized content based upon the information we have collected.

Information about our donors and website visitors is one of our most important assets and therefore we keep it confidential.  Personal information is made available to others for the following, limited purposes:

To Comply with Campaign Finance Laws.  We are required to disclose information regarding our contributions to comply with campaign finance laws.  Federal law requires us to use our best efforts to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer of individuals whose contributions aggregate in excess of $200 in an election cycle.

To Carry Out Your Requests.  We also may be required to disclose personal information in order to carry out your requests when you use the site.  This may include sharing your personal information with our third-party vendors.  For example, we may share personal information with third parties as necessary to deliver you email updates.

To Protect You and Ourselves.  We release personal information when we believe release is necessary or appropriate to comply with the law (e.g., a lawful subpoena); to protect our rights or property; to protect our donors and supporters from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful conduct; or if we reasonably believe that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires the disclosure of communications or records.

To Support Like-Minded Candidates and Organizations.

We may disclose selected personal information to candidates, campaigns and organizations that we believe are like-minded or that we believe you may wish to hear from.

To Share With Others.  In addition to and to the extent not already discussed above, we may share information about you with others, including:  vendors, volunteers, campaigns, and political and other organizations, including committees with which we are affiliated.

Collection and Use of Children’s Personal Information

We care about the safety and privacy of children online, and we comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA).  We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.  To respect the privacy of children and to comply with COPPA, children under the age of 13 should not provide any personal information on this site.  We urge parents to supervise their children while online.

Your Choices

Use of Cookies.  We may automatically collect information using “cookies” or cookie-like files called local shared objects (Flash cookies) to tailor your experience on our site according to the preferences you have specified.  When you visit pacthebench.org, your browser saves a tiny piece of information on your computer.  This information personalizes and improves your experience online.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies.  Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer.  If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience all the features of pacthebench.org  Browser settings will not affect local shared objects.

Web Beacons.

We may collect information using Web beacons. Web beacons are electronic images that may be used on our sites or in our emails. We use Web beacons to deliver cookies, count visits, understand usage and campaign effectiveness and to tell if an email has been opened and acted upon.

Promotional Communications.  If you no longer wish to receive emails from us, please click the unsubscribe link included in the footer of all of our emails.  If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional emails, such as those about your use of our website.

Updating Information.  You may update and correct certain information you provide to us by emailing us at info@pacthebench.org.  If you wish to delete information we have collected from you, please email us info@pacthebench.org, but note that we may retain certain information as required by law or for legitimate campaign purposes.  We may also retain cached or archived copies of information about you for as long as necessary for our business purposes.

Mobile Push Notifications and Alerts.  With your consent, we may send promotional and non-promotional push notifications or alerts to your mobile device.  You can deactivate these messages at any time by changing the notification settings on your mobile device.

Data Retention

We store the information we collect on you for as long as is necessary for the purpose(s) for which we originally collected it, or for other legitimate campaign purposes.

How Do We Protect Your information?

We employ a variety of physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to guard your personal information.  For example, we use commercially reasonable tools and techniques to protect against unauthorized access to our systems.  We restrict access to personal information about you to those employees and third-party vendors who need to know that information to provide services to you. Further, we store the personal information we collect from you behind a secure firewall and place the transaction site on a secure server.  We use Secure Sockets Layer software, which encrypts information you input and allows you to view your information in a secure manner.

We have no control over the security of other sites on the Internet you might visit, interact with, or from which you buy products or services.

Links to Other Websites

We may provide links to third-party websites, including sites maintained by Democratic candidates, political committees and news media outlets, as a service to our visitors.  We are not responsible for the content or information collection practices of those sites.  Those sites’ privacy policies may differ from ours and we encourage you to review and understand their privacy practices before providing them with information.

Social Sharing Features

We may offer social sharing features and other integrated tools (such as the Twitter “Tweet” button), which let you share actions you take on our website with other media, and vice versa.  Your use of such features enables the sharing of information with your friends or the public, depending on your privacy settings for the relevant social media site.  For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with social sharing features, please visit the privacy policies of the entities that provide these features.

Third-Party Advertising and Analytic Services

We may allow others to provide analytics services and serve advertisements on our behalf across the web and in mobile applications.  These entities may use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Site and other websites and applications, including your IP address, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on pages or in apps, links clicked, and conversion information.  This information may be used by us and others to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver advertising and content targeted to your interests on our website and other websites, and better understand your online activity.

For example, we use Google Analytics to collect information about use of this site.  Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit this site, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to this site.  We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve this site.  Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or other identifying information.  We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information.  Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google.  Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.  You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this site by disabling cookies on your browser.

For more information about interest-based ads, or to opt out of having your web browsing information used for behavioral advertising purposes, please visit wwww.aboutads.info/choices.  You can also change your browser settings to block cookies, although doing so may disable some features of our website.

Your California Privacy Rights

California law permits residents of California to request certain details about how their information is shared with third parties for direct marketing purposes.  If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please contact us at info@pacthebench.org

How We Respond to Do Not Track Signals for California Residents.  California Business and Professions Code Section 22575(b) (as amended effective January 1, 2014) provides that California residents are entitled to know how we respond to “Do Not Track” browser settings.  We do not currently take actions to respond to Do Not Track signals because a uniform technological standard has not yet been developed.  We continue to review new technologies and may adopt a standard once one is created.

In the future, we may share your personal information with service providers as necessary to perform a campaign business purpose, including fundraising, publicity, sponsorships, ecommerce or other campaign related activities, and in a manner consistent with applicable law.  As a non-profit, we are not a “business” subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) that went into effect on January 1, 2020.  Our disclosures of information to service providers will nonetheless aim to reflect the spirit of the CCPA (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.135 as of its effective date on January 1, 2020).

Changes to this Policy

We may revise and update this policy if our practices change, if we add new features to the site, or if we change existing ones that affect these practices.  You should refer back to this page often for the latest information.

Contact Information

We welcome your comments regarding this policy.  If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please contact us by email at info@pacthebench.org or at the mailing address listed below:

312 Clay Street Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94607

Effective Date:  July 22, 2022