Privacy Policy

DCIS Understood is committed to your privacy.  We have adopted this Privacy Policy (“Policy”) to demonstrate that commitment and to inform you of our practices with respect to information collected on the DCIS Understood website (www.dcisunderstood.org) (“Website”).

By visiting or using our Website, you acknowledge and agree to the terms of this Policy.  DCIS Understood is the sole owner of and the only organization that uses the personal information collected on this site.  We will not sell, rent, exchange or otherwise disclose this information to others under any circumstances.  This Policy applies to all information received by DCIS Understood, both online and offline, as well as any electronic, written or oral communication.

Automatic Collection of Anonymous Information

When you visit our Website, like when you visit most other websites, certain anonymous information about your visit may be automatically logged.  This data may include information such as your device’s IP address, browser type and version, operating system type and version, language preference, the website you were visiting before you came to our Website, the website you visit after leaving our Website by clicking on a link on our Website, the pages of our Website that you visit and time spent on those pages, information you search for on our Website, access times and dates.  This information is not personally identifiable.  We may use this information only to generate statistics and measure site activity to improve the usefulness of our Website to our visitors.

Collection of Personal Information

Your submission of personal information to us is entirely your choice.  You may visit and browse our Website without revealing any personal information about yourself to us.  However, you may also choose to disclose personal information about yourself by conducting business with us.  We may collect personal information about you if you:

1. Communicate such information to us;
2. Subscribe to receive our newsletter or other communications;
3. Make a donation.

The personal information we collect may consist of contact information (such as your name, email address, mailing address or telephone number), your preferences (such as what interests you on our Website), financial and transaction-related information (if you make a donation to us), and any other information you communicate to us (for example in an email or phone call).  Our third-party payment processors may also collect limited financial information to process your donations.

If you disclose personal information relating to other people to us, that information is also subject to the terms of this Policy.

Information Use and Disclosure

DCIS Understood makes every effort to ensure the secure collection and transmission of sensitive user information using industry accepted data collection and encryption methodologies.  We do not sell, rent, exchange or otherwise disclose user or donor information with any other organization, public, private, or non-profit.

Personal information we collect may be used for the following purposes related to DCIS Understood and the furtherance of our charitable mission and goals:

1. Providing services and support to our users;
2. Sending newsletters and other content or materials about DCIS Understood or our charitable activities;
3. Developing educational, advocacy and other materials related to our charitable activities, including personal stories (we would only ever include personal information in such stories with your consent);
4. Sending fundraising communications and solicitations; 
5. Processing and acknowledging donations we receive, including acknowledgments to the donor and to others named by the donor in whose honor or memory donations have been made;
6. Responding to inquiries and comments;
7. Operating and improving our Website, including tailoring it to users’ preferences
8. Maintaining records about donors and newsletter subscribers;
9. Maintaining the security and integrity of our systems;
10. Responding to legal requests or any other purpose required by law. 

Under the laws of some jurisdictions, we may be allowed to process information until you object to such processing by opting out, without having to rely on consent or any of the bases listed above.  Please see the section below regarding your choice to opt-out.

Email Marketing, Opt-Out and User Rights 

We offer an electronic newsletter to which you may voluntarily subscribe at any time.  We will not disclose your email address to any third parties except as described in the Information Use and Disclosure section above, or for the purposes of using a third-party provider to send such emails.  We will maintain the information sent via email in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.  

In compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act, all emails sent from us will clearly state who the email is from and provide clear information on how to contact the sender.  You may choose to stop receiving our newsletter or solicitation emails by following the unsubscribe instructions included in these emails or by contacting us at info@dcisunderstood.org.

You may also email us to request that we update or erase any personal information that we have collected about you.  This does not include any data that we are required to keep for administrative, legal or security purposes.  

Retention of Information

We retain personal information for the minimum time period necessary to support our business operations, to comply with our legal and contractual obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our rights, for legitimate business uses as described in this Policy, and as recommended by industry standards. 

Links to Third-Party Websites

Our Website contains links to other websites that are not owned or controlled by us.  DCIS Understood is not responsible for the content or the privacy and data security practices of such websites.  We do not review, monitor or fact-check third-party websites.  We encourage you to carefully review the privacy policies and terms of third-party websites prior to use and before you provide personal information to them.

Children’s Privacy

This Website is designed for use by persons aged 18 or older.  To use our Website, you must be old enough to consent to the processing of your personal information in your jurisdiction.  We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of 18.  If you are under the age of 18, please do not provide any personal information to us.  If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 18 has provided personal information to us, please contact us.  If we are informed or otherwise have reason to believe that we have collected personal information from anyone under the age of 18 without verification or parental consent, we will remove such information from our systems.  

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

Our Website, or the servers of third-party companies that we use to help us operate our Website, may use cookies or similar technologies (such as analytics, pixels and web beacons) to collect, store, and track information for statistical purposes.  

A “cookie” is a small text file that is placed by a web server onto the hard drive of your computer when you visit a website.  The text file is stored in your browser and then used to help identify your computer when you return to a website.  The information collected from cookies can be used to customize your online experience and to help improve the functionality of a website.  Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer.  

You have the choice to accept or decline cookies.  Most web browsers have features that can notify you when you receive a cookie or can allow you to decline cookies altogether.  If you disable cookies, you may not be able to fully experience certain features of our Website.

Some web browsers have a Do Not Track privacy preference setting that signals to websites that you do not want your online activity tracked; however, the communication of these signals between browsers is not uniform.  Our Website is not yet set up to interpret or respond to Do Not Track requests.   

Information Security

We strive to maintain reasonable administrative, technical and procedural safeguards in an effort to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, modification and disclosure.  In spite of these safeguards, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network is 100% secure.  Therefore, while we strive to protect your personal information, you acknowledge that we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us and that you do so at your own risk.  

Changes to Privacy Policy

We periodically review and update this Policy to reflect any new changes to our privacy practices, and will post any updated versions of this Policy on our Website.  You can determine when this Policy was last revised by referring to the “Last Updated” date at the bottom of this Policy.  We encourage you to review this Policy whenever you interact with us to stay informed about our privacy practices and the ways that you can help protect your privacy.  If you do not agree with our privacy practices, we recommend that you stop using our Website.

Contact Us

If you wish to contact us with any questions about this Policy or any matter relating to your personal information, please send an email to info@dcisunderstood.org.

Last Updated March 2025