Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

When you visit our Site, we collect personal information that you provide to us as well as information we obtain from your use of our Site. 

“Personal Information” is information associated with you or that which can be used to identify or contact you. This includes contact data such as name, address, and email address. 

“Usage Data” is information about your online activity that, by itself, does not identify you, such as

• technical information, including browser type, service provider, IP addresses, operating system, and webpages visited;
• information about what you have searched for, looked at, and clicked on while using our Site;
• traffic data such as time and date of access, software crash reports, and session identification number;
• purchase behavior on partner sites (Amazon, among others) should you leave our Site via an affiliate link; and
• information collected about the location of your mobile device or computer.

How We Collect Personal Information

You may browse our Site without submitting Personal Information to us. However, in order to access some features of the Site, you may need to provide us with Personal Information.

Personal Information is collected when you

• apply to become a member,
• apply for a fellowship or employment,
• subscribe to one of CFR’s newsletters or press list,
• register to attend a CFR event, or
• make an online donation to CFR.

Some of this Personal Information is collected by our service providers and then shared with us, such as when you submit an online employment application or make a online donation to CFR.

 

Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies

 We use cookies (and similar technologies) and analytics tools to collect Usage Data. A cookie is a small file which is placed on your hard drive when you visit the Site. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you may modify your browser settings to disable or reject cookies. If you set your web browser to decline cookies or if you delete your cookies, some features of the Site may not work or may not work as designed.

These technologies track your use of our Site to enable us to

• identify returning users,
• remember your preferences,
• determine your registration or subscription rights to specific content,
• serve relevant advertisements for our products and assess the efficacy of those advertisements,
• track your use of our Site to better develop our features, and 
• monitor the traffic and performance of our Site.

We use Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and Chartbeat cookies to understand the performance of our Site and content, including but not limited to 

• the number of visits to and average time spent on either a single page or the entire Site;
• the number of pages viewed per session, or the sequence of pages visited; and
• behavior on a single page or the entire Site, including scrolling and clicking on links or buttons.

We use session recording and other services offered by Browsee to collect information regarding your behavior on our Site to improve user experience. For session recordings, we have disabled collection of user input in all fields on the Site. For more information, you can review Browsee's privacy policy, terms and conditions, and GDPR compliance. You can also enable your browser’s “Do Not Track” setting to block Browsee services.

We also use Google AdWords and Facebook remarketing services to advertise on third party websites to previous visitors to our Site. This could be in the form of an advertisement on the Google Search results page, a site in the Google Display Network, in a Facebook news feed, on a site or application owned by Facebook, or on a site in Facebook’s Audience Network. Third party vendors, including Google and Facebook, use cookies and other tracking technology to serve advertisements based on someone’s past visits to our Site. Any data collected will be used in accordance with our own Privacy Policy, as well as Google’s and Facebook’s privacy policies. 

For more information on the privacy practices of our advertising vendors, please visit

• For Google: https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662922?hl=en
• For Facebook: https://facebook.com/ads/website_custom_audiences

Finally, we also have an “affiliate” relationship with third party retailers such as Amazon. Links from our Site to third party retailers provides us with sales data that is not personally identifiable. Additionally, we may receive a commission from items purchased through links to affiliated retailers.

How We Use Personal Information and Usage Data

We use the Personal Information and Usage Data collected when you use the Site in the following ways:

• To provide our services: The information permits us to provide you with the content and services that you request, such as newsletters, and/or invitations to our events.
• To communicate with you: We use the information to communicate with you about your membership, fellowship or employment application, event registrations, and donations. We may also send you announcements about our products or features. 
• To improve our Site: We use the information we collect from you to help improve your experience on our Site, to enhance the features of our Site, and to perform statistical and demographic analyses of users of our Site. 
• To comply with legal requirements: In some cases, we may use or disclose your Personal Information to a third party if we are required to do so by law, to prevent misuse of the Site, or to protect our personal safety or that of others.

No Sharing of Your Personal Information

We will not disclose or otherwise share your Personal Information with anyone outside CFR, except as described in this Privacy Policy.

Third Party Sites and Services

We have third party agents that perform functions on our behalf, including but not limited to hosting, content management, social media integration, and credit card processing. These entities may have access to Personal Information if needed to perform their functions. If such access is required, the third parties will be obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of that Personal Information. They are restricted from using, distributing, or altering this data in any way other than to provide the requested services to the Site.

Our Site interacts with social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others. You should review their privacy policies if you choose to post information from our Site to these platforms. CFR is not responsible for the privacy practices of these social media sites or other sites linked to our Site.

Access to Your Personal Information and Your Rights

It is important to us that you be able to access and review the Personal Information we have about you. You may, at any time, request to access, verify, correct, delete, and/or transfer your Personal Information. You may also object to the use of your Personal Information or request that its use be limited. To do so, simply send us an email at [email protected] or contact us by mail at the address below. 

If at any time, you no longer want to receive electronic newsletters and/or other emails, you may opt out of receiving them by following the “unsubscribe” instructions included in each email.

How We Store and Protect Your Information

We retain information as long as it is necessary to perform our services in accordance with legal requirements and accounting rules. After it is no longer necessary to retain information, we dispose of it in a secure manner. 

Your Personal Information is stored on our in-house servers and on cloud-based servers hosted by our vendors. We employ industry-standard security measures designed to protect the security of all information submitted. We take reasonable security measures to protect your information, including the use of physical, technical, and administrative controls. We update and test our security technology on an ongoing basis. When stored, passwords are encrypted and are not recoverable. We use SSL when we transmit Personal Information, and such information is encrypted in transit. While we use our best efforts to safeguard your Personal Information once we receive it, any transmission of data over the internet or any other public network carries certain risk. 

Governing Law and Notice to Non-U.S. Users

The Site is published in the United States and complies with all applicable laws of our jurisdictions. If you are located outside the United States, you should be aware that any Personal Information that you provide will be transferred to and stored in the United States. Regardless of where you are, we apply the same protections as described in this Privacy Policy. By using our Site, you consent to such transmission and use of your Personal Information in the United States in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Children Under the Age of Thirteen

Our Site is not intended for children under the age of thirteen and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under thirteen years of age. If you are under thirteen years of age, do not provide Personal Information to us without providing us with personal consent from your parents. If we become aware that a child under the age of thirteen has provided us with Personal Information and we do not have parental consent, we will immediately delete that child’s information from the Site. If you believe that we have been provided with the Personal Information of a child under the age of thirteen without parental consent, please notify us immediately at [email protected].

Terms of Use

Please visit our Terms of Use to learn about the terms and conditions that apply to your use of CFR products and services through our Site. 

Questions?

If you have questions about our Privacy Policy, you may contact us at

[email protected]

Council on Foreign Relations
Attn: General Counsel
58 East 68th Street
New York, NY 10065