Privacy Policy

The Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, Inc., d.b.a. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center (“The Center” or “we”) is committed to protecting the privacy and data security of our members, donors, users, website visitors, and other individuals with whom we interact (“you”). We have created this privacy policy (“Policy”) to provide you with an overview of how we may use and disclose your personal information or personal data (“Personal Information”) and the security measures we take to protect it. By visiting gaycenter.org, using our programs and services, donating, or becoming a member, you accept and agree to the practices described in this Policy. If you disagree with any part of this Policy, you should not access our website or use our services.

Center Building

Privacy Measures

Collection, Use, and Security of Personal Information

We do not collect Personal Information from you unless you provide it to us voluntarily and knowingly, including through our website as described above. If you make a donation, register for an event, subscribe to SMS messages, or register for our newsletter, for example, we may collect your name, mailing address, telephone number, email address, and credit card information.  

If you use our programs and services or become a member, we may collect additional information through your use, participation, or contributions to our community.  This may include information such as your photograph, reactions, comments, or any other information about yourself or your experiences that you choose to share.  This may also include information that you may or may not consider sensitive, or that privacy laws consider sensitive.  The Center is committed to protecting your privacy and will treat all Personal Information that we collect with appropriate security and care.

Our use of Personal Information is limited to our internal purposes and only used to further the program activities and purposes of The Center. Our use of Personal Information that we collect online or through our website includes, without limitation, registering you for events, responding to your inquiries, sending surveys seeking feedback, enabling you to make a donation or purchase something, or providing you with information, such as sending marketing communications and newsletters.  

The Center will retain your Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Policy, provide our programs and services, conduct audits, enforce our agreements or establish legal defenses, ensure security and data protection, comply with all applicable laws, and in accordance with our routine information storage policies. Our retention periods for Personal Information vary depending on the nature of our relationship with you, the type of information collected (i.e., sensitivity), the intended purpose, the risks involved, and as otherwise required by law.

We use administrative, technical and physical security measures designed to protect and safeguard the security of the Personal Information that we process.  For example, we use high-grade encryption and security protocols (Secure Socket Layer-SSL) when processing financial transactions, which are generally accepted in the payment industry and make it difficult for anyone to intercept the information you send us. Inside The Center, our data systems are password-protected and our staff is educated about the importance of safeguarding your Personal Information. 

However, no transmission of data over the Internet, and no system for storage of data, is guaranteed to be completely safe. While we strive to protect your Personal Information, we cannot make any warranty, guarantee, or representation that the use of our website is protected from viruses, security threats, or other vulnerabilities, or that your Personal Information will always be completely secure.

We care about your privacy and will only share your Personal Information as needed to further the program activities and purposes of The Center, which may include sharing your Personal Information with trusted vendors, service providers, and other third-parties.  For example, the Center may share Aggregate Information with its content providers, sponsors, service providers, or other third parties to advance the goals of The Center and otherwise to accomplish our mission.  Our site also uses third-party cookies through which third-parties may collect your Personal Information from your visit to our site.  We may also share Personal Information of people who register for and attend our events with our partner organizations to promote those events and otherwise to further our mission.  

Additionally, we may share your Personal Information if we have a good faith belief that such action is: requested or required by law, court order or other legal processes; appropriate to enforce the terms and policies of our site or our programs and services, including any investigation of potential violations thereof; necessary to detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; or appropriate to protect our rights, property or safety, or the rights, property or safety of other relevant persons or entities.

Finally, if we are acquired by or merge with another entity, our assets, including your Personal Information, will likely be transferred to the new entity. Your use of our site, programs, or services constitutes your authorization of such transfer in case of such a change in control or ownership.

Cookies and Aggregate Information

Like most websites, ours may use cookies or other standard internet technologies (such as web beacons or pixel tags) to enhance your browsing experience. A “cookie” is a small piece of data that allows websites to recognize repeat visitors, facilitate ongoing access to and use of a website, track usage behavior, or target specific content that might be of interest to you.  

It is not our practice to link Personal Information from cookies or similar technologies to other Personal Information we may have about you, although we reserve the right to do so in certain circumstances, such as to prevent fraud or ensure website security.  However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our site will not function properly when you view them.

When you visit our site, we automatically collect Aggregate Information about your visit.  Aggregate Information is compiled from multiple visitors to our site, such as the pages most frequently accessed, time spent on a page or area of our site, the number of visits to our site, types of browser used, cookie preferences, or search terms entered. We can tell the type of computer and web service that visitors are using, as well as the date, time, and pages that they visit.  

The Center may use Aggregate Information for internal purposes, such as tracking demographic data and providing targeted content to make our site more useful to visitors. The gathering of this Aggregate Information may be accomplished by the use of cookies or web beacons by The Center and its third-party service providers. In particular, The Center will collect an IP Address from all visitors to our site. We use IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, administer our site, analyze trends, track users’ movement on our site, gather broad demographic information for aggregate use in order for us to improve our site, and deliver customized, personalized content. The Center also may use a unique assigned number located with our site’s URL to determine the website from which you navigated to get to our site. 

Children’s Data

We do not knowingly or intentionally collect Personal Information through our website from persons who are under the age of thirteen (13).  If you are under the age of thirteen (13), you should not use our website or otherwise submit Personal Information to us without your parent’s informed consent.

 

External Links

For your convenience, this site may contain links to, or we may otherwise provide you with access to, other websites and web-based platforms owned and operated by third parties. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these sites. Links to other sites do not imply an endorsement of the material or policies of those websites. You should read the privacy policies of each site you visit to determine what information they may be collecting from you.

 

SMS Terms of Service

You may opt-out of text messaging from the program at any time by texting the keyword STOP. We’ll send a confirmation message that you’ve been unsubscribed, and you will no longer receive messages from us. If you’d like to opt back in, text the word START. You’ll receive confirmation that you’ve been re-subscribed to the program, and we can send messages to you again.

If you experience issues with the messaging program, you can text with the keyword HELP for more assistance, or you can reach us directly at 212.620.7310.

Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

Message and data rates may apply for messages sent to and from the program phone number. Message frequency will vary. For questions about your messaging or data plan, please contact your wireless provider.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about our policies or compliance, or to request removal of your information from our contact lists, you may call 212.620.7310, or write us.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center
Privacy Compliance Department
208 W 13 St
New York, NY 10011
privacy@gaycenter.org