Privacy Statement - Purpose

This privacy statement outlines the information that the San Diego Thomas Merton Society (SDTMS), a chapter of the International Thomas Merton Society (ITMS), will collect and how it will use that information. This statement also describes how you can verify the accuracy of your personal information submitted to SDTMS through our website and how you can request that SDTMS delete your personal information from our databases. Finally, this statement defines our position on children's use of our web site.

Please note that the privacy practices described in this policy statement apply only to the web pages owned and operated by SDTMS, primarily those maintained at the domain sandiegomerton.org / sandiegomerton.com ("our website").

Personal Information

It has always been SDTMS' policy that its members' and visitors' personal information (such as name, postal and e-mail address or telephone number) is private and confidential. Accordingly, the personal information provided by members and visitors to our Web site is stored in a secure location, is accessible only by designated staff, and is used only for the purposes for which you provide the information (such as to reply to your question or communicate regarding an SDTMS activity or your membership status).

SDTMS will not collect or retain any personal information at our Web site, unless you choose to provide it. If you provide it, SDTMS may retain and use it to better address your needs, to understand your preferences and to determine how our services and website can be improved.

SDTMS will not give or sell your personal information to any outside organization for the organization's own use without your consent. Your information may, however, be shared with agents or contractors of SDTMS if needed in connection with services that these individuals or entities perform for SDTMS.

Security

SDTMS is committed to keeping secure the data you provide us and will take reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from loss, misuse or alteration. Agents or contractors of SDTMS who have access to your personally identifiable information in connection with providing services for SDTMS are required to keep the information confidential and are not permitted to use this information for any other purpose than to carry out the services they are performing for SDTMS.

Non-Personal Information Collected

Our Web site is not set up to track, collect or distribute personal information about its visitors. It does recognize the home server of visitors, but not e-mail addresses. For example, we can tell which Internet service provider our visitors use, but not the names, addresses or other information about our visitors that would allow us to identify particular visitors to our site.

In addition, our Web site tracks information about visits. For example, we compile statistics that show the daily number of visitors, the daily requests we receive for particular files on our Web site, and what countries those requests come from. These aggregated statistics are used internally to better provide information to the public and may also be provided to others, but again, the statistics contain no personal information and cannot be used to gather such information.

Contacting Us Regarding Your Personal Information

If you have submitted personal information through our Web site and would like to have that information deleted from our databases, or wish to ensure that the information in our databases is correct, please contact us by completing a response form and make the request, or by letter to John Alexander, 4166 Seri St., San Diego, CA 92117-3845, USA. We will then use reasonable efforts to remove your personal information from our files, or correct any inaccuracies you note to us.

SDTMS' Intended Audience

Our Web site is directed to adults, over the age of thirteen. SDTMS does not intend to collect personal information from children under the age of thirteen. If a parent or guardian suspects his or her child under the age of thirteen has provided SDTMS with personal information, he or she may contact us and request a check of our records, and deletion of any personal information about the child. Contact SDTMS by letter to John Alexander, 4166 Seri St., San Diego, CA 92117-3845, USA.

Last Revision Date: August 14, 2007
See also:
Terms & Conditions/ Copyright Policy