General Privacy, Terms and
Personal Data Protection Policy
Last updated: October 8, 2026
1. INTRODUCTION
This Privacy Policy explains how Action for Democracy ("A4D", "we", "us" and "our") collects, uses, shares and protects personal data. It applies to our website actionfordemocracy.org, our sign-up and petition forms, our donation pages, our emails and messages, our events, and our advertising and social media campaigns (together, our "Services").
Personal data is any information about an identified or identifiable person, such as your name, email address, phone number or ZIP code. We respect your privacy and collect only what we need to keep you informed and to run our work.
When we ask for your personal data on a specific form or page, we will tell you what we collect and why, with a link to this Policy. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
2. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
The organization responsible for your personal data (the data controller) is:
Action for Democracy, a US nonprofit social welfare organization under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code (EIN 87-4640498), 308 S Jefferson St, Suite 202, Chicago, IL 60661, United States.
3. HOW TO CONTACT US?
For any question, request or complaint about this Policy or your personal data, contact our Data Protection Contact Point:
• Email: info@actionfordemocracy.org
• Mail: Action for Democracy, Attn: Privacy, 308 S Jefferson St, Suite 202, Chicago, IL 60661, United States
We will respond within 30 days.
4. KEY PRINCIPLES
• Lawfulness and transparency: we process personal data lawfully, fairly and openly.
• Data minimization: we collect only what we need for the purpose stated.
• Purpose limitation: we use your data only for the purposes we tell you about.
• Accuracy: we keep your data correct and up to date.
• Security: we use technical and organizational measures to protect your data.
• Limited retention: we keep your data only as long as necessary.
• No sale of data: we do not sell, rent or trade your personal data.
5. WHAT PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT
• Sign-up and petition forms (on our website and on Action Network): first and last name, email address, ZIP or postal code, country, and your consent choices. Phone number only if you choose to give it.
• Donations: donations are processed by ActBlue on its own secure pages. ActBlue collects your payment details and the information US law requires (such as name, address, employer and occupation). We receive your contact details and donation information from ActBlue; we never receive your full card number.
• Messages you send us: your name, contact details and the content of your message.
• Website and advertising data: technical information collected through cookies and similar tools, such as device and browser type, pages visited and the ad that brought you to us (see section 10).
• Events: name, contact details and any information you give us to attend.
6. WHY WE USE YOUR DATA AND ON WHAT LEGAL BASIS
• To send you updates about our work and campaigns, based on your consent. You can unsubscribe at any time with the link in every email.
• To process and acknowledge donations and meet legal reporting and record-keeping duties, based on legal obligation and on the donation you chose to make.
• To measure and improve our website, emails and advertising, based on our legitimate interest in running an effective organization, or on your consent where the law requires it (for example for advertising cookies in the European Union).
• To answer your questions and requests, based on our legitimate interest and, where relevant, legal obligation.
• To comply with the law and protect our rights, based on legal obligation and legitimate interest.
7. DONATIONS
Donations are processed by ActBlue under its own terms and privacy policy. Our donation advertising is shown only in the United States. Contributions to Action for Democracy are not tax-deductible as charitable contributions.
8. WHO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH
We share personal data only with service providers that help us run our work, and only for the purposes above. They may use it only on our instructions, or under their own privacy policies where they act independently:
• Wix (website and website forms).
• Action Network (email list and sign-up forms).
• ActBlue (donation processing). ActBlue is an independent controller for the data it collects; see ActBlue’s privacy policy.
• Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google (advertising measurement and website analytics, see section 10).
• Advertising and communications agencies working on our behalf to plan and measure our campaigns.
• IT, email and storage providers that support our day-to-day work.
We may also disclose data where required by law, a court order or a public authority, to protect our rights or the safety of others, or in connection with a merger or reorganization of A4D
9. HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We will store your Personal Data in a manner that complies with data protection legislation. We will only retain your Personal Data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which we process your Personal Data or for compliance with the law or where retention of your data for a period of time is required by law.
For information on how long specific Personal Data will be retained before it is deleted from our systems and databases, please contact us via the Data Protection Point of Contact (see section 3 "Who can you contact with questions or requests?" for details). Relevant information will also be provided in the specific information obligation clauses that will be provided to you when your Personal Data is processed.
10. COOKIES THE META PIXEL AND SIMILAR TOOLS
Our website and donation pages use cookies and similar tools:
• Essential cookies that make the website work.
• Analytics (Google Analytics) to understand, in aggregate, how people use our website.
• Advertising measurement (the Meta Pixel and Google Ads tags) to know whether our ads lead people to sign up or donate, and to show our messages to people who have already shown interest. These tools may collect information such as your browser, device and the pages you visit, and Meta or Google may link it to your account on their platforms.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and adjust ad preferences in your Facebook, Instagram and Google account settings. Where the law requires it, we ask for your consent before using non-essential cookies.
11. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
A4D is based in the United States, and our service providers mainly store data in the United States. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, your data will be transferred to the United States. Where required, we rely on safeguards such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, to which some of our providers are certified, or standard contractual clauses.
12. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA
Depending on the purposes for which we collect your Personal Data, we may disclose your Personal Data to the following categories of recipients who will then, solely for the purposes indicated, process your Personal Data:.
(a) As part of our activities:
Our authorized employees;
(b) External business partners:
Advertising, marketing and promotional agencies acting on our behalf: to help us deliver and analyze the effectiveness of our advertising and promotional campaigns;
Business partners: for example, trusted companies who may use your Personal Information to provide services and/or products you have requested and/or who may provide you with marketing materials (provided that you have consented to receive such marketing materials). We ask such companies to always comply with applicable laws and this Policy and to pay particular attention to the confidentiality of your Personal Information;
A4D Service Providers: companies that provide services to or on behalf of A4D for the purpose of providing such services (for example, A4D may disclose your Personal Data to third-party IT-related service providers);
(c) Other third parties:
where this is required by law or is legally necessary to protect the A4D:
for compliance with the law, requests from state authorities, court orders, legal procedures, obligations to report and provide information to authorities, etc;
for verifying or enforcing compliance with policies and agreements with the A4D, and
in order to protect the rights, property or safety of the A4D and/or our subjects/contractors;
in connection with corporate transactions: in the context of a transfer or disposal of all or part of its undertaking or otherwise in connection with a merger, consolidation, change of control, reorganization or liquidation of all or part of the activities of the A4D.
Please note that the third party recipients listed in (b) and (c) above - particularly service providers who may offer products and services through services or applications or through their own channels - may collect Personal Data from you separately. In such cases, these entities are solely responsible for the processing and control of such Personal Data, and your interactions with them will be subject to their terms and conditions.
A4D engages with external partners such as ActBlue and Action Network. While we may provide links to their respective privacy policies and terms, A4D does not assume responsibility for the data practices or policies of these external partners. It is advised that users review the privacy policies and terms of these partners independently on the following links:
Link to ActBlue’s Privacy Policy
Link to Action Network’s Terms of Service
A4D reserves the right to engage with other partners in the future, and users should exercise caution and review the privacy policies and terms of any new partners independently.
Your Personal Data may be subject to processing by a Third Party Data Processor only if that Data Processor undertakes to apply these technical and organizational data security measures.
Messaging Privacy Policy: We do not sell, rent, loan, trade, lease, or otherwise transfer for profit any phone numbers or personal information collected or received through the program to any third party.
13. YOUR RIGHTS
Depending on where you live, you have the right to:
• Access the personal data we hold about you and know where it came from.
• Correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Ask us to delete your data, unless we must keep it by law.
• Restrict or object to certain uses of your data, including direct marketing.
• Receive your data in a portable format.
• Withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting earlier processing.
• Complain to your local data protection authority. In the European Union, this is the authority of your country of residence.
To use any of these rights, contact us as described in section 3. We may need to confirm your identity before we act.
14. SECURITY
We protect personal data with access controls, secure service providers, backups and regular review of who can see what. No system is completely secure, but we work to prevent unauthorized access, loss or misuse, and we will notify you and the authorities of a data breach where the law requires it.
15. CHILDREN
Our Services are not directed to people under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
16. USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
If, when using a A4D tool and/or (website, portal...) you use a specific social media login (for example, Facebook account, Facebook messenger), A4D will register your Personal Data available on such social media and the use of such social media means that you have expressly consented to the transfer of the Personal Data registered by the A4D through the tools of that social media.
A4D sometimes facilitates the publication of Personal Data via social media such as Twitter, Instagram/X and Facebook. Social media have their own privacy policies, which you must take into account if you use such social media. We would like to remind you that publishing content on social media may have certain consequences, including for your privacy or the privacy of the persons whose Personal Data you provide, e.g. the impossibility to withdraw the published content within a short period of time. You are fully responsible for what is published by you. The A4D assumes no liability in this respect.
17. ELECTIONS AND THE RULE OF LAW
We want to make our operations as transparent as possible to you so that you can make reasonable choices about how we are to use your Personal Information.
Your Personal Data
You can always contact us via the Data Protection Point of Contact (see section 3 "Who can you contact with questions or requests?" for details) to find out what Personal Data we have about you and its origin. In certain circumstances, you have the right to receive a copy of the Personal Data you have provided to us in a commonly used, structured machine-readable format or to request a transfer of your Personal Data to any third party of your choice.
Your amendments
If you find an error in your Personal Data or if you consider it to be incomplete, outdated or incorrect, you may request us to correct or complete it.
Your request to restrict
You have the right to request the restriction of the Processing of your Personal Data (e.g. if the accuracy of your Personal Data is contested, if your Personal Data is not needed for the purposes of the Processing).
Your objections
You may object to the use of your Personal Data on the basis of a legitimate interest of the Controller (we will cease processing for this purpose unless there are legitimate grounds for processing set out in law, or where processing is necessary for the establishment, investigation or defense of claims).
You may also object to the use of your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes or to the sharing of your Personal Data with third parties for the same purpose.
Your right to withdraw your consent
At any time you have the possibility to withdraw your consent to further Processing of Personal Data that you have given us. You can withdraw your consent by contacting the Data Protection Point of Contact (see section 3 "Who can you contact with questions or requests?" for details).
Your right to be forgotten
In addition, you may request us to delete Personal Data relating to you (except in certain cases, for example, to prove a transaction, to assert or defend a claim or when required by law).
Your right to complain
Please also note that you also have the right to lodge a complaint against the A4D as Data Controller with the relevant data protection authority ("President of the Data Protection Authority").
18. LEGAL INFORMATION
The requirements of this Policy are in addition to and do not replace any other requirements existing under data protection law. In the event of a conflict between the content of this Policy and the requirements of data protection law, data protection law shall prevail.
A4D may amend this Policy at any time, e.g. to comply with current data protection legislation, due to decisions or other acts of state authorities or in connection with the need to improve the provision of our services.
19. DEFINITIONS
In this Policy, the following terms have the following meanings:
Data Controller means the organization that determines the purposes of the processing and the means by which your Personal Data is processed. Unless we inform you otherwise, the Data Controller is: A4D with its registered office in 308 S JEFFERSON ST STE 202 CHICAGO, IL 60661, EIN: 87-4640498, a Chicago, IL. Further information may be provided to you via a separate information obligation clause, which will, for example, be included in certain services (including communication services), electronic newsletters, reminders, surveys, offers, invitations to events, etc.
Data Processor means the person or organization processing your Personal Data on behalf of the Data Controller.
Data Protection Contact Point means the person designated by A4D, as Data Controller, where you have the opportunity to address your questions or requests regarding this Policy and/or the Processing of your Personal Data and who will deal with such questions and requests. If you are not informed otherwise, you may contact the Data Protection Contact Point as described in Section 3 "Who can you contact with questions or requests?".
Personal Data is any information about an identified or identifiable natural person, e.g. you, or which indirectly identifies you, such as, for example, your name, telephone number, e-mail address, etc.
Processing means an operation or set of operations which is performed upon your Personal Data or sets of such Data by automated or non-automated means, such as collecting, recording, organizing, structuring, storing, adapting or modifying, retrieving, accessing and any form of use of Personal Data.
Information about cookies:
All of the A4D websites use their own cookies to optimize the use of the website and for statistical purposes. Cookies are IT data, in particular text files, which are stored on the website user's terminal device (computer, phone, etc.). Cookies usually contain the name of the website they come from, the time they are stored on the end device and a unique number.
Please be informed that websites also use so-called external cookies for the following purposes:
the collection of general and anonymous statistical data via the analytical tools Google Analytics, Google Ads;
publicize our website via social media: twitter.com, facebook.com, youtube.com, instagram
For more information on the cookies of these entities, please refer to their privacy policies
When you use our websites, we use cookies that make it possible to identify your browser or device - cookies collect various types of information that, in principle, do not constitute personal data (they do not allow you to be identified). However, some information, depending on its content and the way it is used, may be linked to a specific person and thus be considered personal data. The data will be processed by the Data Controller for the purposes indicated above, on the basis of Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - i.e. on the basis of the legitimate interest of the Data Controller.
The user has the possibility to manage cookies in the settings of their web browser. In particular, the user can prevent cookies from being stored on their terminal device.