The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International (the SPCA) is committed to your right to privacy and to keeping your personal information private. You can visit the SPCA's Web site without telling us who you are or revealing any identifying information about yourself. However, because our Web site includes areas where visitors can provide personally-identifying information, we have developed this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies and practices regarding information we collect about you.

This Privacy Policy governs the URL www.spca.com and certain electronic communications sent out by SPCA International, Inc. (the SPCA). This Web site is owned and operated by the SPCA for the benefit of its members and other visitors interested in the protection of all animals. Our contact address is 2121 K Street, N.W. Suite 650, Washington, D.C. 20037. The SPCA reserves the right to modify or amend this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be preceded by a notice posted to this Privacy Policy at least ten (10) days prior to the effective date of such change.

How We Collect Information About You

Information You Voluntarily Provide. The SPCA collects and maintains certain personal information about you when you send us an e-mail or complete any of our online forms, such as when you request information from us, make a donation, subscribe to one of our online newsletters, request to become a member or forward a Web page, electronic postcard, electronic ballot or electronic newsletter. Such information may include your name, mailing address and e-mail address; it may also include the e-mail addresses of those to whom you forward SPCA electronic content, and any other information collected in the forms. You may be asked to provide credit card information to become a member of the SPCA, contribute to the SPCA, purchase certain information or materials from the SPCA or subscribe to various SPCA publications.

Other Information. The SPCA also collects certain other information that cannot identify you personally when you visit our Web site. This information includes your IP address and your domain name. SPCA.com logs these IP addresses and domain names, and aggregates them for system administration and to monitor the use of our site. We use the aggregated information to measure the number of visits to our site, the average time spent on our site, the number of pages viewed and various other site statistics. This monitoring helps us to provide a more useful and engaging online experience to SPCA.com visitors, and helps us to improve the quality of our content.

Cookies. The SPCA uses cookies in order to make results available for your on-site searches and to remember player information for any online contests that the SPCA may host. A cookie is a small file that is sent out by a Web site, accepted by the user's browser, and placed on the user's hard drive. You can always set your browser to warn of cookies being placed, and then chose which cookies you want to accept. The SPCA does not match any information gathered by cookies with personal information you may have voluntarily submitted to the SPCA.

Ways Information About You Is Used

We may use the information you voluntarily provide to contact you regarding animal-related issues we feel you may be interested in, to keep you updated on the SPCA's programs and to extend an invitation to you to support our programs. We may also send such information to the people whose e-mail addresses you provide when forwarding SPCA electronic content. When we do so, our sole intent is to enlarge our family of informed animal advocates and organizational supporters. Every recipient of our electronic communications can quickly and easily "opt-out" of future such communications by following the instructions on any electronic communication we send.

From time to time, we may make such voluntary information, excluding credit card information (which will never be disclosed), available to the SPCA's affiliate organizations or to sponsors or licensees that provide special programs or services we think you might find interesting or beneficial. The SPCA uses very strict standards in determining which reputable companies become sponsors and licensees, to ensure that such organizations are committed to both the protection of visitors' privacy and the goals of the SPCA. If your volunteered personal information will be used in any manner other than as stated above, such use shall be specifically posted. If you wish to update or remove your information, or if you do not wish your information to be shared with affiliated third parties, please e-mail us here. You may also unsubscribe at any time in any issue of our newsletters.

Other. From time to time, the SPCA may link to other Web sites not affiliated with the SPCA. The SPCA attempts to link only to those Web sites which also respect a visitor's privacy and the goals of the SPCA. However, the SPCA cannot be responsible for the content or policies of third-party Web sites. Please check with these third-party organizations or companies for their specific privacy policies. If you find inoperable links or are concerned about any of the sites that the SPCA currently links to, please inform the SPCA by contacting us here.

Security. The SPCA uses generally accepted, industry-standard security systems, software and encryption technologies to protect against unauthorized access to SPCA servers, equipment, and other components of our online presence. This includes using industry-standard security systems to protect credit card processing information.

Contacting the SPCA. If you would like to contact the SPCA about correcting information we might have collected, or if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please e-mail us here or write to us at:

SPCA International

2121 K Street, N.W. Suite 650

Washington, D.C. 20037