EFF Privacy Policy

20220704_rev01 · COMPARED WITH 20180703_rev01 · ARCHIVE SNAPSHOT, DATE APPROXIMATE

Full text changes — 20180703_rev01 to 20220704_rev01

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77EFF does not sell or rent member, donor or website visitor information under any circumstances, and we do not share member, donor or visitor information without prior consent except as compelled by law. This restriction applies to member and donors who join or donate both online and offline. (See discussion below.)
88EFF is located within the United States, and therefore will transfer, process, and store your information in the United States, which may not provide as much protection as your home country. (We're [working](https://www.eff.org/issues/privacy) to make US practices better.)
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1010## Information Gathered by EFF's Site
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12**Logging:** For visitors to our website, we generally log requests to our website through a program called [cryptolog](https://www.eff.org/code/cryptolog) (cryptolog described [further below](https://www.eff.org/policy)) and do internal analytical logging (also described [further below](https://www.eff.org/policy)) for up to seven days from when the data was collected.
12**Logging:** For visitors to our website, we generally log only timestamps, URLs, and HTTP requests and do internal analytical logging, including additional technical information such as a single byte from IP addresses (described [further below](https://www.eff.org/policy)), for up to seven days from when the data was collected.
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1414Circumstances in which EFF may need to log and retain technical information for longer than seven days include when we believe it is reasonably necessary for EFF's mission and functionality, including situations such as:
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1616- site testing,
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1818- diagnosis of technical problems,
2222- handling a spike in traffic or other abnormal, short-term circumstances, or
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2424- research projects (in anonymized form) that serve our overall mission to defend freedom online.
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2626In those and similar situations we will delete the information as soon as it is apparent that the information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was retained. For more information on EFF's position on data logging and techniques we use to anonymize, obfuscate, aggregate and delete information, see our [Best Practices for Online Service Providers](https://www.eff.org/wp/osp).
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28**How Cryptolog Works:** Cryptolog takes the IP address portion of the request getting logged and encrypts it, as well as a chunk of random data (the salt), using a cryptographic hash function. The salt changes every night, which should result in making it very difficult for us, or anyone else, to recover IP addresses from our logs.
28**How EFF Internal Analytics Works:** EFF endeavors to gather sufficient information for analyzing our website and how visitors move within it without compromising the privacy of our visitors. EFF's internal analytical logging involves logging for up to seven days a single byte of the IP address, as well as the referrer page, time stamp, page requested, user agent, language header, website visited, and a hash of all of this information. After seven days we keep only aggregate information from these logs. We also geolocate IP addresses before anonymizing them and store only the country.
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30**How EFF Internal Analytics Works:** EFF endeavors to gather sufficient information for analyzing our website and how visitors move within it without compromising the privacy of our visitors. EFF's internal analytical logging, which is separate from the Cryptolog logs, involves logging for up to seven days a single byte of the IP address, as well as the referrer page, time stamp, page requested, user agent, language header, website visited, and a hash of all of this information. After seven days we keep only aggregate information from these logs. We also geolocate IP addresses before anonymizing them and store only the country.
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3230**Cookies:** We do not use persistent ID cookies on this site except where you click "remember me" or are logged in, as you can be for the Action Center. We use session cookies on certain portions of the website. Session cookies expire when you close your browser. You can use [Tor](https://www.torproject.org/) if you wish to keep your connection information anonymous, but please note that you can still be identified to EFF if you log in.
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3432**Voluntarily Submitted Information:** In addition, EFF collects and retains information you voluntarily submit to us. It is up to you whether to submit information to us, and how much information to provide. If you choose to become an EFF member, use the EFF Shop, otherwise donate to EFF or use our Action Center, we may ask for identifying information such as your name, email address, mailing address and phone number and will retain that information. For online donors and shoppers, we also ask for your credit card number or other payment information. For the Action Center, we maintain aggregate information about participation in the action campaigns, and, if you agree, we will also maintain account-specific records of your use of the Action Center. If you use the EFF Shop, you are asked to provide personal information, such as a shipping address, necessary to complete your transaction.
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3634We may ask for additional personal information when you provide feedback or comments, or otherwise communicate with us. We are pleased to receive anonymous donations in the mail or in-person, but please note that your personal information may be required if you choose to donate using our online form, or if you choose to use a mobile payment processor for in-person donations (and the mobile payment processor will also receive your payment information, subject to their privacy policy.)
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123121Although we make good faith efforts to store information collected by EFF in a secure operating environment, we cannot guarantee complete security.
124122
125123## Changes to Our Policies
126124
127125EFF's Privacy Policy may change from time to time. However, any revised privacy policy will be consistent with EFF's mission. If we make any substantive changes to our policies, we will place notice in EFFector and post notice of changes on this page.
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127_Updated July 1, 2022 to reflect that EFF no longer uses_ [_Cryptolog_](https://github.com/efforg/cryptolog)_, which allowed us to take the IP address portion of the request getting logged and encrypt it, as well as a chunk of random data (the salt), using a cryptographic hash function. Instead, as described above, we generally don't log IP_ _addresses_ _at all._
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129129_Updated May 25, 2018 to provide more transparency about our privacy practices and more detailed information about how you can access, correct and remove personal data stored with EFF._
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131131_Updated February 20, 2018 to clarify how EFF works with third parties like content delivery networks and cloud service providers._
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133133_Updated July 14, 2016 to clarify the use of information in the EFF Action Center and protections for members who join EFF offline._
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