Privacy Policy

Effective date: July 25, 2025

Accountability Counsel (“AC”) values your support and is committed to protecting your privacy through our compliance with the practices described in this notice.

This notice describes our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing the information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit our websites, including the Accountability Console, the Accountability Helpdesk, the Accountability Toolkit, and any other website, form, or online service that we operate and that links to this policy (“AC Services”).

This notice applies to the information collected through our AC Services, regardless of the country where you are located.

AC Services may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, services, social networks or applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow the third party to collect or share information about you. We do not control these third-party websites, and we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

We do not rent or sell visitor or donor information to third parties. We will not transfer or share this information unless compelled by law, or under the specific conditions listed below.

Please read this notice carefully to understand our policies and practices for processing and storing your information. By engaging with AC Services, you accept and consent to the practices described in this notice. This notice may change from time to time (see “Changes to this Policy“). Your continued engagement with our AC Services after any such revisions indicates that you accept and consent to them, so please check the notice periodically for updates.

I. DATA COLLECTION

Though we strive to collect as little information as we need to further our mission, we may collect and use some or all of the following types of information from and about you when you visit or interact with AC Services:

Information you provide directly to us. For certain activities, such as when you register an account, fill out a form, subscribe to our newsletter, or contact us directly, we may ask you to provide some or all of the following types of information:

Contact information, such as name, email address, phone number, and address;
Sign-in information, such as username or other similar identifier and password;
Information you provide directly to our AC Services, such as through surveys;
Payment information, such as credit card number, expiration date, credit card security code, and billing address where needed to complete a transaction; and/or
Correspondence you sent to us;

Information that we collect automatically. We may also collect certain information automatically when you use AC Services, such as your Internet protocol (IP) address, device and advertising identifiers, browser type, operating system, Internet service provider, pages that you visit before and after using AC Services, the date and time of your visit, information about the links you click and pages you view within the AC Services, and other standard server log information. We may infer your general location information, for example, by using your IP address.

We may use cookies, pixel tags, and similar technologies (“Cookies”) to automatically collect this information.

By using the AC Services, you consent to our use of Cookies.

Information we obtain from other sources. We may also receive information about you from other sources, including through third-party services and organizations, and publicly available information (as permitted by law). For example, if you access third-party services, such as Google, through AC Services to login to the AC Services, or if you interact with our social media pages (such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter)), we may collect information about you from these third-party services.

We may aggregate or de-identify the information described above so that it is not reasonably likely to identify you. Aggregated or de-identified information is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

II. USE OF INFORMATION

We use information to provide you with information, offer you services, communicate with you, or to conduct other business operations, such as using information to improve and personalize your experiences. We may use and otherwise process the information identified above for the following business purposes:

Provide you with the information, services, and support that you request from us;
Customize the content you see when you use AC Services, including to ensure that we present AC Services content in the most effective manner for you and for your device;
Notify you about changes to our AC Services, products or activities;
Administer our AC Services and conduct internal operations, including for troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
Improve our AC Services, products, activities, marketing, or client relationships and experiences;
Protect our AC Services, employees or operations;
Prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities and otherwise in accordance with our Terms of Use;
Meet our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts with you, including for billing or collections, or to comply with legal requirements; and/or
For any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or pursuant to your consent.

We only use payment information, such as credit card numbers, expiration date, and security codes, as necessary to complete a particular transaction (such as a donation) or as otherwise required by law.

In addition, we and our partners may use information collected through Cookies to improve your experience and provide you with more relevant content and advertising on our AC Services and elsewhere online and across your devices, including by enabling us to:

Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
Store your preferences so we may customize our AC Services according to your individual interests.
Speed up your searches.
Recognize you when you return to our AC Services.
Gather feedback through surveys and e-mail.
Help us understand usage of our AC Services.

III. DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

We are committed to maintaining your trust, and we want you to understand when and with whom we may share the information we collect:

Authorized third-party vendors and service providers. We share your information with third-party vendors and service-providers that help us with specialized services, including email deployment, business analytics, data processing, or cybersecurity.
Business transfers. We may share your information in connection with a substantial corporate transaction, such as the sale of a website, a merger, consolidation, asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.
Legal purposes. We may be required to disclose information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, legal process, law enforcement requests, legal claims or any other government or regulatory requests. Other than the disclosure of donor information required by law, we will object to any subpoena or other demand by government or private organizations or individuals (other than yourself) to access your information.
With your consent. We may share information for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect the information or pursuant to your consent.

If you access third-party services, such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, or X (formerly Twitter), through AC Services to login to AC Services or to share information about your experience on AC Services with others, these third-party services may be able to collect information about you, including information about your activity on the AC Services, and they may notify your connections on the third-party services about your use of the AC Services, in accordance with their own privacy policies.

We do not sell information for money, or share information for cross-context behavioral advertising, both currently and in the last twelve (12) months. We also have not knowingly sold or shared for cross-context behavioral advertising information for minors less than sixteen (16) years of age.

IV. DATA SECURITY

The security of your information is very important to us. We use physical, electronic, and administrative safeguards designed to protect your information from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, use, alteration or disclosure. We store all information you provide to us on servers employing security protections.

However, like with every website, there are risks associated with uploading your information online. The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted to AC Services. Any transmission of information is at your own risk.

Please note that information collected by third parties may not have the same security protections as information you submit to us, and we are not responsible for protecting the security of such information.

V. YOUR RIGHTS

You may be able to refuse or disable Cookies by adjusting your web browser settings. Some browsers have options that allow the visitor to control whether the browser will accept Cookies, reject Cookies, or notify the visitor each time a cookie is sent. Because each web browser is different, please consult the instructions provided by your web browser (typically in the “help” section). Please note that you may need to take additional steps to refuse or disable some Cookies. If you choose to refuse, disable, or delete these technologies, some of the functionality of the AC Services may no longer be available to you and any differences in service are related to the data. Deleting Cookies may in some cases cancel the opt out selection in your browser.

You may request to access, limit collection of, correct, or delete your information. We will respond to such requests made in writing as set out below according to applicable law. We may need to request additional information from you in order to verify your request. You may be entitled, in accordance with applicable law, to submit a request through an authorized agent by using the contact information provided below. You also may be entitled, in accordance with applicable law, to appeal a refusal to take action on your request; to do so, please see the instructions in our response to your request. Contact info@accountabilitycounsel.org to exercise those rights.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights and choices, although some of the functionality and features available on the AC Services may change or no longer be available to you. If you choose not to provide us with information we collect, some features of the AC Services may not work as intended.

VI. INTERNATIONAL USERS

The AC Services are based in the U.S. and are governed by and operated in accordance with the laws of the U.S. By using the AC Services and providing us with information, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to and stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction and, to the extent you are a resident of a country other than the United States, that you consent to the transfer of such information to the United States for processing by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Our lawful basis for processing, including basis of legitimate interest include (a) performance of a contract with you, (b) necessity to comply with a legal obligation, (c) necessity for our legitimate interest (for instance, to keep our records updated).

Where legally required and we have no other valid legal basis to process your information, we will obtain consent, which may subsequently be withdrawn at any time by contacting us. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before it is withdrawn.

Where we need to collect information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may cancel a product or service you have with us.

VII. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we update the Policy, we will revise the “Effective Date” date above and post the new Policy. We recommend that you review the Policy each time you visit AC Services to stay informed of our privacy practices.

VIII. STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our practices, please contact us at info@accountabilitycounsel.org.