Privacy Policy
We’ve updated our Privacy Policy as of 1 January 2025.
What are the highlights?
The points below are just a few highlights of changes we made. Read the full policies for more.
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We’ve provided more information relating to the retention of member data.
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Your rights relating to your data have been more clearly listed.
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How we process data to send relevant campaigns to our members has been included.
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The type of information collected and the legal basis therefore has been more clearly set out.
Keep reading below for the full details. If you have any feedback or suggestions, we’d love to hear from you, so contact us.
The Avaaz Team
This Policy has been drawn up in the English language. In case of discrepancies between the English text version of this Policy and any translation, the English language version prevails.
Introduction
The Avaaz Mission:
To close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want.
This website, Avaaz.org, along with all translated versions, is operated by Avaaz, a nonprofit organization incorporated as Avaaz Foundation in the State of Delaware, United States, and with a registered branch office in the UK (No. FC031321).
Avaaz is committed to protecting your privacy online. If you engage with us, for example by signing up to support a campaign or if you wish to start your own campaign, this policy is applicable to everyone who uses this website worldwide. The Avaaz staff are members too, and we treat your privacy as we do our own. When you use our website or communicate with us, we collect and store personal information about you so we can better serve you and the Avaaz mission.
We wrote this Privacy Policy to let you know how we treat your personal information – like your name, contact information, and issues that are important to you – and to show you all the ways we work hard to keep it safe. This Privacy Policy will apply when you access this website or submit any forms on this site or engage with us. We encourage you to take the time to read it.
Parental consent. If you are under the age of 13 (US) or 16 (EU & elsewhere), please ask your parent/guardian for their consent before submitting your personal information to this site. If we have reason to believe that someone is underage and we have collected their personal information without proper consent, we will delete that information in a reasonable period of time.
If you have any questions about our policies, your personal information, or the practices of this website, you can contact us.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Why do we collect your information?
Avaaz is a global civic movement and the participation of people like you is crucial to achieving our mission. To keep the network thriving, growing, and effective, we collect information from members and website users so we can more efficiently and creatively communicate with and mobilize our members, create, promote and fund our campaigns, interface with decision-makers, campaign targets, and the media, and develop new, more effective methods of outreach to grow the Avaaz network.
What information do we collect from you?
We collect, store, and use the following personal information you directly give us when you take action online, by WhatsApp or by SMS, donate, create your own petition, volunteer, RSVP for an event, or contact us.
Personal information we collect when you take action:
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Your name, email address, zip code, country, language preference, IP address, comments, personalized messages to targets, and any other information you share when you join Avaaz or sign a campaign, like your postal address and telephone number.
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Details of any donations you make to Avaaz, including the amount, currency, and method of payment. We do not store your credit card information or banking details -- that’s done through our payment processors.
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The history of petitions you sign or share with others and petitions you create on our Community Petitions platform.
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Your responses to optional polls or surveys that we may ask you to complete.
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Other information you voluntarily submit in a form on the site or that you share when you contact us.
We may also collect:
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Information you choose to save by signing up for the EasyDonate function, which allows you to instantly donate to a campaign.
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Data relating to whether you open our emails, click our email links, sign or share petitions, and if the people you shared with sign our petitions.
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Images, photographs, or video you upload to the site.
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Your general geographic location, for example city, zip code, state and country shared with us to send you targeted content about campaigns in your area.
We also collect from all visitors:
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Technical information about your use of the website, browser type and version, and operating system.
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Your IP Address.
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As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect technical data about your browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive technical data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Our
Cookie Policy
describes how we collect information via cookies, pixel tags, and other technologies and how to control your
Cookie Settings
.
Special categories of personal information
We do not intentionally collect special category information, (for example, information about your race or ethnicity, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, health, sexual orientation etc). It is possible that this information might be inferred by the type of campaign you sign up to, but if such processing takes place you will be notified thereof.
Information collected from third parties
We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios:
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Your social media account IDs and information shared with us via your social media accounts.
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Your third-party authentication status if you visit the website from a mobile application (i.e. whether you are presently logged into Facebook or other social media accounts).
What do we do with your information?
We use the personal information we collect from you to shape Avaaz campaigns, communicate with decision makers & the media, refine your experience, improve the site, innovate our technology, and optimize ways to forward the Avaaz mission.
Namely, if you sign, share, or donate, we use your personal information to:
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Send you information about our work via any channels you’ve consented to: email, phone/WhatsApp/SMS, and/or social media messaging. Since achieving our mission so often relates to who controls the government, our updates and opportunities may include information related to elections or political campaigns.
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Highlight your participation in a campaign by displaying your first name and first initial of your last name, country, and the campaign you took action on in our live activity feeds.
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If you do not wish to have your name and country publicly associated with a particular campaign, please do not sign or post on that campaign.
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Give you opportunities to get involved in campaigns, fundraisers, and special projects, to provide you information about Avaaz’s work, and to make it easier for you to share with your social networks.
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We might also use your information to help us define groups of audiences to send campaigns to based on factors like interests, age, location and more, if more information has been provided.
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Notify decision makers, political candidates, news publications, and the general public when you sign a petition, send a message using our tools, or otherwise join a petition campaign.
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Create targeted marketing campaigns to promote our work and engage the public with particular campaigns and petitions.
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Verify your identity and send you an email to thank you for signing or donating.
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Notify you about changes to our website, services or operations.
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Give you the opportunity to sign campaigns directly from your inbox with one click.
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To meet our obligations under our contractual relationship with you and to comply with legal requirements, for example to process your donations.
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Enable your participation in our website's interactive, social media (for example Facebook or X) or other similar features.
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If required by law, for example, to disclose your personal details to third parties, to protect against fraud or security issues, enforce our Terms of Use, or to meet any enforceable government request, comply with a court order or to bring or defend legal action.
We may use the personal information of all visitors of the site to:
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Answer your queries.
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Administer & improve the site and optimize our technology.
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Analyze how you use the site using tools like Google Analytics and other tools to help us test the performance of content and site functionality, understand traffic patterns, and know if there are problems with the site.
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Protect our website, employees or operations, including by bringing or defending legal action.
Please note that when you sign a petition, send a message, make a donation, or take any action on this site, we create a virtual user account for you where you can update your personal contact information and preferences so that we can better communicate with you to achieve the Avaaz mission. You can control your preferences on your profile page.
What is the lawful basis for processing your information?
When we process your personal information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, we may rely on one or more of the following legal bases:
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Consent
: We will ask for your consent to use your information to send you details about our campaigns, fundraisers, and action opportunities, for targeted advertising and profiling, and if you ever share sensitive personal information with us.
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Contractual relationships
: When you donate to us, apply for employment, or otherwise enter into a contract with us, we’ll need to process your personal information.
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Legal obligations
: When strictly necessary, we’ll process your personal information due to a binding legal obligation on us.
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Legitimate interests
: So long as our use is fair, balanced, and doesn’t unduly impact your rights, we will collect and process your personal information when we have a legitimate interest that serves the Avaaz mission, our services, or our activities.
How do we share your information?
Avaaz does not rent or sell your personal information and we will only share it with the parties described below, as required by law, or with trusted third parties with your permission.
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Targets of Avaaz campaigns
: When you sign an Avaaz petition, the target of the campaign is sent a final list including the name, city, country, and any comments of everyone who signed. Where the target is a government body or official that requires petition signers to be constituents, we may also provide your postal code and full address.
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Avaaz volunteers and event hosts
: From time to time, Avaaz volunteers or event hosts may have access to your contact information, including your name, email address, telephone number, and social media account IDs, to reach out to you about a specific campaign or event. They may contact you directly or through an Avaaz or third-party contact tool at Avaaz’s direction.
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Avaaz Community Petition creators
: When you sign a petition created on the Avaaz Community Petitions platform, we provide your name, city, and country to the petition creator so they can deliver it to the campaign target.
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Collaborating organizations & the media
: Sometimes we work with the media or other groups to amplify our impact. In these cases, we may share your name, city, country, and any comments you have made when signing a petition with our partners to submit to a campaign target. If you live in the UK, we may contact you on behalf of Avaaz Campaigns UK, a UK-registered company limited by guarantee, about UK-specific campaigns.
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Service providers
: We work with a wide range of service providers, notably our database administrators, cloud computing services, help desk services, advertising services, data analysts, application service providers, bulk SMS services, voter phone banking services, and other non-governmental organizations. These providers work under strict confidentiality agreements. We do not authorize them to use or disclose your personal information except in connection with providing their services. Please note that we also use survey applications on external platforms, such as SurveyMonkey and Wufoo, to collect information from those who voluntarily fill out our surveys on these platforms. The personal information of survey participants will be transferred to Avaaz and is subject to this Privacy Policy.
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Payment processors
: We work with PayPal, Global Collect, and Stripe to help process credit card transactions and other payment methods when you donate to Avaaz. These payment processors will store certain personal information about you. Please refer to their privacy policies to learn more about how they use your personal information. If you choose to become an Avaaz sustainer, or select the EasyDonate option, your payment information will be stored with your chosen payment processor, and you will give Avaaz explicit permission to trigger donations. Avaaz does not store your credit card account number or banking details. You can edit your EasyDonate preferences on your
profile page
.
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Facebook marketing
: We may use your email address and Facebook ID to participate in Facebook’s Custom Audience and Lookalike Audience programs, which enable us to display campaign promotions to both existing and prospective members when they visit. To do this, we first send a digital fingerprint of your data to Facebook -- not your actual personal information -- and they check if it matches a fingerprint of their data. If you’re a match, Avaaz campaign promotions may then appear when you access Facebook. Facebook deletes this information (a) if it does not match with a Facebook account or (b) after they confirm you are a registered account holder. For more detailed information please see
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/744354708981227
and Facebook’s data policy at
https://en-gb.facebook.com/policy.php
.
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Other marketing
: Based on your use of this site, we may use cookies to target you for other campaign promotions on Facebook, Google, or other online services. You can read more in our
Cookie Policy
and control your
Cookie Settings
.
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Affiliated Third Parties
: In the future, we may transfer your personal information to a third party as a result of a merger, acquisition, reorganization or similar transaction. We will continue to ensure the confidentiality of any personal information and give you notice before personal information is transferred. If there are material changes in relation to the processing of your personal information, we will give you an opportunity to consent to such changes.
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Election Officials
: We take our obligation to comply with local election rules seriously. If you donate to an Avaaz election or referendum-related campaign, we ask that you donate only if you are a citizen or eligible voter of the relevant country. We may need to make your name, address, postal code, occupation, and the amount and date you donated available to election officials in order to comply or show compliance with the relevant election law. The specific donation page will give you full information.
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Protection of Avaaz and others
: We will share personal information with companies, organizations, or individuals outside of Avaaz if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of your personal information is reasonably necessary to protect Avaaz or to comply with legal requirements, including sharing with governments or law enforcement authorities or third parties to comply with a court order. When we are asked to disclose your information to a law enforcement authority, we will consider the extent that this is required and notify you, if permitted to do so.
How do we keep your information safe?
We use standard industry practices, such as firewalls and encryption, to safeguard your personally identifiable information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, misuse, or destruction. All donations, including the transmission of payment details and other personal information, are handled over secure, encrypted connections by our payment providers. Please see the privacy policies and terms of use for these providers for more information.
How long do we retain your information?
We hold on to your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was collected, unless otherwise required by law. If you request that we stop sending you updates and other communications or delete your information, we will honor your request and keep the minimum amount of information possible to prevent fraud and to help ensure that you are not contacted again.
Avaaz retains the data we collect for different periods of time depending on what it is.
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Data will be kept no longer than necessary for the purpose for which it was processed, unless a longer period is required to comply with applicable laws or bequests.
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Data is deleted or anonymised automatically after a set period of time, depending on the type of data it is. This is typically 7 years for user and member data, unless we have a legal requirement that requires we hold the data for longer.
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Some data we retain for longer periods of time when necessary for legitimate business or legal purposes, such as security, fraud, abuse prevention, financial record-keeping or bequests.
How can you unsubscribe?
If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from our email list, you may do so via your profile page or by following this link, which is also included in every campaign email that you receive from us.
How can you update and correct your information?
You can review and update your personal information via your profile page, or simply contact us if you have other data access requests. You can also change your personal Cookie Settings at any time.
Links to third party websites
We may provide links to other websites. This Privacy Policy covers only Avaaz sites. We have no control over external websites and are not responsible for their content or privacy practices. Please read the terms of use and privacy policies for any third party sites you visit via links from this site.
What rights do you have regarding your information?
Under data protection laws, you have rights, including:
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Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
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Your right to correct - You have the right to ask us to correct personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
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Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
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Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
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Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Please note that where we rely on your consent to use your personal information, all users worldwide have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This includes the option to unsubscribe from our email list at any time or to contact us to request to be excluded from our online campaign promotion lists or text messaging.
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Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organization, or to you, in certain circumstances.
You are normally not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we will respond as soon as possible and within any time limits required by law.
However, we may not be able to comply with a request where these rights are subject to an exception, for example where we are processing data for journalistic or academic purposes. Other exceptions include where the use of the personal data is in connection with the prevention and detection of crime or where it is legally privileged.
International Data Transfers
Avaaz is a global organization with members, volunteers and staff around the world. Your data is stored centrally, but made available worldwide. Our Avaaz service providers and third parties may be located throughout the world and we may be asked to disclose personal information internationally to comply with law enforcement authorities or other lawful reasons. Information may be sent to countries having different privacy protection standards than your country of residence.
Where your personal data is shared internationally, we take measures to comply with data protection laws and ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection by ensuring an appropriate safeguard is in place.
These measures may include that the country is considered as having an adequate level of protection. Where we use service providers, we ensure where required that there is adequate protection by transferring personal information to countries where there is adequate protection, using standard contractual clauses or other recognised protection mechanisms.
Links to third-party websites
We may provide links to other websites. This Privacy Policy covers only Avaaz sites. We have no control over external websites and are not responsible for their content or privacy practices. Please read the terms of use and privacy policies for any third party sites you visit via links from this site.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this policy from time to time, and if we make any significant changes to the rules that govern this site or the way we treat your personal information, we will add a prominent notice to the website. Your continued use of the site following the posting of changes to the policy will mean that you accept the changes. We encourage you to visit this page regularly to review it.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, your personal information, or data protection on this site, you can contact our Data Protection Officer. For your protection, we may only share and update the personal information associated with the specific email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before doing so. We will comply with such requests in a reasonably timely manner. Please do not send sensitive personal information, passwords, banking details, or credit/debit card details via email.
Our Data Protection Officer can be reached when you Contact Us, or when you write to:
Avaaz “Data Protection Officer” / 27 Union Square West, Suite #500 / New York, NY 10003 / USA.