Privacy Policy

Last Updated November 14, 2022

COPD Foundation ("COPDF", "we", or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most powerful and safe online experience. We will use your information as allowed by law and COPDF policies in furtherance of our missions. This Privacy Policy describes the privacy practices of COPDF and our subsidiaries and affiliates and describes how we collect and, use, disclose and otherwise process personal information in connection with the websites we own or control and which post or link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the "Website"). In order to fully understand your rights, we also encourage you to read the COPDF Terms of Use and Disclaimer. By using the Website, you consent to the data practices described in this Privacy Policy.

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Collection of your Personal Information

To create an account on the Website COPDF collects personally identifiable information, such as your e-mail address, user name, password (encrypted so we cannot see it), display name, member type (patient, caregiver, family member, friend, or health care professional status and credentials), general demographic area and how you are impacted by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ("COPD"). COPDF may collect additional personally identifiable information, such as name, home or work address or telephone number, all of which is optional for you to provide. COPDF also collects anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you.

Notification that an individual is a health care professional will automatically subscribe him or her to the PRAXIS email distribution list for health care professional-specific COPD content. When you sign up for newsletters or other communications from us, and do not sign up as a member, we will collect your e-mail address. When you participate in an anonymous online survey, all information is collected and stored through a third-party vendor, and not by the COPDF. Additional information collected about state captains and volunteers is stored through a third-party vendor.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by COPDF. The information we collect automatically is statistical data, and does not identify any individual. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, your device, domain names, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by COPDF for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Website.

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through COPDF public message and/or discussion boards, this information may be collected and used by others. All content that you share on the Website can be indexed by search engines, thus available to the public as well as viewable by all members of the Website. Please exercise caution when deciding whether to disclose your personal information in public message and/or discussion boards. By creating an account on the Website, you consent to the information that you post being shared publicly.

COPDF retains your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which the information was collected, to provide our services, to pursue the mission of the COPDF, and to comply with applicable laws.

Use of Your Personal Information

COPDF collects and uses your personal information that you provide to us in the following ways:

  • Operating the Website and delivering the services you have requested;
  • Informing you of other products, services, or events available from COPDF and its affiliates, and to keep you informed about COPD-related news developments;
  • Contacting you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current resources or services, or of potential new resources or services that may be offered;
    • All surveys posted on our Website are optional and you are not required to participate.
  • Contacting you to respond to your requests or inquiries and provide support;
  • Conducting, managing and growing our business;
  • Analyzing COPD community experience, including member experience and communications on COPD360social, our online community;
  • Meeting our legal obligations;
  • Investigating and resolving disputes and security issues and enforcing our Terms of Use; and
  • For any other lawful, legitimate business purposes.

COPDF also keeps track of the websites and pages our customers visit within the Website, in order to determine what COPDF services are the most popular, and to enhance and modify our services. This data is used to deliver customized content and advertising within COPDF to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

COPDF does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. COPDF may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party.

COPDF does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, health information, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent. However, if you disclose that information on our public message and/or discussion boards on the Website that information can be indexed by search engines, thus available to the public as well as viewable by all members of the Website. COPDF analyzes information disclosed on our public message and/or discussion boards to better understand the issues, concerns, and related needs of the COPD community. All such analytics are performed on an anonymous basis and are not specifically targeted toward members of the community.

Sharing and Disclosing Your Personal Information

COPDF only shares or discloses your personal information that you provide to us in the following ways:

  • Third Party Service Providers. COPDF may share data with trusted partners to help us perform operational services on our behalf, such as statistical analysis concerning your use of our online services, sending you email or postal mail, providing customer support, or arranging for deliveries. Our third-party service providers include:
    • IT service and support providers, including those providers involved in hosting and monitoring the Website;
    • Analytics providers;
    • Marketing and advertising providers, including those providers involved in our newsletter emails and digital advertising campaigns;
    • Payment and e-commerce providers, including those providers facilitating the fundraising, donation, and event pages; and
    • Providers of tools, widgets or buttons on the Website, including those providers facilitating blog comments, sharing tools, forums and questionnaires.
  • Affiliates. We also may share your personal information with legal entities that are affiliated with us for purposes and uses that are consistent with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.
  • Legal Process, Safety and Terms Enforcement. COPDF will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on COPDF or the Website, which may include laws outside your country of residence; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of COPDF; (c) to enforce our Terms of Use; and, (d) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of COPDF, or the public.
  • Business Transfers. Your personal information may be disclosed as a part of a corporate business transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, reorganization, joint venture or financing or sale of our assets, and could be sold or transferred to a third party as part of such a transaction. Your personal information also may be disclosed to a successor legal entity in the event of insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership.
  • Express Authorization. In addition to the other disclosures described in this section, we may also disclose your information as you expressly authorize us to do.

All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to COPDF, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

COPDF and such third parties may also use data that we collect on an aggregate or anonymous basis for various purposes, where permissible under applicable laws and regulations, to help deliver services, and content that are better tailored to the users of our services and for other purposes.

Donor Specific Policies

COPDF does not sell, rent or lease its donor lists or giving histories to third parties. If you request another individual be informed of your donation, we will provide your name only; your contact information and the donation amount will not be shared. If you donate towards an event or campaign that acknowledges donors, your name may appear in associated materials unless you request otherwise. To request that a donation is not acknowledged publicly, indicate that it is anonymous or email donations@copdfoundation.org.

COPDF retains personal information, such as mailing addresses, to analyze donor demographics and for future solicitations. To review your personal information that COPDF has collected and request corrections, email donations@copdfoundation.org.

Social Media

COPDF gathers information from social media sites and COPDF is active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. We collect information from social media activity, including likes, shares, views, referrals, and tweets about our content on social networking sites. If you engaged with COPDF on a public, social media platform, you may be sharing your personal information in connection with your social media activity with your friends associated with your social media account and the social media account provider. Information posted on these social media sites may become public, and read, collected, and used by anyone. Your interactions with social media sites and the use of their features are governed by their privacy policies.

Use of Cookies, Tags, and Services

The Website uses tools, cookies, and services such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google AdWords for tracking, reporting and analyzing Website activity, and to provide basic functionality and to improve the performance and user experience throughout the site. We may also store encrypted information about you using cookies which we can access when you visit our site in the future, including authentication cookies to help us track when you sign in and allows you to be signed in automatically when you come back after an extended period of inactivity. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize COPDF pages, or register with the Website or services, a cookie helps COPDF to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as an active account on the Website. When you return to the same COPDF site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use COPDF features that you customized.

If you want to delete cookies that are already on your computer, please refer to the instructions for your particular system here: https://www.aboutcookies.org/how-to-delete-cookies/.

If you want to learn about how to control cookies, you can find instructions for your particular system here: https://www.aboutcookies.org/how-to-control-cookies/.

If you would like to learn more about the web analytics services we use and to opt out, please go to https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and opt-out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Security of your Personal Information

While we cannot provide an absolute data security guarantee or completely protect against all computer or human errors, or viruses, hacking or other security threats, we will do all that we can to reduce the chance of a mistake or breach of confidentiality. The Website implements industry standard security practices. All communication between the client browser and the website is protected using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption. All passwords assigned during the signup process are protected using salted cryptographic hashing and cannot be decrypted by us. COPDF secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Our third-party hosting provider uses secure servers hosted in a protected environment that implement security measures to protect the data they hold. When it is necessary to engage a third-party to perform a function on behalf of COPDF, we expect the same standards of data security, integrity and confidentiality as COPDF itself provides, and ensure each third-party’s security policies and infrastructure adhere to industry standard security practices.

Other Privacy Policies and Practices

This Privacy Policy describes our practices related to the data collection and use activities for the Website. We have other policies, procedures and statements that apply to other activities and programs, such as for the COPD Patient-Powered Research Network ("PPRN"). If you have a question about privacy policies and procedures for the PPRN, please go to COPD PPRN Privacy Policy and Data Security Measures.

Children and Teens

We are committed to protecting privacy of young people using the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information on the Website from children under age 13. We believe children should get their parents’ or guardians’ consent before giving out any personal information. If you become aware that we have collected personal information from a child without parental consent, please notify us promptly. If we become aware that a child under age 13 has provided us with personal information without parental consent, we will take steps to remove it.

If you are a California resident under age 18 and register with the Website, then you may request that we remove any submissions you publicly posted on the Website. To request removal of a submission, please send a detailed description of the specific submission to info@copdfoundation.org. We reserve the right to request that you provide information to enable us to confirm that you created and posted the submission you want removed. We will make a good faith effort to delete or remove your submission from public view as soon as reasonably practicable. But the submission may remain on backup media, cached or otherwise retained by us for administrative or legal purposes. Your submission also may remain publicly available if you or someone else has forwarded or re-posted your submission on another website or service prior to its deletion. And the law also may require that we not remove or allow removal of your submission.

Links to Other Websites or Mobile Applications

The Website may contain links to websites or mobile applications owned and operated by third parties. A link to another website or mobile application does not imply an endorsement of that website’s or mobile application’s content or services. The Website’s Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, the privacy practices of third-party websites or mobile applications that are not owned by us. COPDF encourages you to review the privacy policies of third-party websites you choose to link to from the Website so that you can understand how those third-party websites collect, use and share your information. When you use a link online to a third-party website, you will be subject to the that website’s privacy and security practices, which may differ from the Website. COPDF is not responsible for the privacy policies or other content on websites outside of the Website.

California Privacy Rights

In addition to the rights already described, California law permits California residents to request certain details about how their information is shared with third parties and, in some cases, affiliates, for those third parties’ and affiliates’ own direct marketing purposes. Under the law, a business must either provide this information or permit California customers to opt in to, or opt out of, this type of sharing.

We may from time to time elect to share certain personal information about you collected by us with third parties or affiliates for those third parties’ or affiliates’ own direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident, you may opt out of such future sharing of your personal information (as defined by the California Shine the Light Act) by contacting COPDF at info@copdfoundation.org with the phrase "Do Not Share" in the subject line.

Managing Your Communication Preferences

To discontinue receiving messages from COPDF, you can submit an opt-out request to the contact information below or by following these instructions:

  • If you wish to opt out of receiving our email newsletters, click “unsubscribe” in any email newsletter and follow the instructions on the screen, or email us at info@copdfoundation.org.
  • If you are a donor and wish to request that COPDF or any third parties acting on behalf of COPDF not contact you in the future, please contact COPDF at donations@copdfoundation.org.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

COPDF will occasionally update this Privacy Policy to reflect company and customer feedback. When we do, we will let you know by appropriate means such as by posting the revised policy on this page with a new "Last Updated" date. COPDF encourages you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to be informed of how COPDF is using and protecting your information. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when posted unless indicated otherwise.

Contact Information

COPDF welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you believe that COPDF has not adhered to this Privacy Policy, please contact COPDF at info@copdfoundation.org. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.

Physical Address:
COPD Foundation General Office
3300 Ponce de Leon Blvd
Miami, Florida 33134