Privacy Policy & Website Terms of Use

The only personal information we collect from the Site and offline is that which is voluntarily provided to us and otherwise described in this Policy. This information may be requested if a visitor volunteers or, in full or in-part, fills out a form, registers for an event, completes a survey, requests information, creates a tribute page, participates in a public forum, registers with our Site or makes a donation. In addition to other identifiers, we may collect the following information: name, address, telephone number, email address and subject of inquiry.

If you are a California Resident, Following is our Notice at Collection of Categories of Personal Information Collected - Although the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) does not expressly apply to BrightFocus, per its terms, we provide this notice voluntarily as a convenience for you and in advance of any instance where the CCPA may have application to our collection and use of personal information.  Additional uses of the following information may also be contained in other portions of the BrightFocus Privacy Policy.

Categories of Information, Including Personal Information, We have Collected Over the Prior 12 Months and Shall Continue to Collect in the Future

In terms of how we use the following information we collect, please also see the separate section of the Privacy Policy titled “How We Use Information.” 

1.  Identifiers for our Donors and Those Who Provide Personal Information

Sources of Information:
We collect this information from our users, donors, and any business partners.  Identifiers include Cookies and other similar e-identifiers.  We also generate identifiers internally.

How We Use It: 
To enable use of our sites, services, and products, to communicate with you, to understand how our users interact with our sites and to improve our offerings and collect your monetary and in-kind support.

Types of Individuals Affected: 
People who donate to us; use our sites or mobile applications; create a user account; volunteer with us; or obtain a service from us.

How We Share It:
We share this data with our service providers and with business partners including those to whom you instruct us to send this information.

2.  Personal Information (Generally and as Defined Under California Civil Code Section 1798.80)

Sources of Information: 
We collect this information from our users, donors, and business partners.

How We Use It:
To enable use of our sites, services, and products, to communicate with you, to understand how our users interact with our sites and to improve our offerings and collect your monetary and in-kind support.

Types of Individuals Affected: 
People who donate to us; use our sites or mobile applications; create a user account; volunteer with us; or obtain a service from us.

How We Share It:  We share this data with our service providers and with business partners including those to whom you instruct us to send this information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

3.  Commercial Information

Sources of Information:
We collect this information from our donors; and generate it internally during transactions with our donors.

How We Use It: 
To transact with you if you use our service or make a donation, and to enable transactions you have requested.

Types of Individuals Affected:
People who make a donation to us or purchase goods/services.

How We Share It:
We do not share this information except with third party processors for purposes of completing their services to us.  All such data is sent protected and encrypted.

4.  Electronic Network Activity Information

Sources of Information:
We collect this information from our website visitors and social media visitors.

How We Use It:
To enable use of our sites, services, and products, to communicate with you, to understand how our users interact with our sites and to improve our offerings and collect your monetary and in-kind support.

Types of Individuals Affected:
People who use our sites or mobile applications.

How We Share It: 
We share this data with our service providers and with business partners, including those to whom you instruct us to send this information.

5.  Geolocation Data 

Sources of Information: 
We collect this information from our users and donors.

How We Use It: 
To enable use of our sites, services, and products, to communicate with you, to understand how our users interact with our sites and to improve our offerings and collect your monetary and in-kind support.

Types of Individuals Affected: 
People who use our sites or mobile applications and allow us to collect their location data.

How We Share It:
We share this data with our service providers.

6.  Audio, Electronic, Visual, or Similar Information

Sources of Information:
We collect this information from our users and donors if they supply it to us in accordance with the Privacy Policy (User Submissions).

How We Use It: 
To identify you, to enable use of our sites and services, and to further our programs.

Types of Individuals Affected: 
People who provide user submissions.

How We Share It: 
We share this information with our service providers and the general public through our website, print material, and social media.

If you wish to not have your personal information sold, please visit:
Do Not Sell My Info.

If You are a User Inside the EEU or the UK or Brazil

The policy reflects certain requirements of two European privacy laws and Brazil, as applicable: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive, as well as Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD) from Brazil. These laws apply to end users in the European Economic Area (EEA) or in Brazil. The EEA comprises the EU Member States and Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.  For purposes of this privacy policy, the UK shall also be covered within these requirements.

BrightFocus ensures that certain disclosures are given and consents, as required by law, are obtained from end users in the EEA or Brazil. End users in the EEA or Brazil are informed through this policy and other means that they must consent to:

• the use of cookies or other local storage; and
• the collection, sharing, and use of personal data for personalisation of ads or other services.

Once consent is obtained, BrightFocus shall:

• retain records of consent given by end users; and
• provide end users with the ability to revoke consent.

BrightFocus shall periodically identify each party that may collect, receive, or use end users’ personal data as a consequence of BrightFocus’ use of third party products and shall provide end users with prominent and easily accessible information about that party’s use of end users’ personal data.

We do not collect and/or store personal payment information.

This website uses the Google AdWords remarketing service to advertise on third party websites (including Google) to previous visitors to our site. The website may utilize additional remarketing services to advertise on third party websites to previous visitors to our site, as well.  Any such remarketing service shall be determined to be compliant with all US and international privacy law requirements prior to use by this website.  It could mean that, if consistent with applicable privacy laws, we advertise to previous visitors who have visited our site using their desktop computer, tablet, or mobile device even if they haven’t completed a task on our site. This could be in the form of an advertisement on the Google search results page, or a site in the Google Display Network. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the BrightFocus website. Of course, any data collected will be used in accordance with our own privacy policy, Google’s privacy policy, and applicable law.

You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Preferences page, and if you want to you can opt out of interest-based advertising entirely by cookie settings or permanently using a browser plugin, or opt out of a particular third-party vendor's use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.  Should we use any other remarketing service to advertise on third party sites, we will attempt to advise you on how to establish your preferences with that site and, at your initiative, you may set preferences for how you may be advertised to.

BrightFocus.org also uses 3rd party vendor re-marketing tracking cookies, including the Google AdWords tracking cookie.  For data collected from end-users in the EEA and Brazil, BrightFocus will first obtain EEA and Brazilian end-user consent and shall further obtain assurances that the vendor is compliant with US and international laws regarding consumer privacy. This means we may show ads to you across the internet, specifically on the Google Content Network (GCN). However, no such ads shall be shown to EEA or Brazilian end-users without having first obtained consent.  As always we respect your privacy and are not collecting any identifiable information through the use of Google’s or any other 3rd party remarketing system.

With the exception of end users in the EEA whose consent must first be obtained, the third-party vendors, including Google, whose services we use – will place cookies on web browsers in order to serve ads based on past visits to our website.   Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to our website. This allows us to make special offers and continue to market our fundraising needs and program services to those who have shown interest in us.

In addition to using cookies and related technologies as described above, we also may permit certain third party companies to help us tailor advertising that we think may be of interest to users and to collect and use other data about user activities on our Sites and/or Services (e.g., to allow them to tailor ads on third party services). These companies may deliver ads that might also place cookies and otherwise track user behavior.  With respect to end-users in the EEA, BrightFocus.org uses commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the operator of any such third party property complies with the duties of disclosure, obtaining consent, and informing EEA users of their right to revoke consent and how that may be accomplished.

Please see our Cookies Policy here.

We use cookies, which are small files that are sent to your web browser to improve your experience when visiting the Site. The cookie speeds up access to the content on the Site, but does not provide any personal information. The majority of web browsers accept cookies, and the help menu on most browsers typically includes options for preventing, accepting or receiving notice of new cookies. However, please be informed that if cookies are blocked, some of the Site functionality may be lost.  For those end-users in the UK and EEA or in Brazil, we will not use cookies without your consent. Currently we are using Google Analytics, a cookie-based software product, to generate detailed statistics about the visits to our website and to improve our content. No personal information is collected from Google Analytics. The Google Analytics Privacy Policy and the EU User Consent Policy are incorporated herein by this reference.  Please visit this web page for further information on the Google Analytics privacy policy and EU User Consent Policy.

BrightFocus attempts to protect the security of personal information and to honor choices for its intended use, but does not guarantee the security of personal information. BrightFocus is committed to protecting personal information and to enable secure online transactions by preventing unauthorized access, maintaining data accuracy and ensuring correct use of information. BrightFocus and its third party vendors have implemented electronic, physical and administrative safeguards that provide a high level of security. Users may further protect themselves as described in the Browser Security Signals section below.

We process financial transactions (donations and book orders) via encrypted secure sockets layer (SSL) sessions. SSL is an industry standard for securing web-based transactions. All BrightFocus-related credit card transactions are handled by a vendor that securely stores merchant credit card data in compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. Mandatory, global PCI security standards ensure the protection of cardholder data and are upheld by Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.

When BrightFocus allows a third party access to personally identifiable information, we use procedures considered to be appropriate to help ensure that the information is used only by authorized persons for authorized purposes, consistent with BrightFocus visitors' choices and applicable law. Our procedures help to maintain the security, integrity and privacy of your information. Even though BrightFocus uses procedures to secure your information, we cannot make any guarantees about the actions or policies of the aforementioned third parties.

For security purposes and to help protect users from credit card theft or misuse, every BrightFocus-related online purchase or donation transaction is encrypted. This encryption scrambles personal information sent to the BrightFocus website when making an online contribution or purchasing a publication. We use advanced technology to prevent information interception.

For browser security, BrightFocus uses a website identification service which most browsers recognize. Please check personal browser security setting options to ensure that the desired security features are in place. This will enable the browser to send an alert or notification of questionable transmission security. The URLs (addresses) of secure web pages are identified by "https://" rather than "http:// (note the “s”) and include a security symbol, an icon of a lock, somewhere in the browser window. These indicate that any transmitted information will be encrypted and securely sent.

When a visitor makes a donation, sets up a tribute page or orders a publication, BrightFocus may share the visitor's name and address with other reputable non-profit organizations. If you do not wish your name and address to be shared, you may email your request to BrightFocus and we will honor your request.

In responding to your email questions or requests, BrightFocus may save your email address.

We ask for your email address on a number of pages within our site, including when you make a donation, but you may opt out of email communications at any time by doing one or more of the following:

• Click the "Unsubscribe" link that is at the bottom of every email communication from BrightFocus and follow the listed instructions.
• Contact us at 1-800-437-2423 and request that we remove you from our email distribution lists.

BrightFocus does not sell exchange or rent your email address to any third party. BrightFocus only uses your email address to send you information about BrightFocus and its programs and/or to solicit your support through a charitable donation or as a volunteer. BrightFocus complies with those provisions of the Federal CAN-SPAM Act applicable to charitable organizations, as well as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive for end-users in the EEA.

If you would like to review your personal information collected by BrightFocus and request corrections, please contact info@brightfocus.org or call 1-800-437-2423 and ask for our Donor Services Department.

You may restrict sharing of your personal information and limit our collection, use, and sharing of same, or limit communication with you by requesting one or more of the following:

• Do not contact me by email.
• Changing personal preferences for cookies and email here:
  https://www.brightfocus.org/about-us/legal/cookiepolicy and email  here: info@Brightfocus.org
• Do not contact me by postal mail.
• Do not contact me by telephone.
• Do not share/exchange my contact information with others.
• Delete my information

For more information on any desired restrictions, please click on the following email link: info@brightfocus.org. Requests to limit collection, contact and sharing of information or deletion of information may be made at any time, and we make all reasonable efforts to ensure these requests are honored. If you decide to re-initiate certain communications (e.g., newsletter subscriptions or email messages) or use the "Contact Us" link, you may do so without affecting your other requests to limit contact or sharing of information.

BrightFocus' opt-out policies apply to offline and online communications. Visit the Do Not Sell My Information form.

This Site does not knowingly gather any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. Children under the age of 13 should not provide any personally identifiable information to this Site. BrightFocus has no actual knowledge of selling the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.

BrightFocus' trademarks and service marks (collectively “the Marks”) include, but are not limited to, the following:

• 21st CENTURY BRAINTRUST
• AHAF
• ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE RESEARCH
• ALZHEIMER'S DON'T FEAR IT. FIGHT IT!
• ALZHEIMER’S FAST TRACK
• AMERICAN HEALTH ASSISTANCE FOUNDATION
• BRIGHTFOCUS AWARD
• BRIGHTFOCUS CHATS
• BRIGHTFOCUS FAST TRACK
• BRIGHTFOCUS FOUNDATION
• CHILDREN'S CORNER
• COMPASSION FOR TODAY - A CURE FOR TOMORROW
• CURE IN MIND. CURE IN SIGHT.
• EYECELEBRATE
• GIVE4SCIENCE
• GLAUCOMA FAST TRACK
• IT'S NOT JUST FORGETFULNESS - IT'S ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
• MACULAR CHATS
• MACULAR DEGENERATION RESEARCH
• MACULAR FAST TRACK
• MIND. SIGHT. CURE.
• NATIONAL GLAUCOMA RESEARCH
• SEE A BETTER TOMORROW
• STEM CELL RESEARCH FOUNDATION
• VISION EYE-Q
• WALKWAY OF HOPE

The Marks may not be used or imitated, in or whole or in part, without BrightFocus' prior written authorization. In addition, all page headers, custom graphics, button icons and scripts are the trademarks, service marks, or trade dress of BrightFocus, and may not be used or imitated without BrightFocus' prior written authorization.

You agree that you will not infringe upon any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary right of BrightFocus or its partners or affiliates, that you will not copy the Site in whole or in part except as expressly authorized herein, and that you will not decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or create derivative works of the Content or any work or software or other products or processes accessed through or on the Site. You further agree not to access or provide access to the Site by means other than the interface provided by BrightFocus for use in accessing the Site, and not to use any data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction methods in connection with the Site. You agree to immediately cease and desist any and all uses of BrightFocus Marks, Content or other proprietary material upon request by BrightFocus.

BrightFocus welcomes your comments and participation on the Site. However, you acknowledge that if you send us tributes, creative suggestions, stories, ideas, notes, drawings, concepts, videos, audio files, or other information the information shall be deemed, and shall remain, the property of BrightFocus and further that such information is not confidential. By submission of any information to us, you assign to us and we shall exclusively own all now known or hereafter existing rights to such information and shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the information for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation.

As a user of this site, you are responsible for your own communications and are responsible for the consequences of their posting. Therefore, do not impersonate another person and not transmit material to us or post information that is copyrighted, unless you are the copyright owner or have the permission of the copyright owner to post it; do not send material that reveals trade secrets, unless you own them or have the permission of the owner; do not send or post material that infringes on any other intellectual property rights of others or on the privacy or publicity rights of others; do not send or post material that is obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, or embarrassing to another user or any other person or entity; do not upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available through the Site any virus or other harmful, disruptive, malicious or destructive file; and do not send or post sexually explicit images, advertising or solicitations of business, or chain letters.

You acknowledge that BrightFocus and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse, move, edit or delete any content available via this Site. BrightFocus and its designees shall have the right to remove any content from the Site regardless of whether the content violates these Site Terms. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of such content. You agree that BrightFocus may preserve content of the Site and may also disclose content if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce these Site Terms; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of BrightFocus, its users and the public.

If you have questions about content that you wish to post, or if you feel that BrightFocus has unauthorized use of copyrighted materials posted on the website, please contact:

R. Brian Elderton, M.Ed
Senior Vice President, Development
215.680.4082
rbelderton@brightfocus.org

Links to other Websites do not imply an endorsement of the materials disseminated at those Websites, nor does the existence of a link to another site imply that the organization or person publishing at that site endorses any of the materials at this site. Links to other Websites are provided by BrightFocus as a convenience to its users. BrightFocus is not responsible for the materials contained at any Website linked to this site. If you visit the Websites of any third party, please consult their privacy policy. Our Privacy Policy & Terms of Use apply only to your use of the BrightFocus site. We do not disclose personally identifiable information to those operating linked sites and we are not responsible for their privacy practices.

The BrightFocus website also permits third party links to the Site or content on the Site. However, third party links do not imply that BrightFocus promotes or endorses any third party's causes, ideas, political campaigns, websites, products or services. Parties linking to the Site may not use BrightFocus copyrighted information, BrightFocus or its programs logos, trademarks or service marks, without the express written consent of BrightFocus. Parties linking to the Site may not use any BrightFocus website content for commercial or fundraising purposes. BrightFocus reserves the right at its discretion to withdraw permission for any link at any time.