In order to fully understand your rights we encourage you to read this Website Privacy Policy. Women In Distress reserves the right at any time and without notice to change this Website Privacy Policy simply by posting such changes on our Site. Any such change will be effective immediately upon posting.

For Internet Safety recommendations and instructions on clearing your history and cookies, please see below. If you need to leave a page immediately click the “Escape this Page Now” button at the top and you will be re-directed to google.

Questions regarding this statement should be directed to Women In Distress by sending an email to Rachel Carneglia.

Information Collected and How It Is Used

Our website forms require users to give us contact information that may include name, email address, home or business address, and similar information. When you make an online donation, we request your credit card information, but do not share that information. We do not request or store other sensitive information from our visitors, such as social security numbers.

If you do not make an online donation, we do not collect any personal financial information from you. You must clear your internet history if you are concerned about other people knowing that you have visited our website. For more information on how to clear your history click here.

If you do fill out a website form to “Contact Us” or “Sign Up for the E-Newsletter,” we do not share your personal information with any third parties. We do not sell, rent, or otherwise exchange information about any of our supporters.

Internet Protocol Address

We collect an IP address from all visitors to our Site. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet. We use IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, administer our Site, analyze trends, track users’ movement, gather broad demographic information for aggregate use in order for us to improve the site, and deliver customized, personalized content. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Protecting Children

We at Women In Distress realize that the content uploaded to this Site is not appropriate for everyone; particularly young children. The website is designed with an audience of 13 years and above in mind. For this reason, every user is asked to confirm that they are at least 13 years of age, and we use our best efforts to ensure the enforcement of this minimum age policy.

The Children’s Online Privacy Act (“COPPA”) requires that we inform parents and legal guardians about how we collect, use and disclose personal information from children under 13 years of age. Although our website is not directed at children this young, we understand that children may visit and utilize the site. COPPA requires that we obtain the consent of parents and/or guardians in order for children under 13 years of age to use certain features on the website.

If your child attempts to register and/or provide personal information to us (including the initial participation on the Women In Distress website), we will deny registration unless a parent or legal guardian:

1. completes the registration;
2. reviews our privacy policy and submits a valid credit card number to verify that the child’s parent or guardian knows about it, and authorizes our information practices related to children protected by COPPA; and
3. verifies through the use of an e-mail confirmation as a second authorization that the parent or guardian consents to the Terms of Use for the website and associated services and this Website Privacy Policy.

Once parental notice and consent have been verified, the information we collect will be treated in the same manner as information collected from any other users of the Women In Distress website. Without verified parental notice and consent, we will not knowingly collect personal information of children under 13 years of age, which may mean that such children are unable to use the full services of the Women In Distress website. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected such information, it will be promptly deleted.

In compliance with COPPA, parents and legal guardians may request us to review, delete, or stop the collection of the personally identifiable information of their child. You may contact us by letter, phone, or e-mail using the address and information provided in this Website Privacy Policy. If you request that no further information about your child be collected or used, we will be required to terminate your child’s ability to use the web pages that require a log in function.

Use of “Cookies”

Our Site may use cookies to enhance your experience while using our Site. Cookies are pieces of information that some websites transfer to the computer that is browsing the website and are used for record-keeping purposes at many websites. Use of cookies makes Web-surfing easier, as they can perform certain functions such as saving your passwords, your personal preferences regarding your use of the particular website and to make sure you don’t see the same ad repeatedly. Many consider the use of cookies to be an industry standard.

Your browser is most likely set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our Site will not function properly when you view them.

We never use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without also providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such unrelated uses.

Data Security

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect. All information provided to us is transmitted using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption. SSL is a proven coding system that lets your browser automatically encrypt, or scramble, data before you send it to us. We also protect account information by placing it on a secure portion of our Site that is only accessible by certain qualified employees of Women In Distress. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of such information.

Other Websites

Our Site may contain links to other websites. Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are entering another website for which we have no responsibility. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on all such sites as their policies may be different than ours.

The majority of the online banner advertisements you see on Women In Distress Web pages are displayed by Women In Distress. However, we allow other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to display advertisements on Women In Distress Web pages. Some of these ad networks may place a persistent cookie on your computer in order to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement. In this way, ad networks may compile information about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw their advertisements and determine which ads are clicked on. This information allows an ad network to deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. Women In Distress does not have access to the cookies that may be placed by the third-party ad servers or ad networks. Women In Distress is not responsible for any information you provide to such third party ad networks.

Controlling “Spam” or Unsolicited Emails

Women In Distress is concerned about controlling unsolicited commercial e-mail, or “spam.” Women In Distress will not sell, lease or rent its e-mail subscriber lists to third parties.

How You Can Access or Correct Your Information

You can access all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain by contacting us. We use this procedure to better safeguard your information.

You can correct factual errors in your personally identifiable information by sending us a request that credibly shows error.

To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.

Contacting the Website

If you have any questions about this Website Privacy Policy, the practices of this Site, your dealings with this Site, or wish to review or correct your information, please contact:

Women In Distress of Broward County, Inc.
P.O. Box 50187
Lighthouse Point, FL 33074
954-760-9800

You can also send an e-mail to Rachel Carnegila

Internet Safety – What You Should Know

Computer usage can be monitored and cannot be completely cleared. The following suggestions are meant as safety precautions, but do not guarantee complete removal of tracking information from your computer.

If you feel you are in danger, access a safer computer or call our crisis line for help and information.

Women In Distress’ 24-Hour Crisis Line:
954-760-1133 or TTY 954-527-5385

National Domestic Violence Hotline:
1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or TTY 1-800-787-3224

If you are using a home, business, or public computer, others have the ability to retrace your internet usage and view websites visited and emails sent by you. Nothing viewed or written on the internet is 100% safe or private, and programs exist to recover deleted emails, temporary internet files, cookies, and files on your computer.

To increase your computer usage privacy from the average web user, there are some cleaning processes you can practice to increase your safety. Additionally, software programs exist to further reduce your risk by making deleted computer files unrecoverable.

Cookies are small text files stored on your computer containing tracking information on which websites you visit, including passwords and preferences. You can disable cookies on your computer, but some websites you visit may not work properly without them enabled.

Clear Your History

Internet Explorer 8
From the Safety menu in the upper right, click Delete Browsing History
Check Temporary Internet files, Cookies, and History, and then click Delete.

Internet Explorer 7
From the Tools menu in the upper right, select Delete Browsing History. Next to “Temporary Internet Files”, click Delete files
To delete your cookies, click Delete Cookies.
Click Close, and then click OK to exit.

Firefox 3.5 for Windows
From the Tools menu, select Clear Recent History
From the Time range to clear: drop-down menu, select the desired range; to clear your entire cache, select Everything.
Click the down arrow next to “Details” to choose what history elements to clear (e.g., check Cookies to clear cookies). Click Clear Now.

Firefox 3 for Windows
From the Tools menu, select Clear Private Data, and then check Cache and Cookies.
Click Clear Private Data Now.

Safari
From the Safari menu, select Empty Cache, and Cookies
When prompted, click Empty to confirm that you want to empty the cache.

Firefox 3.5 for Mac OS X
From the Tools menu, select Clear Recent History
From the Time range to clear: drop-down menu, select the desired range; to clear your entire cache, select Everything.
Click the down arrow next to “Details” to choose what history elements to clear. Click Clear Now.

Firefox 3 for Mac OS X
In Firefox, from the Tools menu, select Clear Private Data.
Make sure Cache and Cookies are checked, and then click Clear Private Data Now.

Disable or Turn Off “Cookies”

For Windows 98:
Click Tools on your Internet Explorer task bar. Select Internet Options from the drop-down menu.
From the Security tab, click Custom Level button.
On the box that appears, scroll down to Cookies using the down arrow on the side of the box. Left-click the circle to the left of Disable under Cookies and click OK. If you prefer to have a prompt to accept or not to accept cookies, left-click the circle next to Prompt instead of Disable.
If at any time you want to turn your cookies back on, return to this display and click Enable and then OK.

For Windows XP:
Click Tools on your Internet Explorer task bar. Select Internet Options from the drop-down menu.
From the Privacy tab, click on Advanced button. Click to check box beside Override automatic cookie handling, and then mark circle beside Block under both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. Click OK to complete.

Delete Email From Outlook Express

To empty deleted items folder: Scroll within left-margin menu to Deleted Items folder. Right-click this folder and select Empty.
To set options to delete email: Click Tools, then Options. Click on Maintenance button and place check next to Empty messages on exit from the Deleted Items.

This listing or information is not meant to be all inclusive, and newer versions of applications or programs may have been issued. Check with your browser wizard or help function for the most appropriate means to delete information.

To learn more, view our Donor Privacy Policy and Civil Rights Policy.