Privacy Notice

International Women’s Forum

Effective Upon: October 1, 2018

Last updated: March 1, 2024

We at the International Women’s Forum (“IWF,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) are strongly committed to transparency, and we want you (“you” or “your”) to understand how we collect, use, and share your personal information, as well as how you can manage the personal information we collect. This Privacy Notice applies to your interactions with us through use of our websites (including https://iwforum.org/, https://www.connect-iwforum.org/, and https://iwforum.secure-platform.com), mobile applications (“apps”), and the services available through our website and apps (“services”), and to your other interactions with us, including offline.

IWF is a global organization aimed at advancing women’s leadership opportunities. Local forums (“Local Forums”) are legally separate entities that promote IWF’s mission within the country in which each operates. Please note that when you join a Local Forum (“Members”), you have an independent relationship with that Local Forum under applicable data protection laws and that IWF is not responsible for the privacy practices of any Local Forum. Your Local Forum may share information about you with us, including to register you for our global member portal (the “Member Portal”).

In this Privacy Notice, we describe the information that we collect from Members directly, from Local Forums and from other sources described below. In addition, we describe the information that we collect about others, including speakers and other participants at our events, donors and individuals who participate in our fellowship programs (“Fellows”). If you do not understand or if you have questions about this Privacy Notice, please contact us using the information listed under ‘Contact Us’ below, before using or continuing to use our websites, apps, or services.

We reserve the right to change our Privacy Notice from time to time. We will post any changes here. We may also provide you with notice by prominently posting on our website, via email or both if we make any changes to this Privacy Notice that materially affect your rights. If you are outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or United Kingdom (“UK”), your use of our websites, apps, and services after we have made changes to our Privacy Notice will mean that you have accepted the changes.

For individuals in the EEA or UK: If you are a resident of the EEA or UK, for purposes of EU and UK data protection laws, IWF is the controller of the personal information that we collect from you through our websites, apps, services and other interactions with you.

For individuals outside the EEA and UK: By using our websites, apps, and services, you are accepting the terms of this Privacy Notice. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Notice, please do not use our website, apps, and services. Your use of our websites, apps, and services, and any dispute over privacy, is subject to this Privacy Notice and our Terms of Service, including its applicable limitations on damages and the resolution of disputes, to the extent permissible by law. The IWF Terms of Service are incorporated by reference into this Privacy Notice.

Please click on the following sections to learn more about our Privacy Notice.

1. TYPES OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT
2. HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION
3. HOW WE USE INFORMATION
4. HOW WE SHARE INFORMATION
5. WHERE WE TRANSFER INFORMATION
6. HOW WE PROTECT INFORMATION
7. CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
8. YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS
9. THIRD PARTY WEBSITE AND APPS
10. ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
11. WHAT CHOICES DO YOU HAVE REGARDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
12. HOW TO CONTACT US

1. TYPES OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We may collect personal information from you depending upon how you interact with us or use or interact with our websites, apps, or services, including the following:

• Member Portal Information. If you are a Member, we will receive from your Local Forum information about you necessary to register you for our Member Portal and create your profile. This may include information such as your name, email address, mailing address, telephone number, title, employer, biography, photo, month and day of your birthday and other information about you. The information will be available to Members and other users of our Member Portal globally, including representatives of Local Forums. If you are a Fellow and you request to join our Member Portal, we collect the information required to register directly from you. You will be given access to a dedicated section of the Member Portal for Fellows and the profile and other information you provide will be available to all Members, including those who are not Fellows. The information we request is necessary for the operation of the portal, and if you do not provide such information we may not be able to register you to use the portal or set up your profile.
• Contact Information. We collect your contact information, such as your name and email address, when you sign up to receive newsletters, alerts or other communications from us, or, if you are a Member, to provide Member support and other services to you and to facilitate networking opportunities with other Members. The information we request is necessary to fulfil your request, and if you do not provide such information we may not be able to comply with that request.
• Payment and Billing Information. We collect credit card information, banking information, billing and shipping address to process payments you make to us, including if you make a donation to IWF. The information we request is necessary for payment operations, and if you do not provide such information we may not be able to process your payment.
• Demographic Information. We may collect information about your age, race and/or ethnicity. For example, we may collect this information if you participate in one of our voluntary Member surveys.
• Event Information. If you register to participate in one of our sponsored events (e.g., as a Fellow, a Member, a speaker or a sponsor), we will collect your registration information related to your attendance, including contact information, scheduling information, dietary restrictions, and accessibility requests. We also may collect other information, such as your photograph, biographical information, month and day of your birthday, feedback or other content that you provide, and in some cases, information that we need to assist you in making travel arrangements such as your passport information. We may make some of this information, such as your contact information, available to other attendees, including in the dedicated websites and apps that we create for our events. The information we request is necessary for registration for an event, and if you do not provide such information we may not be able to register you or may not be able to provide you all related services.
• Fellowship Information. If you apply to participate in our fellowship program, we collect the information you provide in your application, including your name, mailing address, email address, country of citizenship, telephone number, age, financial and employment information, references, and a resumé/CV. In addition, we collect information that you provide during the course of your fellowship, such as passport and travel information when we facilitate travel arrangements as part of the program. Unless stated otherwise in this Privacy Notice, we only use the information described in this section for purposes of assessing your application and to administer our relationship with you throughout your participation in the program. The information we request is necessary to enroll you in the program, and if you do not provide such information you may not be able to participate in the program, or may not be able to participate in some program activities. With your explicit consent (where legally required), we may also ask you to provide information voluntarily, such as your race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability status; you are not required to provide this information.
• Device Information. When you visit our websites or use our apps, we collect your device and browsing information, including your IP address, browser type and version, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, device type and device identifiers.

2. HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION

We collect personal information from you in order to provide you with our websites, apps, and services, as well as to improve your experience. We collect information about you directly from you and from third parties, as well as automatically through your use of our websites, apps, and services. You may provide us with personal information in several ways, including, for example, when you:

• Register for an account or membership;
• Apply for our Fellowship Program;
• Donate to IWF;
• Provide payment information;
• Use our websites, apps, and services;
• Register or apply for a program, event or forum we sponsor;
• Provide your social media information;
• Upload content to our websites or apps;
• Sign up to receive alerts or other information from us;
• Ask for member service, support or other assistance;
• Participate in events or other forums, use our online forum; or
• Interact with us in any other way, including through our websites or apps.

Social Media Platforms

When you interact with any IWF page or account on a social media platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, or LinkedIn, we may collect the personal information you make available to us on that page or account, including your account ID or “handle” and that the social media platform permits us to collect, and we will do so in compliance with their privacy policy. If you publish your social media profile on our website or app, we may collect personal information that you make available as part of that profile.

Cookies

Like many websites and mobile applications, we use “cookies”, which are small text files that are stored on your computer or equipment when you visit certain online pages that record your preferences and actions. We may also use cookies to monitor traffic, improve our websites and apps and make it easier and/or relevant for your use. Like many apps and websites, we use cookies, web beacons and similar technologies to record your preferences and track the use of our websites and apps. We use these technologies to:

• Remind us who you are and to find your account information in our database when you access a website, app, or service so you do not need to log in at every visit, which helps us to provide you with services tailored to your specific needs and interest;
• Determine the browser you are using so the websites, apps, and services work properly;
• Assist us with sending you notifications;
  • Generate analytics regarding your use of our websites or apps; and
  • Estimate our audience size by determining whether your visit is your first.

If you delete your cookies or if you set your browser or device to decline these technologies, some services or features may not function properly.

Web “beacons” are transparent pixel images embedded at certain points on websites that are used to collect information about how users navigate and use the website for the purpose of understanding and improving the function of the site and the value of the content. IWF uses cookies or other trackers to improve some of its services, provide enhanced functionality on the site, and to aggregate traffic data (i.e., what pages are most popular). We may also use these in HTML emails we send, to help us track email response rates, identify when our emails are viewed, and track whether our emails are forwarded.

“Cookies” and “beacons” may also be utilized by the third parties that we contract with to provide certain functions. You may block or disable cookies or other trackers by changing the settings on your browser but doing so may prevent you from accessing certain functionalities on our website. Currently, our systems do not recognize browser “do-not-track” requests. You may, however, disable certain tracking as discussed in this section (e.g., by disabling cookies).

For more information on our use of cookies and other tracking technologies, please see our Cookies Policy.

Online Analytics

We also use various types of online analytics, including Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”), on our websites and apps. Google Analytics uses cookies or other tracking technologies to help us analyze how users interact with and use the websites, apps, and services, compile reports on the related activities, and provide other services related to website and app activity and usage. The technologies used by Google may collect information such as your IP address, time of visit, whether you are a return visitor, and any referring website or app. The information generated by Google Analytics will be transmitted to and stored by Google and will be subject to Google’s privacy policies To learn more about Google’s partner services and to learn how to opt out of tracking of analytics by Google access this link.

In addition, we and our third-party providers may use the information that we collect about you within our websites, apps and services and on other third-party sites and services to help us and these third parties to identify other devices that you use (e.g., a mobile phone, tablet, other computer).

Offline Interactions and Other Sources

We also may collect personal information from other sources or from our offline interactions with you to, among other things, enable us to verify or update information contained in our records and to better customize the website or app for you. For example, if you view content related to IWF on another website (such as YouTube), we may receive information about you such as your geographic location (country and city) from the provider of that website.

Surveys and Promotions

From time to time, we may provide you with the opportunity to participate in surveys or other promotions, some of which might be sponsored or conducted by a third party. Participation in these surveys and promotions is completely voluntary. If you choose to participate, we will request certain personal information from you. If there is a third-party sponsor involved in the survey or promotion, we may share information with that sponsor; please make sure to review the sponsor’s privacy policy.

3. HOW WE USE INFORMATION

We use your personal information to:

• Provide our Services, including to provide you with our websites, apps, and services; to permit you to update, edit, and manage your account or user profile; to process payments that you make to us and collect debts you owe to us; to facilitate Member networking and communication; to ensure effective administration and management of your relationship with us; and to understand and respond to Member feedback.
• Administer our Fellowship Program. If you participate in our fellowship program, we use the information that you provide for that purpose to process your application for the program and to administer our relationship with you as part of the program.
• User Support, including to diagnose problems, analyze trends, and assess our performance; and to identify any issues in how the websites, apps, and services are used.
• Personalization, including to tailor and personalize the websites, apps, services, and benefits that we offer to our Members.
• Marketing and Promotions, including to process and solicit donations; to provide you with, and tailor and improve, relevant marketing or offers from us. If you make a donation, we will publish your name on our websites and apps. If you participate in our fellowship or other similar program, or win an award that we sponsor, we may post your name and other information on our websites and apps.
• Analytics and Improvement, including to improve our operations, services and website features; to better understand how users use our websites, apps, and services and the preferences of our Members and other website, app and service users; and to research and develop new services and features of our websites and apps.
• Complying with legal obligations, including to respond to legally binding requests from law enforcement, regulatory authorities or other third parties; and to comply with applicable law, regulations and our policies.
• Defending our legal rights, including to defend, protect or enforce our rights or applicable terms of service; and to manage any disputes and take legal or other professional advice.
• Protecting our and your legal rights, including to prevent fraud or the recurrence of fraud; and assist in the event of an emergency.

If you are a resident of the EEA, or UK, there are a number of legal bases in data protection law that permit us to use your personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice, including that:

• Consent: You have provided your consent to us using your personal information for that purpose, such as to provide you with newsletters;
• Contract: We need to process your personal information to perform our contract with you, or to take pre-contractual steps at your request, such as when you apply to our fellowship program;
• Legal obligation: We need to comply with an EEA or UK legal obligation, including for example, responding to government or law enforcement information requests; and/or
• Legitimate interests: The processing is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests or those of a third party, except where such interests are overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms.

We generally retain your information as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purpose of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements and for a period corresponding to a statute of limitations. In some circumstances we may retain your information for other periods, for instance where we are required or permitted to do so in accordance with legal requirements, or if required to do so by a legal process, legal authority, or other governmental entity. We may also retain your information for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation regarding our relationship with you or otherwise implicating your information.

4. HOW WE SHARE INFORMATION

We may share your personal information with affiliated and non-affiliated individuals and organizations as follows:

• Other Members and Fellows through our Member Portal.
• Local Forums who also receive a Member Portal account and may view information about Members that is made available in the portal.
• Event attendees who may view your information on the dedicated websites and apps that we create for our events or to whom we otherwise provide your information for networking purposes.
• Credit card issuers in order to receive donation or other payments from you or send refunds to you; protect against fraud; and collect debts.
• IT service providers, including IT platform providers and website analytics service providers, to assist us in providing our services to you, supporting and providing maintenance for our websites, apps and services, understanding how you use our services and improving our operations; and to provide other services such as hosting, bandwidth, and content management tools.
• Other service providers who perform functions on our behalf, such as marketing, invoicing, notification, storage, analytics, member services, and fraud protection.
• Government, regulatory and law enforcement agencies to meet our legal obligations, including those necessary to host our events; to take action regarding illegal activities or if we have a good faith belief that there is an emergency that poses a threat to the safety of you or another person; and as otherwise required or permitted by law.

We may also transfer, assign or share your personal information with third parties as a result of, or in connection with, a proposed or actual sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of assets, bankruptcy, reorganization, or liquidation. If we are involved in defending a legal claim, we may disclose information about you that is relevant to the claim to third parties as a result of, or in connection with, the associated legal proceedings.

We may share aggregate or de-identified information about you with third parties for marketing, advertising, research or similar purposes.  We do not share your personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes without your consent.

5. WHERE WE TRANSFER INFORMATION

As we offer our services in many locations globally, we may transfer your personal information to or from these locations for the purposes of providing you services. The exact location of where your personal information will be transferred depends on the locations where you receive a service but may include any country where there is a Local Forum and the United States.

In addition, the information we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored by, IT vendors who operate on our behalf, including vendors located in the United States. We also transfer information to marketing applications and marketing service providers. These providers are primarily located in the United States.

If you are a resident of the EEA or the UK and we transfer your personal information or make it accessible to service providers or vendors located in jurisdictions outside of the EEA or the UK, respectively, that may not provide adequate levels of data protection as your home country, we will take certain reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information receives the same level of protection as if it remained within the EEA or UK. Such steps may include entering into data transfer agreements using approved Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent contractual terms. You have the right to obtain details of the mechanism under which your personal information is transferred outside of the EEA or UK, as applicable, by contacting privacy@iwforum.org.

6. HOW WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION

We take reasonable steps aimed at securing your information. We store personal information that we have collected in operating environments that are designed to be secure. Our security procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we disclose your personal information to you. Please understand that no transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you suspect an unauthorized use or security breach of your information, please contact us as soon as possible.

7. CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

Our websites, apps, and services are not intended for children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you think we have received personal information from children under the age of 16, please contact us immediately.

8. YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS

If you are in the EEA or UK, you have, in accordance with and subject to applicable data protection laws, the following rights regarding our handling of your personal information. If you are in another jurisdiction, you may have these or other rights:

• Right of access: The right to access and obtain a copy of the personal information we have about you and to request information explaining how the personal information is used.
• Right of rectification: The right to request that we rectify, complete or update inaccurate personal information about you.
• Right of erasure: The right to request that we erase personal information about you.
• Right to restrict processing: In some situations, the right to request that we do not use the personal information you have provided (for example, if you believe it to be inaccurate), except to store it.
• Right to data portability: The right to receive certain of your personal information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to transmit such information to you or another controller.
• Right to withdraw consent: Where we process your personal information based on consent, the right to withdraw consent at any time. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing based on consent before its withdrawal. Furthermore, even in case of a withdrawal we may continue to use your personal information as permitted or required by law.
• Right to object: Where we are processing your personal information based on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) you may challenge this on grounds particular to your situation. However, we may be entitled to continue processing your information based on our legitimate interests or where relevant to legal claims.
• You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

Please contact us if you would like to exercise any of these rights or in case you should have any concerns about how we process your personal information.

You are also free to lodge complaint with the supervisory authority.

9. THIRD PARTY WEBSITES AND APPS

The websites, apps, and services may contain links to other websites or apps operated by third parties. Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Notice do not apply to information gathered by these third-party websites and apps. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the actions and privacy policies of third parties and other websites and apps.

10. ACESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You may modify personal information that you have submitted by logging into your account and updating your profile information. Please note that copies of information that you have updated, modified or deleted may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the websites or apps for a period of time.

11. WHAT CHOICES DO YOU HAVE REGARDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We may send periodic promotional emails to you. You may opt-out of such communications by following the opt-out instructions contained in the email. Please note that it may take up to 10 business days for us to process opt-out requests. If you opt-out of receiving emails about recommendations or other information we think may interest you, we may still send you emails about your account or any services you have requested or received from us.

12. HOW TO CONTACT US

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, you can always contact us the following ways. We may need to verify your identity before assisting with your request.

Email:  privacy@iwforum.org

Phone: +1 202-387-1010

Mail: The International Women’s Forum
1155 15th St NW
Washington DC 20005
USA

Our representative in the EEA for data privacy purposes is our Global Board Representative from Spain who can be reached at EURep@iwforum.org.

Our representative in the United Kingdom for data privacy purposes is our Global Board Representative from the United Kingdom who can be reached at UKRep@iwforum.org.