AIDS Action Committee Website Privacy Policy

AIDS Action Committee has created this Privacy Policy to explain why we collect particular information and how we will protect your personal privacy within our website.  The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for the website located at the URL www.aac.org.

In order to fully understand your rights, we encourage you to read this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Use.  AIDS Action Committee reserves the right at any time and without notice to change this Privacy Policy simply by posting such a change on our site.  Any such chance will be effective immediately upon posting.
We want to demonstrate our commitment to your privacy, so this Privacy Policy notifies you of:

• What personally identifiable information of yours is collected through the site; who collects such information; and how personal information is used
• Will you share my name with other organizations?
• Updating your information; and options to unsubscribe
• Internet protocol address
• Use of “cookies”
• What kind of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse, or alteration of information under our control
• Links on our website
• And, contacting the Webmaster.

Questions regarding this statement should be directed to AIDS Action Committee by sending an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Please reference this Privacy Policy in your subject line.

1. What Information We Collect and How We Use That Information

Our registration forms require users to give us contact information that may include name, e-mail address, format preference (HTML vs. Text), address, interests, and/or other similar information. 

• When you sign-up to volunteer: Our volunteer forms ask you to give us contact information (such as your name, email address, and mailing address). We also ask you to tell us how you want to help the organization. We use this information to send you information about AIDS Action and to help match your interests to our programs. You may remove your name and personal information from the volunteer database by contacting This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Volunteer information will NOT be shared with other organizations.
• When you contribute money online: Federal tax law requires us to collect and report some information (such as your name, address, and the amount of your contribution; your credit card number may be collected for donations but is not stored or shared.)
• When you complete the online donation form: We ask you to select topics that are of interest to you. These topics may include, but are not limited to, the AIDS Walk, volunteer opportunities, annual giving, and public policy activities. Based on your selection, you may be contacted by us for future involvement at AIDS Action. You may remove your name and personal information from our mailing lists at any time by contacting This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Donor mailing information may be shared with other organizations unless you indicate otherwise.
• When you complete an online AIDS quiz: We do not request or store any personal information about you from the online AIDS quiz. You are NOT asked to submit personal information such as a name, address or telephone number. If you visit another section of our website and provide contact information, it will not be linked to your online AIDS quiz.
• If you sign-up for one of our mailing lists:  If you sign-up to receive Wellspring or HIV Health News we will collect your name and mailing address. Both mailings will be sent to you in a plain brown envelope with our P.O. Box as the return address. You may remove your name and mailing address from the Wellspring and HIV Health News mailing lists at any time by contacting This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We do NOT share our Wellspring and HIV Health News mailing lists with other organizations.
• Tell-a-friend feature: If would like to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask you for your friend’s name and email address. AIDS Action Committee will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. The subject and content of the email can be customized, and your email address will appear as the return address. AIDS Action Committee stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email. We respect privacy, and do not capture the email addresses. Name and email addresses are requested so your friend will know that you are recommending our site and they are not receiving unsolicited junk mail (“spam”).

2. Will You Share My Name With Other Organizations?

We derive a large portion of our funding from our donor family and we are always seeking new people to join membership clubs. One important way of finding new members is to exchange mailing lists with other like-minded organizations. We will never sell or exchange mailing lists with a corporation or an organization looking to sell you something. Exchanging lists with other organizations keeps our costs down, and lets us spend a larger portion of our budget on our programs rather than mailing costs.
If you do not want us to exchange your name with other non-profit organizations and you object to these uses, simply let us know and we will remove your personal information from any of our list shares. This pertains to all of our databases lists. You can unsubscribe from our email list by sending an email request with “unsubscribe” in the subject line to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

3. Updating Your Information and Options to Unsubscribe

If you need to correct the information you have provided to any program at AIDS Action or if you would like to unsubscribe from any mailing list(s) please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You may unsubscribe to individual programs or mailing lists, or you may unsubscribe to all programs and mailing lists at AIDS Action at any time.

4. Internet Protocol Address

We collect an Internet Protocol (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’ movements, gather broad demographic information in order to improve the site, and to deliver customized, personalized content.  IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

5. Use of “Cookies”

Our site may use cookies to enhance your experience while using our site.  Cookies are pieces of information that are transferred 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 by performing certain functions such as saving passwords, saving personal preferences regarding the use of a particular website, and/or to make sure the same ad is not repeatedly viewed.  Many consider the use of cookies to be an industry standard.

Your browser is probably set to accept cookies.  However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser so that it will either request confirmation from you before accepting a cookie, or refuse cookies altogether.  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.

6. Security

All information provided to AIDS Action Committee 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 lacing it in a secure location that is only accessible by appropriate AIDS Action Committee employees.  Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure.  We strive to protect your information; however, we cannot completely ensure the security of such information.

The confidentiality of information sent over the Internet cannot be guaranteed. Your email, like most non-encrypted Internet communications, may be accessed and viewed without your knowledge or permission while in transit to us. Therefore, while we take responsible precautions to safeguard the confidentiality of your email, we cannot guarantee the security of any email correspondence sent to us. If you consider the information you are communicating to be confidential, please do not use email. Instead, you may want to use one of the following alternatives.  You can call the AIDS Action HIV/AIDS Hotline at (617) 536-7733, toll free at (800) 235-2331, or TTY at (617) 437-1672; the Hepatitis C Hotline is available at (888) 443-4372; the HIV Health Library can be reached at (617) 450-1432; or information can be mailed to AIDS Action Committee, 75 Amory St. Boston, MA 02119.

7. Links on Our Website

Our site contains links to other websites.  Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are entering another website for which AIDS Action Committee has no responsibility.  We encourage you to read the privacy statements on all such sites as their policies may be different from ours.

8. Contacting the Website

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, you can contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or write to:

Webmaster
AIDS Action Committee
75 Amory St. Boston, MA  02119
(617) 437-6200