The Mountaineers is a general audience web site, intended for users of all ages. Personal information of all users is collected, used and disclosed as described in this Privacy Notice below. If you are under 13, please note the special provisions for your use.

By visiting The Mountaineers website, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Notice.

This Privacy Notice was last amended on October 1, 2004.


What Information Does The Mountaineers Collect and Use
The information we learn from members helps us personalize and continually improve your experience with The Mountaineers. Here are the types of information we gather.

Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our Web site or give us in any other way. We collect personal information such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address and telephone number. The Mountaineers may also collect demographic information, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites. We may also collect credit card numbers and related billing information where you purchase products, services or memberships. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to and processing your requests, helping match your volunteering interest with appropriate committees, and communicating with you. You have access to all the information that you give to The Mountaineers via your "My Profile" page.

Anonymous Demographic Information: In addition to personal information that you give us, we may also ask for or track certain anonymous information that we may analyze or share with third parties on an anonymous, aggregated basis. This information is used to improve our website, share "ratings" information with partners, and to conduct market research.

Automatic Information: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, like many Web sites, we use "cookies," and we obtain certain types of information when your Web browser accesses The Mountaineers online. We do not use, however, web beacons, "single-pixel gifs" or other types of spyware on our website.


Use of Information by Leaders, Instructors and Branch Administrators
Leaders, instructors, branch administrators will have access to a limited amount of personal information; i.e. your name, phone number, membership status and course information. By virtue of signing up for a trip, you grant such trip leader access to your personal information for the sole purpose of leading the trip and ancillary activities. Members who have rights to access this information may only use this information for Mountaineers' business. Members may not use this web site to offer solicitations, or any other personal use.


What are Cookies?
Cookies are pieces of information generated by a Web server and stored in the user's computer, ready for future access. Cookies are embedded in the HTML information flowing back and forth between your computer and our servers. Cookies were implemented to allow user-side customization of Web information. For example, cookies will be used to remember you login name. We safeguard this information and do not share it with others for any reason. The Internet has a lot of information on it about cookies, so please research if you want further information about what cookies do. Our website never uses Cookies to retrieve information from your computer that was not originally sent in a Cookie.


Policies for Children Under 13
Safeguarding the personal information of children is extremely important to us. We encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children and to participate in the interactive activities offered on the site. No information should be submitted to or posted on The Mountaineers website by children under 13 years of age without the consent of their parent or guardian. Unless otherwise disclosed during collection, The Mountaineers does not collect or provide any personally identifying information of children under 13 years of age, regardless of its source, for any purpose whatsoever. The Mountaineers may, however, collect certain personally identifying information to protect the integrity of the web site and the safety of children under 13 using the website. In the event The Mountaineers collects such information, the information will be deleted from The Mountaineers systems as soon as possible. No information collected from users under 13 years of age is used for any marketing or promotional purpose whatsoever, either inside or outside of The Mountaineers. We do not allow children under 13 years of age to be listed in any member directories or to receive direct marketing communications from The Mountaineers or other third parties.

All users who register on the website receive e-mail confirming their registration. In addition, when a child under 13 registers, his/her parent or guardian receives an e-mail alerting them to that registration and providing instructions on how the parent can delete the registration if so desired. The parent or guardian must validate the account, as described in the e-mail, in order for the potential member to use most of The Mountaineers services. Although children under 13 years of age are allowed to participate in contests, if a child wins, notification and prizes are sent to the parents or guardian identified in the initial registration process.


What Are Our Security Features?
* Please remember that no one can guarantee the complete security of information transmitted over the Internet. Therefore, you should be careful about the personal information that you provide. Rest assured that we will do everything we can to safeguard your information.

* We store the personal information you provide on computer systems with limited access, which are located in controlled facilities.

* When we transmit highly confidential information (such as a credit card number) over the Internet, we protect it through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

* We reveal only the last four digits of your credit card numbers when confirming an order. Of course, we transmit the entire credit card number to the appropriate credit card company during order processing.

It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when finished using a shared computer. If you suspect someone has logged in as you, please contact clubmail@mountaineers.org or our main office immediately.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or your dealings with this site, please contact us at clubmail@mountaineers.org


Do The Mountaineers Ever Share Information?
Information about our members is an important part of our organization, and we do not sell it. We do occasionally share information only as described below and with organizations similar to The Mountaineers. The Mountaineers will also share its membership database within its organization, including Mountaineers Books and The Mountaineers Foundation, a not-for-profit 5013(c) organization.

Some information on our membership lists, such as your name and address, may be exchanged with other similar organizations.

We may provide your personally identifiable information to vendors and agents who provide services for us. For instance, we may provide your personal information to the credit card processor in conjunction with the sale of a product or service of The Mountaineers.

We may access and/or disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform with legal requirements or legal process; (b) protect or defend the rights or property of The Mountaineers; or (c) act to protect the safety and security of users of our services, members of the public, or The Mountaineers.


Other Helpful Information
You may subscribe and unsubscribe to Mountaineers Communities by going to the communities section on our website. You will set your preferences for how we communicate with you. Please note that you might also provide personal information through your participation in the Mountaineers Communities, including the bulletin boards and chat rooms. This Privacy Notice does not cover the transfer of your personal information through a posting on a chat room or bulletin board. You should always be careful when distributing your personal information in this manner, as our forums, document archives and news items are searchable by online search engines (such as Google). And remember that online chat sessions and bulletin boards are considered public and you are responsible for your actions in these areas.

Our site contains links to other sites. Please remember that our privacy policy does not apply to other sites and that we cannot be responsible for their privacy policies. Please note that our placement of a link to another website is not an endorsement of such website or its privacy or security policies.

We welcome your e-mail messages and suggestions of ways in which we can improve the site.


Changes to this Statement

The Mountaineers will update this Privacy Notice, as necessary to reflect organization and customer feedback. We encourage you to periodically review this Notice to be informed of how we are protecting your information. We will provide notice on our website when this Privacy Notice has been changed.


Opt-Out Procedures
The Mountaineers always permits you to opt-out of any future mailings. To opt-out of receiving communications from us, to remove your personal information from our database, or to correct or update your personal information, please go to the "My Profile" section of our website and make the appropriate changes. Should you have problems or don't find your concerns addressed in the "My Profile" section, please contact us at the address, phone, or e-mail address below.


How do I Contact The Mountaineers?
Have a question that can't be answered through our website? Need to log in for the first time? Having trouble accessing the "My Profile" section or want to correct or update your personal information? Our friendly Member Services staff is ready to help. If you have difficulty reaching us by telephone, try emailing us. You can also request membership information by clicking here.


The Mountaineers
7700 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
USA

Phone: (206) 521-6000
FAX: (206) 523-6763
URL: www.mountaineers.org
e-mail: clubmail@mountaineers.org