Privacy Policy

This notice describes our privacy policy for the mountaineers.org website. The Mountaineers protects your privacy. Except in the situations below, we do not sell, trade, or share names, contact information, or purchasing data of our members. Mountaineers.org is a general audience website, 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.

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. This data also allows you, the member, to see your historical engagement with our community. Here are the types of information we gather.

Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us in any other way. We collect personal information such as your email 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 collect credit card numbers and related billing information when 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 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 conduct market research.

Automatic Information: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, like many websites, we use "cookies," and we obtain certain types of information when your web browser accesses The Mountaineers online. We do not use spyware on our website.

Use of Information by Leaders and Instructors

Leaders and instructors will have access to a limited amount of personal information; i.e., your name, phone number, email address, emergency contact, membership status, courses completed, and courses in progress, etc. By virtue of signing up for a trip or a course, you grant such trip leader or instructor access to your personal information for the sole purpose of leading the trip or course instruction and ancillary activities. Members who have rights to access this information may only use this information for Mountaineers business. Members may not use this website to offer solicitations or for any other personal use.

Use of Information by Branch or Division Administrators

Branch and Division Chairs will have access to personal information; i.e., your name, phone number, email address, emergency contact, membership status, date joined, age, other dates, courses completed, courses in progress, indicated interests, award history, etc. By virtue of being a member, you grant Branch and Division Chairs access to your personal information for the sole purpose of managing the branch and division’s affairs to promote community and The Mountaineers mission. Members may opt out of receiving these emails and displaying their personal information on rosters. Branch and Division Administrators who have rights to access this information may only use this information for promoting The Mountaineers mission and community. Members may not use this web site to offer solicitations or for any other personal use. Mailing or emailing lists obtained directly from the roster or The Mountaineers database may not be used for promoting positions on elections, policies, or other Mountaineers decisions.

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 your login name. We safeguard this information and do not share it with others for any reason. The internet has a lot of information 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 email 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 you provide. Rest assured that we will take all reasonable measures 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. We only 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 our main office or reset your password immediately.

Do The Mountaineers Ever Share Information?

Information about our members is an important part of our organization, and we protect 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 as outlined above.

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 also provide your personal contact information to third party vendors in conjunction with our commitment to communicate with our community. Any data collected by third party vendors is intended to be used for the sole purpose of fulfilling The Mountaineers business needs. We use this data for things like tracking member engagement, making technology improvements, executing elections, delivering surveys, and managing budget/fees based on engagement. We take great care to protect your information and assure that it is only used for our operational needs. Each of our vendors has its own policies and processes for how data is collected, stored, and transmitted to us, including use of cookies and other tracking measures.

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.

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 "Your Account" section of our website and make the appropriate changes. Should you have problems or don't find your concerns addressed in the "Your Account" section, please contact us at the address, phone, or email address below.

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.

Changes to this Statement

The Mountaineers will update this Privacy Policy as necessary to reflect organization and customer feedback. We encourage you to periodically review this policy to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

How do I Contact The Mountaineers?

Have a question that can't be answered through our website or feedback page? Need to log in for the first time? Having trouble accessing the "Your Account" section or want to correct or update your personal information? Our friendly Member Services staff is ready to help, info@mountaineers.org or 206-521-6001.

If you need to report problem behavior or harassment please fill out our online Behavior Complaint Form.

The Mountaineers
7700 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115 USA
Phone: (206) 521-6000
FAX: (206) 523-6763
Website: www.mountaineers.org
Email: info@mountaineers.org