Privacy policy

Northwest Resource Associates (“NWRA,” “we,” or “us”), for the Northwest Adoption Exchange program, has created this privacy statement (the “Privacy Policy”) to demonstrate our commitment to your privacy. The Privacy Policy is intended to describe for you, as an individual who is a user of nwae.org (the “Website”), the information we collect, how that information may be used, with whom it may be shared, and your choices about such uses and disclosures. By using the Website, you are consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

What information do we collect about you?

We collect any information you enter on the Website or give us in any other way (such as through an email or letter). The information that we collect varies, but our various forms on the Website generally require that you provide us with your first and last name, email address, phone number, address, password, and, possibly, background information regarding your family and other information that may be important to the adoption process.

We also may use various technologies to collect information from your computer and about your activities on the Website.

We may automatically collect information from your browser when you visit the Website. This information would include your internet protocol address, your browser type and language, access times, the content of any undeleted cookies that your browser previously accepted from us, and the referring website address.

When you visit the Website, we may assign your computer one or more cookies to facilitate access to the Website and to personalize your online experience. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on the Website, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on the Website. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, please note that you may not be able to sign in or use some of the interactive features offered on the Website.

We may use standard internet technology, such as web beacons and other similar technologies, to track your use of the Website. We also may include web beacons in our e-mail messages or newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon. The information we obtain in this manner would enable us to customize the services we offer to visitors of the Website, to deliver targeted communications, and to measure the overall effectiveness of our online communications, content, programming, or other activities.

Use of Intercom, Inc.

We use third-party analytics services to help understand your usage of our services. In particular, we provide a limited amount of your information (such as sign-up date and some personal information like your email address) to Intercom, Inc. (“Intercom”) and utilize Intercom to collect data for analytics purposes when you visit our Website. As a data processor acting on our behalf, Intercom analyzes your use of our website and tracks our relationship by way of cookies and similar technologies so that we can improve our service to you. For more information on Intercom's use of cookies, please visit https://www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#cookie-policy. We may also use Intercom as a medium for communications, either through email, or through messages within our Website. As part of our service agreements, Intercom reserves the right to collect publicly available contact and social information related to you, such as your email address, gender, company, job title, photos, website URLs, social network handles, and physical addresses, to enhance your user experience. We have manually opted out on the option to use this service with any of the users of our Website. For more information on the privacy practices of Intercom, please visit https://www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#privacy. Intercom’s services are governed by Intercom’s terms of use which can be found at https://www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#terms.

How do we use the information we collect from you?

Generally, we use your information for such purposes as operating the Website, providing the services offered by the Website, maintaining your account and providing customer support, communicating with you, performing analysis about your use of and interest in the offerings and content on the Website, managing our day-to-day business, and performing functions as otherwise described to you at the time of collection.

With whom do we share information?

We will share your information with the state and local child welfare agencies as you authorize. We may share your personal information with our authorized service providers that perform certain services on our behalf. These services may include processing credit card payments (if applicable), providing customer service and marketing assistance, supporting the Website’s functionality, and supporting surveys and other features that may be offered through the Website.

Any third parties to whom we disclose personal information may have their own privacy policies which describe how they use and disclose personal information. Those policies will govern use, handling, and disclosure of your personal information once we have shared it with those third parties as described in this Privacy Policy. If you want to learn more about their privacy practices, we encourage you to visit the websites of those third parties.

We may also disclose your information in response to a subpoena or similar investigative demand, a court order, or a request for cooperation from a law enforcement or other government agency; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases, we may raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us, in our sole discretion. We may also disclose your information when we believe it is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent, report, or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of our organization, the users, our employees, or others; to comply with applicable law or cooperate with law enforcement; or to enforce our terms and conditions or other agreements or policies. Likewise, we may disclose your information in connection with a substantial organizational transaction, such as a merger, consolidation, or in the unlikely event of dissolution.

We may share aggregated and nonpersonal information we collect under any of the previously mentioned circumstances. We may share aggregated information with third parties, for the purpose of conducting general operational and business analysis. For example, we may tell our state and local agencies the number of visitors to the Website and the most popular features or services accessed. This data does not contain any personal information and would be used to develop and improve the Website.

Does this policy govern third-party websites?

There may be places on the Website where you click on a link to access other websites that do not operate under this Privacy Policy. For example, if you click on a link to a local adoption agency that you found on our Website, you will be taken to a website that we do not control. These third-party websites may independently solicit and collect information, including personal information, from you and, in some instances, provide us with information about your activities on those websites. We recommend that you consult the privacy statements of all third-party websites you visit by clicking on the “privacy” link typically located at the bottom of the webpage you are visiting.

How can you access your information?

If you apply for an account on the Website, you have the ability to review and update your account information online by logging into your account. You can also review and update your account information by contacting us directly.

You may choose to close your account at any time by contacting support at nwae-wa@nwresource.org. After you close your account, you will not be able to sign in to the website or access any of your account information. However, you can request a new account at any time. If you close your account, we may still retain certain information associated with your account for analytical purposes and record-keeping integrity, as well as to prevent fraud, enforce our Terms of Use, take actions we deem necessary to protect the integrity of the Website or its users, or take other actions otherwise permitted by law. In addition, if certain information has already been provided to third parties as described in this Privacy Policy, retention of that information will be subject to those third parties’ policies.

What are your choices about collection and use of your information?

You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but that may result in your being unable to use certain features of the Website because such information may be required in order for you to apply for an account; to use services on the Website; or to ask us a question.

When you apply for an account on the Website you may be automatically set up to receive email messages and/or newsletters about the Website. At any time you can adjust your email preferences in your account settings.

As noted above, you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, please note that you may not be able to sign in or use some of the interactive features offered on the Website.

How do we protect your personal information?

We take appropriate security measures (including physical, electronic, and procedural measures) to help safeguard your personal information from unauthorized access and disclosure. We want you to feel confident using the Website; however, no system can be completely secure. Therefore, it is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer or other internet access device.

Although we take steps to secure your information, we do not guarantee the 100% security of your information, and you should not expect that your personal information, searches, or other communications will always remain secure. Please refer to the Federal Trade Commission’s website at https://www.ftc.gov for information about how to protect yourself against identity theft.

Your content and other user submissions

Any content you post is governed by our Terms of Use. If you post content to a publicly viewable area of the Website, that information will be publicly available and can be collected and used by others. We cannot control who reads your posting or what other users do with the information you voluntarily post, so we encourage you to exercise discretion and caution with respect to your personal information. Once you have posted information, you may not be able to edit or delete it.

Visiting our website from outside the US

This Privacy Policy is intended to cover collection of information on or via the Website from residents of the United States. If you are visiting the Website from outside the United States, please be aware that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. Please be assured that we take reasonable steps to ensure that your privacy is protected. By using the Website, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Privacy Policy.

Changes to this policy

We will occasionally update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices and services. When we post changes to this Privacy Policy, we will revise the date at the top of this Privacy Policy. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share your personal information, we will notify you by sending an email to the email address you most recently provided us in your account, profile, or registration (unless we do not have such an email address) and/or by prominently posting notice of the changes on the Website. We recommend that you check the Website from time to time to inform yourself of any changes in this Privacy Policy or any of our other policies.

Updates

On April 19, 2019, we updated the policy to provide additional clarity about our collection and use of your information and to include information about our use of the Intercom service.

On August 10, 2022, we updated the policy to apply to only the nwae.org website, as we sunset warekids.org.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our information-handling practices, or if you would like to request information about our disclosure of personal information to third parties, please contact Anna Marshall, Northwest Resource Associates, 701 5th Avenue, Suite 1230, Seattle, WA 98104 or give us a call at 800-704-9273.