In 1999, the CEO of Sun Microsystems said, “You don’t have any privacy…go beyond it.” In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg stated that privacy is dead. I think Zuckerberg ought to be cynical about what he’s experienced this year about privacy and passing Facebook users’ information to Cambridge Analytica. I think it’s fair to say that privacy has been a hot topic this year.
I’m not sure where things will end up going, and there’s a good chance, in fact, that privacy as we’ve come to know it is over. In fact, I think this may indeed be the case, but there is a distinct tension between privacy and sharing. We continue to willingly share our information on social networking platforms and browsers, such as Google, and continue to track us online.
And despite the General Data Protection Regulation, which is set into law in Europe but also affects US companies and nonprofits, you may have noticed by now that corporate lawyers have already figured out how to get around it. Mostly, you agree to tracking, or anything else explained in their terms of service, or you won’t be able to use platforms that will provide you with news, allow you to shop or entertain yourself. He got a good picture.
Donor privacy
The dirty little secret of the nonprofit sector is that many nonprofits have donor information, including that of volunteers and supporters, but haven’t taken the necessary steps to ensure the information isn’t stolen. They also don’t take the time to let people know how their data is being used, which is something everyone with a website should do. Nonprofit organizations have information such as names, addresses, emails, dates of birth, credit cards, Social Security numbers (especially those with volunteers who go through security screening), phone numbers, and so on. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how this information can be used in inappropriate ways.
In fact, a colleague of mine who worked in the nonprofit sector as a fundraising consultant not long ago told me that when she raised the issue of privacy, many nonprofit leaders told her they weren’t aware that donor privacy was a priority for them. donors. They have expressed support for transparent public privacy policies but have no idea that they should have easily accessible terms of service or donor privacy policies on their websites, for example, that explain what they do with the data. Honestly, I don’t know how that could be a credible idea in today’s world.
Data and Nonprofits
Most donors should know or understand that when they give their information to a nonprofit, their name and information will likely be sold. Some nonprofits do this as a matter or revenue because they earn money for the names and data they sell to intermediaries. If you work for one of the many organizations that sell donor data to intermediaries, as a point of integrity and ethics, you should state this information clearly to donors in your donor policy information.
Additionally, in recent years, criminals have discovered the fact that nonprofits can be a wealth of information and it can be reasonably easy for them to crack the “safe” hole. To make matters even more worrying for nonprofit donors, there have been cases where donor information has been criminally compromised, and it was decided not to release the information for fear of drying up the donations.
data protection
Nonprofits hold a unique position in our community, and they often come with tax-exempt status, mostly, because of the work they do in improving the lives of people in the community. For this reason, nonprofits must provide a few minimum standards of information to ensure that they act with integrity and ethics when they accept donor and volunteer information.
- They can remind people who enter their personally identifiable information on their websites to remember to delete web “cookies”, which are files stored on a person’s computer, which link back to the visited site. Clearing this information will remove any leftover names, addresses, credit card information, etc. from the web.
- Nonprofits must create and publish a “donor privacy policy,” which tells donors how to use donor and supporter information. A simple example is provided by Charity Navigator.
- Post the Terms of Service. Take a look at samples of leading nonprofits. You can also look at an example from the National Council of Nonprofits or TopNonprofits.
The truth is that every nonprofit—regardless of its size—should have a privacy policy and terms of service for donors that can be quickly reviewed on their website. If your organization hasn’t implemented the basics, you don’t have to expect people to support your group. There are probably a lot of charities out there that show transparency and should be rewarded with dollars to raise money.