Privacy policy

• Information we collect with your consent.

We also may collect certain information from you automatically when you use our websites, such as internet, electronic activity, and other information automatically from the devices and browsers you use (e.g., IP (Internet Protocol) address, operating system, mobile device and advertising identifiers, how you interact with our websites, and standard server log information). You can also find additional information on personal information that we collect through cookies and similar technologies in the “Cookies and similar technologies” section below.

In some circumstances, such as donors that set up a charitable gift annuity, we may need to collect additional personal information about you, such as your Social Security Number or other government ID number.

If you selected a gift or made a donation in someone’s name, we may collect the name and address of the gift recipient in order to deliver the gift or notify the recipient. If you believe that someone has shared your personal information with us and you do not want to be included in our database, please let us know so that we can remove you by contacting us as described in the “Contact Us” section below.

We may combine personal information that we collect from different sources, including third-party sources, with other personal information we receive about you.

Use of Personal Information

We may use the personal information that we collect for various purposes, including to:

• Provide you with information and services that you request from us and to respond to your comments and questions;

• Process your donations, communicate with you about your donations, and access your donation history;

• Communicate with you for account management and keep you updated about our work and upcoming events;

• Conduct, assess and improve our business operations, including to perform troubleshooting and data analytics, maintain business systems and records, enhance the functionality and effectiveness of our websites and other initiatives, and make other technological improvements;

• Conduct our marketing and fundraising activities, including to provide you and others with advertising and other marketing communications about donation opportunities, improve our promotional efforts and fundraising campaigns, and reach new potential donors;

• Keep our services, business, and donors safe and secure, including to detect, investigate, and prevent security incidents, fraud, and illegal activity;

• Protect or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims and remain in compliance with applicable laws and regulations; and

• Carry out any other purpose described to you at the time the information is collected, including if we request your consent.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose the categories of personal information described above with the following categories of third parties:

• Third-party vendors and service providers. We may share your information with companies that help us with our operations, such as hosting and maintaining our donor information database, sending postal mail, email, and mobile messages, conducting analytics, processing donations and payments, providing marketing and advertising support, and providing other technical support;

• Other MSF entities. We may disclose your personal information to other MSF entities and their affiliates, including for the purposes described above in the “Use of Personal Information” section;

• Other third-party organizations. We do not sell, share, or rent our donor or mailing list for money. Because we are always looking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our fundraising, improve how we connect with you, and further the mission of Doctors Without Borders and other organizations, Doctors Without Borders does provide portions of our mailing and donor lists to select third-party organizations. If you prefer not to have your personal information shared for these purposes, let us know you would like to opt out by contacting us as described in the “Contact Us” section below. Your request to opt out of such sharing will apply to any future disclosures of your personal information to these third-party organizations. You may temporarily continue to receive these communications while we and our vendors process your request. We will take reasonable steps to pass on your request to the relevant third-party organization(s) with which we have already shared your personal information if that information is readily available;

• Government or other third parties for legal or similar purposes. We may disclose your personal information to the government or to third parties pursuant to law enforcement inquiries, court orders, subpoenas and similar requests, or when we otherwise believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary or appropriate in connection with any activity that violates the law or may expose us to liability; and

• Other third parties as disclosed to you or with your consent. We may share your personal information with other third parties for the purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect the information or pursuant to your consent.

Employment

If you use the Doctors Without Borders website to seek employment or a volunteer position at the organization, you may be asked to submit personal information, such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, and your resume/CV, through a third-party employment platform or site utilized by MSF. The information you submit will be used to assess your qualifications as an employee or volunteer for Doctors Without Borders and in accordance with the privacy policy governing the relevant platform or site.

Security

We take the security of any personal information you share with us seriously. We use reasonable technical, administrative, and physical safeguards and procedures designed to help protect your personal information against unlawful or unauthorized access, disclosure, misappropriation, alteration, or loss. This may include measures such as encryption, firewalls, and other physical security measures to help protect your personal information. That said, the reality is that “perfect security” does not exist, and we cannot guarantee the privacy or security of personal information, particularly if it is located in a platform controlled by a third-party vendor. If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us as described in the “Contact Us” section below.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

We and our third-party partners may collect information from you using cookies, session replay/capture, and similar technologies (e.g., pixels, web beacons, etc.) (collectively “Cookies”). Cookies are small text files that are designed to enhance your browsing experience by remembering your preferences and settings, ensuring you have a better and more personalized experience when interacting with our websites. Your use of our websites constitutes your consent to the use of Cookies.

The following types of Cookies are used on our websites:

• Essential Cookies – These Cookies enable you to use our services. These Cookies are essential to enable you to browse our websites and use certain features. Disabling them may prevent you from using certain parts of our websites. These Cookies also help keep our websites safe and secure.

• Preference Cookies – These Cookies store information such as your login data and website preferences. Without these Cookies, our websites may not be able to remember certain choices you have previously made (such as a saved language preference) or personalize your browsing experience by providing you with relevant information. These Cookies can also be used to recognize your device so that you do not have to provide the same information more than once.

• Performance Cookies – These Cookies collect information about how you use our websites, such as which pages you visit regularly. These Cookies are used to provide you with a high-quality experience by doing things such as tracking page load, site response times, and error messages. These Cookies are also used to analyze trends and gather usage information from our website to enhance the functionality of our website.

• Targeting Cookies – These Cookies gather information about your use of our website so we may improve your experience and provide you with more relevant and personalized content and advertising on our website and elsewhere online and across your devices, as well as offline through direct mail. Some of these Cookies are from third parties that collect information about your use of our websites in order to provide advertising (on our websites and elsewhere, across your different devices) based on your online activities on our websites and elsewhere online or based on the online activities of other people that are similar to you or share your interests. http://www.aboutads.info/choices 

You may be able to set your browser to refuse Cookies, or to notify you when you receive a new Cookie. However, some technologies may not respond to browser settings that block conventional cookies. Because each web browser is different, please consult the instructions provided by your web browser (typically in the “help” section). You can learn more about opting out of many of these types of technologies by visiting the NAI’s opt-out page at http://www.networkadvertising.org . To learn more about targeted advertising, these providers, or how you can opt out, please visit the DAA’s consumer choice page at http://www.aboutads.info/choices .

Please keep in mind that if you disable Cookies, it may limit your use of certain features or functions on our website. Deleting Cookies may in some cases cancel the opt-out selection in your browser.

Some web browsers have a “do not track” feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. We currently do not respond to web browser-based “do not track” signals.

External Links

We work to ensure that our website is a reliable and useful resource that allows visitors to better understand humanitarian crises occurring around the world and the work we do to respond to them. In order to do that, our site contains links to other (external) sites and may provide integration with social media platforms. If you choose to use any of these links, you will be leaving our site and going to a site not controlled by us. Unless we explicitly say so, Doctors Without Borders makes no representations concerning the content of those sites, and inclusion of an external link or integration should not be interpreted as an endorsement, recommendation, authorization, sponsorship, or affiliation. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to these linked sites; we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such sites, and we encourage our visitors to review the privacy statements of any external links.

Note to Parents & Children

Doctors Without Borders welcomes children to learn more about our organization and the humanitarian and medical issues presented on the Doctors Without Borders sites. We do not direct our services to children and do not knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with this information without consent, we will use our best efforts to remove it from our files. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that a child under 13 has provided such information to us, they should contact us as described in the “Contact Us” section below.

Choices Regarding Your Information