SafeHelpline

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: February 1, 2011

This Online Privacy Policy is intended to describe how the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network ("RAINN", “we” or “us”) handles information gathered at www.SafeHelpline.org ("SafeHelpline.org") and The Department of Defense Safe Helpline (the “Safe Helpline”), which is reached through SafeHelpline.org. By visiting SafeHelpline.org, or using the Safe Helpline, you agree to follow the terms and conditions of this Online Privacy Policy. RAINN may change these terms and conditions from time to time without prior notification, so please consult these terms and conditions regularly for any such changes.

Your privacy and security are very important to us. The following information will help you understand what information we collect online, and how we handle that information once we collect it. This policy will tell you if we disclose that information to anyone, and what choices you have regarding how we use that information. Please note that this Online Privacy Policy applies only to SafeHelpline.org and to the Safe Helpline website, and not to any other website of RAINN (including rainn.org) or of any other organizations to which we may link or that may link to us.

Collection of Information About You

Section A tells you how RAINN gathers information from users of the Safe Helpline, and Section B tells you how RAINN gathers information from users of SafeHelpline.org.  If you are only using the SafeHelpline.org website generally and are not using the Safe Helpline, Section A (immediately below) does NOT apply to you; you should read Section B.

If you decide to use the Safe Helpline and then use the SafeHelpline.org website separately or during the same time frame, your use of the Safe Helpline cannot be connected to your use of SafeHelpline.org.

Please note that the Safe Helpline is intended for the DoD Community.  All others should visit the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline (http://online.rainn.org) instead of using the Safe Helpline.

A. Safe Helpline

We operate the Safe Helpline in conjunction with participating rape crisis centers ("RCCs") and the Rape Crisis Center for Children & Adults ("RCCCA"), pursuant to a contract with the United States Department of Defense (the “Department of Defense”). The Safe Helpline is staffed by trained crisis support staff (which may include volunteers trained by RAINN or RCCs) to help you during online sessions, and RAINN, the RCCs and RCCCA provide supervisors to help monitor online sessions. Any information that you share during a Safe Helpline session will be viewed by the trained staffer assisting you, and may also be viewed by one or more supervisors from RAINN, a RCC or the RCCCA for quality control purposes.

If you provide feedback through an anonymous feedback survey following your session, that feedback may be shared with the trained staffer assisting you, and with personnel at RAINN, a participating RCC or the RCCCA, if applicable, and the Department of Defense. However, the feedback will be anonymous, and we will not ask for your name or any personal information, or attach any feedback to information that you provide during your Safe Helpline session.

Personally Identifiable Information: "Personally Identifiable Information" is information about you that would identify you, such as your name or address. The Safe Helpline is intended to be an anonymous service and you will NOT be asked to provide your name, address, telephone number or e-mail address, at any time during your use of the Safe Helpline. In fact, RAINN specifically requests, for your own safety and anonymity, that you do not provide any such Personally Identifiable Information when you use the Safe Helpline.

Note that while no Personally Identifiable Information will be asked, trained staffers may ask your location and branch of military service in order to provide you with referrals for ongoing support.

The information and text conveyed by you to our trained staffers during your online chat session is intended to be part of a private conversation between you and the trained staffer, and will NOT be recorded, stored, saved, or catalogued by RAINN other than any information provided that is not Personally Identifiable Information and which will only be used only in aggregate reports. Additionally, in order to determine usage levels and average session length, and for other record keeping purposes, an entry will be made in a database containing the start and stop time of each session.

Aggregate Data & Cookies: We automatically gather, or aggregate, certain usage information, such as the number of users of the Safe Helpline, length of stay and average length of sessions. This data cannot be used to identify you personally, and helps us to determine how often the Safe Helpline is being used, at what times of the day, and other useful statistics. We may use this aggregate data for internal record keeping and service improvement purposes, and also may share it with sponsors, supporters, the Department of Defense or the media.

The Safe Helpline does NOT place any permanent or "persistent" cookies on your computer, although SafeHelpline.org does use session cookies (see below). The cookies placed by SafeHelpline.org cannot be used to identify you as a user of the Safe Helpline.

B. SafeHelpline.org

Personally Identifiable Information:
General. In general, visitors may browse SafeHelpline.org without being requested to reveal any Personally Identifiable Information. However, there are pages on SafeHelpline.org where we may request Personally Identifiable Information about you, such as your name, address, phone number or e-mail address. SafeHelpline.org may also collect information such as your computer's IP address. RAINN may seek such information in order to enable your use of certain parts of the SafeHelpline.org website. In addition, we may use such information to analyze site usage for SafeHelpline.org, to improve our content, and to customize our site's content, layout and services.  Finally, we may use your e-mail address or cell phone number to send you information you request.

Please note that any Personally Identifiable Information provided via SafeHelpline.org cannot be connected to your use of the Safe Helpline and once you agree to the Safe Helpline Terms of Service (which must be agreed to prior to your use of the Safe Helpline) the Safe Helpline will not record or store your computer’s IP address. 

Other Uses. We may use internal service providers to facilitate our services, and, therefore, may provide some of your Personally Identifiable Information directly to them. In addition, we may employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf, such as website hosting, data analysis, and providing customer service. These companies and individuals will only have access to Personally Identifiable Information needed to perform their functions, and may not use it for any other purpose. As noted above, your Personally Identifiable Information provided via SafeHelpline.org cannot be connected to your use of the Safe Helpline.

Opt-Out Procedures. If you voluntarily provide your email address or cell phone number and request that we email or text information to you, we may send such emails or text messages.  If you decide you do not want to receive such emails or text messages, or if you want us to remove your profile or other information from our files for any reason, please email info@safehlepline.org and we will remove you from our system.

Aggregate Data & Cookies: We automatically gather, or aggregate, certain usage information, such as the number and frequency of visitors to SafeHelpline.org, length of stay, and other anonymous data. This data helps us determine usage levels on different parts of SafeHelpline.org, and to conduct other internal research. In addition, we may aggregate such data and disclose it in a non-personally identifiable manner to sponsors, supporters, the Department of Defense and other third parties, to generate support for the Safe Helpline or RAINN, or as required by law. In these situations, we do not disclose any information that could be used to identify you personally.

For example, SafeHelpline.org uses "session ID cookies." In general, a "cookie" is a small piece of text data stored on a user's computer by a website, in order to give that computer a unique identity to the website while performing certain processes, such as calculating the number of unique visitors at a given time. Cookies may contain personal information, like email addresses, usernames, or passwords, or completely anonymous information, like a randomly generated number. They may be deleted once a user leaves the site, leaves a section of the site, or closes the browser; or they may remain, so that the website "remembers" the user when he or she next visits.

On SafeHelpline.org, we use one session ID cookie. It is used to measure the amount of overall traffic on our website; we use this data only in the aggregate, meaning no individual user can be identified from the data. This cookie is in no way linked to Personally Identifiable Information, and is deleted from the user's computer when the user closes his or her browser. We do not use permanent cookies, which retain information past a user's current visit.

How We Protect Your Security

RAINN stores any information on a secure server that is only accessible by RAINN employees or contractors, pursuant to the terms described above.  However, as previously noted, we may aggregate certain information and provide such aggregate reports to third parties, including the Department of Defense. Again, we do not store transcripts of communications over the Safe Helpline.

We care about the security of your personal information, and therefore have chosen to use GoDaddy as a security solutions provider.

We employ different security techniques to protect your personal information from unauthorized access by users inside and outside of our organization, including standard encryption practices. You should be aware, however, that "perfect security" does not exist anywhere on the Internet. ALTHOUGH WE BELIEVE WE TAKE APPROPRIATE MEASURES TO SAFEGUARD AGAINST UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURES OF INFORMATION, WE CANNOT ASSURE YOU THAT YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION OR COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE SAFE HELPLINE WILL NEVER BE DISCLOSED IN A MANNER INCONSISTENT WITH THIS POLICY, AND MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES REGARDING THE SUFFICIENCY OF OUR SECURITY MEASURES.

Always be careful and responsible regarding your personal information. We are not responsible for, and cannot control, the use by others of any information, which you provide or divulge to them, purposefully or inadvertently. Please note that the owner of any computer on which you access the Safe Helpline (including the Department of Defense, if applicable) may have the right to access computers that it owns or has provided.   We do not control the privacy policies of others (including the Department of Defense).

For more information on how to keep your computer safe, please read our User Safety Procedures above.

How We May Share Information

We will not publish, sell, share, or rent information about you in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. However, we, including trained staffers, RCCs, and RCCCA, may be forced to disclose information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances. We may be required to (and you authorize us to) reveal any information about you that we possess to law enforcement or other government officials as we, in our sole discretion, believe is necessary or appropriate, in connection with the investigation of a crime, mandatory reporting laws, fraud, intellectual property infringement, or other activity that is illegal, or may expose us, or you, to liability. Also, if we, or a trained staffer, RCC, or RCCCA, fear that you are in danger of committing suicide, or are 17 years of age or younger, we, or the trained staffer, RCC, or RCCCA, may be required to disclose whatever information you have provided to the appropriate authorities. Trained staffers are located across the United States. This means that the laws of the trained staffer's state may apply to your communications with that trained staffer. Such laws may not protect your communications to the same degree, or in the same way, as the laws of your state. It is possible that a court of law will not keep private, and may require us to reveal, information that you provide during your Safe Helpline session. If you are concerned about this possibility, please call the Safe Helpline hotline instead, at 877-995-5247 (the phone number is the same in CONUS and via DSN). The data that we collect, and therefore may share, is limited in the manner described above.

Our Policy Toward Children

We are concerned about the safety and privacy of children who use the Internet. Consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, we will never 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 Personally Identifiable Information through SafeHelpline.org without verifiable parental consent, we will use our best efforts to remove such information from our files. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with Personally Identifiable Information through SafeHelpline.org without verifiable parental consent, he or she should contact RAINN at (202) 544-1034 or info@SafeHelpline.org.

Other Information Collectors

Except as otherwise expressly included in this Online Privacy Policy, this document addresses our use and disclosure of information that we collect from you. If you disclose your information to others, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of such information. We do not control the privacy policies of others. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.

Your Consent and Changes in Privacy Pledge

By using the Safe Helpline or SafeHelpline.org, you consent to the terms set forth in this Privacy Policy and the Website User Agreement. We may, from time to time, make changes to this Online Privacy Policy, based on your comments and our need to reflect accurately our data collection and disclosure practices. If we make any substantial changes in the way we use your personal information, this page will be updated and we will post a prominent announcement on SafeHelpline.org.

If you have any questions or suggestions about this privacy policy, please contact info@SafeHelpline.org. Alternatively, you can mail RAINN at:

RAINN
Attn: Safe Helpline Privacy Coordinator
2000 L St. NW
Suite 406
Washington, DC 20036

Please only address questions about the privacy pledge to the above addresses. If you are concerned about a specific page, please email info@SafeHelpline.org.