Privacy Policy

World Wildlife Fund, Inc. Privacy Policy

Last Modified: June 28, 2024

World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (“WWF”) respects privacy, and we know that many care about how information is used and shared. This Privacy Policy applies to the WWF website www.worldwildlife.org, to all other websites controlled or operated by WWF from which you are accessing this Privacy Policy, to all associated subdomains, online services, and mobile applications controlled or operated by WWF, and to any other interactions that we may have with you, online or offline (collectively, the “Services”).

Please see our supplemental State Privacy Notices here for additional details on how we handle your Personal Information and how to exercise your privacy rights.

What Information We Collect

When you use our Services, WWF and its service providers may collect Personal Information that you provide, such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, payment information, and photos or videos on your mobile device, if you give WWF permission to access them. “Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable person.

In addition, WWF and its service providers use a variety of techniques to gather other information about your use of the Services, including, among other things, your IP address, browser type, mobile device type, content visited while on the Services, and the duration of your visit to the Services. “Other Information” is any information that does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to an individual.

If you submit any Personal Information relating to other people to us or to our service providers in connection with the Services, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

How We Collect Information

WWF and its service providers collect Personal Information that you provide while using the Services, either directly or through other user actions, including, without limitation, any Personal Information provided or otherwise obtained while the Services’ web pages are open. For instance, WWF gathers information when you fill out forms on the Services, including, for example, e-newsletter sign-up forms, donation forms, surveys and advocacy action alerts. We may also use analytics that enable us to obtain your Personal Information based on your use of the Services, including, for example, your clicks on Services’ pages and page elements as well as information entered into the Services’ html form fields, regardless of whether the form is submitted.

We may collect information from and about you from other online and offline sources, such as public databases, vendors, list exchanges, social media platforms, and from people with whom you are friends or otherwise connected on social media platforms. For example, if you choose to connect your social media account to your Services account, certain Personal Information from your social media account will be shared with us. This may include Personal Information that is part of your profile or your friends’ profiles.

We and our service providers may collect Other Information in a variety of ways, including through:

  • Cookies. We use “cookies” to help us monitor traffic and collect information about use of the Services. Cookies are pieces of data placed on your device when you visit the Services that help us recognize you when you come back to the Services, allowing us, for instance, to remember the email address and password you use when you log in on a specific computer. WWF uses the aggregated information collected from cookies to measure the number of visits to the Services, the average time spent on the Services, the identity and number of pages viewed, aid in interest-based advertising with our partners, and to gather other traffic data and information that allows us to improve the Services. We also use the information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience while using the Services. Cookies further allow us to select which of our content or advertisements are most likely to appeal to you and display them while you are on the Services. We may also use cookies or other technologies in online advertising to track responses to our ads. We may not respond to browser do-not-track signals.
  • Analytics & Optimization. WWF also uses a variety of third-party web and mobile app analytics and optimization services to improve the Services and enhance the visitor experience. When you  use the Services, we and our service providers may collect, record, and use your session information, including browsing behavior, click patterns, mouse movements, scrolling activity, keystrokes, chat messages, pages visited, and other analytics in order to improve user experience and the Services’ quality, as well as to debug, identify, and repair errors that impair the  intended functionality of our Services. The Services do not track your browsing habits across other third-party websites on our behalf.
  • Invisible reCAPTCHA.  We use Google’s invisible reCAPTCHA application on our Services in order to protect against spam and other automated abuse.  The reCAPTCHA tool may make use of cookies, as well as such other information as IP address, date, time, language, screen size and resolution, and mouse movements.  The use of the reCAPTCHA tool and information collected through it are subject to Google’s privacy policy, available at https://policies.google.com/privacy and Google’s terms of service, available at https://policies.google.com/terms?hl=en.
  • Third-party Advertising.  We may use third-party advertising companies to serve advertisements that may be of interest to you when you access and use the Services and other websites. You may receive advertisements (1) based on information relating to your access to and use of the Services, other websites, or online services on any of your devices; and (2) based on information received from third parties. To do so, these companies may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser (including through use of pixel tags). They also use these technologies, along with information they collect about your online use, to recognize you across the devices you use, such as a mobile phone and a laptop.  We may also send anonymized and/or securely hashed data to our vendors to determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns.
  • Pixel Tags.  We may use pixel tags and other similar technologies to, among other things, track the actions of users of the Services, measure the success of our marketing campaigns, and compile statistics about use of the Services and response rates.
  • Browser/Device Information.  Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, and Internet browser type and version.
  • IP Address.  We may collect your IP address, which is a number that is automatically assigned to the computer that you are using by your Internet Service Provider. An IP address may be identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever a user accesses the Services, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that were visited. Collecting IP addresses is a common practice and is done automatically by many websites, applications and other services. We use IP addresses for purposes such as calculating usage levels, helping diagnose server problems, and administering the Services.
  • App Usage Data.  When you download and use our mobile applications (each, an “App”), we may track and collect App usage data, such as the date and time the App on your device accesses our servers and what information and files have been downloaded to the App based on your device number.
  • Physical Location.  We may collect the physical location of your device by, for example, using satellite, cell phone tower or Wi-Fi signals. We may use your device’s physical location to provide you with personalized location-based services and content. We may also share your device’s physical location, combined with information about what advertisements you viewed and other information we collect, with our marketing partners to enable them to provide you with more personalized content and to study the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. In some instances, you may be permitted to allow or deny such uses and/or sharing of your device’s location, but if you do, we and/or our marketing partners may not be able to provide you with the applicable personalized services and content. Our Apps may collect the precise location of your device when the App is running in the foreground or background, depending on how you choose to set up the App’s location tracking.
  • Aggregating Personal Information.  We may aggregate Personal Information. Aggregated information does not personally identify you or any other user of the Services (for example, we may aggregate Personal Information to calculate the percentage of our users who have a particular telephone area code).

How We Use Collected Information

WWF may use your Personal Information:

  • To send you information about WWF or WWF partners.
  • To personalize your interactions with WWF, such as to customize your web and email content based on your interests, send you requests to participate in events in your area and otherwise target content and communications to you.
  • To respond to inquiries and fulfill your requests, such as to process donations, renew your membership, or send you information about a project, as well as to provide membership services.
  • To send administrative information to you, such as information regarding the Services and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
  • To improve our Services’ functionality and user experience, and to debug, identify and repair errors that impair the intended functionality of our Services.
  • To allow you to participate in sweepstakes, contests, and similar promotions and to administer these activities. Some of these activities have additional rules, which could contain additional information about how we use and disclose your Personal Information.
  • To facilitate social sharing functionality.
  • For our business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, fraud monitoring and prevention, developing new products and services, enhancing, improving or modifying the Services, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, and operating and expanding our activities, some of which may be shared or used by our vendors and their technologies and tools.

Your Personal Information may be disclosed:

  • To our project partners for purposes of implementing conservation activities.
  • To our vendors and service providers that support our business and operations through a variety of activities, including but not limited to marketing, data processing, fundraising-related services, website hosting, data analysis and campaign measurement, payment processing, information technology and related infrastructure provision, customer service, email delivery, and auditing services.
  • To third parties that assist our project partners, vendors, and service providers as part of their work with WWF.
  • Via list exchanges with other charities, businesses, exchange coordinators, and data processors who may use your Personal Information to identify new potential supporters, including for their outreach and marketing purposes.
  • To third-party sponsors of sweepstakes, contests, and similar promotions.
  • By you, on message boards, chat, profile pages, blogs, and other services to which you are able to post information and materials. Please note that any information you post or disclose through these services will become public and may be available to users of the Services and to the general public. We urge you to be very careful when deciding to disclose your Personal Information, or any other information, on the Services.
  • To your friends associated with your social media account, to other website users and to your social media account provider, in connection with your social sharing activity, such as if you connect your social media account to your Services account or log-into your Services account from your social media account. By connecting your Services account and your social media account, you authorize us to share information with your social media account provider, friends associated with your social media account, and other website users, and you understand that the use of the information we share will be governed by the recipients’ privacy policy(ies). If you do not want your Personal Information shared with other users or with your social media account provider, please do not connect your social media account with your Services account, and do not participate in social sharing on the Services.
  • To a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of our operations, assets, or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).
  • To other third parties who help further  WWF’s charitable mission (e.g., other nonprofit organizations) or other third parties who provide products and services you may be interested in.

We may also use and disclose your Personal Information as we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions; (e) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you, or others; or (g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

We may use and disclose Other Information for any purpose, except where we are required to do otherwise under applicable law. If we are required to treat Other Information as Personal Information under applicable law, then we may use it for all the purposes for which we use and disclose Personal Information. In some instances, we may combine Other Information with Personal Information. If we do, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information as long as it is combined.

How Can You Control Collection of Your Information on the Services?

  1. Set your web browser to inform you of when cookies are being set before a cookie is stored and refuse any request to set cookies, and do not accept cookies from WWF. Erase all WWF cookies from your hard drive. You may also wish to refer to: https://allaboutcookies.org/how-to-manage-cookies.
  2. Do not provide your information when prompted by the Services.

Please note, however, that if you choose to reject or erase cookies, your ability to navigate the Services may be limited, and you also may not receive advertising or other offers from us that are relevant to your interests and needs. Further, in the event you choose not to share information, WWF will be unable to respond to your request for WWF information, enter you in any sweepstakes or contests, facilitate your action via WWF's Action Network, or send online postcards.

How Can You Modify Your Information?

If you would like to modify Personal Information you have previously provided us, please manage your profile by visiting https://www.worldwildlife.org/login.

How Can You Stop Receiving Certain Communications from WWF?

If you would like to opt out of receiving certain content from WWF, you can:

Please note that if you opt out of receiving marketing-related emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages, from which you cannot opt out.

Does WWF Collect Information from Children?

WWF does not knowingly collect Personal Information from anyone under the age of 13. The Services are not directed at children under the age of 13. In the event that WWF learns that it has collected Personal Information from a child under age 13 without parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have collected any Personal Information from a child under 13, please contact us at [email protected] or through this form.

Your U.S. State Law Privacy Rights

Various U.S. State laws may permit you to exercise certain rights relating to WWF’s collection and use of your Personal Information.  Please refer to our State Privacy Notices which supplement this Privacy Policy. 

Personal Information Collected through Meta Platforms

You have the right to ask for any Personal Information collected through use of any Meta Platforms, Inc. platform ("Meta Personal Information") to be changed or deleted at any later time. If you have questions or concerns regarding your Meta Personal Information, including requests for deletion, please fill out this form.

Third-Party Services

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site or service to which the Services link. The inclusion of a link on the Services does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by us. In addition, we are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure, or security practices (including the data security practices) of other organizations, such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM, or any other app developer, app provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, payment services provider, wireless service provider, or device manufacturer.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

WWF may from time to time and at its discretion amend this Privacy Policy. The “Effective Date” legend at the top of this page indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Services. If you would like to view prior versions of this Privacy Policy, go to https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/out-of-date-privacy-policies.

Security

WWF has procedures and technology in place to safeguard and secure the information we collect. Records containing Personal Information are stored at secure facilities. WWF employees are provided training on how to treat your data securely. Our websites use a Transport Layer Security, the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private. All online donation transactions are handled by Payment Card Industry (PCI)-compliant vendors. PCI refers to the technical and operational standards that businesses must follow to ensure that credit card data provided by cardholders is protected. These security standards are in place for WWF to protect your information.

Cross-Border Transfer

The Services are controlled and operated by us from the United States and are not intended to subject us to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country, or territory other than that of the United States. Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, and, by using the Services, you consent to the transfer of information to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have different data protection rules than those of your country.

Questions/Contact Information

If you would like to opt out of receiving certain content from WWF, you can submit a request using this form.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please use this form or send an email to [email protected] or a letter to:

Member Solutions – Privacy Support

World Wildlife Fund1250 24th Street NW

Washington, DC 20037