Privacy
It is the Masonic Charities of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania’s (hereafter referred to as “Masonic Charities”) policy to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect while operating our websites.
Website Visitors
Like most website operators, Masonic Charities collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Masonic Charities’ purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how Masonic Charities’ visitors use its website. From time to time, Masonic Charities may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.
Masonic Charities also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for logged in users and for users leaving comments on Masonic Charities’ member sites. Masonic Charities only discloses logged in user and commenter IP addresses under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information as described below, except that site commenter IP addresses are visible and disclosed to the administrators of the site where the comment was left.
Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information
Certain visitors to Masonic Charities’ websites choose to interact with Masonic Charities in ways that require Masonic Charities to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that Masonic Charities gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. Those who engage in transactions with Masonic Charities are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions. In each case, Masonic Charities collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with Masonic Charities. Masonic Charities does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.
Aggregated Statistics
Masonic Charities may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites. For instance, Masonic Charities may monitor the most popular member sites on the Masonic Charities site. Masonic Charities may display this information publicly or provide it to others. However, Masonic Charities does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below.
Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information
Masonic Charities discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on Masonic Charities’ behalf or to provide services available at Masonic Charities’ websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country; by using Masonic Charities’ websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. Masonic Charities will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. Other than to its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations, as described above, Masonic Charities discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only in response to a subpoena, court order or other governmental request, or when Masonic Charities believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Masonic, third parties or the public at large. If you are a registered user of a Masonic Charities website and have supplied your email address, Masonic Charities may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with Masonic Charities and our products. We expect to keep this type of email to a minimum. If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users. Masonic Charities takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.
Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Masonic Charities uses cookies to help Masonic Charities identify and track visitors, their usage of Masonic Charities’ website, and their website access preferences. Masonic Charities’ visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using Masonic Charities’ websites, with the drawback that certain features of Masonic Charities’ websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
Masonic Charities maintains a list of email addresses of users who have specifically opted to receive mailings and newsletters from us relating to the Masonic Charities retirement living communities, services and events. Participation in this mailing list is strictly voluntary, and any user may opt out at any point by emailing giving@masonicvillages.org a message with a subject of “unsubscribe” from the email address they wish removed from the list. Email addresses from this mailing list are only used for these notifications, and will not be distributed to any third party.
Business Transfers
If Masonic Charities, or substantially all of its assets were acquired, or in the unlikely event that Masonic Charities goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of Masonic Charities may continue to use your personal information as set forth in this policy.
Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are likely to be minor, Masonic Charities may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and at Masonic Charities’ sole discretion. Masonic Charities encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.