The Minnesota Council on Foundations (MCF) maintains high standards for the protection of privacy over the Internet. The purpose of this statement is to explain the types of information MCF obtains about visitors to our Web sites, how the information is obtained, how it is used, and how visitors can restrict its use or disclosure.

The only information MCF obtains about individual visitors to our Web sites is information supplied voluntarily by the visitor. This means that you can visit our Web sites without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself.

To gauge the effectiveness of our Web sites, we do collect some generic information about our visitors. This information does not reveal a visitor's identity. For example, our Web server automatically recognizes a visitor's domain name (such as .com, .edu, etc.), the Web page from which a visitor enters our site, which pages a visitor visits on our site, and how much time a visitor spends on each page. We aggregate this information and use it to evaluate and improve our Web sites.

You can choose to provide identifiable information about yourself to MCF in a number of ways through our Web sites -- by sending us e-mail, registering to receive our e-mail newsletter, or responding to one of our periodic user surveys. When visitors supply information about themselves for a specific purpose, MCF uses the information for that purpose only (such as to provide information that a visitor has requested or to add them to our e-mail newsletter subscription list).

MCF does not sell or disclose individually-identifiable information obtained online about our visitors to anyone outside of MCF unless you specifically authorize it, it is required by law, and/or disclosure is necessary to protect the safety of employees or property.

MCF does not send unsolicited "junk" e-mail (spam). We may use e-mail to respond to visitors' e-mails, to confirm orders and program registrations placed online, to send information that a visitor has requested, and to send our e-mail newsletters. If you receive an unwanted e-mail from us, you can simply send us an e-mail asking us not to send you future e-mails.

The Minnesota Council on Foundations is committed to safeguarding visitor privacy on all MCF Web sites. We require our employees to protect the privacy of information about our Web site visitors. You can feel confident that your individually-identifiable information will be protected when you provide it to us.

MCF Web sites may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites.

To improve the services it can offer you, MCF may opt to expand its capabilities for obtaining information about its Web site visitors in the future. MCF will update this privacy statement continually to ensure that you are aware of developments in this area.

Updated April 18, 2000

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