Effective Date: August 14, 2024
Introduction & Scope
The Brookings Institution (hereinafter referred to as “Brookings,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) provides this privacy policy, which describes our information practices when you visit the Brookings website located at brookings.edu and any of Brookings mobile properties that link to this privacy policy (collectively, the “Site”) or donate to Brookings.
The Brookings Institution values our visitors and donors. We understand and appreciate the need for security and trust when we process personal information.
Brookings may work with selected third parties to provide certain features on the Site such as social sharing functions. This privacy policy does not govern any information you choose to provide directly to such third parties. Such third parties have their own privacy policies that govern how they may collect, use, and disclose the information that you provide to them.
Information Collection & Use
When using our Site, we may collect certain information from you, including your name and contact information such as a phone number or email address. We may use the information that you provide for our operational purposes, including as described below. We may also use the information that you provide to contact you with offers or items that may interest you. You may, however, use many features of the Site without providing information.
When you choose to provide us with information, we may combine it with other information about you that we receive from third party sources.
Job Applications
If you apply for a job through the Site, we may collect information including your name, contact information, and educational and work history.
Online Donations
If you choose to make a donation through the Site we request certain information from you, including your name, contact information, and payment information. We use this information to complete the transactions you request, including for billing purposes or to contact you if we have trouble processing an order. We may contact you to discuss the terms of your donation, and to invite you to donate again to Brookings. If you prefer not to receive requests to donate to us, you can opt out by emailing [email protected] or calling 202-797-6220. Please note that opting out of donation emails will not affect your other Brookings subscriptions.
Newsletters and Events
If you choose to subscribe to any of our electronic newsletters, we use the information you provide, including your email address, to fulfill your subscription. You may unsubscribe at any time by changing your newsletter subscription preferences on our Site or by clicking the unsubscribe link contained in the newsletter. After you opt out, we may continue to send messages related to your transactions or relationship with Brookings, and we may also continue to send invitations to donate to Brookings unless you opt out separately from donation invitations.
You may also provide information when you choose to attend a virtual or in-person event. The information you provide will be used to register you for the event and facilitate your attendance and participation.
Any information you provide in connection with requesting newsletters or event attendance may be used to notify you of other newsletters and products that may be of interest to you.
Surveys
Occasionally, we may provide you the opportunity to participate in surveys on our Site or through a third-party service provider. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary.
Automatically-Collected Data
We and our third-party service providers may use various technologies to collect data automatically about your use of our Site, including when you browse the Site or read our articles and publications. We use this automatically-collected data for our operational purposes such as to administer and improve the Site. We also use these technologies to personalize your experience with Brookings and to provide functions such as recording preferences. The technologies that we use may include, for example:
- Log Files are data files that store information about the activities, usage patterns, and operations on our Site. Log files may collect information such as Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, geographic location, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data.
- Cookies (including persistent, session, and flash cookies) are pieces of data stored on the hard drive of your computer that contain information about you and that is used for recordkeeping purposes. Cookies enable us to collect information for various purposes, including updating our Site based on data about the total number of visitors and pages viewed. We use cookies to provide tailored services to you and to enhance your experience on our Site.
- Web beacons are electronic images that are ordinarily not visible to you. Web beacons may be embedded in our Site or used in emails and newsletters to provide information on your interactions with our content and to help measure the effectiveness of our electronic communications.
Your browser may offer tools to reject or delete cookies. If you reject cookies on your browser, you may still use our Site, but your ability to use some areas of our Site may be limited. Even if you set your browser to reject cookies, we may continue to collect some data. In particular, we may use session replay and other technology to record and better understand your interactions on the Site.
Analytics
We may use third-party service providers that use cookies or other technology to collect information about your online activities across this and other websites over time for non-advertising purposes and to help us analyze how visitors use the Site.
We may use Google Analytics and other third-party services to improve the performance of the Site and for analytics and marketing purposes. To learn more about how Google Analytics collects and processes data when using our Site, you may visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. To opt out of Google Analytics you may visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.
Children Under the Age of 13
Our Site is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe that we may have collected or received information from a child under 13, please contact us at [email protected] to request deletion of that information.
Information Sharing and Disclosure
Non-Donor Information
We may disclose non-donor information that we collect in the following ways:
- To our subsidiaries and affiliates;
- To contractors, agents, or service providers that we use to support our business and provide our services, in which case we make reasonable efforts to ensure that they are bound by contractual obligations to keep the shared information confidential and use or share it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them;
- As part of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of Brookings’ assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which information held by Brookings about our Site users is among the assets transferred;
- To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it;
- For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information or with your consent; or
- As required by law, when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, property, or safety of Brookings or others, and/or to comply with judicial or regulatory process, court order, lawfully-issued subpoena, or legal process served on Brookings.
Donors
We do not trade, share, or sell information collected on donors as part of the donation process to anyone else, nor send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations, unless we have the donor’s specific permission to do so. Please see our Donor Guidelines for additional information on our donor practices.
Links to Other Sites
This Site contains links to other websites that are not owned or controlled by Brookings. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such other sites.
Correcting or Updating Information
You may ask to correct, update, or deactivate your information within our communications systems by emailing us at [email protected]. If you are a donor and would like to correct, update, or deactivate information on you in our donor database, please also contact us by emailing [email protected] or calling 202-797-6220.
Security
The security of the information we collect is important to us. Brookings uses commercially reasonable safeguards to help protect the security of this information. For example, we may encrypt information using technologies such as Secure Sockets Layer technology (SSL).
Terms of Use
Please also visit our Terms of Use section on our public website, which establishes the use, disclaimers, and limitations of liability governing the use of our Site at https://www.brookings.edu/terms-of-use.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
If our information and/or privacy practices materially change, we will post these changes on this page. We encourage you to visit this page periodically to learn of any updates.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or comments about this privacy policy, please contact us at:
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts, Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Attn: Office of General Counsel
[email protected]