Privacy Policy

The Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc. (hereinafter the “Church” or “COGWA”) is committed to protecting your online privacy. We feel it is important for you to know how we handle the information we receive from you via the Church website. You can visit http://cogwa.org without revealing any personal information.

1. How we collect and use personal information

The Church will allow members, prospective members or associates to create accounts and enter personal information for the sole use of the Church. Personal information may include your name, address, telephone number, email address, payment information (if you choose to make a donation), and other personal information that you choose to provide to us. That information will not be sold or shared with third parties, except as described in this privacy policy or permitted or required by applicable law. By creating an account, members, prospective members or associates give permission to the Church to store and use said data, for purposes including:

• The internal purposes and uses of the Church
• Operating our site
• Sending you our email newsletter, if you choose to receive it
• Responding to your questions or inquiries
• Registering you for a program or event which you have chosen to attend or participate in
• Facilitating a donation you have chosen to make
• Carrying out other purposes that are disclosed to you and to which you consent, and
• Carrying out any other purpose permitted or required by law. 

2. IP addresses

We may collect and retain the IP address of all visitors to cogwa.org. An IP address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. IP addresses allow computers and servers to recognize and communicate with one another. We collect IP address information so that we can properly administer our system and gather aggregate information about how our site is being used, including the pages visitors are viewing. To maintain your anonymity, we do not associate IP addresses with records containing personal information. We will use IP address information, however, to personally identify you in order to enforce our legal rights or when required to do so by law enforcement or government authorities.

3. Newsletters or Electronic Correspondence

We require you to provide a valid email address to participate in our email newsletter program or our electronic correspondence program. Your email will not be sold and will not be shared with third parties except as described in this privacy policy, or permitted or required by applicable law. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future newsletters, we include detailed “unsubscribe” instructions at the bottom of each newsletter email.

4. How we use “cookies”

“Cookies” are small pieces of information that some websites store on your computer’s hard drive when you visit them. Like many other websites, cogwa.org may use cookies to provide us with information relating to the sources of our site traffic. Collecting this information, however, does not allow us to personally identify you. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but allow you to modify security settings so that you can approve or reject cookies on a case-by-case basis. Some parts of our site require that both cookies and JavaScript be enabled. If you reject cookies from our site, some parts of the site may not work properly for you.

5. What we provide to third parties

The Church does not typically provide any third party access to your IP address or email address.

We may transfer personal information to third party service providers that assist us with carrying out the purposes described in this privacy policy. For example, we may use a service provider to help us securely store data, or to help us operate our site. When personal information is transferred to a such a third party service provider, that party will be contractually bound to use such personal information only to carry out the services we have requested, and to provide adequate protection for the personal information.  The third party service providers and/or the personal information may not be located in the same jurisdiction as the Church and the laws on data protection may differ from the United States or Canada.

We may use, or disclose your personal information to third parties, if we have reason to believe that using or disclosing such information is necessary to: (i) conduct investigations of possible breaches of law; (ii) enforce our legal rights; or (iii) cooperate with government or law enforcement authorities pursuant to a legal matter. Lastly, we may disclose your personal information for any other purpose to which you consent or where permitted or required to do so by applicable law.

The Church website may contain links to sites operated by third parties. The Church has no control over and is not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of such third-party sites. If you have any concerns, you are urged to review the terms of those sites for more information about the policies applicable to those sites.

6. Email communications

Email communication that you send to COGWA may be routed to the person who is most able to address your inquiry. We make every effort to respond in a timely fashion once communications are received. Once we have responded to your communication, it is discarded or archived, depending on the nature of the inquiry. If you choose to use your own email system to communicate with us, we cannot control the security of your message. If you wish to keep your communication private, please use our “Contact” link (available at the bottom of every page).

7. Complaint process

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated or if you have another complaint or problem, you may email us by clicking the “Contact” link at the bottom of any page. We will endeavor to respond to you in an attempt to resolve the problem.” You may also call 1-972-521-7777 or U.S. toll-free 888-926-4929. You may contact our Media Operation Manager at 3701 Medical Center Dr, McKinney, TX 75069.

8. How we Protect Personal Information

The security of your personal information is important to us. We protect your personal information by maintaining physical, organizational and technological safeguards intended to help protect against unauthorized use, disclosure or access. Personal information may only be accessed by persons within our organization who require such access to carry out the purposes indicated above (or other appropriate purposes within the mission of the Church), or such other purposes as may be permitted or required by the applicable law. Personal information we collect is maintained by Salesforce.com, Inc., The Landmark at One Market, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA, USA 94105, and/or Media Temple, 8520 National Blvd #A, Culver City, CA, USA 90232. 

For persons who are not residents of the United States, please note that some or all of the personal information we collect may be stored or processed on servers located outside your jurisdiction of residence, including in the United States, whose data protection laws may differ from the jurisdiction in which you live.  As a result, this information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement agencies in those jurisdictions according to laws in those jurisdictions.

9. Access and Rectification

You have a right to request access to your personal information and to request a correction to it if you believe it is inaccurate. If you have submitted personal information to us and would like to have access to it, or if you would like to have it corrected, please contact us using the contact information provided above. We will use reasonable efforts to comply with your request; however, in some cases we may not be able to allow you to access certain personal information in certain circumstances (for example, if it contains personal information of other persons, or for legal reasons). In such cases, as appropriate, we will provide you with a reasonable explanation of why it is not possible to grant access to your personal information.

10. Changes to our Privacy Policy

We will occasionally update this Privacy Policy. You will see the word “updated” followed by the date next to the Privacy Policy link near the bottom of all pages on the site. If the “updated” date has changed since you last visited, you are encouraged to review the policy to be informed of how this site is protecting your information.

11. Online Privacy Policy only

This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

12. Your consent

By using our website, you acknowledge and consent to our Privacy Policy.