Jump straight to the Online Privacy for Nonprofits Guide to Better Practices
Today, the vast majority of websites and emails that you encounter contain some form of tracking. Third-party cookies let advertisers follow you around the web; tracking pixels in emails confirm whether you’ve opened them; tracking links ensure websites know what you click; some websites even collect data on forms you’ve never actually submitted; still others share detailed interactions, such as appointments you’ve booked, with companies like Facebook. Each of these types of technology works by turning your actions into data: websites with tracking collect and store data about the site you are on, when, and what you are doing there; emails with tracking collect and store data about which email you opened and how you interacted with it.
All of this amounts to an incredible amount of data about you being collected without your permission. That data doesn’t all end up in one place—sometimes it’s collected by individual websites, sometimes by ad tech companies, and sometimes by third-parties you’ve never heard of. But regardless of who has the data, it amounts to a massive violation of user privacy that can have far-reaching consequences. Choosing to collect the data of supporters, clients and visitors isn’t just a marketing, monetary or ideological decision: it’s a decision that puts people in danger. In a post-Roe world, for example, law enforcement might use internet search histories, online purchases, tracked locations, and other parts of a person’s digital trail as evidence of criminal intent – indeed, they already have.
If you are a nonprofit organization, you may be part of the problem. Unfortunately, a 2021 report from The Markup showed that many nonprofits don’t take threats to privacy seriously. That may be changing: Planned Parenthood, for example, […]
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