Visiting the Website of The Archives of the Episcopal Church
The Episcopal Church welcomes individuals interested in the history and governance of the Church to website of The Archives of the Episcopal Church. The Archives is an agency of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS) of The Episcopal Church, which is the corporate owner of this website. The Archives endeavors to protect your privacy as a user of this site. This policy describes the privacy practices currently in place to regulate the data we collect on you and how we use it from the website (https://episcopalarchives.org). Your use of the website is voluntary and constitutes consent to this Privacy and Use Policy.
The Data We Collect
The Archives collects two kinds of data through its website: personal information and non-personal statistical information.
Personal information means any information that can be used to identify a natural person. All personal information collected through the Archives website is done so on a voluntary basis. This can occur if you send us an e-mail, submit an information request, download a document, or complete an online form. We do not use your personal information for any purpose other than the one that you transact with us, and we do not release this information without your explicit consent. Personal identifying information is kept to support ongoing contact with you and our research for you is retained for future research on the same or related topics. Before any internal reuse of the data, we remove all personal identifying information. We also create de-personalized summary data for analysis of research trends and interests.
Non-personal statistical information on our users is collected by the website to measure the usefulness of the website and to evaluate the website’s function and performance. Your URL, the date and time of use, and the pages you accessed are collected as computer-generated aggregations that we use to extract analytical summaries. These reports tell us, for example, which web pages and internal links on our website are being used most frequently and whether improvements to the website’s content have an impact on user traffic. We keep these statistical reports of your visit for five years for comparative annual reporting and delete them after that period of time.
Protecting Your Privacy
The Archives does not disclose your personal information to any third party at any time. The Archives is required, however, to disclose personal information without your consent if the disclosure is requested by a court of law or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation for good cause. The Archives follows the requirements of the California Consumer Privacy Act and the General Data Protection Regulation in observing user requests regarding the retention, correction, and removal of personal identifying information. The Archives supports the privacy principles on access to patron records of the American Library Association and the NISO standards.
The Archives restricts access to personal information collected through this website to only those Archives’ employees who need the information to conduct the business of the Archives and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. The Archives has implemented formal standards and best practice procedures to safeguard its information technology assets and your privacy, including the ongoing audit of its website to ensure the security of electronic communication exchange with it users.
Cookies, Analytical Software, and Third Party Links
The use of cookies (a file placed on your computer) to keep track of separate website users is a standard practice of Internet websites. The Archives uses “session cookies” to temporarily enable us to tailor our content to your browser. These temporary session cookies do not contain personal information and they are not used to collect your personal information.
Most cookies are erased at the conclusion of the session or when you close your browser. Some non-personal information is retained for statistical purposes up to a month after your visit after which time they expire and are deleted. The Archives does not use persistent cookies to store data on a user’s computer hard drive. Please use your browser to disable cookies if you wish to opt out of these file exchange practices. Doing so should not substantially affect the functionality of the Archives website. Our analytical software is an open source tool called AWStats, which does not independently use cookies to create its log files.
The Archives provides a limited number of external links to Episcopal Church-related or other archival resources related to the Episcopal Church. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites, or search tools used to arrive at our site. These entities may collect and use your personal information for other purposes. The links we provide are for reference and research convenience only and are not endorsements of the content of the websites, their policies, products, or services.
About Copyright on the Archives Website
The Archives primarily draws from the non-current records and published holdings of The Episcopal Church and, unless otherwise stated, owns the rights to materials in our collections. In other cases, content is used with attribution and copyright permission, or the material is considered to be in the public domain. Transmission or reproduction of protected items beyond what is allowed by fair use or other exemptions requires written permission from the copyright holder.
If you have information about material on our websites or are able to provide specific, additional information about the copyright status of a particular item, please contact us at archives@episcopalarchives.org. If you are the copyright holder and believe our website has not properly attributed your work or have used it without permission, please contact us at archives@episcopalarchives.org with your contact information and a link to the relevant content.
If you believe your intellectual property rights have been infringed and would like to make a formal infringement claim, please refer to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notice of the DFMS for the applicable requirements.
Stay Current on the Archives Website Privacy and Use Policy
The Archives or the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (the Episcopal Church) may change website privacy statements at any time on their websites. Check here periodically to be sure you are current in your understanding of the Archives Website Privacy and Use Policy. This statement was last updated on August 1, 2020.
Questions about the Archives Website Privacy Policy should be directed to: archives@episcopalarchives.org.