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Mary Ferrell Foundation Policies

Last Updated: September 22, 2019


Mission

The Mary Ferrell Foundation (MFF) exists to carry on the work of Mary Ferrell, making information and resources on the assassinations of the 1960s and their historical context accessible to a wide audience. The website is open to all visitors. Fee-based memberships unlock special features and are used to support the website and the Foundation's mission. The Mary Ferrell Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. For more information, see the About MFF page.


General Policies

In order to provide a working service to our users, the MFF reserves to right to limit or suspend use of this website to anyone who abuses it. Such abuse includes but is not limited to flooding of our email system, spamming, or denial-of-service or other computer attacks. The MFF reserves the right to revoke memberships in addition to other actions.


Privacy Policy

The Mary Ferrell Foundation (MFF) is committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to this website. This policy explains the foundation's website visitor data collection and use practices. This site is designed to provide potential members, donors, partners, consultants, and the public at large with information about the foundation, as well as its services, products, research and tools.

Visitors who wish to sign up for memberships in order to take advantage of the full services of this website will be ask to supply some basic information. Such information includes name, email address, and other such data. In order to make payments, the payment system may ask for additional information. The MFF does not retain credit card numbers or other sensitive payment information.


How will the MFF use my information?

Unless otherwise indicated at the time of data submission, visitor information will be used only for the specific purpose for which it is provided; for example, to respond to an information request, to add a visitor to a distribution list, etc. Secondary uses of information are limited to monitoring site usage.

The MFF may keep a visitor's personally-identifiable information on file and use it to contact the visitor for feedback on the MFF website content, products, and services, as well as to provide the visitor with notices of product releases and service developments that address the visitor's needs and requirements. Visitors who purchase products or services from the MFF website may be contacted regarding current and future versions of the website's products and services. If visitors do not wish to be contacted, they may send an email at any time to info@maryferrell.org with "remove" as the subject line and full name and email information in the body of the message.


Does the MFF use cookies?

The MFF uses cookies to maintain session information for logged-in users, in order to enhance convenient use of the website. It also uses the web browser's "local storage" mechanism to cache retrieved information in order to provide a speedier experience.

The website at this time uses cookies for two purposes only. One use is "session cookies" used to remember the login state of a given user, in order to support membership-based features such as unlimited search and PDF access. The other use is for collection of site metrics. The MFF now, like a great many websites, uses Google Analytics for site statistics, as described below.

In order to provide quality service, it is important for website operators to collect usage statistics, including site traffic levels, use of particular features, popular pages, bad links, etc. Statistics are also gathered to provide institutional members with statistics regarding overall visits from within their institution. The MFF now uses Google Analytics, the most popular such service, for its website metrics and statistics. The MFF does not include any user-identifying information in these statistics, and further uses Google's "IP anonymizer" feature to keep individual user IP addresses from being included in the gathered information.

Because "tracking cookies" have become ubiquitous and of concern to many web users, the MFF in 2019 removed embedded YouTube videos from site pages, using native HTML5 video playback instead. Thus such pages no longer have extra cookies associated with them. Similarly, the MFF Twitter feed on the homepage, which also uses its own cookies, is turned off by default and must be "opted into". The MFF is committed to using cookies only to support necessary features of the website and not for other tracking purposes.


Will the MFF provide my information to other parties?

The MFF does not sell, rent, loan or lease any personal information collected on this site, however such information may be transferred in connection with a sale or other transfer of the foundation or one of its subsidiaries. During the fulfillment of visitor requests, the MFF may rely on trusted third-party companies (e.g. purchasing products or services). The Paypal service is currently used to process membership payments and online donations, for example. While the MFF only uses reputable companies, the MFF makes no claims or warranties regarding their business practices. Visitors are encouraged to visit the third-party sites via links provided on this site if they have questions regarding their privacy policies.

The MFF will disclose a visitor's personal information if it is required to do so by law or if such action is necessary to comply with legal process served on the MFF, or to protect the safety of visitors or the public from an immediate and material threat that cannot reasonably be addressed without such disclosure.

The MFF provides links to third-party websites as a service to visitors. The MFF cannot control and is not responsible for the privacy and/or information collection practices of such third-party websites, which may differ from those of this site. The MFF encourages visitors to review and understand the privacy policies on these websites before providing any information.


Where will my information be used?

Visitor information may be processed in the U.S, or any other country in which the MFF or its subsidiaries abides, and by using this site, visitors consent to any transfers of personally identifiable information outside the U.S.


How can I modify information I may have provided to the MFF?

See the "My Membership" link in the banner of any MFF page (for logged-in members) to change your personal information. If you have trouble doing this, please send e-mail to info@maryferrell.org.


Other Policies

Notice regarding children

This website does not publish content that is targeted to children. The website is not intended, or directed at, children 13 years of age or younger, and the MFF will not knowingly or intentionally collect or maintain information about anyone under the age of 13.


Changes to this statement

The MFF may occasionally update this policy file. When this occurs, the MFF will revise the "last updated" date near the top of the page to reflect the new date. For changes that the MFF believes to be significant and material, the MFF will notify visitors by placing a prominent notice on this website.

If you have any questions about our policies, please e-mail us at info@maryferrell.org.

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