Privacy Policy

Rails to Trails Conservancy (RTC) respects your right to privacy. RTC has created this Privacy Policy to explain why we collect particular information and how we will protect your personal privacy within our website. The following discloses our information-gathering and dissemination practices for the websites located at the following urls: railstotrails.org and traillink.com.

In order to fully understand your rights, we encourage you to read this Privacy Policy as well as our Web Policies. RTC reserves the right at any time and without notice to change this Privacy Policy simply by posting such changes on our site. Any such change will be effective immediately upon posting.

Because we want to demonstrate our commitment to your privacy, this Privacy Policy notifies you of the following:

1. What personally identifiable information of yours is collected through the site
2. How such information is used
3. With whom your information may be shared
4. What choices you have regarding collection, use and distribution of your information
5. How you can correct any inaccuracies in your information

To learn about the security procedures in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under our control, read our Security Statement.

Questions regarding this statement should be directed to RTC by sending an email to our webmaster. Please reference this Privacy Policy in your subject line.

What Information We Collect and How We Use It

Our registration forms require users to give us contact information that may include name, email address, format preference (HTML vs. text), address, interests and similar information. We do not request or store sensitive information from our visitors, such as credit card or social security numbers. To review your personal information and request corrections, you may contact our Membership Department.

You can also contact us using one of the methods below:

Phone: 202.974.5105
Fax: 202.223.9257

Written Correspondence:
Rails to Trails Conservancy
Membership Department
2445 M Street, NW, Suite 650
Washington, DC 20037

Use of Information

The information you supply will be used by RTC to respond to your inquiries or supply you with information about us. Authorized third parties may be used by RTC to collect, track and process such information. It may be necessary, if required by law or if pertinent to judicial or governmental investigations, to release your personally identifiable information. If you have submitted personal information to RTC and would like it removed or modified, please contact us. We will use reasonable efforts to comply with your request.

Membership Information

RTC maintains personal information on our members in order to fulfill membership benefits and meet state and federal disclosure regulations governing nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations. Some segments of the RTC mailing list are made available to outside organizations as part of RTC’s membership recruitment program. You may request that RTC not trade your information by contacting our Membership Department, by calling us at 202.974.5105, by faxing us at 202.223.9257 or by writing to Rails to Trails Conservancy, Membership Department, 2445 M Street, NW, Suite 650, Washington, DC 20037.

Internet Protocol Address

We collect an IP address from all visitors to our site. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet. We use IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, administer our site, analyze trends, track users’ movements, gather broad demographic information for aggregate use in order for us to improve the site and deliver customized content. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Use of “Cookies”

Our site may use cookies to enhance your experience. Cookies are pieces of information that some websites transfer to the computer browsing that website, and are used for record-keeping purposes at many websites. Use of cookies makes Web-surfing easier by performing certain functions such as saving your passwords and your personal preferences regarding your use of the particular website and making sure you don’t see the same ad repeatedly. Many consider the use of cookies to be an industry standard.

Your browser is probably set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our site will not function properly when you view them.

Security

All information provided to RTC is transmitted using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption. SSL is a proven coding system that lets your browser automatically encrypt, or scramble, data before you send it to us. We also protect account information by placing it on a secure portion of our site that is only accessible by certain qualified employees of RTC. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet is 100 percent secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of such information.

Tell-A-Friend

If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend’s name and email address. RTC will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. RTC stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email.

Other Websites

Our site contains links to other websites. Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are entering another website for which RTC has no responsibility. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on all such sites, as their policies may be different than ours.

Contacting the Website

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site or your dealings with this site, you can email our webmaster or write to:

Rails to Trails Conservancy 
2445 M Street, NW, Suite 650
Washington, DC 20037

Read our other Web Policies and our Security Statement.