Home | Take Action | Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

A Commitment to Privacy

The mission of Grassroots Enterprise, a division of Daniel J. Edelman, Inc., is to empower our clients to communicate, advocate or market with impact through our suite of cutting-edge Internet-based products. We share the paramount concern that our clients have with protecting the integrity of information gathered on their behalf. Since privacy is of the greatest importance to us, Grassroots Enterprise has created this privacy policy to communicate our practices regarding personal information that can be linked to a specific individual, such as a name, address, phone number or e-mail address.

Client Ownership of All Personal Information Collected

Grassroots Enterprise hosts Web pages and databases on behalf of organizations and other entities ("Clients") to communicate with and mobilize their members and other visitors ("End Users"). Our Clients collect and own information provided by End Users at Grassroots Enterprise-hosted Web pages. This information, which is then stored for our Clients on Grassroots Enterprise-hosted databases, may include, but is not limited to, an End User's name, e-mail, other personal contact information, and responses to specific inquiries by a Client. We will not sell, share, trade, rent, distribute or otherwise disclose personal information provided by End Users to any third party other than the Client on whose behalf the information is collected, except as provided in the Grassroots Enterprise Terms and Conditions, or as may be required by law.

At times, Grassroots Enterprise may view or access individual records for the purpose of resolving a problem, support issue, or suspected violation of the Grassroots Enterprise Terms and Conditions. Certain information such as Internet addresses may also be used to help diagnose technical problems and to improve the quality of Grassroots Enterprise products. We may also track and analyze aggregate usage and volume statistical information from our Clients and End Users and provide such information to third parties; however, such information will not identify specific Clients or End Users.

We remind all End Users that a Client may have a privacy policy that differs from the Grassroots Enterprise privacy policy. While we strongly encourage our Clients to abide by the highest privacy standards, we cannot control our Clients and cannot be responsible for the use of information owned by our Clients. All End Users should consult the privacy policies of our Clients before providing personal information.

Security

Grassroots Enterprise uses security measures to protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of information under our control. We store information in databases located in secured data centers with live personnel monitoring 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We use reasonable technological measures, such as Secure Socket Layer encryption and firewalls, to enhance our security and the confidentiality of personal information. Also, Grassroots Enterprise requires unique names and passwords that must be entered each time a Client logs on. These safeguards help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data integrity, and ensure appropriate use of data. Each Client will own the information collected about its End Users, and is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of its Grassroots Enterprise Client administration user name and password.

Cookies, Click-Throughs, and Log Files

Like many Internet companies, Grassroots Enterprise uses "cookies" with some of its Web-hosted products and services for its Clients. A cookie is a small piece of data that is stored on an End User's hard drive but does not itself contain any personal information. Cookies enhance an End User's experience by saving the End User the effort of having to log in or provide information each time he or she re-visits a Grassroots Enterprise-hosted Web page and by customizing content based on an End User's interests. An End User can configure his or her browser to be alerted when a site is attempting to send a cookie and refuse the cookie.

Grassroots Enterprise will track End User click-through behavior on behalf of a Client. This tracking will provide an End User with more personalized e-mail alerts and a more personalized experience while visiting a Client's Grassroots Enterprise-hosted Web pages. Grassroots Enterprise may provide a Client with this information in individual and aggregate form.

Grassroots Enterprise uses IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user movement and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.

Forward to a Friend

If an End User visits a Grassroots Enterprise-hosted Web page and uses a Grassroots Enterprise referral feature to inform a friend about the Web page, we ask for that friend's e-mail address. Grassroots Enterprise automatically sends that friend a one-time e-mail inviting him or her to visit the Web page. The e-mail addresses of friends will not be provided to a Client unless a friend affirmatively chooses to register with the Client, and such e-mail addresses will not be sold, shared, traded, rented, distributed or otherwise disclosed to any other third party.

Updating Information, Opting-out, and Permission-Based Communications

End Users will have the opportunity to opt-in to receive future communications from a Client, from coalitions, organizations and other entities with interests and missions similar to that of Client, and from Grassroots Enterprise. End Users can update their personal information and unsubscribe (opt-out) from receiving future communications from Grassroots Enterprise on behalf of a Client by following the instructions at the end of any e-mail sent through the Grassroots Enterprise platform by a Client.

Grassroots Enterprise strongly encourages our Clients to employ best practices in permission-based communications and marketing. Such practices include, but are not limited to, the following: communicating only with End Users who have expressly shared their information for the purpose of receiving a future communication; communicating with a personalized message that indicates a pre-existing relationship with an End User; and not selling, sharing, trading, renting, distributing, or otherwise disclosing personal information from individuals to third parties without first receiving an individual's explicit consent. However, while we strongly encourage our Clients to employ best practices; we cannot control our Clients' business practices and cannot be responsible for their practices or the use of information owned by our Clients.

If you have received an unwanted, unsolicited e-mail sent via the Grassroots Enterprise system or purporting to be sent via Grassroots Enterprise, please forward the e-mail with your comments to for our review.

Third Party Sites

Web pages hosted by Grassroots Enterprise for our Clients may contain links to other websites. Grassroots Enterprise is not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of these other websites. Clients and End Users should review the policy statements of these other websites to understand their policies before disclosing personal information.

Information Collected from Visitors to the Grassroots Enterprise Corporate Website We make the same commitment to privacy for visitors to our corporate website located at www.grassroots.com as we do for our Clients and End Users who use our Web-hosted services. The following also applies to visitors to our corporate website.

Our website's optional information request forms ask for your name, e-mail address, phone number, company name, mailing address and other related information. Grassroots Enterprise uses this information to contact individuals to respond to their inquiries, discuss their interest in our company, its products and services and to send information about our company upon request. Such information will not be sold, shared, traded, rented, distributed or otherwise disclosed to any third party.

Web pages at our corporate website may contain links to other websites. Grassroots Enterprise is not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of these other websites. End Users should review the policy statements of these other websites to understand their policies before disclosing personal information.

We may disclose personal information when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary in order to conform to the edicts of the law or comply with a legal process served on us or otherwise protect the rights of Edelman/Grassroots Enterprise, our clients or individuals.

International Users

This website is hosted in the United States. In the event that this website is accessed from outside of the United States, any information provided to or through this website will be processed in the United States, and by providing the information the user consents to such transfer and processing.

Transfer upon sale

In the event that the all or substantially all of assets or capital stock of Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. or Grassroots Enterprise is acquired by a third party entity, we reserve the right, in any of these circumstances, to transfer or assign the information we have collected from Clients and End Users as part of such acquisition, sale, or other change of control.

Notification of Changes to the Privacy Policy

If at some point in the future there is a change in how Grassroots Enterprise handles personal information, we will notify our Clients of such changes and request that each Client notify its End Users. Any new policy will be posted on this website at least one week prior to its effective date.