privacy Statement

Home Forward may collect information from you at two different stages. First, we collect anonymous, aggregate information automatically from all visitors to the Site. Second, you provide us with certain personally identifiable information when you email Home Forward with a question or comment or when you sign up for our electronic newsletter.

Automatic Data Collection

If you do nothing during your visit to our Site but browse, read pages, or download information, we will gather and store certain non-identifying information about your visit automatically. We may use automatic data collection technologies, including Google Analytics, to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including details of your visits to our Site (e.g., traffic data, logs, and the resources that you access and use on the Site) and information about your computer and internet connection (e.g., your IP address, operating system, and browser type).

Cookies; Do Not Track

A cookie is a small text file stored on the user’s hard drive for an extended period of time. The cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions. Allowing the Home Forward cookie to remain on your computer makes it easier for you to log in to and use the Site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Site.

Home Forward does not track its users over time and across third party websites to provide targeted advertising and therefore does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals.

Personal Information

We collect your email address and, if you choose to provide it, your name, street address, and organization name, when you sign up for our e-newsletter. In addition, when you email us at info@homeforward.org, we collect your email address and other identifying information that you include in your email.

We do not collect payment card or bank information.

Our Site is not directed to children. Therefore, the Site does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under 13 years of age.

Home Forward will use your personal information to send you our e-newsletter, if you have subscribed to it, and to follow up with you about email requests. We may share your email address and other personal information with vendors, but only when it is necessary for that vendor to provide the specific service you or Home Forward have requested. For example, we may share your email address with an e-newsletter marketing agency to assist with delivery of the e-newsletter. In these circumstances, the vendor may only use your information to provide a specific service for or on behalf of Home Forward.

We may also use your information to verify your identity, communicate with you and enforce our agreements with you. We may use your information to measure how our user’s use our services, and improve and enhance our services.

Except as expressly described in this policy, we will never give your information to, or share your information with, any third party not affiliated with or owned by Home Forward, for marketing purposes. We will not ourselves use your personal information to send you any unsolicited commercial offers.  We do not create individual profiles with the information you provide, nor will we give your information to any individuals, governmental agencies, private organizations, or commercial enterprises, unless:

a. We are required to do so by any law (including state or federal public records laws), or we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on us; or

b. Our entity is being restructured and your information is part of the assets that are transferred in connection with a merger, acquisition or other restructuring.

Home Forward will not disclose whether an individual is an applicant or a participant in our program, or reveal any information about a family without their consent. We consider the sensitivity of  your personal information at all times when we communicate with you and your representatives (advocates, translators, or family members).

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

• Cookies: You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent.

• Newsletters: If you do not want to receive e-newsletters, you may choose to unsubscribe by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the e-newsletter.

• Optional personal information: Some information we ask for is optional, such as your name and address. If you do not want us to have this information, you do not need to provide it. Emailing Home Forward is optional. You may contact Home Forward by phone at (503) 802-8300

The Site contains links to other websites. Home Forward is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these other websites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave the Site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by Home Forward.

The Internet is not a secure medium. Personally identifiable information sent via the Internet, including email, can be intercepted. You may, therefore, wish to reconsider the advisability of sending messages that contain sensitive, personal information to email addresses on this web site. You acknowledge that you provide your personal information at your own risk.

If we decide to change our privacy statement, we will prominently post a notice on the main page and other pages to alert you about the change. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect your personal information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our website notifying Site users of the change