Updated: July 2023

Consumer Action Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by Consumer Action offline as well as online at www.consumer-action.org, www.consumerservicesguide.org, and any future domains of currently unspecified websites.

Consumer Action does not sell, rent, share or trade the names, email addresses or any other information about individuals who correspond with Consumer Action. Saved personal data will never be sold, rented, shared or traded to third parties for commercial or marketing purposes. 

Consumer Action does not intentionally or knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Our website does not track personally identifiable information (PII) about those who visit our site. We capture limited information about visits to our site, only to analyze what pages are most or least popular and to perform system maintenance. We do not link browsing information to the personal information you submit to us. 

Any PII collected by Consumer Action on our websites is handled in accordance with our privacy policy. We define personally identifiable information as any information connected to a specific individual that would allow a party to identify the individual, such as name, address, telephone number or email address.

If you join our mailing list, you will find that every email we send you contains prominent information about how to unsubscribe. Once you have unsubscribed, our email system does not allow us to contact you again at the same email address unless you resubscribe. If you need help with our mailing list, send a message to takeaction at consumer-action.org.

When you register to attend one of our webinars or events, we collect your name, organization affiliation (if any), mailing address and other contact information (which can include a phone number and/or email address). Consumer Action saves this information about you in order to send you related information and news about new Consumer Action publications and webinars, upcoming events, etc., and also to alert you via email about issues we believe are important to maintaining consumer rights and protections. We may share the names of organizations that use our publications, attend our webinars or otherwise participate in Consumer Action programs and services; however, individual personal and contact information will never be made available to any third party. 

With each email we send you, you will have the opportunity to remove your email address from future mailings. We will not contact you by email if you ask us not to. Because we maintain two mailing lists—one for community-based organizations about our services and events and one for newsletters and other communications—there may be situations where you opt out of one list but continue to receive emails from us. However, you may opt out of any emails we send by following the unsubscribe links.

If you choose to become a member of Consumer Action, your name, mailing address and other contact information (which can include a phone number and/or email address) will be collected and added to our membership database so that we can send you our newsletter and other informational mailings as well as membership renewal notices. We will never make this information available to any third party.

Third parties

There are a number of places on our website where you may click on a link to access other websites that do not operate under this privacy policy. These third-party websites may independently solicit and collect information, including personal information, from you. We recommend that you consult the privacy policies of all third-party websites you visit by clicking on the "Privacy" link, typically located at the bottom of the webpage you are visiting.

To send messages and newsletters to our mailing list, we use VoterVoice, a third-party service owned by FiscalNote, Inc. that provides online organizing and communications tools for nonprofit organizations. We also use this service to enable consumers to voice their opinions on crucial consumer issues to elected officials and other decision-makers (i.e., to “take action”). We always try to make it clear that by taking action you may be providing your information to a third party. (Read Fiscal Note's privacy policy.)

We use a third-party online surveying platform (SurveyMonkey) to get feedback from consumers and community-based partners. Some of our surveys may allow you to provide contact information to us voluntarily. Consumer Action does not sell, rent, share or trade this data. (Read SurveyMonkey’s privacy policy.)

We use Google Analytics to gain insights into our website traffic, such as visitor sources (how visitors arrived at our website), website performance, pageviews, clicks, and other information that informs our work. (Read Google's privacy policy.) 

We use Cloudflare for its website performance, security and reliability services. (Read Cloudflare’s privacy policy.) 

Our servers, which are hosted by Arcustech, a third-party service provider, may collect information automatically, directly and indirectly (through cookies, sessions, your "IP address,” etc.), about your activities while visiting our websites, including the webpages you view, the times you view them, and information about the browser you are using. (Read Arcustech’s privacy policy.) 

Consumer Action depends on the financial support of individual members. If you use our online payment system, your donation will be processed by a third-party payment platform. (Read PayPal's privacy policy.)

About Consumer Action

Consumer Action is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) advocacy and education organization headquartered at 57 Post Street, Suite 611, San Francisco, CA 94104, USA. We were incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in 1972 and our corporate name is "San Francisco Consumer Action" dba Consumer Action. If you have questions about our Privacy Policy, please write to us at this address or send an email to info at consumer-action.org. To learn more about us, view our annual reports or visit our profile on GuideStar.org.

(Rev. July 2023)