Privacy Policy

General Policy

In general, you can visit us on the Internet without telling us who you are or giving us personal information. However, on occasion you may be asked to provide such personal information—for example, to place an order; to subscribe to our e-mail newsletter; to access parts of our website that require registration; or to participate in a survey, online discussion or forum. In that event, we disclose the following:

We will never sell or give your name or personal information to any other organization or third party. We may keep track of your interactions with our sites and our services to offer a more personalized experience. We will use the information we collect to provide the services you request. Our services may include the display of customized content. We may use your information to let you know about other products or services offered by Vision or our affiliates. You may direct us not to send you promotional materials from Vision or our affiliates.

Scope of This Privacy Policy

This website is operated by Church of God, an International Community, and our subsidiary, Vision Media Publishing. We refer to these organizations as “Vision,” “we” or “our.” Vision understands the importance of our readers’, visitors’ and customers’ privacy. Our Privacy Policy tells you what information we collect when you visit our website; how we use, share and protect it; what choices you have about how the information is used; and how you can access and update that information. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use this website. This Privacy Policy applies to personally identifiable information collected on the website on which the Policy is posted. Certain aspects of this Privacy Policy also apply to the personally identifiable information we collect offline.

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “personally identifiable information” means information that identifies a particular individual, such as name, postal address, e-mail address and phone number. When other information (such as may arise from e-mail newsletter choices or product orders) is directly associated with personally identifiable information, this other information also becomes personally identifiable information.

Information Collection

General

In addition to information you choose to provide, we collect non–personally identifiable information through technology to make our site more interesting and useful to you. For instance, when you come to our site, we collect your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address. Standing alone, your IP address is not personally identifiable. At times we also use IP addresses to collect information regarding the frequency with which you visit various parts of our site. We may combine this information with personally identifiable information that you have provided and/or with other information that is publicly available or that we receive from other reputable sources in order to better align our website and communications with your interests.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies, small text files that are stored on your computer and allow the site to remember certain information about you. Cookies serve a variety of purposes that enhance the quality of our website. We use transient (also called “session ID”) cookies to provide continuity from page to page. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. We also use persistent cookies, which allow us to recognize your browser when you return to that part of the website after your first visit. Cookies allow us to personalize your return visits and to save you time during certain activities, such as ordering products. You can choose to remove persistent cookies through your browser options. However, if you do so, your ability to use some areas of our site may be limited.

Vision Mobile App

Downloading and using the Vision mobile app for phones, tablets and other mobile devices neither requires nor processes any other personal data relating to you (such as a username or e-mail address) unless you decide to create an account within the app or sign up for other products or services provided within the app, such as our e-mail newsletter. Vision will keep your information secure and will not share it with anyone else, in accordance with this Privacy Policy. In some cases our apps will offer push notifications and alerts, but these will not be enabled unless you subscribe to them. You can choose to unsubscribe to these at any time from your device’s “Notifications” screen.

Other Information Collection

Our website uses a variety of technical methods for tracking purposes, including clear gifs (also known as web beacons). Clear gifs are small pieces of data that are embedded in images on the pages of websites. We use these technical methods to tell us what parts of our site you have visited or to measure the effectiveness of any searches you may conduct on our site. These technical methods may involve the transmission of information directly to us or to a service provider authorized by us to collect information on our behalf. We also use these technical methods in HTML e-mails that we send visitors who have agreed to receive e-mail from us, to determine whether they have opened those e-mails and/or clicked on links in those e-mails. The information generated by these technical methods may be combined with information that is personally identifiable so that we can make our website, and any e-mails you have agreed to receive, more interesting to you.

Children’s Privacy

Our website is a general-audience site, and we do not knowingly collect information about children. Should a child whom we know to be under 13 make known to us his or her personally identifiable information, we will use that information only to respond directly to that child to inform him or her that we must have parental consent before receiving his or her personally identifiable information.

Use of Personally Identifiable Information

Vision may use your personally identifiable information to deliver the products and services that you request, to enhance your experience on our site, to provide you with informational and/or promotional materials that you might find interesting, and for internal business analysis and other business purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy. These uses may generally be categorized as “Relationship Maintenance Uses” and “Promotional Uses.”

Relationship Maintenance Uses

Vision uses your personally identifiable information to maintain and manage your account, deliver services that you have requested, and generally enhance your experience on our website. Collectively, we refer to these as Relationship Maintenance Uses.

Examples include but are not limited to processing and tracking your subscriptions; processing and tracking your product orders; processing and tracking your online donations to Vision; providing the services you request; contacting you about the status of an order; sending you other administrative communications; sending you surveys; sending you updates to our Privacy Policy; making changes to web-based features.

Promotional Uses

Vision may also use your personally identifiable information to provide you with promotional information about activities, services and products we offer, including promotional material that you have requested. However, you may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us by mail, e-mail or telephone, as explained below in “Your Choices.” We will not share your e-mail address, postal address, telephone or any other personal information with third parties or any other organizations for promotional purposes.

Examples of promotional uses include but are not limited to providing you with information about educational opportunities; providing you with promotional materials about Vision products and services; and providing you with e-mail newsletters. Vision may provide you with promotional materials by postal mail, e-mail, telephone or other means. You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us as provided below in “Your Choices”; in the case of e-mail, you can always opt out of receiving subsequent promotional e-mails by clicking on the unsubscribe link that we provide in every such e-mail message. Please keep in mind, however, that when you purchase or request products or services from Vision or our licensees, promotional materials may accompany delivery of that product or service. Any opt-outs that you may make will therefore not apply to these materials because they accompany products or services that you have requested.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

We take very seriously our responsibility to maintain your privacy with respect to your personally identifiable information. We will therefore share that information only with the following entities, and only in the manner described below.

Service Providers

Vision contracts with other companies to provide certain services on our behalf, including credit card processing, shipping, e-mail distribution, and promotions management. We provide these companies only with the information they need to perform their services, and they are permitted to use the information only for that specific purpose or as required by law.

Subsidiaries and Affiliated Entities

Vision is developing other subsidiary and affiliated entities that may offer other products and services. We may share your personally identifiable information with our Affiliates so they can let you know about product and service offerings in which you might be interested. The use of your personally identifiable information by our Affiliates is subject to the same opt-out rights (and limitations on those rights) that apply to Vision’s use of personally identifiable information as described below in “Your Choices.”

Other Third Parties for Promotional Purposes

Vision will not give or sell your name to other organizations or third parties that are not directly affiliated with Vision. We do not sell our list to other companies for any promotional activities.

Legal Purposes and Business Transactions

Vision may disclose any user or customer information, including personally identifiable information, when we believe that doing so is required by law; may be necessary to protect the property, rights, or safety of ourselves, visitors to our websites, or other persons; or will help to enforce any terms of use of this website. It may also be necessary to disclose our customers’ personally identifiable information to third parties, such as credit card companies, to help resolve disputes that arise in the ordinary course of business. Vision may also transfer user or customer information, including personally identifiable information, in connection with a corporate transaction, such as a divestiture, merger, consolidation or asset sale.

Aggregate Information (non–personally identifiable)

Vision may share with third parties aggregated information about you and other visitors to our website. When we do this, however, we make any personally identifiable information non–personally identifiable by combining it with information about other individuals or by removing characteristics that make the information personally identifiable to you. We share this information in order to improve our website and develop content and services that we hope will be of interest to you.

Your Choices

We understand the importance of protecting our customers’ privacy, and we therefore provide you with the opportunity to opt out of having your personally identifiable information used or disclosed for certain purposes. Receiving promotional communications from Vision or our Affiliates is optional. If you do not wish to receive promotional communications from Vision or our Affiliates, please e-mail, call, or write to us at the address below.

You may also use this address and phone number to request that we update or change your personally identifiable information, or to request additional information regarding disclosure of your personally identifiable information to third parties for promotional purposes.

Call us at (888) 777-7203 from the United States or Canada, or at 1 (626) 535-0444 from outside the United States and Canada.

Write to us at Vision, Attn: Customer Service—Privacy, P.O. Box 90607, Pasadena, CA 91109-0607, and include your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and a note of instructions.

If you have previously agreed to receive e-mail and/or e-mail newsletters from us, you may e-mail us or use the address and phone number above to notify us that you no longer wish to receive such e-mail and/or e-mail newsletters. You may also change your preferences and/or e-mail address and delivery options by e-mailing us. Please specify “Customer Service—Privacy” in the subject line.

Because we plan our communications in advance, it may take several weeks for your request to become effective. If, due to human error, you continue to receive our communications, please contact us again and we will make every effort to correct the situation.

Links to Other Sites

We sometimes provide links on our website to other sites. This does not necessarily mean that Vision agrees with or endorses everything posted on these sites. As they operate independently from Vision and have established their own privacy and security policies, we encourage you to be aware when you leave our site and to read the policies of any site you visit.

Information Security

The security and confidentiality of your information is extremely important to us, so we take a number of steps to safeguard any personally identifiable information or credit card information that you provide. We use data encryption technology to help protect against loss, misuse or alteration of your credit card information. Secure Socket Layers (SSLs) encrypt the credit card information sent between your computer and our database. However, no method of transmitting or storing electronic data is ever completely secure, and therefore we cannot warrant or guarantee that such information will never be accessed, used or released in a manner that is inconsistent with this policy.

Personally Identifiable Information Contained in User Content

Some sections of our website may allow users to post or transmit messages, comments, screen names, computer files and other materials. Vision does not monitor such transmissions and therefore cannot be responsible for any personally identifiable information or other information that may be contained in such transmissions.

Changes in this Privacy Policy

We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use and/or share your personally identifiable information, we will notify you by e-mail at the last e-mail address you provided and/or by prominently posting notice of the changes on the websites covered by this Privacy Policy. In any event, changes to this Privacy Policy may affect our use of personally identifiable information that you provided prior to our notifying you of the changes.

Contact Us

If you have questions or wish to send us comments about this Privacy Policy, please e‑mail us or write to us at:

This policy was last updated April 14, 2016.