Meridian International Center Privacy Policy

Our Commitment

Meridian International Center (“Meridian”, “we”, “our”, “us”) is committed to keeping your personal data accurate, confidential, secure and private. Whether you are visiting our website, contacting us, participating in one of our programs or attending an event, or making a donation to support our activities, we are committed to protecting your privacy rights and your personal data.

Purpose of Notice

This privacy notice explains how Meridian collects, uses and shares your personal data, and your rights in relation to the personal data we hold. Moreover, this privacy notice describes how we process personal data of individuals who visit our website at https://meridian.org or otherwise interact with us.

What Personal Data Do We Collect?

Personal data is information that identifies an individual. Examples of personal data we collect include: name, date of birth (DOB), address, email address, phone number, facsimile number, Social Security Number (SSN), passport identification number, Employee Identification Number (EIN), and Tax Identification Number (TIN).

This personal data is obtained in many ways including through interviews or correspondence, by telephone and facsimile, by email, via our website www.meridian.org, from media and publications, from program and event participation forms, from other publicly available sources, and/or from third party vendors, such as Salesforce and Wizehize.

In addition, we use cookies and similar technology, such as Google Analytics, to collect personal and non-personal data, including: (i) information from server logs found on your browser; (ii) click‐through statistics; (iii) your IP address and country; (iv) the type of web browser you are using to access our website; (v) the type of operating system you are using; (vi) the name of the domain and host from which you access the Internet; (vii) the date and time you access this website and the duration of your visit; and (viii) the Internet address of the site from which you linked directly to this website.

Why Do We Collect Personal Data?

We collect personal data to provide services to you, and to provide information to members, associates, interviewees, applicants, meeting and program participants, visitors, speakers, translators, etc.  We may also use your personal information for secondary purposes closely related to the primary purpose, in circumstances where you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure. For example, personal data obtained for event registration may also be used to share Meridian newsletters and other publications.

When we collect personal data we will, where appropriate and where possible, explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it.

Minors

We do not collect any personal data directly from individuals under the age of 13. If we discover that any such information is in our possession, we will delete it.

Third Parties

Where reasonable and practicable to do so, we will collect your personal data only from you. However, in some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties. In such a case we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.

Meridian will not share your personal data with third-party organizations for their marketing or promotional use without your consent. In some instances, you may be able to grant us permission to share your personal data with authorized partners, not-for-profit organizations, and other entities that are not affiliated with Meridian. In these cases, we will only provide to these third parties the information you have authorized or asked us to share. You may choose to share content with others by email, or by posting Meridian content to social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. These third parties may use your information as described in their own privacy policies.

Disclosure of Personal Data

Your personal data may be disclosed in several circumstances including the following:

  • To third parties when you consent to the use or disclosure; and
  • To meet our compliance and regulatory obligations
  • For the prevention and detection of crime
  • To assist with investigations (including criminal investigations) carried out by the police and other authorities

Security of Personal Data

Your personal data is stored in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Per our internal confidentiality policy, when we receive and/or collect personal data, electronically or in hard copy form, it is handled with care and discretion. If there are suspected or known breaches of confidentiality, the breach, or suspected breach, is brought to the attention of supervisors, and documented for appropriate disciplinary action, when indicated, up to and including dismissal.

Retention Storage and Deletion of Personal Data

We will only save your personal data for as long as it is necessary and relevant for the purpose it was originally collected, or until we have no further legitimate need for the data, you withdraw your consent, or we no longer need to comply with a legal obligation that requires such retention. At the appropriate time, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your personal data. Given certain regulatory requirements, most of the personal data we collect is kept for a minimum of 7 years.

Access to your Personal Data

You may access the personal data we hold about you to update and/or correct it, subject to certain exceptions. If you wish to access your personal data, please contact us by writing to Meridian’s headquarters address shown on the last page of this policy or by e-mailing myprivacy@meridian.org.

Meridian will not charge any fee for your access request but may charge an administrative fee for providing a copy of your personal data.

To protect your personal data, we may require identification from you before modifying or releasing the requested information.

EU PRIVACY RIGHTS

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other countries’ privacy laws provide certain rights for data subjects. Because Meridian is not established in the European Union, these rights only apply in relation to Meridian’s data subjects who reside in the European Union. The rights available under the GDPR include the following:

  • Opt-out.  You may contact us anytime to opt-out of: direct marketing communications; automated decision-making and/or profiling; our collection of sensitive personal data; any new processing of your personal data that we may carry out beyond the original purpose; or the transfer of your personal data outside the European Union. Please note that your use of some of the services may be ineffective upon opt-out.
  • Access. You may access the information we hold about you at any time by contacting us directly.
  • Amend. You can also contact us to update or correct any inaccuracies in your personal data.
  • Move. Your personal data is portable – i.e. you to have the flexibility to move your data to other service providers as you wish.
  • Erase and forget. In certain situations, for example when the information we hold about you is no longer relevant or is incorrect, you can request that we erase your data.

Meridian’s data subjects also have the right to make a complaint to the relevant Supervisory Authority. A list of supervisory authorities is available here. If you need further assistance regarding your rights, please contact us using the contact information on the last page and we will consider your request in accordance with applicable law. In some cases, our ability to uphold these rights may depend upon our obligations to process personal information for security, safety, fraud prevention reasons, or compliance with regulatory or legal requirements. When this is the case, we will inform you of specific details in response to your request.

CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

Under California law, we are required to disclose to California residents, upon request, the identity of any third parties to whom we have disclosed residents’ personal information within the previous calendar year, along with the type of information disclosed, for third parties’ direct marketing purposes.

Policy Updates

This Policy may change from time to time and is available on our website.

Privacy Policy Complaints and Enquiries

If you have any queries or complaints about our Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

1630 Crescent Place, NW,
Washington, DC 20009

Tel: (202) 667-6800;
Tel: (800) 424-2974;
Fax: (202) 667-1475;
E-mail: myprivacy@meridian.org