PRIVACY POLICY

The Macular Degeneration Association is highly committed to protecting your personal information and privacy.  We value and respect our users and members’ and it is very important to us that your information is kept secure.  We also want you to be able to choose how you would like to be contacted and receive information and important updates from us.  Please review our Privacy Policy below as it is important for us that you understand how your information is secured.  Also, we want you to know how your information is used to make your experience with us much easier and more enjoyable.

What information is collected?
Any time you are required to register for anything on the Macular Degeneration Association’s website, very minimal personal information will be required during the process.  This minimal personal information will include your first and last name, user name chosen by you, email address and date of birth.  This is collected to determine authenticity and to ensure our users are of legal age.  However, your personal information will always be protected and never shared, rented or sold to any other The Macular Degeneration Association user, member, facility, caregiver, advertiser or third party. 
Once again, please note that your personal information is not shared with anyone except under the following circumstances:

1. You explicitly give permission by selecting to “opt-in” during the registration process. 
2. When it is required by law through a court issued subpoena, court order or warrant. 
3. When it is necessary to address a situation that may involve a violation in The Macular Degeneration Association’s Terms of Service including any such harassment, security threat, and fraudulent activities.

The information The Macular Degeneration Association collects is for demographic pursposes:
a.    Zip Code
b.    Year of birth (not the actual month and date)
c.    Gender
d.    Preferences
e.    Interests
f.    IP Address (Note: The IP address is not linked to any personally identifiable information and is only used to measure website utilization)


How is this information collected?
We use cookies to re-authenticate our visitors so that when you return to our site, you do not have to retype your user name and password again.  Cookies are used to remember who you are to make tasks, such as logging in, much easier for you.  

You do have the option of having us remember your information when you return to our website.  However, should you choose not to, you can input your user name and password each time you return to the The Macular Degeneration Association site.

We also use cookies to determine how many users and members visit our site, what hours they visit and what pages on the Macular Degeneration Association website they are viewing.  The purpose for this is to provide you with more relevant content and information.  Also, it helps us determine the steps on how you found pages on our site which lets us know if we need to make finding them even easier.  If there are pages that are not being viewed compared to others and not serving a purpose, we may decide to remove it to make our website more efficient.

Please note that third party advertisers do use cookies on our site for the sole purpose of demographics and being able to provide advertisements that are relevant to our users’ needs and interests.

If you prefer to disable cookies in your Internet Browser, please click here for detailed instructions.


Why is this information collected?
The purpose is to better serve our users and members with relevant information that meets their needs and interest.  We also want to make using the Macular Degeneration Association Website as easy and effortless as possible.

Accessing your personal information
To change or access your personal information, please click here.

The “Opt-In” Policy is always standard and practiced
The Macular Degeneration Association has an “anti-spamming” policy and will only send you information on technical and site issues, system updates and account information.  Should you choose to receive occassional emails from The Macular Degeneration Association, we will only send you website updates and a newsletter that will inform you on the latest news with The Macular Degeneration Association.

In order to receive occasional emails and a newsletter from us, or to opt-out of these updates, please click here to register.

To update your preference on whether you would like to receive promotional newsletters from us click here

Information Security
We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store personal data.

We restrict access to personal information to MDA employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our services. These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to discipline, including termination and criminal prosecution, if they fail to meet these obligations.

Enforcement of our Privacy Policy
The Macular Degeneration Association strictly enforces the privacy and security of our users and members which is done through constant monitoring, reporting, analysis and immediate improvement. At the same time, we highly encourage all of our users and members to notify us if another user or member is violating any of the policies set in place for everyone's protection.


Contact Us
Should you have any questions or comments in regard to our Privacy Policy, please click here.  We would like to hear from you as we listen to all the valuable opinions of our users.


The Macular Degeneration Association
P.O. Box 20256
Sarasota, FL 34276