Privacy Policy

Cato Institute Online Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 11, 2022

The Cato Institute (“Cato”), a non‐​profit entity and the owner of this website, respects the personal information and privacy of users of our online websites. We understand the need for secure handling and storage of such information.

This privacy policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit our online resources, and our practices for collecting, using, protecting and disclosing that information.

We may include on our websites features or links that allow you to interact with or connect to websites or other online resources of third parties (such as Facebook). This privacy policy applies only to Cato’s websites and online resources; it does not describe or govern the practices of any third parties. If you choose to provide information to any third parties, including those to whom we may connect to on our websites, you should refer to the privacy policies of those third parties to understand how they collect, use, and disclose the information you provide. Cato makes no warranty for and is not responsible for the use of any information collected from third party websites or online resources.

THIS WEBSITE AND POLICY IS GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. BY USING THIS WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION AND VENUE OF A COURT OF COMPETENT JURISDICTION LOCATED WITHIN THE UNITED STATES TO RESOLVE ANY DISPUTES ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OF THIS WEBSITE AND/OR THIS PRIVACY POLICY.

Information Collection

In using our online resources, you may voluntarily provide personally identifiable information or “PII” that identifies you as an individual, including your name and contact information. For example, if you wish to register for an event, subscribe to a publication, or make a donation, we will need certain PII to fulfill your request.

We also collect information about your use of our website through technological tools that we and our partners may use to collect data automatically from website users. The technologies that we use may include, for example:

  • Log Files, which may collect information such as Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, geographic location, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/​exit pages, operating system, date/​time stamp and clickstream data.
  • Persistent and session cookies. To learn more about cookies, please visit http://​www​.allabout​cook​ies​.org.
  • Flash cookies (or local stored objects), which are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies.

Your browser may offer tools to reject or delete cookies. If you reject cookies on your browser, you may still use our website, but your ability to use some areas of our site may be limited. Even if you set your browser to reject cookies, we may continue to collect data automatically through other technologies, including use of third‐​party technologies and services. By using any of the website, you are deemed to unambiguously agree to its use of any cookies or data collection methods employed on the site that you do not disable or opt out of.

Cato may use third‐​party service providers, such as Google Analytics, that may use cookies to collect information about your online activities across this and other sites over time for non‐​advertising purposes. To learn more about how Google Analytics collects and processes data and the choices Google may offer to control these activities, please visit http://www/google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/partners/.

Uses of Your Information

We may use the PII that you provide to us for our operational purposes, including the activities such as e‐​mailing you with relevant information or providing you with targeted offers or materials from Cato. For example, we may use your PII to:

  1. Respond to your inquiries, such as those you may submit through our “Contact Us” page or send to us by email.
  2. Process your requests, such as to subscribe to a publication or make a donation.
  3. Send You Information. We may use your PII to send you various types of information, including information on your activities, updates, new services, newsletters, publications, materials, and other related items of potential interest. As further described below, you may unsubscribe to our emails or electronic communications by using the “unsubscribe” function contained therein or by emailing us at privacy@​cato.​org.
  4. Improving Our Service and Outreach. We may use PII about you, such as your feedback and comments, to make our communications with you more relevant, including by requesting further feedback, and for related internal purposes such as data analysis, audits, identifying usage trends, and enhancing our services.

We use the automatically‐​collected data we obtain through technological tools for our operational purposes, such as to administer and improve the site. We also use these technologies to personalize your experience with Cato, to provide functions such as recording other preferences, and/​or to provide follow‐​up communications.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

We do not sell or otherwise share the PII we collect with third parties for their own marketing or commercial purposes.

We may disclose the PII that we collect online as follows:

  1. To contractors, agents, or service providers that we use to support our business and provide our services, in which case we make reasonable efforts to ensure that they are bound by contractual obligations to keep PII confidential and use or share it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
  2. As part of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of Cato’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which PII held by Cato about users of our website or other online resources is among the assets transferred.
  3. To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it; for example, if you give us an email address to use the “email a friend” feature of our website, we will transmit the contents of that email and your email address to the recipient(s).
  4. For legal purposes; including as required by law or when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, property, or safety of Cato, our customers or others; and/​or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order or legal process served on the Cato Institute.
  5. For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information or with your consent.

Sponsors

We do not sell any information concerning individuals that make financial donations to Cato (“Sponsors”) to other organizations. However, we may provide some Sponsor PII to (1) certain “cooperative databases” as explained below; or (2) contractors or consulting firms that provide us with data or analytics .

We periodically publish the names of Sponsors on our website and in other communications. If you do not wish to have your name published, please contact us at the email address or phone number listed below.

We may use your PII to contact you about donations or matters concerning the Institute. You may also receive periodic communications from us about news, events, opportunities to give, or other matters by electronic or physical means. If you prefer not to receive such communications, you may notify us at the contact information provided below to opt out at any time or use the opt out tool contained in such communications.

To facilitate our fundraising activities, we participate in certain “cooperative databases” as do many other reputable charitable organizations. This means that we occasionally contribute certain Sponsor names and postal addresses to a shared database that may be accessed by other participating organizations who also contribute certain information to the database. Note that the cooperative database does not allow participating organizations to identify Sponsors to the Institute or access donation amounts, but may identify a Sponsor as being interested in a particular type of charitable organization (e.g. health policy). Our partner organizations will not have continued access to your name and address unless you choose to respond to their mailings. They may also be required to comply with certain laws or guidelines concerning your information, such as the Direct Marketing Association’s guidelines for ethical business practice. We do not sell your information or share your email address with cooperative databases. If you do not wish to have your information shared with a cooperative database, please contact us at the email address or phone number listed below. We strive to promptly honor all requests concerning your preferences on how we share or use your personal information.

Sponsors may instruct that we exclude their information from any lists that we share. All such requests — directed to the Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001, sponsors@​cato.​org — will be promptly implemented.

Children Under the Age of 13

Our website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect PII from children under 13. If we discover that we have received PII from a child under 13, we will delete that information.

Choice/​Opt‐​out

Newsletters and Promotional Communications: We provide you the opportunity to opt out of receiving newsletters and promotional email communications from us. If you no longer wish to receive electronic newsletters and/​or promotional communications, you may opt out of receiving these communications by following the instructions included in each electronic newsletter or communication. Additionally, at any time, you may e‐​mail privacy@​cato.​org to request removal of your information from our system.

Aggregate Information

At times, we share aggregated demographic information about our user base with selected third‐​party partners. We may also share de‐​identified information in our discretion. This aggregated or de‐​identified information does not identify individual users.

Correcting or Updating Personal Information

You may ask us to correct, update or delete your PII within our communications systems by emailing us at privacy@​cato.​org.

Security

Cato uses commercially reasonable safeguards to help protect the security of your PII. For example, we may encrypt information using technologies such as Secure Sockets Layer technology (SSL). Please note, however, that no data security protections are ever guaranteed to be 100% secure.

International Transfers of Information.

This website and its online resources are intended for users in the United States. By using any Cato online resource, you are deemed to understand and unambiguously consent to the collection and processing of your PII in the United States, pursuant to applicable laws within the United States, and with the awareness that the laws of the United States may not provide as much protection for PII as the laws of certain other countries or territories.

Updates to This Policy.

We may periodically modify this privacy policy, and if we do, the revised policy will be posted on our website, replacing the prior version. Unless the new version materially changes the manner in which we collect, use or disclose your PII, we will post the new version without further notice to you. If we make a material change, we will post a note on the home page of www​.cato​.org to alert you that there has been such a change. The date the privacy policy was last revised, as identified at the top of the policy, will be the effective date of the revisions that version contains. You may wish to periodically review the policy to ensure you understand and agree with its terms.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy or our information practices, please contact us at:
Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Attn: Chief Digital Officer