Privacy Policy

The privacy of your personal information is important to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its affiliated legal entities (the "Church," "we," "us," or similar terms). This Privacy Policy is intended as a general statement regarding collection and use of personal information for Church affiliated Web sites. We strive to collect, use and disclose personal information consistent with the laws in the countries in which we collect personal information. This Privacy Policy applies to this Web site which is owned and operated by Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FamilySearch International (as noted specifically on the first page of the Web site).

In selected jurisdictions, the Church affiliated entities may adopt unique privacy policy provisions to reflect the requirements of applicable local laws. When a separate provision is deemed necessary, notice will be provided.

Although you can visit most Church Web sites without providing any personal information, the Church adheres to the following privacy principles on how we collect, use, disclose, transfer, and store your information.

Privacy Practices

• Information Collection, Consent and Use

  When you create an LDS Account, register on a Church Web site, add profile information, or take other similar actions, we may collect or obtain from you or your membership records (if applicable), information including, but not limited to, your name, address, e-mail address, phone number, contact or profile preferences, and Church unit information. We will use such information to allow us to contact you, to fulfill your requests, to seek your voluntary feedback on Web site features or content, and to help fulfill the mission of the Church. We may also use your personal information for internal purposes, including auditing, data analysis, and research. We will use your information for no other purposes unless we specifically inform you otherwise and obtain your prior consent if legally required. We will also make you aware of options to opt-out of or opt-in (as required by law) to certain features. Moreover, we grant individuals the opportunity to object to certain uses of their information.

• If you are a member of the Church, it is understood that membership information, including contact details, are shared on a limited and restricted basis between Church members for internal Church purposes, including over the Internet (with your prior consent if required by law). With respect to the privacy of your personal information, as a Church member you have given your implied or actual consent (as required by law) for the Church to use your personal information for Church purposes. If personal information is to be used for any other purpose, it will only be used with your prior consent.

• Content Submissions

  When you submit additional content through any Church Web site, such as, but not limited to, sending messages, engaging in on-line chats, replying to surveys, uploading photos, uploading video clips, making personal on-line notes, writing in an on-line journal, or similar feature, your information will be stored on our system. While we intend that certain submissions using features on Church Web sites are to remain private (for example, personal on-line notes, journaling, and so forth), we cannot guarantee the complete privacy of such submissions and may in some instances choose, or be legally required, to disclose such information to third parties as outlined in this policy. Some information you provide to the Church Web sites will be submitted with your express agreement that the submission is to be shared publicly. In such instances, others will have access to any personal information within such submission. We recommend caution in selecting which information you choose to include in such submissions to avoid causing harm or injury, or risk of harm or injury, to yourself or others.

• We are under no obligation to monitor such content, but reserve the right to do so in our sole discretion and are authorized to block or remove content we deem inappropriate or objectionable. We prohibit postings or submissions in any form and using any available tool on any Church Web site, whether intended to be private to you or shared with the public, that are obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, defamatory, libelous, tortious, illegal, threatening, or otherwise inappropriate or objectionable. As we do not review all content submitted through every feature on each Church Web site, we are unable to take protective measures in the event you provide content disclosing information about a person that is a victim of harm or abuse or is at risk of becoming a victim of harm or abuse.
• When we become aware of content posted on a Web site that we consider offensive or could compromise the privacy of personal or confidential information (yours or others), we will make a good faith effort to block or remove such content.

• Retention

  We retain collected personal information for a reasonable period of time to fulfill the collection purpose and then delete it from our records, with the exception of limited historical data and membership information retained as part of a permanent genealogical or Church historical record.

• Access

  We endeavor to maintain personal information accurately and rely on you to ensure your personal information is complete and accurate. You may verify, correct, or remove your personal information through your Web site specific registration, your profile, or through LDS Account, where applicable. For information taken from your Church membership record, your personal information can only be updated by making changes to your Church membership record. Such changes must be done by contacting the clerk in your Church unit and requesting the change. If you experience problems with modifying your personal information or other requests to update your personal information, you can contact us by sending an email to DataPrivacyOfficer@ldschurch.org.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We regard your personal information as confidential and do not sell it to anyone. We do not share your personal information with other parties except in the following exceptions (or in other instances where we specifically inform the individual and obtain prior consent):

• Third Party Providers

  We may provide personal information to third parties for their use in performing internal functions on our behalf (payment processing, maintenance, security, data analysis, hosting, and so forth). In such instances, the providers will be contractually required to protect the personal information from additional use or transfer in accordance with this privacy policy and industry standards.

• Church Entities

  We may transfer personal information to any Church affiliated entity to meet Church purposes. For membership information transfers from the European Union, we rely on standard clause agreements between Church entities in compliance with European requirements. For online submissions of personal information, we understand an individual’s submission to be an affirmative act, indicating informed consent to the processing as well as informed consent to allow the transborder data transfer to the United States of America for the purposes for which it was provided.

• Legal Requirements

  We may access and disclose your personal information, posts, journaling, personal notes, content, or other submissions submitted to any Church Web site if we have a good-faith belief that doing so is required by a subpoena or other judicial or administrative order or otherwise required by law. Additionally, we may disclose your personal information and other information where we, in good faith, deem it appropriate or necessary to prevent a violation of our other agreements; to take precautions against liability; to protect the rights, property, or safety of the site, of any individual, or of the general public; to maintain and protect the security and integrity of our services or infrastructure; to protect ourselves and our services from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; to investigate and defend ourselves against third-party claims or allegations; or to assist government enforcement agencies.

• Protecting Information

  We use technical and organizational measures to protect the personal information we receive against the loss, misuse, and unauthorized alteration, and to protect its confidentiality. We regularly review our security procedures in order to consider appropriate new technology and methods. Please be aware that despite our best efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable.

Third-Party Data

Where local law permits, you may submit personal information of third parties, including contact information, to allow the Church to make contact, make a delivery, or otherwise meet your request. The information collected will be used solely to facilitate your request. When providing personal information about anyone other than yourself, you must obtain the other person’s informed consent if legally required.

Passive Data Collection - Tracking Technologies

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a browser when a user visits a Web site. A clear gif is a graphic file, rather than a text file, that is similar in function to a cookie. We use these and similar tools in our effort to improve individual site experiences. We do not link the information we store in cookies, clear gifs, or other tracking technologies to any personally identifiable information. When an individual requests pages from a Church site, our servers may also log the user’s IP address in order to improve site administration. This information is used to produce usage statistics to help us better meet the needs of individual users and to determine specific interests. We do not link the IP address to any personal information.

Compliance and Questions Regarding the Privacy of Personal Information

We have a Church Data Privacy Officer to assist in ensuring compliance with this Privacy Policy and data security issues. This officer helps educate employees concerning compliance. Inquiries concerning this Privacy Policy or the security of personal information processed by the Church may be sent via email or directly to the following:

Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly collect information from children under age 13 from most Church Web sites. Any Church Web site where children’s information is collected will only be done with the prior express and informed consent of the child’s parent or guardian in compliance with applicable law. We strongly recommend that minors 13 years of age or older ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet and we encourage parents to teach their children about safe Internet use practices.

Third-Party Links

We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of any third-party sites. For users own protection, users should review the policies of similar sites to ensure they meet the users’ personal expectations of privacy.

Future Changes to Privacy Policy

We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of the Privacy Policy at any time. When we make changes to the Privacy Policy, we will post the changes on this page and update the revision date at the bottom of the Privacy Policy. We encourage users to check the Privacy Policy to remain informed of any changes.

Effective Date

This version of the Privacy Policy became effective on September 1, 2010.