Scope of This Statement
This Privacy Statement applies to personal information NABD collects through:
- The NABD website at nabd-justice.org and any NABD-operated landing pages;
- NABD online forms, including contact, appointment request, support and donation inquiry, and membership registration forms;
- NABD-operated matter intake pages and questionnaires, which are additionally covered by the NABD Matter Intake Privacy Supplement;
- The NABD AI Concierge chat assistant; and
- Email, telephone, and written correspondence with NABD.
This Statement does not apply to the practices of independent attorneys, law firms, partner organizations, or other third parties, each of which maintains its own privacy practices.
Who We Are
The National Association of Black Defenders, Inc. is a nonprofit organization headquartered at 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 1025, Washington, DC 20006. NABD advances human rights, civil rights protections, legal advocacy, voting rights awareness, environmental justice, and public education.
NABD is the entity responsible for the personal information described in this Statement. Depending on the state in which you live, NABD may be referred to as the "controller" of that information.
Information We Collect
3.1 Information you provide through general website forms
When you request an appointment, submit a contact or support inquiry, or ask about donating, we collect the information you enter, which may include: first and last name, email address, telephone number, the type of appointment requested, your preferred date and time, and any free-text message, notes, or questions you choose to include.
3.2 Membership registration
If you register for NABD membership, we collect your first and last name, street address, city, state, ZIP code, telephone number, and email address. Membership dues are processed by our payment processor; see Section 3.5.
3.3 Matter intake forms
NABD matter intake questionnaires collect substantially more detailed information than the rest of this website, including employment history, accounts of workplace conduct, information about potential witnesses, and a typed electronic signature. Because that processing applies only to people submitting a matter, the categories collected are itemized in the NABD Matter Intake Privacy Supplement rather than repeated here.
3.4 AI Concierge conversations
If you use the NABD AI Concierge, we and our technology provider collect and retain the content of your conversation, together with any name, email address, telephone number, or other details you volunteer in the chat. Please do not enter information in the chat that you would not want retained in a written record.
3.5 Payment information
Membership dues and other payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. through Stripe's own secure hosted checkout. NABD does not collect, receive, process, or store your full payment card number, security code, or bank account credentials. Stripe processes that information under its own privacy policy. NABD receives only transaction-level confirmation details such as the payer's name, email address, amount, date, and payment status.
Sensitive Information
Most of what NABD collects through this website — contact details, appointment requests, membership registrations, and donations — is not sensitive. Sensitive personal data, as defined by the privacy laws of several states, is collected almost entirely through matter intake questionnaires, where the subject matter itself may reveal union membership, racial or ethnic origin, allegations concerning sex or sexual harassment, or physical or mental health effects.
Because that processing applies only to people submitting a matter, the categories collected, the consent NABD relies on, and how that consent may be withdrawn are set out in the NABD Matter Intake Privacy Supplement. Wherever NABD holds sensitive information, it is never used for marketing, membership solicitation, or fundraising appeals.
Information About Other People
NABD does not ask you for information about other people anywhere on this website except in matter intake questionnaires, which ask you to identify supervisors, managers, and potential witnesses. How NABD handles that information, and what someone named in a submission may ask, is described in the NABD Matter Intake Privacy Supplement.
Wherever you provide information about another person, NABD uses it solely for the purpose for which you provided it, and never for marketing, membership solicitation, or unrelated outreach.
Information Collected Automatically
When you visit an NABD page, we and our technology providers automatically collect certain technical information, including:
- IP address and general location derived from it;
- Browser type, device type, operating system, and screen characteristics;
- Pages viewed, time spent, and referring website;
- Campaign and referral parameters appended to page links, such as UTM parameters; and
- Aggregate page-view counts.
Where you arrive at an NABD page through a personalized link that we sent you, that link may include an identifier that allows the page to display information already associated with your contact record.
How We Use Information
NABD uses personal information to:
- Respond to your inquiries, confirm and schedule appointments, and follow up on requests;
- Review matter intake submissions and evaluate whether a matter may be appropriate for referral, advocacy support, or potential participation in a legal action;
- Connect you, when you request it, with attorney referral pathways and authorized counsel;
- Process, confirm, and administer memberships, renewals, and donations, and issue receipts and acknowledgements;
- Deliver membership benefits such as workshops, conferences, publications, and podcast access;
- Operate, maintain, secure, troubleshoot, and improve our website and forms;
- Send you organizational updates, advocacy alerts, and fundraising communications where permitted, subject to Section 17;
- Detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, or misuse of our services; and
- Comply with law, respond to lawful requests, and establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
NABD does not use personal information to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you through solely automated means.
No Sale or Targeted Advertising
NABD does not sell personal information. NABD does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising, and does not exchange personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration. NABD does not rent, trade, or otherwise disclose member, donor, or intake lists to third parties for their own marketing purposes.
NABD does not sell or share the personal information of any individual, and does not knowingly process the personal information of any consumer under 16 years of age for advertising purposes.
Cookies and Similar Technologies
NABD pages use a limited set of cookies and browser storage technologies, including local storage and session storage, for purposes such as maintaining access to protected pages, preserving your progress through multi-step forms, and remembering that you have already completed a verification step. These technologies are strictly functional; NABD does not use advertising cookies or third-party advertising pixels.
NABD pages load typography from a third-party font service. That service receives your IP address as a technical necessity of delivering the fonts.
You can block or delete cookies and clear browser storage through your browser settings. Doing so may prevent certain forms and protected pages from working correctly.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Because NABD does not track users across third-party websites for advertising, NABD does not respond differently to browser "Do Not Track" signals. Where required by applicable state law, NABD honors an opt-out preference signal such as Global Privacy Control as a valid request to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.
Data Retention
NABD retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Statement, and thereafter as required by law. In general:
- General inquiries and appointment requests are retained while the inquiry is open and for a reasonable period afterward to maintain continuity of service;
- Membership and donation records are retained for the period required by tax, accounting, and nonprofit recordkeeping obligations;
- Matter intake submissions are retained for the duration of the review and any resulting matter, and thereafter for the period required by applicable statutes of limitation, evidence-preservation obligations, or a litigation hold; and
- AI Concierge conversation records are retained on the platform in accordance with NABD's configured settings.
Where a legal hold or preservation obligation applies to a matter, NABD may be legally required to retain information even after you request deletion.
Security
NABD maintains administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These include encrypted transmission of form submissions, access controls limiting who within NABD can view intake records, restriction of intake data to designated storage locations, and use of a PCI-compliant payment processor so that card data never reaches NABD systems.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. NABD cannot guarantee absolute security, and you submit information at your own risk. If you become aware of a security concern involving NABD, please notify us immediately using Section 22.
Your Privacy Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights with respect to your personal information:
- Right to know or access — to confirm whether NABD processes your personal information and to obtain a copy of it;
- Right to correct — to have inaccurate personal information corrected;
- Right to delete — to request deletion of personal information, subject to legal and preservation exceptions;
- Right to data portability — to receive your information in a portable, readily usable format;
- Right to opt out — of the sale of personal information, targeted advertising, and certain profiling. As stated in Section 9, NABD does not engage in these activities;
- Right to limit use of sensitive information — to direct NABD to limit its use of sensitive personal information to what is necessary to provide the services you requested;
- Right to withdraw consent — to withdraw consent previously given for the processing of sensitive information; and
- Right to non-discrimination — NABD will not deny you services, charge you a different rate, or provide a different level of service because you exercised a privacy right.
Residents of states including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Virginia have statutory privacy rights that may apply to NABD. NABD extends the core rights described above to all individuals in the United States, regardless of state of residence, as a matter of policy.
How to Exercise Your Rights
To submit a privacy request, contact NABD by email at info@nabd-justice.org with the subject line "Privacy Request," by telephone at (202) 770-3962, or by mail at the address in Section 22.
Please describe the right you wish to exercise and provide enough information for NABD to locate your records — typically the name, email address, and telephone number you used when you contacted us. NABD will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before acting on a request; the verification required will be proportionate to the sensitivity of the information involved. NABD will not use verification information for any other purpose.
NABD will respond within 45 days of receiving a verifiable request. Where reasonably necessary, NABD may extend that period by an additional 45 days and will notify you of the extension and the reason for it.
Authorized agents
You may designate an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf. NABD may require the agent to provide proof of authorization and may require you to verify your own identity directly.
Right to Appeal
If NABD declines to act on your privacy request, you may appeal that decision within a reasonable period by replying to NABD's response or by writing to info@nabd-justice.org with the subject line "Privacy Appeal."
NABD will review the appeal and inform you in writing of the outcome, together with a written explanation of the reasons, within 60 days of receipt. If your appeal is denied, you may contact your state Attorney General to submit a complaint.
Notice to California Residents
NABD publishes this Privacy Statement in accordance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act. The categories of personal information NABD collects, the purposes for which it is used, and the parties with whom it is shared are described in Sections 3 through 8. NABD does not sell personal information and does not disclose personal information to third parties for those parties' direct marketing purposes.
NABD operates as a nonprofit organization. Certain provisions of the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, apply only to for-profit businesses and therefore may not apply to NABD. Regardless of whether those provisions apply, NABD extends the rights described in Section 13 to California residents and will process California requests through the procedures in Sections 14 and 15.
Email, Calls, and Text Messages
NABD may send you transactional messages relating to your inquiry, appointment, membership, donation, or matter. NABD may also send organizational updates, advocacy alerts, event invitations, and fundraising messages. Every commercial email includes a working unsubscribe mechanism and NABD's valid physical postal address. Unsubscribing from mailings does not stop transactional or matter-related messages, which are necessary to respond to your request.
Telephone calls and text messages
When you give NABD your telephone number and select a preferred contact method, you consent to NABD and, where applicable, authorized counsel contacting you at that number about your inquiry or matter, including by text message where you have selected text as a contact method. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. You may opt out of text messages at any time by replying STOP, and may request help by replying HELP. Consent to receive text messages is not a condition of membership, donation, or any NABD service.
Children's Privacy
NABD's website, forms, and membership program are directed to adults. NABD membership is available only to individuals aged 18 and over. NABD does not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information to NABD, please contact us using Section 22 and we will delete that information promptly. A parent or legal guardian may contact NABD at any time to review, correct, or request deletion of information relating to their minor child.
Donor and Member Privacy
NABD does not sell, rent, trade, or share donor or member lists with any other organization for that organization's own solicitation or marketing purposes. Donor and member information is used to process contributions and memberships, issue receipts and acknowledgements, deliver benefits, satisfy tax and reporting obligations, and communicate about NABD's work. You may request that NABD not publicly recognize your name in donor listings or publications by contacting us using Section 22.
Third-Party Links and Services
NABD pages link to third-party services, including our payment processor's hosted checkout and our chat platform. Once you leave an NABD page, the privacy practices of the destination service govern. NABD is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of third-party websites and encourages you to review their policies before providing information.
Changes to This Statement
NABD may update this Privacy Statement to reflect changes in our practices, our technology, or applicable law. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. If we make material changes affecting how we use information you have already provided, we will provide additional notice, which may include email notice or a prominent notice on our website. Your continued use of NABD's website and services after an update takes effect constitutes acknowledgement of the revised Statement.
How to Contact Us
Questions, concerns, privacy requests, and appeals may be directed to:
Attn: Privacy
1717 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 1025
Washington, DC 20006
Telephone: (202) 770-3962
Email: info@nabd-justice.org
Website: nabd-justice.org