URI Connect - Privacy Notice

Last Modified: March 25, 2025

Welcome to United Religions Initiative—a non-profit organization promoting interfaith cooperation.

This Privacy Notice explains how United Religions, dba United Religions Initiative, and its related website, platform, and mobile applications (collectively referred to as “URI”) collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process personal data in connection with URI’s offering of the platform and mobile application and mission of connecting the interfaith network. We may also choose or be required by law to provide different or additional disclosures relating to the processing of personal data about residents of certain countries, regions, or states.

This Privacy Notice does not address our privacy practices relating to URI job applicants, employees, and other employment-related individuals, nor data that is not subject to applicable data protection laws (such as de-identified or publicly available information). This Privacy Notice is also not a contract and does not create any legal rights or obligations not otherwise provided by law.

Our Role in Processing Personal Data

Data protection laws sometimes differentiate between “controllers” and “processors” of personal data. A “controller” determines the purposes and means (the why and how) of processing personal data. A “processor,” which is sometimes referred to as a “service provider,” processes personal data on behalf of a controller subject to the controller’s instructions.

This Privacy Notice describes our privacy practices where we are acting as the controller of personal data. However, this Privacy Notice does not cover or address how our customers may process personal data when they use our services, or how we may process personal data on their behalf in accordance with their instructions where we are acting as their processor. As a result, we recommend referring to the privacy notice of the customer with which you have a relationship for information on how they engage processors, like us, to process personal data on their behalf. In addition, we are generally not permitted to respond to individual requests relating to personal data we process on behalf of our customers, so we recommend directing any requests to the relevant customer.

Our Collection and Use of Personal Data

The categories of personal data we collect depend on how you interact with us and our services. For example, you may provide us your personal data directly when you sign up for our mailing list, register for an account on URI’s platform, post a review, participate in an event, contest, promotion or survey, or otherwise contact us or interact with us.

We also collect personal data automatically when you interact with our websites and other services and may also collect personal data from other sources and third parties.

Personal Data Provided by Individuals

We collect the following categories of personal data individuals provide us:

  • Contact Information, including first and last name, email address, mailing address, and communication preferences. We use this information primarily to fulfill your request or transaction, to communicate with you directly, and to send you marketing communications in accordance with your preferences.
  • Account Information, including first and last name, email address, phone number, account credentials, religious preference, gender, preferred language, or one-time passcodes, and the products or services you are interested in, purchased, or have otherwise used. We use this information primarily to administer your account, provide you with our products and services, communicate with you regarding your account and your use of our products and services, and for customer support purposes.
  • Customer Content, including any files, documents, audio, videos, images, data, or communications you choose to input, upload, or transmit to our products and services. We use this content primarily to provide you with our products and services, to facilitate your requests, and to improve our products and services.
  • Event, Contest, Promotion, and Survey Information, including information provided when you sign up for an event, enter a contest or promotion, complete a survey or submit a testimonial. We use this information primarily to administer and facilitate our products and services, respond to your submission, communicate with you, conduct market research, inform our marketing and advertising activities, improve and grow our business, and facilitate the related event, content, promotion, or survey.
  • Feedback and Support Information, including the contents of custom messages sent through the forms, chat platforms, including our online live chat or automated chat functions, email addresses, or other contact information we make available to customers, as well as recordings of calls with us, where permitted by law (including through the use of automated tools provided by us or our third-party providers). We use this information primarily to investigate and respond to your inquiries, to communicate with you via online chat, email, phone, text message or social media, and to improve our products and services.
  • Security-Related Information, including electronic login records and access details when a visitor utilizes company technology on our premises. We use this information primarily to protect the security of our premises, employees, and our company.

If you choose to contact us, we may need additional information to fulfill the request or respond to your inquiry. We may provide additional privacy disclosures where the scope of the request we receive or personal data we require fall outside the scope of this Privacy Notice. In that case, the additional privacy disclosures will govern how we may process the information you provide at that time.

Personal Data Automatically Collected

We, and our third-party partners, automatically collect information you provide to us and information about how you access and use our products and services when you engage with us. We typically collect this information through the use of a variety of our own and our third-party partners’ automatic data collection technologies, including (i) cookies or small data files that are stored on an individual’s computer and (ii) other, related technologies, such as web beacons, pixels, embedded scripts, mobile SDKs, location-identifying technologies and logging technologies. Information we collect automatically about you may be combined with other personal information we collect directly from you or receive from other sources.

We, and our third-party partners, use automatic data collection technologies to automatically collect the following data when you use our services or otherwise engage with us:

  • Information About Your Device and Network, including the device type, manufacturer, and model, operating system, IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, and unique identifiers associated with you, your device, or your network (including, for example, a persistent device identifier or advertising ID). We employ third-party technologies designed to allow us to recognize when two or more devices are likely being used by the same individual and may leverage these technologies (where permitted) to link information collected from different devices.
  • Information About the Way Individuals Use Our Services and Interact With Us, including the site from which you came, the site to which you are going when you leave our services, how frequently you access our services, whether you open emails or click the links contained in emails, whether you access our services from multiple devices, and other browsing behavior and actions you take on our services (such as the pages you visit, the content you view, videos you watch, the communications you have through our services, and the content, links and ads you interact with). We employ third-party technologies designed to allow us to collect detailed information about browsing behavior and actions that you take on our services, which may record your mouse movements, scrolling, clicks, and keystroke activity on our services and other browsing, search or purchasing behavior. These third-party technologies may also record information you enter when you interact with our products or services, or engage in chat features or other communication platforms we provide.
  • Information About Your Location, including general geographic location that we or our third-party providers may derive from your IP address, as well as more precise geolocation when you grant us access through your device settings.

All of the information collected automatically through these tools allows us to improve your customer experience. For example, we may use this information to enhance and personalize your user experience, to monitor and improve our products and services, to offer communications features such as live and automated chat, and to improve the effectiveness of our products, services, offers, advertising, communications and customer service. We may also use this information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information, including targeted content and advertising; (c) identify you across multiple devices; (d) provide and monitor the effectiveness of our services; (e) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, usage, and demographic patterns on our website; (f) diagnose or fix technology problems; and (g) otherwise to plan for and enhance our products and services.

For information about the choices you may have in relation to our use of automatic data collection technologies, please refer to the Your Privacy Choices section below.

Personal Data from Other Sources and Third Parties

We may receive the same categories of personal data as described above from the following sources and other parties:

  • Our Affiliates: We are able to offer you the products and services we make available because of the hard work of our team members across all URI entities. To provide our products and facilitate our services, URI entities receive personal data from other URI entities for purposes and uses that are consistent with this Privacy Notice. For example, we may receive your contact information to process and fulfill your order from a representative at your local entity.
  • Single Sign-On: We may provide you the ability to log in to our services through certain third-party accounts you maintain. When you use these single sign-on protocols to access our services, we do not receive your login credentials for the relevant third-party service. Instead, we receive tokens from the single sign-on protocol to help identify you in our system (such as by your username) and confirm you successfully authenticated through the single sign-on protocol. This information allows us to more easily provide you access to our products and services.
  • Mobile Sign-On: We may provide you the ability to log in to our mobile applications or authenticate yourself using facial, fingerprint, or other biometric recognition technology available through your mobile device. If you choose to utilize these login features, information about your facial geometry, your fingerprint, or other biometric information will be collected by your mobile device for authentication purposes. We do not store or have access to this biometric information. Instead, your mobile device will perform the biometric authentication process and only let us know whether the authentication was successful. If the authentication was successful, you will be able to access the applicable mobile application or feature without separately providing your credentials. For more details, please refer to the biometric authentication guides offered by your device provider.
  • Other Customers: We may receive your personal data from our other customers. For example, a customer may provide us with your contact information as a part of a referral.
  • Social Media: When you interact with our services through other social media networks, such as when you follow us or share our content on other social networks, we may receive some information that you permit the social network to share with third parties. The data we receive is dependent upon your privacy settings as available within the social network, and may include profile information, profile picture, username, and any other information you permit the social network to share with third parties. You should always review and, if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third-party websites and social media networks and services before sharing information and/or linking or connecting them to other services. We use this information primarily to operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of our products and services, as well as to communicate directly with you, such as to send you messages about features that may be of interest to you.
  • Business Partners: We may receive your information from our business partners, such as companies that offer their products and/or services as a part of or in connection with our services. For example, certain of our products and services allow our customers to integrate third-party services. If you choose to leverage these third-party service integrations, we may receive confirmation from our business partner regarding whether you are an existing customer of their services.
  • Service Providers: Our service providers that perform services on our behalf, such as analytics and certain marketing providers, collect personal data and often share some or all of this information with us. For example, we receive personal data you may submit in response to requests for feedback to our survey providers.
  • Other Sources: We may also collect personal data about you from other sources, including publicly available sources, third-party data providers, brand partnerships, or through transactions such as mergers and acquisitions.
  • Inferences: We may generate inferences or predictions about you and your interests and preferences based on the other personal data we collect and the interactions we have with you.

Additional Uses of Personal Data

In addition to the primary purposes for using personal data described above, we may also use personal data we collect to:

  • Fulfill or meet the reason the information was provided, such as to fulfill our contractual obligations, to facilitate payment for our products and services, or to deliver the services requested;
  • Manage our organization and its day-to-day operations;
  • Communicate with you, including via email, text message, chat, social media and/or telephone calls;
  • Facilitate the relationship we have with you and, where applicable, the company you represent;
  • Request you provide us feedback about our product and service offerings;
  • Address inquiries or complaints made by or about an individual in connection with our products or services;
  • Create and maintain accounts for our users;
  • Verify your identity and entitlement to our products and services;
  • Register you for and provide you access to events, contests, sweepstakes, and surveys;
  • Market our products and services to you, including through email, phone, text message, push notification, and social media;
  • Administer, improve, and personalize our products and services, including by recognizing you and remembering your information when you return to our products and services;
  • Develop, operate, improve, maintain, protect, and provide the features and functionality of our products and services;
  • Identify and analyze how you use our products and services;
  • Infer additional information about you from your use of our products and services, such as your interests.
  • Create aggregated or de-identified information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you, which information we may use for purposes outside the scope of this Privacy Notice;
  • Conduct research and analytics on our user base and our products and services, including to better understand the demographics of our users;
  • Improve and customize our products and services to address the needs and interests of our user base and other individuals we interact with;
  • Test, enhance, update, and monitor the products and services, or diagnose or fix technology problems;
  • Help maintain and enhance the safety, security, and integrity of our property, products, services, technology, assets, and business;
  • Defend, protect, or enforce our rights or applicable contracts and agreements (including our Terms of Use), as well as to resolve disputes, to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights, and to protect our business interests and the interests and rights of third parties;
  • Detect, prevent, investigate, or provide notice of security incidents or other malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity and protect the rights and property of URI and others;
  • Facilitate business transactions and reorganizations impacting the structure of our business;
  • Comply with contractual and legal obligations and requirements;
  • Fulfill any other purpose for which you provide your personal data, or for which you have otherwise consented.

Our Disclosure of Personal Data

We disclose or otherwise make available personal data in the following ways:

  • To all users: URI entities disclose personal data to other URI entities for purposes and uses that are consistent with this Privacy Notice. URI representatives reserve the right to repost information on the URI website uri.org or in a URI newsletter for purposes of promoting peace, justice, healing efforts from URI affiliates, members and partners.
  • To Our Affiliates (Cooperation Circles): We are able to offer you the products and services we make available because of the hard work of our team members across URI entities. To provide our products and facilitate our services,. For example, the URI entity responsible for our website may disclose your contact information to an entity in your region to facilitate communications between you and a local representative.
  • To Other Customers and the General Public (or Individual Members or partner organizations): We make available personal data designed for sharing through our services with certain or all other URI customers, or the general public, based on the applicable privacy settings and intended recipients. Keep in mind that the customers who view customer-generated content can always reshare or redistribute the content both on and off our services or save or copy the content outside of our services.
  • To Marketing Providers: We do not have any marketing providers and there is no outside marketing on this platform.
  • To Ad Networks and Advertising Partners: We do not have any advertising on this platform.
  • To Business Partners: We do not share any personal data with any Business partners.
  • To Service Providers: We engage other third parties to perform certain services on our behalf in connection with the uses of personal data described in the sections above. Depending on the applicable services, these service providers may process personal data on our behalf or have access to personal data while performing services on our behalf.
  • To Facilitate Legal Obligations and Rights: We may disclose personal data to third parties, such as legal advisors and law enforcement:
    • in connection with the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims;
    • to comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal process;
    • to protect our rights and property and the rights and property of our agents, customers, and others, including to enforce our agreements, policies, and terms of use;
    • to detect, suppress, or prevent fraud;
    • to reduce credit risk and collect debts owed to us;
    • to protect the health and safety of us, our customers, or any person; or
    • as otherwise required by applicable law.
  • With Your Consent or Direction: We may disclose your personal data to certain other third parties or publicly with your consent or direction. For example, with your permission, we may post your testimonial on our websites.

Your Privacy Choices

The following privacy choices are made available to all individuals with whom we interact. You may also have additional choices regarding your personal data depending on your location or residency.

Communication Preferences

  • Email Communication Preferences: You can stop receiving promotional email communications from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link provided in any of our email communications. Please note you cannot opt-out of service-related email communications (such as account verification, transaction confirmation, or service update emails).
  • Push Notification Preferences: You can stop receiving push notifications from us by changing your preferences in your device’s notification settings menu or in the applicable service-specific application. Please note we do not have any control over your device’s notifications settings and are not responsible if they do not function as intended.

Withdrawing Your Consent

Where we have your consent for the processing of your personal data (e.g., when you join the URI Connect application, you opt in to receive certain types of communications from us), you may withdraw your consent by following the instructions provided when your consent was requested, by terminating your account, or by contacting us as set forth in the Contact Us section below. When the user requests account deletion, the user's account and all contents are deactivated and will be deleted after 30 days.

Automatic Data Collection Preferences

Where a URI-specific preference manager or privacy setting is not available, you may be able to utilize third-party tools and features to further restrict our use of automatic data collection technologies. For example, (i) most browsers allow you to change browser settings to limit automatic data collection technologies on websites, (ii) most email providers allow you to prevent the automatic downloading of images in emails that may contain automatic data collection technologies, and (iii) many devices allow you to change your device settings to limit automatic data collection technologies for device applications. Please note that blocking automatic data collection technologies through third-party tools and features may negatively impact your experience using our services, as some features and offerings may not work properly or at all. Depending on the third-party tool or feature you use, you may not be able to block all automatic data collection technologies or you may need to update your preferences on multiple devices or browsers. We do not have any control over these third-party tools and features and are not responsible if they do not function as intended.

Modifying or Deleting Your Personal Data

If you have any questions about reviewing, modifying, or deleting your personal data, you can contact us directly at info @ uri.org. We may not be able to modify or delete your personal data in all circumstances.

Partner-Specific Preferences

Certain of our third-party providers and partners offer additional ways that you may exercise control over your personal data, or automatically impose limitations on the way we can use personal data in connection with the services they provide:

  • Device-Specific / Platform-Specific Preferences: The device and/or platform you use to interact with us (such as you mobile device or social media provider), may provide you additional choices with regard to the data you choose to share with us. For example, many mobile devices allow you to change your device permissions to prevent our products and services from accessing certain types of information from your device (such as your contact lists or precise geolocation data), and many social media platforms allow you to change your platform permissions to prevent integrated products and services from accessing certain types of information connected with your profile. Please refer to your device or platform provider’s user guides for additional information about implementing any available platform-specific targeted advertising opt-outs.
  • Google Analytics: Google Analytics allows us to better understand how our customers interact with our services. For information on how Google Analytics collects and processes data, as well as how you can control information sent to Google, review Google's website here: www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You can learn about Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs, including the Google Analytics Browser Add-On here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

Children’s Personal Data

Under Age 13 (or such higher age as required by law)

Our Services are not directed toward children, and we do not knowingly solicit or collect Personal Information online from children under the age of 13 (or such higher age as required by law) without prior verifiable parental consent. If URI learns that a child under the age of 13 (or such higher age as required by law) has submitted Personal Information online without parental consent, we will take all reasonable measures to delete such information from our databases and to not use such information for any purpose (except where necessary to protect the safety of the child or others as required or allowed by law).

Additionally, URI strictly prohibits the collection, storage, transmission, or distribution of any content related to Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE), including child sexual abuse material (CSAM). If we become aware of any such content on our Services, we will take immediate action, including reporting it to the appropriate authorities such as the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and law enforcement agencies, as required by law. For more information, please refer to the URI Connect - B2C Terms of Service.

If you become aware of any Personal Information we have collected from children under age 13 (or such higher age as required by law) without verifiable parental consent, or if you have concerns related to CSAE, please contact us immediately through emailing [email protected] or using the information detailed in the “Contacting Us” Section below.

Under Age 18

Minors under 18 years of age may request deletion of the Personal Information they have provided to URI through the Services by sending an email to the email address in the “Contacting Us” Section below. Please note that, while we make reasonable efforts to comply with such requests, deletion of your Personal Information does not ensure complete and comprehensive removal of that data from all systems.

If we detect or receive reports of CSAE-related activity involving a minor, we will act in accordance with applicable laws and best practices, including reporting the activity to the appropriate authorities and taking steps to prevent further harm.

California privacy rights

As a non-profit organization, URI is not subject to the requirements of the California Consumer Privacy Act. However, we are happy to answer questions that California residents may have about our privacy practices and can be reached as described below, Contacting Us.

Cross-border transfer of Personal Information

In some cases, Personal Information that we process of users located in various countries, including in Canada, the EU, UK, and Switzerland or relative to queries or visitors to the Services may be transferred to the United States or other countries that may not have data privacy laws that provide the same protection as the countries where you reside. You understand and expressly agree that your Personal Information may therefore be transferred, processed, and stored outside of your country of residence, and therefore may be available to government authorities under lawful orders and laws applicable in such foreign jurisdictions.

Security of Personal Data

We have implemented reasonable physical, technical, and organizational safeguards that are designed to protect your personal data. However, despite these controls, we cannot completely ensure or warrant the security of your personal data.

 Retention of Personal Data

We will usually retain the personal data we collect about you for no longer than reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, and in accordance with our legitimate business interests and applicable law. However, if necessary, we may retain personal data for longer periods of time as required under applicable law or as needed to resolve disputes or protect our legal rights.

To determine the appropriate duration of the retention of personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of personal data and if we can attain our objectives by other means, as well as our legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, and other applicable obligations.

Once retention of the personal data is no longer reasonably necessary for the purposes outlined above, we will either delete or de-identify the personal data or, if that is not possible (for example, because personal data has been stored in backup archives), we will securely store the personal data and isolate it from further active processing until deletion or deidentification is possible.
Third-Party Websites and Services

Our services may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, applications and other services. Except where we post, link to or expressly adopt or refer to this Privacy Notice, this Privacy Notice does not apply to any personal data practices of third parties. To learn about the personal data practices of third parties, please visit their respective privacy notices.

Updates to This Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. When we make changes to this Privacy Notice, we will change the date at the beginning of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we will notify individuals by email to their registered email address, by prominent posting on this website or our other platforms, or through other appropriate communication channels. All changes shall be effective from the date of publication unless otherwise provided.
Contact Us

If you have any questions or requests in connection with this Privacy Notice or other privacy-related matters, please [email protected].

URI Connect - Privacy Notice