Privacy Policy

Please read this privacy policy carefully. This policy and the terms of service and conditions of use ("TOU"), which are incorporated herein by reference, govern your use of the troutunlimited.com website ("this website"). It is therefore important for you to read this policy and the TOU carefully before using this website.

This website and this privacy policy are subject to change at any time without notice. You should check our website periodically to see recent changes. Your continued access or use of this website shall be deemed your acceptance of these changes and the reasonableness of these standards for notice of changes. If we make material changes to this policy, we will also notify you by email.

What Information Does Trout Unlimited Collect and How Is That Data Used?

Trout Unlimited collects only the following types of personal and non-personal information that are reasonably necessary for the activities available on our website or otherwise available to our members, and we maintain appropriate safeguards to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of this information. By submitting your information to Trout Unlimited, you are consenting to our use of your data as described herein. If you do not consent, you should not use the website or our services.

Personal Information

We use various online forms in which visitors can opt to create customized web content based on the waters you fish, moderate a group or forum, send online action alerts, request information, purchase memberships, make donations and register for events. These web forms allow users to submit personal contact and billing information to Trout Unlimited. Contact information obtained from the forms may be used to fulfill orders and magazine subscriptions, and distribute additional information to you about Trout Unlimited. In all cases, visitors may opt-out of receiving future communications from Trout Unlimited; see the choice/opt-out section below.

When you submit a web form for membership, donation and event registration purposes, unique identifiers (member numbers) are assigned to your record in our database. These nine-digit Trout Unlimited Member Numbers are used to verify your identity and for use as account numbers in our membership database. Financial information that is collected on all web forms is used to bill the user for requested products and services.

All email addresses collected from our websites are for Trout Unlimited use only, and will not be rented or sold.

Occasionally, Trout Unlimited conducts online surveys and asks site visitors for their contact information. We use data from our surveys for internal use only and for the sole purpose of improving member services and advancing our mission.

To the extent that you choose to make a donation on the Trout Unlimited website, any credit card, financial and billing information that you provide is used solely to process payment for the donation. This information is securely sent to third party vendors with whom Trout Unlimited has contracts to process payments. The third party vendors may not use users' personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Trout Unlimited also collects contact and related information from persons who request information from Trout Unlimited. You can opt out of providing this personal information by not entering it when asked or by not using the Trout Unlimited website.

Membership Data

On occasion, Trout Unlimited may rent certain member data, limited to name and physical address. This member data may be rented to other companies that we believe offer value-added services to our members.

Trout Unlimited may occasionally rent or exchange physical mailing lists in order to:

  • raise significant unrestricted revenue to help support our conservation initiatives;
  • dramatically reduce the cost of obtaining mailing lists for our own direct mail efforts; and/or
  • ensure access to other fly fishing mailing list.

Information of children under 13 will not be rented to other companies. If you do not want your name shared with other companies, please see the choice/opt-out section below.

Councils and Chapters

Upon joining Trout Unlimited you will be assigned to a local Trout Unlimited Chapter. Trout Unlimited Chapters meet regularly to talk about fishing, discuss conservation issues, plan work days on their home waters, organize fundraisers, and of course, swap fish tales and learn how to tie the latest fly patterns. You may be contacted by your local chapter via postal mail, telephone and or email. At any time you can opt-out of your chapter communications; see Choice/Opt Out details below.

Trout Unlimited Chapters are required to adhere to the privacy policies posted on this page where applicable. Your personal data is shared with Trout Unlimited chapters and councils for volunteer use only. Commercial or personal use of your personal data is expressly prohibited. Trout Unlimited chapters and councils will not use member data for solicitations of products or services and your personal data may not be shared, sold or rented to third parties for any reason. If you have any questions about your Chapter's privacy policies or how they handle your personal data please contact us via email at trout@tu.org or by calling us toll free at 1-800-834-2419.

Blogs, Discussion Boards, Photos, Videos and Other Activities

When site users participate in blogs, discussion boards, or share information in any way through our website, including sharing of photos and videos, such information is published to the website and becomes visible to the public. Users should exercise discretion when deciding to disclose your personal information on our Website.

Non-Personal Information

Certain non-personal information about visits is recorded by the standard operation of the Internet servers on which this Website is hosted. Non-personally identifiable information ("Aggregate Data") may be used for our business purposes, including but not limited to improvement of the design and content of the Website or to personalize your experience on our Website. Trout Unlimited shall own such Aggregate Data and may share such aggregate data with others.

The non-personal information that we collect is as follows:

Cookies

Trout Unlimited uses cookies on its Website to make your experience easy and meaningful and to enable certain technical operations. Cookies are files that Web browsers place on a computer's hard drive and are used to tell us whether Users and visitors have previously visited our website. Usage of a cookie is not linked to any personally identifiable information while on our Website. You have the option to accept or deny cookies. Volunteer leaders accessing Trout Unlimited "leaders only section" (LOS) must have cookies enabled to enter this password-protected section of our site and access leader tools.

Log Files

Like many standard website servers, our web servers use log files. Log files include but are not limited to internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp and number of clicks. Log files are used to analyze trends, administer the site, track aggregated users' movement and gather broad demographic information. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Children's Privacy

We recognize the need to provide further privacy protections with respect to personal information we may collect from children under 13 on our Website. If we have actual knowledge that a user is under 13 years old, the child will be asked to provide his or her parent's or guardian's email address. For a child's account to be activated, Trout Unlimited must receive verifiable consent a parent or guardian. The child's account will not be activated until the consent document is received.

We will not knowingly collect personal information from children without taking the following additional steps to protect children's privacy:

  • Notifying parents about our information practices with regard to children, including the types of personal information we may collect from children, the uses to which we may put that information, and whether and with whom we may share that information.
  • In accordance with applicable law, obtaining consent from parents for the collection of personal information from their children, or for sending information directly to their children.
  • Limiting our collection of personal information from children to no more than is reasonably necessary to participate in an online activity.
  • Giving parents access or the ability to request access to personal information we have collected from their children and the ability to request that the personal information be changed or deleted.

Is Information Shared With Third Parties?

Trout Unlimited does not sell, share, or distribute any private or personal information to any third parties, other than as outlined herein. We may however employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include processing credit card payments, sending postal mail and email, analyzing data, and providing customer service. To perform these functions, these companies and individuals may have access to information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.

Trout Unlimited will not share non-member, children's data (inclusive of name, postal address, or email address) with any third party vendor at any time. However, by joining Trout Unlimited, children's members' data may be used by third parties to extent necessary to process memberships, order fulfillment, and to provide support for the internal operations of the website when necessary.

As we continue to develop Trout Unlimited, it is possible that might sell or buy assets. In such transactions, personal information may be transferred.

We may also release information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce Trout Unlimited TOU or other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Trout Unlimited, our users, or others. This includes, but it is not limited to exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection.

How Can I Access and Update My Information?

Reviewing Your Information

To access, update and/or correct inaccuracies in personally identifiable information that we collect online, log into your account email us at trout@tu.org. To help protect your privacy and the security of your personally identifiable information, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access.

Parental Access

Parents/guardians of children under the age of 13 can print out and mail or fax us a signed form that allows them to review any personally identifiable information collected about their child, have this information deleted, and/or request that there be no further collection or use of their child's personally identifiable information. You can download at http://www.troutunlimited.com/parentalconsent. We will take steps to verify the identity of anyone requesting personally identifiable information about a child and to ensure that the person is in fact the child's parent or legal guardian.

Security

Trout Unlimited has reasonable security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of the data and files under our control. Personal information, including payment or billing information, which we collect directly from you, is protected by Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology which protects information using both server authentication and data encryption to help ensure that data is safe, secure, and available only to you. One easy method to verify a web form's security is to check the bottom left corner of your browser. Whenever you enter a secure page on our website the broken key (or padlock) icon is replaced by a solid, secure key (or padlock). Whenever you see this icon, your personal information will be safely and securely transmitted over the web.

Communications from Trout Unlimited

Users who have provided contact information may occasionally receive email updates or other information from Trout Unlimited. In order to respect our Users' privacy, we present the option to decline these types of communications. Please see the Choice/Opt-out section below.

Choice/Opt-Out

Users are given the opportunity to opt-out of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our website, services or our existing relationship. You have the following options to remove their information from our database, to discontinue future contacts, or to modify existing information.

  1. You can send email to trout@tu.org
  2. Members may log in and modify your communication preferences at http://www.tu.org/user
  3. You can send mail to the following postal address:
    Trout Unlimited Membership Services
    1777 N. Kent Street
    Suite 100
    Arlington VA, 22209-3801

Toll Free 1-800-834-2419 (Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm, Eastern Time Zone)

Links to Third Party Websites

From time to time, our website may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that Trout Unlimited is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites or the policies, content, and practices of other web sites. To the extent you visit third-party sites accessible through this website, we encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information as those third-party privacy practices govern the collection and use of information provided when visiting those sites. This privacy statement applies solely to the practices of Trout Unlimited.

Conditions and Changes to This Privacy Statement

On occasion, it may be necessary for us to change the terms of this Privacy Policy. We will do so by posting updated text on the website, and your continued use constitutes acceptance of those changes. To ensure that you are aware of current privacy practices, we recommend that you check this site periodically. We will not materially change how we handle previously collected information without providing e-mail notification and an opportunity to choose how we use that information.

If you choose to use this website, your use thereof and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our TOU, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of the law. If you have any concern about privacy, please contact us with a thorough description, and we will try to resolve it.

Your California Privacy Rights

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our visitors who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to trout@tu.org or you may contact us via regular mail at:
Trout Unlimited, Inc.
1777 N. Kent Street, Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22209-3801

Contact Information

If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding our privacy policy and/or practices, please contact us at the following mailing address or telephone number:

Trout Unlimited
1777 N. Kent Street
Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22209

TOLL FREE: 1-800-834-2419 National Office: (703) 522-0200 Fax: (703) 284-9400

Email: trout@tu.org