Hello All,

The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is pleased to announce updates to our Donor Privacy Policy https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donor_policy/en. We have also published a blog post https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/02/01/donor-privacy-policy-update/ with a brief overview of the policy.

This does not represent a dramatic change in our practices, but gives donors more information about how we handle the data we collect from them when they make a donation or otherwise interact with Wikimedia donation- or fundraising-related sites, banners, and emails.

The policy had not been updated since 2011, so some of our processes have changed as relevant technologies evolved and the new policy reflects these changes. But the main difference from the old policy is that the new version is simply more detailed to give more information to donors. It lists the types of information we collect, both personal and non-personal, and reiterates our commitment to keep it confidential except under certain limited circumstances, which it also describes (for example, we can share information with payment processors). It explains the specific ways in which we may use donor data, including maintaining our internal records and complying with applicable U.S. law. The policy also informs donors about our use of cookies, and recommends ways they can disable cookies if they wish to do so.

The Executive Director has approved the updated Donor Policy under the terms of a Board resolution delegating policy-making authority to her, with a process for Board review https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Delegation_of_policy-making_authority. The Board was fully briefed on the updates to the policy at its November 2016 meeting. The updated policy goes into effect today, February 1, 2017.

For more details about this update, we invite you to read the blog post https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/02/01/donor-privacy-policy-update/ and the full policy itself https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donor_policy/en. If you have questions about the policy, please email us at privacy@wikimedia.org. Thank you.

Best,

Aeryn Palmer