Online News Association Privacy Policy

Effective Date May 2, 2022

To save a copy for your records, download a .pdf version of this notice.

Online News Association, including any affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively referred to as “ONA”) understands that you care about how we collect, use, and share information when you interact with our websites, social media sites and handles, email, and online services (our “Services”), and we value the trust you place in us. This Privacy Policy explains:

We also include special disclosures for residents of the European Economic Area, U.K., and Switzerland.

This Policy applies when you interact with us through our Services. It also applies anywhere it is linked. It does not apply to non-ONA websites and mobile applications that may link to the Services or be linked to from the Services and it may not apply to certain ONA websites, such as the Career Center, which may have different or additional privacy policies; please review the privacy policies on those websites and applications directly to understand their privacy practices.

Information We Collect

Information you give us

Our Services may permit you to enter contact information and other information about you. We collect, store, and manage any information you enter on our Services. This includes:

  • Contact and demographic information.
  • Information you provide when registering for membership, scholarships, fellowships, Awards submissions or to attend an event through our site.
  • Any information or data you provide by interacting in our online forums and chats, by participating in an ONA Community Circle, ONA events, the Women’s Leadership Accelerator, or by commenting on content posted on our Services. Please note that comments may be visible to other users of our Services.
  • Information you provide when you complete a survey.
  • Information you submit to inquire about or apply for a fellowship or a job with ONA.
  • If you contact us, we keep a record of that correspondence and any contact information provided.

When you engage in a transaction using a credit or debit card on our site, we use a payment processor to process your payment; ONA does not collect or store payment card information.

Information We Collect From Other Sources

We may also receive information about you from other parties:

  • Contact information, demographic information, and information about your interests and purchases, from events in which ONA partners with another organization or consumer data providers.
  • Information about you from individuals who nominate or recommend you for a Fellowship, the Online Journalism Awards, or another ONA program.
  • Information about your interests, activities, and employment history from social networks and other places where you choose to share information publicly.
  • Information about your interaction with advertisements on our Services, or ads that we place on third party websites, from online advertising companies.

If you decide to nominate or recommend others for ONA programs or otherwise provide their information to ONA, you agree that you will obtain the other person’s consent before giving us their contact information. You also agree that you will not send us the contact information of a minor. We may inform any other person you invite that you gave us their information in the invitation email.

Information We Collect Automatically

When you interact with the Services, we collect certain information about your use of our Services automatically. This includes:

  • Analytics about your interaction with our Services, including traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, the resources that you access, and how you reached our Services.
  • Details regarding the device you use to access our Services, including, but not limited to, your IP address, operating system, and browser type.
  • Information about how you interact with our ads and newsletters, including whether you open or click links in any correspondence.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and other technologies to provide features on our Services. We also partner with other companies that use these technologies to collect information about your use of our Services and your interaction with advertisements served on our behalf.

The types of cookies and tracking technologies our partners use can be categorized as:

Analytics: These technologies help us to understand how visitors interact with our Services by collecting and reporting information about how you and your device interact with the Services.

Personalized Advertising: These technologies allow us to serve relevant advertising to you on other websites or apps.

Below is a list of these partners with links to more information about their use of your information and any options they may make available regarding tracking.

Category Partner Further Information
Analytics; Personalized Advertising Google Opt-Out
Analytics Jetpack More Info
Analytics New Relic More Info

Combination of Information

We may combine information from the Services together and with other information we obtain from our business records.

How We Use Your Information

We may use the information we collect about you for the following purposes:

  • To provide you with our services, including to take steps to enter into a contract for services, process payments and donations, process applications, submissions, and nominations, send service communications, and conduct general business operations such as accounting, recordkeeping, and audits.
  • To deliver personalized marketing and advertising to you about our programs and services.
  • To provide you with the best service and improve and grow our business, including to understand how our Services are being used, understand our customer base and purchasing trends, understand the effectiveness of our marketing, and develop new products and services.
  • To protect and secure our Services, assets, network, and business operations, and to detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be fraudulent or illegal.
  • To comply with legal process, such as warrants, subpoenas, court orders, and lawful regulatory or law enforcement requests and to comply with legal requirements regarding the provision of products and services.

How We Secure the Information We Collect From or About You

We use a combination of physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect the information we collect through the Services. While we use these precautions to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of the networks, systems, servers, devices, and databases we operate or that are operated on our behalf.

How We Share Your Information

We share information as follows:

Service Providers: We engage vendors to perform functions on our behalf, and they may receive information about you. These vendors are obligated by contract to use information that we share only for the purpose of providing these services. The business functions our vendors support include: billing and collection; auditing and accounting; professional services; analytics services; security; IT; and marketing emails.

Online Advertising Partners: We partner with companies that assist us in advertising about our Services to others who may be interested in the Services. These companies may use tracking technologies on our website to collect or receive information from the Services and elsewhere on the internet and then use that information to measure and target ads.

Social Media Platforms: If you interact with us on social media platforms, the platform may be able to collect information about you and your interaction with us. If you interact with social media objects on our Services (for example, by clicking on a Facebook “like” button), both the platform and your connections on the platform may be able to view that activity. To control this sharing of information, please review the privacy policy of the relevant social media platform.

Business Partners: We share data with partners, such as organizations that partner with us to facilitate our programs. If you register for a sponsored meal or other function at an ONA Event, we may disclose information about you (such as your name) to the sponsor.

Government Entities: We may also share data when we believe in good faith that we are lawfully authorized or required to do so to respond to lawful subpoenas, warrants, court orders, or other regulatory or law enforcement requests, or where necessary to protect our property or rights or the safety of our employees, or other individuals.

Potential Purchasers of Our Business: We may change our ownership or corporate organization while providing the Services. We may transfer to another entity or its affiliates or service providers some or all information about you in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, acquisition, sale of assets or any line of business, change in ownership control, or financing transaction. We cannot promise that an acquiring party or the merged entity will have the same privacy practices or treat your information the same as described in this Policy.

We may use and share at our discretion data that has been aggregated (information that has been compiled into summaries) or de-identified (information that has been stripped of all unique identifiers such that it cannot be linked to a particular individual).

Cross-border Transfer of Data

If you use our Services outside of the United States, you understand that we may collect, process, and store your information in the United States and other countries. The laws in the United States regarding information may be different from the laws of your country. Any such transfers will comply with safeguards as required by relevant law. By using the Services, you consent to the collection, international transfer, storage, and processing of your data.

Our Practices Regarding Information Belonging to Children

The Services are intended for users age thirteen and older. ONA does not knowingly collect information from children. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected information from anyone younger than the age of 13, we will delete that information.

Your Options and Rights Regarding Your Information

Your Account: If you have an online profile with us, you can update your profile information through your profile.

Email Unsubscribe: If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email newsletter, or email us at support@journalists.org and we will promptly remove you from all correspondence.

Ad Choices: You can learn more about ad serving companies and the options available to limit their collection and use of your information by visiting the websites for the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, and the European Interactive Digital Advertising Initiative. Similarly, you can learn about your options to opt out of mobile app tracking by certain advertising networks through your device settings and by resetting the advertiser ID on your Apple or Android device.

Please note that opting out of advertising networks services does not mean that you will not receive advertising while using our Services or on other websites, nor will it prevent the receipt of interest-based advertising from other companies that do not participate in these programs. It will, however, exclude you from interest-based advertising conducted through participating networks, as provided by their policies and choice mechanisms. If you delete your cookies, you may also delete your opt-out preferences.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but, if you prefer, you can usually modify your browser setting to disable or reject cookies. If you delete your cookies or if you set your browser to decline cookies, some features of the Services may not be available, work, or work as designed. You may also be able to opt out of or block tracking by interacting directly with the other companies who conduct tracking through our Services.

Your browser or device may include “Do Not Track” functionality. We do not honor Do Not Track signals at this time.

Information for Individuals Located in the EEA, U.K., and Switzerland

We process “Personal Data,” as that term is defined in the EU General Data Protection Regulation, on the following legal bases: (1) with your consent; (2) as necessary to perform our agreement to provide Services; and (3) as necessary for our legitimate interests in providing the Services where those interests do not override your fundamental rights and freedom related to data privacy. Information we collect may be transferred to, and stored and processed in, the United States or any other country in which we or our affiliates or subcontractors maintain facilities, as described above.

Users that reside in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), U.K., or Switzerland have the right to lodge a complaint about our data collection and processing actions with the supervisory authority concerned. Contact details for data protection authorities are available here.

If you are a resident of the EEA, U.K., or Switzerland, you have certain rights. We may require you to provide us with information so that we can verify you prior to giving you access to any records containing information about you. These rights include the ability to do the following:

  • Request from us access to information held about you or request transmission of your data to a third party.
  • Request that we rectify inaccurate or incomplete information we hold about you .
  • Request that we erase data when such data is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, when you withdraw consent and no other legal basis for processing exists, or when you believe that your fundamental rights to data privacy and protection outweigh our legitimate interest in continuing the processing.
  • Request that we restrict our processing if there is a dispute about the accuracy of the data, if the processing is unlawful, if the processing is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected but is needed by you for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, or if your request to object to processing is pending evaluation.
  • Object to processing of your personal data based on our legitimate interests or for direct marketing (including profiling). We will no longer process the data unless there are compelling legitimate grounds for our processing that override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or for the purpose of asserting, exercising, or defending legal claims.
  • Withdraw your consent at any time, if we are processing your personal data based on your consent.

To submit a request to exercise your rights, please contact us at support@journalists.org. We may have a reason under the law why we do not have to comply with your request, or may comply with it in a more limited way than you anticipated. If we do, we will explain that to you in our response.

Changes to This Policy

We may make changes to this Policy from time to time. The “Effective Date” at the top of this page indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information described in this Policy.

For questions about our privacy practices, contact us at:

111 North Capitol Street NE
Second Floor
Washington, DC 20002

Email: support@journalists.org