Privacy Notice
Last Updated: March 17, 2026
Privacy Notice Introduction & Scope
The National Geographic Society is an impact-driven global nonprofit organization that uses the power of science, exploration, education, and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.
The National Geographic Society (the “Society”) understands the importance of your privacy, and we take our responsibility to protect it seriously. Our Privacy Notice describes our practices with respect to personal information and your rights and choices when it comes to the personal information we control.
What do we mean by “personal information”?
What isn’t covered by this Privacy Notice?
This Privacy Notice does not apply to your interactions with Third Parties or Licensees, even if you find a link to them on our online platforms or if their sites are embedded in one of our pages. If you click on or interact with a hyperlink that you find on our online platforms, including but not limited to nationalgeographic.com, you have left our online platform and are sending information to a different website or application. You should read the terms and policies of the website provider to see how your personal information will be treated on its site.
This Notice does not apply to the personal data of employees, job applicants, contractors, business owners, trustees, and officers of the Society.
A Note on Other Parties
In this notice, we refer to a variety of parties. An “Affiliate” is another member of the National Geographic Society family, including various National Geographic Society subsidiaries. There are also types of various external parties: A “Licensee” is an entity authorized to use the “National Geographic” name and registered trademarks to brand their products or services (such as National Geographic Partners, LLC and its sub-licensees). “Collaborators” are entities that work with the Society to operate one or more programs. A “Service Provider” is an entity that may process data under contractual obligations to process the data for the Society’s purposes and no other purposes, except where allowed or required under law. (These may be referred to as “processors” under some laws.) “Third Parties” are entities that may process data for their own purposes.
What Personal Information We Collect and How We Collect It
The Society collects personal information from a variety of individuals, including its website visitors, donors and potential donors, grantees and grant applicants, project team members, participants and potential participants in its programs, educators, press members, media creators and contributors, newsletter subscribers, museum visitors, people who contact the Society, and other individuals who partake in the Society’s offerings and events. In some cases a person may also provide us with information about their parents, legal guardians, emergency contacts, or other family members. The amount and type of information we collect depends on how you interact with the Society.
Information We Receive From You
This includes information you actively choose to share with the Society, whether online or offline (for example, in person or by telephone). You might provide this information in different ways, for example by filling out online forms, making online or offline donations, creating an online account, visiting the Society’s museum or attending a Society’s event, applying for a grant, or participating in surveys, challenges, or sweepstakes.
Through these and similar interactions, you may provide us with a wide range of personal information. The following are examples of the categories of personal information we may collect (this list is intended to be illustrative, not exhaustive):
- Identifiers – such as your name, postal address, email address, phone number, social media handles, and online account credentials (associated with your account with us, which may or not be linked with services such as Google, LinkedIn or Microsoft). In some cases, we may also collect government-issued ID numbers (e.g., passport or driver’s license), especially when needed to help arrange travel or verify identities.
- Certain Personal Information Records under Certain U.S. State Laws – including credit or debit card information (e.g., for donations or event tickets), financial information, health or medical information (e.g., dietary needs, accessibility requirements, or health forms for travel), and insurance details (e.g., for grant-related activities or travel). Some of this information may also fall into other categories listed here.
- Personal Characteristics – demographic information, which we use only as required or allowed by applicable law.
- Information About Your Engagement with Our Programs and Offerings (called “Commercial Information” under some laws) – including records of your donations, museum ticket purchases, event attendance, program applications, and stated areas of interest.
- Professional or Employment-Related Information – such as job title, employer or school affiliation, role (e.g., educator or coach), and brief biography, particularly when engaging with grants, educational programs, or competitions.
- Personal Information in User Content – sometimes the Society allows you to post or share content, including messages, personal bios, comments, screen names, or uploaded files.
- Personal Information Related to Grants, Funding or Awards – such as information related to your application, the execution of grant agreements and payments, final reports, media or content produced as part of the funded work, and any feedback you provide on the outcomes of the grant.
- Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information – such as photographs, video or audio recordings, or other media submitted as part of project or grant applications, reports, or program participation. This may include images of individuals, footage documenting fieldwork or events, or other materials that support the Society’s mission. In some cases, this media may be used for archival, evaluative, or promotional purposes, in accordance with applicable agreements and permissions.
Information We Collect Automatically
The Society uses various technologies to automatically receive and record information when you interact with us on our websites or through other digital tools such as email platforms, mobile applications, tap-to-pay/tap-to-donate devices, and museum or event check-ins (e.g. via ticket or barcode scanners).
The Society may automatically collect the following categories of information:
- Technical Identifiers, Device, and Browser/Email Client Information – like your Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses (which may further indicate geographic locality), other device identifiers, phone model, browser/email type, version and configuration, browser language settings, or operating system you used to browse our sites.
- Personal Characteristics – like your browser language settings
- Internet or Other Similar Network Activity – such as usage data (like on-site browsing history, on-site search history, referring URLs, and other information on your interactions with a website, application, email, or ad, and session information (depending on how you access our platforms).
We may collect or interact with the data categories described above using a number of technologies and methods described below:
Cookies
Cookies are not themselves personal information, but are a technology that can be used to store or retrieve personal information that is kept locally on your device. Our site uses cookies to store or retrieve information about you. We use cookies for a variety of purposes, such as enabling functionality and to enhance the quality of our website and your user experience.
We use essential cookies (sometimes called “necessary cookies” or “functional cookies”) to help make our website and web applications usable by enabling basic functions like session management and single sign-on. They also help us comply with consent recordkeeping legal requirements like those of the laws implementing the EU e-Privacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation. Our site cannot function properly without these cookies. Most of the essential cookies we use are transient (sometimes called “session cookies”). A session cookie expires when you close your browser.
We also use analytics cookies that collect information about how visitors interact with and use our website. This information enables us to improve how our website works generally.
Additionally, we use personalization cookies to remember the choices you make and provide enhanced features such as support that may be of particular interest to you. These cookies allow us to personalize your return visits and to save you time during certain activities, such as checking out from our online store.
Finally, we also use targeted advertising cookies to deliver ads that are relevant and engaging to individual users based on their use of our site.
You have the choice to set your browser to accept or reject these cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. Each browser is different, so check the “Help” menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences. It is up to you whether to allow us to send you cookies. However, if you do not accept cookies from us, your ability to use some areas of our Site will be limited. For more information, please visit https://www.aboutcookies.org/.
You can find out more about each category of cookie, your choices and the specific cookies we use, by interacting with our cookie banner.
Pixels, Web Beacons and Other Technologies
Our online platforms use other tracking tools, including pixels or web beacons. Pixels or web beacons are typically images on the online platforms (or in emails that the Society sends to you) that help us determine how you have engaged with our websites and online platforms, whether you have opened an email that we have sent to you or how you engaged with it, or otherwise to measure the effectiveness of our online platforms. These technical methods may involve the transmission of information to us or directly to a service provider authorized by us to collect information on our behalf.
SMS-Related Data
If you sign up for SMS Services, data obtained from you in connection with the SMS service may include your mobile phone number, your carrier’s name and the date, time and content of your messages. We may use this information to contact you and provide the offerings you request from us. (For more information on how we do and don’t share SMS-related data, see below under No Sharing of Mobile and SMS-Related Information. In short, if you sign up for SMS updates, no mobile information will be shared with Third Parties/Affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any Third Parties.)
Webpage Usage Tools
Information We Get From External Parties
The Society sometimes uses external parties and publicly available sources to validate, update, and supplement personal information. We do this mostly to: 1) ensure contact information such as email address, phone number, and mailing address are accurate and up to date, and 2) gather relevant information about grant applicants and donors or donor prospects. We may also receive personal information from trusted external parties about donors or potential donors in support of the Society’s mission. In some cases, one of our constituents may identify you as a parent, guardian, emergency contact, or relative of themselves or another constituent.
The following are examples of categories of personal information we may collect from external parties:
- Identifiers – such as your name, telephone number, postal address or email address, or date of birth.
- Engagement Indicators – such as indicators of philanthropic or civic involvement, interest in nonprofit causes, or participation in charitable events.
- Certain Personal Information Records under Certain U.S. State Laws – such as name, telephone number, email inferred financial information like estimated household income, real estate or business affiliations, or estimated assets and salary. This information is typically sourced from publicly or commercially available data to help us engage responsibly with current and prospective donors.
Information We Infer or Model
The Society may use personal information we have collected using one of the methods above to compile, combine, and infer new information about you. We do this to tailor our communications and outreach, and to improve our programs and offerings.
The Society may infer the following categories of information:
- Information About Your Engagement with Our Programs and Offerings (called “Commercial Information” under some laws). For example, we may use models or Service Providers to estimate the amount you are likely to donate, your likelihood to engage with the Society and our focus areas, or focus areas you may be interested in hearing about or supporting.
Processing Personal Data in the US
Our online platforms are maintained in the United States of America (“US”). The information we collect from you through our online platforms may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the US and other destinations outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or other country in which you are located. This includes processing by us, our Affiliates, our Service Providers and other external parties as described in this Notice. You consent and agree to the collection and processing of your personal information outside the EEA or other country in which you are located. You understand that data stored in the US may be subject to lawful requests by the courts or law enforcement authorities in the US. The US may not have data protection laws that are as comprehensive or protective as those in your country of residence.
Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information
The Society uses personal information for the purposes of:
- Programs and Offerings. Providing you with programs and offerings; enrolling you in challenges, competitions, or sweepstakes upon your request; processing applications for funding or grants; and managing active funding or grants.
- Fundraising. Processing your donations and soliciting donations as part of fundraising efforts.
- Visitor and event management. Managing attendance at events and museum visits, including registration, check-in, capacity tracking, and access coordination.
- Logistics. Organizing convenings and events, including making travel arrangements.
- Communication and Outreach. Providing you with information or offerings that you request from us, responding to your requests or questions, providing Society updates; serving you multimedia content related to the Society’s programs, museum exhibits and events, including video and audio materials; communicating opportunities to support the Society’s mission, or information on Society programs and offerings through various communication channels, including showing you custom National Geographic Society or Museum of Exploration ads on external websites and platforms.
- Archival, historical, and research preservation. Maintaining records, stories, media, and other materials related to the Society’s programs, grants, events, or mission-driven activities. This includes preserving personal information disclosed through projects, applications, or contributions, where relevant to the Society’s historical or research goals.
- Analytics. Analyzing how our programs, websites, and offerings are engaged with, including through tools like cookies, heatmaps, and session replays; improving user experience; conducting engagement research to better understand our audiences; and assessing the effectiveness of our communications, programs, and offerings.
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement. Operating, evaluating, and improving our programs, websites, and offerings, including developing new content, programs, and offerings; enhancing and improving our content, programs, and offerings; analyzing our content, programs, offerings and communications; and performing accounting, auditing, and other internal functions.
- When Required by Law, to Prevent Fraud, and Protect Our or Others’ Rights. Protecting against, identifying and preventing fraud and other criminal activity, claims and other liabilities; complying with and enforcing applicable legal requirements, relevant industry standards and our policies.
Legal Bases For Processing Your Personal Information Under Applicable Law
In some jurisdictions, privacy laws require us to have a valid legal reason (called a “lawful basis” or “legal ground”) before we collect or use your personal information. When those laws apply, the legal basis we rely on will depend on your relationship with the Society and how you interact with our online platforms.
Examples of legal bases on which we rely, include situations where processing of personal information is necessary to:
- enter or perform a contract with you;
- comply with a legal obligation;
- pursue our legitimate interests or those of another party (provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests); or
- protect the vital interests of you or another natural person.
Another possible legal basis is your consent. If the legal basis is consent, we will explain what you are agreeing to in clear and plain language. You can withdraw your consent at any time. We will also seek additional consent if we want to use your information for a new purpose that is different from the original one.
If we rely on legitimate interests, you may contact us to learn more about how we made that assessment as described in the section below titled Your Privacy Choices and Rights.
Automated decision-making and profiling
The Society does not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects based solely on automated processing, but does use automated decision-making technologies in various ways. For example, some limited forms of automated processing are used to tailor content and communications based on how you interact with our emails, and algorithms may trigger additional or alternative website content to be delivered to you. Ad platforms may also use automated decision-making to show you targeted content or ads based on your interactions with the Society’s website, but those processes are controlled by the ad networks. The Society uses campus visitor management software, which includes a watchlist feature that may flag individuals for internal Security team review; this alert always undergoes human review and is not used to make decisions without intervention. Some video submissions may be transcribed using tools to generate text, which may include personal information. The Society may also use various automated decision-making technology to protect its sites from malicious or harmful online activity, or to highlight potential fraudulent transactions and pause those transactions to enable human review.
When and How We Disclose Information to Others
We may disclose your personal information to a number of external parties. We may do so for a number of reasons and under a number of contractual arrangements. For example, we may entrust information to vendors so they can perform services on our behalf, but they are contractually limited to using the information for those purposes and certain other limited purposes allowed by law. In other cases, we may disclose information at your direction, such as where we provide information to a travel provider to arrange travel on your behalf; those providers may use the information for their own purposes as allowed by law. Below, we describe the major categories of external parties to whom we may disclose or entrust information, the reason for doing so, and the contractual arrangements applicable to each.
Vendors, Consultants and Other Service Providers
We may entrust your information to entities that provide services to the Society. These vendors typically support the Society with tasks such as hosting, development, maintenance and support, payment processing, email distribution, marketing, consulting, and promotions management. These entities are contractually obliged to use your information only for the purpose of providing services to us, unless another section of this Privacy Notice allows additional use or sharing, or otherwise where required or allowed by law.
These Service Providers are typically located in the United States of America and examples include:
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers
- Customer relationship management providers
- Community platforms / engagement tool providers
- Customer Service Providers
- Internet Service Providers
- Cloud Service Providers
- Office and productivity tool providers
- Payment processors
- Customer survey and market research firms
- Email Service Providers
- Web analytics providers
- Enterprise open-source solutions providers
- Project management tool providers
- Digital preservation / archival management system providers
- Consent management platform providers
Event and Travel Providers
When we organize an event, experience, meeting, or similar activity, we may need to disclose your information on your behalf with external parties who will use your information to provide you with their services. These may include:
- event venues or event co-hosts;
travel agents and travel Service Providers (such as airlines or hotels); - travel booking intermediaries (such as Global Distribution Systems or online booking platforms); and
- immigration or border authorities, where required.
These entities may process your data for their own purposes under their own privacy notices. By participating in one of our events or asking us to book travel on your behalf, you are directing us to make these disclosures as necessary to provide that benefit to you.
List Shares and Non-Profit Cooperative Groups
Your information may be disclosed to selected external parties so that they may send you promotional materials about their missions and programs that they offer. You may opt out of such disclosures as described below under Your Privacy Choices and Rights.
General Audiences and the Public (for Explorers or other program participants)
If you are a National Geographic Explorer, we may also disclose your information for purposes of promoting your work or activities on our website, in media publications, with event venues and audiences, within the context of our Explorer community, or in other marketing materials. If you are a participant in another Society offering or program, we may also disclose your information to other program participants as contemplated by the program. We will only engage in these sorts of disclosures with your consent or at your direction, or as otherwise permitted by applicable law.
Affiliates, Licensees, Collaborators
Your information may be shared within the National Geographic Society family, which is defined for this purpose as corporate affiliates of National Geographic Society (“Affiliates”). Your information may also be shared with “Licensees” entities that are authorized to use the “National Geographic” name and registered trademarks to brand their products or services (such as National Geographic Partners, LLC and its sub-licensees). We may also entrust your information to Collaborators when we and those Collaborators jointly provide a program or offering and you participate in that program and offering.
Marketing Providers
Parts of our online platforms may transmit signals to digital marketing platforms about your interactions with our sites. We may also disclose “hashed” (or scrambled) versions of your email address or other identifiers with these platforms, along with other information about your interactions with us. The digital marketing platforms that receive these signals use them on our behalf to promote our mission and activities on websites and platforms of others, and in some cases, these platforms may also process your data for their own purposes under their own privacy notices. You may opt-out of such sharing as described below under Your Privacy Choices and Rights.
Disclosures Required or Specifically Authorized by Law
Your information may be disclosed when we believe that doing so is required by law, may be necessary to protect any person’s property, rights, or safety, or to investigate a potential violation of law, will help to enforce any terms of use or other legal agreement, or will help resolve disputes that arise in the ordinary course of business, or in the event of a corporate transaction, such as a divestiture, merger, consolidation, reorganization, or corporate sale or asset sale.
Sharing and Selling
Some of the disclosures described above, such as our participation in non-profit list shares or cooperative groups, or our use of targeted marketing, may be deemed “sharing” or “selling” personal information under the definitions provided by some laws. You have the opportunity to opt out of our sales or sharing of personal information about you as described below in the section titled Your Privacy Choices and Rights.
No Sharing of Mobile and SMS-Related Information
If you sign up for SMS updates, no mobile information will be shared with Third Parties/Affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any Third Parties.
International Transfers of Your Personal Data: Europe
When your personal information is safeguarded by the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation, or Swiss data protection law, before sending it to parties outside the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, we will do one of two things:
- Seek your consent; or
- Demand privacy and security: We will ensure the external party maintains the same level of privacy and security for your Personal Information as we do.
In some cases, the authorities of a country may have determined that the laws of other countries, territories or sectors within a country provide a level of protection equivalent to domestic law. You can see here the list of countries, territories and specified sectors that the European Commission recognized as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data, here the list of the UK, and here the list of Switzerland.
We are accountable for the protection of your Personal Information when we transfer it to others. We either send it to a country, territory or sector within a country that is recognized as providing the same level of personal data protection as the country of origin, or use safeguards like the Data Privacy Framework, Binding Corporate Rules or the Standard Contractual Clauses (also known as the “SCCs”) approved by the European Commission under Article 46.2 of the GDPR, with necessary adjustments for transfers from the UK or Switzerland, or use specific transfer instruments like the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.
Summary of How We Collect, Use, and Disclose Personal Information
Category of information collected: Identifiers
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Programs and Offerings
- Fundraising
- Communication and Outreach
- When Required by Law, to Prevent Fraud, and Protect Our or Others’ Rights
- Logistics
- Analytics
- Visitor and event management
- Archival, historical, and research preservation
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Customer Service Providers
- Payment processing providers
- Customer survey and market research providers
- Payment processors
- Email and SMS communication Service Providers
- Web analytics providers
- Digital preservation / archival management system providers
- Office and productivity tool providers
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers´
- Consent management platform providers
- Customer relationship management providers
- Community platforms / engagement tool providers
Event and Travel Providers
- Event venues & co-hosts
- Travel agents
- Airlines, hotels
- Travel booking intermediaries (such as Global Distribution Systems or online booking platforms); and
- Immigration or border authorities, where required
List Shares and Non-Profit Cooperative Groups
General Audiences and the Public (for Explorers or other program participants)
Affiliates, Licensees, and Collaborators
Marketing Platforms
- Advertising networks
Category of information collected: Certain Personal Information Records under Certain US state laws
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Programs and Offerings
- Fundraising
- Communication and Outreach
- When Required by Law, to Prevent Fraud, and Protect Our or Others’ Rights
- Logistics
- Visitor and event management
- Archival, historical, and research preservation
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Customer Service providers
- Payment Processing providers
- Customer survey and market research providers
- Payment processors
- Email Service Providers
- Digital preservation / archival management system providers
- Office and productivity tool providers
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers´
Category of information collected: Personal Characteristics
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Analytics
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement
- When Required by Law, to Prevent Fraud, and Protect Our or Others’ Rights
- Logistics
- Programs and Offerings (as required or allowed by applicable law)
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Customer survey and market research providers
- Office and productivity tool providers
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers
- Customer relationship management providers
- Community platforms / engagement tool providers
Event and Travel Providers
- Event venues & co-hosts
- Travel agents
- Airlines, hotels
- Travel booking intermediaries (such as Global Distribution Systems or online booking platforms); and
- Immigration or border authorities, where required
General Audiences and the Public (for Explorers or other program participants)
Category of information collected: Information About Your Engagement with Our Programs and Offerings (called “Commercial Information” under some laws)
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Programs and Offerings
- Fundraising
- Communication and Outreach
- When Required by Law, to Prevent Fraud, and Protect Our or Others’ Rights
- Logistics
- Analytics
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Customer Service providers
- Payment Processing providers
- Customer survey and market research providers
- Customer relationship management providers
- Community platforms / engagement tool providers
List Shares and Non-Profit Cooperative Groups
Affiliates, Licensees, and Collaborators
General Audiences and the Public (for Explorers or other program participants)
Category of information collected: Technical Identifiers, Device, and Browser/Email Client Information
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- When Required by Law, to Prevent Fraud, and Protect Our or Others’ Rights
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement
- Analytics
- Personalization
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Internet Service providers
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers
- Web analytics providers
- Consent management platform providers
Marketing Platforms
- Advertising networks
Category of information collected: Internet or similar network activity
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Fundraising
- Communication and Outreach
- When Required by Law, to Prevent Fraud, and Protect Our or Others’ Rights
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement
- Analytics
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Internet Service Providers
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers´
- Web analytics providers
- Consent management platform providers
Marketing Platforms
- Advertising networks
Category of information collected: Geolocation data
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Communication and Outreach
- Analytics
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Web analytics providers
Marketing Platforms
- Social media platforms
- Advertising networks
Category of information collected: Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Programs and Offerings
- Communication and Outreach
- Archival, Historical, and Research Preservation
- Logistics
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers
- Email Service Providers
- Digital preservation / archival management system providers
- Office and productivity tool providers
General Audiences and the Public (for Explorers or other program participants)
Category of information collected: Professional or employment-related information
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Programs and Offerings
- Analytics
- Fundraising
- Communication and Outreach
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers´
- Office and productivity tool providers
- Marketing consultants
- Email Service Providers
General Audiences and the Public (for Explorers or other program participants)
Category of information collected: Inferences drawn from other Personal Data
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Programs and Offerings
- Fundraising
- Communication and Outreach
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers
- Office and productivity tool providers
- Customer survey and market research providers
Category of information collected: Personal Information Related to Grants, Funding or Awards
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Programs and Offerings
- Communication and Outreach
- Analytics
- Security, Optimization, and Improvement
- Archival, historical, and research preservation
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers
- Office and productivity tool providers
- Customer relationship management providers
General Audiences and the Public (for Explorers or other program participants)
Category of information collected: Personal Information in User Content
For more information see the What Personal Information We Collect and How section above.
For more information, see the Why and How We Use (Process) Your Personal Information section above.
- Communication and Outreach
For more information see the When and How We Share Information With Others section above.
Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers
- Infrastructure and cloud Service Providers
General Audiences and the Public (for Explorers or other program participants)
Your Privacy Choices And Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have specific rights regarding your personal information, how we use it, and how we disclose it.
Note: Your data may also be held by National Geographic Partners, a member of the The Walt Disney Family of Companies, which controls National Geographic consumer and media assets. This includes, but is not limited to, National Geographic Magazine, National Geographic Kids, National Geographic Expeditions, and the National Geographic Online Store. Please visit Disney Privacy Choices for more information.
Postal Mail and Email Preferences
All users may request that the Society refrain from sending them postal mail by clicking here.
If you want to unsubscribe from an email list used by the nonprofit National Geographic Society (which includes fundraising emails, as well as email about educational offerings, events, etc.), please revisit the type of email from which you want to unsubscribe and click on the “unsubscribe” or “update your communication preferences” link at the bottom of that email. If you want to unsubscribe from all emails from the National Geographic Society (other than those relating to a specific transaction between you and the Society), please click here.
If you have signed up to receive any SMS messages or alerts, you will be able to unsubscribe from those generally by replying “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE”—please review the text messages you have received from a particular number for specific instructions.
SMS Preferences
If you have signed up to receive any SMS messages or alerts, you will be able to unsubscribe from those generally by replying “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE”—please review the text messages you have received from a particular number for specific instructions.
Data Subject Requests
You may request information about: the general purpose of the processing; the categories of personal data concerned; who else outside the Society may have received data from the Society; what the source of the information was (if you didn’t provide it directly to the Society); and how long it will be stored. You have the right to correct (rectify) the record of your personal data maintained by the Society if it is inaccurate. You may request that the Society erase that data or cease processing it, subject to certain exceptions. You may also request that the Society cease using your data for direct marketing purposes. You may also request that the Society not share (or “sell”) your data with Third Parties. In many countries, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the appropriate data protection authority if you have concerns about how the Society processes your personal data. When technically feasible, the Society will—at your request—provide your personal data to you or transmit it directly to another controller at your request.
Ways to Submit Data Subject Requests
To exercise any of the rights described above, please submit a request by either:
- (Recommended) Filling out the appropriate online form:
Request a Copy of Your Data
Correct or Modify Your Data
Erase Your Data
Do Not Share Your Data
Unsubscribe from Emails
Opt Out of Postal Mail - Contacting us by email at dataprivacy@ngs.org; or
- Writing to us at:
National Geographic Society
Attn: Privacy
1145 17th St., NW
Washington, DC 20036, USA
Reasonable access to your personal data will be provided at no cost to you upon request made using one of the links above or by email to the Society at dataprivacy@ngs.org. If access cannot be provided within a reasonable time frame, the Society will provide you with a date when the information will be provided. If for some reason access is denied, the Society will provide an explanation as to why access has been denied.
Online Privacy Choices
California Do Not Track Disclosure
Global Privacy Control (GPC)
Security and Retention
Security and Incident Response
Data Storage and Retention
We keep your Personal Information for as long as needed or permitted for the purpose(s) for which it was obtained. The criteria used to determine our retention periods include 1) for as long as we have an ongoing relationship with you and need the Personal Information provide programs and offerings to you; 2) as required by a legal obligation to which we are subject; or 3) as advisable in light of our legal position (such as in regard of applicable statutes of limitations and litigation). If we use your data for multiple purposes, we keep it until the purpose with the longest retention period expires, discontinuing use for shorter periods. Our retention needs align with our business needs and industry standards.
Your Personal Information may need to be retained in our backup systems and will only be deleted or overwritten at a later time. This may be the case even when you or a regulator has validly asked us to delete your Personal Information or when we no longer have a legal basis for processing such Personal Information.
Children’s Privacy
Online platforms the Society provides are not intended for visits from children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly permit children under this age to register for any content, program, or offering. Our online platforms are general audience services, and we do not knowingly collect information about children through them. Should a child make known to us their personal information, we will use that information only to respond directly to that child to inform him or her that we must have parental consent before receiving his or her personally identifiable information, or to respond in another manner consistent with applicable rules and laws. If you become aware of any personal information we have collected from a minor through our sites and tools, please contact us. If we learn that we have collected personally identifiable information from a child other than in a manner authorized by law, we will delete that information without notice from our database.
Sites managed by National Geographic Partners, LLC, nationalgeographic.com—including www.kids.nationalgeographic.com and kids.nationalgeographic.com/littlekids—are not subject to the control of the Society. Please refer to the Data Privacy Policy of National Geographic Partners for additional information.
Changes and Updates to the Privacy Notice
By using this Site, you agree to the terms and conditions contained in this Privacy Notice and Conditions of Use and/or any other agreement that we might have with you. If you do not agree to any of these terms and conditions, you should not use this Site or any of the Society’s programs or offerings.
As our organizational practices, policies, and processes change from time to time, this Privacy Notice is expected to change as well. We reserve the right to amend the Privacy Notice at any time, for any reason, without notice to you, other than the posting of the amended Privacy Notice at this Site. Any changes to the terms will apply to any information collected after the publication of the new notice. This Privacy Notice supersedes all previous notices or statements regarding our privacy practices and the terms and conditions that govern the use of this Site.
Contact Information & Data Protection Officer
You can contact us with questions, concerns, or complaints about our processing of your personal data using the contact information below:
National Geographic Society
Attn: Privacy
1145 17th St., NW
Washington, DC 20036
USA
Or:
In addition, we have appointed VeraSafe as our Data Protection Officer (“DPO”). Although you may contact us directly, VeraSafe can also be contacted on matters related to the processing of personal data. VeraSafe’s contact details are:
VeraSafe LLC
100 M Street S.E., Suite 600
Washington, D.C. 20003
USA
Email: dataprivacy@ngs.org
Web: https://www.verasafe.com/about-verasafe/contact-us/
Photo credits: Robbie Shone