Privacy Policy

Welcome to the online services of St. Anthony of Padua Parish and Schools in Effingham, Illinois (together, we refer to the Church and School as “St. Anthony” or “us” in this policy). This privacy policy provides an overview of our privacy practices. It applies to all websites, mobile applications, St. Anthony accounts on social media platforms and other third-party sites and services, and any other online applications that link to this privacy policy (collectively, “our services”).

1. Information we may collect

Information you provide to us. In order to use most aspects of the site, you are not required to provide any information about yourself. However, we may ask or require you to provide certain information, such as your name, address, and e-mail address, if you choose to request information, contribute content to the site, or make a donation. We also may collect information from you (either on the site or offline) about your volunteer activities for use in publishing schedules, calendars, and plans. We may ask for or require this information so that we can respond to inquiries or communications from you or for other purposes.

Information that is collected automatically

Our services may collect some information automatically about your device. For example, the site may collect your Internet Protocol or “IP” address, information on which web browser software you are using, mobile device identifiers, and the website that referred you to our site. It also may collect information about your activity on the site, such as which pages you choose to view. This information helps us to make the site more useful for you and other visitors. We also may obtain geolocation information when you access our services from a mobile device.

Social Networks

If you choose to access or use social networking services (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.), we may receive personal information about you that you have made available to those services, including information about your contacts on those services. If you choose to use social networking services, you should make sure you are comfortable with the information those services may make available to us by visiting those services’ privacy policies. Any personal information we receive through social networking services will be governed by this policy.

Cookies, Pixels, and Other Technologies

The site may assign your computer a “cookie.” A “cookie” is a small text file that resides on your computer and helps our site remember that your computer has visited the site before and to identify which pages have been viewed when you have visited the site. We also may configure cookies to include other information, such as the website address of a page that linked to our site, if you arrived at our site by following a link. We use cookies, as do most websites, to make the site more useful and convenient for our users. You may opt-out of receiving cookies delivered through the site simply by changing the appropriate setting on your browser. Please be aware, however, that opting out of cookies may disable all cookies delivered to your browser, not just cookies that we deliver, and that disabling cookies may mean that the operation of our site may not be optimal. We also may use other similar technologies, such as pixels, to improve our services.

Printed and Non-Web Publications

Information provided for certain St. Anthony publications and communications media, including the weekly bulletin that is distributed in paper form at Mass and other types of communications, may be posted on our website. When you provide personal information to be included in our bulletin or other publications (as contact information for activities or programs, for example), that information also may be accessible on this site.

2. How we use the information we collect

We may use the information we collect about you in connection with the site for several reasons including:

  • providing you will the information or services you request;
  • responding to your questions and comments;
  • communicating your identity and views publicly, when you provide information about yourself in connection with a public communication;
  • providing you information that we believe will interest you;
  • soliciting information and feedback from you, including through surveys and questionnaires, and for other editorial purposes;
  • performing analyses or for other purposes to improve the quality of the site and other communications media and services we offer; and as otherwise described to you at the point of collection or pursuant to your consent.

Our site also permits you to make online donations. When you make online donations, your information is kept confidential and can only be used by us to contact you to respond to questions or to notify you of any issues pertaining to your donation.

3. With whom we share this information

We generally will not share the information that we collect about you with third parties. However, we may share this information with third parties in these limited circumstances:

  • to respond to a question or inquiry received from you or to provide you with information that you request;
  • with our authorized service providers that perform certain functions or services on our behalf (such as to host or operate the site or our other services, to operate our online donation features, to manage our databases, and to conduct analyses of site usage);
  • to respond to legal process, in response to a request for cooperation from law enforcement or another government agency, to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, or to enforce our Terms of Use or protect our rights or the rights of others;
  • in aggregated, anonymized or another non-personally identifiable form to third parties for various purposes, including to improve the quality of our services, the site, and the services we offer; and
  • as otherwise described to you at the point of collection or pursuant to your consent.

One of the third parties that provide services on our site is Google. Like many websites, we use Google Analytics, a service that provides information about how many users visit our Site, when they visit, and how they navigate the Site once they are here. Google offers a browser add-on that enables users to opt out of having data about their visits reported to websites by Google Analytics. More information about the add-on is here. We also may use other Google Analytics tools, such as Demographics and Interest Reporting, which enables us to learn more about the characteristics and interests of the users who visit our Site.

4. Contributions, user-generated content, and external links

We may use a third-party payment vendor to process contributions made through the site. When you make a contribution through the services provided by this vendor, you are providing information to the vendor, which operates under its own privacy policy rather than this Privacy Policy. We have also put reasonable procedures in place to safeguard the information we collect from you. However, please note that although we take reasonable steps to protect your information, no website, Internet transmission, computer system or wireless connection is completely secure.

Our services may contain interactive areas where users might submit comments or other content (including information about the user that might be displayed in the user’s public profile within an online community) that may be posted on a service or otherwise published. If you use these features, please be aware that if you voluntarily disclose personal information (such as name, e-mail address, and the like) in content submitted for posting or publication, the information can be read and used by others. This may result in unsolicited messages from other posters or parties. Please take care when submitting content to any online services, including ours.

Similarly, links from this site may lead you to third-party websites. Those websites do not operate under this Privacy Policy. We have no control over these sites and accordingly cannot provide any assurances about them or how they treat users’ information.

5. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy over time to reflect changes in how we manage information or changes in the functionality of our site. We will notify you about material changes to this Privacy Policy by placing the updated Privacy Policy on the site and/or contacting you using any contact information that you have provided us, as appropriate for the nature of the changes made, and we will indicate the date on which the Privacy Policy was most recently updated. Your continued use of the site after we modify the Privacy Policy indicates that you accept these changes and is governed by the practices described in the updated Privacy Policy.

6. How you can access your information and contact us

You can access and update the personal information you have provided on our website by contacting us at the address listed below. If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, you may write to us at:

St. Anthony of Padua Parish
101 E. Virginia Ave.
Effingham, IL 62401
(217) 347-7129