National Violence Prevention Hotline Privacy Policy
Last updated: February 26, 2026
The National Violence Prevention Hotline (“NVPH,” “we,” “us,” and “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through compliance with this Privacy Policy (the “Policy”). This Policy describes the types of personal information that we may collect from you when you visit violencepreventionhotline.org (the “Website”), including use of the Website’s chat feature, and when you interact with NVPH’s phone-based hotline and its associated voicemail (the “Hotline”) (collectively with the Website, our “Services”). This Policy also explains how we collect, use, maintain, protect, and disclose information that we obtain when you interact with the Services. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any third parties you may interact with through our Services.
1. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. When we make changes, we will revise the date at the top of the policy. When we make material changes, we will notify you through the Services, such as on our homepage or through the Hotline. Please check this page frequently for the latest information on our privacy practices.
2. Personal Information we collect
“Personal Information,” as used in this Privacy Policy, means information that identifies or can reasonably be linked to a particular individual. We collect Personal Information that you provide to us, as well as some Personal Information that is collected automatically. This includes, without limitation, information that you provide to NVPH counselors, employees, volunteers, or agents when using the Hotline, as well as information provided through the Website.
NVPH may take notes and maintain records regarding your use of the Hotline or other Services. Our notes and records may include Personal Information that you provide during, and our observations from, your interactions with our counselors, employees, volunteers, or agents. We may also ask you to complete a survey to provide feedback after using our Services; completion of the survey is voluntary and you may decline to complete it. You also may choose not to provide other Personal Information that we request. Declining to provide requested or accurate information may impact our ability to provide you with relevant and supportive Services.
Personal Information that we collect may fall into any of the following categories:
- Identifiers, such as your first and last name, email address, phone number, social media handle, or other contact information;
- Donation information. This may include, for example, first and last name, payment information, billing address, email address, phone number, and donation history;
- Audio, electronic, or similar information such as IP addresses and voice recordings from your use of the Hotline;
- Demographic information, which may include protected characteristics such as your gender, age, race, or other protected classifications under applicable law;
- Communications, including your input in response to surveys we may send, voicemail messages you may leave, and other notes and records we may keep pertaining to your use of the Services;
- Other information you provide to NVPH through your use of the Services. Without limitation, this information might include: professional information; education information; and your reason for contacting NVPH.
Information collected from third parties
In order to offer you a more consistent and helpful experience in your interactions with us, information collected through one source may be combined with information we obtain from other sources. This may include information that allows us to identify you across multiple devices through which you access our Services. We may also supplement the information we collect with information obtained from other parties. Examples of how we may use this information include helping us to improve your experience using our Services, and if necessary, helping us to protect the health or safety of any individual.
Personal Information we receive from third parties may include without limitation the following categories:
- Identifiers such as your first and last name, email address, postal address, phone number, social media handle, or other similar identifiers.
- Protected characteristics such as your gender, age, race, or other protected classifications under applicable law.
- Audio, electronic, visual, or similar information such as photographs of you, recordings from your use of the Hotline, and your IP address.
Information we collect automatically
As is true of most websites, we may use cookies or similar technologies to gather certain information automatically that helps us analyze trends in the aggregate and administer our Services. This information may include the following categories:
- Identifiers such as Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type and language, Internet service provider (ISP), device identifier, and geolocation; and
- Internet or other electronic network activity information such as the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the website that referred you to our website and the URL to which you browse away from our website if you click on a link on our website, the pages you have viewed on our website, and access times.
3. How we use your Personal Information
We may use your Personal Information to:
- Deliver Services and support to you;
- Communicate with you regarding your contact with, or outreach to, NVPH;
- Facilitate your use of our Services;
- Customize, analyze and improve our Services, technologies, communications and relationship with you;
- Better understand the users of our Services, including identifying your concerns and interests based on your interactions with our Website;
- Personalize content and implement your preferences;
- Prevent fraud and other prohibited or illegal activities;
- Protect the security and integrity of our operations and Services, and the security of our counselors, employees, volunteers, agents, and other users of the Services; or
- Perform other functions or serve other purposes, as disclosed to you at the point of collection, or as required or permitted by law.
Legal bases of processing
Our legal basis for collecting and using your Personal Information depends on the Personal Information concerned, the specific context in which we collect it, and how it is to be used. In general, we collect and process your Personal Information on one or more of the following bases:
- Your consent, for example where you have voluntarily provided information while using the Hotline.
- Compliance with our obligations where applicable laws require the processing of your Personal Information or where we need your Personal Information to protect your vital interests or those of another person.
- Our legitimate interests which include without limitation the provision of the Website and Services, and/or the carrying out of personalizing activities, provided always that our legitimate interests are not outweighed by any prejudice or harm your rights and freedoms.
If you have any questions concerning a legal basis on which we collect your Personal Information, please contact us at [email protected].
4. Retention of your Personal Information
We will retain your Personal Information for as long as needed to provide you support or Services. This retention will continue in accordance with our retention practices and legal requirements as necessary, for example, to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. We may anonymize your Personal Information (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes.
5. How we may share your Personal Information
NVPH recognizes the sensitivity of your Personal Information. NVPH is not a mental healthcare treatment or provider, and your use of the Services does not give rise to the legal obligations of confidentiality that may be associated with professional healthcare providers. We nonetheless endeavor to maintain confidentiality when it is legal and safe to do so.
We do not use Personal Information collected from you for commercial purposes.
We may share your Personal Information with third parties for the following purposes:
Service providers and other partners
We engage service providers and research partners to assist us with operating and providing the Services. Service providers may process secure payments, provide technical and communication services, and analyze information to help us improve our Services. Some of our service providers or research partners may engage their own service providers to further assist us. Information we provide to research partners is de-identified and is not considered Personal Information within the meaning of this Privacy Policy.
PayPal acts as a service provider to enable donors to make tax-deductible gifts for NVPH’s work. When it provides this service, PayPal acts as an independent data controller for purposes of processing donor data and all PayPal activities in this regard are governed by PayPal’s privacy policy, available at www.paypal.com. We encourage you to visit PayPal’s privacy policy if you have any questions about how PayPal protects your personal data.
Where required by law or for other protective reasons
We may share your Personal Information with law enforcement agencies, courts, other government authorities or other third parties where we believe it necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation or process, or otherwise to protect the health or safety of any person, including the health or safety of an NVPH counselor, employee, volunteer, agent, or another user of the Services.
In the context of a merger, acquisition or sale
We may share your Personal Information with a successor organization, in the event NVPH is acquired by or merged with another organization or in which we sell or transfer all or a portion of our assets or operations.
The Personal Data we may share with third parties as described in this section may include these categories:
Identifiers;
Protected characteristics;
Geolocation data;
Internet or other electronic network activity information;
Audio, electronic, visual, or similar information;
NVPH notes and records; and
Communications.
6. How we secure your Personal Information
The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We follow generally accepted standards to protect your Personal Information from misuse, interference and loss, as well as from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. The ways we do this include:
- Limiting access to the information we collect about you;
- Ensuring that we have appropriate security safeguards to keep Personal Information secure, and confirming that our service providers and business partners employ safeguards as well; and
- Where required by law, destroying or de-identifying Personal Information.
No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of information in our possession.
Be careful to avoid “phishing” scams, including where someone may send you an email or text that appears to be from NVPH asking for your Personal Information. We will not request your Personal Information through email or text.
7. Cookies and similar technologies
Our website uses “cookies” and similar technologies to enable you to utilize our Services, to help personalize your online experience, to analyze trends, and to track user activities on our Website. We use cookies to store your preferences and other information on your computer; cookies may save you time by eliminating the need to enter the same information repeatedly.
A cookie is a piece of text that is placed on your computer’s hard drive. Depending on the settings you have selected, your browser adds the text to your device as a small file. Many browsers are set to accept cookies by default. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies as you prefer. The Help portion of your web browser, most likely found on the toolbar, typically tells you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the Services we can offer.
When you visit our Website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies to help deliver relevant messages to you about our Services, as well as to help us measure the effectiveness of those messages, improve and analyze the functionality of our Services and Website, and to help provide a more personalized web experience when you visit our Website.
We also use scripts, pixels and similar technology that help us manage content on our website. For example, we may use scripts to personalize your experience. We may also use these technologies to identify the most popular locations on our Website, to help us make more of our pages valuable to our users and to troubleshoot any issues our users raise about our Website’s operation.
8. Your privacy choices and personal data rights
Access and update your information
We want to help you keep your Personal Information accurate. To make any changes to your communication preferences, you may make a request by contacting [email protected]. Please allow 10 business days for these changes to take effect.
Personal data rights
Some U.S. states have laws that provide a number of privacy rights, which may include the rights to any or all of the following:
- Access and receive a portable copy of your Personal Information;
- Delete your Personal Information (subject to certain limitations under applicable law);
- Receive information about our use of your Personal Information;
- Be free from discrimination in response to exercising these rights conferred by law;
- Direct that your Personal Information not be sold; and
- Direct that your Personal Information not be shared for targeted advertising purposes.
Please note that we do not share your Personal Information with any third parties for advertising or marketing purposes.
While not all of those laws may apply to NVPH, you may send us a request at [email protected] regarding the use or protection of your Personal Information. While we will make reasonable efforts to accommodate your request, we reserve the right to reject such access requests or to impose restrictions or requirements upon such requests if required or permitted by applicable law.
Managing your communication preferences
You can change your communication preferences at any time by sending an email to [email protected]. We do not conduct commercial marketing activities. We may communicate with you in connection with Services you request and in response or follow-up to your communications with NVPH.
9. Links to third-party websites and services
Third parties control the content of all third-party websites that are linked to our website. These links are provided as a benefit to you. If you submit Personal Information to any third-party website through one of those links, the Personal Information you provide is governed by the third-parties’ privacy notices. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy notice of any site you visit.
10. How to contact us
If you have questions or concerns about the information in this Privacy Policy, our handling of your personal data more generally, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under law, please contact us at [email protected].