Privacy Policy

See also: Australian Privacy Policy

Effective Date: October 2, 2025

The Pew Charitable Trusts (“Pew,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) provide this privacy notice (“Policy”) to describe how we collect, use, and share the Personal Data of individuals who visit our family of websites, which includes www.pew.org, and other websites that may link to this Policy (collectively, the “Sites”).

How Does Pew Collect Personal Data?

When using our Sites, you may provide Personal Data about yourself, including your name, contact information, demographic information, educational information, professional information, billing information, and any other information you choose to provide. For example, we collect this Personal Data when you interact with us on third-party websites or applications (such as social media platforms), when you subscribe to our updates or newsletters, our podcast, or contact us directly. We also receive and process Personal Data for any of our mission related work, including our public policy outreach, philanthropic, or fundraising activities (collectively, our “Services”).

We (and other entities) automatically collect Personal Data relating to your interactions with us and our Sites, including browser type, IP address, pages visited and other activities on the Sites, device type, time and date of visit, and any other information we collect through the use of cookies and similar technology. See the “Digital Advertising & Analytics” section of this Policy to learn more about the use of this information and the choices available to you.

How Does Pew Use Personal Data?

We may use information we collect for various reasons, including for:

  • Procuring donations and providing grants;
  • Advocacy and program efforts;
  • Providing webinars, events, contests, content, and newsletters;
  • Facilitating surveys or polls;
  • Administering, and entering into, the contractual relationships with vendors, donors and partners (including billing);
  • Administering the Sites;
  • Support requests:
  • Information security;
  • Marketing;
  • Analytics and service development;
  • Administering opt-outs and opt-ins;
  • Legally required reporting;
  • Tax calculation and financial audits;
  • Addressing and refuting claims in legal or official proceedings;
  • Responding to legitimate authority requests for information;
  • Protecting Services from threats, fraud, and spam;
  • Aggregating and de-identifying Personal Data; or
  • With your consent, or as otherwise disclosed at the time information is collected.

Pew’s processing of your Personal Data includes both automated and manual (human) methods of processing; however, the automated methods often are related to, and supported by, our manual methodologies. This manual review may be conducted by our employees or vendors who follow our guidance and are working directly on our behalf.

Lawful Bases For Processing

In certain jurisdictions, including the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), and Switzerland, a lawful basis is required to process Personal Data. Accordingly, we may process your Personal Data based on these reasons:

  • Consent: You have provided us your consent to use your personal data.For example, when you consent to us placing non-essential cookies on your device and where you have opted in or registered for a program, webinar, events, contests, other content, or our newsletter(s).
  • Contract: It is necessary to process data to fulfill a contract with you that requires we process Personal Data.For example, by responding to your support requests, providing information security, and protecting our Services from threats, fraud, and spam.
  • Legitimate Interests: There is a commercial or business interest that is important to us or others which we have balanced against your privacy rights.For example, we may process data for Services, to identify the wants and needs of our customers, for marketing and promotion, for security and fraud prevention, and for managing day-to-day business operations.
  • Legal Obligation: It is necessary to use data so that we can fulfill our legal and regulatory obligations.This includes processing your Personal Data to follow the law, such as providing information security, administering opt-outs and opt-ins, conducting legally required reporting, and keeping records of your consent or when you exercise your privacy rights.

Where we process your Personal Data based on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time; however, this will not affect the lawfulness of our processing before you withdrew your consent. It will also not affect processing performed on other lawful grounds.

Where we receive your Personal Data as part of performing a contract, we require such Personal Data to be able to carry out the contract. Without that necessary Personal Data, we will not be able to fulfill our contractual duties.

With Whom Does Pew Share Personal Data?

We may share the information we collect with other parties, including the following:

  • With third-party service providers or consultants who process Personal Data, on our behalf, in various areas of business such as billing, payment processing, email deployment, business analytics, marketing, advertising, performance monitoring, hosting, and data processing. These parties include: Vendors, Consultants, and Other Service Providers performing services to include, engagement tool providers, survey and market research providers, internet service providers, infrastructure and cloud service providers, web analytics providers, consent management platform providers and other third parties offering services in support of Pew’s mission;
  • With Pew affiliates and any other affiliates or joint venture partners that we have now or may have in the future;
  • As part of a corporate transaction, such as a corporate entity sale, reorganization, dissolution, the sale and/or transfer of a website, a merger, consolidation, asset sale and/or transfer, similar events, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy, or other transfer of all or part of our assets;
  • Pursuant to a subpoena, court order, governmental inquiry, other legal process, or as otherwise required by law, to protect the security and integrity of our Services, Pew and our interests, or the public from harm or illegal activities; or
  • With your consent or as otherwise disclosed at the time of data collection or sharing.

We may share information that has been anonymized or aggregated without limitation.

Your Rights and Opt-Outs

You may opt out of our email newsletters by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of each newsletter and following the subsequent instructions. You may also opt out of all communications from Pew by contacting us using the “Contact Information” section below. Where you have provided us with your consent to use your likeness, image, name, and/or voice on Pew’s websites, social media channels, multimedia materials, print materials, podcasts, and any other works made by Pew, you can later request to withdraw your consent, but it may not be possible to ensure the complete removal of your information.

Residents of the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland have specific rights with respect to the personal data collected by us. You may be able to exercise the following rights regarding Personal Data, subject to certain exceptions and limitations:

  • The right to know and access the Personal Data we hold about you;
  • The right to correct inaccuracies in the Personal Data we have collected about you;
  • The right to request that we delete Personal Data;
  • Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to restrict or object to our processing of Personal Data;
  • Under certain circumstances, to receive Personal Data about you that we store and transmit to another without hindrance from us, including requesting that we provide personal data directly to another, i.e., the right to portability;
  • Where we previously obtained your consent, the right to withdraw consent you previously provided to processing your Personal Data. For clarity, the withdrawal of consent will operate proactively and will not apply to personal information already processed.

To exercise these rights, contact us using the Contact Information section below. Please be aware that Pew may be unable to afford these rights to you under certain circumstances, such as if we are legally prevented from doing so.

Right to Lodge a Complaint. You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you believe your data rights have been violated. In particular, you can lodge a complaint in the jurisdiction of your habitual residence, place of work, or of an alleged violation of data protection laws.

How Long Do We Keep Your Personal Data?

We will retain your Personal Data for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which we collected your Personal Data and any other permitted linked purpose and in compliance with our data retention policies. For example, we will retain and use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (such as if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

Generally, we retain usage data for a shorter period, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our Sites, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

If your Personal Data is used for more than one purpose, we will retain it until the purpose with the longest retention period expires. Our retention periods are also based on our organization’s needs and good practice.

Where Will My Personal Data Be Transferred To?

The Personal Data we collect may be transferred to and maintained on our servers or databases located outside your jurisdiction, where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your location. If you are located outside of the United States, please be advised that we process and store Personal Data in the United States.

Personal Data may be transferred to the United States and to service providers in countries outside the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, and may be stored and processed manually and electronically through global systems and tools for the purposes outlined above.

For transfers of Personal Data from the EEA to other countries, Pew ensures that the European Standard Contractual Clauses 2021 cover the transfers unless an alternative mechanism for lawful transfers is applicable, including Binding Corporate Rules of the third parties importing the Personal Data (such as service providers).

Security

Pew uses generally accepted standards to protect the Personal Data submitted to us, both during transmission and once it is received. Pew has implemented and will maintain technical, administrative, and physical measures that are reasonably designed to protect your Personal Data against accidental, unlawful, or unauthorized destruction, loss, alteration, access, theft, or misuse.

Digital Advertising & Analytics

We may partner with ad networks and other ad serving providers (“Advertising Providers”) that serve ads on behalf of us and others on non-affiliated platforms. Some of those ads may be personalized, meaning that they are intended to be relevant to you based on information Advertising Providers collect about your use of the Site and other sites or apps over time, including information about relationships among different browsers and devices. This type of advertising is known as interest-based advertising.

Pew adheres to the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Principles in connection with this interest-based advertising activity. You may visit the DAA Webchoices tool at www.aboutads.info to learn more about this type of advertising and how to opt out of this advertising on websites by companies participating in the DAA self-regulatory program. You can also exercise choices regarding interest-based advertising on your mobile device by downloading the appropriate version of the DAA’s AppChoices tool at https://youradchoices.com/appchoices.

If you delete your cookies or use a different browser or mobile device, you may need to renew your opt-out choices exercised through the DAA Webchoices tool. Note that electing to opt out will not stop advertising from appearing in your browser or applications. It may make the ads you see less relevant to your interests.

We may also work with third parties that collect data about your use of the Site and other sites or apps over time for non-advertising purposes. Pew uses Google Analytics and other third-party services to improve the performance of the Site and for analytics and marketing purposes. For more information about how Google Analytics collects and uses data when you use our Site, visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners, and to opt out of Google Analytics, visit tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Additionally, your browser may offer tools to limit the use of cookies or to delete cookies; however, if you use these tools, our Site may not function as intended. For more information about cookies, see Pew’s Cookie Notice

Third-Party Links and Tools

The Site may provide links to third-party websites or apps. We do not control the privacy practices of those websites or apps, and they are not covered by this Privacy Policy. You should review the privacy policies of other websites or apps that you use to learn about their data practices.

The Site also includes integrated social media tools or “plug-ins,” such as social networking tools offered by third parties. If you use these tools to share personal information or you otherwise interact with these features on our Sites, those companies may collect Personal Data about you and may use and share such information in accordance with your account settings, including by sharing such information with the general public.

Your interactions with third-party companies and your use of their features are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide those features. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policies of any accounts you create and use.

Children

We do not knowingly collect any Personal Data from children under the age of thirteen (13) without parental consent. If we learn that a child under the age of thirteen (13) has provided us with Personal Data, we will delete it in accordance with applicable law.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may update this Policy to reflect changes to our information practices or when there are new legal requirements that need to be addressed. If we make any material changes, we will post the revised Policy to this page. We will also revise the “Effective Date” date above. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

This Policy does not address applicants applying for employment, which is covered in our Applicant Data Privacy Notice.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Policy or our practices, please contact us at [email protected].

Additionally, if you are a citizen of or located in a European Union member state, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, then you may also reach out directly to our: