Privacy Notice

The Global Council of Turk Communities and Heritage (GCTCH), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation based in Washington, DC, is committed to protecting your personal data. This notice explains what we collect when you use our website, why, who helps us process it, how long we keep it and how you can exercise your rights.

We collect as little as possible. The site runs no advertising and no analytics or tracking tools.

• Information you give us: your name, email address, organisation, subject and message when you use a contact or application form, and anything you write to us by email.
• Your email address, if you subscribe to our update emails, with the dates you subscribed, confirmed or unsubscribed.
• If you create a member account with “Sign in with Google”: your name, email address, Google account identifier and profile photo link, as shared by Google. The photo is shown only to you, on your account page, and is loaded from Google. We do not receive your Google password.
• If you fill in your profile in My Council: your first and last name and, only if you choose to give them, your country, city, profession or title, institution, areas of interest, a short biography, a phone number and a profile photo. The photo is resized in your browser before upload, which removes location and camera data embedded in the file; it is stored privately. We never ask for, and you should not enter, your ethnic origin, religion, political views or health.
• Your communication preferences — update emails, invitations to events and summits, and a preferred language for correspondence — each recorded separately with the date you changed it. Signing in, applying for membership or registering for an event never subscribes you to anything.
• If you apply for membership: your statement, any answers you give, and the status and outcome of the application. Creating an account is not membership; only an approved application is.
• Donation information (once online giving opens): your name, email address, amount and date. Card numbers and security codes are entered only on our payment provider’s secure page and never reach GCTCH.
• Technical information generated by your visit: our hosting provider’s servers automatically record standard request logs such as IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time of the request.

We do not accept identity documents, family trees or personal archival records through this website.

• When you complete a form on the site.
• When you email us at info@gctch.org.
• When you subscribe to our update emails.
• When you make a donation (once online giving opens).
• When you visit the site, through hosting logs and the cookies described below.

• To answer your enquiry, application or request and keep a record of our correspondence.
• To send update emails about new news, announcements and Library titles, only if you subscribed and confirmed your address.
• To run your account and, if you apply, to review your membership application. Staff may keep short, factual internal notes about your application or our correspondence; they are part of your data and included if you ask for a copy.
• To process donations and provide the receipts and acknowledgments required by U.S. law.
• To keep the website secure and working, for example to block spam and abuse.
• To translate the website into your language, only if you allow it (see “Cookies”).

We never sell your data, use it for advertising, or publish it.

We use a small number of service providers, each bound by its own privacy terms. Data may be processed in the United States.

Your data is stored with the providers above using encrypted connections and access limited to authorised GCTCH staff. It is never published for general access.

Form submissions and email correspondence are kept for up to 24 months after our last exchange with you, then deleted. Your account, profile, photo, preferences, membership records and related internal notes are kept while your account exists; you can correct them, download a copy or ask for deletion in My Council at any time, and they are deleted with the account. Inside GCTCH, only staff whose work requires it can see member records, after two-step verification, and access is logged. Donation records are kept for as long as U.S. tax law requires. Hosting logs are kept by our hosting provider for its standard retention period.

If you subscribe, we first send one email asking you to confirm your address; nothing else is sent until you confirm. After that we email you when we publish news, announcements or new Library titles — never advertising, and we never share the list.

Every update email contains a link to unsubscribe at once. When you unsubscribe we keep a record of your address and the date, only so that we do not email you again; write to info@gctch.org if you want that record deleted too.

Cookies are small text files a website stores in your browser. We use them only to remember your choices and, for staff, to keep the administration area signed in. When you first visit, we ask whether you accept optional cookies. “Essential only” keeps the site fully usable; “Accept all” also enables automatic translation by Google Translate, which may set its own cookies.

You can change your choice at any time with the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of every page.

You may ask to see the personal data we hold about you, correct it, or have it deleted, by writing to info@gctch.org. We will respond within 30 days.

You can also set your browser to refuse cookies or delete them; essential parts of the site will still work, but your preferences will not be remembered.

Our website links to other websites, such as the sources of record for library titles. This notice applies only to gctch.org; please read the privacy notices of other sites you visit.

We will update this notice when our practices change and show the date of the current version below. Changes do not apply retroactively.

Global Council of Turk Communities and Heritage, Somerset Place NW, Washington, DC 20011, USA · info@gctch.org · +1 202-933-3336.