The organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses respects individuals’ rights of privacy. For information about the organization’s worldwide Data Protection Policy, please click here.

The Data Protection Policy outlines how the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses handles personal data. In addition, specific guidelines applicable to this website have been adopted and set forth below.

This website is owned by Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. (“Watchtower”), a New York not-for-profit corporation that supports the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Bible education. Some of the servers that host the website are located in the United States of America.

Personal data submitted by you on the website is used solely for the purpose stated to you at the time of submission.

We do not give your personal data to anyone else unless it is necessary to do so in order to provide the service requested by you, we have made a full disclosure to you, or we have a good faith belief that disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to satisfy any applicable laws or regulations or in response to a request from law enforcement authorities or to detect and prevent fraud, security, or technical issues. By using this website, you consent to us disclosing your personal data to third parties for these purposes only. Any personal data you submit will not be sold, traded, or rented under any circumstances.

Third-Party Vendors. At times this website will contain links to the website of a third-party vendor we have retained to perform services on our behalf (for example, the filling out of online forms). You will know that you are on a third-party vendor’s website because it will have a different appearance and your browser’s address bar will change. When we select third-party vendors, and periodically thereafter, we inspect their privacy and data protection policies to ensure that they meet the same standards we use for our own policies. If you have questions about a third-party vendor’s policies, please see the policy listed on their website.

We take the security of your personal data very seriously. We protect your personal data during transit using encryption such as Transport Layer Security (TLS). We use computer systems with limited access housed in facilities using physical, electronic, and procedural security measures to protect the confidentiality and security of information transmitted to us.

The e-mail address that you supply when creating an account on this website will be used to contact you regarding your account. For example, if you forget your user name or password and request assistance with logging in, assistance will be provided by means of a message sent to the e-mail address entered in your user profile.

If you make a monetary donation online, we collect your name and contact information. To accept donations via credit card, we use accredited online payment processing services with world-class security and data privacy policies. We do not store or have access to your credit card information, bank account numbers, or other account data sent to those processing services. The donation recipient keeps records of the financial transactions for a minimum of ten years. This includes records of the date of the donation, amount donated, and method of donation. This will enable us to meet with accounting standards and respond to any questions from you that arise during that period. We will not contact you to request additional donations.

You may submit personal data (such as your name, postal address, and telephone number) for purposes other than donating or creating an account (such as to request a free Bible study). We collect, store, and use this information only for the purposes for which you submitted it and only as long as necessary.

We collect certain information by automated means when you visit our website. We collect this information through “cookies,” “web beacons,” and similar technologies. Use of the term cookie in this privacy policy is broad and includes similar technologies like “local storage.”

Cookies. Like most websites, when you visit this website a small amount of data known as a “cookie” may be stored on your mobile phone, tablet, or computer’s hard drive. There are various types of cookies which perform different functions and generally improve your experience on the website. We may use cookies to tell us whether you have visited the website before or to remember preferences that are chosen by you when using the website. For example, your chosen language may be stored in a cookie so that this language is selected when you return to the website. We do not use cookies for advertising.

The types of cookies used on this website can be classified into one of three categories:

1. Strictly Necessary Cookies​—These are essential in order to enable you to use certain features of the website, such as logging in or submitting forms on the website. Without these cookies, services you have asked for, such as making donations, cannot be provided. These also include cookies that allow us to provide a service explicitly requested by you during a browser session. These cookies don’t gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you have been on the Internet.

2. Functionality Cookies​—These are used to allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language, or region you are in) and provide enhanced features to improve your web experience.

3. Analytical Cookies​—These are used to collect information about how visitors use this website, for instance the number of visits or the average duration of a visit to this website. The information is only used to improve how this website works.

Some cookies are first-party cookies which are set by our website. Others are third-party cookies set by a different domain. We use only first-party cookies, except for the use of third-party cookies associated with Google reCAPTCHA. Google reCAPTCHA is used to distinguish human users from computers in order to prevent automated spam. Please see Google’s privacy policy at https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/.

Web Beacons. Pages of our website may contain small electronic files known as web beacons that allow us to record activity, such as when you visit a certain page. Web beacons are used to track usage of this website and monitor its performance.

Use of IP addresses. An IP address is a numeric code that identifies your computer on the internet. We use your IP address and browser type to help analyze usage patterns and diagnose problems on this website and to improve the service we offer to you.

Your Choice. Most browsers allow you to turn off cookies or to receive a warning before a cookie is stored on your device. Please refer to your browser instructions to learn about how to do this. Please note, however, that without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of all of our website features.

Scripting is used to improve the functionality of the site. Using scripting technology allows the site to return information more quickly to you. Scripting is never used by the site to install software on your computer or to collect unauthorized information from you.

Active scripting or JavaScript must be enabled in the browser for some portions of the site to work correctly. Most browsers allow this feature to be enabled or disabled for specific sites. Consult the browser help documentation to learn how to enable scripting for selected sites.

Your use of this website, including the downloading of any publications, videos, or audio programs, is provided free of charge. You are not required to open an account, make a donation, or take any action that requires providing personal data in order to benefit from the website. However, if you voluntarily decide to open an account, make a donation, request a free Bible study, or otherwise take any action that involves providing personal data, you consent to this Privacy and Cookies Policy; the storage of data on servers located in the United States of America; the collection, processing, transfer, and storage of your personal data by Watchtower and organizations that support Jehovah’s Witnesses in various countries as needed to process your requested action. The data collector will vary depending on the nature of your interaction with the web site. For example, if you make a donation to a legal entity in a particular country, then your name and contact information will be provided to that legal entity as identified to you during the donation process. As another example, if you request a Bible study, then your name and contact information will be provided to a branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses to fulfill your request.

If you fail to provide the required personal data to open an account, make a donation, or for any other benefit from the website that requires such personal data, we will be unable to fulfill your request.

If ever it proves necessary to change our Privacy and Cookies Policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect and how we use it.

To the extent required by law, you may have additional rights in relation to your personal data. This could include the right to access, correct or delete the personal data you have provided to us through this website. If this applies in your country, you will find contact information here. If your inquiry about your personal data relates to a donation, please contact the recipient of the gift identified to you during the donation process and included in your donation receipt.