Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected through WRRF websites and related digital services, including contact forms, volunteer registrations, event registrations, veteran and family assistance requests, research submissions, memorial submissions, donation systems, newsletters, surveys, digital applications, and related communications.

Depending on how you interact with WRRF, we may collect:

• name and contact information;
• organization or affiliation;
• veteran and military-service information;
• family and genealogical information;
• volunteer and event information;
• donation and transaction information;
• communications and correspondence;
• historical documents and photographs; and
• technical and website-usage information.

When users visit WRRF websites, WRRF and its service providers may automatically receive certain technical information, including IP address, browser type, operating system, device type, referring website, pages visited, date and time of access, approximate geographic region, interaction information, cookies, and diagnostic or security information.

A significant portion of WRRF's mission involves researching, preserving, organizing, and publishing historical information concerning veterans, military service, cemeteries, burial locations, and deceased individuals.

This information may originate from public records, governmental records, military records, cemetery records, archives, newspapers, obituaries, historical publications, genealogical resources, family submissions, community submissions, and WRRF research.

WRRF may use information to:

• carry out our charitable mission;
• identify and document veterans;
• create and maintain veteran memorials;
• conduct historical and genealogical research;
• assist with military-record corrections;
• assist veterans and families;
• provide burial and memorial benefit information;
• coordinate volunteer activities and events;
• process donations;
• respond to inquiries;
• maintain organizational records;
• secure and improve our systems; and
• comply with legal obligations.

WRRF follows a data-minimization approach. We seek to collect and retain only the information reasonably necessary to perform the applicable charitable, historical, administrative, or legal function.

Where personal information is no longer needed, WRRF may delete, destroy, anonymize, or reduce the information to aggregate statistics, subject to applicable legal, accounting, archival, and historical-preservation requirements.

The Veterans of Texas Legacy Project is intended to preserve and make discoverable historical information concerning veterans associated with Texas.

Veteran profiles may contain information from public records, historical documents, military records, cemetery records, family submissions, photographs, WRRF research, and other sources.

WRRF seeks to minimize its possession of personally identifiable information concerning living veterans.

When a living veteran provides military records, discharge documents, correction requests, or other sensitive records for assistance, WRRF may temporarily receive and use those records solely to perform the requested service.

WRRF does not maintain a permanent archive of faxed or submitted sensitive records belonging to living veterans solely because those records were used to provide assistance.

WRRF may occasionally receive sensitive information in connection with military-record research, family assistance, death and burial benefits, or other services.

Such information may include military discharge documents, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, financial information, medical information, benefit information, death certificates, identification documents, or similar records.

Users should not submit highly sensitive information unless specifically requested by WRRF through an appropriate method.

Death certificates and burial records may contain sensitive or legally restricted information. WRRF may use such records for verification, historical research, benefit assistance, burial documentation, or memorial purposes while limiting unnecessary publication of sensitive information.

WRRF may maintain internal research notes, source citations, correspondence, research logs, verification records, and database-history records. Internal research materials are not necessarily public records and may be withheld from public disclosure where appropriate.

WRRF does not permit minors to independently register for youth volunteer activities. Registration for participants under 18 is completed by a parent or legal guardian.

For routine youth volunteer activities, WRRF generally does not retain personally identifiable information concerning the minor after participation is recorded.

WRRF may retain limited information concerning a minor when a parent or legal guardian has authorized participation in a specific WRRF program, portal, memorial, research project, or other activity for which continuing information is reasonably necessary.

WRRF does not knowingly sell, commercially exploit, or use youth information for unrelated purposes.

Parents or legal guardians who believe WRRF has received information concerning a minor in error may contact WRRF to request review or correction.

WRRF may maintain donor names, contact information, contribution history, fund designations, donor preferences, and related records for accounting, tax, acknowledgment, stewardship, and compliance purposes.

WRRF does not sell donor lists or provide donor contact information to unrelated third parties for independent commercial marketing.

Volunteer information may be used to coordinate service opportunities, communicate event information, assign responsibilities, maintain participation records, provide recognition, support safety procedures, and document volunteer impact.

WRRF does not operate as a data broker and does not sell donor, volunteer, veteran, family, or supporter contact lists as part of its charitable operations.

WRRF may use third-party providers for website hosting, cloud storage, payment processing, email, forms, event registration, document management, communications, analytics, accounting, cybersecurity, database hosting, and other operational services.

These providers may process information on WRRF's behalf subject to their own agreements, security practices, and applicable law.

WRRF may disclose information when reasonably necessary to:

• provide a requested service;
• complete a transaction;
• coordinate a program or event;
• assist a veteran or family;
• work with an authorized service provider;
• comply with legal process;
• investigate fraud or security incidents;
• protect WRRF or others; or
• enforce WRRF policies and legal rights.

WRRF uses administrative, technical, and organizational measures intended to protect information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure.

No website, database, cloud service, email system, or electronic transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

WRRF retains information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, subject to legal, accounting, historical, archival, and operational requirements.

Historical information concerning deceased veterans, cemeteries, military service, and memorial records may be preserved indefinitely in furtherance of WRRF's historical and educational mission.

Sensitive records concerning living veterans that are temporarily received for record correction or assistance are generally deleted or securely destroyed after the requested service is completed and the resulting materials have been provided to the veteran, unless continued retention is legally required or specifically authorized.

For youth volunteers under 18, WRRF generally retains only aggregate participation information unless a parent or guardian has authorized participation in a program requiring limited continuing records.

Removing administrative contact information is different from removing accurate historical information.

WRRF may decline to remove lawfully obtained historical, archival, cemetery, military, public-record, or deceased-person information where continued preservation serves a legitimate historical, educational, legal, or preservation purpose.

WRRF may instead correct, annotate, restrict, or update information where appropriate.

Individuals and families may contact WRRF to request correction of inaccurate veteran, cemetery, family, or historical information. WRRF may request supporting documentation before making material changes.

Depending on the circumstances and applicable law, individuals may request that WRRF correct information, update communication preferences, stop certain communications, delete certain information, restrict certain uses, or review a privacy concern.

Not every request can necessarily be granted where retention is required for legal, historical, archival, accounting, fraud-prevention, or other legitimate purposes.

WRRF may request reasonable information to verify the identity or authority of a person making a privacy, correction, access, or deletion request.

A family relationship does not automatically establish legal authority to control every record concerning another individual. WRRF may request documentation establishing authority before releasing private information or acting on behalf of another living person.

WRRF websites and service providers may use cookies, analytics, local storage, or similar technologies to maintain website functionality, understand traffic, remember preferences, identify technical problems, improve usability, provide security, and prevent fraud.

WRRF may use analytics services to understand page views, referral sources, device characteristics, approximate location, browser information, session activity, and interaction patterns for website performance, security, usability, and outreach.

WRRF may link to governmental agencies, archives, cemeteries, genealogy resources, payment processors, social media platforms, and other third-party services.

WRRF is not responsible for the privacy, security, content, or data practices of independent third parties.

Donations and payments may be processed through third-party providers. WRRF generally receives transaction information necessary for accounting, acknowledgment, stewardship, fulfillment, and compliance rather than complete payment-card credentials.

Information submitted through third-party social-media platforms may be governed by both WRRF's practices and the policies of the applicable platform. Users should avoid posting highly sensitive information publicly through social media.

WRRF may use contact information to communicate regarding inquiries, donations, volunteer activities, events, programs, research requests, veteran or family matters, organizational news, fundraising, or other WRRF activities.

Users may request to discontinue nonessential promotional or fundraising communications.

WRRF is based in Texas and primarily operates within the United States. Individuals accessing the Site from outside the United States understand that information may be processed or stored in the United States or other locations used by WRRF's service providers.

Information lawfully available in public records may remain accessible through WRRF's historical resources. Removing information from a WRRF webpage does not necessarily remove it from the original governmental, archival, cemetery, or other source.

If you provide information about another living individual, you represent that you have a lawful and appropriate basis for providing it.

If WRRF undergoes a merger, restructuring, consolidation, transfer of programs, dissolution, or succession to another qualifying nonprofit organization, information may be transferred as part of that transition where permitted by law and consistent with WRRF's charitable mission.

WRRF may preserve or disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with lawful process, satisfy legal obligations, investigate fraud or cybersecurity incidents, prevent physical harm, protect veterans or families, protect WRRF systems, or defend legal rights.

WRRF may revise this Privacy Policy as its programs, technology, legal obligations, and data practices evolve. The current version will be posted with its effective or revision date.

This Privacy Policy should be read together with WRRF's Website Terms of Use. The Terms of Use govern access to and use of WRRF digital resources; this Privacy Policy describes WRRF's practices regarding personal information.

Questions, privacy requests, correction requests, concerns about youth information, or other inquiries concerning this Privacy Policy may be directed to WRRF.