Privacy policy

Last updated: May 16, 2025

Miracle Messages (“us,” “we,” or “our”) operates the Miracle Messages website, as well as any other mobile application, website, or service that links to this Privacy Policy (“Services”). We provide this Privacy Policy (the “Privacy Policy” or “Policy”) to explain how we collect, process, and disclose your personal information as part of operating our Services.

In addition to this Privacy Policy, we have established Terms and Conditions that set forth the general rules and policies governing your use of the Services. A copy of the Terms and Conditions can be found here. 

By using our Services, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Policy. Unless otherwise defined in this Policy, terms used in this Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Policy. This Policy may change periodically, so please check back from time to time for the most current version.

I. Information We May Collect 

We collect several types of information from and about users of our Services, which may include information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked with, directly or indirectly, a particular consumer or device (“Personal Information”). 

A.  Information You Give to Us

While using our Services, we may ask you to provide us with certain Personal Information that can be used to contact or identify you, or set up an account. Personal Information may include, but is not limited to:

  • Contact information, such as your email address, name, phone number, and postal address, 

  • Account information, such as your password and registration information,

  • Demographic information, such as your date of birth, gender, state, zip code, or other similar information you provide to us on any correspondence,

  • Payment and transaction information, such as details about your method of payment and billing address when you make a donation or when you otherwise provide your payment information to us, and information about your transactions with us, and

  • Correspondence you send to us, including when you choose to contact us, fill out our forms, or engage with our Services, such as when you fill out and submit a “Get Help” or “Referral” form on the Services, including family members’ names, family members’ age or date of birth,

  • Audio, visual, and electronic information, including via audio and video recordings used to provide our family reunification services,

  • Information via third party services, such as your third party service account information, name, and email address, if you use a third party service (such as Google) to register for an account. Your privacy settings on the third party service normally control what they share with us. Make sure you are comfortable with what they share by reviewing their privacy policies and, if necessary, modifying your privacy settings directly on the third party service. We do not store passwords you use to access third party services.

B. Information We Automatically Collect About You  

As you navigate through and interact with our Services, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns. We may use third party services, such as Google Analytics, that collect, monitor, and analyze information to increase our Services’ functionality. These third party service providers have their own privacy policies addressing how they use such information. 

The information we may collect automatically includes:

1. Log Data

When you access the Services by or through a mobile device, we may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser you use and other statistics.

2. Geolocation Data

We may use and store information about your location depending on the permissions you have set on your device. We use this information to provide certain features of our Services and to improve and customize our Services for you. You can enable or disable location services when you use our Services at any time through your mobile device settings.

3. Cookies

We may collect certain information through cookies and similar technologies (“Cookies”), when you use our Services, including your IP address, the date and time of your visit, and information about your browser or device. Cookies are files with a small amount of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are small text files that are stored by your browser when you visit a webpage. We use Cookies to collect information in order to improve our Services for you. We use the following types of Cookies: 

  • Necessary Cookies:  These cookies are essential to enable basic functions on the Services and make the Services usable. Once you close your browser, these Cookies disappear.

  • Functional Cookies:  These Cookies enable the Services to save information that has already been entered so that we can offer you more personalized functions. These Cookies collect information which generally cannot identify you and cannot track your movements on other websites. 

  • Performance Cookies:  These Cookies are used for collecting information about the use of our Services, including the number of unique visitors to our website, the number of views for a webpage, the amount of time a user spends on a webpage, and other website statistics. These Cookies are used only to improve the performance of the website and the user experience. For example, we use Google Analytics to collect information regarding your use of the Services. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit the website and application, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they visit prior to or after coming to this site. The data collected through these tools is not tied to any personally identifiable information about you. The collected information is aggregated and made anonymous. 

Most browsers are set up to accept Cookies, but you can instruct your browser to refuse all Cookies or to indicate when a Cookie is being sent (except those we need to use to provide the Services properly, such as for performance or security-related reasons). You can manage or disable cookies at any time by adjusting your browser settings. Each browser is different; therefore, please refer to the settings menu of your browser for instructions on how to change your Cookie preferences. The ‘Help’ feature on most browsers provides information on how to accept Cookies, disable Cookies or notify you when receiving a new Cookie. 

To know more about data collected by Google, visit https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/. You may prevent the use of Google Analytics by disabling Cookies as described above. You may also prevent Google from recording the data generated by the Cookie and pertaining to your use of our Services (including your IP address), or processing these data, by downloading and installing the following browser plug-in available through Google at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

If you do not accept Cookies, you may not be able to use some features of our Services.

4. Do Not Track Disclosure

We support Do Not Track (“DNT”). DNT is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked. You can enable or disable DNT by visiting the ‘Preferences’ or ‘Settings’ page of your web browser.

II. How We Use and Share Your Personal Information

We may use and disclose the Personal Information we collect for one or more of the following reasons: 

A. Consent

We use your Personal Information according to the consent you provided when your Personal Information was first collected. For example, we may ask for your Personal Information for the purpose of setting up an account, identifying and communicating with you, responding to your requests or inquiries, and improving our Services. Regardless of when you consent, you can change your mind at any time.

B. Provide Services

We use your Personal Information to provide our family reunification services that you requested. 

C. Communications

We may use your Personal Information to contact you with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email we send.

D. Compliance with Laws

We will disclose your Personal Information when and where we are required to do so by law or if we believe that such action is necessary to comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement or to protect the security or integrity of our Services.

III. To Whom We Disclose Your Personal Information

We may share or disclose the Personal Information we collect with or to the following categories of third parties: 

A. Partner Organizations 

We may share Personal Information with partner organizations to assist in providing our Services to you. In those instances, we only share your Personal Information for the express and sole purpose of performing our reunification services.

B. Vendors and Service Providers

We may also share your Personal Information with third party companies and individuals, including volunteers, to facilitate our service, to provide the Services on our behalf, and/or to assist us in analyzing how our Services are used. These service providers include our case worker volunteers who collect your Personal Information on our behalf and have access to the audio and video recordings. They also include our volunteers who use your Personal Information to help locate family and loved ones, deliver messages, and reunite families (“Digital Detectives”). These Digital Detectives use this Personal Information pursuant to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

These third parties have access to your Personal Information only to perform specific tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use your information for any other purpose.

We also work with third-party payment services for payment processing and fulfillment of credit card transactions. The information you provide to these payment services may be subject to their applicable privacy policy rather than this Privacy Policy.

C. Social Media Services

As part of providing our services, we may post your Personal Information on social media websites such as Facebook or YouTube. However, Miracle Messages will only upload such Personal Information for the express and sole purpose of performing our reunification services.

D. Business Transfers

In the event that Miracle Messages, or substantially all of its assets, are acquired by one or more third parties as a result of an acquisition, merger, sale, reorganization, consolidation, liquidation, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy, Personal Information may be one of the transferred assets.

E. Law Enforcement 

We may disclose your information to comply with applicable laws, including to respond to law enforcement; to protect and defend ourselves or others; and to stop any activity that we consider illegal, unethical, or legally actionable.

IV. How Long We Retain Personal Information

We maintain information you submit to us for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out above and in accordance with applicable laws, considering criteria such as the duration of our relationship with you, any legal requirements to retain your information, and the sensitivity of the relevant information.

V. Security

The security of your Personal Information is important to us, and we strive to implement and maintain reasonable, commercially acceptable security procedures, and practices appropriate to the nature of the information we store, in order to protect it from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification or disclosure.

However, please be aware that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and we are unable to guarantee the absolute security of the Personal Information we have collected from you. Please note that information collected by third parties may not have the same security protections as information you submit to us, and we are not responsible for protecting the security of such information.

VI. Children’s Privacy

Our Services do not collect Personal Information for anyone under the age of 13 (“Child” or “Children”).

We do not knowingly collect any information from Children. If you are a parent or guardian and you learn that your Child has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us. 

VII. Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Policy is effective as of May 16, 2025, and will remain in effect except with respect to any changes in its provisions in the future, which will be in effect immediately after being posted on this page.

We reserve the right to update or change our Policy at any time, and you should check this Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Services after we post any modifications to the Policy on this page will constitute your acknowledgment of the modifications and your consent to abide and be bound by the modified Policy.

If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you either through the email address you have provided us or by placing a prominent notice on our website.

VIII. Your Data Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, delete, or correct your Personal Information. Please contact us by emailing hello@miraclemessages.org if you would like to request such rights.

IX. International Users

Our Services are designed for and targeted to United States audiences and are governed by and operated in accordance with United States law, which may not be equivalent to the laws in your country of residence.  We make no representation that our Services are operated in accordance with the laws or regulations of any other nations.  By using our Services and providing us with information, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to and stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction and, to the extent you are a resident of a country other than the United States, that you consent to the transfer of such data to the United States for processing by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

X. Contact information

If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact us at hello@miraclemessages.org.