Last revised: September 5, 2025

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to our website. Outlined below is our policy for information collected through our website and for our email lists. This policy only applies to the website understandingwar.org, and not to any other website or service. If you do not agree with this policy, then you should not use the website.

If you have questions about this policy, we encourage you to email us at [email protected].

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Resale or disclosure of information to third parties

We do not share or disclose any personal information, including your name, address, or e-mail address, with other organizations. Only authorized ISW staff and our authorized agents have access to personally identifiable information provided by visitors to our site.

Collection of Non-Personally Identifiable Information

ISW’s web servers automatically capture non-personally identifiable information including domain name, IP address of the web page you used to enter the site, the pages you visit on the site, and the amount of time you spend on the site. However, you—the individual user—will remain anonymous. We may use and analyze the data captured to understand user trends and improve the site. Any non-personally identifiable information that we share with third parties will be in aggregate form only.

Browser information collected on our website

ISW uses our website logs and analytics to improve the website. We use third-party monitoring services such as Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to provide real-time reporting. This reporting includes page views, unique views, unique visitors, repeat visitors, frequency of visits, and peak-volume traffic periods, among other data points. We do not use these services to gather, request, record, require, collect or track any users’ personally identifiable information.

Additional browser and non-personally identifiable information collected through cookies may be used by third parties to target advertising on other sites based on your activity on the ISW website.

Cookies

We use cookies on our site to personalize the experience of our visitors and to support some necessary functions. A cookie is a small data file that websites write to your hard drive when you visit them. We may also use web bugs, clear gifs, and similar technologies that collect similar data to that collected by a cookie. A cookie file can contain information, including a user ID, that the site uses to track the pages you have visited.

You have choices with respect to cookies. By modifying your browser preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. Please note that if you reject some or all cookies, your experience at this site may not be complete. Additionally, if you do not allow cookies, you will not be able to take advantage of personalized content delivery offered by us.

Other Websites and Links

Our website may contain links to other websites. If you choose to use any such links, you will be leaving our website and going to a new web site. Protection of your privacy at these linked sites will be governed by the privacy policy of those sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices at such sites or the use of any information that you provide on those sites.

International Users

Our site is maintained in the United States of America. Irrespective of your domicile or place of business, by using this website you agree that we may collect, use and transfer your information as described in this policy.

Privacy of our e-mail lists

ISW maintains email lists to communicate with supporters, policy makers, the press and donors about our analysis, news and other updates. Individuals must request to join our mailing lists. We do not share the email addresses on our lists with anyone outside of ISW or our authorized agents. We configure our list server software to refuse to divulge the email addresses of our list subscribers to anyone but authorized ISW staff and agents.

In the event ISW hosts an event where sponsorships are available, we may share your email with the sponsor of that specific event for the limited purpose of contacting you relating to that event, subject to you having the ability to opt out of such emails. Individuals who provide optional information may also receive materials in the mail and/or be contacted by telephone by authorized ISW representatives. Except as otherwise described in this policy, only ISW staff and our authorized agents have access to personally identifiable information provided by visitors to our site.

Privacy with Respect to Minors

We comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying FTC regulation establish United States federal law that protects the privacy of children using the Internet. We do not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under 13. Our site is not intended to solicit information of any kind from children under 13, and we have designed our site to block our knowing acceptance of information from children under 13 whenever age-related information is requested.

It is possible that by fraud or deception we may receive information pertaining to children under 13. If we are notified of this, as soon as we verify the notification, we will immediately obtain parental consent or otherwise delete the information from our servers. If you want to notify us of our receipt of information by children under 13, please do so by emailing us at: [email protected].

Information Security

We are committed to taking reasonable steps to help ensure the security of your information. To help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and help ensure the appropriate use of information, we use industry-standard encryption technologies when transferring and receiving financial data from our site. In addition, we have appropriate security measures in place in our physical and electronic facilities and managerial procedures to help protect against the loss or misuse of information that we have collected from you.

However, we cannot guarantee that communications between you and us or information stored on the ISW website or our servers will be completely free from unauthorized access by third parties such as hackers and your use of the websites demonstrates your acceptance of this risk.

Changes to this Policy

This policy may change. Your use of our website after these changes are posted constitutes your agreement to the policy changes.