Privacy Policy

Below are The National Interest’s practices with regard to collecting and using your “personally identifiable information” online and the steps we take to safeguard it. The term “personally identifiable information” means information that identifies a particular individual, such as the individual’s name, postal address, e-mail address, credit card number, and telephone number. Personally identifiable information is sometimes referred to in this Privacy Policy as “personal information.”

Information We Collect

A. Personally Identifiable Information

If you choose to give us your name, e-mail address, postal address, phone number, organization, or any other identifying information, unless such information is provided in the course of subscribing to The National Interest, it will be used only to provide you with products or services you have requested.

We do not collect personally identifiable information from our visitors other than what is supplied to us on a voluntary basis.

We may retain the email addresses of those who send us email messages, submit articles for publication, and who subscribe to our email newsletter(s).

B. Aggregate Information and Cookies

The National Interest website collects some nonpersonal information about you, so it may not be readily apparent to you that it is being collected. 

Information Collected via Our Website

When you visit nationalinterest.org, your IP address is collected. An IP address is often associated with the place from which you enter the Internet like your ISP (Internet service provider), your company, or your university. This information is not personally identifiable and we do not combine this type of information with personally identifiable information.

When the website automatically recognizes your IP address, it may establish a cookie to identify you when you return to the site. This data is used for statistical purposes so that we may understand the way visitors use the site and to provide targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe might be of interest to you.

If you do not want to accept cookies on your computer, you can adjust your settings to avoid them.

You have the right to opt out of interest-based advertising by interacting directly with the third parties that conduct tracking through our site. Information about ad-serving companies and the options available to limit their data collection is available through organizations such as the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, and the European Interactive Digital Advertising Initiative.

Opting out of advertising network services does not mean that you will not receive advertising while using our website or social media, nor will it prevent the receipt of interest-based advertising from other companies that do not participate in these programs. However, it will exclude you from interest-based advertising conducted through participating networks, as provided by their policies and choice mechanisms. Deleting your cookies might also delete your opt-out preferences.

Information Collected via Our Newsletters

When you sign up to receive one of our newsletters, we will automatically collect information about which emails you open and the links you engage with.

Information Collected via Social Media

When you follow or interact with any of our social media accounts from your own social media account, we will automatically see your username and have access to any information you have publicly posted to your social media account.

How We Use Your Information

A. Personally Identifiable Information:

The email addresses we retain will be used for the purposes for which they were supplied by you (which can include, but are not limited to, newsletter subscriptions, online registration and access, or to clarify your purchasing instructions). This information is never shared with other organizations. 

We may use the information provided by you to: 

  1. Contact you in order to comply with any legal requirements
  2. Advise you of any material changes or additions to our service
  3. Advise you of account status
  4. Inform you of additional products or services
  5. Inform you of events that might be of interest to you

We will not sell, rent or willfully disclose any personally identifiable information obtained through the site or newsletter subscriptions to an outside party.

Instructions for unsubscribing to our newsletters are included in every email.

B. Aggregate Information

The National Interest relies on various partners to provide analytics, advertising, email and distribution services. We may provide statistical usage data in the aggregate – not information about you personally – about how visitors use the site to our partners.

Our advertising and email vendors are obligated by contract to use the information that we share only for the purpose of providing the contracted services.

We rely on Google to provide analytics services. Google collects your data and interprets it for us. You can read about how Google uses your information here.

We may share the analytics we gain from Google with experts in site optimization and technical integration.

We also rely on several partners to provide advertising services. They include:

We rely on MailChimp to provide email services. You can read their privacy policy here.

We rely on various social media companies for distribution of our content. You can find those companies’ privacy policies on their websites.

C. Exceptions to Usual Policy

Notwithstanding the above policies, we reserve the right to disclose your personal information to appropriate third parties if we are required to do so by law or we believe that such action is necessary:

The site contains links to other sites, including those produced by other organizations. They may also collect personally identifiable information directly from you. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or contents of our advertisers, sponsors or other sites or businesses to which we provide hyperlinks or access. Please visit the sites of these businesses to review their privacy policies.

Data Security

We have in place physical, electronic and managerial procedures to protect the information we collect online. However, as effective as these measures are, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our database, nor can we guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.

Privacy of Children on our Website

Our website is not intended for use by children under the age of 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 18. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected information from anyone younger than the age of 13, we will delete that information.

Users in California

Residents of California have the right to request information regarding companies to whom the company has disclosed certain categories of personal information during the preceding year for the companies’ direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please email [email protected] or write to us at 1025 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 709, Washington, DC 20036.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides California residents with rights to receive certain disclosures regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of “personal information,” as well as rights to know or access, correct, delete, and limit disclosure of personal information. The CCPA defines “personal information” as “information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.” Certain information we collect may be exempt from the CCPA because it is considered public information (i.e., it is made available by a government entity) or covered by a specific federal privacy law, such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

You have the right to be free from discrimination based on your exercise of your CCPA rights. To the extent that we collect personal information that is subject to the CCPA, that information, our practices, and your rights are described below.

Right to Information Regarding Categories of Personal Information Collected, Sold, Shared, and Disclosed

You have the right to receive notice of the categories of personal information we collect, and the purposes for which we use personal information. You also have the right to know about the sources of the personal information; whether we disclose, sell, or share that information to service providers or third parties, respectively; and the criteria we use to determine the retention period for such information. The categories we list below to describe personal information are those enumerated in the CCPA. The ilst also summarizes the categories of “sensitive” personal information that we collect, the purposes for which such information is used, and whether we sell or share such information.

Entities to whom we disclose information for business purposes are service providers, which are companies that we engage to conduct activities on our behalf. Service providers are restricted from using personal information for any purpose that is not related to our engagement. The categories of service providers with whom we share information and the services they provide are described above in the section titled “How We Share Your Information.”

Entities to whom we “sell” or with whom we “share” information are third parties. Under the CCPA, a business “sells” personal information when it discloses it to a company for monetary or other benefit. A company may be considered a third party either because the purpose for its sharing of personal information is not for an enumerated business purpose under California law, or because its contract does not restrict it from using personal information for other purposes. A business “shares” personal information when it discloses personal information to a company for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising.

We collect this personal information from the sources described in the Information We Collect section above for the purposes described in the How We Use Your Information section above:

We do not collect: your medical or health information; information about your physiological, biological, or behavioral characteristics; or your precise geolocation (e.g., GPS coordinates).

Personal information may be disclosed in additional, more limited circumstances, as described in How We Use Your Information above.

We determine the retention period for each of the categories of personal information listed above based on:

  1. The length of time we need to retain the information to achieve the business or commercial purpose for which it was obtained
  2. Any legal or regulatory requirements applicable to such information
  3. Internal operational needs
  4. Any need for the information based on any actual or anticipated investigation or litigation.

Right to Know, Request Access, Correction, or Deletion

You have the right to request access to personal information collected about you and information regarding the source of that information, the purposes for which we collect it, and the third parties and service providers with whom we sell, share, or disclose it. You also have the right to request in certain circumstances that we correct personal information that we have collected about you and to delete personal information that we have collected directly from you. You may submit such a request as described below. To protect our customers’ personal information, we will verify your identity before we act on your request.

Right to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing of Personal Information to Third Parties

You have the right to opt out of any sale or sharing of your personally identifiable information to third parties. To exercise this right, please email us at [email protected]. Please note that your right to opt out does not apply to our sharing of personal information with service providers, who are parties we engage to perform a function on our behalf and are contractually obligated to use the personal information only for that function.

Right to Limit the Use of Your Sensitive Personal Information

You have the right to limit our use of your sensitive personal information if we use such information to infer characteristics about you. Your right to limit our use of such information is subject to exception.

How to Submit a Request

You may submit a request to exercise your rights by emailing [email protected].

If you are a resident of California, Colorado, or Connecticut, you may, under certain circumstances, authorize another individual or a business, called an authorized agent, to make requests on your behalf. (Authorized agents in California must be registered with the California Secretary of State.)

We may have a reason under the law why we do not have to comply with your request, or why we may comply with it in a more limited way than you anticipated. If we do, we will explain that to you in our response.

In order to process your request to access, correct, limit the use of, or delete personally identifiable information, we will verify your request by asking you to provide personal identifiers, such as your name, contact address, and email address, which we can match against information we may have collected from you previously or to confirm your request using the email or telephone account stated in the request.

We will not use personal information we collect in connection with verifying or responding to your request for any purpose other than responding to your request.

Users in Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia

Residents of the states of Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia have the following rights

Residents of these states can exercise their rights by contacting us using one of the methods listed above. Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Virginia have the right to appeal a denial of their request by contacting us as described in the notice of denial.

Special Information for Nevada Residents

Residents of the State of Nevada have the right to opt out of the sale of certain pieces of their information to other companies that will sell or license their information to others. If you are a Nevada resident and would like to make such a request, please email [email protected].

Users Outside the United States

If you use our Services outside the United States, you understand that we collect, process, and store your information in the United States. The laws in the United States regarding personal information may be different from the laws of your jurisdiction. Any such transfers will comply with safeguards as required by relevant law.

Users in the EEA, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom

We process personal data on the following legal bases: 

  1. With your consent
  2. As necessary to perform our agreement to provide services
  3. As necessary for our legitimate interests in providing our services where those interests do not override your fundamental rights and freedom related to data privacy

Personal information we collect may be transferred to, and stored and processed in, the United States or any other country in which we or our affiliates or subcontractors maintain facilities, as described above.

Users who reside in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom have the right to lodge a complaint about our data-collection and processing actions with the supervisory authority concerned. Contact details for data protection authorities are available here.

If you are a resident of the EEA, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom, you are entitled to certain rights. In order to verify your identity, we may require you to provide us with personal information prior to accessing any records containing information about you. These rights include the ability to do the following:

To submit a request to exercise your rights, please contact us at [email protected]. We may have a reason under the law why we do not have to respond to your request, or why we respond to it in a more limited way than you anticipated. If we do, we will explain that to you in our response.

Disclaimer

This Privacy Policy may be changed at any time at our discretion and without notice. You should review this page regularly to determine whether there have been material changes.

How Can I Review My Personally Identifiable Information?

Please contact us if at any time you wish to review your personally identifiable information or if you have comments or questions:

  1. Email us at [email protected]
  2. Call us at 202-887-1000
  3. Send us ground mail at:

The National Interest

1025 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 709

Washington, DC 20036

This privacy policy was last updated effective April 17, 2025.