Privacy Statement for www.amstat.org

NB: This draft is in review and is NOT yet official privacy policy for ASA. It was developed using www.truste.org and is being modified by review with the ASA Committee on Privacy & Confidentiality and the ASA Staff.

The American Statistical Association (ASA) has a strong commitment to privacy, balanced by a recognition that we are a public association. This statement discloses policies and procedures concerning information gathering and dissemination practices for this website: www.amstat.org. This site contains links to other sites. www.amstat.org is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites.

User Information
Security
Choice/Opt-Out
Contacting Us
Right to Change Privacy Statement
Cookie Information
Possible Future Privacy Policies

User Information

Users of this web site may differ in their access or needs. We recommend that you read this policy in its entirety to understand your and our responsibilities. We use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer our Web site.

The information in this statement is summarized into two broad headings--customer information and member information. Members who place orders should also read the customer information section. Our site uses cookies when we need to keep track from one screen to another, such as after you log in to Members Only using a password or when you use a shopping cart. See below for more information on cookies.

Customer Information

Our site uses an order form for customers to request information, products, and services. We collect visitor's contact information (like their name and email address) and financial information (like their account or credit card numbers). Financial information that is collected is used to bill the user for products and services. Contact information from the order form is used to send orders, information about our association, and promotional material from some of our partners to our customers. This contact information is also used to get in touch with the customer when necessary. Users may opt-out of receiving future mailings; see the choice/opt-out section below.

Member Information

Member's contact information is made available through the Member Directory. Member's contact information is shared with other organizations that promote statistics or professional development of statisticians. Members may opt-out of receiving future mailings or listing in the Member Directory; see the choice/opt-out section below.

Security

This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Member personal information is behind a firewall, modifiable by each member only by password access through secure forms pages. Member Directory information is not accessible by search engines that hunt for HTML pages.

Choice/Opt-Out

Our site provides users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us and our partners at the point where we request information about the visitor.

This site gives users the following options for removing their information from our database to not receive future communications or to no longer receive our service.

Members can visit the following URL: https://www.amstat.org/MembersOnly
Members and customers can send mail to the following postal address:
WebMaster, American Statistical Association, 1429 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314-3402, USA

Contacting the Web Site

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this Web site, you can contact

WebMaster

American Statistical Association

1429 Duke St.

Alexandria, VA 22314-3402, USA

888-231-3473

webmaster@amstat.org

Right to Change Privacy Statement

www.amstat.org reserves the right to change the policies set forth in this statement with one week advance notice posted on this page.

Cookie Information

The American Statistical Association uses cookies on this website, www.amstat.org, when we need to keep track from one screen to another, such as when you log in to Members Only using a password or when you use a shopping cart. A "magic cookie" is a datum sent by our web server to your web browser, stored in RAM while your browser is in use, or in a file called something like "cookies" on your machine. Cookies helps keep track of your web session with www.amstat.org.

Cookies store information that the web site uses. Some of this information (e.g., last visited web site, your IP address, the browser and version you use) are available to ANY website you visit, regardless of your security settings. This information is built into the Internet and its communication methods and protocols. You cannot stop this information from going out. Other information is gathered by user input, typically by forms. In other words, a cookie will not know your home phone number unless you give that information to a form or other input device on a website.

Some sites are now using cookies to differentiate between repeat users and new users, rather than going by general "hit" statistics, which are not very specific. In this way, a Web site administrator can form a clearer picture of how the site is used. Cookies cannot access any other file on your computer. Cookies created by one site will only work with that specific site. Site A, for example, cannot read cookies generated by Site B and then use that information for purposes it was not originally intended for.

It is the express policy of www.amstat.org that data generated by cookies and related databases will be used only in aggregate form for the purpose of improving the site and site-related services for users. Information from individual cookies will only be accessible to website administrators within the ASA office. The aggregated data compiled via cookies and related databases is considered confidential and will not be provided to entities outside of the organization under any circumstances. Our cookies crumble after 24 hours.

You can manage cookies if you Edit your browser Preferences (check the Advanced features). You can also periodically remove the cookies file on your machine. However, if you disallow cookies, you may disable access to advanced functionality on our website (members: see next paragraph). For more information on cookies, see your browser help or visit other information sources such as the EPIC Cookies Page or Cookie Central. See also the list of cookies pages at Texas Tech University.

ASA members: Cookies are NOT used to verify your authority to access the Members Only area of our website. However, they ARE used once the authorization has been verified to allow you access to each of page in Members Only, and access to secure committee or other official pages where you serve as an officer. In other words, your password is not contained in a cookie, but your authority level is. Your authority to view each page in the member's area is verified at the time you access that page. While you can access the Members Only area of our website without cookies, the quality of your session may be reduced if they are prohibited.

Possible Future Privacy Policies

The policies below are in development, pending use of this web site for other activities that might affect privacy. If you have any comments, please feel free to share them with webmaster@amstat.org.

Surveys

Our online surveys may ask visitors for contact information (like their email address) and demographic information (like their zip code, age, or income level). The data is kept confidential and is not provided to any third party. If the survey is at the request of a third party who will receive the information, the survey will prominently identify the name and link to their privacy policy. We may use contact data from our surveys to send the user information about our association. Users may opt-out of receiving future mailings; see the choice/opt-out section. Demographic and profile data may be collected at our site. This information is shared with advertisers on an aggregate basis.

Public Forums

This site may make chat rooms, listserves, forums, message boards, and/or news groups available to its members. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.