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Privacy Policy and Notice

    Last updated: 25 March 2020
    Effective date: 26 March 2020

    Association of Professional Genealogists (collectively, “APG”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information that may be collected. This privacy policy and notice (“Privacy Policy”) describes how APG collects, uses, and shares your personal information when you use the Website (https://www.apgen.org and our other domains) (the “Website”) and use the membership and other services provided by APG, including services provided through the Website (collectively, the “Services”), as well as your choices in connection with such use.

    INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT

    Through your use of the Services, APG may collect personal information, which is information that identifies you as an individual, relates to you as an identifiable individual, or that, along with other information, could identify you. APG collects the following types of personal information:

    Information you provide to us:

    APG collects personal information from you when you use the Services. APG does not require you to provide any personal information in order to navigate the Website. We collect information from you when you:

    Memberships and Purchases: In order to use the Website and/or the Services, you would need to provide account information, including contact information, such as your email address, password, and the country or region you live in. If you join APG, we will need your payment information. If you purchase any product on the Website, we will need your payment information, your first and last name, and physical address. We use Stripe and PayPal, two third-party providers, to process credit card information and purchase transactions, and your personal data may be provided to Stripe and PayPal with regard to those transactions.

    We need this information in order to provide you with the Services. If you do not provide this information, we would not be able to provide the Services to you.

    Interact with the Website or Services: When you access or use the Website and Services, including participation in forums, groups, webinars, registration for events, etc., or send us any feedback, questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, or interact with us in any other way, you provide us with personal information such as your name, email address, social media username, and IP address.

    Information provided through feedback, surveys, suggestions, etc., without the parts that identify you is considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. We may use and share such information on an anonymous and aggregated basis with third parties.

    Information we get from third parties:

    If you make a purchase through PayPal or have signed up previously for a membership through Paypal, we will also collect information such as the email address associated with your PayPal account.

    Information collected automatically:

    We may automatically collect the following types of information as you use our Services:

    • Usage Information: which pages on the Website you access, the frequency of access, what you click on while on the Website and when you accessed the Website.
    • Location Information: information about your location, which may be determined through your IP address, GPS and other sensors that may reveal information on nearby devices, Wi-Fi access points, and cell towers.
    • Device Information: information about the device you are using, such as hardware model, operating system, application version number, browser, and IP addresses.
    • Mobile Device Information: mobile network information, such as the unique device identifier assigned to that device, mobile carrier, operating system, telephone number, and other device attributes.
    • Social Media Widgets: The Website includes social media features, such as the Facebook “Like” button, and other widgets, such as the “Share” button or interactive mini-programs provided by third parties. These third parties collect information about you when you use the Website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. You can control your interactions with these widgets through the relevant social media network.
    • Google Analytics: APG uses a tool called “Google Analytics” to collect some information we listed above about your use of the Website and Services. We use the information we get from Google Analytics to improve the Website and Services. In order to collect this information, Google Analytics may set cookies on your browser or mobile device, or read cookies that are already there [see “Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies” – click]. Google Analytics may also receive information about you from apps you have downloaded that partner with Google. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the Website or use of Services to another application which partners with Google is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. Please review those and see http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/ for information about how Google uses the information provided to Google Analytics and how you can control the information provided to Google. To prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics, you can download the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on for Google Analytics which can be found here https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.
    • Ecwid: We use a third-party provider called Ecwid, Inc. to run our online store. When you make a purchase through the Website and online store, you will need to provide additional information to Ecwid, such as credit card information, your shipping address, and your billing address. We will also share certain user information, such as your name and email address, with Ecwid to facilitate the purchase process. To learn more about Ecwid and how it stores and uses this data please view Ecwid’s privacy policy here: www.ecwid.com/privacy-policy.
    • Stripe and PayPal: We use third-party payment processors Stripe and PayPal to process payments made to us. In connection with the processing of such payments, we do not retain any personally identifiable information or any financial information such as credit card numbers. Rather, all such information is provided directly to Stripe or PayPal, whose use of your personal information is governed by their privacy policies, which may be viewed at https://stripe.com/us/privacy and https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.
    • Hover and SendGrid: APG uses Hover and SendGrid to facilitate our email communications. As such, your information may be collected by Hover and SendGrid when you receive and send emails to APG. Hover’s privacy policy can be viewed at https://www.hover.com/privacy and you can view SendGrid’s privacy policies here: https://sendgrid.com/policies/privacy/.
    • Vimeo: APG’s website uses features provided by the Vimeo video portal. If you visit one of our pages featuring a Vimeo plugin, a connection to the Vimeo servers is established. Here the Vimeo server is informed about which of our pages you have visited. In addition, Vimeo will receive your IP address. This also applies if you are not logged in to Vimeo when you visit our website or do not have a Vimeo account. The information is transmitted to a Vimeo server in the US, where it is stored. If you are logged in to your Vimeo account, Vimeo allows you to associate your browsing behavior directly with your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your Vimeo account. For more information on how to handle user data, please refer to the Vimeo Privacy Policy at https://vimeo.com/privacy and https://vimeo.com/cookie_policy.

    “Cookies” and Other Tracking Technologies

    “Cookies” are small pieces of information that are stored by your web browser software on your computer’s hard drive or temporarily in your computer’s memory, or on your mobile phone or other device when you visit a website. We or our third-party providers place and store Internet cookies on your hard drive or device. Cookies can save any of the types of information noted above. Cookies enable us to personalize your viewing experience. When you revisit the Website, we can recognize you by the cookie and customize your experience at Website accordingly. For example, we use cookies to recognize your access privileges to the Website, track Website usage and traffic patterns, identify you and keep track of your preferences, prevent fraudulent activity or improve Website security, assess the performance of the Website, add advertisements for goods or services of interest, and estimate the Website’s audience size.

    You can find out more about the cookies we use from each of the categories in the table below.

    Category: Strictly Necessary
    Purpose: Security
    Some cookies help us detect, prevent, and mitigate malicious and fraudulent activities on the Website and Services. Security cookies also support and enable other security features.

    Category: Functional
    Purpose: Analytics and Research
    We use some cookies to collect information about how people are using the Website and Services. For example, these cookies allow us to know which pages are visited the most often, our site’s page load times and page response times. Overall, these cookies provide us with analytical information about how the Website and Services are performing and how we can improve them.

    Category: Functional
    Purpose: Preferences and Settings
    Your preferences may be stored in our cookies so you do not have to reset them every time you visit the Website or Services. These cookies allow APG to remember the choices you make to tailor the Website and provide enhanced features and content to you. For example, these cookies can be used to remember your user name.

    Category: Functional
    Purpose: Social Media Plugins
    In order to enhance your internet experience and to make the sharing of content easier, some of the pages on the Website contain tools or applications that are linked to third party social media service providers such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google. Through these tools or applications the social media service provider may set its own cookies on your device. We do not control these cookies and you should check the social media service provider’s website for further details about how they use cookies.

    Category: Advertising
    Purpose: Advertising
    These cookies are used to deliver advertisements that are more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They remember that you have visited a website and this information may be shared with other organizations such as advertisers. This means after you are done using our Website or Services you may see some advertisements about our Services elsewhere on the Internet.

    Emails we send contain a bit of code known as a “web beacon”. This code allows us to understand the time and date when you have opened an email. If you wish to disable our web beacons, you should do so by turning images “off” in your email client (e.g., Outlook, Gmail). Please see your email client for more information.

    To learn how you can control information collected about you using cookies and other technologies see choices about your information.

    HOW WE USE INFORMATION

    We use your personal information to provide the Website and Services to you, to improve our Website and Services, and to protect our legal rights. We limit the collection of personal information to that which is relevant for these purposes. We will not store, access, transmit, retain or otherwise use personal information in any way that is incompatible with the purposes for which it has been collected or stored as described in this Privacy Policy without your consent. We use the personal information we collect in the following ways:

    We process your information for the following purposes as necessary to provide the Website and Services to you and perform any contract with you:

    • Facilitate your purchase: to facilitate your purchase of membership services or products.
    • Communicate with you: to communicate with you about the Website or Services (including the notifications that are part of our Services), to send you account updates or other communications regarding your account or to inform you of any changes to the Website or Services.
    • Provide Customer Support: to provide you support or other services you request. For example, we may need your information in order to provide technical support or answer questions about the Website or Services.
    • Post in Member Directory: to create and publicly post your information in the Member Directory.

    We process your information for the following purposes as part of our legitimate interest in the improvement and marketing of the Services, and in the security of the Website and Services. We apply appropriate safeguards to protect your information including as described here security, here choices about your information and here rights of residents in the EU:

    • Communicate about new features: We send you notifications about new features or information available on our Services or that we feel might be of interest to you. You can opt-out by emailing us at admin@apgen.org or clicking the Unsubscribe link in the email notifications you receive.
    • Promotions and giveaways: We send you emails about special promotions or giveaways that we feel might be of interest to you. You can opt-out by emailing us at admin@apgen.org or clicking the Unsubscribe link in the email notifications you receive.
    • To maintain and improve the Website and Services: We analyze how our users interact with the Website and services in order to maintain and improve the Website and Services. We also use information that we collect to diagnose any problems with the Website and Services.
    • Benchmarking: We aggregate your information in order to gain insights into the Services.
    • To create audience lists: We process and use your email information to create custom audience lists for our targeted marketing purposes on advertising platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Bing, and Pinterest, or to create lookalike audiences to target with marketing and advertising materials.

    In our processing of your information, we also share your personal information to defend our rights and the rights of others, to efficiently maintain our business, and to comply with the law as described in [how we share your information – click].

    HOW WE SHARE INFORMATION

    We share your information with our service providers, among our members and chapters (including providing a Membership Directory and sharing contact information with chapters to allow the chapters to communicate with and invite members to join the chapter), in connection with a corporate restructuring, to prevent harm, to comply with the law, for marketing and advertising purposes, and to protect our legal rights. The legal basis for this is our legitimate interest in providing our Website and Services, complying with the law, and protecting our rights and those of others. We apply appropriate safeguards for this sharing of your information including as described below and in security, choices about your information, and rights of residents in the EU.

    • Service Providers: We share information with service providers that help us perform Website functions and process your transactions.
    • To Prevent Harm: We may share information if we believe it is necessary in order to detect, investigate, prevent, or take action against illegal activities, fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the rights, property, or personal safety of any person.
    • To Protect Our Rights and As Required by Law: We will share information where we are legally required to do so, such as in response to court orders or legal process, to exercise our legal rights, to defend against legal claims or demands, or to comply with the requirements of any mandatory applicable law. We will also share information as necessary to enforce the terms of this Privacy Policy, the Membership Terms and Conditions, the Website Terms of Use, and any other terms that you have agreed to, including to protect the rights, property, or safety of APG, its users, or any other person, or the copyright-protected content of the Website and Services.
    • Marketing and Advertising our Services: We may share your email information with major advertising platform providers such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Bing, and Pinterest, to create custom audiences that may be used by us to engage in targeted marketing. On Facebook, the process works as follows. Other sites are similar. Our customer list is hashed locally on our browser and then sent to Facebook. There, it is matched against Facebook’s existing list of Facebook’s users’ hashed IDs and the matches are added to APGs Custom Audience. Hashing turns the data in APG’s membership list into short fingerprints that can’t be reversed. It happens before the data is sent to Facebook. After the Custom Audience is created by Facebook, the matched and unmatched hashes are deleted.

    With Your Consent: We will request your permission to use or share your personal information for a specific purpose that is not compatible with the purposes listed here. We will notify you and request consent before you provide the personal information or before the personal information you have already provided is shared for such purpose. With your consent, we may also share your quotes and reviews on our Services for promotional purposes. If we rely on your consent to use or share your information, your consent may be revoked at any time by contacting us at admin@apgen.org.

    SECURITY

    The security of your personal information is important to us. We maintain reasonable physical, technical, and administrative security measures to protect and limit access to your personal information. No method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage technology, however, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

    CHOICES ABOUT YOUR INFORMATION

    Access, correct, or delete your information: You may use your account to access or correct the information you provided to us and which is associated with your account by clicking the link in any APG email that says “Click here to update your info” or similar language. You can also request this, as well as request deletion of your information, by writing us at admin@apgen.org. Members and subscribers can also update their information by logging into their membership or other accounts on the Website at admin@apgen.org. Even if you terminate your account, keep in mind that deletion of your personal information by our third-party providers may not be immediate and that deleted personal information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time and as required by applicable laws and regulations. See: how long do we keep your information.

    In the event that we refuse a request under rights of access, we will provide the individual with a reason as to why. Individuals residing in the EU also have the rights described in [rights of residents in the EU – click].

    Advertising cookies: To opt out of interest-based advertising or to learn more about the use of this information by our service providers you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative website (http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp) or the Digital Advertising Alliance website (http://www.aboutads.info/choices/), or if you are in the EU, the EDAA (http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/). If you choose to opt out, we will place an “opt-out cookie” on your computer or device. The “opt-out cookie” is browser specific and device specific and only lasts until cookies are cleared from your browser or device. The opt-out cookie will not work for some cookies that are important to how the Websites and Services work (“essential cookies”). If the cookie is removed or deleted, if you upgrade your browser or if you visit us from a different computer or device, you will need to return to the applicable website to re-select your preferences.

    Cookies: If you would like to opt out of accepting cookies altogether, you can generally set your browser to not accept cookies or to notify you when you are sent a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it. Please note that certain functions of the Website or Services may not function properly if your web browser does not accept cookies. If you choose to opt out, we will place an “opt-out cookie” on your computer or device. The “opt-out cookie” is browser specific and device specific and only lasts until cookies are cleared from your browser or device. The opt-out cookie will not work for some cookies that are important to how the Websites and Services work (“essential cookies”). If the cookie is removed or deleted, if you upgrade your browser or if you visit us from a different computer, you will need to return and update your preferences.

    Google Analytics: See http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/ for information about how Google uses the information provided to Google Analytics and how you can control the information provided to Google. To prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics, you can download the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on for Google Analytics which can be found here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

    Google Maps: See Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service, which incorporates  Google’s Privacy Policy, for information about how Google uses the information provided to Google Maps and how you can control the information provided to Google.

    Promotional emails: To unsubscribe from promotional emails please click the unsubscribe link included in the footer of all of our emails. By unsubscribing, you will be removed from our email list and you will no longer receive any communications from us, including emails pertaining to the Services.

    Email tracking: To disable our web beacons you may turn images “off” in your email client (e.g., Outlook, Gmail).

    Advertising platforms: To edit your information and ad preferences on major marketing platforms, you will need to visit each platform. The following is a list of locations where this can be done:

    Facebook/Instagram:

    Twitter:

    Pinterest:

    Google:

    Bing:

    RIGHTS OF RESIDENTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU)

    If you use the Website or Services and reside in the EU, you are entitled by law to access, correct, amend, or delete personal information about you that we hold. A list of these rights is below. Please note that these rights are not absolute and certain exemptions apply. To exercise these rights please contact us at admin@apgen.org. For your protection, we may need to verify your identity before responding to your request, such as verifying that the email address from which you send the request matches your email address that we have on file. In the event that we refuse a request under rights of access, we will provide you a reason as to why.

    • The right to access: You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. This right has some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process. When making a request, please provide an accurate description of the data you want access to.
    • The right to rectification: You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
    • The right to erasure: You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances, including (i) when your personal information is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or processed or (ii) your information must be erased to comply with a legal obligation in EU Union or Member State law.
    • The right to restrict processing: You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances, including (i) when the accuracy of the information is brought into question or (ii) when we no longer need the information for purposes of the processing but you require such information for the establishment, exercise, or defense of a legal claim. See choices about your information for some ways you can restrict processing.
    • The right to object to processing: You have the right to object to processing if we are able to process your information because the process is in our legitimate interests. See choices about your information for some ways you can object to processing.
    • The right to data portability: This only applies to information you have given us. You have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us from one organization to another, or give it to you.
    • The right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. A list of Supervisory Authorities is available here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/bodies/authorities/index_en.htm.

    HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION

    We will retain your personal information until the later of (i) the information is no longer necessary to accomplish the purpose for which it was provided; or (ii) your account with APG is terminated.

    We retain your information for longer periods for specific purposes to the extent that we are obliged to do so in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and/or as necessary to protect our legal rights or for certain business requirements. For example, when we process your payments, we will retain this data for longer periods of time as required for tax or accounting purposes. More specifically, we would retain some data for longer periods of time for the following reasons:

    • Security, fraud, and abuse prevention: i.e. To protect you, other people, and us from fraud, abuse, and unauthorized access.
    • Financial recordkeeping: When you make a payment to us we are often required to retain this information for long period of time for purposes of accounting, dispute resolution, and compliance with tax, anti-money laundering, and other financial regulations.
    • Complying with legal or regulatory requirements: To meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request, as required to enforce our terms of service, including investigation of potential violations.
    • Direct communications with us: If you have directly communicated with us, through a support channel, feedback form, or a bug report, we may retain reasonable records of those communications.

    Even if you delete your account, keep in mind that the deletion by our third-party providers may not be immediate and that the deleted information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time. For any privacy or data-protection-related questions, please write to admin@apgen.org.

    CROSS BORDER TRANSFERS OF INFORMATION

    We process and store information on servers or databases, and use third party providers that process information, in the United States and other countries. Therefore, your information will be transferred to those locations.

    In certain situations, APG may be required to disclose personal information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including in order to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. For more information, please see [How we share information – click].

    We will provide an individual opt-out choice, or opt-in for sensitive data, before we share your data with third parties other than our agents or service providers, or before we use it for a purpose other than which it was originally collected or subsequently authorized. For more information about the choices you have regarding the collection and use of your information, see choices about your information.

    Transfers of information not from the EEA

    The laws in the United States may not be as protective of your privacy as those in your location. For example, United States law does not provide you with the right to access, modify, and delete personal information in all cases. Further, government entities in the United States may have certain rights to access your personal information. When transferring personal information to and processing personal information in the United States we will implement appropriate safeguards and process the personal information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. By using the Websites or Services, you agree to the transfer and processing of your personal information to the United States.

    CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

    The Website and Services are not intended for use by children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16 years. If we become aware that a child under 16 has provided us with personal information, we take steps to delete such personal information without undue delay. California users under the age of 18 may request the removal of their content or information publicly posted on the website by emailing us at the appropriate email address identified below.

    UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE

    We may update or modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the changes to this page and will indicate the date they go into effect. We encourage you to review our Privacy Policy to stay informed. If we make changes that materially affect your privacy rights, we will notify you of the changes by posting a prominent notice on the Website or using other methods that we select, such as sending you an email.

    “DO NOT TRACK”

    The Website is not currently configured to respond to Do Not Track signals sent by Internet browsers.

    CONTACT US

    Any questions or concerns about the interpretation or operation of this Privacy Policy or about what may or may not be done with regard to your information should be directed to:

    Association of Professional Genealogists
    PO Box 2369
    Poulsbo WA 98370
    USA
    admin@apgen.org