APA has a strong commitment to providing excellent service to all of our customers and visitors of this website, including respecting your concerns about privacy. We understand that you may have questions about how this website collects and uses the information that you provide to us. We have prepared this statement to inform you of the privacy principles that govern this website which includes apanational.com; other APA sites included within APAnational.org such as APAworldwide.org, APAinsures, searchAPA.com, and others as they are created; and other sites listed in this privacy statement ("Statement").
This statement contains numerous general and technical details about the steps we take to respect your privacy concerns. We have organized the Statement by major processes and areas so that you can quickly link to the information of most interest to you.
Meeting your needs and expectations are at the core of everything we do - including protecting your privacy.
If after reviewing this Statement you have any questions or privacy concerns please send an email:
Topics in this Statement include:
Browsing
Information We Collect
Creating a Personal Account
APA Account Communications and Use of Account Information
Registering Your APA Account
Securing the Transmission and Storage of Information
Member Benefit Services
Disclosure of Information to Third Parties
Cookies
Pixel Tags
E-Mails about Special Offers and Promotions and Opt-Out
Chapter Sites
Contests
Other Sites
Legal Issues
Other APA Sites within APAnational.org
APA Internet Privacy Statement Changes
Browsing
This website does not collect personally identifiable information from your computer when you browse this website and request pages from our servers. This means that, unless you voluntarily and knowingly provide us with personally identifiable information, we will not know your name, your e-mail address, or any other personally identifiable information. When you request a page from our site, our servers log the information provided in the HTTP request header including the IP number, the time of the request, the URL of your request and other information that is provided in the HTTP header. We collect the HTTP request header information in order to make our website function correctly and provide you the functionality that you see on this website, as our servers use this information to deliver to you the pages on this website. We also use this information to better understand how visitors use our website and how we can better tune our website, its contents and functionality to meet your needs.
Information We Collect
When we need to collect personally identifiable information from you to provide you with a particular service we will ask you to voluntarily supply us with the information we need. For example, if you would like to make a purchase from an e-commerce section of APAnational.org, or if you should enter a membership benefit section or request to be transferred to a membership benefit provider we may ask you for information such as name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, credit card number, APA account number (if applicable) and various preferences to process your request. We will use your e-mail address to send a confirmation and, if necessary, might use the other information to contact you for help to process the request or send related information. We will also use your e-mail address to notify you about special offers and promotions as described in the E-Mail section of this Statement. The same types of information would be requested to
complete a purchase, register for an APA promotion, or enroll in an APA program or seminar.
Creating a Personal Account
As APAnational.org functionality increases, and at your choice, you may create a personal account containing information such as your preferred APA brands, frequently requested information, interests, etc. Creating a personal account makes it more convenient for you to make requests by eliminating the need to repeatedly enter personal preference information. It will allow us to inform you about special offers and promotions that may be of interest to you. The security of this information is addressed in security section below. As this becomes functional you will be able to access and review, update or deactivate your personal account information on-line.
APA Account Communications and Use of Account Information
Communications of relevant information is important to administering any potential APA accounts and providing you the opportunity to maximize the benefits of either your non-member account or member account. We will only disclose non-member and/or member
information to APA chapters and on a need-to-know basis to person(s) authorized by you, APA franchisees, and mail houses that process mail for such entities, for the following purposes:
- in order to best service your account and preferences by keeping you informed of your account status and activities through printed or electronic statements,
- to assess your entitlement to benefits,
- to collect and process charges incurred by you in connection with APA promotions, programs and events,
- to offer you additional products and services and
- to offer you products or services from select reputable companies with whom APA has a strategic relationship because we believe their offerings will be of interest to you.
Registering Your APA Account
In the future and at your choice, APAnational.org may offer and you may register your APA account for viewing online. When you register your account you will be required to provide your name, address, phone, e-mail address, and other pertinent information to your membership. If you have registered your account, you may review, correct or delete information in your account online. If you do not have online access to your account please notify your local APA chapter office to review, correct or delete information pertaining to your account, or to indicate your communication preferences.
Securing the Transmission and Storage of Information
We treat the information you provide to us as confidential information; it is, accordingly, subject to our company's security procedures and corporate policies regarding protection and use of confidential information. When we ask you for credit card data it is transferred over a Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) line provided you are using a SSL enabled browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. We also use SSL on other select pages where you would enter personally identifiable information. This ensures that your information is encrypted as it travels over the Internet. This secure mode is enabled before any such information is transmitted from your computer. You will know you are in secure mode when the padlock or key icon in the lower right-hand or left-hand corner of the computer screen appears in the locked position. In addition, when accessing a secure server, the first characters of the site address will change from "http" to "https." After information reaches APA it is stored on a secure server that resides behind firewalls designed to block unauthorized access from outside of APA. Because laws applicable to personal information vary by country, our local APA chapters or other business operations may put in place additional measures that vary depending on the applicable legal requirements. Information collected on the sites covered by this privacy statement is generally processed and stored in the U.S.
Member Benefit Services
To provide you with a single source for requesting, processing or purchasing packages that include benefits such as insurance or equipment packages, we have entered into agreements with select reputable third party companies (partnered companies) that aggregate inventory information from specialized suppliers. If you desire to purchase a package that is facilitated through APAnational.org you will be linked to an APA branded website that is hosted by that partnered company. If you choose to purchase a package, it is necessary for you to provide personally identifiable information to execute the purchase or request - instead of you having to re-enter and provide necessary information we may instead request your username and password associated to your account information. Only the relevant account information to that request is then provided to the suppliers (e.g., insurance) for processing. You should be aware that any personally identifiable information you have supplied directly to a supplier in any manner in the past or in the future is subject to their privacy statement and practices for which APA has no responsibility.
Disclosure of Information to Third Parties
In addition to the various services and required information sharing described directly above, APA does use the services of third parties, such as e-mail service providers and marketing companies that act as agents on behalf of APA. These parties are contractually prohibited from using personally identifiable information for any purpose other than for the purpose the APA specifies. We do provide non-personally identifiable information to certain service providers for their use on an aggregated basis for the purpose of performing their contractual obligations to us. We prohibit the sale or transfer of personal information to entities outside of the APA family of chapters and partnered companies for their use without your approval.
Cookies
Our website uses "cookie" technology. "Cookies" are encrypted strings of text that a website stores on a user's computer. Our website requires the use of a cookie throughout the online request and
fulfillment process. Without cookies we will not be able to keep information you enter on multiple pages together. For example, unless APAnational.org can remember the dates you used in your insurance search we will not be able to confirm term verification. Cookies also enable us to customize our website and offerings to your needs and provide you with a better online experience on APAnational.org.org. In addition, cookies are used to:
- allow registered users to sign in without typing their sign in name each time;
- measure usage of various pages on our website to help us make our information more pertinent to your needs and easy for you to access; and
- provide functionality such as online requests, APA account transactions and other functionality that we believe would be of interest and value to you.
The types of cookies that we use are referred to as "session" cookies and "persistent" cookies. Session cookies are temporary and are automatically deleted once you leave APAnational.org. Persistent cookies remain on your computer hard drive until you delete them. We do not use cookies to ascertain any personally identifiable information about you apart from what you voluntarily provide us in your dealings with APA. Cookies do not corrupt or damage your computer, programs, or computer files.
We use third-party advertising technology to serve ads when you visit our website and sites upon which we advertise. This technology uses information about your visits to this website and the sites upon which we advertise, (not including your name, address, or other personally identifiable information), to serve our ads to you. In the course of serving our advertisements to you, a unique third-party persistent cookie may be placed or recognized on your browser. In addition, we use beacon gifs (see description below), provided by our ad-serving providers, to help manage our online advertising. These beacon gifs enable our ad server to recognize a browser's cookie when a browser visits this site and to learn which banner ads bring users to our website and whether a reservation on APAnational.org is executed. The information our ad-serving providers and we collect through this technology is not personally identifiable. You may set your browser to block cookies (consult the instructions for your particular browser on how to do this), although doing so will adversely affect your ability to perform certain transactions, use certain functionality and access certain content on our website.
Pixel Tags
APA and its third party service providers use pixel tags (also known as "clear gifs", "beacon gifs", etc.). Pixel tags are not visible to the user of the site and consist of a few lines of computer coding delivered with the web page. Pixel tags are not used to collect any personally identifiable information about you apart from what you voluntarily provide us in your dealings with APA. APA and our e-mail service provider use pixel tags to:
- track customer response to APA advertisements and site content;
- determine your ability to receive HTML-based e-mail messages. Our e-mail service provider includes a pixel tag, which they refer to as a "coded sensor", in all of the HTML-based messages sent on our behalf. The sensor activates when the e-mail message is opened and flags the e-mail address of the user as one that is capable of receiving HTML-based e-mail messages. This capability helps our service provider to send the e-mail in a format you can read. The sensor does not collect or use any other information. If you cannot receive HTML, you will not receive a functioning sensor.
- know how many users open an e-mail and allow our service provider to compile aggregated statistics about an e-mail campaign for us; and…
- allow us to better target interactive advertising, enhance customer support and site usability, and provide offers and promotions that we believe would be of interest to you.
E-Mails about Special Offers and Promotions and Opt-Out
It is our intention to only send you e-mail communications that will be useful to you and that you want to receive. When you create a personal account, join APA, sign up for a meeting or event, or join APA Forums, or provide us with your email address, we will periodically contact you via e-mail and provide information about special events, news, and other related information that may be of interest to you. These communications will relate to APA member benefits and/or meetings and events involving select, reputable third parties with whom APA has a arranged special pricing or other benefits for products or services that we believe would be of interest to you. We use a third party e-mail service provider to send e-mails. This service provider is prohibited from using your e-mail address for any purpose other than to send APA related e-mail. APA will attempt to provide a choice to optout of future e-mails by following the instructions provided in the e-mail.
Chapter Sites
If you connect to the APA chapter site please note that a separate privacy policy governs the use of that site. However, the same APA privacy philosophy applies.
Contests
On occasion, we may conduct contests that entitle the winners to awards. Each contest has it own terms and conditions. As part of entering, certain personally identifiable information such as name and e-mail address will be required. We may use this information to send future communications about specials and offers.
Other Sites
APA is only responsible for the privacy policy and content of this website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the use of cookies on websites that you have accessed this website from and to the non-APA websites that you may access from this website.
Legal Issues
This is a United States website and is subject to United States law. APA will disclose personally identifiable information without your permission when required by law, or in good faith belief that such action is necessary to investigate or protect against harmful activities to APA guests, visitors, associates, or property (including this site), or to others. As mentioned above, laws related to personally identifiable information vary by country. For example, personally identifiable information collected in the European Union is subject to the EU Data Protection Directive.
Other APA Sites within APAnational.org
Within APAnational.org are numerous other APA websites that are accessible from links within APAnational.org.org or via separate URLs. Namely, these websites are: APAworldwide.org, APAnational.org, APAnational.com, searchAPA.com, APAinsures.com, and others as they are created.
APA Internet Privacy Statement Changes
In the future, we may need to change this privacy statement. All changes will be made here so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information and whether we will disclose it to anyone.
v. 100204 (revised 10-02-04)
