Privacy Statement
I. INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) website. The AANEM is committed to taking all reasonable measures for safeguarding the information obtained from its website visitors. The following Privacy Statement outlines how user information is collected, stored, and protected from unauthorized access.
II. CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY
The AANEM reserves the right to alter its privacy policy. Any changes to the policy will be posted on this page. The date of the last revision to the Privacy Policy will be indicated by the "Effective Date" at the bottom of this page.
III. COLLECTION OF DATA
Personal Data
The AANEM uses information voluntarily submitted by members and others to provide you with personalized service and to enable the AANEM to improve the convenience and functionality of the website. Information is also used to connect you with social media accounts, send emails, surveys, or any other necessary business activity.
The types of Personal Data we collect include, but are not limited to:
- General data (e.g., names, dates of birth, home and business addresses, email addresses, Internet protocol addresses and mobile/landline business/personal telephone numbers that are provided by our members/customers)
- Professional data (e.g., certification data)
- Identification numbers (e.g., social security numbers, ABPN/ABPMR certification numbers, medical licenses), certain identification numbers are used by AANEM to makes payments, such as honoraria or royalties for publishing rights
- Other identification information (e.g., photographs)
- Financial information (e.g., credit and debit card numbers, passwords, and PIN numbers) for product sales or other purchases or payments
- Sensitive Personal Data (e.g., racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, and disability data) for diversity or accessibility purposes
Non-Personal Data
We collect information (whether online, by phone, or by paper) that does not directly identify you as you interact with our Sites (“Non-Personal Data”). The types of Non-Personal Data we collect includes, but is not limited to:
- Site usage (e.g., browsing history, search terms, number of clicks, referring/exit pages, date/time stamp, time on Site)
- Products and services viewed, including advertisements for such products and services
- Computer type, operating system, and platform type
- Internet service provider
IV. HOW WE USE YOUR DATA
In addition to the uses described above, we use your Personal Data, sometimes combined with Non-Personal Data, in a variety of ways including, but not limited to the below, in order to:
Personal Data
- Identify you when you visit our Sites
- Provide service communications such as bill reminders, order confirmations, meeting registrations, certification notifications, and customer service messages
- Provide products, information and services you request or that we think you may be interested in
- Respond to your emails or online requests for products, services, or information
- Deliver and process surveys
- Personalize and improve the usability of the Sites
- Fulfill and/or deliver products and services
- Tailor content, advertising, and marketing to you
- Publish membership directories, membership lists and registration lists on the Sites to allow someone to find you; such directories and lists will not include credit card information or personal identification numbers such as social security numbers
Non-Personal Data
We use Non-Personal Data to improve the usability of our Sites and for other business reasons. We or other third-party companies also use the Non-Personal Data to provide advertisements and targeted advertisements to you (ads based on the Non-Personal Data). Please note that, when you select an advertising link or other link that takes you to sites not operated by the AANEM you may be subject to the privacy policies of these third-party sites.
V. GENERAL USERS
The AANEM does not collect any personal information from users browsing the AANEM website. If you are not logged into the site, you are browsing anonymously. The AANEM’s web server tracks the domain names and IP addresses (not the individual e-mail addresses) of all visitors to the site to measure the general number of visits, pages visited, average time spent on the site, etc., but it does not use this information to determine any user's identity.
If you log into the AANEM website as a nonmember user with a unique user ID and password, you are able to view your demographic information on file with the AANEM. Providing the AANEM with updated information allows you to receive information about the AANEM, American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine (ABEM), or the American Neuromuscular Foundation. Demographic information also is used to contact you when necessary. Information regarding method of payment is collected to process orders for products and services.
VI. AANEM MEMBERS
To gain access to members-only resources and personalization features on the AANEM website, members are asked to provide a unique user ID and password. The AANEM’s web server tracks the domain names and IP addresses (not the individual e-mail addresses) of members entering the members-only area, but only for purposes of measuring the general number of visits, pages visited, average time spent on the site, etc. AANEM members are able to update their demographic information online, which allows us to serve you better.
VII. MEETING REGISTRANTS
Members and non-members have the option to register for specific AANEM meetings online. When registering online, as with the paper version, registrants will be asked to provide basic contact information, including an e-mail address. For members, this information is verified with membership information previously provided and updated. For nonmembers, this basic contact information is entered into our database and a unique user ID is assigned to facilitate online registration. Contact information is used to send you information about the AANEM, ABEM, or the American Neuromuscular Foundation and in instances where it may become necessary to contact you. Information regarding method of payment is collected to process orders for products and services.
VIII. USE OF COOKIES
In order to help enhance the performance and functionality of the Site, we utilize session, persistent and third-party “cookies” that store a small piece of data on a users’ computers and collect certain information about the users’ visit to our Site. We also use cookies to understand users’ browsing and buying activities so that we can measure the success of online advertising campaigns we run on the website. AANEM’s websites also uses web beacons (either directly or from our partners), along with cookies, to determine if a user has visited a particular website. These beacons aid in providing more relevant advertising to the user, as well measuring the success of an advertising campaign, but provide no personally identifiable information.
Cookies are small text files that web servers typically send to users’ computer when they visit a website. Cookies are stored as text files on users’ hard drive and can be accessed by web servers when the user visits a website or views an advertisement. A session cookie is a cookie that stores information as a user is using the Site but is deleted once the browser session is finished. A persistent cookie is a cookie that stores information as a user utilizes the Site and stores and uses that information in connection with future visits of the user to the Site. Third-party cookies and/or web beacons are cookies or web beacons provided by our technology and/or advertising partners. Any third-party cookie or web beacon that we authorize for use on the Site only collects that information described below for the same stated purposes as if we were directly collecting the information. For a third-party cookie or web beacon, the third-party will have access to the collected information in order to provide us with information or services to enhance the performance and functionality of the Site.
The cookies and web beacons we use collect non-personally identifiable information about users of the websites, including: browser used to access the site, date and time, the URL of the page being loaded, users who have visited a particular website(s), any previously assigned cookie identification (a unique identifier assigned to a user to identify repeat visitors), browser window size, the geographic location of the user, device and operating system used to access the websites. The information we collect from these cookies and web beacons is used to determine information about a user’s visit to our websites, including the number of visits, average time spent, pages viewed, navigation history through the website, and other statistics. This information is used to enhance the users experience while visiting our website and to improve the performance of our websites by, among other things, allowing us to monitor website performance, making the website easier to use, measuring the effectiveness of promotional placements, and tailoring the website (including the ads and offers a user receives) to better match a user’s interests and preferences.
Users who prefer not to accept cookies can set their Internet browser to notify them when they receive a cookie or to prevent cookies from being placed on their hard drive. If you consent to our collection of cookies and you subsequently wish to withdraw your consent, you will need to manage the settings on your web browser to delete all cookies and disallow further acceptance of cookies. Please note that disabling cookies on your browser will prevent us from tracking your activities in relations to our Site, however, it may also disable some of the functions and features of the Site and the Site may not work properly.
Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google, Inc. (“Google”). Learn more from their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. To Opt-out: Download the browser plugin “Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on” here. We use Google Analytics to analyze the use of our website. We do not transfer personal information to Google Analytics.
By continuing to use our websites, you are agreeing to our placing cookies and/or web beacons on your computer in order to analyze the way you use our website. Please read this cookie policy carefully for more details about the information we collect when you use the website.
If you do not wish to accept cookies or web beacons in connection with your use of this website, please discontinue use.
IX. HOW WE SHARE YOUR DATA
We share your Personal Data, sometimes combined with Non-Personal Data, in a variety of ways including, but not limited to the below:
- The AANEM makes member contact information and meeting registration information available to members and to qualified third parties in accordance with our privacy policy. The AANEM does not release, sell, or rent member e-mail addresses for solicitation purposes.
- For AANEM members, AANEM provides CME, SAE, and PIP information to the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) and the American Board of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (ABPM&R). The AANEM shares member data with the Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation (HNF) for those that take the Charcot Marie Tooth SAE that was created in partnership with the HNF.
- Member address information is available for purchase and transferred to a third party – InFocus. AANEM does not transfer member address information to InFocus for members in the EU.
- AANEM uses MailChimp to send electronic emails to members and nonmembers who have given consent to AANEM by providing contact information to AANEM. You may unsubscribe at any time. EU nonmembers are excluded from the email distributions and need to contact AANEM if they wish to receive the emails.
- AANEM supplies John Wiley & Sons (a publishing company) with members’ address and email address information in order for members to receive their mailed copy and online access to Muscle & Nerve.
- Health eCareers maintains a job search website connected to the AANEM website. Personal data supplied through that website is stored by Health eCareers and not AANEM. AANEM supplies Oasis.
- Learning Management System with emails and CME related information for online learning purposes.
- AANEM supplies industry supporters with pre-meeting registrants' full mailing addresses and exhibitors with registrants’ names, institution, city, and state. These lists are not sold to the industry supporter or exhibitors. Registrants who wish to not be included in the list, should contact AANEM to be removed. At a live meeting, if an attendee visits a third-party Exhibitor’s booth and allows them to scan the attendee’s badge, full mailing address, telephone number and email information is passed along to the Exhibitor.
- AANEM works with third party vendor to provide a more customized experience for you. To do so, we disclose personally identifiable information about you (specifically, your name and email address) to those vendors, though we do not allow them to re-sell or use that information for their own purposes.
You may have heard about “Do Not Track” (DNT), which is a privacy preference that users can set in their web browsers. Our website does not support DNT codes. However, except in the case of cookies used for analytics, remarketing and other features of Google Display Advertising described above, our website limits tracking to the internal uses described above and does not track your use across multiple websites. Although we cannot speak for other third-party websites you may link to from our website. Please review their privacy policies to understand how you may be tracked.
X. E-MAIL LISTS
The AANEM maintains an e-mail list of members to keep you informed about important events. Members are given the option to unsubscribe at any time. The AANEM does not release, sell, or rent the e-mail addresses on the list for solicitation purposes. In addition, the list server software is configured to refuse to divulge the e-mail addresses of our list subscribers to anyone but authorized AANEM staff, including other list subscribers. Your e-mail address will only be used within the AANEM and its entities.
Some e-mails sent in HTML format by AANEM through its electronic newsletters, collect specific information regarding what the recipient does with that email. For those emails, AANEM monitors whether a recipient subsequently clicks through to links provided in the message. Other information collected through this tracking feature includes email address of a user, the date and time of the user's "click," a message number, name of the list from which the message was sent, tracking URL number and destination page. AANEM only uses this information to enhance its products and distribution of those products to its members. This information is not sold or distributed in any other manner.
XI. LINKS TO OTHER SITES
The AANEM website contains links to other sites. The AANEM is not responsible for the privacy practices of those websites. Inclusion of links to an outside website, whether in an advertisement or content area of the AANEM, is not an endorsement of the website or a guarantee that the information it contains is accurate. If you share content through Facebook, Twitter, or other social media channels, AANEM is not responsible for the data that is shared. You should review the privacy statement of social media outlets prior to sharing.
XII. CREDIT CARD SECURITY
The AANEM’s credit card process is designed to protect your privacy. When you register for meetings online, purchase products, or supply your credit card information for any other reason, all of your order information, including your credit card number and delivery address, is passed through our secure server. The AANEM uses Secure Sockets Layer software (SSL), which encrypts your order information and transmits it to us. SSL technology, the industry-leading standard, is designed to prevent someone other than the AANEM from viewing and downloading your information.
The AANEM employs digital certificates through VeriSign, the industry leader in Web security. As a VeriSign Secure Site, visitors can verify the site's authenticity and communicate with the AANEM securely using SSL encryption that protects confidential information from interception and hacking.
When you register online, purchase products, etc., and provide credit card information, the AANEM submits the requisite information to the appropriate clearinghouse to verify and validate the credit card information. The AANEM does not disclose credit card account information for any purpose.
While we're confident your registration information is secure, if you feel at all unsure about providing credit card information online, please contact the AANEM for information about supplying this information by mail or fax.
XIII. OTHER SECURITY
We implement a variety of security measures to protect the safety of your personal information when you enter, submit, or access your personal information. While AANEM takes reasonable measures to protect the information you submit via the website against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure, or modification, AANEM cannot guarantee its absolute security. No internet, email, or mobile application transmission is ever fully secure or error free. Email or other messages sent through the website may not be secure. You should use caution whenever submitting information through the website and take special care in deciding with which information you provide AANEM. Any information collected through the website is stored and processed in the United States. If you use our website outside of the United States, you consent to have your data transferred to the United States.
XIV. OTHER
HIPAA - The AANEM does not collect via the website “protected health information” as defined by the regulations issued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996.
Children - We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from or market to children under the age of 13.
AANEM does not use geofencing around an entity that provides in-person health care services where such geofence is used to: (1) Identify or track consumers seeking health care services; (2) collect consumer health data from consumers; or (3) send notifications, messages, or advertisements to consumers related to their consumer health data or health care services.
XV. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RELATED TO GDPR
Scope
In addition to the information found in the Terms of Use and Privacy Statement, the following sections apply to you if you are an individual located within the European Union (EU) and your Personal Data is processed in connection with AANEM’s marketing of goods or services within the EU. Personal Data means any information that allows you to be directly or indirectly identified.
Data Controller and Contact Information
AANEM is the “data controller” for the processing of your Personal Data. Jacob Sokol can be contacted regarding the processing of your Personal Data by sending an e-mail to jsokol@aanem.org or by calling 507.288.0100.
Purposes and Legal Basis for Data Processing
You voluntarily provide and we collect your Personal Data as part of your membership agreement with the organization. Your information allows us to ensure that you receive member benefits to which you are entitled in exchange for paying dues and acting in accordance with our membership policies. In order to gain the benefits of membership, we may require you to provide us with certain information. This information is noted as “required” on your membership application form. If you choose to withhold certain Personal Data requested by us, it may not be possible for you to gain access to certain aspects of membership. See the information in the Privacy Statement regarding Collection of Information for additional information regarding the processing of your Personal Data necessary for the performance of your membership agreement.
The collection of your Personal Data is necessary to support our legitimate interests as a nonprofit organization. “Legitimate interests” means our interest in conducting and managing our organization and fulfilling our charitable and educational mission. When we process your Personal Data for our legitimate interest, we ensure adequate protection of your Personal Data and consider your rights under data protection laws. See the information in the Privacy Statement regarding Collection of Information for additional information regarding the processing of your Personal Data necessary to support our legitimate interests.
We use cookies as described in the Privacy Statement regarding Use of Cookies. You may withdraw your consent to our use of cookies at any time by disabling cookies in your browser settings. If you browse our website with the cookies option turned off, you may not be able to use various features of our site.
If we collect your Personal Data for reasons beyond the performance of our obligations to our members or the pursuit of our legitimate interests, we will ask for your consent to collect such data. If we intend to use your information in a way that is different from the reasons for which it was collected, we will notify you before doing so and, if necessary, ask your permission before collecting any additional data or using it in any way.
Access to Your Personal Data
All AANEM staff members have access to your personal data.
Members and nonmembers can access a limited amount of contact information about other members via our membership directory. See the information in the Terms of Use statement under AANEM Membership and ABEM Directories for specific information regarding directories.
See information in the Privacy Statement under Disclosure of Information regarding other organizations AANEM shares information with.
If we intend to transfer your Personal Data to an organization outside of the European Union, we will notify you before doing so.
Data Processing and Storage of Personal Data
We use an association management system called Protech to securely store and process your Personal Data. Data is also stored in a software called Questionmark if you participate in SAE, certification, or maintenance of certification activities. See the Credit Card Security paragraph for information on credit card data.
Any data that is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected will be deleted.
- Membership Data – is kept on file permanently
- Event Registration Data - is kept on file permanently
- Purchasing Data - is kept on file permanently
Rights
Subject to applicable law, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:
- Right of access: You can request an electronic copy of your personal data contained within our system. Requests should be made by e-mail to aanem@aanem.org in order to comply with your request, we may ask you to verify your identity.
- Right to rectification: If your Personal Data is inaccurate or incomplete, you are entitled to have it rectified or completed. Updates to your Personal Data can be made by e-mail to aanem@aanem.org.
- Right to erasure: You may ask us to delete or remove your Personal Data. Requests should be made by e-mail to aanem@aanem.org. In some situations, deletion of certain Personal Data may mean that it is no longer possible for you to gain access to certain parts of our site or retain access to membership activities.
- Right to restrict or object to processing: You may ask us to restrict or block the processing of your Personal Data in certain circumstances or request no contact from us. Requests should be made by e-mail to aanem@aanem.org.
- Right to data portability: You have the right to obtain your Personal Data from us that is contained in our system. Requests for your data should be made by e-mail to aanem@aanem.org.
- Right to withdraw consent: If we rely on your consent to process your Personal Data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on your prior consent. Requests should be made by e-mail to aanem@aanem.org.
- Right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority: If you have a concern about our privacy practices, including the way we have handled your Personal Data, you can report it to the data protection authority that is authorized to hear those concerns. The relevant authority is the data protection authority in your country of residence, the country where you work, or the country in which the alleged unlawful use of your Personal Data occurred.
XVI. CONTACT US
We want to assure you that the AANEM is dedicated to protecting your privacy. If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Statement, please send us an e-mail at aanem@aanem.org; call us at 507.288.0100; fax us at 507.288.1225; or write us at: AANEM, 2621 Superior Dr. NW, Rochester, MN 55901.
Revised May 2024