PRIVACY POLICY/YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS
Pennsylvania Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (“Owner” or “us” or “we” or “our”) owns and operates the www.otopa.org site (“Site”).  Owner is committed to protecting your privacy when you visit and interact with the Site.  As such, Owner’s privacy practices are explained in this Privacy Policy (“Policy”). 

This Policy contains details about how Owner collects and uses information from you when you use the Site.
This Policy covers only the Site.  Other Owner sites and other online locations may have their own privacy policies, and you should consult those accordingly.

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This Policy is effective as of: November 13, 2015.
 
Policy Changes

Owner may update this Policy from time to time.  Any changes to this Policy will be posted below for a period of thirty (30) days and will be effective when posted.  The changes will also be immediately incorporated into this Policy.

 

Your continued use of the Site after any changes are made to this Policy constitutes your acceptance of the changes. If any of the changes are unacceptable to you, you should cease using the Site.

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If any changes to this Policy affect how Owner treats or handles personally identifiable information already provided by you to Owner, Owner will notify you by email (if Owner has a valid email address to use) and give you thirty (30) days to opt out of the changes as they pertain to your information.

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Collection and Use of Information

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You can generally visit the Site without revealing any personally identifiable information about yourself.  Personally identifiable information (“PII”) is generally defined as information that may be able to identify you such as, but not limited to, name, address, telephone number, email address, birthday, credit card number, photograph, age, etc.

There are areas on the Site where you may be asked to provide Owner with PII.  For example, PII such as name, mailing address, email address, phone number, credit card number, birthday, gender, office address and other business information, education background, and/or professional license information may be collected from you when you:

 

• apply to be a PAO-HNS member;

• pay PAO-HNS membership dues;

• access the “Members Only” section of the Site;

• make contributions to PA Otolaryngology PAC;

• register for Owner meetings or events;

• contact Owner with questions or comments;

• participate in surveys, questionnaires, or contests; and/or

• sign up for the Owner’s newsletter. 

 
Owner may use your PII to:

 

• process your PAO-HNS membership application;

• maintain proper PAO-HNS membership information and records;

• process payment of PAO-HNS membership dues;

• administer the “Members Only” section of the Site;

• process contributions made to the PA Otolaryngology PAC;

• schedule/administer meetings and events;

• respond to questions or comments;

• deliver services through the Site;

• process and catalog responses to surveys or questionnaires;

• enter you in contests and other promotions;

• send you Owner newsletters and other updates; and/or

• improve the content and general administration of the Site.

The Site may use cookies.  Cookies are files that are transmitted to your computer when you visit the Site.  Cookies allow Owner to recognize your browser when you subsequently return to the Site.  Cookies may also collect your user preferences when you visit the Site.  Owner does not use cookies to collect PII.  You may be able to delete the cookies by consulting your browser and/or computer instructions.  Please note that any deletion of cookies could affect how the Site appears and/or operates for you.

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Owner uses Google Analytics to track website traffic, which may use cookies.  More information on how Google collects and processes data can be found at the following “How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps” link (http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/).   

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Owner may also use other technology to anonymously track Site traffic to learn how users visit and interact with different areas of the Site.  

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By providing to Owner the PII and other information referenced above, you agree that Owner may use the PII and other information in accordance with the terms of this Policy.
 
Sharing of PII and Other Information

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Except as noted herein, Owner does not sell or share your PII with any person or entity outside of Owner.

Owner may share certain elements of collected PII with the following entities:

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- Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) –Owner participates in a unified database with PAMED to serve the shared needs of PAMED and other participating organizations, including component county medical societies, specialty organizations that are administered by PAMED, the Foundation of the Pennsylvania Medical Society (Foundation), the Educational and Scientific Trust of the Pennsylvania Medical Society (Trust), and our Pennsylvania Medical Society Consulting Company (PMSCO) subsidiary.

 

- American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery  – for informational purposes and to assist in data collection on state ophthalmology society membership.

 

 AAO-HNS Privacy Policy can be found at http://www.entnet.org/content/privacy-policy.

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If you would like to opt-out of having your PII shared with any of the above entities for direct marketing purposes, please email Owner at info@otopa.org or (717) 558-7750 ext. 1519. 

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Except as noted elsewhere in this Policy, third parties will not be able to directly collect any information through the Site.

 

Owner will share certain portions of PII with its vendors in order to make the Site and Site related services function properly.  This may include:

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- sharing PII with our credit card processing entity in order to process any credit card payments made through the Site;

 

- sharing names and email addresses with MailChimp so it can send out emails on Owner’s behalf (http://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/); and

 

- sharing names and mailing addresses with the U.S. Postal Service in order for the USPS to deliver mail to Owner members and contributors (http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/privacy-policy/privacy-policy-highlights.htm). 

 

Owner will disclose your PII if it reasonably believes it is required to do so by law or in cooperation with a governmental or law enforcement investigation.  Owner may also share PII or other information in order to avoid imminent physical harm to any person or harm to any Owner property.

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Owner may share your PII with a third party if Owner’s ownership status changes, such as it being acquired.

Other than what is referenced above, the PII collected from you is not shared with nor sold to any person or entity outside of Owner.
 
Review of Collected PII

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If you would like to review, edit, or delete any of the PII Owner collected from you, or wish Owner to cease using your PII in the manners specified in this Policy, you can do one of two things.  First, if you are a member physician, you can make updates to your member profile through the Find an Otolaryngologist feature.  For all other requests, please contact Owner at info@otopa.org or (717) 558-7750 ext. 1519. Please note that Owner will do its best to accommodate your request, but Owner cannot guarantee it can remove all PII from the specified uses.  Therefore, please be as specific as possible in your request.  If the request relates to information that Owner needs to make the Site function properly for you, you may not be able to use the Site properly moving forward.   

 

Please note that Owner reserves the right to maintain proper business records as required by law, even if such records contain your PII. 

 

If you would like to opt out of receiving further promotional emails from Owner, please follow the opt out instructions at the bottom of the email or send Owner a detailed email to info@otopa.org.
 
Owner does not knowingly collect any information from minors, nor is the Site  directed at or intended for minors.  If a minor uploads/posts information to the Site that is publically available, and the minor subsequently wants that same information deleted, the minor has a right to request that said information be removed from public viewing.  Please contact Owner at info@otopa.org or (717) 558-7750 ext. 1519 to make this type of request.   Please note that any removal of content by Owner does not ensure or guarantee complete or comprehensive removal of the content in all places.  The content may have been shared or reposted by other parties.
 
Response to “Do Not Track” Requests/Signals

Owner does not respond to nor processes “Do Not Track” or similar technical requests not to be tracked. 
 
Data Security and Retention

Owner uses, implements, and maintains industry standard technological security measures that are reasonably designed to help protect PII from loss, unauthorized access, and/or disclosure.  This includes the use of SSL encryption to help prevent unauthorized access to PII transmitted to the Site. 

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While Owner takes the issue of protecting your PII seriously, you should exercise discretion in what information you disclose and/or transmit to the Site.  Owner cannot guarantee that information sent over the Internet is fully secure, and therefore the transmitted information may be intercepted by others before it reaches Owner.  If you are concerned about sending information to Owner over the Internet, please send the information by mail or call us to make other arrangements.  Owner is not responsible for the security of information sent over the Internet.

Owner takes steps to make sure that any PII shared with third parties is secured in a manner consistent with this Policy.  These include ensuring agreements with third parties that limit the use of your PI to purposes consistent with this Policy.

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Owner retains collected information for a reasonable amount of time in order to fulfill the stated purpose for why the information was collected.  Owner will also retain collected information connected to business records for periods of time required by law.  If Owner determines that collected information is no longer needed, it will delete such information.  Our collection times will be consistent with applicable law.  Owner will maintain a membership list that includes some PII. 
 
Children’s Privacy

The Site is intended for individuals 18 years of age and older located in the United States.

 

The Site is not directed at, marketed to, nor intended for, children under 13 years of age.  Owner does not knowingly collect any information, including PII, from children under 13 years of age.  If Owner learns that any information was provided through the Site by a person younger than 13 years of age, Owner will delete the information immediately.  
 
Non-U.S. Concerns

The Site is meant for individuals within the United States.  Owner only knowingly collects information from individuals within the United States.  If you provide information to Owner from outside of the United States, you do so at you own risk.  If you are outside of the United States, you are responsible for complying with any local laws regarding use of the Site, and related data collection.  This Policy only addresses data collection from individuals within the United States.  You also agree and acknowledge that by providing any information, including PII, through the Site, that such information will be transmitted to, and stored in, the United States.
 
External Links

The Site may contain links to external sites, including those embedded in third party advertisements or sponsor information, that are not controlled by Owner.  Owner is not responsible for the privacy practices and data collection policies for such third party sites.  You should consult the privacy policies of those sites for details.

Owner may also allow interaction between the Site and other sites or mobile applications such as Facebook or other social media providers.  This may include the “Like” button or other plugins available through the Site that allow you to share information with persons outside of the Site.  Please consult the privacy policies of those third party providers before using them to make sure you are comfortable with the level of sharing. 
 
Terms of Use

 

The Terms of Use for the Site is incorporated by reference into this Policy. 

 

Miscellaneous

 

If you have any questions regarding this Policy, please contact Owner at:

 

EMAIL: info@otopa.org
PHONE: (717) 558-7750 ext. 1518
MAIL: 400 Winding Creek Boulevard | Mechanicsburg, PA 17050

 

It is the policy of Owner to strictly enforce this Policy.  If you believe there has been some violation of this Policy, please contact Owner.

 

This Policy was last updated on November 13, 2015