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    Privacy Policy

    Please read this entire policy. By continuing to use the APA's digital platforms (including but not limited to websites and applications), you confirm that you understand and accept the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not use APA digital platforms. If you wish to purchase an APA product or service without use of an APA digital platform, you may contact APA by phone at (202)-559-3900.

    Introduction:

    The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is a non-profit membership organization comprised of psychiatrists and medical students from the United States and around the world. APA's primary mission is to promote the highest quality care for individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders and their families, promote psychiatric education and research, advance and represent the profession of psychiatry, and serve the professional needs of our membership. To achieve these goals, we offer a variety of goods and services to people who may be interested in mental health diagnosis and treatment. Some key goods and services offered by APA are membership services; events that give those in the mental health field opportunities to learn and network; publishing of books, journals and digital products; informative newsletters; legislative updates; and educational opportunities.

    To assist us in achieving the above goals, we collect and process certain information you provide us. We work hard to be good stewards of your information. This Privacy Policy is meant to help you understand what information we collect, why we collect it, and how you can control how we update, manage, export, and delete your information.

    What do we collect and how:

    Web Traffic Information and User Activity.

    General traffic, site usage and pages accessed, browser information, user activity, length-of-stay information, and location data, is collected and stored in log files. This type of information is collected and shared on an anonymous, aggregated basis (ClientID). For visitors logged into psychiatry.org, this type of information may be collected and shared using a unique, persistent and non-personally identifiable string identification (UserID) to represent each signed-in user.

    Personal Information (non-financial).

    We may collect all or some of the following types of personal information: first and last name, street address, city, state, zip code, telephone number, email address, professional and educational history and interests, demographic information and subject of inquiry, including in the following contexts:

    • APA Digital Platform Registration: When you register on our digital platforms, we ask for your name, email address, country, zip code, professional category, and a password.
    • APA Membership and/or Fellowship Application: When applying to become an APA member and/or fellow, we ask for contact information, including mobile phone, medical school, university, degree dates, location, birthdate, residency and fellowship information, professional areas of interest, board certification, demographic information, and ethics questions. We may collect and track your contact information (address and phone number) and APA Member ID number. When you personalize the digital platform, we retain the preferences you select so that you will not have to reenter the information each time you access it. You can access your profile by entering your username and password each time you use the digital platform.
    • Event Registration: If you register to participate in an APA event, program, or promotion such as the APA Annual Meeting using online or paper registration forms, we collect and store your name, address, phone number, email address, and any additional information you voluntarily provide on the registration forms.
    • Products/Programs: In connection with certain online learning products, subscriptions and programs hosted by APA, or one of our partners or vendors on APA’s behalf, we may collect some contact information and other background information. We may also ask about race and other demographic information, including when required to do so by a government agency that has provided grant funding for the opportunity. The option to provide or decline to provide race and other demographic information is voluntary.
    • Product Purchase: If you purchase a book, subscription product, or other item from APA, we will collect the information necessary to fulfill your order, which may include name, address, phone number, email address and any additional information you voluntarily provide on the order form.
    • Donations and Contributions: If you make a donation or contribution, such as a donation to the APA Foundation or a contribution to the APA PAC, we will collect the information necessary to fulfill your request, which may include name, address, phone number, email address and any additional information which you provide.
    • Requests: We collect information volunteered by users, including from surveys or requests via "Contact APA." We also may collect email addresses of those who communicate with us via email.
    • APA Member Directory: We disclose the contact information APA members provide in the APA Member Directory. The directory is a reference tool for APA members only. Users of the directory are prohibited from providing the contact information (name, address, phone number) contained in the directory to others or using it for promotional or survey purposes without the written permission of the APA. Excessive use or abuse of the directory may result in loss of access for the user. APA will not include your contact information in the APA Member Directory if you opt out.
    • Other Information: For some goods and services you also have the option of voluntarily offering additional information about yourself which may include demographic information, such as race or gender, and information about your practice of medicine and professional interests.

    Financial Information.

    We collect financial information to fulfill products or services you order and to process your donations and/or contributions. When you place an order with us, register for an event, make a donation or contribution, or pay your dues electronically, standard credit card information (card number, card type, expiration date, etc.) is collected through a third-party payment processor who is compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. The third-party payment processor provides us with, and we store, the last four digits of your credit card number, which is retained for purposes of issuing applicable refunds.

    Information from Third Parties.

    APA uses third parties to help offer, promote, market and sell our products and services. We may receive from and exchange with these third parties information about you. Examples include the following:

    1. sales agents we use outside of the United States. (They may collect order, contact and payment information that we use to fulfill your order);
    2. platforms we use for ordering of books and subscriptions, circulation list-matching, marketing emails, e-book downloads, author submissions, publication preparation work, and author enhancement services;
    3. our customer relationship management platform for membership information and information about attendees for events and meetings;
    4. the APA Learning Center, meeting abstract management, and continuing medical education credit claim platforms. (When you complete a course, submit an abstract, or claim continuing medical education credit, information about your participation is provided to APA for fulfillment of your order and issuance of any continuing medical education credit);
    5. our On Demand service, which provides access to educational content presented during our meetings;
    6. our APA Meetings App, a tool that allows APA event attendees to plan their time and connect with other participants; (Personal information posted by users of the app to the social media feed will be visible to APA and other users. APA also receives data from the app about your interactions and identified interests);
    7. APA's job board, Job Central;
    8. platforms used for registration and/or hosting of APA events; and
    9. companies offering discounts for members on goods and service (e.g., the Members-only Malpractice Insurance Program)
    10. district branches of APA.

    What we do with the information we collect:

    We process your information to provide the products or services you request from us; further the mission of APA including efforts to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and antiracism; and to communicate with our members, meeting attendees, customers, and other users about, and to provide access to, education and science via APA's events and online learning programs, tools for practice management and patient education (including clinical practice guidelines), publications, and other products and services pertinent to APA's promotion of quality psychiatric care and efforts to enhance APA member career satisfaction. The APA exists for the benefit of its members and users and through the support of its customers. Processing your information for the purposes described is necessary for us to conduct the business of the APA. When we use your information we attempt to balance our legitimate business interests and the necessity of processing your information with how such processing may impact you.

    If you have any questions or concerns about our processing of your information, please contact us by email at [email protected] or phone at (202) 559-3900.

    We'll ask for your consent before using your information for a purpose that departs from those described in this Privacy Policy or what you may reasonably expect from a medical specialty society.

    The APA works and shares information with vendors and other third parties, including in the following categories, to help fulfill our mission and process your information for the purposes described in this document: district branch of the APA; election service provider; publication sales agent and platform; circulation list-matcher; marketing and advertising platform; conference registration manager and event service provider; online event platform; payment processor; bulk email and postal mail communication manager; conferences app developer; online learning manager; digital content hosting vendor; syllabi, abstract, and presentation manager; on demand educational provider; online communities manager; volunteer management provider; membership marketing provider; endorsed malpractice insurance carrier; address verification service provider; search engine optimization service provider; distributor; and survey provider. APA provides contact information for its members and other customers who wish to receive informational newsletter offerings (such as Psychiatric News) to third-party vendors who transmit APA materials on APA's behalf. APA also shares limited personal information with other nonprofit organizations and government agencies for the purposes of complying with requirements related to its educational offerings and other accreditation services it offers to APA members and customers (e.g., continuing medical education, educational grant requirements, and board certification accreditation information).

    These outside companies are required to use such information to perform the services and actions for which they have been engaged by APA and are not authorized to use such information for any other purpose.

    APA may provide personal information, including contact information other than email address for its North American members or event attendees from North America to exhibitors and similar organizations who request such information because they wish to engage with psychiatric professionals.

    You may be asked by third parties, including specific APA vendors, to consent to their processing of your information when such processing will be subject to their privacy policy. We encourage you to review such policies closely and be sure that you agree to them before providing your consent.

    Some APA digital platforms may provide links (including any link through an on-line banner advertisement) to other sites on the Internet. These other sites are maintained by third parties over which APA exercises no control. The appearance of any such third-party links is not intended to endorse any particular company or product. If you decide to access any of the third-party sites linked to the APA digital platforms, you do so entirely at your own risk and information you submit to them will be governed by their privacy policy, not this one. APA is not responsible for the services, content, conduct or handling of materials by any third-party advertisers appearing on an APA website.

    What are cookies and how do we use them:

    As part of offering and providing customizable and personalized services, we use cookies and other online tracking technologies (such as pixel tags and web beacons) on our digital platforms to store and sometimes track information about you to:

    • Provide you with personalized content based on your use of our digital platforms, including targeted online behavioral advertising
    • Enable you to more easily use our digital platforms by remembering and using contact information
    • Evaluate, monitor and analyze the use of our digital platform and its traffic patterns to help improve our websites and services
    • Assist us with ad reporting functions such as to learn which ads are bringing users to our platforms

    The types of technologies we use include the following:

    Cookies.

    A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a Web server and stored on your device's hard drive. Cookies enable us to identify your browser as a unique user. Cookies may involve the transmission of information from us to you and from you to us. Cookies may also be used by another party on our behalf to transfer information to us in accordance with their privacy policy. Third party cookies may be used to provide targeted online behavioral advertising by using data collected through the cookies to target advertising on other sites or applications based on your online activity. Some cookies are "persistent cookies." They are used by us each time you access our digital platform. Other cookies are "session cookies." Session cookies are used only during a specific browsing session. We may use a session cookie, for example, to remember that you have already navigated through a particular menu. We may also use "analytics cookies" that allow web analytics services to recognize your UserID, browser or device and, for example, identify whether you have visited our digital platform before, what you have previously viewed or clicked on, and how you found us. Analytics cookies are usually persistent cookies.

    You may disable browser cookies in your internet browser or set your browser to warn you when a cookie is being sent. You may lose some features or functionality when you disable cookies. Remember, also, that disabling cookies is browser specific. If you use both Microsoft Edge and Chrome, you will need to disable cookies in each browser.

    Pixel Tags.

    We also employ a software technology known as a pixel tag or Web beacon. A pixel tag is a line of code that we place on our digital platforms or in emails, which transmits information back to a web server and allows us to analyze our advertising and the general usage patterns of visitors to our platofrms. Pixel tags help us better manage content on our platform by informing us what content or promotions are effective.

    Indirect Collection – Social Networking.

    Our digital platforms permit you to use a third party social networking platform such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Linked-In and Google+. This includes use of social media plugins such as Facebook "Like", Tweet, Google "+1" buttons, etc. When you use these social networking platforms and plugins, your username and password for the available service are collected from you on these services and may be shared with us. We also use the ShareThis plugin to allow you to easily share information from our platform on various social networking platforms, email or text message. You control when you share information from our platform using the ShareThis plugin. When you use social networking platforms and plugins, you share your information with them and their privacy policy applies to disclosure of that information. In addition, they may be able to collect information about you, including your activity, or may notify your connections on the social networking platform about your use of the digital platform. Such services may allow your activity to be monitored across multiple websites for purposes of delivering more targeted advertising. Please note that their privacy policies apply, and we encourage you to read them. We may add new social networking plugins and buttons to our digital platforms from time to time.

    Indirect Collection – Analytics.

    Our digital platforms use search engine optimization offerings, including Moz Pro, Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, which are web analysis services, to help APA analyze how users interact with our platforms. You can learn more about these products from Moz's and Google's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. APA also makes use of Google AdWords, another offering that uses cookies and remarketing technologies to deliver relevant information and advertisements to users who have previously visited APA platforms. You may opt-out of the use of such web analytic products by downloading the "Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on" browser plugin offered by Google (available here as of May 22, 2024). We use Moz Pro, Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to analyze the use of our platform. We do not transfer personal information to Moz Pro or Google Analytics.

    APA typically retains the non-identifying information derived from our use of cookies, web beacons, Google Analytics, and other similar technologies for up to twenty-six (26) months.

    Choices you have about your information:

    If you are a registered user of an APA website, an APA member, or event attendee, you can review, correct and change your personal information and your communication preferences by logging into the psychiatry.org and visiting your account profile page. You can control what APA communications you receive by indicating your preferences in the customer relationship management platform available at my.psychiatry.org. The email preference center within this platform allows you to identify the products and services about which you wish to receive APA communications. It also gives you the option of opting out of all marketing communications from APA (though you will continue to receive transactional messages related to your account and any products or services you order).

    If you select the 'unsubscribe' link in any promotional email from APA or contact us directly at [email protected] to unsubscribe from communications, APA will stop sending promotional materials to you. You may also send us an email at [email protected] to request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information that you have provided to us. Please note we may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

    APA vendors, including those described in this Privacy Policy, with whom you engage directly, should provide information on reviewing, correcting, or changing your personal information or communication preferences within their systems.

    To opt-out from receiving targeted online behavioral advertisements related to your interactions with websites, you may visit the NAI website opt-out page here: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ or the DAA opt-out page here: http://www.aboutads.info/.

    Our digital platforms do not support "Do Not Track" (DNT) codes, which are used in the privacy preferences of web browsers.

    How do we protect your information?

    We have security measures in place to prevent personal information we hold from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorized way. We limit access to your personal information to those employees, third parties, or vendors who have a genuine business purpose to access it. Those processing your information should do so only in an authorized manner and subject to a duty of confidentiality.

    We also have procedures in place to deal with any data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a data security breach when we are legally required to do so.

    Our policy on children's information:

    If you are under 18 years of age, you may not purchase products or services from, and you should not provide information to, the APA's digital platforms without the involvement of a parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect online contact information without prior parental consent or parental notification, including an opportunity for the parent to prevent use of the information and participation in the activity. We do not knowingly solicit personal information online from, or market online to, children under the age of 18. If APA learns that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a person below 18 years of age, we will delete such information.

    For our Members/Customers in Europe:

    This Privacy Policy includes information applicable to residents of the European Economic Area ("EEA") and United Kingdom (UK) and users accessing the APA websites from within the EEA and UK. If you are an EEA resident, this Privacy Policy provides you with information regarding your rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 ("GDPR").

    APA is the data controller for the personal information collected from its members and customers. APA can be contacted any time at:

    American Psychiatric Association
    800 Maine Avenue SW, Suite 900
    Washington DC 20024
    (202)-559-3900
    [email protected]

    How long we keep your information for Members/Customers in the EEA and UK:

    We keep your information to provide the service you've requested of us (such as membership, meeting attendance, publication subscription, etc.) and to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including for twelve (12) months after any commercial relationship between you and APA expires. At or about the twelve-month mark for non-membership records and the five-year mark for membership records, if we no longer need to use your information for the purpose for which we collected it and there is no need for us to keep it to comply with our legal or other regulatory obligations, we will either remove it from our systems or depersonalize it, with the exception of specific membership record data elements (consisting of name, country of residence, year of birth, and APA participation history) and an email address which APA will keep and use for the purpose of informing you of APA products and services in which you may be interested.

    APA vendors who contact you directly as described in this policy, may have different retention periods for your information, which you should discuss directly with the applicable vendor.

    Transfer of Personal Data

    APA and our digital platforms are based in the United States and, regardless of where you access these websites, the information collected as part of that use will be transferred to and maintained on systems located in the United States. Additionally, in limited circumstances, it may be necessary for APA to require the transfer of personal information from a third-party entity within the EEA or UK to the United States for APA to provide requested services to a customer in the EEA or UK. In any such circumstance, APA will ensure that the transfer of information is made in accordance with Article 49 of the GDPR in that it will be done only to perform a contract with you or to implement pre-contractual measures taken at your request. Should it otherwise be required for APA to receive personal data from another entity within the EEA or UK, to ensure there is an adequate level of protection for the rights of a European person based on the United States' data protection laws, APA will make use of contractual data protection clauses or similar legal mechanisms to safeguard the transfer, use, sharing and retention of personal data from the EEA or UK in any such circumstance.

    Your Rights

    The GDPR provides you with certain privacy rights, including the right to access, correct or update your personal information. You may also request to have your information deleted, although we may retain information for backups, prevention of fraud and abuse, satisfaction of legal obligations or other ongoing legitimate interests. You have the right to receive a copy of your information in a structured, machine-readable format. You may decline to share certain personal data, in which case we may not be able to provide you with some features and benefits. If you are an EEA or UK resident, you have the right to object to the processing of your information.

    If you wish to exercise any of the rights granted to you by the GDPR, contact us via email to [email protected] or via mail to the address set forth above, or you may submit the Right to Be Forgotten and Data Portability available on the Terms of Use & Privacy Policy page of APA's websites.

    APA includes EEA and UK residents in its targeted online behavioral advertising activities. To opt-out from receiving targeted online behavioral advertisements you may visit the EDAA opt-out page here https://youronlinechoices.eu.

    Right to Lodge a Complaint.

    If you are an EEA or UK resident and you believe that APA has infringed your rights under the GDPR, please contact us by sending an email to [email protected] or calling (202)-559-3900. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, including in your applicable Member State.

    Sensitive Information.

    APA requests that persons to whom the GDPR applies do not volunteer any personal data considered sensitive by the GDPR, including racial or ethnic origin or sexual preference, even if a field exists for such information to be voluntarily provided. APA is required by certain governmental agencies in the United States to inquire about some sensitive information in relation to services it provides, but the disclosure of such information is always voluntary for the individual concerned.

    For our Members/Customers in California:

    California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our website visitors who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us at: American Psychiatric Association, 800 Maine Avenue, SW, Suite 900, Washington DC 20024; (202)-559-3900; [email protected]. Please make sure to state in the request that you are a California Resident.

    How we make changes to this policy:

    When we change the Privacy Policy, we’ll post any changes on this page. If you continue to use our digital platforms after those changes are in effect, you agree to the new policy. If the changes are significant, we may provide a more prominent notice or get your consent, as may be required by law.

    Contact us:

    If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or need to contact the APA to exercise your rights as a data subject under the GDPR, please contact the APA’s Privacy Officer at: [email protected] or (202) 559-3900.

    Last Updated: May 22, 2024

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