Privacy Policy

Last revised February 27, 2023

This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) describes how the Association of American Publishers (“AAP”, “we”, “us”) collects and uses your personal information in connection with our business as a trade association. The Policy also explains your rights to access, update or remove any of your personal information once collected by AAP. The Policy applies to publishers.org and all other AAP websites, online services, interactive features, or downloads that post a link to the Policy, whether accessed via computer, mobile device or otherwise.

I. Contact Us

If you have any inquiries about the Policy or its implementation, you may contact us at:
Association of American Publishers
ATTN: Privacy Policy
1730 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC, 20006
info@publishers.org

II. Personal Information We Collect About You

We collect your personal information (i) from you, (ii) from third party sources, and (iii) through automated technologies. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16. If parents believe that we have unintentionally collected their child’s personal information, they should contact us at info@publishers.org to request the deletion of the information.

i. Information you provide to us

1. We collect any information that you provide directly to us when you:

  • (a) make an inquiry over the phone or our website;
  • (b) send email correspondence to us;
  • (c) subscribe to one of our mailing lists;
  • (d) register to attend an event;
  • (e) submit any form of payment to us;
  • (f) join AAP as a member; and,
  • (g) volunteer your personal information through other engagement with AAP.

2. Information you provide to us might include your name, organizational affiliation, title, physical address, email address, phone number, fax and social media accounts. If you are creating a user account on our website, you may also provide a password. If you are joining as a member, registering for an event or otherwise contracting any of our services, you may also provide payment details. If you are submitting a job application, you may also provide additional information about your academic and work history, references and any other similar information.

3. We collect any information contained in any correspondence between us. For example, if you contact us using a query button on our website or by email or telephone, we may keep a record of that correspondence.

4. We collect information that you upload to or provide through our website and/or any subsequent correspondence or interactions.

5. Occasionally we might ask if you would be willing to participate in our surveys; if you agree, we also collect any information that you provide as part of that survey.

ii. Information we receive from third parties

1. We may obtain personal information about you from the organization with which you are employed or affiliated to activate or manage your access to AAP membership benefits. This personal information may include your name, organizational affiliation, title, physical address, email address, phone number, and fax.

2. In certain circumstances, we receive personal information about you from other third parties. For example, when you create a user account on AAP’s website you may choose to link this account to your social media account (such as Twitter or Facebook). By providing your social media account details, you are authorizing that third-party provider to share with us certain information about you. Also, if you are a job applicant, we may contact your references to provide information about you.

3. We might also receive personal information about you from third parties if you have indicated to such third party that you would like to hear from us.

iii. Information we collect through automated technologies

1.We also collect certain personal information about how you use our website and the device that you use to access our website. This might include your IP address, geographical location, device information (such as your hardware model, mobile network information, unique device identifiers), browser type, referral source, length of visit to the website, number of page views, search queries you make on the website, and similar information.

2.The technologies that may be used to collect usage information include the following:

  • (a) Cookies. We use cookies to ensure optimal operation and performance of our website. Cookies are data stored on a web browser when accessing a server. The data is used to identify and remember the user and the user preferences. If you do not wish for cookies to be stored on your device, you can change the settings on your browser or device to block cookies. For more information about how to block cookies using your internet browser settings please consult the “Help” section of your internet browser (or alternatively visit http://www.aboutcookies.org). Please note that if you do set your Internet browser to block cookies you may not be able to access all of the functions of the website. 
  • (b) Web beacons – Web beacons may be included in our website and e-mail messages. Web beacons can be embedded in electronic images, other parts of a web page or in an e-mail. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, for example, to count visitors to our website, to monitor how users navigate our websites, to count how many e-mails from AAP are opened or to count how many particular articles or links are viewed.
  • (c) Widgets –  Our website uses Social Media Features, such as the Facebook Like button and Widgets such as ShareThis buttons or interactive mini-programs that run on our site.
  • (d) Third party analytics – We may use third-party analytics services, such as those of Google Analytics.  The analytics providers that administer these services use technologies such as cookies, web beacons, and web server logs to help us analyze your use of our website.  The information collected through these means may be disclosed to these analytics providers and other relevant third parties who use the information, for example, to evaluate use of our website.
  • (e) Do Not Track Signals. Note that your browser settings may allow you to automatically transmit a “Do Not Track” signal to websites and online services you visit. There is no consensus among industry participants as to what “Do Not Track” means in this context.  Like many websites and online services, AAP currently does not alter its practices when it receives a “Do Not Track” signal from a visitor’s browser. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.

3.Providers of these automated technologies may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the automated technologies to function properly. Automated technologies are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our site. Your interactions with these automated technologies are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing the relevant automated technology.

iii. Grounds for Processing your Personal Information

1.When we collect or otherwise process any of your personal information, we do so:

  • (a) When you have given your consent;
  • (b) When necessary to perform a contract with you or at your request prior to entering into a contract;
  • (c) When necessary to comply with our legal obligations; or
  • (d) When necessary to fulfill our legitimate interests in conducting and managing our business and our relationship with you, including the legitimate interest we have in:
    1. personalizing, enhancing, modifying or otherwise improving the services and/or communications that we provide to you
    2. detecting and preventing fraud and operating a safe and lawful business; and
    3. improving the security and optimization of our network, sites and services.

When we use your information for our legitimate interests, we make sure that we take into account any potential impact that such use may have on you. Our legitimate interests do not automatically override yours, and we will not use your information if we believe your interests should override ours unless we have other grounds to do so (such as your consent or a legal obligation).

iv. How We Use Your Personal Information

1.We may use your information for the following purposes:

  • (a) to keep in contact with you, for instance, about our news, events, committee activity, new publications, website features or services;
  • (b) to provide customer service and support (on the basis of our contract with you), respond to inquiries or complaints about our website and share your information with our website developer, IT support provider, or payment management services provider as necessary to provide customer support (on the basis of our legitimate interest in providing the correct products and services to our website users);
  • (c) to provide you with access to our website in a convenient and optimal manner and with personalized content relevant to you, including sharing your information with our website hosts and developers;
  • (d) to carry out aggregated and anonymized research about general engagement with our website (on the basis of our legitimate interest in providing the right kinds of products and services to our website users);
  • (e) to protect, investigate, and deter against fraudulent, unauthorized, or illegal activity, including plagiarism and identity fraud (on the basis of our legitimate interests to operate a safe and lawful business or where we have a legal obligation to do so); and
  • (f) to enable us to comply with our policies and procedures and enforce our legal rights, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our employees and share your information with our technical and legal advisors (on the basis of our legitimate interests to operate a safe and lawful business or where we have a legal obligation to do so).
  • (g) to process any job or membership applications you submit to us.

2.Please note that we only ask for personal information that is necessary to deliver our services. If you do not wish to provide your personal information, we might not be able to deliver our services.

v.Who We Might Share Your Personal Information With

1. In connection with the purposes and on the lawful grounds described above, and in addition to the recipients of your information as described above, we may share your personal information with:

  • (a) AAP members for purposes of committee discussions, events and other activities;
  • (b) third parties we work with to deliver our business (including  hosting or operating the website and our databases, site analytics, delivery of member benefits, payment management services, book fairs including exhibition organizers, clearing and freight forwarders, stand builders, caterers and stand electricians);
  • (c) any selected third party that you consent to our sharing your information with for marketing purposes;
  • (d) any prospective seller or buyer, only in the event that we decide to sell or buy any business or assets; and
  • (e) any other third parties (including legal or other advisors, regulatory authorities, courts and government agencies) where necessary to enable us to enforce our legal rights, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our employees or where such disclosure may be permitted or required by law.

2. In connection with the purposes and on the lawful grounds described above, we make our best efforts to work with third parties that maintain appropriate measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access or processing. We will provide only the personal information necessary for these third parties to provide services for us. These organizations may not use personal information except for the purpose of providing these services, based on our instructions and in compliance with this Privacy Policy.

3. AAP does not sell personal information.

4. AAP does not share personal information except as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

vi. How We Look After Your Information and How Long We Keep it For

1. We use appropriate technological and operational security measures to protect your personal information against any unauthorized access or unlawful use, such as:

  • (a) ensuring the physical security of our offices;
  • (b) ensuring the physical and digital security of our equipment and devices by using appropriate password protection and encryption;
  • (c) maintaining a data protection policy for, and delivering data protection training to, our employees; and
  • (d) limiting access to your personal information to those in our company who need to use it in the course of their work.

2. We retain your information for as long as necessary to provide you with the services that you have requested, or to fulfill our lawful business purposes, such as exercising our legal rights or complying with our legal obligations, maintaining business and financial records, resolving disputes, maintaining security, detecting and preventing fraud and abuse, and enforcing our agreements.

3. We operate a data retention policy and look to find ways to reduce the amount of information we hold about you and the length of time that we need to keep it.

vii. Your Rights to Access, Erase and Correct the Information We Hold About You

1. You have certain rights regarding the personal information that we hold about you, including:

  • (a) the right to request access to the personal information that we hold about you;
  • (b) the right to correct or amend personal information about you that is inaccurate;
  • (c) in certain circumstances, if you are a GDPR data subject, the right to ask us to erase your personal information;
  • (d) in certain circumstances, the right to restrict or object to our processing your personal information; and,
  • (e) where applicable, the right to withdraw your consent to our processing your personal information at any time.  This would not affect the lawfulness of our processing based on your consent before its withdrawal.

2. You may exercise your rights above by contacting us using the details in the “Contact Us” section of this Policy. You may contact us if you wish to act on any of these rights and we will comply with your requests unless we have a lawful reason not to do so.

3. You have a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Economic Area Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement, if you consider that the processing of your personal data infringes the General Data Protection Regulation.

viii. Transfers of Information as a U.S. Association and Consent of the User

As a U.S. association, we store and process information in the U.S., which may not provide the same level of data privacy protection as the European Union/European Economic Area or your home country. You expressly consent to the transfer of your information to the U.S. for processing in accordance with this Privacy Policy. These transfers may also be essential for AAP to provide its services pursuant to its contractual obligations with you.

ix. Links to Third Party Websites

For your convenience and information, we may provide links to third-party sites, apps and services that may be operated by companies not affiliated with AAP.  These companies may have their own privacy notices or policies, which we strongly suggest you review.  We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any non-AAP sites, apps or services.

x. Notification of Privacy Policy Changes

We may make changes to this Policy from time to time. We will post any changes to our site or notify you of any material changes by e-mail.

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We use cookies to ensure optimal operation and performance of our website. Cookies are data stored on your web browser when you are accessing a server. The data is used to identify and remember the user and the user preferences. If you continue browsing our website, you consent to our use of cookies and to the transfer of your information to the U.S. for processing in accordance with our Privacy Policy.