Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

The Association Forum of Chicagoland (“Association Forum,” “we,” or “us”) has created and posted this privacy policy in an effort to maintain efficient service while respecting your privacy and protecting your personal information. This privacy policy is incorporated into and is a part of the Terms and Conditions of Use Agreement of our website. Specifically, this privacy policy covers the following topics:


Information Collection

This privacy policy applies to information that Association Forum collects (i) on the Association Forum website (Site), (ii) through other platforms used in connection with the services and products that we provide, and (iii) by telephone, email, text message, letter, or other methods of communication. When you use our services or products, we collect (i) information provided voluntarily and (ii) information collected automatically, as described in detail below.


Information Provided Voluntarily


  • Member Contact Information: We will collect personal information that you provide to us, including, but not limited to, your name, designation(s), employer’s name, job title, mailing address(es), e-mail address(es), telephone number(s), fax number, and photograph. Such information is necessary to facilitate your access to, use of, purchase of, or participation in our service and product offerings, including, but not limited to: membership; events, meetings, or conferences; educational programs; and online forums. Please note that you may decline to share your personal information with us, in which case we may not be able to provide you with certain aspects of our services or products.

  • Member Background Information: We will collect background information that you provide to us, including, but not limited to, your date of birth, ethnicity, gender, biography, primary job role, job functions, job history, education, professional memberships, areas of interest, social media handles, honors and awards. You will be asked to consent to the collection of certain of this information, such as ethnicity, in accordance with this privacy policy at the time of collection, and you may withdraw that consent at any time. Such information is collected to analyze member background and improve the member experience.

  • Payment Information: If you choose to purchase a product or service, we and/or our third-party payment processors will collect your payment information, including, but not limited to, your credit or debit card number, card verification value (CVV) number, and expiration date.

  • Enrollment, Registration, and Order Form Information: In order to enroll in or register for an Association Forum program, attend Association Forum events, meetings, or conferences, or request Association Forum products or services, you will be required to fill out a registration or order form and provide personal information, which we will use to process your registration or order. In certain circumstances, a program, event, meeting, or conference accessed through the Site may be jointly sponsored or co-sponsored with another organization. If the enrollment or registration is handled by such other organization, that organization’s (not Association Forum’s) privacy policy will apply and be controlling. Please note that Association Forum is not responsible for the privacy policies of such other organizations or their collection, use, sharing, or other processing of your personal or other information, and Association Forum hereby disclaims any liability or responsibility in connection therewith.

Information Collected Automatically


  • Automated Information: Your web browser or mobile device automatically provides information when you visit the Site, including, but not limited to, your Internet Protocol (IP) address or unique device identifier.

  • Cookies: Cookies are pieces of stored information on a user’s computer or device that are tied to information about the user and used to provide smoother navigation throughout the Site, such as to store a saved password; to identify user trends, such as page views; and for other internal purposes, such as to assess the effectiveness of the Site. You have the option of setting your computer to disable cookies or to alert you when cookies are being used. If you choose to disable cookies, please be aware that portions of the Site may not function properly.

  • Log Files: Log files store information such as a user’s IP address, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks. Like most websites, the Site uses log files to analyze trends, administer the Site, and track users’ movement on the Site.

Children’s Information

The Site and our services and products are not directed toward children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If we become aware that a child has provided us with information without parental consent, that information will be deleted from our records.


Information Use

Association Forum uses the information that we collect to provide our services and products and to operate our business. We may use and store such information for legitimate and lawful business purposes, for example, in order to:


  • provide a service or product you requested;

  • secure your membership status;

  • fulfill your membership benefits;

  • analyze and evaluate member and prospective member needs and interests, and improve the member and prospective member experience;

  • notify you of Association Forum official business, news, activities, programs, events, meetings, conferences, services, products, and benefits;

  • send occasional email communications on behalf of vendors;

  • track event, meeting, and conference attendance;

  • track education related activities;

  • prepare invoices and process payments;

  • respond to communications and inquiries that you send to us;

  • respond to a notice of alleged copyright infringement;

  • promote the function, safety, and security of our services; and

  • for other legitimate and lawful business purposes.

For individuals located in the European Economic Area, we rely on multiple legal bases to collect, use, share, or otherwise process your personal data, including that:


  • you have given consent, which you may withdraw at any time;

  • it is necessary for us to perform a contract with you;

  • it is necessary for us to comply with legal obligations;

  • it is necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests;

  • it is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions; and/or

  • it is necessary to protect someone’s life.

To the extent we rely on our legitimate interests as a legal basis to collect, use, share, or otherwise process your personal data, those interests include: providing a product or service you requested; securing your membership status; fulfilling your membership benefits; analyzing and evaluating member and prospective member needs and interests, and improving the member and prospective member experience; notifying you of Association Forum official business, news, activities, programs, events, meetings, conferences, services, products, and benefits; sending occasional email communications on behalf of vendors; tracking event, meeting, and conference attendance; tracking education related activities; preparing invoices and process payments; responding to communications and inquiries that you send to us; responding to a notice of alleged copyright infringement; and promoting the function, safety, and security of our services.


Information Sharing

Personal information may be given to a third party in order to complete a specific business transaction on behalf of Association Forum. Such transactions may include the following:


  • Your name and contact information, as provided to Association Forum, may be shared with Association Forum members to provide a service, satisfy a question, or develop a prospective business relationship. We are not responsible for members’ use or misuse of your personal information.

  • Your name and contact information, as provided to Association Forum, may appear on registration or attendee lists distributed at Association Forum programs, events, meetings, and conferences to other attendees, including members, and other third parties, including, but not limited to, exhibitors or sponsors. We are not responsible for use or misuse of your personal information by exhibitors, sponsors, or the like.

  • We may share your personal information with third-parties that provide services to Association Forum including, but not limited to, administration/operation support; marketing, promotions, and communications; program, event, meeting, or conference enrollment, registration, planning, hosting, or management; website hosting; database management; payment card processing; or other data processing.

  • We also may disclose personal information if we become subject to a subpoena, court order, or law enforcement or other government agency inquiry or investigation or if we are otherwise legally required to disclose such information. We also may use and disclose information about you to establish or exercise our legal rights, to enforce the Terms and Conditions of Use Agreement, to assert and defend against legal claims, or if we believe such disclosure is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take other action regarding actual or suspected illegal or fraudulent activities or potential threats to the physical safety or well-being of any person.

  • If all or part of Association Forum is merged into or otherwise transferred to another entity, we may transfer the personal information you provided to us to such entity as part of that transaction.

Third-Party Ad Networks


We use third parties such as network advertisers to serve advertisements on our Site and on third-party websites or other media (e.g., social networking platforms). This enables us and these third parties to target advertisements to you for products and services in which you might be interested. Third-party ad network providers, advertisers, sponsors and/or traffic measurement services may use cookies, JavaScript, web beacons (including clear GIFs), Flash LSOs and other tracking technologies to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content to you. These third-party cookies and other technologies are governed by each third party’s specific privacy policy, not this one. We may provide these third-party advertisers with information about you.

Users in the United States may opt out of many third-party ad networks. For example, you may go to the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Consumer Choice Page for information about opting out of interest-based advertising and their choices regarding having information used by DAA companies. You may also go to the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) Consumer Opt-Out Page for information about opting out of interest-based advertising and their choices regarding having information used by NAI members.

Opting out from one or more companies listed on the DAA Consumer Choice Page or the NAI Consumer Opt-Out Page will opt you out from those companies’ delivery of interest-based content or ads to you, but it does not mean you will no longer receive any advertising through our Site or on other websites. You may continue to receive advertisements, for example, based on the particular website that you are viewing (i.e., contextually based ads). Also, if your browsers are configured to reject cookies when you opt out on the DAA or NAI websites, your opt-out may not be effective. Additional information is available on the DAA’s website at www.aboutads.info or the NAI’s website at www.networkadvertising.org.

Online Behavioral Advertising and How You Can Opt-Out

We may work with third-party advertising companies who may utilize cookies and web beacons, and data collected on our services, to customize advertisements to you on our services, as well as on other websites or mobile applications in their networks beyond our services. Among other things, these customized advertisements may advertise our products and services and third party products and services on websites or mobile applications not affiliated with us. Some of these ads are online behavioral advertising – which serve advertisements that are more likely to be of interest to you using non-personal behavioral information.  Such ads may contain cookies that allow monitoring of websites and mobile applications (including our own services) and your response to such advertisements.  Cookies or web beacons placed by these companies do not collect personal information, and the third-party advertising companies do not have access to or use your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number or other personal information; they may however, anonymously track your usage across our services and other websites or mobile applications in their networks. We limit companies that place our ads from using information for any purpose other than to assist us in our advertising efforts.

For more information about these third-party advertising companies' privacy policies, visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s website at http://www.networkadvertising.org. If you prefer to not receive targeted advertising, you can opt-out of network advertising programs that use your information. To do so, please visit: the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page.


Access to and Control of Information

Association Forum takes your privacy and the protection of your personal information seriously, and we will provide you with reasonable access to and control of the personal information that you have provided to us. You may request to update your personal information or to opt in to or opt out of any service offerings at any time.


For individuals located in the European Economic Area, you may have additional rights concerning your personal data, such as to access, obtain a copy of, correct, or delete that information or to withdraw your consent or object to the collection, use, sharing, or other processing of that information. To make any request with respect to your personal information, please contact Association Forum as set forth below in the “Association Forum Contact Information” section.


 

Data Security

We employ reasonable physical, electronic, and procedural security measures to safeguard your personal information and to help protect against unauthorized access and disclosure. Online registration information, such as payment card information, will be secured using a commercially accepted method of encryption. However, please be aware that no method of electronic transmission is completely infallible, and we cannot guarantee its absolute safety. We encourage you to use reasonable care in how you handle and disclose your personal information, user name(s), and password(s). If you become aware of any breach of Site security, please contact us immediately.


 

Data Retention

Association Forum retains your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected as set forth in this privacy policy, after which we will securely destroy or delete such personal information from our records unless otherwise required by law. We will retain and use information as necessary to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and as otherwise set forth in this privacy policy.


 

Data Transfer

If you are visiting the Site from outside the United States, please be aware that you are sending information, including personal data, to the United States where our servers are located. That information may then be transferred within the United States or to other countries outside the United States other than your country of residence. Countries other than your country of residence, including the United States, may have data privacy and protection laws that differ from, and potentially provide less protection than, the applicable laws in your country of residence.


To the extent that Association Forum may be deemed to have transferred personal data outside of the European Economic Area, we rely on multiple legal bases for doing so. For individuals located in the European Economic Area: (i) you consent to our use of your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy, including the transfer of your information across international boundaries to jurisdictions anywhere in the world as permitted by applicable law, when you provide your personal information; (ii) we will use the standard contractual data protection clauses adopted by the European Commission, which provide safeguards for the transfer of such data, in connection with the provision of certain services that involve such transfers; and (iii) we may obtain separate consent in connection with the provision of certain services that involve the transfer of personal data.


Our collection, use, sharing, and other processing of your personal information will at all times be governed by this privacy policy.


 

External Links

There are external links to other websites throughout the Site. Please note that Association Forum is not responsible for the privacy policies of those other websites and hereby disclaims any liability or responsibility in connection with such linked websites.


 

Privacy Policy Updates

Should any changes be made to this privacy policy, we will post them on this page with an appropriate explanation.


 

Acceptance of Privacy Policy Terms

Using the Association Forum Site indicates your acceptance of our privacy policy. Your continued visits to the Association Forum Site after changes are posted to this policy will signify your acceptance of those changes.


 

Association Forum Contact Information

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or how we process personal information, or if you would like to exercise any of the legal rights set forth in this policy, please contact us at:


Association Forum

10 S. Riverside Plaza, Ste. 800

Chicago Illinois 60605

United States

Telephone: (312) 924-7000

Email: info@associationforum.org


Effective Date: May 25, 2018