Thank you for visiting the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) website and reviewing our privacy statement.  The AAPC is committed to protecting the privacy of our members, sponsors, exhibitors, and other constituents. Our privacy policy is clear:  We will collect no personal information about you when you visit our website unless you choose to provide that information to us. Any information you choose to provide on the website will only be used to provide or improve services. AAPC guards your privacy and appreciates your trust.

E-mails and Web Forms

Personally identifying information that you provide by e-mails or web forms will be used only for such purposes as are described at the point of collection, such as to register you for a volunteer Committee, send information to you, update your membership record, or to respond to your questions or comments. If you provide contact information, AAPC staff or its contractors may contact you to respond to your question, clarify your comment, or to learn about your level of customer satisfaction with our services.

Any credit card information you provide for membership, goods or services is used in the transaction but not stored in our database and only for your intended purpose.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically (Google Analytics)

During your visit as you browse through the web site, read pages, or download information, we will automatically gather and store certain information about your visit but not about you. This information does not identify you personally. We automatically collect and store only the following information about the visit:

1. The Internet domain (for example, “xcompany.com” if a private Internet access account, or “aschool.edu” if connected from a university) and IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to a computer whenever it is surfing the Web) from which access to our web site is gained;
2. The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
3. The date and time of access to our site;
4. The pages visited and for how long; and
5. The address of the website from which the initial visit to AAPC was launched, if any.

We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors and to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors use.  The data that are collected are not connected to your personal information or identity.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, we may process your Personal Information for the above purposes when:

• you have consented to the use of your Personal Information, For example, we may seek to obtain your consent for our uses of cookies or similar technologies, or to send you marketing communications.
• we need your Personal Information to provide you with services and products requested by you, or to respond to your inquiries,
• we have a legal obligation to use your Personal Information, or
• we have a legitimate interest in using your Personal Information. In particular, we have a legitimate interest in using your Personal Information to ensure and improve the safety, security, and performance of our Service, to anonymize Personal Information and carry out data analyses.

What About Cookies?

Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and to provide features such as access to Members Only area, pre-populate event registration with your contact information and content served by AAPC.

The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons, such as Flash cookies, by changing the add-on’s settings or visiting the Web site of its manufacturer. However, because cookies allow you to take advantage of some of AAPC’s essential features, we recommend that you leave them turned on. For instance, if you block or otherwise reject our cookies, you will not be able to use any AAPC services that require you to Sign in.

Does AAPC Share the Information It Receives?

Information about our members and customers is an important part of our business, and we are not in the business of selling it to others. We share member/customer information only as described below and with subsidiaries AAPC controls that either are subject to this Privacy Notice or follow practices at least as protective as those described in this Privacy Notice.

Third-Party Service Providers

We employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include sending postal mail and e-mail, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, providing search results and links (including paid listings and links), processing credit card payments, and providing customer service. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.

Promotional Offers: Sometimes we send offers to AAPC members on behalf of other businesses. When we do this, we do not give that business your name and address.  When you register to attend AAPC events, you have the option to opt-out of being included in pre-event attendee lists that are shared with event sponsors and exhibitors.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, we may process your Personal Information for the above purposes when:

• you have consented to the use of your Personal Information, For example, we may seek to obtain your consent for our uses of cookies or similar technologies, or to send you marketing communications.

3^rd Party Advertisers & Links to Other Sites

Our site includes third-party advertising and links to other Web sites. We do not provide any personally identifiable customer information to these advertisers or third-party Web sites.   The AAPC is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites, which may be different from the privacy practices described in this policy.  We encourage you to become familiar with privacy practices of other sites you visit, including linked sites.

Security

We work to protect the security of your information during transmission by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts information you input.

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, the AAPC uses software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage.

Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001 and 1030.  Information also may be used for authorized law enforcement investigations. Except for the above purposes, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.

Revisions

We reserve the right to change or modify this privacy statement at any time.  If we revise our privacy statement, we will post those changes on the homepage and other places so you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

The term “members and customers” as used in this statement includes AAPC members, exhibitors, sponsors, customers, donors, or any individual or organization having contact or conducting transactions with the Association.