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Overview
The following information reflects the AVMA's commitment to maintain our Web site visitors' rights to privacy and the confidentiality of personal information. The AVMA takes extensive measures to ensure the safety and security of its Web site servers and the information contained on them and to guard against divulging private information.
General Information
Personal information submitted via the AVMA Web site will be sent over a secure connection.
If you send us an email, you should know that email is not necessarily secure against interception. The AVMA discourages sending of confidential information by e-mail. If your communication includes sensitive information such as your credit card information, and you prefer not to use one of our secure online forms, contact us by postal mail, fax or telephone rather than email.
Credit card information will be used by the AVMA solely as authorized by the sender and will not be used in any other manner or shared with any third party except as needed to conduct the requested transaction.
Only authorized AVMA personnel can access credit card information and solely for the purpose of processing the user's request and performing adjustments or refunds at the user's request.
We use secure socket layer (SSL) encryption to protect the transmission of information you submit to us when you use our secure online forms. All the information you provide us through these forms is stored securely offline. You will know that an online form is secure if "https://" appears at the beginning of the address line in your browser; if "http://" appears at the beginning, the page is not secure.
The AVMA has adequate procedures in place for protecting personal information, including but not limited to: use of firewalls; frequent updates to security and virus-protection software; and storing any personal information collected online on a secure offline server that is not accessible from the Internet.
Information for all visitors to the AVMA Web site
We collect and store the name of the domain and host from which you access the Internet (for example, aol.com or princeton.edu); the Internet protocol (IP) address used to access our Web site; the browser software you use and your operating system; the date and time you access our site; and the Internet address of the Web site from which you linked directly to our site. We use this information to measure the number of visitors to the different sections of our site, and to help us make our site more useful. This information does not allow us to individually identify any of our site visitors.
We do not place cookies on our site visitors' computers unless they log on to a restricted area of the AVMA Web site (see Information for AVMA members or subscribers who log on to our site below). If you do not sign on to our Web site, our Web server does not have access to personally identifiable information about you. It does not know your e-mail address unless you volunteer it.
This Web site links to documents located on Web sites maintained by various other organizations. Once you select a link that takes you to another Web site, you are subject to the privacy policy of that Web site.
Information for AVMA members or subscribers who log on to our site
When you log on to the AVMA Web site to access our members-only or subscribers-only features or information:
- A temporary "cookie" is used solely for the purpose of authenticating you as an AVMA member or as otherwise authorized to view restricted areas of the AVMA Web site. This is designed to maintain your "sign on" status for the duration of the visit. This cookie persists only as long as your member session remains open; your session will close after 30 minutes of inactivity or when you close your browser window, whichever comes first.
- The AVMA does not use cookies for customizing a user's visit, for long-term storage of user preferences, to track the pages visited by a specific user, or to track the user's past activity on the AVMA Web site.
Information for parents of children who may visit the AVMA Web site
We would like you to know that the AVMA cares about the welfare of children and the privacy of our members and has taken steps to ensure that submitting information on the AVMA Web site is a safe and secure experience. In order to safeguard children's privacy, and in keeping with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the AVMA does not collect any personally identifying information online from or about children under the age of 13. For any instance in which the AVMA needs to obtain information about children, such information is collected via fax or postal mail rather than online and will be accepted only with a signature indicating parental consent to the collection and specified use. None of the information is shared with any third party, and AVMA use of the information is limited to fulfilment of the requested service.
Upon your request, and after verification of your identity, we will provide you with a description of the information that we maintain about you or your children. We will accommodate all reasonable requests. Please contact us by e-mail at avmaonline@avma.org or in writing at the above address.
Information for AVMA Web site visitors who purchase products or services on our site
When you purchase products or services from the AVMA via the AVMA Web site, we collect your name, company name if applicable, contact information, your credit card information, as well as information about your current purchase. This information is used to support your interaction with our site, to deliver your purchases if applicable and to contact you as necessary to fulfill your product or service request.
We collect the e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us by e-mail. The e-mail addresses are used only to fulfill your request or to contact you with information related to your request.
Information for those who receive electronic communications from the AVMA
If you no longer wish to receive a specific AVMA electronic communication, please contact the appropriate AVMA staff below and request removal from the mailing list:
Please see the AVMA Electronic Communication Terms of Use for more information.
Changes to the AVMA Online Privacy Notice
The AVMA reserves the right to modify its policy regarding the use of cookies in the future as it deems necessary to provide enhanced features for its site users, and to otherwise modify this Online Privacy Notice at any time. Any such modification will result in this Notice being modified to reflect this change on or before the date the change takes effect. Please refer to the online version of this Notice for the latest information regarding the AVMA's online privacy policy.
References
- American Medical Association, "Principles for Website Privacy and Confidentiality"
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1905.html#THREE
- The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998
http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/coppa1.pdf
- Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Federal Register Notice
http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/9904/childrensonlineprivacy.pdf
- Direct Marketing Association online privacy policy
http://www.the-dma.org/privacy.shtml
- Federal Register, April 17, 2002 Federal Trade Commission, 16 CFR Part 312 Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule: Permissibility of Sliding Scale Approach to Obtaining Verifiable Parental Consent: Extension Until April 21, 2005
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2002/04/67fr18818.pdf
- Federal Register, October 26, 2001 Federal Trade Commission, 16 CFR Part 312 Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking To Amend the Rule to Permit Use of A Particular Method of Securing Verifiable Parent Consent Until April 21, 2004
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2001/10/coppafrn.htm
- Federal Trade Commission, "How to Comply With The Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule"
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.htm
- Federal Trade Commission, "Privacy Initiatives"
http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/index.html
- Federal Trade Commission, Privacy Policy
http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm
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