Privacy Policy General Information
Thank you for using our websites. This privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") was created to inform you of the types of information we collect from you when you access and use the entire group of websites and webpages (collectively, the “Site”) owned, operated, licensed, or controlled by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (“ACCME,” “we”, or “us”). By using our Site, you acknowledge and agree to how the ACCME collects and uses information about you. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by ACCME offline or through any means other than the Site.
What general types of Information does this Site collect?
This Site collects personally identifiable information (“PII”), non-personal information (“NPI”), and aggregate information (“AI”) (PII, NPI, and AI are collectively, “Information”).
What are the differences and definitions of the different types of information collected by this Site?
Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”): Personally Identifiable Information is information that can be used to reveal your identity.
Non-Personal Information (“NPI”): Non-Personal Information is information that is related to an individual user but does not individually identify that user. An example would include Internet Protocol (“IP”) address.
Aggregate Information (“AI”): Aggregate Information refers to non-personal information of an aggregated nature including number of clicks, number of visitors, links hit, etc. overall for the Site and is not related to any one individual user.
What specific Information do we collect?
Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”): We may collect your full name, mailing and/or billing address including street name and street number, city, state, zip and apartment or suite number if applicable, phone number (could be any combination of mobile, office and home), email address (home and/or business), partial date of birth (mm/dd), emergency contact information, names and contact information of people you nominate, usernames, passwords, credentials you provide, stories or other information you submit about yourself or others, and any information required by the credit card company or by Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards to verify your identity on a credit card transaction including but not limited to your credit card number, date of credit expiration, and security code.
Non-Personal Information (“NPI”): We may collect from users their IP address, browser type, domain name, the pages accessed, the time of access, the previous site before accessing this Site, statistics related to usage of educational tools, the length of time on the Site, the link that brought the user to the Site, and other non-personal related information.
Aggregate Information (“AI”): We may collect in aggregate form the number of users accessing the Site, the pages accessed, the clicks per page, the number of links accessed, and other non-personal aggregated information not tied to a specific user.
How do we collect the information?
Information You Provide: We collect your Information from your interactions with us and Information you may, directly and indirectly, provide to the Site, such as when you submit a user form, register for a product or service, when you contact us, or purchase a product or service.
Information We May Receive From Third Parties: We may also collect such Information from third parties, including our affiliates and from third parties that we contract with to process credit cards, process applications, report CME activity attendance, or send communications.
Information We May Collect Automatically: When you use our Site, we may automatically collect Information about you through cookies and other technology as described below.
Web logs. We may automatically collect Information about you that is made available by your browser, computer hardware and/or software, or mobile device, including but not limited to the Internet domain and website address from which you accessed this Site and your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the state or country from which you accessed the website, the date and time you visited the Website, the pages accessed by you on and from this Website, and other standard information included with every communication sent on the Internet, such as browser type, browser language, operating system, or service provider.
Cookies. We do occasionally use cookies as further discussed below. We may use cookies, web beacons, and other storage technologies to recognize you or to collect or receive Information from your use of our Site and elsewhere on the Internet. We may aggregate the Information collected through storage technologies with your Information, and the Information collected may be used to speed your use of our Site.
Tracking and/or Analytics Services. As further discussed below, we also contract with third-party advertising or analytics companies to track user behavior and analyze user activity, improve efficiency, or create a better experience with our Sites. These third parties may use cookies or similar technologies to collect Information about your interactions with our Site and interactions with other websites.
What do we do with the Information we collect? Why are we collecting this Information?
We collect PII for multiple purposes that may include profile registration, event registration, processing your requests, to help you update username/password, to look up your Information, if needed, for credit card processing, for collecting fees, registration for educational opportunities, on user inputted forms for various purposes including but not limited to nominating honorees for awards, for inquiries, for comments, suggestions, or other user forms, for mailing and communication purposes, and for access to tools we offer.
We collect NPI & AI to better understand how you use the Site, update our Site content, understand trends, for demographic informational purposes, to improve the Site experience, and perform non-personal or aggregate statistics.
Additionally, we may share your Information, including Information collected through our Site, under the following circumstances: with our authorized vendors and third-party service providers who perform certain services or functions on our behalf (for example, we may share your Information with a hosting service provider who hosts the Website); to fulfill the purpose for which you provide such information; in connection with a merger or transfer of all or a portion of our Site or business; in accordance with your consent or direction, as permitted by law; to respond to subpoenas, court orders, legal process, law enforcement requests, legal claims, or government inquiries; and to protect and defend our, and our affiliates’, rights, interests, health, safety, and security.
We may also use, disclose and share the Information we collect to meet legal and regulatory obligations, to protect the property of the ACCME, and to better offer our services or products. We may also share or disclose any Information we collect about you, including PII, with our affiliates and third parties with whom we have contracted for the purposes of carrying out registration, ACCME’s marketing, communications, or credit card processing.
Do we sell or share any of the Information we collect about you with third parties for their direct marketing purposes?
No, we do not sell or share your Information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. However, ACCME may use the collected Information to help improve ACCME’s services, products, and offerings available and sent to you from us.
Do we use cookies, beacons, or pixel tags?
Cookies: Cookies are small text files sent to your hard drive when you visit a website. From time to time we may use cookies for different reasons including to make your user experience more enjoyable, to track what pages you visit, to keep track of your login information so it is available for you when need it, and for other purposes. Cookies can be required, meaning they are necessary for the proper functioning of our Site or a portion of our Site.
You can opt-out of cookies by adjusting your browser settings. However, if you opt-out of cookies, portions of the Site may not function normally or you may be prevented from utilizing certain aspects.
Google Analytics: From time to time we may use Google Analytics that will allow us to review anonymous data regarding the gender, age, browser device used, device used (including if it is a mobile device), domain name, date and time of access, and interests of Site users to adapt our Site content to better reflect such users’ needs and interests. Google Analytics uses cookies to achieve this. This information is collected through your Google ad settings, but we do not use Google Analytics to gather information that personally identifies you. The information generated by Google Analytics is transmitted to and stored by Google and subject to Google’s privacy policy. For more information on Google Analytics’ processing of personal information, please see http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.
You can opt-out of this feature using Google Ad settings or through the Google Analytics opt-out browser.
Web Beacons, Pixel Tags, Clear GIFs and other technologies: From time to time we may use web beacons, pixel tags, clear gifs, or other technologies (“Other Technologies”) that allow your Information to be tracked across our Sites and third party sites for the purposes of advertising or remarketing, such as Google’s Remarketing AdWords Program as well as other similar programs.
Google Remarketing: Google Remarketing is a dynamic interactive online advertising behavioral algorithm and process that provides for you to receive targeted ads across many sites based on your suspected interests gathered from your operation of this Site and other websites. It achieves this by connecting your activities on this Site with the AdWords advertising network and the DoubleClick Cookie. This means that you may see ads on other sites behaviorally targeted to you with the intent of being something that is in your frame of interest based on your use of this Site and other sites where Google Remarketing is operating. Cookies are used to track your behavior for this advertising remarketing. While this does not track PII, it may be possible to combine this information with PII about you. You can opt out of the cookie for remarketing tracking here: Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.
You can also opt out of Google Remarketing by visiting the Google Analytics opt-out page. Google has additional information available about their Remarketing Privacy Guidelines, Policies, and Restrictions.
Social Media and Third-Party Links
Our Site may contain links to third-party sites or social media platforms not owned or operated by us. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any websites or social media platforms operated by third parties and expressly disclaim any liability with respect to your use of any third-party services or websites. Once you have left our Site, we suggest you check the applicable privacy policy of the third-party website to determine how they will handle any information they collect from you.
Survey Information
From time to time, we may post a survey on our Site or, if we have your contact information and your consent, we may send you a questionnaire or survey. We compile statistical information from the responses to our surveys. These statistics are not personally identifiable. These statistics help us understand the needs and preferences of the groups we serve and improve the content and functionality of our Site.
Do Not Track
Some internet browsers include the ability to transmit “Do Not Track” signals. Our Site does NOT react to Do Not Track options you set in your browser.
Transmissions
As further discussed below, you acknowledge that any communications or transmissions to or from this Site may not be completely private even if such efforts are made to secure the privacy of such as communications and transmissions can be intercepted.
Third Party Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
You acknowledge that you have secured any requisite consents, authorizations and/or permissions from any third party that is the subject of PII that is submitted to ACCME or our Site. For instance, if you report to us a name and email address as someone you nominate for an award or recognition, you must, under terms of this Privacy Policy, first have obtained the consent, authorization or permission from such third party for us to use that PII on third party according to the terms herein. Your submission of any PII of a third party shall be deemed to include the representation that you have obtained any requisite consents, authorizations and/or permissions from such third party. We expressly disclaim any liability with respect to your submission of a third party’s PII and subsequent uses or disclosures thereof.
Retention and Security of Your Information
We will store your Information for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, as explained in this Privacy Policy or in any transaction specific document. In accordance with the applicable laws and regulations, we have taken adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard the security of your personal information. We store the personal information that we process on a secure database that is protected by technical access controls. We periodically review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to systems.
Please be advised that while we strive to protect your PII, we make no guarantees or assurances about our ability to prevent any such loss, access, or misuse and are not responsible in the event that such loss or misuse occurs.
Children’s Privacy
Our Site is not intended for children under 18 years of age. No one under age 18 may provide any PII to or on the Site. We do not knowingly collect PII from children under 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any PII on this Site. If we learn we have collected or received PII from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any Information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at info@accme.org.
Privacy Rights
Depending on your geographic location, you may have certain rights with respect to your Information. ACCME is a not-for-profit corporation and as such is exempt from many of the current comprehensive state privacy laws that have been enacted to date. To the extent that ACCME is required to comply with such comprehensive state privacy laws, this Privacy Policy shall be deemed modified to incorporate any requirements applicable to ACCME.
California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our Site that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not disclose your Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. However, if you would like to make such a request, please submit a request to us at our address below.
International Visitors
ACCME’s headquarters are in the United States, and the Site is hosted and operated in the United States. With the exception of certain marketing services targeted to international CME organizations, none of our services or offerings target individuals located outside of the United States. If you are an international visitor of our Site, the Information we collect from you may be transferred to and processed in the United States for the following legal bases: (a) your consent; (b) we have a contractual obligation; (c) we have a legal obligation; or (d) we have a legitimate interest.
By using the Site, you are consenting to the transfer of your Information to the United States. If you are accessing the Website from outside of the United States, please be advised that United States’ law may not offer the same privacy protections as the laws of your jurisdiction. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, the transfer and processing of your Information, you would like to exercise any of your data privacy rights (which may vary depending on your country of residency) or otherwise consider ACCME’s processing of your Information to be noncompliant with the applicable data protection laws of your jurisdiction, please contact us as described below.
If you are located in the European Union:
ACCME will comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, as amended from time to time (“GDPR”). In addition to your rights set forth in this Policy, you also have the following rights under GDPR:
- The right to access – You have the right to request ACCME to provide you with copies of your personal data. ACCME may charge you a small fee for this service.
- The right to rectification – You have the right to request that ACCME correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request ACCME to complete the information you believe is incomplete.
- The right to erasure – You have the right to request that ACCME erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that ACCME restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to ACCME’s processing of your personal data, under certain conditions, as described in GDPR.
- The right to data portability – You have the right to request that ACCME transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions, as described in GDPR.
Except as expressly permitted by GDPR, ACCME will not process your personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation. In addition, ACCME shall comply with all requirements of GDPR related to personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences or related security measures.
You may file a complaint with your national Data Protection Authority (DPA) if you have concerns about the manner in which we process your personal data. The following link sets forth the contact information for each DPA:
https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en
Changes to this Privacy Policy
ACCME reserves the right to revise, amend, or modify this Privacy Policy at any time and in any manner. It is your responsibility to check for changes. Any change shall become effective once it is posted to this Privacy Policy located on our Site. The effective date listed below will note the last time a change was made and posted to this Privacy Policy. Your use of our Site and any other services provided by ACCME after such changes are implemented constitutes your acknowledgement and acceptance of these changes.
Contacting Us
Your privacy is important to the ACCME. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)
401 N. Michigan Ave.
Suite 1850
Chicago, IL 60611
United States of America
Email: info@accme.org
Last Updated: June 3, 2024