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ASIS&T Privacy Policy

ASIS&T respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the confidentiality of your personal information. The following explains how ASIS&T collects and uses Member and customer information, and how ASIS&T protects your privacy. It also explains how you can manage your own personal information held in the ASIS&T database through ‘My ASIS&T’ on the ASIS&T Web Site – www.asist.org.

This policy applies to personal information held about individuals. It does not apply to information ASIS&T holds about companies and other organizations.

This general policy is in addition to any specific policies concerning specific products or services. It may be amended at any time.

Personal Information

ASIS&T is an association which combines a wide range of activities in the field of information science and technology, including:

  • Provision of Membership Services
  • Collection and dissemination of scientific information
  • Provision of Products and Services

This may require the handling of personal information of the individuals involved in these activities and hence ASIS&T collects personal information in a number of ways from a number of sources. This information may be communicated to ASIS&T on paper forms received through the postal services or by fax, or electronically through registration on the ASIS&T Web Site and use of ASIS&T’s online services (‘My ASIS&T’).

The sources of personal information received by ASIS&T are:

  • The individuals themselves;
  • Third parties acting on behalf of individuals (e.g. an agent arranging registration or hotel accommodation for an ASIS&T event);
  • Affiliated parties such as Special Interest Groups and Chapters providing details of their Members;

The ways in which ASIS&T collects personal information are:

When you register personal details when creating or updating a ‘My ASIS&T’ account on the ASIS&T Web Site;

When you, or an agent on your behalf, enter personal details on a form requesting an ASIS&T product or service (e.g. when registering for an ASIS&T organized event);

When you, or someone on your behalf, submits proposals or content in connection with scientific sessions at an ASIS&T organized event or meeting (e.g. Abstracts submission);

When you enter personal details on a form applying to become a Member of ASIS&T, or Member of one of ASIS&T’s constituent bodies (such as a Chapter or SIG)

What Personal Information Is Collected by ASIS&T

Mandatory Personal Information

As a general rule, to enable ASIS&T to correctly identify you, to provide you with the products and services you have requested and to communicate with you, the following minimum information must be provided in order for your order, request, application, etc. to be processed:

Title, First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name

Full Postal Address

Optional Personal Information

Other information may be requested to help identification (e.g. birth year), to contact you in case of need (telephone and fax), or to enable ASIS&T to understand My ASIS&T so you can be provided with better and more appropriate products and services (e.g. Professional Activities and Fields of Interest).

Email Address Information

Your email address must be supplied when you use ASIS&T electronic services on the web (i.e. when you use ‘My ASIS&T’ on the ASIS&T Web Site). In other circumstances the email address is optional.

For more information concerning emails, please go to the section Email Addresses.

Credit Card Information

Credit Card information, along with other information related to specific transactions, is collected at the time of your order, request or application, and is used only for the purposes of that particular transaction. For your protection, the Credit Card information is not retained in the ASIS&T database or accounting system for later use for any other transactions.

How ASIS&T Uses Personal Information

Personal information is needed by ASIS&T to enable it to properly manage its Member and customer files. These files are used to enable ASIS&T to fulfill its role in providing a wide range of services to its members, contributors, and customers.

The personal information which you supply may be specifically used to:

  • Enable ASIS&T to provide you with the products or services you request;
  • Enable ASIS&T to communicate with you about specific matters;
  • Enable ASIS&T to send you information about ASIS&T activities which it believes may interest you

How Long Is My Personal Information Kept?

As a general rule, personal information is kept for seven years after your last use of an ASIS&T product or service. If you are an ASIS&T Member, your information will be kept in the ASIS&T system while you continue to be a Member even if you do not use ASIS&T products or services during that time.

E-mail Addresses

Electronic communication is for most purposes ASIS&T’s preferred method of communication because it is generally convenient, rapid, effective and efficient. In order to be able to communicate with you directly electronically, ASIS&T needs your email address. You are therefore required to supply your email address when you create your members account on the ASIS&T Web Site, which enables you to access a variety of services online.

Unique E-mail Address

For your convenience and security, your e-mail address is unique to you in the system. (ASIS&T does not permit two different persons to have the same e-mail address in the system). You are strongly recommended to use an e-mail address which is personal to you and that is not shared with others. This is to ensure that communications which are sent to you personally are not read by others and that others do not gain access to the information in your ‘My ASIS&T’ account.

Additionally, the unique e-mail permits automated retrieval of your log-in details, which are sent to your personal e-mail address.

E-mail Privacy

ASIS&T respects the privacy of personal email addresses and complies with the current legislation on email communication. The objective is not to send you unwanted messages, and your email details will not be passed on to any other individual or organization without your explicit permission.

Without your specific ‘Opt-In’ to receive emailing’s from the ASIS&T you may receive emails concerning:

Products and services similar to those you have already received from the ASIS&T

If you are a Member of an ASIS&T Chapter or SIG (whose benefits to Members may include email newsletters, etc.), activities or scientific information specifically concerning the Chapter or SIG of which you are a Member.

You can manage the extent to which the ASIS&T communicates with you by using the Subscriptions section in your ‘My ASIS&T’ homepage. Here you are asked to indicate whether or not you wish to receive ASIS&T generated emails.

If you decide that you do wish to receive e-mail communications from the ASIS&T you can select which categories of news interest you. All mailings sent to you offer the possibility to unsubscribe.

If you indicate that you do not wish to receive ASIS&T generated e-mails, you will only receive emails directly related to the transactions you have with the ASIS&T (e.g. confirmations of registrations, membership renewals etc.) and other necessary individual communications.

Disclosure of Information and Marketing

ASIS&T complies with EU directives and is registered under the laws of The United States of America and takes all reasonable care to prevent any unauthorized access to your personal data. ASIS&T staff and contractors have a responsibility to keep your information confidential.

ASIS&T may supply your information to its contractors to perform specific services (such as to the publishers to deliver ASIS&T journals). Otherwise, the ASIS&T does not disclose personal information to any other person or organization without your consent.

If you are an attendee at an ASIS&T meeting, and you visit exhibiting company stands, presenting your badge may enable them to retrieve the following personal data: first name(s), last name(s), address, telephone, fax, email, and professional activity information.

Right of Access to your ASIS&T Information

You have the absolute right to access, amend, and oppose the use of, your personal data. When you visit ‘My ASIS&T’ you have direct control over the information in your personal profile. You can access and change this information at any time from your ‘My ASIS&T’ homepage.

If you want to know exactly what personal information ASIS&T holds on you, you can obtain it. If it transpires that the information is inaccurate, or you wish to oppose its use in future, ASIS&T will make the necessary amendments and confirm that these have been made. Please contact ASIS&T in either of the following ways:

Online through our ‘Contact Us’ page.

By email to asist@asist.org.

In writing to :
ASIS&T
673 Potomac Station Drive
#155
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Data Security

To protect your information, ASIS&T uses an industry standard security protocol called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt the transmission of sensitive information between you and our website.

SSL is used, for example, when you register for ASIS&T meetings or make a credit card payment. To know if transmissions are encrypted, look for the lock on your web browser or check that the URL starts with https://.

Use of Cookies

Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer’s hard disk for record-keeping purposes. They are small text files that a website can use to recognize repeat users and facilitate their ongoing access to, and use of, the site. They do not pose a threat to your system or files.

The use of cookies is an industry standard, and many websites use them to provide useful features. Cookies in and of themselves do not personally identify users, although they do identify a computer. Most browsers are set initially to accept cookies. You can set your computer to reject cookies. However, if you do choose to disable cookies, you will not be able to use the online services offered through ‘My ASIS&T’.

External Links

The ASIS&T Web Site contains links to other websites. Please be aware that ASIS&T is not responsible for the privacy policies of other sites. You are therefore encouraged to read the privacy policies of any other site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy policy applies solely to information collected by ASIS&T.

‘My ASIS&T’ – Managing Your Contact with ASIS&T

Access to Personalized Services

You do not need to register to access most of the ASIS&T Web Site, but you do have to register to use personal services online and access certain web content.

The details you supply ASIS&T may be combined with information from other ASIS&T records to:

Provide you with online services like Abstract Submission, Registration for Meetings, etc.

Save you having to keep giving the same information for different ASIS&T services;

Allow you to access specific web content reserved for ‘My ASIS&T’ users;

Help you to get more out of your membership in ASIS&T by keeping you up-to-date about ASIS&T activities, scientific developments and products and services by email (Note: This is an ‘Opt-In’ service only.);

Access to your personal information

‘My ASIS&T’ enables you to manage your personal information held by ASIS&T. If you are a member of ASIS&T, or have used ASIS&T products and services in the last three years, a record will already exist for you which you can potentially access by logging in online through:

Use of your existing login details (username and password), if you have already used ASIS&T online services (‘Members Login’) during the last three years;

The ‘Retrieve your Login’ feature which, if your email address is recognized, will automatically send details of your username and a newly generated password (for your protection) to the email address given;

Requesting your login details to be sent to you through https://www.asist.org/reset-password/

Alternatively, you can simply create a new ‘My ASIS&T’ account by using ‘My ASIS&T’ when asked for login information. ASIS&T does not permit more than one ‘My ASIS&T’ account per person to avoid confusion. So, if an account already exists for you in the ASIS&T system, your new account will be matched to it (normally within 10 working days, but longer during the ASIS&T Annual Meeting registration period for technical reasons).

When matched, Membership and other information regarding products and services used (e.g. subscriptions) will be merged.

Managing Your Personal Information

Once logged in to your ‘My ASIS&T’ account, you can easily view and update your personal details, email address, username, and password.

Additionally, you can manage whether or not you wish to be kept informed by e-mail of ASIS&T activities, products and services. ASIS&T also asks you to provide optional information about your professional activities and interests in order to understand your needs better and improve the services it offers to you and to the information science community in general.

Your Comments

If you any further questions about the ASIS&T Privacy and Security Policy or its implementation, or if at any time you believe that ASIS&T has not adhered to the principles stated in this Policy, please contact us.