Neurocritical Care Society (“NCS,” “us,” “our,” or “we”) has created this privacy policy in order to demonstrate our commitment to your privacy and protection of personal information that we collect and process. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices. Unless the context indicates otherwise, the terms “you” and “your” refer to both you individually and any entity on whose behalf you are accessing our Website.
This privacy policy applies to information we collect (our “Collection Places”):
- through this Website (including its integrated third party platforms);
- through other platforms we use to facilitate our management of the services we provide to you (e.g. conference registration sites); and
- in email, text, other electronic messages or by telephone or other communications between you and us and (if you are a member) between you and other members through the Website.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this policy, we welcome you to contact us at: privacy@neurocriticalcare.org.
1. Acknowledgment of this Privacy Statement
Your use of any of our Collection Places signifies that you have read and understand all of the terms of this privacy policy.
2. Personal Information You Provide Voluntarily
We collect personal information at our Collection Places that includes, but is not limited to, name, telephone number, email address, employer, professional title, date of birth, home or business and mailing address, gender, details regarding your entity and business, your job title, username and password (in hashed form), company contacts for corporate members, photographs, and education.
The personal information you are asked to provide (including whether its provision is mandatory or not) enables us to facilitate your access, purchase, use and/or participation in our service offerings (collectively “Services”), such as:
(a) Membership;
(b) Conferences & Events;
(c) Educational programs;
(d) Online forums;
(e) Certification/accreditation activities;
(f) Volunteer opportunities;
(g) Products for sale;
(h) Career services;
(i) Surveys; and
(j) Any other services and products that are updates or extensions to our Services or relate to other member benefits.
If you choose not to provide us with your personal information, you may not be able to enjoy certain components of our Services.
Additionally, we will collect personal information when:
- You ask us to contact you via mail, email, or telephone to provide information, updates, or promotions about our Services; and
- We enter into agreements for affiliated partnerships (e.g., exhibitors, sponsors, advertisers).
At other times, we may collect information that cannot be used to identify you. For example, we may aggregate non-personal information about you and other customers who visit our Websites. Aggregated information will not contain any information that can be linked directly back to you.
Where we have de-identified personal information in order to protect it, we will not re-identify such information and, if such de-identified information is shared with a third party as described below in Section 5, we will take steps to ensure that no re-identification occurs. It may also be important for us to keep certain information relating to your account or membership, however. If you request deletion of your personal information as described below in Section 8, we may remove it from data sources by de-identifying it.
3. Personal Information We Collect Automatically
In addition to the Collection Places, we may use any number of tools to collect information about you, your computer access points, and the web browser that you use to connect to our Website. For example, cookies are tiny text files that we place on your computer’s hard drive when you visit our Website. We may use cookies to personalize your interactions with our Websites. You do not have to accept our cookies and you may set your browser to restrict their use and you may delete them after they have been placed on your hard drive. If you delete or do not accept our cookies, some areas of our Website may take more time to work, or may not function properly.
We may also collect additional information from your web browser each time you visit our Website. We may collect information about the pages that you visit and the time spent on each web page or area of the Website, the promotions or advertisements that you click on, and other actions that you take while using our Website. This information may include your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, the type of browser, the time that your browser was used to access our Website, and the referring website’s address. We may also use tools such Google Analytics.
Our Service Providers (defined below) may also use other standard web-based technologies to analyze your movements while accessing our Websites. The technologies include web “beacons,” “pixel tags,” and “clear gifs.” These technologies help us ascertain the effectiveness of our product and service campaigns and marketing programs, allow us to customize the services offered on or through our Website, and help determine the best use for Website content, and product and service offerings. Some of this information, including the IP address, may be stored on our Internet service provider’s server logs, and may be available for extended periods of time.
4. Links
Our Website may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our Website and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personally identifiable information.
5. Our Use of Your Personal Information
NCS may use your personal information to:
(a) Provide you with information about our Services and affiliate partnerships;
(b) Fulfill your member benefits;
(c) Facilitate your attendance/participation at our conferences and events (both in person and virtual);
(d) Track your attendance at conferences and trade shows (including exhibitor spaces);
(e) Prepare invoices and process payments;
(f) Respond to any of your questions or requests or other communications you send to us;
(g) Carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contract entered between you and us;
(h) Fulfill any other purpose for which you provide information to us;
(i) Present our Website effectively to you; or
(j) Perform any other legitimate purpose reasonably consistent with your membership or affiliated partnership, or otherwise allowed or required by law.
Additional uses of your non-personal and personal information will allow us to tailor our Services specific to your needs, to help organize and manage our relationship with you or your business, to conduct business, to provide you with support, and to perform functions that are described to you at the time of collection.
In general, we will use the personal information we collect from you only for the purposes described in this privacy policy or for purposes that we explain to you at the time we collect your personal information. However, we may also use your personal information for other purposes that are not incompatible with the purposes we have disclosed to you (such as archiving purposes in the public interest, research purposes, or statistical purposes) if and where this is permitted by applicable data protection laws.
The first time that you provide us with registration information through our Website, you may be offered the opportunity to subscribe to and receive additional information about our products and services. Each commercial email that we send to you will offer you the opportunity to opt-out of continuing to receive such messages. We may take up to 10 business days to process your opt-out requests. In some instances, we may have already shared your information with one of our authorized third parties before you changed your information preferences, and you may briefly continue to receive email even after you have opted out. FTC email compliance guidance allows us to send you transactional and relationship email without offering you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving those types of email.
6. Our Disclosure of Your Personal Information to Third Parties
We may share your personal information with the following categories of recipients:
- Third-party service providers (“Service Providers”) who provide (without limitation) administrative/operational services; data processing; membership services; marketing & communication services; meeting management services; website hosting services; membership database services; credit card processing; conference registration; conference mobile applications; ; conference/event hotels and venues; or who otherwise process personal information for purposes that are described in this privacy policy or notified to you when we collect your personal information;
- Other NCS members may receive certain pieces of your personal information as part of a membership directory or through collaboration portals. In addition, if you sign up to attend a member meeting or other NCS-sponsored event, all other NCS members who sign up for the event will be notified of your intended attendance at the event and may be given your full name, address, company name, and email address;
- Other third parties such as exhibitors, sponsors and advertisers, may receive membership lists or event attendance lists that include your full name, address, company name, and email address; and
- Other not-for-profits who share our mission may receive information for purposes reasonably related to our activities and mission, including the Neurocritical Care Foundation.
We may also disclose your personal information as is necessary to: (a) comply with a subpoena or court order; (b) cooperate with law enforcement or other government agencies; (c) establish or exercise our legal rights; (d) protect the property or safety of our organization and employees, contractors, vendors, suppliers, and customers; (e) defend against legal claims; (f) help with internal and external investigations; or (g) as otherwise required by law or permitted by law. We may disclose your information in connection with the sale or merger of NCS or any transaction that involves the sale or assignment of some or all of our assets.
7. Data Storage and Security
You should take care with regard to how you handle and disclose your personal information or any username or password that you are required to use to access all of our Collection Places.
We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or alteration of your personal information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we use commercially reasonable safeguards to protect against unauthorized access to or alteration of your personal information, there are security and privacy limitations inherent to the Internet which are beyond our control. The security, integrity, and privacy of any and all security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or alteration of your personal information and data exchanged between you and us thus cannot be guaranteed.
We make reasonable efforts to ensure that our Service Providers have implemented physical, electronic, and procedural security measures to assist with safeguarding your personal information, and to help protect against unauthorized access and disclosure.
We will not keep your personal information longer than necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or as otherwise required by law. We will securely destroy or erase personal information from our systems when it is no longer required to be retained. We also will endeavor to ensure the deletion and destruction of personal information stored and maintained by our Service Providers.
8. Children and Data Collection
Our Website content is not directed toward children who are under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that a child under the age of 16 has provided us with personal information without parental consent, that information will be deleted from our databases. If you have questions about personal information that may have been submitted by a child, please email us at privacy@neurocriticalcare.org.
9. Data Rights
You may have the right to confirm processing of, correct, view, or delete certain personal information relating to you in our possession. To enquire about these potential rights please contact us at privacy@neurocriticalcare.org.
EU Data Rights
Where your personal information is processed in the context of our activities as a data controller in the European Union, you have the following statutory rights with regards to your Personal Data under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”):
- you can request access to your personal information, including the provision of a copy of the personal information subject to processing;
- you can ask us to update or correct any inadequate, incomplete or inaccurate data;
- you can request erasure of your personal information;
- you can restrict the processing of personal information (e.g. we may only store but not use your information while we assess your request for erasure);
- where processing is based on our legitimate interests including profiling, you have the right to object to the processing;
- where we process your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you have the right to object to the processing at any time;
- where processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal;
- where processing is based on consent or on a contract, you have the right to data portability, meaning that you can ask us to provide your personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format for your use or transfer to another.
- You may have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you. If you do so, we will discontinue the processing of your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing that override your interests, rights and freedoms, or if the processing serves the purpose of the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims. To exercise this right, please contact us at via the means indicated below.
If you believe that our processing of personal data concerning you is unlawful, you have the right to complain to the supervisory authority with jurisdiction over you. A list of the EU national data protection supervisory authorities is available at https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.
Our website and the servers and facilities that maintain the data we hold are operated in the United States and other countries outside of the European Union. Our use of information necessarily involves the transmission of personal information on an international basis. If you are located in the European Union, Canada or elsewhere outside of the United States, please be aware that information we collect may be accessed, transferred to and processed in the United States. By using the website, or providing us with any information through a Collection Place, you make necessary and consent to the collection, processing, maintenance and transfer of such information in and to the United States and other applicable territories in which the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as or equivalent to those in the country where you reside and/or are a citizen.
Other Data Rights
You may have the following rights with respect to your personal information, in certain circumstances:
- The right to know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you in the last 12 months, the sources from which the personal information was collected, and the business purpose for collecting such information;
- The right to know whether and how we sell or disclose your personal information, to whom we sell or disclose your personal information and the categories of personal information sold or disclosed, and the business purpose for selling or disclosing your personal information;
- The right to request a copy of the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you in the last 12 months;
- The right to request that we not sell your personal information;
- The right to request that we delete the personal information that we have collected from you, in certain circumstances; and
- The right not to receive discriminatory treatment for the exercise of your privacy rights.
You may make a request to exercise these rights by contacting us as described below.
Upon receipt of a request to exercise your rights, we may request additional information in order to verify your identity. You may also be required to confirm your identity under relevant law or regulation. To the extent possible, we will utilize information already in our possession to verify your identity. Any information you provide in connection with such verification will be deleted as soon as practicable following your request and not used for any other purpose.
You may be able to designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. If you submit a request through an authorized agent, we may require that the authorized agent provide proof that the authorized agent has been authorized by you to act on your behalf and may still require you to verify your identity in accordance with the above and directly confirm that you provided the authorized agent with permission to submit the request.
You may have the right to not be discriminated against for exercising any of your rights.
Making a Data Rights Request
If you wish to exercise any of the rights described above or you have any questions or concerns about how we treat your personal information, please contact us via the following means:
Depending on where you reside, we will respond to your request within one month to forty-five days of receipt, either to provide the information or confirm completion of the act requested or, in certain circumstances, to notify you of an extension of the time frame for response by up to a maximum of two further months.
10. Rooms/Forums/Message Boards/News Groups
Our Website may make digital forums available to its users. Please remember that any information disclosed in these areas becomes public information, and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose information through these areas of the Website.
11. General Information and Privacy Support Contact
We may update this privacy policy from time to time, and you should take the time to review it each time that you visit one of our Websites. We are committed to protecting your personal privacy. If you have questions or comments about our efforts to protect your personal privacy, or if you require additional information about our privacy commitment, please contact us at privacy@neurocriticalcare.org.
Last Updated 10/8/2024